Saffron Cake Recipe by Ruth Paget

Saffron Cake Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 6 

Ingredients: 

-1 teaspoon saffron 

-1 cup hot water 

-4 cups flour 

-4 teaspoons baking powder 

-2/3 cup softened butter 

-1 cup currants 

-1 cup raisins 

-1 tablespoon chopped candied lemon 

-1 ½ cups sugar 

-3 beaten eggs 

-1 teaspoon salt 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2-Steep saffron in hot water for 10 minutes to obtain saffron water. 

3-Sift 4 cups flour and 4 teaspoons baking powder together. Use a fork to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture until it is thoroughly mixed with the flour. 

4-Add currants, raisins, candied lemon, sugar, beaten eggs, and salt to the flour mixture and turn to thoroughly mix. 

5-Add saffron water to the batter and thoroughly blend together. 

6-Place batter in a greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Source: Rose Pennington – circa 1950s 

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

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Five-Minute Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget

Five-Minute Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Cool in a brownie pan for thick fudge pieces. 

Ingredients: 

-1 2/3 cups sugar 

-1 teaspoon salt 

-2/3 cup evaporated milk 

-1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

-1 ½ cups diced marshmallows (about 16) 

-1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 

-1 tablespoon vanilla 

Steps: 

1-Combine sugar, salt, and evaporated milk. 

2-Heat milk mixture to bubbling. Remove from heat. 

3-Add all the other ingredients to the hot milk mixture. Beat vigorously by hand until the marshmallows have melted. 

4-Pour into a greased pan and let cool before cutting. 

Source: Rose Pennington – circa 1950s 

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

Click for Ruth Paget's Books

Mocha Frosting Recipe by Ruth Paget

Mocha Frosting Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Makes 2 cups 

Ingredients: 

-1 ½ (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate melted in a double boiler 

-1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar 

- ½ cup strong coffee such as espresso 

Steps: 

1-Add confectioner’s sugar to the melted chocolate and stir. 

2-Add strong coffee to the frosting and stir to obtain a fluffy mixture. Add extra coffee, if you would like a thinner frosting. 

Spread on cupcakes or sheet cakes. 

Source: Rose Pennington – circa 1950s 

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

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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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