I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying two cookbooks recently purchased that have delivered very well indeed. The first, “Double Awesome Chinese Food” by Andrew, Irene and Margaret Li, are the three family chefs who own and cook at Boston’s Mei Mei restaurant. The food is what food impresario Andrew Zimmern deems the “true new American-Chinese.”
And that’s it in a nutshell. Call it fusion American -Chinese cooking if you must. But it’s the sauces and techniques that make it distinctive. The recipes are easy, though as in all types of Asian cooking, prep work is a bit daunting, all the chopping and dicing should be done carefully before assembling the ingredients to cook.
You don’t need special equipment, not even a wok (though in some of the recipes it’s helpful to use one). Sharpen your knives, however, for the prep work is not necessarily the work of a food processor.
Go to any of our Asian stores to stock up on the ingredients. I’ve purchased everything from the Hong Kong Market, which is one of my favorite markets of all of them in Portland.
You’ll need a pantry of toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, black vinegar, fermented black beans. Chili oil, hoisin sauce, sesame paste or tahini, Shaoxing wine and various Chinese seasons such as Sichuan peppercorns.
Some of these can be found at Hannaford but more dependably from Whole Foods if going to the Asian markets is too troublesome. What I like about the Hong Kong Market is there always a member there who speaks English to help navigate and suggest some of the ingredients.
So far, I’ve made the Honey-Soy Butter Glazed Roots (using local radishes in the market now and carrots), Dan Dan Noodles with crispy pork belly and Brussels sprouts; stir-fried greens (local mustard greens, kale, etc., work well); JJajang Lamb Noodles (my favorite so far); Beef Broccoli. Next on my list to tackle is the Red-Cooked Beef Stew and Spring-Dug Parsnips Soup, of which these roots should be available at farmers markets since the ground is mostly thawed and ready for digging.
JjAjang Lamb Noodles
I haven’t made any of the dumpling or pancake recipes; they are a chore, but the directions are complete and one of these days I’ll take the plunge and try.
The recipes include suggestions for garnish, which rely on using fresh garden vegetables like cucumber and scallion, both of which will soon be available from local farmers.
This is a wonderful book. If you love Asian food, this book is a gem to explore more modern techniques and flavors of the fusion variety.
At the other end of the spectrum is veteran cookbook author’s (she’s now 102 and still thriving in Miami) new book, “Happiness Is Baking by Maida Heatter.”
I have many of her books including her all-encompassing “Book of Great American Desserts” and “Book of Great Desserts.”
New York Times food-guru editor Craig Claiborne discovered her to introduce on the pages of the Times food section in 1968. He published her recipe for East 62nd Street Lemon Cake (shown here) and the rest is history.
East 62nd Street Lemon Cake
I’ve made many of her desserts, but my favorite remains her Key West Rum Cake, which brings Bundt-cake baking to it finest form. It’s part marble cake loaded with rum and a rum glaze tinted with lime juice. I’ve been making it for years and it’s always a star dessert.
Key West Rum Cake
The recipes in the book are culled from her other collections. I don’t think there’s anything new, but they’re all wonderful, even now.
One aspect of the book that I didn’t like was that it doesn’t follow the modern trend of listing ingredients by weight. Everything is in cups and spoonfuls. I’m used to measuring every ingredient by weight; I think the editor of this edition could have offered the option.
One of her most famous cakes that had escaped my attention is her renowned East 62nd Street Lemon Cake. I finally made it following the recipe from Happiness is Baking. It’s a superb cake. And like most butter-heavy cakes it gets better with age. I had it on a covered cake stand on the counter for nearly a week and its flavors intensified right up to the seventh day when it had gone past its prime.
Use a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan or about 9 to 10 inches across
There are 100 recipes in the book, each one a marvel. One of her baking peccadilloes is to prepare her cake pans with butter and bread crumbs instead of dusting the sides with flour. I’ve done it both ways and found each method works. I don’t always have “fine dry bread crumbs” around so flour is easier. My newest method of pan preparation is to use baking spray with flour recommended by baking expert Rose Levy Beranbaum’s, an instruction that she offers in her latest book “Baking Basics.” The spray insures that a cake won’t stick. Still, butter is best. I follow both methods, using the spray on cakes that tend to stick in the pan.
There are many recipes in her books, which are included in the newest one, that I finally want to make such as Budapest Coffee Cake, Mildred Knopf’s Orange Puff Cake and among so many others, The Best Damn Lemon Cake, so proclaimed by Heatter’s husband Alfred, christened thusly when he tasted it for the first time.
JJAJang Lamb Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ½ medium onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon fish sauce
- ½ cup fermented black beans, rinsed and chopped
- 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 1 table gochujang
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup silken tofu
- Kosher salt
- 8 ounces Chinese wheat noodles or another noodle with a little chew
- 1-pound ground lamb, preferably not too lean
- Neutral oil such as canola, for cooking
- Garnish
- 1 cucumber, julienned or thinly sliced
- 1 scallion, thinly slices on the diagonal
- ¼ medium white onion, diced (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the sesame oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, then add the onion and fish sauce and cook until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the fermented black beans, wine, sugar, and gochujang and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the water and tofu and cook, stirring to break up any large chunks of tofu until the sauce thickens and is thoroughly mixed, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool slightly, puree if desired [I prefer not to puree].
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the noodles. Meanwhile heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground lamb and a large pinch of salt and cook, breaking up large pieces with a spatula, until browned and cooked through, about 7 minutes. Taste for seasoning, then transfer to the pan with the jjajang sauce and stir to combine. Leave the skillet with lamb fat on the stove for stir-frying.
- Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook according to the package instructions unjust just tender. Drain and transfer to the skillet. IF there isn’t enough fat to lightly coat the bottom add a splash of neutral oil. Heat over medium heat until the fat or oil shimmers, then add the noodles and stir-fry, letting them lightly brown and get crispy before stirring again. Once the noodles have reached your desired level of crunch, add the lamb and jjajang sauce to the skillet and stir until all the noodles are coated. Transfer to a serving bowl, top with cucumber, scallions and raw onion, if using and serve immediately.
