Paper-wrapped Sponge Cake

My parents and I share a love for Chinese pastries. Any chance we get, we would stop at a Chinese bakery after a dim sum lunch to pick up pastries for our weekday morning snacks. At a Chinese bakery, you can purchase a plethora of savory, sweet, meat-filled or paste-filled buns, breads and tarts. If you've never been to one in your local Chinatown, I strongly suggest you find one! I guarantee you you will find a pastry that you will love. 

My mom and I share a favorite pastry - the sponge cake that is wrapped in paper - that is the literal translation of the pastry. Mom loves this pastry because of it's cake-like texture that isn't too sweet - yes, my mom doesn't like a lot of sweet things. Light and airy, this pastry is heaven and so much better than angel food cake and my mom would agree! To achieve this pastry, you need to bake them in tall paper cups that are lined with parchment paper. The height of these cakes help with the airy texture, so don't use your muffin tin.  This pastry is best when made fresh because the cake often dries out unless the sponge cake is kept wrapped with the paper. Try this with a cup of Hong Kong style tea!

Monkey Bread Muffins

Hello fellow bakers! Happy new year!

I was just reminded by Siddharth that I haven't contributed much to our blog. My apologies and to make up for it, I have compiled a few recipes that I have tried since the holiday season.

My first recipe I tried is monkey bread with apples and cinnamon. I've made this before for Siddharth, thinking he's never had it, but to my surprise, he told me this is a pretty common baked good he had in elementary school. Monkey bread does not have bananas (that was my first guess) but it is simply sticky bread. Some say the etymology of monkey bread comes from the fact that the bread looks like monkey puzzle tree while others say that peeling the pieces of the monkey bread resembles monkey behavior. Who knows, who cares, right? This is a great, fast recipe that will give your guests something to munch on in place of coffee cakes and fruit muffins. This recipe calls for a can of prepared can of biscuits, cinnamon, sugar, butter and apples. I used Pillsbury's Grands Homestyle buttermilk biscuit dough and modified the recipe by Pillsbury to make muffins.

Lump Crab Cakes

 Ever since my allergy scare with lobster, I've been pretty cautious with shellfish. I miss lobster a lot and thankfully, it's only lobster that does not seem to agree with me. I can still enjoy crab, oysters, clams and the like - at least for now.

After a long day at work, I was craving for something - a buttery protein, some sort of seafood. I drove past a Legal Seafoods restaurant on my way home and automatically thought, "crab cakes!" I stopped at the restaurant, thinking to do a take out order of their famous crab cakes, but some voice in the back of my mind stopped me. The voice said "Trish, how hard can it be to make crab cakes? You can do it yourself, you can DO IT!" With the challenge in mind, I got back in my car and drove to their nearest grocery store, Wegmans. Wegmans sells lump crab for about $15 for 8oz, not a bad price since 2 crab cakes at Legal Seafoods is about $24. With 8oz, I was able to make 5 delicious crab cakes with a side of roasted brussel sprouts and and baby portobello mushrooms at a total of $26! Wahoo!

Char Siu

Char siu is quite possibly the most famous Cantonese dish of all. Literally meaning "fork roasted," char siu is pork that is marinated in a sweet and thick blend of sauces and then roasted until it becomes crisp and almost candy-like on the outside. Traditionally, char siu is made over a charcoal fire, but my recipe here was simply done in an oven (although I think I may try it in the grill come warmer weather!). To be honest, I was quite impressed with myself for making this - it was my first try and it came out delicious (not to mention gorgeous to look at)! For those that have only had char siu prepared at a restaurant or at a Chinese deli, I think you'll be impressed by how tasty and relatively simple it is when made at home.

Les Plats Copieux - Ithaca, NY

Happy January everyone! January can be quite an exciting month for most people; singing happily for a new year, relaxing after a holiday week of family dinners, opening gifts and holiday shopping. For me, January is my favorite month because that's when winter starts hitting with snow - and not to mention my birthday. Yes, I'm one of those girls that make a big deal of their birthday. And actually, I don't just make a big deal on my birth DAY, but more like my birth WEEK(driving Siddharth crazy). But, this year, even with my egotistical ways, Siddharth was completely selfless and took me to a fancy French restaurant for my birthday - complete surprise! The restaurant is called "Les Plats Copieux" or hearty dishes, situated in snowy Ithaca. More specifically, the restaurant was in Siddharth's house where he transformed his entire kitchen into a real French cuisine. Everything felt French: the French baguette, the French wine and even the dinnerware. The only thing that wasn't French (and rightfully so) was the nonstop playlist of Blue in Green by Miles Davis in the background. 

I haven't been to many French restaurants, but we all know that there's some sophistication in preparation, presentation and flavors in French cuisine. And this particular meal easily satisfied every one of those characteristics of French food. Now, before going on, I will preface that I am partially biased to the owner of this restaurant, but as you see these pictures yourself, you'll want to try it too. And from the looks of it, it can easily be replicated in your own home too!

Chili (Stew Style)

Chili. Arguably a very simple dish, but definitely one that there is a lot of arguing about. Are beans allowed? How spicy is spicy enough? What kind of meat goes in there? Everyone has opinions (especially those Texans!). I've had a go-to recipe for years the involves ground chuck and pork as a base. But, I decided to move outside of my comfort zone on my last attempt. I decided to start with a chuck roast that was cubed instead, and I let the meat slow cook until it was tender like stewed meat. I have to say that I was pleased with the result. And while I won't be abandoning my tried and true original recipe (it's part of the Super Bowl tradition after all!), I think I'll be remaking this again in the future.

Masala Chai

Awhile back, we made a post on "the perfect cup of coffee." Well, it turns out that we do not have an exclusive relationship with coffee. In fact, we enjoy tea just as much (on some mornings, even more!). We thought it would be nice to go through how we make masala chai, to provide an analog to the coffee post.

Chili-Lime Swordfish

Swordfish is a wonderful protein to cook with - it's meaty holds up well against strong flavors, but it usually requires a fairly simple preparation and it cooks in no time at all. As long as you remember to thaw out a frozen fillet before work (or if you're able to pick up a fresh one before dinner), it makes for a fairly simple and delicious meal with minimal effort! In the summer, swordfish does really well on a hot grill, but when the weather cools it can be equally good in the oven or pan-seared. Most recently, I used my trusty cast-iron grill pan to handle my swordfish. With a quick simple lime and soy-based marination in addition to a rich coconut milk based sauce, this recipe turns out an immensely bright and flavorful fish:

New Year's Eve in NYC: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar

For New Year's Eve this year, Tricia and I decided to take a train down to our favorite place, New York City. While, NYC is famous for the Times Square celebration, featuring throngs of tourists, we passed on that and headed down to St. Mark's Place in the East Village. St. Mark's is an interesting little place, somewhat discordantly decorated with basement bars and trendy eateries in between head shops selling, er... non-food products. We tried out two places: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar. We had scoped out both of the places a few weeks in advance, and were confident that they were among the rare restaurants in NYC that didn't require a reservation on NYE. Below, you can find out why we absolutely loved both places!

Shanghainese Buns - Mantou

For Thanksgiving at Siddharth's house, I decided to skip the typical sweet potato rolls and make authentic Chinese steamed rolls called mantou. These are little steamed wheat buns that are shaped like little pebbles, a staple in northern China.  I had these at my grandma's house a lot in lieu of a bowl of rice. They could be purchased at any Asian food markets in the frozen aisle. The texture of the mantou is similar to the buns you would order at Chinese restaurants for dim sum also called bao, but these buns don't have anything inside. Our family would eat it as a side with our meals. Some people eat them as snacks by dipping them in condensed milk or even deep frying them! I've never tried, but I'm sure these would be delightful.