I love soup so I am looking for some interesting cold soups that I can serve on these hot summer days that are both filling and refreshing. I found a great recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Williams-Sonoma’s New Orleans.

What I like about this cookbook besides the wonderful collection of recipes is the photographs and the descriptions of Old New Orleans. It is a mini history book as well as an inspiration for cooking. And a portion of the profits go to help the victims of hurricane.

I wanted to adapt the recipe to make it vegetarian but I didn’t have any Veggie Stock Gold on hand and didn’t have the time or the inclination to make a vegetarian stock on short notice. Veggie Stock Gold is a 20 to 1 classic vegetarian stock made by the same folks who make some of my other favorite stock reductions and demi-glace for sauces. You can learn more about these products and how to use them at www.gatewaygourmet.com.

The recipe calls for using chicken stock but I had some duck stock reduction from these same guys called Glace de Canard Gold also a 20 to 1 reduction but of classic duck stock. It is very similar to chicken stock but has a bit more flavor to it so why not give it a try. I also increased the ingredient amounts to make a little more but I have to warn you, I did not increase the cayenne pepper and everyone thought it was a little to spicy. I liked the extra kick but be careful. I would opt to use less and add more after tasting.

Classic vichyssoise is not made with sweet potatoes (sometimes called yams) but with regular potatoes. I like what they did with this recipe by adding extra color and flavor from the sweet potatoes and ginger. It can be served as a starter but I like it on a hot night with a side of salad for a light refreshing meal. I even had it for breakfast one morning and it was great.

(more…)

How to Make Chinese Dumplings at Home

I recently wrote about a couple of cookbooks I borrowed from our local library. One of them was Suzanna Foo’s Chinese Cuisine and last night we thought it would be a fun family project to try her Pork Dumplings with Soy-Ginger Sauce. And it turned out to be great fun.

One of the reasons we chose this recipe is it looked easy enough for all of us to get involved in preparing and my youngest daughter loves dumplings. She lives on those Pot Stickers you can find in the frozen section at Costco. We thought this might be a nice change of pace and if she helped make them, she might even trying eating some. We were right again.

This recipe should be listed under “Shortcut Meals” because we didn’t make the dumpling wrappers from scratch.  Instead we purchased square wontons that my oldest daughter transformed into round wontons with a cookie cutter.

After transformation, the wrapper went to my youngest daughter in charge of filling the dumpling with the pork mixture. She stood there with her spoon and proudly added a dollop of ingredients to each one asking, “Daddy, is this the right amount?”

I then sealed them up and did my best to add a little pleat to the sides and turned them over to my wife who was in charge of boiling some and frying the rest. When done I thought there would be no way we were going to eat all these dumplings. We went through two packages of wonton wrappers but in the end there were only a few left for someone’s lunch the next day.

(more…)

We had a great weekend in State College celebrating a bunch of family birthdays. As usual, we stayed at my wife sister’s home, who takes on organizing meals for every family gathering. She is a wonderful home cook who puts on these incredible feasts that are unique, entertaining and delicious.

One of the simpler dishes she threw together was this delicious Mango Salsa that was served as an appetizer with chips but could be used just as nicely as a topping for chicken or pork. In fact, I think I threw some on my grilled salmon.

Ingredients:

½ cup cooked black beans – you can cook them yourself but canned beans will work quite nicely.
1 ripe medium sized mango
1 red bell pepper
½ red onion
Juice from 3 limes
8 tablespoons pineapple juice
1/3 cup of fresh cilantro
1-tablespoon ground cumin
1 jalapeno chili pepper
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

Prep the ingredients:

Peel & pit the mango and then dice it into ¼ inch pieces.
Core and seed the bell pepper and dice into small pieces.
Peel and dice the onion into equal sized pieces.
Squeeze the juice from the limes and have it ready.
Chop the cilantro finely.
Stem, seed and mince the jalapeno pepper. Be careful not to touch your hands to your eyes after working with this chile pepper.

(more…)