Sichuan Wild Mushroom Sauté with New Zealand Spinach

One of the things I missed the most while traveling was having a standard stock of kitchenware. When you're bopping around from city to city, and readjusting to a new kitchen every few months, you're not going to have all necessary tools at your disposal. Especially the super heavy items, like a mortar and pestle. I went almost three years without one. If you cook for a living, that should be a crime.

I used a mortar and pestle whenever I could, like while working at The Hutong in Beijing, but for most of the last peripapetic 3 years I mostly made do with ground spices. I just couldn't justify moving around 10-pound stone objects to every kitchen I used. (Nevermind that I had at least 5 times the weight in cookbooks.) But now, ever since moving home, I've been crushing spices like a fanatic.

For anyone who craves the numbingness of Sichuan peppercorn, the whole spice will always be more satisfying than the pre-ground variety. If you have to use "crack" to describe any food item, use it for Sichuan peppercorn, instead of Momofuku desserts. So, when faced with a mountain of shimeji, king trumpet, and large shiitake mushrooms (went a little overboard at Whole Foods), I decided to sort of recreate a wild mushroom stir-fry from a trip last year to Chengdu.

BlogDiana KuanMay 5, 2010Chinese, Healthy, Mushrooms, Recipes, Sichuan, Vegetarian Comments

Chinese Steamed Fish with Black Bean and Ginger Sauce

RecipesDiana KuanFebruary 13, 2009Cantonese, Chinese, Fish, Healthy, Recipes, Seafood Comments

Tangerine Salsa, Two Ways

RecipesDiana KuanDecember 23, 2008Fish, Healthy, Recipes, Seafood, Snacks, Tilapia Comments

Vietnamese Pomelo Salad

The first pomelo I bought this season was the size of a bowling ball. The other person in my house does not eat pomelo, and it took me 2 weeks to finish.

Winter is pomelo season, and sure enough, these big fat babies are everywhere. It's the grapefruit for people who don't like grapefruit. The taste is less tart, and the big meaty segments make it healthy for day-long snackage. Pomelo is also loaded with vitamin C, making it excellent for warding off seasonal cold and flu.

This pomelo I bought yesterday was the smallest in the bin. Still, it took me about half an hour to fully dissect.

RecipesDiana KuanNovember 22, 2008Healthy, Recipes, Salads, Vegetarian, Vietnamese Comments

Tea-Scented Pumpkin Soup

In these last few days before The Election, I have been trying to ease my political anxiety through food. When I catch up on my Google Reader and NYTimes in the morning, I find myself reaching out for snack. A chocolate bar to gnaw on, a cookie to hold on to, a tub of ice cream to drown oneself in. I don't think this is healthy. It's resembling how many women try to ease first date jitters or calm oneself after a devastating break-up.

I have also been cooking nonstop. More often than not, my Firefox tabs extend 10 or 15 long, a window into both my news and food addictions and my ADD: Food Blog Search, NPR, Tastespotting, NPR, Epicurious, NPR, my own blog, NPR, Twitpic of Obama-lanterns, NPR. A few times I had so many recipes open that I forgot which dish I just bought ingredients for.

And like most people using cooking as anxiety distraction, I have taken a step back from experimentations to attend to my comfort food needs, mainly soups, noodle soups, and cookies. Not that comfort food is 100% successful at getting my mind off things. Last night I got so distracted by an article on swing state exit polls that I burnt a batch of the banana chocolate chunk cookies. Then as I was analyzing the Times' latest Electoral Map I managed to burn another batch.

RecipesDiana KuanNovember 4, 2008Gluten-Free, Healthy, Pumpkin, Soup, Vegetarian Comments

Pumpkin Hummus

RecipesDiana KuanOctober 20, 2008Appetizers, Healthy, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian Comments

Barley-Stuffed Tomatoes

RecipesDiana KuanSeptember 28, 2008Healthy, Recipes, Tomatoes, Vegetarian Comments

Chickpea Vegetable Curry

RecipesDiana KuanSeptember 24, 2008Healthy, Recipes, Vegetarian Comments

Eggplant, Cumin, and Black Bean Salad

I am a huge fan of cooking with whole spices. Ground cinnamon can never substitute cinnamon sticks in a braise. Ground Sichuan pepper doesn't have the same punch as whole or crushed peppercorn. And I'm prone to ignoring a recipe's call for ground cumin, when whole cumin has been the friend that never disappoints.

The fragrance of freshly toasted whole cumin can make me delirious with hunger. I know that whatever's touched with cumin will be smoky, substantial, and evocative of a far-off land blessed with pungent spices. If the food on this site seems cumin-heavy, that's because I use heaping spoonfuls and, when working off other recipes, double or triple the amounts. Is there a support group for this kind of spice addiction?

This eggplant and black bean salad is a great backdrop for another cumin invasion. The spice adds a nutty dimension to the eggplant, and highlights the saltiness of the black beans. (Salted black beans, also called fermented black beans, is usually found in the preserved goods section of a Chinese market. Rinse before use.) Try this appetizer not only with Chinese main courses but also Middle Eastern dishes.

RecipesDiana KuanSeptember 18, 2008Chinese, Healthy, Recipes, Salads, Tomatoes, Vegetarian Comments

Rose Tea Dessert Soup

I'm sure most Westerners who have ever dined with a group of Chinese are familiar with the the following scenario. After a ___-course lavish banquet, you look forward to something nice and sweet to cap off a great experience. Your Chinese hosts inform you that you'll love the dessert; all Westerners love dessert. This one is a Chinese specialty. Anticipation mounts. Then the long-awaited dessert arrives...in the form of red bean soup. You take one sip, utter an "Mmm!" with all the false bravado you can muster, and wonder if anyone will notice you "watering" that plant close by.

Yes, it is well known that most Chinese desserts are merely tolerated by Westerners. While I personally don't mind red bean soup or other sweet dessert soups every once in a while, other people, like a certain significant other of mine, have developed an intense fear of them. It's understandable. While in the West we crave and lust after rich chocolates, cakes, and pies, the Chinese palate can tolerate only moderately sweet things. Thus, Chinese desserts never seem sweet enough, but anyone living or traveling extensively in China can't help but encounter them again and again.