Halloween Plans
Every year, Rene and his sister's boyfriend David decorate their house for Halloween, and every year, it gets more elaborate. This year, it's done up like a Medieval castle with a draw bridge and a steaming dragon on the roof. Inside, there will be lots of props like mummies & ghouls popping out from unexpected places. They really go all out. Rene is always a little unsettled when the Six Flags season finishes at the end of the summer, so this project gives him something constructive and fun to do with his free days. Six Flags is still open on weekends, but he has lots of time in between. He hates to be idle and always loves a creative project. So he really throws himself into the Halloween decorations. And every year, it's more impressive than the last.

I've been so busy with work these past few weeks that I've hardly had time to consider my own Halloween costume. I spent all day last Saturday helping my son Will to costume himself as Miroku, his favorite Inuyasha anime character. For myself, I'm going 'Goth', which means I'm just going to put together lots of elegant black garments and accessories, with no specific character in mind. Although I always feel somewhat ridiculous in costume, I've had fun with it in years past. Last year, I went dressed as Frida Kahlo, and the year before that, as a Japanese geisha.
02:37 AM PST Permalink |

Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
For the month of November, I have chosen a darling little Iranian film called Children of Heaven, which I've already seen twice, and a Middle Eastern menu to accompany it. Although I often make fatoosh, and have even tried my hand at homemade pita bread, I've never made Iranian food, per se, so it will definitely be an interesting culinary adventure to focus on Iranian culture and cuisine.
01:06 AM PDT Permalink |

Looking Ahead to Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
ThingsAsian has recently added all the countries in the Middle East to its list of destinations, which means I get to venture into the delicious and exotic world of Middle Eastern cuisine. All those rich spices and hearty recipes will be perfect for the cool November weather. And since my Dinner & a Movie will coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which is always a big food fest with Rene's family, the Middle Eastern menu will be a nice departure from all the leftover turkey & stuffing.
03:05 AM PDT Permalink |

Collecting Recipes
Although I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, I have been collecting them for years. I have recipes jotted down on cocktail napkins from the old St. George Restaurant (now Tra Vigne) in St. Helena, where I used to work. I have lots of Mexican recipes that Rene's mother Jovita uses to make his favorite dishes. I have a whole binder of recipes printed from Internet websites. And somewhere in my collection, I have a fantastic barbeque sauce recipe, handwritten on a piece of official White House stationery.

Oddly enough, I don't have any of my mother's favorite recipes anywhere except in my head. In fact, I don't even think they're written down anywhere. My mother never was much of a 'gourmet cook', but she made the best chicken pie on the planet. Other family favorites were pot roast with brown gravy, Southern fried chicken, beef stew, meatloaf, pork chops, spaghetti with meat sauce, seafood gumbo, crab omelets, apple pie, peach cobbler, and the lightest, fluffiest buttermilk biscuits from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Gulf of Mexico. She made dinner for eight every night, and each week after church, we gathered around the dining room table for a big Sunday dinner. She always made a huge turkey filled with moist and savory stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. During the holidays, our kitchen was transformed into a Christmas goodies assembly line that turned out countless dozens of divinity and praline candies, butter balls, spicy cheese straws, and homemade Chex mix. And my mother made a four-layer coconut-pineapple cake for my dad's boss every year that was absolute heaven. So I guess that's where I get my love of cooking, although I also learned a lot working in the restaurant business. I was always hanging around the kitchen, observing the chefs and pestering them with questions.

It's easy to tell which are the favorite recipes in my cookbooks. They just naturally fall open to those pages, most of which are splattered and stained with the ingredients that go into that dish. Among the most obvious are the recipe for a delightful little cheese puff called Gougere in my Silver Palate Cookbook, the recipes for Basic Sushi Rice and one for Stuffed Pickled Cucumbers in The Cooking of Japan; and the page with the Spinach Timbale recipe in my original copy of The Joy of Cooking is a dead giveaway too.

I have recently added two daily recipe features and two food blogs to my Yahoo home page. Last Saturday's Epicurious Recipe of the Day was one for Empanadas. Of course, as usual, I ad libbed a bit and made them with ground beef instead of chorizo, corn niblets instead of potatoes, and tomato-jalapeno salsa instead of bell peppers. The result was a dozen tasty little meat tarts in a flaky, golden pie crust. Yum! They disappeared faster than you can say 'Epicurous.com'.

And now that I'm doing Dinner & a Movie, I'm adding a half-dozen new recipes from various sources to my collection every month. No doubt some of them will become favorites that I will make over and over again. Among the most memorable so far are the recipe for Prawns with Kimchee and Chili Mayonnaise, and the Peaches Marinated in Rice Wine that I made for my Korean 301/302 dinner... the Chicken and Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce, and the Coconut Shrimp that I made last month for my Thai Suriyothai dinner... the Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Nam Cha Dipping Sauce, the Green Papaya Salad with Cellophane Noodles and Hanoi Fried Yellow Fish Nuggets, and the Grilled Pork with Chinese Five Spice Powder that I made for my Scent of Green Papaya dinner... the homemade chutneys and Mulligatawny Soup I made for my Monsoon Wedding Indian Curry dinner... the Buckwheat Soba with Ponzu sauce that I made for my Tampopo Japanese dinner... the Shrimp and Water Chestnut Croquettes, the Hot and Sour Soup, and the Baked Tilapia from my Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese dinner. And I have no doubt that many of the recipes from my upcoming dinners will make it to my 'All Star' list as well.
12:10 AM PDT Permalink |

The Changing Face of My Spice Rack
Last week, before my Taiwanese Dinner & a Movie, I gave my kitchen a very thorough cleaning, which included wiping all the jars in my spice rack. I couldn't help noticing how it has changed over the past few months as I have added new spices for each Asian cuisine. Where I used to stock only salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, cumin, paprika, bay leaves, cinnamon, a generic curry powder, cayenne pepper, chinese mustard, and powdered ginger, I have now added such exotica as garam masala, sumac, cardamom, turmeric, corriander, Chinese Five Spice powder, five different kinds of curry powder, and whole cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon sticks. And with trying a new Asian cuisine every month, I don't know that I will ever go back and use them all up, however, since many Asian cuisines have spices and other ingredients in common, my array of exotic new spices may do double duty in many meals yet to come.
12:13 AM PDT Permalink |

'Eat Drink Man Woman' Film Review

Ang Lee's 'Eat Drink Man Woman' was yet another cinematic and culinary delight. Here's a link to my Film Review.

12:00 AM PDT Permalink |

Recipes & Photos
My Taiwanese 'Eat Drink Man Woman' Dinner & a Movie exceeded all my expectations. The meal was one of the easiest and tastiest I've ever prepared, and the film was a delight. I served Shrimp & Water Chestnut Croquettes, Hot & Sour Soup, Baked Whole Tilapia Fish with Chinese Chili Sauce, Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Vegetables, Shrimp in Spicy Sauce, San Pei Chicken, and Taiwan Fried Rice.

Here is a link to all the Recipes and Photos.

12:01 AM PDT Permalink |

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner
The cost of the ingredients for my 'Eat Drink Man Woman' Taiwanese dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients that I already had in my pantry. Of course there were lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Taiwanese cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Chinese 5-Spice Powder - 1.79
Sesame Oil - 1.99
Dried Shitake Mushrooms - 2.49
Bamboo Shoots - .99
Water Chestnuts - .99
Rice Wine - 3.79
Rice Wine Vinegar - 2.29
Chili Paste - 1.69
Panko Bread Crumbs - 2.99
Tsingtao Beer - $6.99

Fresh Ingredients:

Ginger Root - .93
Onion - 1.01
Scalliions - .59
Whole White Fish - 1.76
Shrimp (2 lbs) - 9.96
Garlic - .56
Ham - 1.29
Bok Choy - 1.19
Celery - 1.29
Pineapple - 1.00
Green Peas - 1.79
Carrots - .56

Basics:

White Vinegar - 1.19
Soy Sauce - 2.99
Cooking Oil - 2.49
Corn Starch - .99
Eggs - 1.79
Sugar-1.19
Rice - 1.99

Total - $60.56 U.S.

02:32 AM PDT Permalink |

Tasty Leftovers
The leftovers from my Taiwanese dinner were almost as delicious as they were the night before...and plenty of 'em. Since Will couldn't be with us on Dinner & a Movie night, I made sure to save him a little of everything. He's in two choral groups at Vintage High: a small Men's Choir, and a large Concert Choir. On the evenings he has a performance, he gets all dressed up in a handsome tuxedo, and I always like to serve him a light meal before the show. So he enjoyed a tasty Taiwanese dinner before last night's performance. And after the show, when Rene and I got home, we had an encore of last night's meal as well. Everything warmed up just fine, and it was a welcome treat after an evening of beautiful choral music.
12:55 PM PDT Permalink |

My Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese Dinner... How Everything Turned Out
Last night's dinner was smooth as silk. All the prep work I did the night before went a long way toward making yesterday's cooking tasks a breeze. However, it still took me all day in the kitchen to get it on the table by eight.

The Shrimp & Water Chestnut croquettes were definitely my favorite. I rolled them in panko bread crumbs and they fried up crispy and golden. As an added bonus, I ended up with a dozen pork dumplings, which were originally intended for the Hot & Sour Soup. But the soup had enough other ingredients that it didn't need dumplings, so I baked them in the oven and they turned out crispy and savory. Both were so tasty that they didn't even need the Hoisin Sauce I served with them. The Hot & Sour Soup turned out just as I'd envisioned (minus the dumplings). Rene loved it.

The San Pei Chicken was an unexpected success. For such a simple recipe, it was one of the tastiest dishes on the table. All it took to prepare were two chicken leg quarters and equal parts of sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine, simmered for 6 hours in the crock pot the night before. To prepare for serving, I thickened the sauce with a little cornstarch in a saucepan on the stove, and baked the chicken legs in the oven for half an hour. The sauce made a lovely brown glaze with a surprisingly complex flavor.

The Pork Stir-Fry with Chinese Vegetables was perfect. The sauce was velvety and delicious, and the vegetables were cooked just right. It was a nice complement to the Fried Rice, which included diced ham, pineapple, carrots, peas, scallions, garlic and ginger.

The baked Tilapia fish with Chinese Chili Sauce was another success. I'd never baked a whole fish before, so it was a new culinary experience for me. The fish was moist, tender and flavorful, and the sauce was translucent, slightly sweet and spicy. It was another dish that Rene especially enjoyed.

The Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry was also tasty, but it wasn't extraordiinary. I had hoped that it would be more crispy, however, the recipe called for 3/4 cup of stock, so it was much more saucy than I'd envisioned. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Needless to say, with all that food, we didn't make it to the Lychee Fruits and Pineapple in Rice Wine that I'd planned for dessert. But they will keep until another evening when we're not so overstuffed.

Amazingly, I managed to keep the dishes done throughout the meal preparation, so my kitchen wasn't a disaster area. Tidying up and putting away the leftovers was quick and easy, and the rest of the clean-up was not a huge chore today.

We also enjoyed the film Eat Drink Man Woman. Of course, we'd already seen Tortilla Soup, which is a Latino version of the same screenplay by director Ang Lee, so we were familiar with the plot. We're undecided as to which one we liked better, so we're going to watch Tortilla Soup again this evening.

All things considered, my Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese dinner was one of the easiest and tastiest Dinner & a Movie projects to date. So be sure to check back in the next couple of days for my photos, recipes and film review.
03:22 AM PDT Permalink |

Eat Drink Man Woman
My Taiwanese dinner was a feast! ...and Eat Drink Man Woman was a delight. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this Dinner & a Movie thing. Nevertheless, it took eight hours to prepare, so I'm definitely ready to call it a day. I can't wait to tell all about it tomorrow.
03:37 AM PDT Permalink |

Preparing the Kitchen and Prepping Dishes Ahead
Today, I finished shopping for my fresh ingredients. Napa doesn't have an Asian market, but I got incredibly lucky with the meats and seafood at a little Mexican market not far from my house. They have an old-fashioned butcher shop, and for the unbelievably low price of $15.80, I bought two pounds of shrimp, a whole tilapia fish, a pound of nicely trimmed pork loin and two whole chicken leg quarters. I definitely know where I'm buying all my meats and seafood from now on.

As predicted, there was no Taiwan Beer to be had anywhere in town, but I did find Tsing Tao at Cost Plus, along with a bag of dried mushrooms for the hot and sour soup. So...it looks like I'm good to go with all my ingredients for my Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese dinner.

When I got home, I set about the task of cleaning the fridge, doing the dishes and clearing the countertops for tomorrow's cooking extravaganza. Last week, I gave the kitchen a thorough cleaning, which included two hours just scrubbing the stove. So it's clean and organized in there for this month's dinner.

I also washed and prepped all my vegetables, cleaned and de-veined the shrimp, made soup stock, and cooked the San Pei Chicken in the crock pot. That's about all I can prepare ahead this time, since most of the dishes are stir-fried, and I want all the vegetables to be cooked to perfection.

As always, I'm excited at the prospect of trying my hand at another Asian cuisine, and I'm already getting an appetite for all that delicious food.
12:28 AM PDT Permalink |

Shopping for Fresh Ingredients
Today I shopped for all my fresh produce, and since none of the recipes call for anything exotic, I was able to buy it at my neighborhood Safeway. However, I'm still missing a few things, namely the chicken and fresh seafood. It's still two days til my Dinner & a Movie, so I wanted to wait until tomorrow or even the day of the dinner to buy the shrimp and fish, but it may be somewhat of a challenge to find a whole fish that's small enough to suit my purposes.

We have a nice little Mexican market in town with an old-fashioned butcher shop, where the meats, poultry and seafood are considerably cheaper than at our gourmet grocery stores, so I'm hoping to find my fish, shrimp, pork and chicken there. A little fish market a few blocks from my house is another possibility for the seafood items. Otherwise, I will have to make do with some fresh fish filets. Either way, I'm sure it will all be delicious.
01:26 AM PDT Permalink |

Beverages To Go With My Taiwanese Dinner
When I eat Asian food of any kind, I always crave a nice cold beer to go with it. Afterwards, I like to enjoy a sip of rice wine or sweet plum wine with dessert. Taiwan produces a local brew called (what else?) Taiwan Beer. There's also another local beverage called Shaohsing wine, served warm. First produced in southern China during the Ming dynasty (1386-1644), Shaohsing wine is made with glutinous rice, fermented in earthen jars before bottling.

In Taiwan, all alcoholic beverages are produced by the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau (TTWMB), which was created when Taiwan was returned to China at the end of World War II, after 50 years of occupation by the Japanese. The TTWMB also produces whiskey and brandy, including Tea Brandy, flavored with Oolong tea, as well as a blend of brandy and grape juice called Pineau. Other wines include lychee wine, plum wine, white wine, red wine, rose wine, sparkling wine, and honey wine.

Alas, I hold little hope of finding beverages produced in Taiwan at any of our local retailers. So unless I can squeeze in a trip to San Francisco in the next few days, I will have to settle for the next best thing: a six-pack of China's Tsing Tao beer, and a bottle of Sho Chiku Bai plum wine. And of course, no Chinese dinner would be complete without a steaming pot of Oolong tea.
01:14 AM PDT Permalink |

About the Fresh Ingredients
The fresh ingredients for my 'Eat Drink Man Woman' dinner are quite common, so there's no need to go traipsing all over town in search of some esoteric item that we country mice have never seen or heard of. They include Ginger Root, Onion, Scalliions, Tofu, Whole White Fish, Shrimp, Garlic, Ham, Bok Choy, Celery, Basil, Parsley or Cilantro, Pineapple, Green Peas, Mushrooms, and Carrots. All inexpensive and readily available at my local market.

Of course, I like to shop as close to the day of the dinner as possible to ensure that they will be poppin' fresh when I use them to cook all those tasty Taiwan recipes. I usually try to do it the day before the dinner so I can prepare some elements of the dinner the night before. I find that if I get a head start on the eve of the dinner, the following day, I'm much more relaxed and organized, and a lot less overwhelmed by the thousand tasks it takes to produce an elaborate Asian meal.
12:08 AM PDT Permalink |