Cook the Books February! Asian Dumplings with Andrea Nguyen!

Ok, friends, so we somehow managed to make this whole Cook the Books Challenge work! Yay for all of us!

January is almost over, and the Cook the Books challenge has been so fun so far! We’ve got people in different states participating! We’ve got people who looked all over for citrus zesters and 2/3 inch pastry tips! I learned more about French music than I probably needed to.  This was my favorite choice from my French dinner party mixtape.

Double S sported out an outfit that probably broke the record books for the most stripes worn in a single outfit, because French people wear stripes we think! Meg introduced me to French 75s and now I wanna drink a lot of those.

I whisked so much I think I have le carpal tunnel syndrome.  I remembered that the French drop their h’s when saying words like “hamburger” and I lol-ed. I laughed, I cried, Around My French Table was better than Cats. What can I say?

In January, Dorie Greenspan took us on a tour of French cuisine, updating it, modernizing it, demystifying it, and personalizing it for us along the way. French food and technique form the basis of much of modern fine dining. Dorie showed us some of those techniques, and definitely made me a better cook along the way.  And the month isn’t over!  Stay tuned for my final review of the book on January 29th, and Meg’s round-up of the all the bloggers who participated in the challenge, which should be up on the 30th.  And hey, maybe I’ll even wring one more recipe or two out of this book before I put it on the shelf for awhile! Maybe crepes!?  Why the heck not!  But for now, onward and upward!

This month we’re going to take a journey (I’m making it sound exciting, aren’t I?) through years of traditions and technique, and through quite a few countries. For February, the Cook the Books Challenge book of the month is Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas and More, by Andrea Nguyen.

First things first, Andrea knows her some dumplings.  She’s a cookbook author, food writer, teacher, SAVEUR contributing editor, and active blogger at Viet World Kitchen.  Besides Asian Dumplings, she’s also the author of Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors, which was published in 2006, and Asian Tofu: Discover the Best, Make Your Own, and Cook It at Home, which she published in 2012.  Check out her blog!  You can click on the Asian Dumplings link at the top and be taken here, where you’ll find even more dumpling recipes, her list of dumpling classes (if you live in the Santa Cruz or San Francisco area, you’re in luck!  She has some upcoming classes!), and helpful dumpling related videos.  Like this!  Take it away, Andrea!

I like her little dance at the beginning AND her Simpsons reference!

The Simpson kids, after a month of Cook the Books…

Dumplings are hot right now. There’s no denying it. Odds are there’s a dumpling food truck in your town you’ve been meaning to check out, or a column in your city’s food blog hyping dumplings, or a pesky friend at work who really wants you to eat dumplings.  The New York Times is talking about them.  Esquire is calling them a food trend.  Blokes in the U.K. are jabbering about dumplings, alright guv’nor?  And there are dumpling food trucks popping up too.  In New York City, you might find several Rickshaw dumpling food trucks out and about.  In Durham, North Carolina, of all places, you’ll find the very popular Chirba Chirba dumpling truck.    Portland, of course, has the Dump Truck.  Seattle doesn’t have a dumpling specific truck, but hey, we do have one of the only three US locations of Din Tai Fung Dumpling House, which is a foodie destination for Xiao Long Bao, holder of a few Michelin stars, and was once named one of the best restaurants in the world by the New York Times.    But hey, no big whoop.

Dumpling making at Din Tai Fung

So I chose Asian Dumplings for February because I love going out for dumplings.  But I have never made a dumpling.  I watched my parents make egg rolls in my youth.  I grew up eating German potato dumplings for Thanksgiving and I participated, but still.  I wanna learn how to make spring rolls!  I wanna learn how to make samosas!  I really want to learn how to make xiao long bao, aka soup dumplings!  I wanna learn how to make Korean mandu!  I wanna learn how to make pot stickers!  Do you?  Join us!  You will?  Sweet!

Ok, so the book itself.  It’s pretty great, you guys.  The introduction is 19 pages of essential information.  I’d highly recommend reading it as soon as you get the book.  It’ll make you excited and less concerned that you don’t know how to make dumplings.    In it, Andrea tells us a little about her background.  She first started folding wontons when she was a little girl.  Cute!  She later spent a year in Hong Kong and really began to experiment with dumpling eating and dumpling making.  There were no cookbooks or blogs (duh!  It was the 90s!  All we had were books!) dedicated to dumpling making, so, luckily, Andrea polished her recipes and wrote this book in 2009.  I like how Andrea demystifies dumplings right off the bat.  She tells us in the introduction that your dumplings don’t have to be folded a certain way and don’t have to look pretty.  So throw away your worries about how the heck you’re gonna fold a perfect dumpling!

Photo by chinesedumplingrecipes.com

Andrea also tells us about which regions recipes in this book will come from,which is East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, and she mentions the great influence of Chinese cooking techniques and traditions on all of these dumplings.  Although we’re talking about a huge chunk of land here, Andrea stresses that dumplings are simple.  Here’s her definition: “For the purposes of this book, Asian dumplings include savory and sweet dishes that are made from balls of dough, or are small parcels of food encased in pastry, dough, batter, or leaves.”  In other words, there are endless possibilities here!  Don’t be overwhelmed!  Try what excites you!  Here are some of the types of dumplings Andrea will be teaching us to make:

XLBs, or Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Gyoza, or potstickers

Samosas

Lumpia, fried spring rolls popular in the Philipines

Korean mandu

Wontons! Fried wontons! Where my St. Louis people at? You know I’m going to need to make crab rangoon!

Spring rolls. Yes, she will teach you to make that impossibly thin spring roll skin…if you dare!  And I’m a sucker for punishment so I prolly will dare!

Steamed buns

Siu mai, ubiquitous in the dim sum repertoire.

So I think the most overwhelming thing staring us in the face for this month is the actual making of the dumpling wrappers.  Well, my fears were assuaged as soon as I got further into Andrea’s introduction.  She talks about how the wrappers are of course much more delicious if made at home than if bought at the store, and she also promises us that they are easier to prepare and to work with than you might think.  And this leads me to tell you about the most helpful part of her introduction, the “Essential and Handy Equipment” section.  Don’t skip over this one, folks.  She mentions some tools that will make things easier, so I went out and got them.

Yep, a wooden dowel rolling pin, a steamer, and a tortilla press.  Although Andrea promises that the skinny, lightweight rolling pin will make producing nice delicate wrappers much easier, I was afraid of my own laziness when it comes to dough, so I got a cast iron tortilla press as well.  This one, to be exact.   Hey, yeah, you’re cooler than me and maybe you won’t need one.  But dough and pasta rollers and all of that scare me and often make me give up and just go flop on the couch and watch my stories.  So I nipped that potential in the bud, yos!  Andrea tells us more about working with a tortilla press here.  Cheat away!

Then there’s the ingredients.  Like Dorie rightfully told us in Around My French Table, most of the ingredients for the simpler items here can be found at any grocery store.  She points out and describes, in case you need it, the ingredients that might take more time to find, like banana leaves, dried shrimp, dried mushrooms, fish sauce, and various flours and starches.  In the dough, the flour is a key variable.  Andrea uses regular old AP flour, bread flour, rice flour, glutinous rice flour, and tapioca starch/tapioca flour, and wheat starch.    She provides photos of the types of flours and recommended brand names, which is helpful when you’re browsing a huge Asian grocery store.

If you’ve been out for dumplings, and dear lord I hope you have, you know that the dipping sauce can really make the dumpling, and that each dumpling has its own set of traditional or expected sauces used as an accompaniment.  Don’t worry, Andrea has a whole section on sauces and chutneys.

Ok, so here are the details if you want to join us in dumpling making in February.  First, get the book and make some dumplings!  Fun!  Then, write about what you did, and send us a link to your post: cookthebookschallenge@gmail.com.  For this month, please send us your link by February 22nd.  Meg and I will then ooh and ahh and marvel at what you all made!  Then, on February 26th, Meg will post her review.  On February 27th, I will post my review and a roundup of all the posts of all the participants.  Non-bloggers, please post what you did on my February 27th roundup.  For more info, click here!  Fun will be had by all!

Camping While I Cook? Cooking While I Camp? Anyway, My First Camping Trip of the Year!

I love camping.  This surprises some people.  I didn’t grow up camping.  My family didn’t and doesn’t camp.  The Briggsy’s were always more of the cable tv, hairdryer, rental condo types when we went to our vacay destinations.  Some of them were classically midwestern destinations.  Did anyone go to Destin, Florida or Hilton Head, South Carolina who wasn’t from the midwest?  I’ve yet to find anyone.

Anyway, not me.  Ever since I lived in NYC, I’ve loved being out around rivers and trees, grilling my food, peeing in the woods drinking beer and swapping stories.  Now don’t get me wrong, the ocean is cool and all, but there’s something about a river.  It’s interesting, I grew up swimming in nothing but my grandma’s pool.  AKA, the best place ever and site of awesome memories like cannonballing off the diving board (and slide!) to the tune of  “Summer of ’69″ and “Don’t You Want Me” (those stand out for some reason), but living in the state famous(y) for the mighty Mississippi, which is really boring to a kid.  Mark Twain, dialect, steamboats.  Yep, fascinating.  I first saw the ocean at 19.  Then in the seven years I spent in NYC, I was close to the Atlantic, but was too hipstery to venture out of pants into shorts and out of the bar too often too visit.  Now I live surrounded by water and bridges.  Namely, the Puget Sound, which is kinda the ocean, but not.  I don’t know, I tune out when people try to describe what the Sound is exactly.  Do I have to know everything?

So my current love is rivers.  The gorgeous, crashing, mountain-fed rivers of Washington are amazing.  I remember when I really fell in love with rivers though, and it was on the Current River in southern Missouri.   This happened on what people in St. Louis would call a “float trip.”  You know those Facebook quizzes, “You Know You’re from _____  When…”  Yep, you do.  Well, the standby for St. Louis, MO, goes a little something like this.  You Know You’re From Miz-ur-ah when everyone in your family has been on a “float trip.”  You coasters don’t know living till your asses go on a  float trip.  Yeah, people may go tubing in Anytown, USA, but that shit ain’t no float trip.  A float trip is getting a bunch of friends, camping in stifling heat and humidity where you basically have to stay in the water until you go to sleep because it’s just that hot, floating down a REALLY slow moving river all day, drinking 12-18 beers out of a beer tube with your beer snug in its cozy, complete with neck strap.  You do NOT want to waste a beer, watching it float slowly away down the river.

MO float trips are  like this…

That's the stuff!

For a better sense of a MO float trip, I draw your attention to this,  the second picture that comes up when one Google image searches “Missouri float trip.”  Awesome!

Float trip!

When I did my only (for shame!) float trip back in ’05, I have a vivid memory of stopping on the side of the river while a barely moving speed boat blasted Nelly (this was at the height of Nelly mania, which swept the country and left St. Louisans swollen with pride)  and everyone danced and sang along.  Good times.  I mean, come on:

That’s a good-ass song, amIright folks?  Plus, the Arch!  Missouri’s unfortunate teal license plates…cuz nothing says Mississippi River like the color teal!  Rams and Blues jerseys! Cute STL kids bouncing on big wheels!  And a big ass jar of Maull’s bbq sauce for some St. Louis style BBQ!    I’m from da Lou and I’m proud!  True story.

Don't baste your barbeque! Maull it!

Anyway, I flew into St. Louis back in the summer of ’05, frustrated with the city, relationship-less.  Days later I’m in a tube, arms rubbed raw from paddling my old truck tire tube, looking at trees, floating and drinking beer.  Not hearing or smelling or dealing with a NYC August.  I had stars in my eyes.  I realized that I needed nature.  This is where it began.  Fast forward a couple three months and I meet Double S (Tres romantique!), and 14 months later I land in Seattle.  So now, even though I can go to the coast and the Sound and a mighty Lake, I choose rivers.  So this is what Double S and I (and Double S’s kid bro) did this past weekend.  And it was awesome.

For our fourth annual camping trip together, we headed to the Yakima area, where we camped at Cottonwood Campground.  I hate to give this secret away, because this place is truly river-side nature at it’s finest.  One, it’s hot.  Two, it’s sites are all adjacent to the Naches River.  By the way, y’all really need to grow a pair and swim in cold water.  It’s good for you.  Three, you can float in a tube tied to a tree, or you can be adventurous and float down the river.  We did, and found a swimming hole!  Just don’t go there and take my favorite site when I want to be there.

Pretty effin sweet!

Cattails are pretty!

I love river skippers! Their shadows look like a dog's paw print. They can walk on water! Which of course makes me think of the below...

Why is someone welding during Mr. Money’s video shoot?  And hey, listen to more Eddie Money.  Dude is sure ugly, but his songs are pretty effin’ sweet.

I like to not let the fact that I’m outdoors stifle my food obsessed leanings, so I usually go all out.  Double S and I are at an advantage because before we resided at the homestead, we lived in a 325 sq foot apartment with a kitchen that basically had a two burner hot plate and no oven.  So often we were out on our stoop (Can I call something in Seattle a stoop?  It wasn’t a deck, wasn’t a patio, wasn’t a porch.  Anyone?) cooking up delicious fineries on our Coleman propane stove.    I took this camping trip as an opportunity to get my chillax on AND to make some of my faves and to try out a few new recipes I’d had bookmarked for awhile.

The outdoor kitchen! July 30, 2010.

First, I did some leg work at home.  I had previously made Smitten Kitchen’s Watermelon Lemonade, with much success, with added vodka, but this time we tried it straight.  You have got to try this.  It’s actually better without alcohol, and perfect for an afternoon by the river.  It’s summery and ultra refreshing.  It kind of makes you feel better just for drinking it.  Perfect for camping and the great outdoors.  Double S guzzled this like it was going out of style!  I made a ton of it and thus sprayed watermelon puree all over the kitchen at 9am on Friday morning–do not overflow your food processor.  Do I ever learn?  This juice is easy to make for a group, well, except for all that lemon squeezing.  Puree half a watermelon, squeeze a bunch of lemons and strain out the seeds.  Add water and simple syrup or agave nectar to taste–you actually need less than SK calls for.  Chill.  Exclaim with glee at how good this stuff is!

I made two and half liters of the stuff (In a handy used seltzer bottle for easy portability), and we finished it. It's that good!

I had also been wanting to try cold brewed iced coffee.  I found this recipe in the NYT and went to town.  I wanted enough for 3, so I used the NYT’s proportions but upped it–I used a full cup of coffee grounds. You simply add coffee to water and put it in a big mason jar.  Let the jar sit on the counter or in the fridge for some set of time.  Your choice.  I read anywhere from 3-24 hours.  Mine steeped for about 14 hours.  Then strain.  Have something else to do, because this takes a while.  I first strained it through a mesh sieve, then through coffee filters.  Yes, filterS, as this process used about 3-4 filters and took awhile.  Upon later research, friendly interweb commentators recommend making this in a french press, which I deem genius, but obvs you cannot make it in the large quantities that people want to drink iced coffee while camping, so figure it out.  Much has been written about cold brewed iced coffee.    It has less acid, so those with bad stomachs (Ed’s Note: that’s me!) can guzzle it without problems.  It kinda fits the aesthetics of this blog.  You make it in advance, let it sit in a jar on the counter and hope for the best.  Hot coffee is just an instant kind of coffee, not the only kind.  Cold brewing is just another way that takes longer.  And cold brewed coffee only gives you about 15% of the acids and oils that are present in hot coffee.   I can’t say I had my flip-flops knocked off (Camping!) or anything, but I like getting less acid.  Verdict: More experimentation needed to see if this will work for me in the long run, but great for having iced coffee readily available while camping, because that’s just something I need, ok?

Ice coffee concentrate? Check! Homemade (not very good but ok for while wine sangria) rhubarb wine? Check! Cold PBR? Check! Hobo whiskey? Check!

If you make cold brewed iced coffee, you get to get up in the morning and do this, within minutes. Perfect! St. Louis Cardinals souvenir cup not included.

And, because I’m insane, I also made chocolate chip cookies.  I originally typed choco chip cookies, and I declare that I prefer this name for these perfect specimens of all that is or has ever been right with anything.

With just a touch of fleur de sel on top, cuz I'm bougie.

I have previously made the NYT recipe for cookies, as blogged by Orangette.  This time I tried Alton Brown’s recipe.  Alton is the man!  The main diff is that Alton melts the butter and uses all bread flour and majority brown sugar, and he isn’t so strict with  the chill time.  Results: Chewy and delicious!  Problem once we were camping: We ran out of icy cold mild.  Jokes about how wholesome it was to run out of MILK while camping ensued.  But these choco chip cookies were good, yos!  Note: Watch these suckers carefully if you make them.  They can burn in a matter of seconds.  Even the overly browned ones (two trays worth–I suck!) were good, just a little dry and not as visually pleasing.

Beyond this prep work experimentation, we also made some camping classics.  As I’ve blogged,  I love Thundering Hooves ground beef.  So we made my favorite burgers in the world, this time on charcoal, to awesome results as usual. Again: Thundering Hooves beef (or your own local grass-fed beef) rubbed with a quality steak seasoning, a GOOD bun/roll rubbed lightly with butter or olive oil and fresh garlic, good dill pickles, fresh or grilled onion, little bit of mayo and mustard.  Aww yeah! But we didnt stop.  Double S and I watch a lot of Chopped, which btw is way better than this season’s abysmal Top Chef.  Down with Angelo!  And with Alex!  These two d-bags make Stefan from a few seasons back seem like Mr. Nice Guy.  Anyway, we were channeling Chopped as we improvised new recipes at the picnic table.  I made a quick pickle that turned out well: fresh cuke, radish, and a brine of white wine vinegar, touch of sugar, salt, fresh red onion and garlic, after the cuke had sat for a bit in some  salt and olive oil.

Experimenting with food while camping is fun! What else do you have to do at night when camping? Well, THAT'S not legal!

I also made an improvised massaged kale with kale from the homestead.  I massaged it!  And added olive oil, lemon, kosher salt, and lotsa fresh garls.  Delish!  Use up that kale!  Ours is huge!

Massaged kale. Ooh la la...

Plus we made picture perfect baked taters.  Do you know how?  Scrub your Russet potatoes (the best choice for baking)and pierce each tater 8-10 times, all over said potato.  Coat liberally with olive oil and lotsa kosher salt.  If you’re at home, back unwrapped in a 350 oven (right on the rack) for one hour.  If you’re camping (and you should be!) do the same prep, then wrap them in foil and set them over hot coals, not over the flames, rotating them early and often, for about 45-60 minutes.

Double S and her bro are campfire whiz kids! I never have to dirty my delicate hands!

Don’t forget how to ready them for the table.  Make a slight slit in the middle, then squeeze ‘em.  For toppings, my fave is to mix a good sour cream with fresh chives (preferably the tops of the onions from your garden) and salt.  Nature’s sour cream and onion chip!  That’s all you need.  But Double S also carmelized some onions and added ‘shrooms.  This was a delicious addition to the sour cream and chives.

Double S was on carmelized onion kick! Another perfect task for camping. Just let 'em cook and stir from time to time. We found fresh lemon juice to be a great addition.

Double S also made another dish that’s become a standby on our camping trips, tandoori chicken.  Saying this never fails to impress.  OK, it’s tandoori style chicken.  Chicken marinated overnight in yogurt and tandoori seasoning, lemon and salt.  Double S then grills it up on our grill plate on the Coleman stove, adding lemon and salt to taste.  We use Rajah tandoori spice, which you can find at your local Indian grocer.  We could make our own tandoori seasoning mix from toasted herbs, and I’m sure that would be better, but we haven’t gotten around to that yet.  We often eat this with naan or parathas (easily grillable on the Coleman griddle), but this time we had rice.

The spice mix we use. Don't forget to add lemon and salt!

Double S grilling up the marinated chicken.

I also made a salad where I (in Chopped fashion) improvised a delicious dressing with coriander chutney we brought as a dipping sauce. Oil, fresh garl, white wine vinegar, lemon and chutney to taste. Thundering Hooves burgs, baked taters and quick pickle and massaged kale.  Sweet!

We made a trip out to garden for most of our fresh salad fixin's before we left. Satisfying.

Last year I read Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life.  I was reading the beginning of it during a camping trip to Lopez Island, so I decided to make her recipe for her dad’s (Burg’s) french toast.  I highly recommend it, and it has since become a camping morning staple.  The batter involves eggs, whole milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt, and cooking it in quite a bit of oil.   Read the book, and make this recipe!

Saturday morning we had french toast and Thundering Hooves italian sausage, OJ and iced coffee. Perfect!

Are you camping this summer?  Any campground tales of food experimentation and success?  Favorite Washington campgrounds?  Cottonwood is pretty sweet, and you drive home through Naches and the Yakima area, so you can pick up a flat of fruit on your way home, so make room in the back seat!  I recommend McIlrath family farms, whose farm stand you’ll hit on your way out of town on Highway 12.  They grow organic cherries and use mainly sustainable farming practices, and they are the only stand we saw that was organic, so thanks to Double S’s little bro’s awesome driving and my eagle eye, we hit the stand on the way home.  I picked up a flat of apricots.  Stay tuned for what I did with them!

This place was awesome! And the prices!

Happy Friday everybody, and get out there and camp!