Category: Food

We tried making silken tofu, essentially a fresh, high-moisture cheese (think fresh mozzarella or ricotta) where you use soy milk instead of dairy milk. The coagulant is gypsum (calcium sulfate)  – flavorless and a good source of calcium.

J ate it anyway.

A recipe I found when trying to determine if this dish, a favorite from Mandola’s in Austin, is a Thing or not. It is.

Slice zucchini (or other summer squash) thinly. Salt and let sit until a lot of water has come out of the zucchini.

Tips:

• If you don’t have a dehydrator or ever-burning pilot light, you can dehydrate the zucchini in the oven at a very low temperature or outside if it’s hot. Be careful of squirrels!
• If your dehydrator/heat source is powerful enough, you don’t need to salt the zucchini beforehand. Add salt to the dressing at the end instead.
• To make shelf-stable zucchini for later use, dry the zucchini until very dry, thin, and crunchy. Before stirfrying, rehydrate slightly by soaking in water for 5 minutes until pliable.

Our stove has ever-burning pilot lights that I like to use so that the energy’s not wasted. They’re good for drying plates really fast, fermenting yoghurt, and dehydrating food!

This turned out really well! Dare I say restaurant-quality?

Fish and Marinade

• 1 lb fish fillets, thinly sliced (white fish, such as tilapia, catfish, cod, flounder, carp, etc)
• 0-3/4 tsp salt (less if your doubanjiang and douchi are really salty)
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper (white preferred)
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch or other refined cooking starch (potato, tapioca, arrowroot, etc)
• 1 Tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine (substitute with sake or sherry)
• 1 egg white (optional, not really sure what this is even supposed to do, we didn’t use it)

Broth

• ~3 cups broth or water
• Oil
• 1 inch ginger, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp doubanjiang
• 2 tsp fermented black beans (douchi)
• 3 whole star anise
• 1 tsp cardamom seeds
• 1 tsp Sichuan chili flakes (optional, depending on desired spiciness)
• 2 tsp soy sauce (optional, depending on desired saltiness)

Veggies (12-16 oz total)

• Soybean sprouts
• Napa cabbage, cut into squares or strips
• Mushrooms
• Cucumber, cut into sticks
• Celery, cut into sticks
• Whatever else you want!

Garnishes

• 2 Tbsp chili oil
• 1 Tbsp Sichuan peppercorn powder or oil concentrate
• Green onion
• Cilantro
• Sesame seeds

1. Marinate fish for 30 min in cornstarch, cooking wine, salt, and pepper.
2. Fry the ginger, garlic, douchi, doubanjiang, star anise, cardamom, and chili flakes in oil for a minute or so. Add broth or water. Taste for saltiness before adding soy sauce.
3. Boil each veggie one at a time in broth. Once done, remove all of that veggie to the serving dish. Lastly, do the same with the fish, being careful to avoid breaking the slices.
4. Move fish and broth to serving dish. Top with garnishes.

We use up chili oil really fast, so we thought it’d be more cost effective to make our own batch. Past chili oil attempts haven’t turned out particularly well (basically red oil that doesn’t taste like anything…), but I did more research this time 🙂

This recipe combines various online chili oil recipes plus everything on the ingredients list of the last commercial chili oil we bought (Blank Slate Kitchen has great chili oil). We get our Sichuan spices from Mala Market.

• 1/2 cup Sichuan chili flakes (spicy Korean chili flakes is an okay substitute)
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder (substitute with any or all of: whole star anise, a cinnamon stick, black peppercorns, cardamom, and cloves)
• 1 tsp freshly toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorn powder (or 1 Tbsp toasted whole peppercorns)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 inch ginger, sliced thickly
• 1/3 cup minced shallot (substitute with green or white onion)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups cooking oil (peanut, canola, avocado, etc)
• 1/4 cup sesame oil

1. Put chili flakes, five spice, peppercorn powder, and salt in a heat-proof jar.
2. Fry shallot, garlic, ginger, and any whole spices (cloves, etc) in cooking oil until crispy. Remove the ginger and any whole spices. Heat oil to 275°F. Pour into the jar of chili flakes – they should sizzle.
3. Cool to room temp. Add sesame oil. Store in fridge for maximum shelf life.
4. When the oil is gone, you can reuse the sediment (chili flakes, etc). Just pour more hot oil into the jar.

You can add other delicious things to your oil, like fermented black beans (douchi) or peanuts or sesame seeds.

This is our take on this recipe, which is the author’s take on a restaurant beef/tripe dish (apparently mushrooms have a similar texture). The final dish, with tofu included, is similar to mapo tofu.

Recipe

• Oil
• Salt
• 1 lb mixed mushrooms
• 1 container soft tofu (optional; if using double all following amounts)
• 1/2 cup stock
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder (or 3/4 tsp fennel seeds and 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground into a powder + 1/4 tsp cinnamon)
• 1/4 cup shaoxing cooking wine (substitute with sake or sherry)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 2 Tbsp chili oil
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 handful peanuts, crushed
• 1 handful chopped cilantro

Cook mushrooms in oil. Salt lightly and add all ingredients tofu through soy sauce. Cook until sauce is reduced and thickened somewhat. Remove from heat and add garnishes (celery through cilantro). Eat hot or cold.

This is a popular Filipino dish. I’ve never had it before, but J has fond memories of it. We actually have a Filipino cookbook, The Filipino Cookbook by Miki Garcia, so we used that recipe.

Recipe

• 2.5 lb chicken pieces (preferably skin-on)
• Oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 cup cane, apple cider, or rice vinegar (or white vinegar diluted with water)
• 1 cup soy sauce

Sauté chicken and garlic in oil until browned. Add everything except the onion and simmer until chicken is done (about 30 min). Add the onion and cook 5 min more.

I would describe the original dish as “aggressively tart”, to quote Cook’s Illustrated, and the chicken overcooked and chalky, so this version makes some changes. Originally, you were supposed to marinate the chicken overnight, include lime juice, and cook the chicken longer.

I might even decrease the cooking time more. You’re supposed to braise the chicken to make it tender, but we don’t have much success at that in general. Maybe this is one for a slow cooker.

We’re at that period of being without restaurant excursions that we’re having food cravings, so we’ve been making fancier dishes!