use real butter

Oh boy, I found the right butcher at Safeway to score me some beef short ribs cut flanken style. There is a big difference between the back ribs from last time and the wonderful ribs I got this time. I hurried and marinated korean bbq short ribs (galbi) so that we could grill them up before a cold spell blasts through. Even tastier than the first try, although I will omit the water next time and see if the flavor intensifies. I think I am addicted to these ribs!

where have you been all my life?

Recipe: chinese dumplings and potstickers

[warning: a long post]

Do you know what that one recipe was that started you on your cooking passion? I have cooked since I was a kid, but I didn’t get serious until I was a sophomore in college and I felt this cultural obligation to make dumplings from scratch to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Dumplings have lodged themselves in my head as my link to Chinese cooking and culture, but even better than that – mastering dumplings gave me the confidence to go forward and try other recipes and techniques.

for the pork filling

I posted Making Chinese Dumplings with Jen on my website several years ago (it now lives here). People have written asking about fillings, thanking me for my recipe, asking me to post more versions… The endeavor to make Chinese dumplings isn’t like pouring a can of soda – it’s quite involved and taking the photos adds considerably more time. Seeing as my days of free time may be near an end, I decided Making Chinese Dumplings with Jen could use an upgrade and an added variation. Besides, that old version was created in graduate school, a time of simultaneously happy and extremely bad, miserable, loathsome, angry, depressing, unhappy associations for me.

there is an ungodly amount of chopping involved

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Recipe: savory bread pudding

I had attempted a savory bread pudding earlier in the year, only to discover that marjoram tastes like soap and ruined the whole dish for me. I swore to myself that my next version would include bacon and omit marjoram. And indeed, I did just that and then some. I am a huge fan of sweet bread puddings. I prefer to work with chocolate when making desserts, but I love to eat non-chocolate desserts, if that makes any sense? So I thought that a savory bread pudding with some of my favorite ingredients would work out.

the cheeses and green onions

I replaced 2 cups of swiss with 2 cups of gruyère because I love the intensity of a good cooked gruyère. And I used broccoli instead of asparagus (because broccoli was on sale), and added mushrooms and of course – the beloved bacon. All hail the piggy! Such a magical animal…

an undeniably delicious combination

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