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. 

In Salinas (California), Saigon Noodle sells banh sandwiches.

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

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Teff: The Global Flour Game Created by Ruth Paget

Teff: The Global Flour Game Created by Ruth Paget 

Use: 

Droughts or floods may affect the availability of the flour you usually cook with. Knowing about other flours helps choose alternatives that may appear on supermarket shelves or what blends of flours might be like nutritionally. 

Background: 

I named this game after teff flour from Ethiopia and Eritrea in Africa. I used a reference book by British author Christine McFadden called Flour: A Comprehensive Guide to test player’s knowledge of 45 flours listed in the book. 

On the front of an index card, write the name of the flour. 

On the back of the index card, note the following information to test yourself on: 

1-plant source (cricket flour has an animal source – insects) 

2-other names for the flour, which McFadden refers to as AKA (also known as) 

3-Gluten: yes or no 

4-Protein percentage 

5-other nutrients – McFadden lists several of these, but for more detail the following websites list vitamins, minerals, and fiber: 

www.healthline.com 

www.webmed.com 

Christine McFadden’s Flour: The Comprehensive Guide can be found on Amazon and Kindle to set up the above information for the 45 flours she writes about. 

Quiz yourself on one item at a time until you know them all. 

Extra reading: Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution by Roxana Jullapat

Extra reading: Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid - great bread with many recipes for delicious fillings, topping, and dunking ideas from around the world

Happy Playing! 

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

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Mushroom-Cheese Scrambled Eggs Recipe by Ruth Paget

Mushroom-Cheese Scrambled Eggs Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 1 

Ingredients: 

-2 tablespoons olive oil 

-1 (4-ounce) can sliced mushrooms with juice 

-2 eggs, beaten 

-2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese 

-1/2 tablespoon Italian herbs 

Steps: 

1-Heat olive oil in a sauté pan. 

2-Add mushrooms and their juice to the beaten eggs and stir. Pour this mixture into the hot oil. 

3-Stir the egg mixture around for five minutes. 

4-Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese and herbs. Stir for 1 minute and serve. 

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

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Green Bean-Tuna Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget

Green-Bean Tuna Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 2 

Ingredients: 

-1 (14.5 – ounce) can green beans, rinsed and drained 

-1 (5 – ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained 

-1 (15 – ounce) can cannellini beans or other white bean, rinsed and drained 

-1/4 cup vinegar and oil dressing 

Steps: 

1 – Mix the green beans, tuna, cannellini beans, and dressing together. 

Serve alone or over croutons, cold cooked rice, or cold elbow pasta. 

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

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Pea-Tuna Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget

Pea-Tuna Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 2 

Ingredients: 

-1 (14.5 – ounce) can peas, drained 

-1 (5 – ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained 

-1 (15 – ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 

-1/4 cup vinegar and oil dressing 

Steps: 

1-Mix peas, tuna, cannellini beans, and dressing together. 

Serve alone or over croutons, cooked cold rice, or cooked cold elbow pasta. 

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

Click for Ruth Paget's Books