Mmmm... Thanksgiving feast

Yining and Summer Brother joined Real Brother and me for Thanksgiving this year. I decided to forego turkey for the second year in a row, and chose rack of lamb as our protein. Entertainment activities included a marathon Rock Band session during prep, and mahjong for beginners after dinner, before dessert. I had a ball; I hope everyone else did too!

Rosemary Roast Rack of Lamb

I cooked three racks of lamb (about eight chops per rack) for four people and we finished them all. Meat-tastic!

Pretty simple to cook, actually. As with all roasted meats, the trick is to let it fully come to room temperature before you apply any heat. Give the lamb a quick rub with salt, pepper, and finely chopped fresh rosemary. After a good sear in a hot skillet, pop it into a 400° oven for about 15 minutes. The meat should still have lots of give to the touch. If you have a meat thermometer, La Martha's meat temperatures chart calls for 145° for medium rare, before resting.

Something delicate like lamb is very sensitive to cooking time and the smallest variation in temperature. Our first rack rested the shortest amount of time, and came out the slightest bit underdone in terms of texture. I think it had the best flavor of the three racks, though. The second rack (in the turned-off oven an extra 5 min) was a touch overdone. I think if I had kept it under foil on the countertop, it would have been perfect. The last rack (in the turned-off oven an extra 5 min and rested 5-7 minutes more than the others) was plainly overdone. It was still pink in the middle, but had lost the pliant texture of the first two. The flavor was also much more pungent - it was quite gamey and tasted almost like liver, inexplicably.

(In the interest of full disclosure: I actually stuck the lamb in the oven without searing, as the recipe called for, saw that it looked pretty anemic and unappetizing, and then seared it on the stovetop ex post facto. Worked fine.)

Buttered Green Beans

Wash and trim the green beans. Sauté in butter until cooked but still crisp. Salt and pepper to season. (How easy is that?)

Roasted Butternut Squash, Carrots and Potatoes

Peel and cut up the squash and carrots. I used fingerling potatoes and they didn't need to be peeled. Make sure everything is in about same-sized chunks for even cooking. Toss with salt, pepper and a glug of olive oil. Into a 375° oven for 20-30 minutes.

Balsamic Mushrooms

Mushrooms shrink A LOT! Buy way more than you think you'll need. I used baby portobellos this time around, but you can also use regular white button mushrooms.

Sauté the mushrooms in olive oil; season with salt and pepper. You want to really sweat out most of the moisture in the mushrooms. If your pan is a bit crowded and you can't evaporate the liquid quickly enough, you can just pour it out carefully.

When the mushrooms are mostly cooked and shrunken, add a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and heat a few minutes to reduce. Done! The balsamic gives the mushrooms some pizzazz. This side was a real hit with Summer Brother. Also good at room temperature and out of the fridge, in the summer.

Sweet Potato Pie

I'm not going to write out the whole recipe, since it wasn't particularly successful. You can get the source recipe here.

Here's the rundown:
- I couldn't be bothered to mess with my own piecrust, so I used a Whole Foods frozen pie crust, baked blind. Worked out great. It's a pretty salty crust, but I like it that way.
- Since I could only find white sweet potatoes, I used half sweet potatoes and half yams to get that orange-y color.
- I put in just the smallest pinch of cinnamon since it makes me gag. I replaced it with a dash of vanilla extract (maybe ¼ tsp?). I couldn't taste the vanilla at all, so think maybe ½ to 1 full tsp next time.
- I used half the amount of allspice in the recipe, and it was still WAY too strong. It was a new jar and pretty fresh, but I'd still use caution next time.
- It tasted too eggy - more like a sweet potato quiche than a sweet potato pie. Fewer eggs next time. (3 eggs in this particular recipe. The Alton recipe my sister used called for 5 eggs!!)

Popover Cafe

Occasion: Post-movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1) brunch with Robert
Location: Popover Cafe on Amsterdam at 87th (popovercafe.com)
Edibles: I had the Kobe corned beef hash; Robert had the smoked salmon scramble

Musings: I've heard some rave reviews about this place and have been wanting to come for a while. How did it measure up to expectations? Well, let's just say that my old UWS favorites Kitchenette and Good Enough to Eat should not be too worried.

We had a 45-minute wait, but that's pretty much the case for any half decent brunch place on the weekend.

I must say I was disappointed with the food. Their eponymous popover was stone cold and kind of rubbery. I'm not a popover connoisseur or anything, but I think BLT Steak's are better. The fancy $15 Kobe corned beef hash wasn't even as good as the stuff they service in my office canteen, and I'm pretty sure that stuff comes frozen in giant sacks from Costco. The eggs were dry. My hot cider had a ton of cinnamon sprinkled on top and all over the rim of the glass, giving you a mouthful of dust every sip.

Which is all a pity, because Popover Cafe's a cute place - homey and unpretentious. Anyone out there want to talk me into a second visit?

Endless Summer

Location: Bedford and N 6th St in Williamsburg (endlesssummertacos.com)

Winnie and I passed this truck on our way to The Yarn Tree for craft supplies. I noticed: 1) a delicious meaty scent in the air; 2) lots of people waiting in line. Both promising signs of good eats. On the way back, I campaigned hard for a snack break.

I tried a beef taco and a pork taco, and both were lovely. They're garnished with a white sauce and a green sauce (thinned-out sour cream and tomatillo, respectively, I think), a few slices of radish and a wedge of lime. Winnie thought the beef was a smidge dry, but I hardly noticed it under all the sauce and lime juice. The corn tortillas were wonderfully fragrant and pliable. You get two per taco, and you could conceivably refashion two smaller tacos for daintier eating if you were not standing at a streetcorner, as we were. Or you can just stuff them in your face as-is - I can say from personal experience that it works just fine.

$2.50 for the pork, $3.00 for the beef. Another reason to venture out into the hinterlands...

Mmmm... my mom's meatballs

Mom's Meatballs

1 lb of ground pork
1 egg
sesame oil
soy sauce
rice wine (I've substituted vodka in a pinch)
scallions, finely chopped
ginger, grated (I use a rasp)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch for the meat + 1 tsp for the cornstarch slurry
water
cooking oil (not olive)

As you can see, there are a lot of ingredients in common with the dumpling filling recipe. In fact, you can season 3 lbs of pork and split off 1 lb to make meatballs to save some work. The difference between the two recipes: NO shrimp or napa cabbage in the meatballs; NO cornstarch in the dumpling filling. They have all the other ingredients in common.

Once you've marinated the meat for a while with the seasonings, add 1 tbsp of cornstarch and enough water so that the meat mixture is almost soupy, but still firm enough to hold a shape. Start with ¼ cup of water, then add more if it's still dry-looking.

To make the meatballs: First, heat a skillet with about half an inch of cooking oil on medium heat. (I like canola but you can use something else. Just don't use olive oil - the smoking point is too low.)

Make some cornstarch slurry - just 1 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 3-4 tbsp of water. Dip a metal soup spoon in the slurry, then scoop out a spoonful of the meat mixture. Using the spoon and the palm of your opposite hand, form a nice smooth meatball. No harm if it's not perfectly spherical - in fact, if you've got the texture right, it'll flatten out slightly when you put it in the pan.

Gently place the meatballs in the hot oil. Fry until brown on one side, then carefully turn over and repeat on the other side. This step is just for developing some flavor from the browning - don't expect to cook the meatball through. When browned, remove to a cookie sheet to cool.

At this point, you can put the meatballs in plastic containers and freeze them. I drizzle in a little of the oil they cooked in, along with any browned bits - it gives extra flavor to whatever dish you use the meatballs in. They'll keep about six months in the deep freeze.

Otherwise, you can go ahead and finish cooking them in a number of recipes. In my family, we usually have them in a soup made of chicken stock, napa cabbage, tofu and shiitake mushrooms. You can throw together a makeshift pho with wide rice noodles, chicken stock and cilantro. These meatballs will also work in a marinara sauce, over spaghetti. They're generally a good resource to have on hand.

Alternative preparation: We do a few "crunchies" at the end, as a sort of cook's treat. These are about a third the size of the regular meatballs, only about 1 tbsp each. Fry them until they're very brown and crisp on the outside, and cooked all the way through.

Mmmm... "red-cooked" tilapia

"Red-Cooked" Tilapia

a fresh tilapia, about a pound and a half
⅓ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup water
4 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
3-4 slices of ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic, cracked with the flat of your knife but not chopped
1 tbsp sugar
a splash of cooking wine
3 tbsp oil

I'm so happy to have found several sources for fresh tilapia in New York. In the city, there's the Chinese supermarket on Elizabeth (near Hester). Both of the big stores on Main Street in Flushing have it as well. I emphatically cannot guarantee any worthwhile results with frozen fish - my mom attempted to make this dish with a frozen tilapia from Whole Foods once, and it tasted terrible and stunk up my apartment to boot.

The fishmonger should have cleaned and scaled the fish for you. Give it a quick rinse and blot, and go over it with an angled paring knife to catch any scales they might have missed.

In a large skillet or wok, heat up a few tablespoons of cooking oil. When it's nice and hot, give the scallions, garlic and ginger a quick toast. Slide the fish in. Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce, and add it, the water and a splash of cooking wine to the pan.

It takes about 10 min per side on medium heat (so the liquid's bubbling gently). Use two spatulas to turn it - very carefully, so it doesn't fall apart - halfway through cooking. Decant the whole thing onto a large platter, deep enough to hold all the sauce. You can't eat the ginger but the scallions and garlic are quite tasty so pile them on top.

If you have any leftovers, cover and refrigerate. The next day, you will notice the sauce is jellied - that's the natural gelatin from the bones in the fish. To revive it, pour some Chinese black vinegar (or balsamic is a fair substitute) over the whole thing and eat at room temperature. I actually like it this way so much that I usually try to talk my mom into cooking an extra fish to set aside for this express purpose.

Enjoy!

Mmmm... homemade dumplings (jiaozi / gyoza)

Mom's Dumplings

2 lbs of ground pork
½ lb of shrimp, shelled, de-veined and chopped
1 - 2 napa cabbages (a.k.a. Chinese cabbage or bok choi), finely chopped
2 eggs
sesame oil
soy sauce
rice wine (I've substituted vodka in a pinch)
scallions, finely chopped
ginger, grated (I use a rasp)
salt and pepper
~300 dumpling wrappers

The flavoring is highly, highly subjective. I personally like a lot of ginger, sesame oil and pepper. My mom likes it more delicately seasoned. One thing to consider is that you'll want to salt it on the heavy side, as salt leaches out during the boiling, and what tastes a bit salty when freshly made will end up just right.

Pork: Season with some splashes of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine, the ginger and scallions, and some salt and pepper. (If you're not comfortable seasoning without measurements, take it easy - you can always add more after testing it.) Add the chopped shrimp. Crack in two eggs as a binding agent. Let the pork mixture marinate a bit while you deal with the napa cabbage.

Napa cabbage: Fair warning, if you chop the cabbage by hand, it will take a bleeping long time. We discovered that the cross-cut blade on a mandoline works great - you just hold the whole cabbage by the base and grate the whole head. Don't try to do this step in a food processor - it will pulp your vegetable too badly.

When it's all chopped, salt it generously to draw out some of the water (regular table salt will do here - no point in wasting your nice kosher or sea salts). Give it a bit of a massage to work in the salt, and after 5-10 minutes, squeeze out as much water as you can, one small lump at a time in your hands. If you have a potato ricer, it's perfect for this task. Mix the dehydrated cabbage with the pork.

Testing: Make a small patty out of the filling and fry it in a small skillet until fully cooked. Taste for seasoning - correct as needed. Make another test patty if you were pretty far off the first time; no need if you just did a little tweaking.

Wrappers: For our semi-annual dumpling-making enterprise, my mom brings fresh wrappers from Vancouver. (There's a shop under the Granville Bridge that makes fresh noodles that makes them.) They're fantastic: just the right thickness and really resilient and elastic.

You can get frozen wrappers from any Chinese grocer. Be sure to get the round, white wrappers. (The square, yellowish ones are for wontons.) We've experimented with a few brands, but found them all to be somewhat substandard - on the thin side, very dry and brittle. But you can make do with them.

As a final option, you can make your own wrappers. The dough is just flour and hot water. You want to knead it a fair amount to develop the gluten. It'll be a hard, dense texture, far stiffer than bread or pasta dough. The tricky part is to find someone who's handy with a rolling pin to roll out small rounds about 4 inches in diameter. This option has a fairly high degree of difficulty and I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. You would definitely have a head start if you're an experienced baker with a good "touch" for doughs.

The amount of filling in the recipe above will make about 300 dumplings. (It's not as much as it sounds! They go quick!)

Assembly: Place about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper, wet the edges of the wrapper with water, fold over and seal. The clumsiest seal is just to press the edges together, flat. My dad starts at one end and makes little pinch-pleats until he gets to the other. My mom pinches the wrapper together in the middle, then seals up the two open ends in a gentle crescent shape.

Place line them up on a cookie sheet (in a single layer) and freeze for one to five hours. Then you can put them in plastic freezer bags for long-term storage. Make sure they're pretty solidly frozen before you move them into bags or they will smush and fuse together under their own weight and be very hard to separate later. The dumplings will last about six months in the deep freeze.

Cooking: Bring a big pot of water to the boil. You want plenty of water for them to swim around in, or they'll stick horribly to each other. You want to stir the water gently and continuously from the moment they go in until they start to float on their own. If they sink to the bottom of the pot and stay there, they will also stick horribly and you will rip the wrapper and boil all the flavor out of the filling. Suboptimal, after all the work you went through to make them. They're done a couple of minutes after they're all floating on the surface.

It obviously takes less time too cook a fresh dumpling the day you make them than one that's been frozen solid. If you're unsure how long to boil something of this size so it's definitely cooked all the way through, best give it a few extra minutes just to be sure.

To eat, I like a simple dipping sauce of either sesame oil and soy sauce, or Chinese black rice vinegar and soy sauce. My mom adds a good squirt of sriracha. If it's for a meal, I'd say portion about 15 per person (though it can be up to 30 or 40 if you're feeding a bottomless pit of a teenager).

There's a Chinese custom to pour some of the cooking water into whatever sauce you have left over, and drink it as a soup. I do it once in a while myself, but this part is most definitely optional.

Cooked leftovers: Keep them on a plate, so that they're not touching. Cover with cling film and refrigerate. The next day, you can put them in a skillet with a little oil and make potstickers. (Note that you can't make potsickers directly from frozen so you might want to boil some extras on purpose.)