How do you celebrate Chinese New Year

without your family? The four years spent at Cornell I still felt surrounded by family because my friends are just a homely bunch. Living and working in the city, you get much less opportunity to play and enjoy the festivities. But, you make do with what you got. So, how exactly did I celebrate?

On Chinese New Year's Eve, Apartment 17B merged with Apartment 13F for a tasting of my tarts. No Chinese food yet.



Hazelnut Pistachio Frangipane with Peaches and Blueberry



Fresh Fruit Tart

Chinese New Year, I was conveniently sent to the Southern District court down on Pearl Street and managed to take a "lunch" break exploring Chinatown at its prime. Oh yes, Mott Street was a shit show of confetti, red firecrackers, and gangster teeny-boppers crowding Fay Da Bakery and Ten Ren. My bad for interrupting their daily hang out. Never been a fan of crowds, but they couldn't deter me today. I scored myself a nice package of roasted duck and bbq pork for dinner tonight. Win.



Oh Mott Street!



I spotted the cutest girl.



She was shy when I stuck my camera in her face.



Red everywhere.



Flaky egg custard from Tai Pan Bakery that I inhaled on the subway. Crumbs covered all corners of my mouth. I looked plain silly.



This is why I love New York subways.



A plate of bbq pork, roasted duck, and turnip cake devoured by roommate and I.

Happy Chinese New Year.

Not often do I get a chance...

to cook a meal for my family. Thankfully, this trip to Taiwan has been a generous dose of quality family time. Each time I spend 24 hours traveling to the motherland, I moan about the plane ride and the child crying next to me. But each time my family embraces me, I remember exactly why they're so important to me. With each visit, I begin to appreciate my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and most of all my parents even more. Yes, there are rough times, but the smoothed out kinks make the happy times much warmer and more endearing. There's truly nothing like family.

Like I said before, I am not much of a Chinese cook. I'm ranked lowest of the low compared to my family, so I prepared a simple Italian lunch.

Antipasti: Roasted Bell Pepper Bruschetta
Primi: Heart of Celery Salad
Secondi: Perciatelli a la Carbonara
Dolci: Affogato




Roasted Bell Peppers

4 bell peppers
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp parsley, minced
1 stem scallions, sliced
EVOO
Salt & Pepper

Roast peppers on an open flame until blackened and blistered. Place peppers in a plastic bag and seal to steam for 20 minutes. Remove exterior skin of peppers and clean out seeds. Mix peppers with garlic, parsley, scallions, olive oil, salt and pepper in a jar or air tight container. Refrigerate until ready to use.


Heart of Celery Salad

2 hearts of celery
4 oz onions, sliced
4 oranges, supreme

Remove celery greens until only the yellow stems are left. Chop into bite sized pieces. Toss with sliced onions and orange supremes. Squeeze orange juice over salad and toss with vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.



Pasta Mise en Place.


Perciatelli a la Carbonara
Adapted from Mario Batali

http://www.mariobatali.com/recipes_carbonara.cfm



Affogato

1/2 shot espresso
1 scoop ice cream

Ice cream recipe: http://epicuriouseateries.blogspot.com/2008/09/ive-cooked-number.html

Now I'm heading back to the states.

Belated Thanksgiving Part II

I'm following up on my pumpkin fetish and the promised bread pudding recipe. Served this for Thanksgiving dinner with a side of homemade cinnamon ice cream and some hazelnut chai cream bark from Wholefoods.

Batter made of pumpkin puree, half n half, and eggnog.

Toasted cubes of cinnamon raisin swirl bread.

Fresh out of the oven!

My cute daddy was ready to taste test the scrapings.

Like a piece of pie.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Cinnamon Ice Cream
Adapted from Bon Appétit

Serves 6 to 8, depending on how big you slice it.

Bread Pudding
1.5 cups half an half

.5 cup soy egg nog
15 oz pumpkin puree
.5 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
10 oz 1.3cm cinnamon swirl bread

Cinnamon Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream

14 oz condensed milk

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsps pure vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread into squares and toast on a sheet pan till golden and crunchy. Whisk the half and half, egg nog, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla extract in a large bowl to blend. Fold in the bread cubes and let soak for 10 minutes. Transfer mixture a greased baking dish. Bake the pumpkin bread pudding until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Flip bread pudding out onto decorative plate. Serve as sliced wedges with ice cream and hazelnut chai cream bark.

Thanksgiving Part I

I've pretty much given up on an All-American Thanksgiving dinner with slow roasted turkey, ladles of grubby sides, and warm pumpkin pie. When mother called me a week before my trip home to Texas, she asked if I wanted to do an American or a Chinese Thanksgiving. It was a no brainer--home cooked, Mama Lin's Chinese, of course. My mom doesn't tread the unfamiliar waters of "Western" style cooking, but she's a natural at whipping up my tummy's favorite Chinese dishes. And as always, I took charge of the dessert. My dad's only job of the night was to taste test, and that's exactly what he did.

I love my mom's cooking because she's health conscious using only the best quality items and the leanest cuts of meat. I'm still not sure how she does it, but her fist-sized meatballs are greaseless yet are packed with flavor and super moist and tender. For the lucky ones in New York, I already claimed dibs on left-overs to bring to the city! You just might get a taste. It's like packing my mom to go, hehe.

Mama Lin's Thanksgiving Dinner
Chilled Pickled Vegetables
Dried Tofu Cold Noodles
Vietnamese Egg Rolls
Roasted Chinese BBQ Platter: Pork, Duck, Sausage
Soy Garlic Marinated Cuttlefish
Stewed Beef with Carrots
Ja Chiang Noodles
Lion Head Meatballs with Braised Napa Cabbage
Spare-rib Meatball Turnip Soup
Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Ice Cream
Polka Dot Riesling (2007)

Cold Platter.

Chinese BBQ Pork.

Simple sea scallops.



Vietnamese style egg rolls.

Mother's famous meatballs with Shiitake and Braised Napa Cabbage.



Slow-simmered beef and carrots.



One of my all-time favorite noodle dishes: ja chiang noodles.



Classic Chinese bone soup.



My plate!



I chose this bottle because of the packaging, not gonna lie, but it was crisp, sweet and delightful.



Totally not Chinese, but my Pumpkin Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Ice Cream and Hazelnut Chai Cream Bark.



Mama Lin's Thanksgiving Feast

Part II of the Thanksgiving blog with feature my pumpkin bread pudding recipe. Stay tuned and Happy Turkey Day!

Pumpkin or anything related...

has won over my heart the past month as I desperately search for all sweets related to the Fall gourd. I've tasted multiple jars of pumpkin butters, obsessively hoarded Hershey's pumpkin spice kisses, and attempted my own ghoulish sweet treat.

Now I'm not sure what to call this, but it was goooood--messy, comforting, and ultimately satisfying. Perfect for a rainy, glum night alone. Think roasted marshmallows: crisp and burnt on the outside but gooey on the inside. Think spices: cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Think melted chocolate, dark chocolate peanut butter, and chewy slices of baguette. Think about a hybrid between peanut butter sandwiches and s'mores. Think pumpkin peanut butter s'morwiches. Yum.









Pumpkin Peanut Butter S'morwiches

2 slices baguette
1 Tbsp pecan pumpkin butter
1 Tbsp dark chocolate peanut butter
1 large marshmallow
1 pumpkin spice kiss

Slather one side of baguette slices with pumpkin butter and peanut butter. Place the kiss in the middle of one baguette slice. Toast marshmallow over a candle until crisp and browned. Sandwich melted marshmallow over chocolate. Eat!