the petite pig

my introduction to western food

i think when people find out that i love to cook, the first question i usually hear is, "what kind of food do you like to make?  chinese?"  i'm never offended by the assumption.  after all, i did grow up in a very traditional chinese family and ate my share of native fare.  however, i think because i grew up mostly eating chinese food, i found everything non-chinese to be the exotic.  as an adolescent, all you want is to "fit in."  you don't want to be that weird kid who gets fed worm juice instead of cherry-flavored robitussin when you have a cough (yes, this is a true story - my grandmother is quite the human eastern apothecary).  for us eating out meant going for a bowl of pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup), dim sum or a noodle joint.  for my parents, the thought of going out for a western meal was just too foreign for them to handle.  a meal without jasmine white rice on the side was not a meal at all in their eyes.  i remember asking my mom if she could make some spaghetti for me, just like all my friends got to have for dinner.  her response to my request was spaghetti noodles stir-fried in ketchup.  you have to give the woman credit for trying to please her brat of a daughter.  yes, for years i thought spaghetti with tomato sauce was spaghetti with ketchup.   

i think the first western restaurant (not counting my many trips to mc donalds and popeyes chicken) i got my parents to take me to was a t.g.i.fridays when i was about eleven.  to me, this little trip to a national chain restaurant was the treat of my life.  in my head, i was going to three-star michelin dining (not that i knew what michelin was at this point in my life aside from the tires).  my parents delegated the duty of ordering to me, something my dad always got to do when we went out.  i felt like the responsibility of introducing my parents to the world of western food was on my shoulders.  yes, this was my chance to convert them from chicken's feet (which i happened to love anyway) to chicken tenders.  i felt completely lost perusing friday's classic red, white and black menu.  after all, my breadth of exposure to western food consisted of what my friends'  parents fed me at their homes and school lunches of tater tots and grilled cheese.  i can't remember what i chose for myself, but i decided on nachos for my parents.  as most of you know, dairy is not a big part of the chinese diet.  my mom and dad didn't know quite what to do with this platter of tortilla chips with this blob of orange goo on top of it and this sour curdled milk? -  what was this big mass of "stuff"?  yes, my desire to turn my parents onto american food didn't go over too well.  their tastes for food has definitely broadened since then (most probably forced by me).   and well i have since learned that spaghetti with tomato sauce doesn't involve america's favorite condiment.

so, the answer, "yes, of course i love to make chinese food."  but i also love to try out the exotic, which to me is what most americans consider the traditional.  this past sunday dinner, i entered the exotic world of southern cooking.  i decided on something new and something i knew was going to be good: chicken & dumplings and mac 'n cheese.  the chicken & dumplings came from one of my new favorite cookbooks called all about braising mostly because it's provided me many excuses to use my dutch oven.  the dumplings (made by my roommate michelle) were dropped and they really were fantastic.  different of course than chinese dumplings which are filled with meats and vegetables, the south defines their dumplings as light nuggets of bread.  these involved a mix of flour, parsley and nutmeg and then were simmered in the braising liquid of the chicken which infused them with rich flavor.    

liz, an experienced southern dumpling maker, found the petite pig through a blog written by a future literary magnate friend of mine who has set out to rescue the aspiring writer.  i found out through her that southern dumplings are rolled and not dropped and she was kind enough to pass along her grandmother's recipe to me.  hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you all. 

In a medium size bowl mix one large egg and an egg sized lump of Crisco.  I mix this up with a fork.  It won't be smooth, just get it sort of worked together.  Then add in an egg shell of water. Add a pinch of salt.  Mix a bit more.  Then slowly....add in your flour...little bits at a time, say no more than a 1/4 cup. Mix it up. It will become pasty.  Once it looks a bit like wet dough, cover your work surface with a good bit of flour. Dump the dumpling mixture onto it and knead until the dough won't take any more flour. Then you get out the rolling pin and roll it out. It should be a bit thinner than pie crust.  Then take your knife and slice them into 2x3 inches rectangles, or close to it.

 

Now, I cook the chicken, a whole one, first off with about 3 onions.  Remove the chicken, set aside to cool.  Once cool, debone. Strain the broth to remove the onions and some of the fat.  Bring the broth back to a boil.  Now drop the dumplings in, I collect about 6-12 in my hand and dump them in one at a time.  Repeat until they are all in there.  Give it a stir and turn the heat down, put the lid on and let them steam.  I usually cook them 15-25 minutes.  Stir periodically....when they look done, they will be a bit puffy.  Add the chicken back in.

 

There is a definite knack to this....I've been making them for 15 years now and mine still don't compete with my grandmother's...but she is 88!!  Guess she's had a bit more practice than I have.

thanks liz.  if any of you southerners have some of your exotic recipes to share, please pass them along.   i always look forward to something new in my kitchen, chinese or not.

a preview of what's to come . . .

all photos by allan hsu.

i found out this past weekend after two full days of non-stop cooking that orchestrating a food photo shoot is not an easy task.  i set out on this great adventure this past saturday thinking that i could put together fourteen dishes in one day.  by the time six o'clock rolled around and i was just halfway through my menu, i realized that maybe i started out a bit ambitious.  so one full day of cooking turned into two to take all the photos i needed for a new website i'm launching in two weeks time.  don't fret though!  the petite pig is not going anywhere.  i'll still be here once a week (twice a week if we're lucky) to talk shop but i have to admit, all this food blogging has gotten me hungrier than ever about food.  after lots of profound (or perhaps just confused) existential thought, i decided to take a sabbatical from my career as a living-out-of-my-suitcase consultant.  i now work a normal, home-by-six 40 hour week and have rediscovered time, time to do things.  it's pretty amazing. 

so you ask, what have i been doing with all this time?  have i figured out the meaning of life?  well, no, and probably never will but i have figured out one thing: that i love food and it's about time i take this show on the road, so i'm trying to get two food businesses up and running.  the first is going to be my own personal chef/private dinner party thrower/cooking instructor/just let me feed you business.  i may have to end up naming it just that unless one of you readers have any suggestions for me?  if you do, deadline is until saturday to email me.  if i choose your name, a multi-course dinner for you and three friends awaits you.  the second business is still too fledgling to reveal much, but i'll make an announcement when the time is right.

back to this photo shoot.  no food website would be complete without lots of shameless food porn.  as a result, my friend allan hsu (anyone need a photographer?  cause after you see these photos, you'll want to pay him just to come take pictures of your bowl of 5 cent ramen) endured two full days of the type-a chef that i can be to help me capture the food porn that i envisioned.  fifteen dishes . . . lots of food requiring lots of 1) help and 2) eaters.  i emailed a dozen friends to do just that.  they responded to my plea for help and came bearing gifts of wine, appetites and bravery.  they acted as makeshift sous chefs, photo-assistants, food-stylists, taste-testers, but most importantly, wonderful supporting friends.  there were a lot of moving pieces, food scattered everywhere, a summer roll wrapping lesson thrown in there but twenty plus hours of simmering and searing later, we had exactly what i was hoping for: beautiful make-you-salivate photos.  drained, i fell into a chair, my body ached but it was definitely the most rewarding cooking i had ever done.  stay tuned for www.jessdang'spersonalchef/privatedinnerpartythrower/ cookinginstructor/justletmefeedyou.com.

oh, and just in case you were wondering.  here's the menu from the weekend:

lobster and shrimp chowder
pan-seared shrimp in parmesan baskets with pancetta and pesto
sausage, chicken and bacon rolls with a butter apple, thyme and sage sauce
frisee and orange salad with walnuts
mixed greens with asian pears, craisins and goat cheese
duo of summer rolls: poached shrimp & cucumber and ahi tuna & avocado
duo of salsas and guacamole
sausage and portobello pizza with arugula
pan-seared chilean sea bass with cream of corn and red pepper coulis
rack of lamb with polenta, sauteed mushrooms and fried leek strings
black truffle mac 'n cheese a la dave martin of top chef season 1
viet trio: sweet fried rice with thai basil, caramel chicke and shaking beef with mango
panna cotta with balsamic-strawberry sauce
shots of tiramisu

how i invented sweet potato gnocchi (sorta)

i spend a great deal of my time dreaming up new recipes though i'd like to think of it more as innovating rather than just pure purposeless daydreaming.  a couple weeks ago, i was craving gnocchi and being on a recent sweet potato kick, i experienced a "light bulb over the head" moment . . . why hasn't anyone thought of making sweet potato gnocchi?  my brilliance unfortunately was short-lived as i find out after a quick google search that well, sweet potato gnocchi exists.  it's on the menu of many restaurants (that i've eaten at) and has been featured in many magazines (that i subscribe to).  alas, though the idea wasn't mine, it seemed that it was about time that i try crafting these orange dumplings in my kitchen.

i thought that sweet potato gnocchi was going to be much like normal gnocchi.  simply substitute the amount of potatoes for the same amount of sweet potatoes.  so i started with about one pound of the sweet stuff, mashed it and started adding the flour.  if this was potato gnocchi, probably about one cup of flour would have done the trick but this was not potato gnocchi, this was sweet potato gnocchi and any good chef (not me obviously) would know that sweet potatoes are not nearly as starchy as normal potatoes.  two and a half cups of flour later, i still had a very sticky paste, nothing like the gnocchi i normally make.  but faced with eating a dumpling of almost pure flour, i decided it was time to try boiling what i had.  too sticky to roll out and cut, i used two spoons to shape the orange dough instead and dropped the dumplings into the pot of boiling water.  bracing myself for blobs as opposed to dumplings, i was pleasantly surprised when one by one each gnocchi came floating back up to the surface.  and after taking my first bite, i decided it was okay if just in my head, i thought of myself as the inventor of sweet potato gnocchi.

*sweet potato gnocchi with a sage and brown butter sauce*

serves 2

one pound sweet potatoes
two and half cups flour (more or less)
one teaspoon nutmeg
half cup butter
small handful of sage cut sweet potatoes into half inch cubes. place in a pot and fill with just enough cold water to cover potatoes.  bring water to boil and reduce heat to low-medium.  cook until sweet potatoes are tender and can be easily mashed with a fork.  drain and allow potatoes to steam off any remaining moisture for five minutes.  start boiling a pot of water for the gnocchi and preparing the brown butter.  melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  keep butter on heat until it turns brown and smells nutty.  pour the butter through a fine sieve to remove any solids that may have formed in the browning process.    mash potatoes.  add flour and nutmeg.  the dough will be sticky, so scrape two spoons against each other to form a dumpling shape.  drop the gnocchi into the boiling water.  gnocchi is ready when they float to the top.  add some fresh sage to brown butter.  toss with gnocchi.  they may not be gorgeous, but they will be light and filling and a gorgeous shade of orange.