Growing up, my grandmother spent a lot of time making all sorts of steamed cakes and dumplings for us to enjoy. It was all made from scratch with fresh ingredients and plenty of love. Coming home from school we'd find turnip cakes or radish cakes, steamed dumplings or potstickers filled with chives, shrimp and pork, and just all kinds of handmade creations.

One of my absolute favorite things she made was a savory, chewy, sticky steamed mochi cake that I am going to share with you today. Honestly I loved all the things she made but this one is special to me because she developed this specifically to my tastes 😊

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup dried baby scallops, rehydrated
• 1/2 cup sweet pickled radish
• 1/3 cup chopped green scallions
• 1/4 cup chopped Chinese sausage
• 1/4 cup chopped Chinese cured pork belly
• 1/4 cup chopped mini dried shrimp
• 1/4 cup cubed ham
• 1/2 cup chopped dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated
• 16 oz. Glutinous Rice Flour
• 16 oz. Rice Flour
• approx. 1-2 cups of Water - add to flour until it reaches a thick muffin/cookie batter consistency
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. ​Prepare all your meat and veggies by chopping them all up in to small pieces. I find the smaller the pieces, the less noticeable they are in texture and flavor, whereas slightly larger pieces give you a more discernable flavor of each. 

2. Stir fry the baby scallops, all the meat and mushrooms. Once the oil starts rendering out and it smells fragrant, remove and set to the side. 

3. Pour both 16 oz bags into a mixing bowl. Add water a little by little and mix until the batter resembles a thick muffin or cookie batter. If it is flowing like pancake batter, you've added too much water, so be careful how much to add. Once well mixed, oil a round cake steam pan, about 12-14 inches. Doing so will help the cake come out of the pan more cleanly. You can also put down cling wrap or parchment paper along the sides and bottom if you wish.

4. Pour a layer of the batter onto the bottom and add the meat filling. Keep layering and alternating until you've run out of batter and filling. Make sure to leave enough filling to cover the top of the cake. 

5. Heat a large wok with water (or prepare your steamer). Steam the mochi cake for 1 hour or until firm. Once it's done, remove from the steamer. At this point it will be very soft, (but still delicious), so you can either eat right away or let is cool and firm up a bit before cutting into the mochi cake. Enjoy!

You can always substitute filling choices with whatever you prefer if you're not one for Chinese cured meats, but these are flavors that I grew up eating with my grandmother. Whenever I smell Chinese pork belly or sausage (lap cheong), or pickled radish, or dried shiitake mushrooms (pretty much everything in this dish) it just makes me think of Grandma and her homecooking. There's always something in food the floods your brain with memories of home and for me, this is it! Hope you enjoy!

Let's talk PORK BELLY.
 
PORK.
BELLY.

Just these two words can get me all hot and bothered and make my mouth water...*ahem* 

This fatty, unctuous, lip smacking, rib sticking slab of meat has become so popular over the past decade in the foodie world that it can now be seen on many restaurant menus, hipster pubs, food truck menus and more, almost everywhere. I remember a time when American supermarkets didn't even offer pork belly, and we'd have to travel to an Asian market or to Chinatown in New York to get these deliciously fatty cuts of meat. Now, even our local Shoprite in suburban NJ offers it, along with a growing Asian and ethnic foods section. Without a doubt, it has taken the food world by storm and it is here to stay. Pork belly tacos, pork belly mac and cheese, pork belly bbq, pork belly this, pork belly that. If we see it on a menu, we (the WAI SIK team) will most likely order it.

Growing up in my family, pork belly dishes were usually enjoyed in Chinese restaurants for special dinners, usually as Dong Bo Yuk (Dong Bo Rou in Mandarin) 東坡肉 which originated from Hangzhou, China.

For Dong Bo Rou, the pork belly is usually first pan fried, then braised and stewed with wine and soy sauce and is known for its large square chunks and dark, glistening reddish brown color. The picture below is of Dong Bo Rou dishes my dad made as treats for my mom and his friends. (He only sent us pictures on WeChat to show off and make us jealous!). Ugh, it looks so damn good.

We also enjoy the Taiwanese Lu Rou Fan 滷肉飯, which is more like a braised pork belly meat sauce that is poured over rice. What we love about this dish is really the sauciness and the delicious flavor of pork fat that envelopes every rice grain after you mix the sauce in. Every mouthful includes the great chewy texture of rice that has soaked up that pork flavor, pork fat and bits of soft pork.

But while pork belly choices are available far and wide, a popular topic that comes up between myself and Wilson is, "Hmm....I still like the pork belly we make at home." Of course, not to discredit the creativity and hard work that other folks put into their pork belly recipes, I admit that we can be creatures of habit and will always crave and compare our own recipe to the samples we try elsewhere. (If you like to cook, you probably know what I mean.)

Over the years, I've developed my own version of the soy flavored pork belly that both Wilson and I enjoy. It is a happy medium between the chunky meatiness of Dong Bo Rou 東坡肉 and the saucy goodness that comes with Lu Rou Fan 滷肉饭. While Lu Rou Fan is great, there always seems to be...not enough meat. As meat was considered a luxury back in the day, families had to figure out a way to spread the love by chopping it up into tiny pieces, making it into a sauce and spreading it over rice to share with the whole family. Ingenious ? Yes. But be it as it may, now that we can afford pork belly (so thankful for that), we can make a more substantial serving that satiates our WAI SIK tummies.
My recipe involves a bit of preparation and patience, but the end result will be a succulent and soft piece of buttery pork that will melt in your mouth. It's probably not the "correct" way to make it in the traditional sense, but it looks great and tastes pretty darn close to the real thing.

INGREDIENTS:

• Pork belly (cubed into 1-1.5 inches), skin on and cleaned
• 2 shallots
• 1 knob ginger, about 3" long
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 stalks of scallions
• 1 cup Sweet soy sauce (I like to use Lee Kam Kee's or Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce)
• 1 tbsp coarse salt
• 1 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder
• Shaoxing Wine
• Mirin
• 1 star anise (optional)
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
• Rice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cut the cleaned pork belly into 1-1.5 inch cubes. Place evenly into a glass container and marinade it with the salt, sugar, sweet soy, shaoxing wine, mirin, white pepper powder, and cinnamon powder. You can let it marinade for about 2 hours at least, or leave in the fridge overnight.

2. Next, slice the ginger into 1/4" slices. Chop up the shallots and smash the cloves of garlic. Slice the scallions into about 4" stalks and throw out the base and roots.

3. Once the pork belly is done marinading, prepare your steamer. Get a deep dish with about a 1-2" rim and place the sliced ginger, shallots, garlic and scallions into the bottom of the dish.

4. Remove the pork belly from the marinade and set on top of the ginger, shallots, garlic and scallions. Make sure it's relatively dry, otherwise if you steam it with the marinade you're essentially boiling it. That will leave you with stringy, dry meat rather than the tender and juicy pork belly we're looking for.

4. Steam the pork belly for about to 3 hours. Be sure to periodically add water to your steamer or pot to ensure it doesn't dry out. You'll probably want to check about every 20-30 minutes.

5. When you have about 10-15 minutes left, be sure to boil the sweet soy sauce marinade to kill any germs from the raw pork belly. Add in the star anise and bay leaf (optional).

6. Once it's done steaming, let it cool and then, submerge the pork belly in the same sweet soy sauce mixture and let the flavors soak in. Let it simmer in this pot for an additional 20 minutes. Add a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
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7. While the pork belly is steaming cook your rice. For me it usually takes about 20-25 min to cook the rice including the time to wash the rice. I prefer Japanese sushi rice and the chew of it, while Wilson prefers Jasmine or basmati rice. Honestly just cook whatever rice you prefer in your household. If you want to upgrade the rice, stir fry the cooked rice with some garlic and sesame oil to really amp up the yumminess!

And there you have it. Pork belly over rice. This dish is so good, it gives me goosebumps. We hope you like it!

When I was a young lad in school, my mom would make this oxtail soup to pack for my lunch in a thermos mixed with rice. I was probably the only kid with a hot, homemade lunch, while most other kids ate sandwiches with PB&J. I was a lucky kid (despite most kids at school making fun of me for those lunches).

Whenever I think about this oxtail soup, I can only think of how yummy it is and that the only person who makes it just right is mom. (Jenny knows this too 😉) When we were young, we weren't rich and tried to save money where we could. Usually we didn't turn on the AC and depended on fans to stay cool. The soup itself takes several hours to make, and the boiling water would make the kitchen hot and humid, which was worse during the summer months—but mom would cook it for us anyway, simply because she knew we liked it a lot. There was a lot of love that went into this soup, and every time she makes it for us is a reminder of her love and care for us. When Jenny first had this soup, she said that it was "The perfect warm bowl of soup after a long, stressful day." 

This soup is stew like in that the ingredients are typical of what you might find in a stew. Carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes + beef (oxtail). The carrots and potatoes and beef give the soup a heartiness that warms and fills you up. Because we cook the soup for a long time, the oxtail is fall off the bone tender, soft and delicious. The onions provide depth and sweetness, while the tomatoes give a slight tang to the soup. Mom also puts in some chen pei 陳皮, or dried tangerine peel, which is popularly used as a seasoning in Chinese cooking, which adds an extra flavor to the soup that makes it really great. I can't pinpoint what it is, but without, the soup feels like it's missing something. Just that little something something.
​
For a long time, we never knew how to make this soup, but for the sake of the WAI SIK blog, we got my Mom to show us! See recipe below. In terms of amounts, there's really no set amount of each ingredient that you have to have. It's based on personal preference. If you want more oxtail, add more oxtail. If you want more potatoes, go ahead. 

This soup is stew like in that the ingredients are typical of what you might find in a stew. Carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes + beef (oxtail). The carrots and potatoes and beef give the soup a heartiness that warms and fills you up. Because we cook the soup for a long time, the oxtail is fall off the bone tender, soft and delicious. The onions provide depth and sweetness, while the tomatoes give a slight tang to the soup. Mom also puts in some chen pei 陳皮, or dried tangerine peel, which is popularly used as a seasoning in Chinese cooking, which adds an extra flavor to the soup that makes it really great. I can't pinpoint what it is, but without, the soup feels like it's missing something. Just that little something something.
​
For a long time, we never knew how to make this soup, but for the sake of the WAI SIK blog, we got my Mom to show us! See recipe below. In terms of amounts, there's really no set amount of each ingredient that you have to have. It's based on personal preference. If you want more oxtail, add more oxtail. If you want more potatoes, go ahead. 

INGREDIENTS:
• 2 packages oxtail
• 2 Carrots (chopped)
• 2 Onions (chopped)
• 3 Potatoes (chopped)
• 2 Tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 piece Dried Tangerine Peel 陳皮, chopped
• Salt
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DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare the oxtail by trimming off any excess fat. Bring a large stock pot to boil and boil the oxtail to remove fat and bloody flavor. You'll know it's ready when the oxtail is no longer raw and the blood has boiled off the oxtail. Throughout this stage of boiling the oxtail, you'll want to be skimming the broth of any brown froth that bubbles up. Once all the blood is gone, you can drain and rinse the oxtail, scrub off any excess blood/residue off the bone.

2. Boil the tomato until the skin comes off easily with a knife. Remove the skin and chop up the tomato and set aside.

3. Now, you're ready to begin cooking the soup. In large pot, boil the cleaned oxtail for 1/2 hour.

4. After 30 minutes, add cut carrots.and boil for 15 minutes.

5. Add onion and boil 15 minutes, then add potato. Boil another 15 minutes, add tomato. 

6. Bring to high boil, then reduce heat to medium boil for 1 hour.

7. Season with salt to taste and serve as is, or with bread or rice.

Skim off any excess oil on the top, or refrigerate overnight and skim off the fat the next morning. It tastes light and warm! This soup has been in our family since I was a kid, and the work that goes into it is the epitome of love. We hope you enjoy it as much as I have growing up!

​Growing up this was a dish we would have for special occasions. Like a Thanksgiving get together or Christmas Eve with the family. There was always something exotic about lobster and oh, longevity noodles.. how it absorbs that lobster flavor right up. It's like a match made in heaven, because garlic with seafood is just perfect. We sometimes add cheese to it, because it just adds a slight creaminess and saltiness to the dish.

This recipe is great if you can steam live lobster at home yourself. If you can steam it at home, you can use the fresh lobster juices from steaming to cook into your dish. When you are de-shelling the lobster yourself, you can ensure you're getting all the meat out, and you'll also have access to the delicious tomalley from the lobster head.  

Honestly, we had no idea what this part of the lobster was called, we always thought it was eggs or lobster brains, but it didn't matter because it was so good. For the sake of research, we decided to look it up and found out that it's actually called the "tomalley" of the lobster, which is a mix of liver and pancreas and is definitely edible and enjoyed by lots of people worldwide. Yay, we're not weird! The green stuffs found in the head area are the unfertilized eggs of the lobster, which turns orangey-red after it is cooked. So delicious. Just typing this up is making me drool a little. 

INGREDIENTS:
• Chopped Garlic
• Lobster meat (steamed and deshelled)
• Lobster Tomalley & Roe (from the steamed lobster)
• Lobster Stock (if you steam the lobster at home, the steamed lobster will have its own natural juices pooled at the bottom of the plate or bowl you steam it in. It's like pure lobster essence, so use that when cooking the dish)
• Longevity noodles 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Slices of Cheddar Cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Boil the longevity noodles according to the package instructions. Once the noodles are done, remove from hot water into a collander, and run under cold water. Set aside. De-shell the lobster and remove the tomalley. Chop up the lobster meat into bite sized pieces, set aside. 

2. Cook the garlic in a pan with olive oil. 

3. When the garlic is fragrant, add the tomalley and roe from the steamed lobster and stir.

4. Add the lobster meat as well as the lobster stock (can also be shrimp stock, seafood stock, or any stock you prefer. A seafood based stock would be the best) and mix.

5. Add the longevity noodles, salt, pepper, and cheese (cheese optional). Stir until cheese melts. 

6. Garnish with cilantro or parsley, and serve!

You can really add whatever cheese you prefer or have on hand, it provides a little saltiness and nuttiness to the noodles, as well as a smooth creaminess. The noodles pack in all the lobster flavor and is so, so good. Whenever lobster goes on sale, we always debate over all the options for cooking it—as is in butter, in a salad for lobster rolls, in a noodle like this, in a creamy pasta, or even in our favorite Cantonese Lobster Salad. As you can see, we're lobster lovers! Hope you enjoy!

Growing up, my grandmother loved to cook fish, normally steamed as she enjoyed simple, healthy foods. Her dishes were never complicated, and her style of cooking often simply let the main ingredients shine without a fuss. Whether it was dried salted fish or fresh fish from the market, she would skillfully prepare it and steam the whole fish to perfection, topping it with ginger, scallions and my favorite seafood soy sauce.

​Now when I eat Chinese style steamed fish, it brings back memories of my grandmother scooping a steamy bowl of fluffy white rice from her clay pot and spooning the seafood soy sauce from the side of the steamed fish dish onto my bowl of rice before handing it to me. The slightly sweet seafood soy sauce mixed with the freshly steamed juices of the fish was incredibly aromatic and was SO GOOD over rice. Honestly, I enjoyed eating plain white rice with the steamed fish sauce more than eating the fish itself as a kid. It was simple, but delicious.

Another favorite part about steamed fish? Eating the cheek of the fish, right below the eye. It was always the most tender piece of fish meat and something my grandmother and father always dug out for me or my sister to enjoy. It made me feel loved and special to be given the best part of the fish.

Wilson and I recently visited Shan Shan Noodles on Route 46 in Parsippany, NJ and we had ordered a steamed fish dish with chili peppers off their specials menu. Despite how full we were from our usual noodle orders, we somehow were able to try and eat the fish dish, and boy were we glad that we did. Immediately, we fell in love with the authentic, fresh flavors and the ease in eating the smooth, velvety flounder fish fillets without worrying about bones or skin. We loved that every bite was fish, and I especially loved the hint of heat from the chili peppers. The dish itself is not spicy so you could easily remove the chili peppers as well.

This recipe that I am sharing today is my take on the dish from Shan Shan Noodles, with some influence from my grandmother's cooking of steamed fish as well. Topped with chili peppers, ginger, scallion, shiitake mushrooms, fried garlic bits, prickly ash oil, seafood soy sauce and mirin, the steamed marinaded flounder filets are sweet with a slight kick from the chili pepper and mild "numbing" from the prickly ash oil. The shiitake mushrooms then add a bit of earthiness to the dish while the fried garlic bits provide a bit of texture and umami flavor boost.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2-3
• 2 fillets of flounder, cut into pieces
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 inch knob of ginger, slices thinly and julienned
• 2 scallions stalks, sliced finely
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons prickly ash oil
• 1 long chili pepper
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon of the seafood soy sauce
 
DIRECTIONS
1. Slice the flounder fillets into sashimi sliced cuts, round 2-3 inches per slice. The should resemble small chicken tenders in size.

2. Place sliced flounder into a mixing bowl and add salt, white pepper, sesame oil, mirin, and cornstarch. Mix well until flounder is well coated.

3. Slice up the ginger and scallion into fine thin strips. Chop up the chili pepper and place half of the sliced ginger and scallion on a plate for the fish to steam on.

4. Place the fish slices onto the steam plate, feel free to sprinkle some ginger, scallion and chili pepper in between layers of fish if you are piling the fish into a smaller steaming plate or bowl. Lastly, place the steam fish plate into the steamer rack and steam for 15 minutes. The fish should be completely white and opaque, and easily forked apart to be cooked through.

5. When the fish is done steaming, remove from the steamer and top the fish with the seafood soy sauce, prickly ash oil and sprinkling of fried garlic bits. And that's it! Enjoy over a bowl of white rice and you're good to go!​​

​I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do. It's fresh, healthy, and also a great dish to serve to young ones (minus the chili pepper and prickly ash oil) because you don't have to worry about fish bones, and they'll enjoy the fish sauce over rice too!

On my quest to be a little more healthy, (and I say this very loosely), I was looking at my fridge and pantry with skepticism in trying to figure out how to make something healthy, yummy and satisfying. Sure, I know the healthiest way to eat is steaming lean proteins and vegetables, but doing so results in taking a trip down bland avenue and straight into flavorless town, and then subsequently me flipping a table from being h-angry.​

I looked at a piece of fresh salmon in the fridge and thought, "Dear Salmon, how should you enter my belly?" How about a salmon rice bowl?

In Japanese, donburi, or more popularly known as "don" is essentially a bowl of rice topped with simmered veggies and or meat. It could be fish, pork, beef, chicken etc. Donburi is one of the easiest things to make as long as you have rice, and then you can top it with virtually anything—you can even use leftovers.

For this simple salmon brown rice bowl, the flavor profile is Asian (surprise!) and can be made in 15 minutes or less, including microwaving the packet of Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice with Garlic. And here you've got yourself a quick, healthy and yummy meal. I first tried this brand of brown rice and quinoa during a Costco trip, where they were giving out free samples. I'm a sucker for free samples. Or free stuff. Yay~

Anyhow, I was so happy with how it came out! Plus, it's healthy and could be microwaved in 90 seconds, so I'm all for it. A package is two servings, so it was perfect for a dinner between myself and Wilson. It's so easy because this recipe just needs you to chop up the ingredients, mix in the flavors, sauté til cooked, and top off on rice. The sweet soy sauce in the dish makes it similar to salmon teriyaki, while the sweet thai chili sauce gives it a little extra spice and tang that reminds me of Thai fish dishes. Top it off with a poached egg yolk and some tobiko (Japanese word for flying fish roe) and it's ready to go. The texture of the rice and quinoa, along with the little salty tobiko popping in your mouth is fun and tasty, while the smooth egg yolk glosses and coats the salmon with a delicious richness that only eggs can do.

​There's also something simple and comforting in eating rice with a runny egg and sweet soy sauce. My grandmother used to make that for me to eat and the egg yolk would envelope each and every grain of rice, while the sweet soy sauce gave the rice even more addictive, yummy flavor. It was a simple dish that didn't require much money or work, and my grandmother always made it with love.
So without further ado...Here's what you gotta do..

INGREDIENTS:
• 4-6 oz salmon fillet, cubed
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 chopped scallions (about 1 tbsp)
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (I used Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp olive oil for cooking
• 1 tbsp Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
• 1 egg yolk
• tobiko (flying fish roe)
• Seeds of Change Garlic & Brown Rice Quinoa Packet

But being in New Jersey, driving 40 minutes to the city, dealing with the usual impatient, poorly tempered city goers (myself included) and/or locals, bumper to bumper traffic, hunting for parking, and then waiting on the ungodly line that forms outside the popular restaurant, can sometimes feel....like a very LONG....albeit bothersome trip.
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After coming back from Cali, I've looked up copycat recipes for the Whole Shabang sauce and have tried to replicate it ourselves a few times. The recipes that we followed in the past were great and tasted good, but I was always appalled at the amount of butter that went into the dish. I just figured, well, if you want it to taste good, you gotta add that butter, right? I know, it makes every dish taste good. Fat in general is awesome. But, since we are "trying" to be more healthy, we try our best to find substitutes, use alternative cooking methods like baking rather frying, or just use less of the unhealthy ingredient.

The sauce was delicious and didn't feel too oily or heavy, and the steamed shrimp was sweet even under the spice. We toasted up some of our favorite Pepperidge Farm Garlic Texas Toast and dipping the garlic bread into the spicy, garlicky sauce really hit the spot. We set up dinner in our living room coffee table with a large bowl for shrimp shells, some paper towels, hand wipes, and hungry, hungry hippo appetites. We watched a movie while peeling and eating the shrimp, licking our saucy fingers and dipping the garlic bread into the flavor puddles of sauce. Nothing like chowing down and getting your hands dirty with someone you love, hehe. 💖 I've made this recipe a couple times more after that initial "experiment" and it has been great each time, so it's definitely tested and true. This recipe might not be an exact replica of the Whole Shabang from The Boiling Crab or the Boil, but it sure is delicious and addictive!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 pounds shrimp, shell on
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped italian parsley
• 6 cloves freshly minced garlic
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
• 1 tablespoon white pepper powder
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder
• 1/2 cup water
• Garlic Bread (I recommend French bread or Texas toast)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash, clean and clip off the whiskers of your shrimp. Leave the shell on and set aside.
2. Prepare your steamer or a pot of boiling water to steam the shrimp in. Steam for about 5-6 minutes. Around the 4 minute mark, you'll want to toss the shrimp a little to ensure even cooking by bringing the bottom shrimp up and pushing the top shrimp down. Let cook until it reaches the 6 minutes or until all the shrimp are opaque and red/pink in color.
3. While it's steaming, cook the red onion, garlic, red onion, tomato and green pepper in a sauté pan or wok until soft. Once the shrimp are done, put all the shrimp into the pan and add in the seasonings: cajun seasoning, white pepper powder, chicken bouillon powder, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne pepper powder. Toss to coat.
4. Add the 1/2 cup water for the sauce to form. If it's too much liquid, you can add cornstarch to your sauce to thicken it up a bit. My sauce had a good consistency at that point, so I didn't add the cornstarch. Up to you!
5. Once well coated and the sauce is ready, plate your shrimp and top with parsley. Serve with garlic bread to sop up all that delicious sauce and enjoy! 

We hope you enjoy this delicious cajun (asian-style?) shrimp recipe. It's the perfect date night in for seafood lovers or friends! Don't forget to get some kind of bread to sop up all that yummy sauce!

According to my grandmother who hails from Taishan, China, Dong Zhi, or the Winter Solstice Festival, is one of the biggest holidays in China, similar to how westerners celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving. It's not the same exact date every year, but always falls around the same time according to the Lunar solar calendar.

"Dong Zhi is bigger than the New Year" she says. Why? Because after Dong Zhi, the days are longer with more sunlight, and the flow of positive energy returns after the short, dark days of winter--Dong Zhi is also a time of year where the family gathers together and eats a very specific dish, Tong Yuan, glutinous rice balls, which symbolizes the idea of "reunion." The characters for Tong Yuan in Chinese also sounds like the phrase Tuen Yuen 團圓, which means "reunion."

​My grandmother never measures her ingredients, but here is an approximation of her recipe 😊

INGREDIENTS
• Glutinous rice flour (1/2 bag) + cold water
• Pork rib meat (or chicken thigh meat)
• Cabbage (1/2 head)
• Daikon (1/2 head)
• Dried Shrimp (1/4 cup)
• Dried Shiitake Mushroom (15 pieces) - rehydrated
• Dried baby scallops (1/2 cup)
• 2 Chinese sausages (cut into 1/2 pieces)
• Chicken bouillon powder (or salt) to taste
• 5 cups water

DOUGH:
To create the tong yuan dough, add cold water a little by little and knead until the dough forms and is no longer sticky. Then, pull out a small amount of dough and roll into small balls, about 1/2 inch in size. They'll grow to be about 1-1.5 inches round when boiled in the soup.

SOUP:
1. First, boil a pot of water and blanch the meat for about 10 seconds. Then, rinse the chicken or pork meat under cold water and drain the blanch water. Start a new pot of water and start cooking the meat, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, dried scallops and cabbage in the boiling water. Skim and remove foam and debris from the top of the soup as it cooks. Add the daikon radish last before adding the glutinous rice dumplings and cook until transparent.
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2. As the soup is cooking, roll out the dumpling balls and place into the soup to cook. Once the balls become a little translucent and begin to float, it's ready to eat!

Some other renditions of tong yuan can be sweet and filled with sweet sesame or peanut paste, or the tong yuan can be filled with ground meat and shrimp. This is up to the traditions of each family, but we usually have it savory in our house.

Now that my grandmother has shared her recipe, I look forward to making it and passing this part of my culture and tradition down through my own family in the future too 😊 May you enjoy a warm family reunion for the Winter Solstice!

To be honest, my experience with Indian cuisine goes only so far as dishes that are popular in America--Chicken Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken, Tandoori meats, Roti, Naan bread, Curry, etc. I definitely can't claim to be very knowledgeable when it comes to Indian cuisine, and I have to admit that because of my inexperience with it, I've been scared to try new dishes in authentic Indian restaurants because I like to stay in my comfort zone of what I do know and recognize on the menu. That being said, I am very blessed to work with people from different cultures and my coworker Urvi brought in this tasty Indian snack called Sev Puri, or Chaat to share with us at work. The second I put the Puri chip into my mouth, I knew I had to get my hands on the recipe! The moment I swallowed, I put my hand on Urvi's arm and said, 'Please teach me how to make this!!'
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It was so delicious that I wanted to learn to make it at home too, like all the time. The flavors of this Sev Puri Chaat recipe are incredibly fresh and simply bursting with flavors and textures. Crispy, tangy, sweet and has a hint of spice (dependent on how much pepper powder you put in it). From the first bite, this snack will take you on an adventure through flavor town and *sings* a whole new world...a new fantastic point of view...

​If you've never had Chaat, the only way I know how to describe it is an Indian version of nachos topped with salsa. However, because there is no cheese, the dish is much more light, and therefore so very easy to eat lots of! (Not that you should eat too much of anything, but it's not as heavy and greasy as nachos with cheese and all the fixings). Urvi graciously welcomed me into her home and allowed me to film her showing me how to make the Sev Puri. I was happy to learn that the ingredients were all relatively inexpensive and are easy to find in any Indian supermarket. (I look forward to making a trip to an Indian supermarket soon!) Furthermore, the recipe was mostly assembly work so it was pretty quick to put together.
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She also explained the different kinds of spices typically found in Indian kitchens and even showed me her expansive spice cabinet! It was very impressive, and definitely something I need to take notes on in organizing my own spice cabinets!

Isn't this spice box pretty? Apparently it's very common in Indian kitchens. Almost looks like an artists' paint palette!

After we were done filming, and I got a belly full of delicious Sev Puri Chaat (along with a take home baggy for Wilson to try...and for me to ultimately eat all of...shhhh!), Urvi showed me the rest of her beautiful home and even showed me the personal praying temple in her room. I didn't take a picture of it, but she had pictures of all the different Gods that she and her husband worship in the Hindu religion. It was very interesting to learn about, and both the imagery, stories, and ornate details in the little praying temple's architecture was amazing to see. The experience of learning another culture's food and hearing Urvi's stories were so fascinating, and beautiful to say the least. I felt so lucky and grateful to Urvi for welcoming me into her home, her kitchen, and teaching me so much about herself and her culture!

In any case, here is the awesome recipe that you really have to try! There aren't any measurements for the toppings since it really depends on how much you yourself want to eat and your own preferences. So top away!

INGREDIENTS:

• Puri
• Chiwda
• Thin Sev
• Coriander Chutney
• Mint Chutney (optional)
• Tamarind & Date Chutney
• Chaat Masala spice powder
• Red Onion (chopped)
• Tomatoes (chopped)
• Red pepper powder (optional)
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spread the Puris out on the plate.
2. Top with chopped red onion.
3. Top with chopped tomatoes.
4. Add Chiwda (however much you like).
5. Add the Tamarind & Date Chutney, then add the Coriander Chutney (optional: add Mint Chutney).
6. Top with Thin Sev.
7. Add Chaat Masalad spice powder.
8. Add red pepper powder (optional).
9. Top with more Thin Sev. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! I can't wait to make this again!

Over ripe bananas and don't know what to do with them? Try these delicious and healthy banana muffins!

This recipe is based on a recipe by Cookie+Kate, a great blog I stumbled upon when Pinteresting for ideas for using bananas, because I had a few bananas that were getting too ripe and I didn't want to waste them. I added in some dark chocolate cacao bits as well as candied walnuts to add texture and yumminess because I love dark chocolate. I didn't have whole wheat flour as the recipe asked for, and used white flour and added an extra 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder as well for foofiness.

​I rarely eat muffins because so often they end up being dry and just overly filling for my taste—but these are just the right portion! They're also very fluffy and naturally moist from the banana and coconut oil, which you can't even taste. Another great thing about her recipe is that it's a one pot recipe where you throw everything together, mix mix mix, bake, and devour.

YIELD: 12 muffins
INGREDIENTS
• ⅓ cup melted coconut oil
• ½ cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 3 mashed large ripe bananas
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top
• 1 ¾ cups white flour
• ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats, plus more for sprinkling on top
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar for sprinkling on top

DIRECTIONS
1 Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius). Grease your muffin pans with butter or non-stick cooking spray, or you can be like me and use cupcake liners for no mess!

2 Mix together the coconut oil and maple syrup. Add the eggs, the mashed bananas and water, followed by the baking soda, baking powder, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon.

3 Add the flour and oats to the bowl and mix until combined. Now add in your dark chocolate pieces, candied walnuts, or any other dried fruit, nuts etc that you love.

4 Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cupsz Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of oats and some granulated sugar. Bake muffins for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
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5 Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. According to Cookie+Katec these muffins will keep at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, and will keep well in the freezer in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months (just defrost individual muffins as needed).

I hope you enjoy this great banana muffin recipe and big props to Cookie+Kate for coming up with it! Visit her blog for more deliciousness!