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  • Chicken Tofu Gumbo Ya Ya

    Chicken Gumbo Ya Ya
    Yup, you read right — gumbo with tofu. Now before ya’ll get started with me, let me start off by saying that if you’re allergic to soy, if tofu isn’t your thing, or if you believe in all that crazy hype about soy being bad for you, please, by all means, leave out the tofu. The gumbo will be just as tasty, though it will miss the added textural dimension and surprising “pops” of flavor provided by the deep-fried tofu, which soaks up the savory broth like nobody’s business.

    OK. Who’s still with me? (more…)

  • Hippo Bread

    Gluten Free Hippo Bread

    Every gluten-free cook has his or her signature bread recipe. This is mine.

    A derivation of Neat Bread, Hippo Bread is superior in terms of texture, taste, and appearance thanks to its key ingredient, plain, homemade soy milk. Homemade soy milk acts as a binder, tenderizes the loaf’s crumb, adds a creaminess to the flavor, and imparts an attractive, slightly golden hue.

    Gluten Free Hippo Bread

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  • Soy Milk

    Ladle partly submerged in a pot of soy milk, which is ready to be put into the French press for filtering.

    Soy milk is a kitchen basic in our household. It’s good for drinking, but it’s also indispensable in the kitchen as an ingredient in many recipes. Soy milk is an excellent dairy substitute in cooking. It’s also a great egg substitute in recipes requiring the binding (though not rising) properties of eggs.

    My family enjoys eating Hippo Bread, pancakes, brownies, and other bread- and cake-type foods made with it. Soy milk’s by-product, okara, if cooked thoroughly during the soy milk making process, can be toasted in a dry pan and used as a healthy filler for meatballs, dumplings, and the like. (more…)

  • “Catfish” Tofu

    Catfish Tofu
    Tasty, easy, and fast, “Catfish” Tofu — which contains no catfish — is my primary go-to dish on nights when I’m too tired to do anything but am having one of those gotta-get-dinner-on-the-table-NOW-or-else-hungry-toddler-is-gonna-have-a-meltdown nights. (more…)

  • Ingredient Spotlight:Takara Sho Chiku Bai Classic Sake

    Takara Sake, Sho Chiku Bai

    Whenever a recipe calls for sake, sherry, or shao hsing wine, I reach for Takara Sho Chiku Bai Classic Sake. Takara is a company with deep Japanese roots and has offices and a sake museum/tasting center in Berkeley, CA. My Takara sake is brewed in Northern California using the pristine mountain water there, according to the company.
     
    I contacted the Takara folks up in Berkeley, CA, and they assured me their sake does not contain nor is processed in facilities that handle: gluten sources (wheat, barley, rye, oats), dairy, egg, tree nuts, peanuts, and/or sesame. Hooray!!!
     
    Cooking purists and nationalists of certain Asian countries (one especially big one in particular) are no doubt shaking their heads (or fists) at my use of sake for recipes that call for shao hsing wine or America’s time-honored shao hsing substitute, sherry wine. (more…)

  • Har Gow (Crystal Shrimp Dumplings)

    Har Gow / Ha Gow / Crystal Shrimp Dumplings
    If you’ve been to a dim sum restaurant, you’ve probably had har gow (a.k.a. ha gow, crystal shrimp dumplings). When done right, har gow can be a revelation: shrimp, paired with bamboo and/or water chestnut/jicama, enveloped in a thin, chewy, yet luscious, translucent wrapper that teases and leaves a person craving more.
      (more…)

  • Ingredient Spotlight: San-J Reduced Sodium Gluten-Free Tamari

    Today’s Ingredient Spotlight shines the light on my favorite gluten-free (not to mention dairy-, egg-, tree nut-, peanut-, and sesame-free) soy sauce substitute, San-J Reduced Sodium Gluten-Free Tamari.
    San-J Gluten Free Reduced Sodium Tamari
    What It Is
    San-J Reduced Sodium Gluten-Free Tamari is a tasty and reliable gluten-free substitute for soy sauce. Both tamari and soy sauce are made by fermenting soy beans. Soy sauce is made from soy and a bit of wheat. Technically speaking, tamari is made from only soy, making it gluten-free. According to San-J, their gluten-free tamari contains no wheat.
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  • Hobo Joe Hash Browns

    Hobo Joe Hash Browns

    I vividly remember the first time I had hash browns. My Aunt Rose had taken my mom, my brothers, and her daughter, my cousin Sabrina, to Hobo Joe’s, a chain eatery that no longer exists in Los Angeles. Aunt Rose ordered hash browns, and my, they were dee-lightful! The texture was light, ever so slightly crispy on the outside yet soft and tender and the inside, the color was a lovely golden brown, and the taste was lighthearted yet earnest in note. I LOVED them! Hobo Joe’s no longer exists, but my memory — and these potatoes — still do. (more…)

  • Hom Sui Gok

    Hom Sui Gok

    A popular dim sum dish, hom sui gok’s savory interior is enveloped in a wrapper that is at once chewy and luscious on the inside, yet every so slightly crisped on the outside.

    Hom sui gok’s paradoxical texture owes itself to glutinous rice flour. When fried, glutinous rice flour does not react the way most things do in hot oil; it does not get crispy and hard, but in fact softens and stays moist. The minor but important addition of corn starch provides the contrasting, every so slightly crisp exterior (more…)

  • Jim Lahey and people who leave

    Bread
     
    “The Jim Lahey method of baking bread has issues with people who are leaving.”

    I found the above sentence at the end of a pizza recipe I was composing last night. Clearly, sleep deprivation has gotten the better of me.
     
    Pictured above is a loaf of Neat Bread that I made using a technique similar to Jim Lahey’s famous no-knead bread baking method.
     
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