Shumai

I had the first dim sum meal when I visited Hong Kong for the first time. It was still under British occupation. But once I entered the local dim sum restaurant, where my Hong Konger friend took me, I felt like I was in mainland China. The atmosphere was so vibrant. The waitresses passed by with carts shouting the names of the dim sum dishes they carried. All in the Chinese language. If you were shy or hesitant to stop them, you would not get any food to eat. I remember I enjoyed very much the ambiance of the restaurant along with many delicious dim sum dishes.

Dim sum is one of the traditional Chinese cuisines. It implies various kinds of steamed and fried foods. Steamed shumai is one of these dishes and my favorite dim sum dish. There are many kinds of shumai dishes available in dim sum, such as shrimp, crab, and pork shumai.

Shumai is also very popular in Japan. It regularly appears as one of side dishes in lunch and dinner tables.

My favorite shumai recipe is not the traditional Chinese dim sum. It is more like a Japanese version of homemade shumai. You can make a lot of the shumai pieces and steam them. Then, froze the pieces for later use. It can be stored in a refrigerator up to a several days.

Ingredients (For 4 servings):

Shumai filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 carrot
1 bunch of green onions
3 shitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
¼ cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon of freshly ground ginger
A pinch of salt and black pepper

1 pack of shumai skins or wanton skins

Dipping sauce:
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of rice vinegar or lemon juice

Optional: mustard

Directions:
1. Cut the carrot, green onions and shitake mushrooms into very small pieces.
2. Place the ground pork in a large bowl. Add the chopped carrot, green onions, shitake mushrooms, and the rest of the ingredients for the shumai filling. Mix them well.
3. Put one teaspoon of the filling on the center of the shumai (or wanton skin) and wrap the filling.
4. Place the shumai pieces in the steamer. In order to prevent them from sticking on the steamer, I recommend you to blush oil on the bottom or place lettuce or cabbage. Steam them for about 15 minutes.
5. Transfer them to serving plates. Serve with dipping sauce with mustard!

Sweet Pork Butt Roast (Yakibuta)

To tell the truth, before I moved to Louisiana I was a horrible cook. I still recall the many times that I was feeling desperate of my cooking skills and my food.

When I was in Japan, I lived with my family. So I had hardly cooked for myself or somebody else. There was always someone who could prepare something nice for me to eat. However, after I moved to New York City and lived alone, I realized that I had to learn cooking. My family is gourmet and great cooks. So I used to the delicious and healthy homemade cooking, which made me picky of what to eat. Therefore, taking out junky food or purchasing frozen food was unacceptable. Buying fresh and healthy vegetables, meat and fishes and cooking for myself was the only option I could think of keeping myself on healthy eating habits.

Unfortunately, my very busy life in New York City (just think of “Sex and the City” to get an idea of what I mean) prevented me from spending time to learn how to cook. As a result, I had cried so many times alone about my awful food.

After I moved to Louisiana, I have more time to cook for my family, friends and myself. Their compliments and suggestions about my food encouraged me and improved my cooking skills tremendously. Actually, beyond my wildest dreams!

This sweet pork butt roast is one of the dishes I learned after I moved to Louisiana. It is very easy to prepare and delicious. I am wondering why I had never tried to cook this while I was in NYC. Maybe cooking healthy and tasty food is not that difficult or time consuming after all. It may be a matter of attitude towards how serious you are about what you eat and how to prepare.

Ingredients (for 4-5 servings):
2.5 lb pork shoulder / butt roast
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of sake (rice wine) or white wine
1 teaspoon of freshly ground ginger

Optional: 1 clove of sliced garlic

Directions:
1. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sake, oyster sauce, ginger and garlic (optional) in a large bowl. Mix them well.
2. Cut the pork butt roast half if it is a big piece. Place the meat in the bowl and marinate the meat with the mixture overnight to three days in the refrigerator (I recommend you to marinate for three days. So that the meat becomes tender and tasty).
3. Preheat the oven to 370 F degrees. Place the pork butt roast along with the mixture on the oven pan and bake it for 30 to 40 minutes until the meat is cooked.

4. Slice the meat and transfer to serving plates. Pour the sauce from the oven pan.

BBQ Pork Loin Ribs (Like Paidakia)

“It tastes like paidakia,” my husband said.
Paidakia means “little kid ribs” in Greek. When my husband and I went to Greece for the first time, Stelios, my husband’s childhood friend, took us to a local restaurant in Marathon City (yes, this is the place where the first Marathon run took place, almost 2,500 years ago) where we had delicious paidakia. The barbecue pork loin ribs we had last week was the closest taste to the paidakia we could get in the US. They were as tender and juicy as paidakia.

I got these pork ribs from Target. I paid $6.16 for 4 chops with a $3 coupon. So it was $3.16, which was a great deal!

The real reason I went to Target was to buy meat for our cat. When one of our beloved cats died of cancer a few years ago and one woman told us that she cooked for her healthy 18-year-old cat, my husband and I decided to cook for our surviving cat. At that time, the news about toxic dog/cat food became a big issue. That incident also made us think that cooking for our cat might help him be healthy. We have bought chicken, pork, beef and catfish meats from a regular super market and baked them to feed our cat. As a result of this, our cat, which used to be obese and weighted more than 20 lb, lost lots of extra weight and now he is a healthy 13.5 lb. He is healthier than ever. He is now 14 years old but he is much more active than ever before.

Eating homemade food may help him to be fit and active. Buying meat and fish and cooking for a cat is a little bit pricier than just buying cat food. Yet, thinking of taking him to a hospital due to his overweight problem and other related problems, we simply believe this is a much cheaper and wiser option. I believe this healthy diet can apply to humans. Buying good food supplies and then cook at home may cost and take you some extra time but eventually it would pay off. You may be able to save a lot of money by not having serious health problems.

Eating good food does not mean eating expensive food. Cooking and eating $3.16 for 4 pork chops was a fantastic experience. Moreover it reminded me of that beautiful summer night in Greece.

BBQ Pork Loin Ribs Recipe

Ingredients:
4 pieces of pork loin ribs
½ cup red wine
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of sliced garlic
Oregano, salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon juice

Directions:
1. Make some incisions in the meat and insert the sliced garlic in the pork ribs.
2. Place the pork ribs in a flat dish. Sprinkle the wine, ¼ cup of olive oil and 2-3 tbsps lemon juice. Turn to coat well. Season them with salt, pepper and plenty of oregano. Marinate them for about 15-20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, prepare charcoal for barbecue.
4. Grill the pork ribs until they are well done. Then, transfer them to a serving plate and sprinkle them with lemon juice. Serve with French fries and salad!

Gyoza (Dumplings)

Gyoza, Jiaozi in Chinese and Dumplings in English, came from China. Yet, it is one of the most popular dishes among Japanese. Every family has their own Gyoza recipes. When I moved to US, one of the first things I asked my mother was sending me our family Gyoza recipe! It is easy to make and after cook you can freeze and eat them later.
My mother’s recipe requires Nira, known as garlic chives. It was not easy to find it around my neighborhood in NYC. Even thought I lived in the city where you can find a lot of Asian supermarkets or Japanese grocery stores, still I had to take a subway to get them. Now I live in Louisiana and it is almost impossible to find fresh Nira in any supermarket.
Therefore, I innovated this Gyoza recipe without Nira. You can get all of the ingredients from any regular American supermarkets.
After many experiments, my husband finally approved my Gyoza. Moreover he admits mine is better than his Taiwanese friend’s Dumplings or my mother’s. I start believing he is right ;)

Ingredients (for 4 servings):
4-5 cabbage leaves
½ cup chopped green onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp minced or grated ginger
½ lb ground pork
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1 pack of Gyoza (Dumpling) or Wanton wraps

Dipping Sauce:
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice or rice vinegar
A few drops sesame oil
*Optional: Paprika or chill pepper

Directions:
Chop finely cabbage leaves and mince a clove of garlic. Mix them with chopped green onion, minced ginger, ground pork, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and cornstarch. Use your clean hand to mix them well!

Put a tablespoon of the mixture on the center of a Gyoza wrap and water around an edge of a Gyoza (Dumpling) wrap by finger. Fold one side of the edges a few times and seal the top (Please refer to the pictures. If you cannot do it, do not bother! Just close the top. It does not affect the taste of Gyoza!).
Heat oil in a fry pan. Place dumplings and fly on medium heat until the bottoms become brown. Add hot water filling up to the half of their height.
Cover the pan and steam them till the water is almost gone. Open the cover and fry on low heat until the water is completely gone.

Serve hot Gyoza with the dipping sauce!