Nutritious Chinese Vegetables by Ruth Paget

Nutritious Chinese Vegetables by Ruth Paget 

The appearance of more and more Chinese vegetables in supermarkets prompted me to purchase The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine by Wendy Kiang-Spray. 

This cookbook lists 38 Chinese vegetables with photos, nutrients, best growing conditions, and a recipe for each vegetable. Three stand-out recipes for their ease of preparation and important nutrients follow: 

1-Chinese Garlic Chives 

These are eaten as vegetables in Chinese cuisine and not just as flavorings according to Kiang-Spray. The author writes that garlic chives have the following nutrients and properties:  

-fiber 

-vitamins A and C 

-folates 

-beta-carotene 

-anti-bacterial properties 

-anti-fungal properties 

Kiang-Spray provides a quick recipe to make the best use of plentiful garlic chives – stir-fried flowered chives with roast duck. (You could easily substitute roast chicken in this recipe.) 

The recipe calls for one roasted duck breast, oil, hoisin, chives, and ginger. You cut the duck breast into 2-inch sections and then cut these sections into thin julienne strips. Next you heat oil in a wok to stir fry the duck and chives. It takes 6 minutes to cooks this dish after minimal preparation work. Serve this economical dish with steamed rice. 

2-Snow Peas and Sugar Snaps 

Kiang-Spray lists the following nutrients and properties in snow peas and sugar snaps:  

-protein 

-fiber 

-vitamins C and K 

-folates 

-iron 

-antioxidants 

-anti-inflammatory properties 

Kiang-Spray provides another easy recipe full of nutrition called chow fun, which is made with 4 cups of vegetables, soy sauce, shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, peanut oil, and noodles. 

To make chow fun, cut the noodles into ¾-inch strips. Stir fry the noodles in a wok and set aside. Add more oil to the wok and the 4 cups of sugar snaps and other hard vegetables. Cook the vegetables until tender and serve over the noodles. 

3-Bitter Melon 

Kiang-Spray lists the following properties in bitter melons: 

-anti-viral properties 

-antioxidants 

The recipe the author provides features just the peeled skin of the bitter melon along with garlic, tofu, and fermented black beans. These ingredients are stir-fried together and served with steamed rice. The tofu is marinated beforehand in shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, and salt. 

The complete recipes for these three dishes are in the cookbook along with others for the 38 Chinese vegetables that Kiang-Spray writes about. Each vegetable entry has a photo, growing notes, nutrients, and cultural background for some entries. 

Gardeners might be interested in learning how to design a Chinese garden, grow vegetables using raised beds and container gardens, and Chinese gardening tools. Kiang-Spray also discusses compost and how it helps soil for growing produce. 

I like the easy recipes in The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine by Wendy Kiang-Spray as well as the information about how to grow a vegetable garden in a variety of soils and climactic conditions. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Chinese Hot Pot Meals by Ruth Paget

Chinese Hot Pot Meals by Ruth Paget 

Jeff Mao writes that his family looks forward to weekly hot pot dinners like Americans do barbecue in The Essential Chinese Hot Pot Cookbook: Everything You Need to Enjoy and Entertain at Home. 

Mao writes that hot pot cooking is usually done with two broths at the dining table with sauce and beverage tables set around the dining room table. You use spider strainers to dunk thinly sliced meats, greens, seafood, mushroom, noodles, and store-bought dumplings and fish balls in the broth to cook before dipping the food item in sauce to eat says Mao in his mini lesson on hot pot etiquette.

Mao continues to write that hot pot meals usually feature two cooking broths – one spicy and one mild. These broths can simmer in a cooking pot with compartments that look like the yin and yang symbol (photo in book). 

Mao has 20 different recipes for broths, but the lists the following as the most popular: 

1-Ma La Broth 

The most popular nation-wide broth is from Chongqing in Central Sichuan Province of China. Ma La is a numbing hot and fiery red broth. This broth also contains ginger, fermented black beans, and scallions in the recipe Mao provides. 

2-Mandarin Duck Broth 

This broth is vegan and uses no duck. It is the usual accompanying broth to go with Ma La Broth. It is made with shiitake mushrooms, garlic, scallions, ginger, dried Chinese dates, dried goji beans, sugar, and salt Mao writes. 

3-Tomato Broth 

This is another mild and vegan broth. 

4-Mandarin Lamb Broth 

This broth is mild and is popular in Northern and Western China. 

5-Yunnan Mushroom Broth 

This is another mild broth with an earthy flavor Mao writes. 

Mao lists 20 broths that come from around China. Two of these regional broths that appear easy and delicious include: 

-Heilongjiang Broth 

This broth comes from China’s northeast bordering Inner Mongolia and Russia. It is made with garlic, chives, scallions, ginger, dried shrimp, and goji berries. 

-Hainan Chicken Broth 

This broth comes from China’s southernmost point on the Island of Hainan. It is made with chicken, coconut water, coconut flakes, ginger, and scallions. Mao notes that the heat in the broths comes from dried chili peppers. 

If numbing heat does not appeal to you, remove some of the dried chili peppers. 

Mao provides recipes for 20 hot pot combination meals using basic broths along with vegetables only or with seafood and meat. An added plus is Mao’s recipe for making homemade Lo Mein noodles that only take 45 minutes to make with most of the time resting. 

Finally, among Mao’s homemade sauces are some that you could use on American grilled foods as well:  

-ginger-scallion oil 

-Sichuan-chili oil 

-chili-lime sauce 

There is something for beginners to advanced cooks in The Essential Chinese Hot Pot: Everything You Need to Enjoy and Entertain at Home by Jeff Mao that makes it worth the purchase if you like Chinese food and would like a glimpse into Chinese home life.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Flavorful Japanese Grill by Ruth Paget

The Flavorful Japanese Grill by Ruth Paget 

Avid grillers might enjoy the novel flavor combinations in The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood, and Vegetables by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat. Salty, sweet flavors along with those that are spicy to fiery hot add zest to grilled foods for cooks who want to travel from the backyard. 

Ono and Salat write that three basic marinades flavor meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables. These marinades follow and give a good idea for what Japanese grilled foods taste like: 

1-garlic-soy sauce for all red meat – made of soy sauce, garlic, olive oil, and black pepper 

2-Yuzu kosho marinade – made of fiery chilies, salt, tangy yuzu citrus fruit and its juice, soy sauce, and olive oil 

3-All-purposed vegetable marinade  

One of the book’s best pieces of advice for yakitori (chicken) grilling Ono and Salat write that they grill the chicken partway. Then, they coat the chicken with sauce and finish grilling it. The authors give recipes for sauces, tare, along with advice on how to best skewer chicken for even cooking. 

Ono and Salat list pantry items including some that might be unfamiliar such as the following: 

-mirin – sweet wine 

-miso – fermented soybean paste 

-tanbanjan – fiery chili paste 

-wasabi – horseradish 

-sansho – relative of Chinese Sichuan pepper 

-shichimi togarashi – ground chili, sesame, mustard, and citrus among others 

Ono and Salat give recipes for side dishes that might interest grillers looking for refreshing vegetable dishes. Recipes of interest include: 

 -green cabbage salad with carrot-ginger vinaigrette 

-daikon radish salad with dried tiny shrimp 

-spinach with ground sesame 

A final very useful item in this book is the list of pantry ingredients with large, Japanese characters for the item to assist with in-store shopping. 

Avid grillers and students of Japanese language and culture all can find something of interest in The Japanese Grill: From Classic Yakitori to Steak, Seafood, and Vegetables by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Lure of Hanoi Chicken by Ruth Paget

The Lure of Hanoi Chicken by Ruth Paget 

I bought The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches by Andrea Nguyen for its cover photo of a succulent, grilled chicken baguette sandwich with pickled daikon radishes and carrots, spicy chile peppers, cucumber slices, and cilantro. 

I thought I could make that sandwich and bought this cookbook for its savory, spicy, and perky fresh recipes. 

Nguyen writes that the banh mi’s (pronounced bun me) ingredients hearken back to Vietnam’s colonial past: 

-the baguette bread is of French origin 

-several condiments such as hoisin sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, and oyster sauce are of Chinese origin 

Nguyen helps first-time Vietnamese cooks with a pantry listing and later in the book provides recipes for everything from pickles and condiments to Indonesian saté chicken as a filling. Among the pantry items Nguyen lists the following items: 

-baguette buns 

-red chile peppers 

-cilantro 

-garlic 

-ginger 

-lemongrass 

-shallots 

-Chinese five spice powder 

-curry powder 

-fish sauce 

-hoisin sauce 

-oyster sauce 

-sesame oil 

-sriracha chile sauce 

-vinegar 

Nguyen lists how to construct a basic banh mi as follows: 

1-Hollow out the center of the slice of baguette to firmly hold the fillings in place 

2-Season the bottom layer of bread with condiments 

3-Place protein filling on the bottom layer of bread 

4-Place pickled vegetables on top of the protein 

5-Place cucumber slices on top of pickled vegetables 

6-Place cilantro on top of cucumber slices 

7-Place the top baguette slice over everything. Press down the top of the baguette and serve. 

Nguyen finishes the book with pan-Asian filling selections that will find fans including: 

-Indonesian Chicken Saté 

-Sri Lankan Black Curry 

-Spicy Wok-Seared Shrimp 

-Doner Kebab 

-Peppery Portabello Mushrooms 

Nguyen’s recipes for Hanoi Grilled Chicken Thighs sounds especially perky with its combination of lime juice and fish sauce seasoning. 

Cultural information plus doable recipes make The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches by Andrea Nguyen a great buy, especially for families who would like to try Vietnamese food for the first time. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Delicioso: The Regional Cooking of Spain: A Review Focused on Product Education by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Delicioso: The Regional Cooking of Spain: A Review Focused on Product Education by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The book Delicioso: The Regional Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas offers readers well-organized insight into the broad 7 regional cuisines of Spain, tapas (appetizers) as a national food trend, and product buying tips displayed as inserts within chapters.

The product information inserts I found most beneficial include the following 7 tips:

1-olive oil production and buying tips for the various grades of olive oil

2-how to buy high-quality paella rice and pans

3-how to buy high-quality real saffron

4-how to buy high-quality Manchego cheese

5-how to cook with Spanish earthenware dishes

6-how to use and maintain a mortar and pestle

7-how to buy and prepare salt cod

The book has large-print and is 460 pages long.

The eight chapters Casas lists with their most distinguishing culinary feature follow:

1-Spain as an entire country – tapas (appetizers)

2-North Central Spain – sauces

3-Northeastern Interior Spain – peppers

4-Catalunya – casseroles

5-Central Plains Spain – roasts

6-Southeastern Coastal Spain – rice

7-Andalusia – fried foods and gazpacho

8-Canary Islands – mojos (uncooked dipping sauces using products from Africa and Spain)

The regional foods chapters contain more than 350 recipes.

There are 19 regional photos, an index, and introductions to each chapter that describe the region’s food from entrées to dessert.

Delicioso: The Regional Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas details the interplay of geography and history to produce unique foods in Spain’s different regions even when using the same agricultural products sometimes.

I like this book for those reasons alone.  I would love it if cooks from the Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other countries would use its organizational model to write about regional foods in their homelands to expand upon the work of Penelope Casas.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Foods and Wines of Spain - A Review Focused on Food Self-Sufficiency - Part 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Foods and Wines of Spain – A Review Focused on Food Self-Sufficiency – Part 2 – by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Ruth Paget’s Mediterranean Diet – Spanish Style

I am not selling this diet, but this is what I have developed for myself as a nexus of budget and personal preference over 3 decades.

I look for recipes that fit the following pattern when I look through Spanish cookbooks:

-Monday through Thursday:

I eat protein combinations from 3 to 4 appetizer dishes and at least one pantry meal made from rice, beans, or pasta.  I snack on homemade popcorn with sea salt.

-Friday:

Baked fish plus baked, potato wedges with Italian seasoning are my favorite.

-Saturday

A chicken or pork dish

-Sunday

A seafood dish three times a month and beef once a month.

Sometimes the order is reversed on the weekends.

In Monterey (California) where I live now, I tend to eat chicken and seafood at Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean restaurants.

I like Spanish food, because the basic ingredients can grow in almost all 50 states during summer and in greenhouses during winter.  Hydroponic irrigation/agriculture systems in greenhouses might make this possible.

Reading Casas’ cookbook at a young age made me think that many American states could be self-sufficient in food and have a surplus to sell or store in the form of gazpacho.

Gazpacho is like V8 with the addition of garlic toast all blended and chilled.  You can store some brands at room temperature and refrigerate them after opening.

Purdue University or Cal Poly need to test if gazpacho is a complete protein.  Bread is made from wheat grains, but do seeds in tomatoes, cucumbers, and pepper constitute the “grain plus seed” formula to make a full protein?  Fact check needed for a delicious and nutritious cold soup drink or salad in a bottle.

Using my region as an example, South Monterey County is also ranching country for beef, the coasts can provide fish and seafood, Idaho is close for chickens, and lamb for Easter can be shipped in from New Mexico or New Zealand.

Monterey County might even be able to make a surplus for storage or sales to other places of some items.

We already have crops growing in our county like lettuce that is the size of Vermont and New Hampshire put together.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Foods and Wines of Spain - A Review Focused on Food Self-Sufficiency - Part 1 - By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Foods and Wines of Spain – A Review Focused on Food Self-Sufficiency – Part 1 – By Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

After receiving my first freelance assignments to provide recipes and menus for the Barcelona Summer Olympics in 1992, I became a frequent library user at the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg) in Paris, France where I lived at the time.

The Centre Pompidou was a reference-only library with an extensive gastronomy collection in addition to collections for engineering, sociology, anthropology, and art history.

I wanted to learn about Spanish food for the entire nation for future writing assignments.  I had written about Catalan food for the region that surrounds Barcelona in northeastern Spain, but wanted to broaden my knowledge on the topic.

At the time, the most comprehensive book about Spanish cuisine in English was The Foods and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas.  My local bookstore on the rue de Rivoli did not carry the book, and I wanted to use the book now.

Not being able to take home the book was a challenge, but I worked with it in the following way to make Spanish meals using Casas’ recipes with ingredients you could find in any Parisian or Californian supermarket.

I made more than one visit to go through The Foods and Wines of Spain and ended up memorizing its contents before I finally bought a copy of the book on a trip to London.

The following method helps with reference-only situations when you need recipes:

1-Look up sample menus to know what kinds of food go together and in what order in a Spanish meal

2-Look up recipes in the index, which has a page number where you can find the recipe. 

3-Write down recipes you want to use in your own language

4-Read the introduction to get an idea of regional foods and ingredients

5-Spend at least 2 hours working on the hors d’oeuvres and appetizer chapters alone.  Eating 3 or 4 appetizers often makes a vegetarian protein combination, which lets you buy high quality fish and seafood for the weekend.

6-I have eaten a pretty Spanish Med Diet from the Pyrenees region for 3 decades with the overriding theory that you have to have the combination of protein-carbohydrate-vegetable present at each meal.

The portion size and number of vegetables changes with scientific research, but that general idea helps me do vegan meals up to prime rib ones thanks to protein combinations that you can read about on the Purdue University online page on that topic.

My “Med Diet Plan” for Spanish food follows on my next blog.

End Part 1.

To be continued…

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Hors d'Oeuvres and Appetizers Book Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Hors d’Oeuvres and Appetizers Book Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Williams-Sonoma along with Gourmet magazine does informative short books for holiday entertaining almost every year.

One of my favorite information-packed cookbooks for planning “cocktail parties” of any kind of “rallye” is 108 pages long and is entitled Hors d’Oeuvres and Appetizers published by the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library.

Special features of this cookbook include:

-a 2-page spread on cooking equipment

-4 basic recipes for other recipes in the book: tart pastry, puffball pastry, pizza dough, and yogurt quick bread

-4-page glossary describing Mediterranean ingredients and their usage

-index of 4 basic recipes and 42 cocktail dishes

Each of the 42 recipes has a photo of the completed dish and ingredients separated out from the step-by-step method (without numbers)

The 42 recipes feature American and international dishes such as:

-cheese puffs

-mixed Mediterranean vegetable terrine

-eggplant caviar

-marinated button mushrooms

-gravlax – sweet and salty smoked salmon from Scandinavia

-tandoori chicken from the Punjab

I use this 108-page cookbook as a reference for ordering catering as well as for cooking the items in it myself.

Williams-Sonoma makes many of these books every year, but you can distinguish between books with the same title by looking at the ISBN Number when ordering.

The book has an ISBN of 0-7835-0218-4 for easy ordering.

Happy sampling!!!!

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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