This is meant to be made with raw greens, but I decided that I'd prefer them lightly wilted. We also ended up forgetting to add the dressing to the salad... whoops! It was still delicious, but I definitely think it would've been better with the dressing.

The pork belly that I had was very fatty, so I actually used only ~450g of pork belly and filled in the rest with pieces of pork chops as I felt like this gave a better fat-to-lean ratio. I also swapped out the tamari that the original recipe called for for a mixture of dark and light soy sauce.

Salad of Asian Greens with Soy-Glazed Pork Belly

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Salad

• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 900g pork belly, skin removed
• 3 heads bok choy, thoroughly washed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 small head cabbage, shredded
• 2-4 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 1-2 green onion tops, sliced (optional)

Dressing

• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

Directions

1. Combine the dark soy, light soy, honey, and sesame oil and mix well.
2. Add the pork belly, turn to coat, cover, and chill for 4-12 hours.
3. Meanwhile, combine the soy sauce, honey, sesame, and vinegar for the dressing and mix well.
4. Heat a pan over medium to medium-high heat.
5. Add the pork belly and sear on all sides, basting as it cooks.
6. Keep cooking, reducing heat if necessary, until meat is cooked through.
7. Transfer to a cutting board and slice.
8. Pour off any fat in the pan.
9. If the pork belly still seems excessively fatty, return the slices to the pan and cook until more of the fat has rendered off. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside.
10. Pour any residual marinade into the pan and cook for a few seconds.
11. Add the bok choy, cabbage, and celery and cook until slightly wilted.
12. Transfer the greens to a bowl and toss with the dressing.
13. Top with the pork belly and green onions (if using) and serve.

I needed a vegetable to go with my chicken stir-fry the other day and bok choy was on sale at the grocery store. The fact that this is an incredibly simple recipe didn't hurt either!

Bok Choy with Lemon and Soy

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1kg baby bok choy, thoroughly rinsed and quartered
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the bok choy and stir-fry for a minute or so.
3. Add the soy sauces, honey, and lemon and stir-fry until bok choy is wilted and glazed with sauce.

This is billed as "Asian-style chicken soup" in the cookbook. But, looking at it, it's basically a simplified pho. You start with chicken stock and enrich it with green onions, ginger, fish sauce, cloves, star anise, and chile and then poach a couple of chicken breasts and some bok choy in it. The chicken then gets sliced and placed in a bowl with some rice noodles which the broth then gets ladeled over. Cilantro, green onions, basil, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, sliced chilies¹, hoisin sauce, and lime wedges are passed at the table for people to adjust their soup to their taste.

I had a chicken carcass on hand, so I just made my chicken stock from scratch. I didn't measure my stock. I just added enough water to cover the carcass and added some carrots, onion, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, dried mushrooms, a dried chile, and a splash of soy sauce. I would have put some celery if we'd had any, but we didn't so I just rolled without it. Because I was making my own stock from scratch and without any added salt (except what was in the soy sauce) I didn't add the water called for in the recipe. (Besides, I think I probably had more than the requisite 8 c. of stock anyway.) If you're using commercial stock though, you'll probably want to add the water to avoid an excessively salty final broth.

Chicken Pho

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 8 c. chicken stock
• 2 c. water
• 1 bunch green onions, divided
• 5cm fresh ginger (or 1 Tbsp. ginger paste)
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 whole star anise
• ~500g skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 4 heads baby bok choy, chopped
• ~200g dry rice noodles
• fresh Thai chilies, thinly sliced
• fresh cilantro
• Thai basil
• bean sprouts
• peanuts, toasted and chopped
• lime wedges
• hoisin sauce

Directions

1. Combine the stock and water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Reserve one of the green onions and set aside for later. Cut the remaining green onions into thirds and add them to the pot.
3. Add the ginger, fish sauce, sugar, cloves, and star anise to the pot as well.
4. Add the chicken, reduce to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through.
5. Strain the broth and return to the pot.
6. Return to a simmer, add the bok choy, and cook until tender.
7. Meanwhile, slice the chicken breasts and cook the rice noodles according to package directions.
8. Place some noodles in each bowl and put a few slices of chicken breast on top.
9. Ladel some broth and bok choy over the noodles.
10. Chop the reserved green onion.
11. Put the chilies, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, peanuts, and lime wedges on a plate and pass at the table for people to dress their soup as they see fit.
12. Drizzle with hoisin if desired.

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¹ Omitted this time since Reiver can't eat them. ^Back

One-Pot Miso Ramen

We got these "revo bento" boxes recently and have been getting a lot of use out of them. Not as bento boxes, but they're great for storing stuff in the fridge, and a good intermediate size between the small containers in the 100-500mL range we already had lots of and the larger 1.5-2L containers that are often overkill. And unlike the glass or plastic containers¹, they're stove- and flame-safe, so I suspect they'll see a lot of use in the camping season as combined cookware, servingware, and storage containers.

In the meantime, they came with a little recipe booklet filled with dishes meant to be prepared mostly or entirely in the bento boxes themselves, so you can just cook them, eat out of the box, and put a lid over any leftovers. In this case I didn't actually do that; the bentos don't work with induction, so I just cooked it in a separate pot and served in the bento rather than heating up the tawa. Symbol and I shared it, and while it's considerably less soupy than I'm used to miso ramen being, neither of us had any complaints about the taste.

The recipe calls for a head of bok choi; we didn't have any on hand, so I instead used about a cup and a half of (already cooked) broccoli and cauliflower leftovers from a previous meal. I think it would be really tasty with bok choi, though, and I've written it up as such.

One-Pot Miso Ramn

Swanz/Morph Recipe Book for Revo Bento (p. 9)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 ~200g packet of smoked firm tofu, diced (or other protein of your choice)
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp chili oil
• 150mL stock or broth
• 150mL vegetable milk (I used oat milk)
• 1 packet instant ramen noodles (discard the seasoning packet, or save it for a different recipe)
• 1-2 heads bok choi, coarsely chopped
• 2 eggs, soft-boiled or fried

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-high heat.
2. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, ~1 minute.
3. Add protein and stir-fry until browned and cooked through.
4. Add miso paste, soy sauce, and chili oil and stir until paste is melted and protein is evenly coated.
5. Pour in the stock and vegetable milk and let simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add the ramen noodles and cook, stirring into the broth as they soften, for ~2 minutes.
7. Stir in the bok choi or other veggies.
8. Remove from heat, top with eggs, and serve.

I had to improvise slightly with this one. Some of my bok choy had started to go off, so I had to supplement with some other veggies. I added a bell pepper and an onion to bring it back up to the 450g the original recipe called for. I actually really like this mix. I think having a mix of veggies was nicer than having just the beef and bok choy. I also added a bit of sugar to help balance out the flavours.

Beef & Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. spicy bean paste (辣豆瓣酱)
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. canola or peanut oil, divided
• 300g baby bok choy, quartered
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced lengthwise
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. minced ginger
• 450g thinly sliced steak

Directions

1. Combine shaoxing wine, soy sauce, bean paste, and sugar and set aside.
2. Heat wok over medium-high heat.
3. Drizzle in 1/2 Tbsp. oil and swirl to coat.
4. Add the bok choy, bell pepper, and onion and stir-fry until tender-crisp (2-3 minutes).
5. Transfer veggies to a bowl and add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of oil to the wok.
6. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
7. Add the beef and stir-fry for ~2 minutes.
8. Return the veggies to the wok and toss to combine.
9. Add the wine mixture and stir-fry for another minute or two.

This is a popular Chinese-American dish. It's tasty, but also kind of greasy because of the deep-frying; I find it benefits from pairing with some sort of starch, like toast, rice, or waffles.

Egg Fu Yung

The Good Egg by Marie Simmons (p. 55)

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 60mL cold water
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
• a pinch of salt
• 240mL thinly sliced bok choi
• 60mL grated carrot
• 60mL thinly sliced scallions
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp grated ginger or ginger paste
• oil for frying

Directions

1. Whisk together eggs, water, soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt.
2. Stir in bok choi, carrot, scallions, garlic, and ginger and mix well.
3. Heat 2cm of oil in a wok over medium heat. Test with a bread crust; when it browns, the oil is hot enough.
4. Add the egg mixture, 80mL (⅓ C) at a time, flattening each scoop out into a flat pancake.
5. When set, about 2 minutes, flip until lightly browned on the other side.
6. Remove to draining rack or paper towels and serve hot.

So, TF and I went to a protest last week. People are upset about the sex ed curriculum again. The alt-right/homophobes don't want kids to be allowed to try out different names or pronouns at school or learn that queer people exist, so they decided to have a protest about it. So, OFL and some other folks helped to organize counter-protests at the same locations. TF and I were at one of the counter-protests.

I'm glad we went. But it's also kind of depressing that it was even necessary. It's depressing that so many people are still so homophobic that they see even discussing the existance of queer people as an "adult topic" and queerness as somehow inappropriate for children.

Anyway, none of that is really relevant to cauliflower. But I needed to tell you that story to tell you this one:
While we were downtown, we spotted a sign for "Taste the 4th Sense", which TF immediately recognized as being somehow related to a business she used to frequent at the Fergus Market (nearly 20 years ago)!

We got chatting with the owners and it turns out that yes, it is the same business, just under new ownership. They still make a lot of the same products (including the garlic oil that was a staple of TF's pantry when we first met) and also have an incredible selection of locally made sauces and spice blends. And you're allowed -- encouraged, in fact -- to taste and sample everything before you buy it! It's really a wonderful shop.

We came out with three new sauces + some Christmas presents and a new cookbook.

I haven't looked through the cookbook in any detail yet, but I did notice this cauliflower and bok choy recipe near the beginning. And by sheer coincidence TM recently gave us a bunch of baby bok choy. And cauliflower was on sale at the grocery store last week. So this seemed like a natural fit as an additional vegetable side to go with our dinner last night. And, man-oh-man, it was so tasty!

I was worried that the BBQ sauce would make it too sticky and sweet, but it was just right. And despite some initial misgivings, the cauliflower and bok choy were great together! And the cashews and the mushrooms really take it over the top. It's just fantastic. Definitely a keeper.

Sheet Pan BBQ Cauliflower

Slightly adapted from Awaken Your 4th Sense: Volume 1 by the Taste Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower¹, cut into florets
• 225g mushrooms², sliced
• 2 Tbsp. garlic oil (either home-made or conveniently ready-made from Taste)
• 1/2 c. raw cashews
• 9 heads baby bok choy³
• 1/2 c. BBQ sauce (preferably Big Stooley's Smoked Jalapeño Apple BBQ Sauce), divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet with a silione baking mat.
2. Toss the cauliflower and mushrooms with the garlic oil and spread, in an even layer, over the prepared baking sheet.
3. Distribute the cashews evenly over the vegetables.
4. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 20 minutes, stir, then continue baking for 15 minutes longer.
5. Meanwhile, rinse the bok choy and cut into bite-sized pieces.
6. Toss the bok choy with 1/4 c. of the BBQ sauce and add this to the vegetable mixture on the baking sheet.
7. Bake for another 15 minutes or so, stirring every 5 minutes.
8. Once the bok choy stems are tender, remove from oven and drizzle the remaining 1/4 c. of BBQ sauce over the vegetables.
9. Serve as an appetizer or vegetable side dish.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 450g cauliflower florets. We just used a whole head of cauliflower which worked out to ~600g of florets. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for shiitake mushrooms, but they didn't have any at the grocery store when I went, so we just ended up doing it with cremini. (And it was delicious!) That said, I think shiitake or oyster mushrooms also would have been excellent in this. Maybe next time I'll visit the folks at Noki Farms and see what they have available. Their mushrooms are always so fresh and lovely (they grow them on-site) and I think some of their black pearl or pink oyster mushrooms would be fantastic in this dish! ^Back
3 The original recipe only called for 3 heads of baby bok choy, but we had 9 and they needed to be used, so we just put them all in and I quite like that ratio. I would do it that way again in the future. ^Back

The plan had been to make some Korean-style marinated beef for dinner last night. Kind of like galbijjim, but with stewing beef rather than short ribs.

That was the plan. Unfortunately, I got started a bit late and didn't get the beef marinating in time. So we ended up having to do a quick pivot to another dinner plan. I knew we had a package of slightly freezer-burnt pork chops in the chest freezer downstairs, so I figured that this simple InstantPot recipe would be a good way to use them up. And it worked out great! The pork was delicious and so was the kale that went with it. And it harmonized well with the turnip (daikon) cakes that we decided to fry up to go with dinner too. So, despite being in a bit of a flap leading up to dinner, everything worked out really well in the end.

Lemongrass and Garlic Pork Chops

Slightly adapted from Healthy Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel

Ingredients

• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 6 cloves garlic¹, minced
• 2 large shallots², minced
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• ~1.4kg thick-cut bone-in pork chops
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1 c. chicken or beef stock
• 300g frozen chopped kale³
• cooked rice, to serve

Directions

1. Remove any tough outer leaves from the lemongrass, press firmly with the flat of the knife, then slice very thin and set aside.
2. Combine the soy sauce, fish saue, sugar, garlic, shallots, and pepper and mix well.
3. Mix in the lemongrass.
4. Pour over the pork chops and turn to coat.
5. Cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
6. Set InstantPot to "sauté medium" and add the oil.
7. Remove the pork chops from the marinade (reserving the marinade) and sear in the InstantPot, working in batches and cooking each pork chop for 2-3 minutes per side.
8. Remove the pork chops from the InstantPot and set aside.
9. Add the stock to the pot and scrape the bottom to losten any stuck on bits.
10. Pour in the reserved marinade and turn the InstantPot off.
11. Return the pork chops to the pot and seal the lid.
12. Pressure cook on high for 10 minutes followed by a 10-minute natural release.
13. Release any residual pressure and transfer the pork chops to a serving dish.
14. Pour all but ~1/4 c. of the sauce over the pork chops.
15. Set the InstantPot back to "sauté medium" and add the kale.
16. Cook until the kale is heated through and the flavours have had a chance to mingle (3-5 minutes).
17. Serve the pork chops over rice with the kale on the side.

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¹ We were running a bit low on garlic, so I just used a few Tbsp. of garlic paste instead. I think I put in ~2 1/2 Tbsp. of paste, but I wasn't being too particular abou the measurement. ^Back
2 I had half a red onion in the fridge already, so I just minced that very fine and used it rather than going to the trouble of getting shallots special for this dish. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 150g of baby spinach, but suggests that chopped kale or bok choy would make good substitutes. I decided to go with kale since that make my life easier. But 150g didn't look like very much at all. So I decided to just use the whole 300g bag. I think this produced a much more reasonable amount of greens for the quantity of pork. ^Back

I haven't been writing up a lot of the Hello Fresh recipes, largely because most of them are repeats of recipes we already have with minor variations. This one was new, though, and also a huge hit with everyone, and a nice dinner (or brunch!) on a cold winter day.

We had some extra coconut milk in the fridge, so we replaced some of the water in the recipe with additional coconut milk, making it a roughly 1:1 ratio for the same total volume. I've written it up without this modification.

Salmon Coconut Soup

Hello Fresh

Ingredients

• 340g carrots, peeled, bisected lengthwise, and cut into 5mm half-moons
• 340g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 10cm cubes
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 C "red curry base"¹
• 1-2 red Thai chilis, finely chopped
• 500g salmon filets, skin on
• 200mL coconut milk
• 750mL water
• ½ tsp salt
• 450g bok choi, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Add carrots, sweet potatoes, and oil to a large pot.
2. Cook over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, 5-10 minutes.
3. Add curry base and chilis. Cook, stirring, until coated and fragrant, ~30 seconds.
4. Add coconut milk, water, and salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.
5. Add salmon. Reduce heat to medium low and cook, covered, until salmon is cooked through, ~5 minutes.
6. Stir in bok choi and cook until wilted.

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¹ This is not the same as red curry paste; symbol suspects it to be red curry paste diluted with fish sauce and possibly other liquids and aromatics. This is sometimes sold as "red curry paste" in grocery stores, but has a lighter colour and consistency and is meant to be used by the cup rather than the teaspoon. ^Back

I've never been a big fan of steamed buns. I always felt like buns really needed to be baked to be any good. Steaming them just seemed sad. But TF really likes steamed buns, so I figured I'd give this recipe a try. And it turns out that homemade steamed buns are actually really good! I loved these! I felt like they needed some sort of sauce since the filling didn't have much umph, but the buns themselves were really, really delicious.

Steamed Vegetable Buns

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

Filling

• 450g baby bok choy
• 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms¹
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 115g 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dried tofu)
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt²

Dough

• 3/4 c. warm water
• 1 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. oil, divided
• 280g all-purpose flour
• 20g cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Directions

Filling

1. Prepare an ice bath.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add half the bok choy. Cook for 10 seconds, then quickly transfer the bok choy to the ice bath. Repeat the blanching process with the remaining bok choy.
3. Once the bok choy has cooled completely, drain it, squeezing out as much water as possible.
4. Finely chop the bok choy. (A food processor is helpful for this. I don't have one, so I did it by hand.)
5. Finely chop the mushrooms.
6. Heat a wok over medium heat.
7. Drizzle the oil into the wok.
8. Add the chopped mushrooms to the wok and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
10. Finely chop the tofu and set it aside.
11. Return the the chopped bok choy and pour off any liquid that has accumulated. (This will prevent soggy buns!)
12. Add the mushrooms and tofu the the bok choy.
13. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, and salt and mix to combine.
14. Cover and chill while dough is being prepared.

Dough

1. Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Stir in 1 Tbsp. oil.
3. In a separte bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda and mix to combine.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the centre outward.
6. Once the flour has been mostly incorporated, turn the dough out onto your work surface and begin kneading.
7. Knead for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be very smooth and supple. If it is lumpy, uneven, or tears, keep going!
8. Shape into a ball and place in a bowl.
9. Brush the top of the dough ball with the remaining 1 tsp. of oil. Cover and let at room temperature for ~1 hour.

Assembly

1. Once fully risen, turn out and knead for a few minutes to deflate and remove gas pockets.
2. Divide dough into 30g portions³.
3. Round each piece of dough and cover with plastic wrap to stop it from drying out.
4. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it out into a flat disc ~8cm in diameter, thinner on the edges and thicker in the middle.
5. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the disc.
6. Holding the bun in the palm of one hand, being pleating the edges. Once you've worked all the way around, keep the last pleat pinched and work your way around again. Twist and close until the bun is almost completely closed. There should still be a small open hole at the top, but it should be mostly closed and neatly pleated.
7. Place each bun on a square of parchmentpaper (5-6cm squares work well).
8. Place place the buns (on their parchment squares) into a steamer. Be careful not to crowd them.
9. Cover and let rise for ~20 minutes.
10. Make sure there is sufficient water in the bottom of your steamer and bring to a boil over high heat.
11. Once water is boiling, reduce heat to medium. Steam for 10 minutes.
12. Turn off heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Do not remove lid during this time!
13. Remove cooked buns from steamer and get the next batch ready to go. Each batch much start with cold water.
14. Serve hot.
15. To reheat, microwave for one minute or steam for 6-8 minutes.

---

¹ I didn't have any fresh shiitakes so I just rehydrated a few dried ones. My dried mushrooms were quite large, so I only used six. ^Back
2 I'd be tempted to leave out the salt and add in a teaspoon of dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, or hoisin sauce next time. The filling was good, but I feel like it really needed something to give it a bit more presence. Of course, adding one of those dark sauces would probably have a negative impact on the aesthetics. They blanched bok choy is lovely and vibrant in this version. But I think I'd be willing to sacrifice some aesthetic value in the pursuit of better flavour. Just something to keep in mind if you're after something very pretty. ^Back
3 The original recipe called for making 14 equal portions. This worked out to ~40g of dough per bun. I did this, but when I made a second batch the next day, I found 30g portions much easier to handle. So I would actually recommend making more smaller buns (18-19) vs. a smaller number of larger ones. ^Back

腐皮青菜 (Tofu Skin with Greens)

Okay, so before I get into the actual recipe, a brief musing about text and names. When possible, I really like giving the names of dishes in the original language. For languages that don't use the Roman alphabet I tend to use a Romanized transliteration of the name and then give an English name in brackets afterward. I do this because I can't read or write the original language and often all I have is the Romanized name anyway. However, this breaks down a bit when it comes to Chinese dishes.

I've been learning Mandarin since last summer. Or well... I've been doing the Mandarin lessons on Duolingo since last summer anyway. I know that, while Duolingo is a great for practice, the consensus is that isn't not really the best for actually learning a new language from scratch. But, the point is that I can actually read and write a little Chinese now. And I often do have the name of the dish easily to hand. Great, so I can write it in Hanzi (汉字) and give a parenthetical translation. Except that leaves out the Pinyin (拼音). So now I need three versions of the name. And I've been struggling with a good way to format that. I think for some recipes I've just left out the Pinyin. For others I've worked it into the recipe description. There are probably even a few older posts where I've given Pinyin (or some other Romanized spelling) and English without any Hanzi. But I'd like for all three to be present and prominent. So, I think from now on I'll just put a little name section somewhere in the post to make it easy to see the Hanzi, Pinyin, and English separate from the rest of the text.

Hanzi/汉字：腐皮青菜
Pinyin/拼音：fǔ pí qīng cài
English/英语：Tofu Skin with Greens

腐皮青菜

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. fresh ginger¹, minced
• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper, ground
• 1/4 c. water, divided
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 3 Tbsp. oil
• 350g bok choy, cut into bite-sized pieces
• ~2 c. chopped fresh tofu skins² (cut into bite-sized pieces)

Directions

1. Prep the garlic and ginger and set them aside. If using fresh ginger, keep it separate from the garlic. If using garlic paste, they can be mixed together.
2. In a small bowl, combine the salt, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper.
3. Get 2 Tbsp. of the water ready in a separate bowl.
4. In a final bowl, combine the remaining 2 Tbsp. of water with the cornstarch.
5. Preheat the wok over medium-high heat.
6. Drizzle in the oil.
7. Once the oil is good and hot add the ginger. Stir-fry the ginger for ~30 seconds, then add the garlic. If using ginger paste, add it and the garlic at the same time.
8. Stir-fry the garlic for ~10 seconds, then turn the wok up to high and add the bok choy.
9. Stir-fry the bok choy for ~1 minute, then add the sesame oil mixture.
10. Stir-fry for another few seconds, then add the 2 Tbsp. of water.
11. Add the chopped tofu skins on top of the bok choy. DO NOT STIR!
12. Cover and steam for 1 minute.
13. Stir the cornstarch mixture and pour it over the stir-fry.
14. Mix well and serve.

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¹ I swapped in a generous teaspoon of ginger paste here. ^Back
2 Or dried tofu skins that have been soaked until softened and briefly boiled/blanched. ^Back

The classic flavours of Korean tteokbokki, but with ramen taking the place of the rice cakes. The sauce has been simplified a bit, but the key elements of gochujang, sugar, and garlic are still there.

Tteokbokki Ramen

Slighlty adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. gochujang
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. ramen powder
• 300mL water
• Korean fish cakes¹
• 1/2 small onion, sliced
• 1-2 baby bok choy, sliced (optional)
• 1-2 cabbage leaves, sliced thin and cross-cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 package Korean-style ramen (ramyun)
• 1 green onion, sliced

Directions

1. Mix gochujiang, sugar, garlic, and 1/2 of the ramen powder to make the sauce.
2. Bring the water to a boil and add the fish cakes, onion, bok choy (if using), cabbage, ramen noodles, and sauce. Also add the vegetable packet if your ramen comes with one.
3. Cook until noodles are done (~3 minutes).
4. Sprinkle with green onion and serve.

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¹ I couldn't find any Korean-style fish cakes, so I got a bag of fried tofu triangles instead. I sliced them thin and used them in place of the fish cakes. I'm sure it's quite different from actual fish cakes, but it was still good and it was what I had available. It's also an easy way to make the dish vegetarian. If you're going for a vegan meal, just make sure your sugar is vegan are you should be all set! ^Back

Steaming is a very popular method of cooking in southern China. This is originally a Cantonese dish. The steaming gives the chicken a silky texture and produces a thin, flavourful sauce.

I chose to add a bit of baby Shanghai bok choy to give this dish some veg. I also opted to use tempeh instead of chicken. In all honesty, I think chicken probably would've been better, but it was still good with the tempeh, just not as good as I think it could have been.

To make up for not having the chicken, I swapped out the vegetable oil for schmaltz and added a bit of sweet paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. I also traded out the salt for bouillon powder. Additionally, I used way more sausages then the original recipe called for (but only about half as much tempeh).

The recipe calls for using a pie plate for the steaming. This worked okay, but my pie plate was very, very full. I think I'd probably try to steam it in a large glass bowl next time. (Or just make a half batch so that the pie plate isn't quite so overstuffed.)

Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage

Adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 10 dried shiitake (black Chinese) mushrooms
• 450g skinless, boneless chicken thighs (or tempeh), cut into chunks
• 1/3 c. water (or mushroom soaking water)
• 1 Tbsp. oil (or schmaltz)
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 1 Tbsp. (vegetarian) oyster sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. chicken or vegetable bouillon powder
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 tsp. grated ginger (or 1 tsp. ginger paste)
• 1 scallion, chopped, white and green parts separated
• 1/4 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce¹ (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. tapioca starch (or cornstarch/cornflour)
• 2-10 Chinese sausages², thinly sliced on bias
• 6-8 baby Shanghai bok choy, rinsed and chopped (optional)

Directions

1. Soak the mushrooms in hot water for at least two hours.
2. Drain, rinse, and thinly slice the mushrooms.
3. Combine chicken, sliced mushrooms, water, oil (or schmaltz), sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, sugar, bouillion powder, white pepper, ginger, and the white parts of the scallion and stir to combine.
4. Also add paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and soy sauce (if using).
5. Cover and chill for at least two hours or as long as overnight.
6. Add the tapioca starch (or cornstarch) and mix well.
7. Add water to your steamer/wok and bring to a rolling boil.
8. Transfer the chicken mixture to a pie plate or large heat-proof bowl.
9. Place the sliced sausages on top.
10. Place the bok choy on top of this (if using).
11. Place the bowl/pie plate in the steamer and steam over medium heat for 10 minutes.
12. Turn off the heat and leave the steamer to sit, covered, for another 2-3 minutes.
13. Sprinkle with the green parts of the scallion and serve over rice.

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¹ The original recipe didn't call for any soy sauce and I didn't use any. That said, upon tasting it, I felt like I probably would have benefitted from a small amount of soy sauce in the marinade. I'll try it this way next time and see how it comes out. ^Back
2 I know this is a huge range. The original recipe calls for 1-2 links but notes that sausage sizes can vary greatly. My sausages were extremely small. I also really like sausages. And I had less tempeh (my stand-in for chicken) than the recipe called for, so I figured I'd make it up with extra sausages. I liked my sausage-heavy version. I realize that this may not be true to the original recipe, but it was delicious! Go for more sausages if that's your jam or less if you'd like something a little more traditional. ^Back

Shanghai bok choy is preferably for this recipe, but it can be made with any variety of bok choy. The best texture and flavour, the bok choy should be quickly blanched in water with a little salt, baking soda, and ginger first. I omitted this step, but if you want to get the absolute best out of your bok choy, it's probably worth doing it. For 1kg of bok choy, you'll need ~1.5L of water, 2 tsp. of salt, 3/4 tsp. of baking soda, and ~3cm piece of ginger. Bring the water to a boil, add the bok choy, and, as soon as the water returns to the boil, drain it.

Stir-Fried Bok Choy

Slightly adapted from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1/2 c. vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce¹
• 2 tsp. Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground

Bok Choy

• 1kg bok choy (preferably Shanghai bok choy)
• 3 Tbsp. onion oil²

Directions

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and set aside.
2. Quarter bok choy heads and rinse very thoroughly.
3. Blanch the bok choy if desired.
4. Heat wok over high heat.
5. Add oil and heat for 30 seconds or so.
6. Add bok choy and stir-fry for 4 minutes.
7. Pour in sauce and cook for another 3-4 minutes. (The sauce should thicken somewhat during this time.)

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¹ To make this dish vegetarian, simply use vegetarian oyster sauce. For a vegan version, double-check to make sure your sugar is vegan or substitute 3/4 tsp. agave syrup instead. ^Back
2 We didn't have any onion oil on hand, but we did have both scallion oil and garlic oil. I used a mix of both for this. I think they all make a good match for the bok choy. Pick your favourite! ^Back

If I'd been thinking clearly, I would've cooked up some bok choy to go with last night's cashew tofu. I was not very awake yesterday though, so I didn't think of it 'til dinner was just about to be served. I did up the bok choy this morning so that it could be served with the leftovers for lunch today. I think it makes a nice combo. Especially since the tofu is decidedly lacking in the vegetable department.

Sesame-Ginger Bok Choy and Cashew Tofu over brown rice

Sesame-Ginger Bok Choy

Slightly adapted from Spend with Pennies

Ingredients

• 6-8 heads baby bok choy
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. shaoxing wine
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/4 tsp. chili flakes
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger, minced

Directions

1. Rinse the bok choy very well.
2. Separate the stems from the leaves. Roughly chop both keeping them separate.
3. Combine sesame oil, soy sauces, wine, water, and chili flakes and set aside.
4. Heat canola oil over medium heat.
5. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add bok choy stems and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
7. Add sauce and leaves and cook for 2 minutes more.

This definitely isn't substantial enough to be a main dish, but it makes a tasty and very quick to put together side, and goes well both on its own or mixed in with noodles or rice. Note that the bok choi cooks down significantly; if you want to have lots of bok choi, double or even triple this recipe.

Sautéed Baby Bok Choi

Cook's Country

Ingredients

• 700g baby bok choi
• 10mL toasted sesame oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1mL red pepper flakes
• 15mL corn oil
• 1mL salt

Directions

1. Cut leaves from bok choi heads, chop coarsely, and rinse.
2. Cut base off each head and discard. Detach stalks from each other and core; discard core. Rinse stalks and store separately from leaves.
3. Combine sesame oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a small bowl.
4. Heat corn oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stalks, sprinkle with salt, and cook without stirring until stalks start to brown, ~5 minutes.
5. Stir and continue cooking until stalks are just starting to become tender, ~1 minute.
6. Add leaves and sesame oil mixture and continue to cook, stirring often, until leaves are wilted, 1-2 minutes. Eat.

Last week kind of got away from me. I realized on Thursday evening that I'd forgotten to cancel my HelloFresh box for this week. I'm sort of cringing at the extra expense, but I suppose it's not that bad and it does save me from having to worry too much about meal planning this week.

Monday night was teriyaki chicken with bok choy and coconut rice. The chicken and bok choy were excellent. I'm not 100% sold on the coconut rice as the substrate though. The rice was nice, but it just felt somewhat flat and... a bit of a let-down next to the tasty teriyaki. I think it would've been improved by the addition of peas. And using a nice long-grain brown rice would've been my preference over the white basmati in this case. If I were going to do this again, I think I'd try adding some kaffir lime leaves and a couple handfulls of frozen peas to the rice during cooking. And maybe a few whole peppercorns as well. Either that, or switch it up completely and do a fried rice with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, Szechuan peppercorns, scallions, sesame oil, and maybe a few eggs. (I might toss a few peas into the fried rice as well. I really like peas with rice.)

Teriyaki Chicken

Slightly adapted from HelloFresh

Ingredients

Stir-Fry

• 450g Shanghai bok choy^{1, 2}
• 680g chicken tenders (or skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut in half horizontally then cut vertically into short strips)
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c. soy sauce³
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. grated ginger (or 1 Tbsp. ginger paste)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (corn flour)
• 1/4 c. honey⁴
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 50-60g roasted cashews, chopped

Rice

• 1 (160mL) can coconut milk
• 2 c. water
• 1 1/2 c. Basmati rice
• 4-5 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
• 6-8 whole black peppercorns (optional)
• 1 c. fresh or frozen peas (optional)

Directions

Stir-Fry

1. Wash the bok choy and separate the leafy bits from the stems.
2. Cut into 2-3cm chunks, keeping the celery-like stems separate from the spinach-y leaves. Set aside.
3. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Combine the soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, honey, and water to make the sauce. Set aside.
5. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat.
6. Add oil to pan followed by chicken. Cook to internal temp of 165°F (74°C). Cook time will vary depending on thickness of pieces. For tenders, it should take 4-5 minutes.
7. Add bok choy stems to pan and cook for 1-2 minutes⁵
8. Add sauce and bok choy leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Rice

1. Combine coconut milk with water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and add rice.
3. If using, stir in lime leaves and black peppercorns along with rice.
4. Cover and simmer for 12-14 minutes.
5. If peas are frozen, allow them to thaw while rice cooks.
6. When rice is done, fluff with fork and toss in peas.
7. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside for 5-10 minutes.

Assembly

1. Put some rice in a bowl and top with stir-fry.
2. Garnish with cashews.

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¹ I honestly felt like this recipe could've used a lot more greens. Personally, I wouldn't be afraid to double the vegetable quantity. If you do this, you might want to scale up the sauce slightly. ^Back
2 There are lots of different vegetables that will work here: bok choy, Shanghai bok choy, broccoli rabe, gai lan... Kale would probably work decently well too. If you're not looking to incorporate the veggies into the stir-fry itself, steamed broccoli makes a lovely side. ^Back
3 The soy sauce that came with the meal kit seemed a bit darker and more viscous than your typical light soy, but it wasn't anywhere near dark soy levels. If I were making this again, I think I'd try mixing 3 Tbsp. light soy with 1 Tbsp. dark soy. In a pinch, I think using all light soy would work fine though. ^Back
4 The recipe card says "3 Tbsp." for the honey, but we got two 30mL jars and I just put all of it in when making the sauce. I was happy with the results -- and the Kidlet loved it! -- so I'd probably just do it the same way again next time. That said, if you prefer a less sweet sauce, cut the honey back to 2 or 3 Tbsp. and see how it tastes. ^Back
5 HelloFresh has you cook the chicken in two batches and then remove it from the pan before cooking the bok choy. I don't like having to remove things from the pan once they go in and I have a very large pan, so I just did the chicken all at once and left it in the pan. It's probably technically overcooked, but it was tasty and didn't seem dry or anything, so I'm not too worried about it. ^Back

Rice with Chinese Sausage and Greens

This dish has been our go to on many nights when we didn't have the energy to cook anything remotely complicated. It's a true one-pot dish, and takes barely more time to make than a pot of plain rice.

It is very easy to experiment with; the "basic" version just uses the rice, sausages, greens, and soy sauce, and you can add different greens or other seasonings or the like as you see fit. The version recorded here is the most recent one we made.

Ingredients

• 350mL long grain white or brown rice
• 1 package chinese sausages
• 1 package bok choi or head of broccolli (or other greens as you see fit; spinach, mustard greens, or black kale would probably work alright too)
• 1 large onion
• dark soy sauce
• roasted garlic paste
• black pepper

Procedure

1. Put the rice and an appropriate amount of water in your rice cooker or pressure cooker.
2. Slice the sausages into rounds and toss those in.
3. Add the greens.
4. Chop the onion and add that, too.
5. Add a generous splash of soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of roasted garlic paste and some black pepper.
6. Cook using the same settings you'd use to cook plain rice.

Stir-Fried Tofu and Bok Choi

I made this a few days ago and all three of us absolutely loved it. It took an hour and a half (!) to make, but I think it was worth it. When making it in the future, though, I think I'd make a double or even triple batch; that'll take longer to make, but the time increase should be sublinear and the single batch I made vanished shockingly fast.

Most of the time spent making it was in preparation. I started disassembling, washing, dividing, and slicing the bok choi while the tofu was draining, and I had finished those and was about halfway through the carrots when the tofu was done cooking. Definitely give this one a lot of lead time unless you have sliced bok choi and julienned carrots already lying around.

Ingredients (Sauce)

• 128mL vegetable broth
• 64mL soy sauce
• 32mL Chinese rice wine
• 16mL sugar
• 5mL sesame oil
• 10mL corn starch

Ingredients (Stir-Fry)

• 500g extra firm tofu, cut into 2cm cubes
• 85mL cornstarch
• 3 green onions or half of a white onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 15mL ginger paste
• 45mL canola oil
• 500g bok choi, cleaned, stalks and greens separated, greens cut into 2cm strips and stalks thinly sliced
• 2 large carrots, peeled, cut into 5cm lengths, and julienned

Procedure

1. Spread tofu out over paper towels and let drain for 20 minutes; pat dry.
2. While tofu is drying:
   - Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl, slowly whisking in the corn starch; set aside.
   - Combine onions, garlic, ginger, and 5mL of oil in a bowl; set aside.
   - This is also a good time to finish slicing the bok choi and carrots.
3. Toss tofu with cornstarch until well coated.
4. Heat 30mL oil in a deep skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the tofu and cook until crisp and well browned on all sides, ~15 minutes. Remove the tofu with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the remaining oil, the bok choi stems, and the carrots and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until vegetables are crisp-tender, ~4 minutes.
6. Clear the center of the skillet and add the onion-garlic mix. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30-60 seconds, then stir together with vegetables.
7. Stir in tofu and bok choi greens.
8. Whisk sauce to recombine, then stir into skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens, 1-2 minutes.

Kare-Kare (Peanut Butter Stew)

Visiting my parents over the holidays means that I was able to get some more oxtail. Last time I made some sumptuous oxtail soup, but I wanted to try something different this time, so I turned to the Goons with Spoons wiki and decided that kare-kare sounded like an excellent choice.

Kare-Kare
1/4 c. oil (or bacon grease)
1 oxtail (~1 1/2 lbs.)
1 lb. stewing beef
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. annatto seeds
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 small yellow onions, sliced
generous 1/4 c. short-grain white rice (or sticky rice), toasted and ground
scant 1 c. crunchy peanut butter (preferably a "natural" peanut butter)

2 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Chinese eggplants, peeled and cubed
1/4 c. garlic oil
1 bundle yard-long beans, trimmed and cut into 2cm lengths
4 heads Shanghai bok choy, cut into bit-sized pieces
lime (optional)
shrimp paste (optional)

1. Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown in batches in the oil.
2. Remove the meat from the pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and add the annatto seeds. Simmer in the hot oil until it turns a deep, rich reddish-orange. Remove and discard the seeds, retaining the coloured oil.
3. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the garlic. Cook until the garlic is browned, but not burnt. Immediately add the onion.
4. Once the onion has softened, return the meat to the pot and add 5 c. water.
5. Combine the toasted rice flour with 1 c. water to make a slurry and stir that into the pot as well.
6. Stir in the peanut butter and the fish sauce.
7. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least three hours. (Mine simmered for a little over four hours.)
8. Remove the oxtail and discard the bones. Return the meat to the pot.
9. Fry the eggplant in the garlic oil until it begins to brown and add to the pot.
10. If there's any oil left in the wok after frying the eggplant, the beans can be given a quick fry. If not, they're perfectly fine to go in raw.
11. Add the bok choy to the pot. Stir to combine and cook over medium heat until the bok choy has just wilted.
12. Serve over rice with lime and shrimp paste.

We had lemons on hand, so I actually squeezed a bit of lemon juice into my stew. However, I think lime would be even better. If you want to do it properly, you should actually mix equal parts lime (or calamansi) juice and shrimp paste and take a little bit on the tip of your spoon with each bite of stew. I wasn't feeling the shrimp paste when we made this, so I just used a bit of lime juice, but I might try some with the leftovers tonight.

I deviated from the Goons with Spoons recipe in a few places, but I'm still pleased with the results. I didn't have enough oxtail on hand to do an all tail version, so I threw in a package of stew meat to make up the difference. It came out meltingly tender and wonderful!

The original also doesn't call for frying the eggplant, but I sometimes have texture issues with eggplant and find that frying goes a long way to alleviating this, so I figured it was worth adding a step. If you're a great lover of eggplant and aren't worried about textural weirdness then, by all means, skip the frying and let it do all its cooking in the stew!