Christmas dinner: Scandinavia

We made a great Scandinavian dinner for Christmas. I took all the recipes from Scandinavian Cooking by Beatrice Ojakangas. I bought the cookbook for my Kindle a couple of months ago and have been enjoying reading the cultural background. I also love that Ojakangas has organized the recipes by suggested menus, rather than by course. Even as a Kindle fan, though, I didn't like cooking from an e-book, especially when I needed to switch between recipes, so I have ordered a paper copy.

Our menu:

• Frikadaler Ojakangas calls these as fish balls, but I'd describe them as latkes made out of cod.
• Deviled Eggs with Caviar Yum. And beautiful enough to be featured on the cover of the cookbook.
• Jansson's Temptation Potatoes, onions, half-and-half, and anchovies baked together. We made a pan without the anchovies for M. We had made this once before for an Around the World dinner and I think that I liked the first recipe a little better than this one. The original recipe is here.
  
• Christmas salad Apples, pickled beets, red cabbage, and lemon juice. Super easy and a perfect complement to the fish and potatoes.
• Pumpernickel bread (from my favorite local bakery), crispbread, and cheese.
  
• Dessert was gingerbread cookies and See's candies.
  

M's interruption
I really liked the frikadaler, which look like fish pancakes, and the potatoes.
Back to Mom, so I can keep building my Lego Burrow (the Weasleys' house from Harry Potter).

Back to Mom
It's always fun to work together to make Christmas dinner, and in this one, we had a winner: everything tasted great and were relatively easy to make. But, no, we didn't make M try the caviar -- I don't need him developing expensive tastes at age 8!

Thai Rice Soup

I told M last week that I wanted to start making more soups. Soups aren't M's favorite dinners, so I offered to let him pick the first soup. He said he wanted rice in his soup. We searched for recipes and, at the start, most of what we found were for chicken and wild rice soup. Not what we wanted. Finally, we settled on the search terms "vegetarian rice soup recipes -wild" and got some better choices.

As soon as "Vegetarian Thai Rice Soup" popped up, M knew we had a winner and he was right! The soup is called khao tom and is often served for breakfast. We coupled it with baked tofu and some store-bought kim chi and had a wonderful easy dinner.

M said that the ginger was a little spicy but the rice was perfect. And that the baked tofu is his favorite, high praise from him! This is a meal we will definitely repeat soon!

Thai Rice Soup (from ezythairecipes.com)

• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 3cm ginger, cut into fine matchsticks
• 1/2 tspn white pepper
• 1 tbsp soy sauce, to taste
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander

1. In a very small amount of oil saute the garlic until golden brown.
2. Add vegetable stock and rice and bring to the boil.
3. Add the spring onions, half the ginger, fish sauce, soy and pepper, stir until it boils again.
4. Transfer to a serving dish, and garnish with chopped coriander/cilantro leaves and reserved ginger.

My simple recipe for baked tofu
1. Drain the tofu and set on paper towels in the fridge for several hours.
2. Brush top and bottom with olive oil and sprinkle Penzey's Sate seasoning.
3. Place on aluminum foil covered baking sheet.
4. Bake at 350oF for 20 minutes.

Simple German dinner

Yes, we're still here. I know it has been a while. After our long hiatus from cooking and posting, we're enjoying a week of great food.

This past Sunday, we made our first Around the World dinner since summer. It was a simple meal: open-faced sandwiches, German potato salad, and homemade Christmas cookies.

M is school, enjoying pajama day on the last day before Winter Break starts. He told me to let you know that he really liked the meal, especially the sandwiches and the potato salad.

German Potato Salad (from epicurious.com)

2 lbs potatoes
2/3 cup vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered dry mustard
1 scallion, finely chopped

Dice potatoes and cook in boiling water until tender. Set aside. In a large pan, cook vinegar, water, sugar cornstarch and mustard on high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce to simmer and stir until thickened. Add potatoes, salt, pepper and scallions. Mix carefully to prevent mashing the potatoes.

German Christmas cookies (from cooks.com, we made a 1/4 recipe which gave us 30 cookies)

8 eggs
4 cups sugar
4 oz. chopped citron
4 oz. blanched almonds
grated rind of 2 lemons
9 cups flour
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Beat 8 eggs. Add 4 cups sugar, beat until smooth, about 15 minutes. Add 4 ounces chopped citron, 4 ounces blanched almonds, (which have been coarsely chopped) and the grated rind of 2 lemons.

Sift together 9 cups flour, add 1/2 tsp. ground cloves, 2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper to flour and sift again. Add to the first mixture.

Roll out dough 3/4 inch thick. Cut into small rounds 1-inch in diameter.

Before baking, turn each cookie upside down, put a drop of water on each and bake at 350°F. for 15 minutes.

Happy Holidays from Around the World dinners!

Retro Ornaments Brown Christmas

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(look for some great holiday Around the World dinners coming next week...)

What We're Eating When We're Not Having an Around the World Dinner

I tend to fall into the habit of making the same thing over and over again for dinner. I'm going to list our favorites so when I am doing the menu planning, we have some more ideas ready. The names are in our household's shorthand. If you are interested in more detail or a recipe, ask.

1.) Tacos
2.) Seitan fajitas (I haven't been able to make this in a while, as all of my seitan sources dried up. But seitan is back at the local co-op, so it's back on our menu. Yay!)
3.) Seitan stroganoff (ditto above, another Yay!)
4.) English Tea dinner (always a favorite with M, but it's labor-intensive, so I resist making it too often)
5.) Pinto and poblanos (I have a great recipe for healthier chile rellenos; with Spanish rice, pinto beans, and corn tortillas on the side, it's a terrific meal)
6.) Pasta (sometimes with traditional red sauce, more often aglio olio style, as M doesn't like tomatoes)
7.) Hoppin' John
8.) Tortilla Espanol
9.) Quiche
10.) Red beans and rice
11.) Breakfast dinner (poached eggs, toast, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, vege breakfast sausage)
12.) Stir fry
12a.) Moo shu (a la M's Flat Top Grill recipe, this was dinner last night and lunch for Steve and me today)
13.) Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup
14.) Baguette sandwiches (we're skipping these until M's front teeth come in but they have been a favorite for nights when we are rushing to soccer practice)
15.) Enchiladas
16.) Burritos
17.) Black bean chili
18.) Pizza
19.) Quesadillas with refried beans (check out Molli Katzen's Pretend Soup for this and other great recipes for parents and kids cooking together!)

OK, that ought to keep us well-fed for a while. I'll update as I remember more. And I am sure that M will have something to add when he gets home from his first day as a second grader.

On location: Chicago

Hi. This is M. We went to Chicago a few days ago. This trip included a baseball game, Shedd aquarium, Adler planetarium and The Field Museum. But in this blog post, the two most important places are Trader Vic's and Flat Top Grill.

My Flat Top Grill Recipe

Pineapples
Noodles
Broccoli
Edamame

Sauces

Soy

Sticks

Roti
Mu-Shu
Tofu


Mom's part
We had a great trip to Chicago. M listed all of the highlights, the attractions and the two best restaurants. We ate twice at Flat Top Grill, which is a create-your-own stir fry restaurant, and once at Trader Vic's. I enjoyed the seared tuna salad and a mai tai at Trader Vic's (which claims to have invented the mai tai in 1944). M had the macaroni and cheese and a "Kona Cooler" (mixture of fruit juices). He too enjoyed the meal. I took a picture of M next to one of the Tiki statues and will post it later, when I finally get those pictures off the camera.

Costa Rica breakfast dinner

We decided to make a meal from Costa Rica. When we pulled up the Wikipedia entry for Costa Rican cuisine, the photo showed a typical Costa Rican breakfast. Who doesn't like having breakfast for dinner? Certainly we like it. So we made the following meal:

poached eggs,
toast,
gallo pinto,
fried plantains,
and to drink, one of M's favorites, Mighty Mango Naked Juice.

M's Interruption
Hi. I liked the brinner, which is, yes, breakfast for dinner. Here is some other awesome naked juices:
Blue,green and red machine
Berry blast

Those are just some. You can find lots at Cub and Target. Some are at DBC.


back to Mom
Gallo pinto, which means spotted rooster, is black beans and rice, which are cooked separately and then pan fried together. It is often served with Lizano salsa but, as we couldn't find any at our local grocery stores, we had HP sauce with our gallo pinto.

I had never had plantains. I liked the taste, not as sweet and firmer than regular bananas.

It was an easy and yummy Friday night dinner.

I get my salsa from New York City!

Actually my salsa recipe. And it's from Spanish Harlem, to be exact. This is taken from FETCH!. In the challenge Sammy (one of the FETCHers) goes to Spanish Harlem to, apparently, learn the ingredients to salsa music and buys the ingredients for salsa (the food). In the other challenge Sam, Noel and Harsha make a cake protector. Oh, and D.J. and Jay get a perfect score in the Half-time Quiz Show.



Mom's Interruption
M did a great job of copying the recipe from the TV screen. But you'll notice what's missing from the recipe (shown in the picture above): what are we supposed to do with the ingredients?? We simply added everything to the food processor and coarsely chopped. To my tastes, the result is just a little sour ("pocky," to use M's word). Maybe we were just supposed to use the juice of the 3 limes? Next time, I'd probably add whole limes again, but use only two limes. Even with three limes, I agree with Ruff's pronouncement that "this is an excellent salsa" (and a very easy one, too).

The green tomatoes came from our garden and the garlic from our local farmer's market. And we even managed to find locally produced corn chips.

Back to M
I like this salsa, even though I don't usually like tomatoes and we have some great chips, too. I like watching FETCH! and I see it almost everyday.

Late Post: World Cup champion dinner

What are we doing with our time now that the World Cup is over? Our household followed all the action in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We watched the USA, we watched all Group C, we watched the Netherlands, Ghana, Uruguay, Germany, and Spain and... well, really we watched almost all of it. And what we didn't watch, we followed on fifa.com. M had a bracket poster that Steve brought back from Malaysia and updated the scores and winners of all of the games.

Around the end of the group stage, we decided that we would make an Around the World dinner from the champion nation. Spain, of course, came out on top. We debated making paella in honor of Spain's victory, but decided, in the end, to make another tapas dinner.

M's interruption
I do not think that I wanted Spain to win (Yes, even after the USA lost). Here are my top 5 nations that deserve to win the World Cup that haven't.


1. Netherlands
2. Portugal
3. South Korea
4. USA
5. Mexico

Me gusta tortilla esponol, chocolate caliente y churros.


Back to Mom...
Can you tell that we are a soccer family? :)

Anyway, the menu:
bread,
olives,
Manchego cheese
tortilla espanol
and, for dessert, hot chocolate & churros.

Tortilla Espanol is becoming one of my "go-to" dinners when we want a quick dinner.
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
5 eggs
salt & pepper to taste

1.) Heat oil in a non-stick skillet. Add potatoes, onion, and red bell pepper. Saute until soft, but not brown (about 15-20 minutes), stirring occasionally.

2.) In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add to the potatoes and veggies. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, shaking the skillet occasionally, until the underside is set and beginning to brown.

3.) Cover the skillet with a large plate and hold in place with one hand. Quickly turn the skillet upside down so the tortilla falls onto the plate (no, really, it's not that hard). Slide the tortilla back into the skillet to cook the other side. Cook until the underside is lightly brown. Slide the tortilla onto a serving plate.

Churros
Vegetable oil for frying
Powdered sugar for dusting

dough:
1 c. minus 2 Tbsp self-rising flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 c. butter, diced
3/4 c. water
3 eggs, beaten

1.) Sift together the flour and cinnamon. Set by the stove.
2.) Heat the butter and water until the butter has melted. Quickly bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat until smooth. Return to heat for about 30s, continuing to beat. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Gradually beat in the eggs until the mixture is a smooth, glossy paste.
3.) Heat oil to 375oF.
4.) Spoon dough into a pastry bag (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut) and pipe 3-4 pieces of dough into the oil. Fry for about 3 minutes, turning once, until golden. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the churros to paper towels to drain. Keep warm while cooking the remaining dough. Dust with sugar. Serve with hot chocolate, and dunk the churros in the hot chocolate.

Ethiopia dinner

Everyone enjoyed our recent trip to the Blue Nile so much that on Friday, we made an Ethiopian dinner at home.

The menu:
Akara (the same appetizer we made for our South African dinner, recipe here.
Cabbage and potato (see below)
lentils (also below)
and, of course, homemade injera (also called biddeena, the bread that doubles as utensils, recipe below).

M had fun helping make the injera and eating with his hands. Our homemade injera was a little thicker than the restaurant's, which made it a little harder to pick up bites of lentils and, especially, the cabbage and potato. But we still enjoyed sharing a platter of food. Steve named it "Gosa Gosa Mom," like Blue Nile's Gosa Gosa A (I think Gosa Gosa means combo).

M's interruption

Hi.We made injera and then ate it with the other dishes.We also had some yogurt (It isn't on the menu).

Back to Mom...

I used the recipes for injera and yellow lentils from "The Africa News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Cooking" and also adapted the recipe for the potato and cabbage from one of the recipes in "The Africa News."

Injera (cut in half from the cookbook's recipe, made plenty for the three of us)
2 c self-rising flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c club soda
2 c water

Combine the dry ingredients. Add the club soda and water and mix into a smooth, fairly thin batter.

Heat a large, non-stick skillet. When a drop of water bounces on the pan, dip about 1/2 c of batter and swirl to spread the batter thinly and evenly (maybe you'll be better at making it thin than I was). When the moisture has evaporated and small bubbles appear on the surface, remove the injera. The recipe calls for cooking on only one side. I flipped mine and cooked briefly on the other side, since I had trouble getting them thin.

Stack the injera as you remove them from the skillet and cover with a cloth to keep them from drying out. To serve, lay them on a platter in overlapping circles. Serve the veggies and lentils on top and make a second plate with extras (see photo above).

Potatoes and cabbage (this is my version of "The Africa News"'s Yataklete Kilkil, spiced vegetables)
1/4 lb butter
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/4 tsp tumeric
1 inch piece of cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 lb new potatoes, halved
a head of cabbage, cut into to thin shreds

1.) Steam the potatoes until tender (about 20 minutes).
2.) Melt the butter over low heat. Add all of the spices and stir to keep from burning. Add the cabbage and saute until wilted and tender.
3.) Add the potatoes and stir to coat the potatoes in the melted butter.
4.) Discard the cinnamon stick before serving.

Yellow Lentils (halved the original recipe)
1 c. orange lentils (I used toor dal)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ginger (emergency substitution, I used 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder)
1/2 garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, pounded
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Bring 2 c water to a boil. Add the lentils and the salt. Cook until the lentils are tender (about 30 minutes). Drain and then mash slightly with a fork or potato masher. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Fry the onions until golden. Add the spices and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the lentils, stirring well. Heat until the mixture is thick.

On location: Blue Nile restaurant

On Saturday night, we took Around the World dinners on location to the Blue Nile restaurant, an Ethiopian restaurant in Minneapolis. Steve and I used to eat here frequently in the years B.C. (before child) but hadn't been back in... well, in about seven or eight years. It was just as good as we had remembered, maybe even better. We ordered the Gosa Gosa A combo, a platter of their vegetarian dishes, served on a communal platter. In traditional custom, Blue Nile doesn't give you silverware: you eat by breaking off pieces of biddeena (bread) and using it to pick up bites of the other foods. I was struck by what a sense of closeness sharing a platter of food gave our meal. M's favorite dish was the sauteed potato and carrot but he also ate plenty of red lentils and black lentils. My favorite was the foule, a fava bean stew. Check them out at Blue Nile Restaurant. We will not wait another seven years to return and will probably make a homemade Ethiopian meal soon, but maybe with fewer dishes on our Gosa Gosa platter.


M's comment I liked the biddeena and I liked using it as a spoon!

Friday June 11: World Cup celebration

M here.
Hi. On Friday June 11 we ate a special World Cup dinner. We ate 5 different things from 4 different countries for 4 different reasons.

Menu:
Akara from South Africa.
Tortilla espanol and asparagus with citrus sauce from Spain.
Scones from England.
Cookies FROM THE U.S.A!


The reasons: Spain: a high ranked team; South Africa: you should always respect the host; U.S.A we live there; England it's a great place.

Mom's interruption
What a yummy dinner! And easy to make. Other than the cookies, which we made the day before the dinner, we made everything after a long day that included both a trip to the zoo and a play date with friends.

Tortilla espanol is much like an omelet or an Italian frittata. Akara are black-eyed pea fritters. The cookies were classic tollhouse but with peanut butter and chocolate chips, because, after all, what's more American than peanut butter! :)

Back to M
Well, here's a little info about U.S.A. and the World Cup. The U.S.A. has hosted one. It was in 1994. The mascot was Striker. They have never won one. More about Striker: Striker is a English football(Soccer)-mad dog. He has the U.S.A. kit on. Weeelll, I guess that's it. Enjoy the World Cup!!!!!! Bonus: How many times did I say U.S.A.?(the one in the question counts!)

Back to Mom for links to the recipes.
Mom again:
This is the best recipe for akara that I have found: http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Akara.
For the asparagus, I planned to make this sauce but at the last minute, just mixed olive oil, yogurt, and orange juice. How did I cook before the internet??

Late Posts: South Africa & Malaysia

We have been cooking plenty but not writing these last couple of weeks. We've had two Around the World dinners since our last post. The first was on April 10. In honor of South Africa hosting this summer's World Cup soccer tournament, we made a South African dinner. We made two courses, a main and a dessert. The main course is a popular South African street vendor food, bunny chow. It is curry served inside a bread bowl. The bread serves as the container and the utensil and is supposed to have originated as a way to serve workers who couldn't afford their own spoons or bowls. We chose to fill our bread with a simple chickpea and tomato curry that I make frequently and which is a family favorite. For dessert, we made Malva pudding. The recipe came from Recipezaar, one of my favorite go to spots for recipes. The recipes for Malva pudding is here. I agree with the review declaring this "the most fab pud ever!"

Last Wed, we made a dinner from Malaysia, in order to see what Dad (aka Steve) would eat on his business trip to Penang, Malaysia. We made Malaysian rojak, a salad made of pineapple, cucumber, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts. The dressing is usually very spicy but I left out the chilis and just used honey, vinegar, and a little olive oil. Steve and I added red chili paste to our salad. M isn't a fan of bean sprouts but still enjoyed the rojak. I also made Char kway teow, a Malaysian Chinese dish which is kind of like fried rice, except with rice noodles instead of rice. I don't have a good link to the recipe, as I mixed several recipes together. I've always had a hard time making fried rice at home and the char kway teow had a similar problem; it didn't seem as "fried" as it sounded like it should have been. But it was still tasty. I look forward to hearing about the char kway teow that Steve is trying in Malaysia and having it for myself at a local Malaysian restaurant (Peninsula Malaysia) to see how close I got it. M saw a Mango and Tofu stir fry on Peninsula's menu and is eager to try that one!

On location: England

We've just returned from a 10-day trip to England. What a beautiful country, with a rich history. And great food. I know no one associates England with good food, but we have eaten so well on both of our trips.

One of the culinary highlights was a goat cheese tart at the George Inn in Lacock Village. The tart was delish and the setting was perfect. The village of Lacock is fully owned by the National Trust and the town has been featured in many movies and TV. The cloisters in the town abbey were part of Hogwarts, one of the buildings was in the miniseries version of "Pride & Prejudice," and another house is Judy Dench's character's house in the British TV series ("Cranford"), among others. The George Inn has had a liquor license since 1362. No, that's not a typo, 1362!!

In London, we had two dinners at the Prince Edward pub. Prior to our trip, I had set my Google status to "London Calling." Guess what started playing as soon as we sat down the first night at the Prince Edward? I was so excited that I had to text a friend in the States to tell her.

M's interruption:
I liked Pizza Express. We ate there in Bath, London, AND York! I also liked the pizza at Garfunkel's at Heathrow Airport. Mom also found FIFA trading cards at the airport. I also got English Premier League trading cards and watched Bolton v. Manchester United on TV at one of the pubs.

Yo Sushi! was also very cool. Instead of ordering, you take your food from a conveyor belt. Bowls are color-coded so you know the price. Surprisingly avocado rolls and edamame are among the cheapest. I had 3 bowls of avocado rolls, each bowl has 4 rolls, so I had 12 avocado rolls!

Back to Mom.
Yes, we ate in Pizza Express three times. Among the best pizza I've ever had. I especially liked the Fiortina, which had spinach and a fried egg on top. The egg worked much better than it sounds. Really. One thing that I noticed and really appreciated about Pizza Express and other chain family restaurants is that they said that they avoided using GMOs. Wish it would happen here, but I'm afraid that the agribusiness lobbies are too strong.

Tonight, we're making our first post-vacation Around the World dinner. Keeping with M's interest in the FIFA World Cup, it'll be a South African meal ("bunny chow" and Malva pudding). Look for a post tonight or tomorrow!

Mothering Day/ Simnel Cake

Happy Mothering Day! Yesterday morning, after we changed all our clocks forward an hour, we saw that the calendar said that it was Mothering Day in the UK. We're getting excited for our spring break trip to England so we're interested in all things UK. Thanks to Wikipedia, we learned that Mothering Day is the fourth Sunday of Lent and Mothering Day traditions are hard to separate from Lent/Easter prep. One tradition that started with Mothering Day and is now also an Easter tradition is the Simnel cake. Who can resist a recipe that calls for a pound of marzipan -- even if it means Mom has to be in the kitchen on Mothering Day?!

I used the recipe here, which even includes step by step pictorial directions! My Simnel cake didn't turn out quite as pretty as theirs, but tastes wonderful!!

Indonesian Rijsttafel

For dinner last night, we made an Indonesian meal, a rijsttafel (Dutch word meaning, literally, "rice table"). M said it was like a "rice bar" -- rice with lots of toppings! Indonesian food is usually very spicy. We toned down the heat on ours since M isn't used to eating very spicy foods.

M's interruption: (M is eating his lunch (he has the day off from school) so he is dictating his interruption to me.) My favorite four foods were the yellow rice, the cucumber, the banana fritters, and the tofu.

Did you know Indonesia is made up of 13,667 islands? Indonesia's flag is very simple, so I didn't have to do much to make it.

Back to Anne...
Rijsttafel traditionally has many more dishes than we could eat -- or cook! -- we followed the mini-rijsttafel suggestions at The Rijistafel Company. Our menu was:
gado gado (raw veggies with peanut sauce)
bean sprouts (lightly boiled with a little sesame oil drizzled)
Cucumber bean salad (recipe at the Rijsttafel Company)
stir-fried tofu (I took the time to drain the tofu for a couple hours and was reminded why recipes recommend it!)
banana fritters (recipe here)
and rice colored yellow with tumeric.

Steve and I added spicy peanut sauce and Vietamese chili paste to our dishes.

Another big hit! M listed his favorites above, but really everyone enjoyed the whole meal.

Austria

On Sunday, we made an Austrian dinner. We focused on regional specialties of Salzburg.

The Menu:
Appetizer: Cheese dumplings (with a lager for the grownups)
Main Course: Broiled trout
sauerkraut
apple slices
Dessert: Salzburger Nockerl (a souffle-like dessert, served with jam)

While planning the meal, I discovered Wikipedia's cookbook, which I used for the cheese dumpling recipe and the Salzburger Nockerl recipe.

Steve and I loved all of it. M didn't care for the sauerkraut (too "pocky" -- M's word for sour). The cheese dumplings went especially well with beer.

My nockerl fell after coming out of the oven. But after reading this, how could I feel bad? To paraphrase them, "if they can’t make it in Vienna, you might think twice before trying it in Minnesota."

Chinese New Year

新年快乐! Happy Chinese New Year!

We celebrated last night by making a Chinese meal, technically in M's words a "Review of China" (review means our second or subsequent dinner from the same country). This meal may have been our biggest hit yet, little dinner conversation save "This is GREAT!" and almost nothing left for lunch the next day.

We made paper lanterns to decorate the table. Very easy craft for the kiddos, even Dad can make them. :)

The menu:
Chinese noodles with tofu and hazelnuts,
Clams steamed with ginger and scallions,
and
Toffee and Sesame Bananas for dessert

The recipes for noodles and the bananas came from the BBC's Good Food website, which I will be frequenting much more often.

M's Interruption
M is enjoying a Presidents' Day play date with a classmate. Right now they have the Football Guys out -- if you don't know about Football Guys, well, you should, check them out here.

Before his friend came over, M dictated his Interruption to me:
"Noodles...clams...toffee bananas, very flavorful. Yup, this was a very flavorful dinner."

Recipes
Chinese Noodles with Tofu & Hazelnuts -- I used my new KitchenAid pasta making attachment for my stand mixer. This is a wonderful recipe, but even better with homemade pasta!!

250g packet medium egg noodle
2 tbsp olive oil
handful coriander , roughly chopped (that's cilantro to the Americans)
300g mangetout (that's sugar snap peas)
1 red chilli , seeded and finely chopped (I left this out)
handful toasted hazelnuts , roughly chopped
349g pack silken tofu , cut into cubes
3 tbsp Chinese yellow beans sauce

1. Drop the noodles into a pan of boiling water, cook for 4 mins, then drain. Drizzle over a little oil and mix in half the coriander.
2. Heat a wok over a medium heat. Pour in the remaining oil, then throw in the mangetout and stir-fry for 2 mins. Add the chilli and cook for 2 mins more until the beans are just tender.
3. Tip the hazelnuts, tofu and yellow bean sauce into the wok and stir to warm through. Finally, stir in the remaining coriander, season if you want to, and serve with the noodles.

Toffee & Sesame Bananas
This is as heavenly as it sounds. I found vanilla bean gelato at the local supermarket. Muscovado sugar isn't easy to find around here. But, oh, oh, oh, it was worth the extra trips. It has a strong molasses flavor and makes a perfect toffee sauce.

* 6 large bananas , peeled and quartered
* 8 tbsp light muscovado sugar
* 2 tbsp butter
* 200ml double cream
* 2 tbsp sesame seeds , toasted
* good-quality vanilla ice cream, to serve

1. Toss the bananas in 2 tbsp of the sugar. Heat a griddle to medium, then cook the bananas, a few pieces at a time, until sticky and showing griddle marks. Keep warm in a low oven.
2. For the sauce, put the remaining sugar, the butter and cream into a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted. Stir in the sesame seeds. Can be made up to a day ahead. To serve, put a few pieces of banana into 8 serving dishes, spoon over some of the caramel, then top with a scoop of ice cream.

Late Post: Haiti

In late January, we made an Around the World dinner from Haiti.
It was a big hit: salmon, black beans, and rice are always favorites here. Haitian black beans and rice are flavored with cinnamon, not a spice I usually use in bean dishes, but I might now. Yum, yum, yum.

For dessert, I made Pain Patate, a sweet potato pudding. Steve and I loved it. M wasn't as impressed as us. Here's a link to the Pain Patate recipe.

On a non-culinary note, if you want to read a different take on the situation in Haiti, I strongly recommend this blog entry by travel guidebook writer Rick Steves.

China!

We're a little late posting about this one. Last Sunday, on the last night of M's winter break, we made a Chinese dinner. Here's the menu:
Cauliflower with Lima Beans
Peanuts and Green Beans
Rice
and for dessert we had tangerines

M's interruption: I liked the lima beans and rice best. I also liked the tangerines but I wish tangerines had fewer seeds.

Back to Anne. M's uncle (my brother Peter) and his family sent us a big crate of oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit for Christmas. We have finished all but the tangerines, so I was glad to see that Mandarin oranges are a common dessert in China. I know tangerines and Mandarin oranges aren't quite the same, but close enough.

For our recent dinners, I had been searching Wikipedia and various recipe sites for ideas and recipes. This time, however, I went back to a favorite cookbook "Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking." The recipes are always delish and I love reading her notes at the start of the recipes.