Steamed Chinese Mushroom Chicken

Steamed Chinese Mushroom Chicken was one of my favorite dishes growing up. Steaming the chicken in the sauce keeps it super tender and lets it absorb all the great flavors. The Chinese mushrooms add a great woodiness and bit of chewiness. And the Chinese sausage gives some pop and sweetness. It’s also easy to make,…

Spicy Eggplant with Pork

Spicy Asian eggplant is a pretty common dish at Chinese restaurants. This is my re-creation of it, with pork added, because what’s good without pig is even better with it. This can be done more simply by skipping the salting, cornstarch coating, and frying of the eggplant – just sautéing it with the pork instead….

Sticky Rice Stuffed Chicken

When I was a kid, my grandma often made sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. I loved it, but she lived across the country so when I couldn’t get it from her, it would always be one of the items I ordered at dim sum. There was something kind of magical about peeling open the…

Spicy Peanut Noodles

This was my aunt’s go-to dish for parties. I think it’s an Americanized version of a peanut noodle dish that probably originally called for egg noodles. But she always used spaghetti, which is so convenient because I always keep a package of dry spaghetti around. It’s a simple, make-ahead dish that people will rave about….

Korean Slaw

Korean slaw has all of the crunchy freshness of coleslaw, but with the spicy kick of kimchi (without having to wait for days of fermentation). It’s also great for using up bits and bobs of fresh veggies. I threw in some carrots and green beans because I happened to have some that needed using up,…

Shortcut Kimchi Cucumbers

When I was little, I got on a kimchi-making kick with my mom. Kimchi takes days to ferment, and can be pretty stinky (we did it in the garage). I give credit to my mom for going along with this for several months – I think she thought of it as good mother-daughter bonding. But…

Crab in Black Bean Sauce

Whenever my grandma made this dish, we called it Lobster Sauce. Which is something of a misnomer because it is actually a pork-based sauce that the seafood is cooked in. And the seafood she used was rarely lobster – usually shrimp or crab. I’m sure there was something lost in translation. Whatever you want to…

Chicken Adobo

One of my best friends when I was young was Filipino. There was always something good cooking in her kitchen. My dad used to joke that he knew when I’d been hanging out at her house because I’d come home smelling like food. That was totally ok with me. I was happy to partake in…

Spicy Asian Pickles

My mom made these spicy Asian pickles a lot when I was a kid. They are really quick to make, and go great with Asian food. It’s great to have a jar of them in the fridge. My mom says in a pinch, these pickles are good even if they’ve only been marinating for an…

Steamed Pork with Salted Duck Egg

Steamed pork just sounds blah. But it is actually one of my favorite childhood dishes, which I think just needs a more exciting name. Like being named after a general, or maybe a province. As it stands, steamed pork tends to be a dish of Chinese home cooking. It’s rarely found in restaurants (I posit…

Salted Black Bean Spareribs

Salted Black Bean Spareribs were one of my childhood favorites. The spareribs are cut Chinese-style into bite size pieces, which lets the marrow free to seep into the sauce. My grandma made these often. She stewed the spareribs until the marrow, cartilage, and connective tissue broke down into unctuous saucy goodness and the meat was…

Wonton

One of the first cooking memories I have is making Wonton with my family. I think it was the origin of my ongoing search for more opportunities to build community around food. My mom would make a big bowl of the filling, and then we would all sit around the table wrapping up little pockets…