Menu: End of School Picnic

This past spring semester, I taught the Gifted and Talented Education program kids at our neighborhood elementary school: we spent 8 weeks on Mandarin Chinese and 8 weeks on Nutrition. At the end of each session we had a dinner party to celebrate, and last week’s event was a combination of the two sessions: together we cooked a nutritious Chinese meal from scratch, using (mostly) whole, close to the source ingredients. I did think that 4th and 5th graders would probably be capable of doing most of the preparation, but for liability reasons, I did most of the work that involved knives, and I left the grilling to my husband. This would be a great menu to prepare with your family – younger kids will get into the rinsing and drying of ingredients, while older kids can measure and mix the dressings. If you prepare for more than 4 people, you can also have them do the math of increasing the recipe amounts.

the recipes:

• grilled pork spareribs with cantonese barbecue sauce
• chilled beancurd with soy sauce
• black pepper edamame
• marinated asparagus
• roasted bell peppers
• sweet & sour cucumbers
• chinese coleslaw

the strategy:

1. up to 1 day ahead: make bbq sauce, parcook the ribs, marinate
2. up to 4 hours ahead: cook and chill tofu; blanch and shock asparagus, roast the bell peppers, peel and slice them; mix all dressings and the sauce for the tofu
3. up to 2 hours ahead: cook and season the edamame
4. up to 1 h ahead: shred cabbage, salt and set aside; slice cucumbers, salt and set aside
5. up to 30 m ahead: combine asparagus, peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage with their respective dressings
6. party time: set all cold dishes out on the table; grill the ribs

 

Menu: Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! If you’re tired of the traditional burgers and dogs, here’s a barbecue menu with a Chinese flair. All of these dishes can be substantially prepared in advance, leaving you to enjoy some time relaxing and eating!

the recipes:

• cantonese barbecue sauce + your favorite protein: ribs, pork tenderloin, chicken, tofu, tempeh…
• sweet & sour cucumbers
• pickled beets
• marinated mushrooms
• cilantro salad
• coconut sticky rice pudding

the strategy:

1. Prepare the rice pudding.
2. Prepare the barbecue sauce and marinate your protein of choice.
3. Prepare the vegetables: cut and salt cucumbers, roast and soak beets, blanch and drain mushrooms, wash and chop cilantro
4. Prepare the dressings for the cucumbers, beets, mushrooms, and cilantro.
5. Marinate the beets and mushrooms.
6. Dress the cucumbers and cilantro just before serving.
7. Grill your protein.

Menu: Spring Stirfry Supper

Amaranth is back at the farmers’ market – certainly a sign of spring when the leafy greens start reappearing! And “Colleen the Tomato Lady” is back up to her elbows in gorgeous beefsteak tomatoes. I added those ingredients to the fact that I’m starting to clean out my pantry in preparation for our move and came up with a quick ovo-vegetarian meal that used some of the fresh stuff and some of the dry goods I have on hand, namely seaweed and mushrooms. The menu rather breaks the rule that not all dishes should be stirfries (to cut down on last-minute work), but the 2 side dishes can be done ahead, and if you do the stirfries in the right order, everything still works out. In fact, since I’d done most of the prep in the afternoon, this turned into a great after-after-school-activity dinner!

the recipes:

• braised mushrooms
• seaweed salad
• scrambled eggs with tomatoes
• stirfried potatoes
• stirfried chinese spinach

the strategy:

1. Soak the mushrooms and seaweed, then complete these recipes up to 4 h in advance. Both can be refrigerated or left at room temperature for up to 2 hours.
2. Up to 1 h in advance, soak and pick the spinach leaves off the stem, peel the tomato, and julienne the potatoes.
3. Complete the rest of the preparations for the 3 stirfry dishes.
4. Stirfry the potatoes (they will hold their heat for the longest time).
5. Stirfry the spinach.
6. Stirfry the eggs with tomatoes – this one is last because there aren’t too many things less appealing than cold scrambled eggs….

Menu: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day! What better way to say, “I love you” than by preparing a homemade meal from scratch for your sweetheart? (And if you create it from local, organic, sustainably raised ingredients, you’re sending a love note to  Mother Earth as well!)

the recipes

•  black pepper edamame
• spicy cold noodles with sesame tahini
• red beans and rice
• chicken with mushrooms
• braised squash
• stirfried broccoli
• red bean soup

the strategy

1. Up to a day ahead: prepare and chill the black pepper edamame, the beans for the rice, and the red bean soup.
2. Up to 4 hours ahead: prepare the sesame noodles, bring the edamame out to come to room temperature.
3. Soak the rice, marinate the chicken.
4. Prepare all remaining ingredients for the chicken, squash, and broccoli dishes.
5. Start the squash, leaving it to braise while you prepare the remaining dishes – check on it occasionally for doneness.
6. Cook the rice, leaving it to finish steaming once you’ve added the beans.
7. Finish the chicken stirfry.
8. Finish the broccoli stirfry.
9. While you eat dinner, warm up the soup for dessert.

Menu: Happy New Year!

Planning a family New Year’s feast? Consider making Chinese food! Much of this menu can be made ahead, leaving you to enjoy the party, whether it’s tonight or on New Year’s Day. If you want to venture out on your own for menu planning, check out the Menu Planning Tips post, and remember to serve a fish for the finale! The menu below easily serves 4 – you can use it as a base and add some other dishes if you have more guests.

the recipes:

• spinach with ginger dressing
• spicy daikon & carrot salad
• roasted bell peppers
• red-cooked pork belly (or ribs)
• chicken with chinese broccoli
• steamed fish
• basic steamed rice
• eight jewels rice

the strategy:

1. Cook the rice for the Eight Jewels rice, then assemble the dessert – you can steam it ahead and reheat or just assemble for now.
2. Soak the rice for the Basic Steamed Rice.
3. Prepare all the cold dish vegetables: spinach, daikon/carrots, bell peppers and their dressings/sauces.
4. Assemble the Red-cooked Pork ingredients and begin to braise.
5. Assemble the Steamed Fish.
6. Prepare the ingredients for Chicken with Broccoli.
7. Start the Basic Steamed Rice.
8. Start steaming the fish.
9. Combine the vegetables with their dressings/sauces.
10. Stirfry the Chicken with Broccoli.
11. While you eat, steam or reheat the Eight Jewels Rice for dessert.

Happy New Year!

Menu: Chinese Thanksgiving

It’s been a while since I posted a menu, and of course with Thanksgiving on everyone’s mind, where else would I go with this thought? So for anyone who is interested in veering far from the traditional turkey day path and still sticking with the usual ingredients….

the recipes:

• black pepper edamame
• spicy daikon & carrot salad
• lotus leaf buns
• chinese chicken soup for the (body and) soul
• braised long beans (or green beans)
• braised squash
• stirfried potatoes
• almond “jello”

the strategy:

1. One day ahead: prepare black pepper edamame, daikon & carrot salad, lotus leaf buns, and almond jello.
2. Day of: return edamame and daikon & carrot salad to room temperature.
3. Start the chicken steaming or braising.
4. Cut the beans and potatoes and prepare the remaining ingredients for those dishes.
5. Cut the squash and start it braising.
6. 20 m before the chicken is done, steam the buns, stirfry the potatoes, then cook the beans.
7. After dinner, cut up and serve the “jello.”

No matter how you’re celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving! Look for recipes for leftover turkey some time over the weekend….

Menu: Election Day ’08

Okay, if you haven’t voted, STOP reading this and GO VOTE! If you have voted, you may continue.

This year’s (okay, these past 2 years’!) election has obsessed me like no other past election has – I think there’s something about seeing our children growing and becoming more aware about their surroundings that causes parents to care more and more about the future of the country and the world we brought them into.

I’m an avid Obama supporter, and part of the reason is completely personal and unpolitical – not a great way to pick a candidate you might scoff, but still, as a mother I’ve learned that there are times when you have to trust your instinct over and above the advice of professionals, whether they are your children’s teacher or their pediatrician.

When we lived in Chicago, I would see Barack Obama at Bixler playlot with his girls on the weekends: although he was already deep in politics, he was NOT there to gladhand, he was NOT engrossed in a cell phone conversation as so many other parents were – he was clearly there to be with his family, and those 2 girls had his undivided attention. This was the first picture that flashed into my mind when I first heard rumors that he might run – a devoted father, home for all the time he could be, pushing his giggling girls on the swings. Yes, I thought, this is the kind of person I want steering the country as my children grow to the age when they are aware of there neighborhood, their city, their country, and their world.

Like Obama, my children are biracial (how is it that the media constantly harps on Obama’s black-ness, not his biracial-ness?) – I want them to see that biracial (triracial? quadriracial?)  is the future of this country, and it is a splendid metaphor for taking the best of two (or three or four or more) ways of life and forging a new world in which these disparate nationalities and cultures and customs can not only coexist but thrive.

We don’t have a television other than for watching dvds, and although I wish today of all days we did get some reception, there’s a part of me that is grateful that we don’t; otherwise, I might spend all day glued to it, watching the returns! I’m sure I will have NPR on all day, but at least that way I can still get some work done – but I’ll have to find something mindless to do, like clean out my file cabinets.

Regardless of how your vote is cast, if this sounds like where your day is headed, I offer you a superquick election night supper, one which will have you back in front of the tv in no time (maybe it’s a good night for a homemade dinner in front of the tv?). In fact, if you haven’t voted, this menu will let you get to the polls and still make a homemade meal tonight!

recipes:

• spicy cold noodles with sesame tahini
• braised long beans (or green beans)
• vegetarian mustard green soup

strategy:

1. Bring the noodle water to a boil.
2. Prepare the noodle sauce, set aside.
3. Prepare the beans and soup vegetables.
4. Cook the noodles, rinse, drain, and combine with sauce.
5. Bring the soup broth to a boil. (Or, for a little more body to your soup, you can use the pasta water for your soup base – already boiling, so just pour off enough for the soup before draining the pasta!)
6. Cook the beans, taking time between stirring to add the vegetables to the soup.

Early Fall Supper

Here’s a quick, homey supper, mostly featuring the items I’ve been finding at my local farmers’ market. I’m giving a vegetarian option (indicated by *) as well as one with meat.

recipes:

• pork shreds with chinese broccoli or *chinese mustard greens with pressed beancurd 
• sweet & sour cabbage
• braised long beans (or green beans)
• braised squash
• basic steamed rice

strategy:

1. Soak the rice well in advance.
2. Marinate the pork.
3. Soak the broccoli and *mustard greens in several changes of water.
4. Start the rice.
5. Start the squash simmering.
6. Prepare the remaining vegetables: wash and cut beans and cabbage, peel and cut broccoli.
7. *Cube the beancurd.
8. Combine all the sauce mixtures and set aside, finish the remaining preparations.
9. Stirfry the cabbage – this dish can be served at room temperature, so it’s a good place to start.
10. Check on the squash – the sauce will keep this one hot for a while if it’s already done.
11. Braise the beans.
12. Stirfry the pork & broccoli or *greens with beancurd.

Menu: Late Summer Supper

If you’re planning a Labor Day barbecue, check out the menu for A Chinese Barbecue, but if you’re now in recovery mode, here’s a quick supper that uses some of the bounty of the farmer’s market as we shift from high to late summer crops: bok choy, squash, tomatoes, and eggplants. The heavier and saltier sauce on the eggplants is balanced out by the other dishes’ lightness in these areas.

recipes:

• fish slices with tomatoes
• eggplant in garlic sauce
• braised squash
• stirfried chinese cabbage (bok choy)
• basic steamed rice

strategy:

1. Soak the rice ahead of time, then start it cooking before you begin the preparations.
2. Cut up the squash and start it braising.
3. Steam the eggplant.
4. Slice the fish and marinate it.
5. Complete the remaining prep work: slicing, chopping, mixing sauces.
6. Check on the squash.
7. Finish the eggplant dish.
8. Finish the fish dish.
9. Stirfry the bok choy.

Menu: A Chinese Barbecue

Ready to get away from burgers and hot dogs? Tired of barbecued chicken and grilled vegetables? For your next cookout, try a Chinese flair. This menu works with the summer vegetables from the peak of the summer garden or farmers’ market: cucumbers, radishes, bell peppers, eggplants, and cilantro. Best of all, you marinate the protein the night before and you can do the prep for the side dishes ahead of time, then finish just before serving, leaving just the grilling to be done.

recipes:

• cantonese barbecue sauce + your favorite protein: ribs, pork tenderloin, chicken, tofu, tempeh…
• cucumber salad
• marinated eggplant
• roasted bell peppers
• cilantro salad
• sweet and sour radishes

strategy:

1. The day before, prepare the barbecue sauce and marinate your protein overnight – tofu should not be marinated more than 1 h, however, or it will disintegrate.
2. The day of the barbecue, prepare all the vegetables for the side dishes:salt the cucumbers, steam the eggplant, roast, peel, and cut the peppers, wash, dry, and cut the cilantro, prepare and salt the radishes; combine all the dressings, label them and set them aside.
3. 10-30 m before serving, combine the side dish ingredients with their respective dressings, and set out on the buffet.
4. Grill your protein, serve it up, and you’re ready to feast.