Peanut Butter Brownies

I got this recipe from Gourmet magazine, with a couple changes to make it, if not healthy, at least not PURE fat. Of course you can use the fatty version too for extra deliciousness, but either way my boyfriend –who hates sweets– finds them irresistible.

INGREDIENTS:

12 tablespoons of Smart Balance margarine (or 1.5 sticks unsalted butter)
1/2 cup reduced-fat peanut butter (try Smart Balance. It’s all natural, so it’s not great to eat on a sandwich or out of the jar, but it’s good in baking because it gets the flavor right and because there’s so much sugar in the other ingredients, you don’t notice it’s all natural)
4 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup whole-wheat flour (of course, all-purpose is fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F with rack in the middle.

Spray olive oil cooking spray (or butter) on a 13×9″ baking dish. Sprinkle flour over the baking dish (this makes it extra nonsticky and gives it a cakey feel).

Melt margarine, peanut butter and chocolate in a heavy 3qt saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.

Remove from heat and cool.

Whisk in brown sugar and vanilla.

Whisk in eggs one at a time.

Whisk together flour and salt then whisk this into the chocolate mixture.

Spread all of this into the pan. Bake 30 minutes or until pick inserted comes out with crumbs. Cool completely before eating.

Kyllie Kwong’s Lemon Chicken Fillets Recipe

My good friend got me Kyllie Kwong’s “Simple Chinese Cooking” cookbook for my birthday and I was so (almost) inordinately excited to see that one of my favorite recipes from when I was a kid is in it — Lemon Chicken. (Food memories are so wonderful!) Fond memories litter my childhood of going with my dad to the Golden Wok where everyone knew my dad could speak Chinese and I, little introverted Americanized daughter, could barely speak English to strangers. I would always always order the lemon chicken, which was so moist and just slightly crispy in its thin breading, with an excellent rich lemon sauce; not bitter, but almost BBQy (and of course extra almond cookies were thrown in the box, mm).

Anyway, I made this dish for my birthday and it was a huge success. And if I was able to make it, it’s proof enough that it’s easy.

(SERVES 4)

INGREDIENTS:

For Breading:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
1 lb. chicken, cut into 1″ pieces
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons shao hsing wine (or dry sherry)
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
Vegetable oil for deep-frying

For Sauce:
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1/3 cup shao hsing wine (or dry sherry)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
7 strips fresh lemon zest
1 small lemon, finely sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice

1) Blend 2 tablespoons cornstarch with water in a medium-sized bowl until dissolved. Add chicken, egg yolks, wine/sherry and salt and mix well. Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

2) Place stock, 1/3 cup wine/sherry, oyster sauce (tamari soy sauce is an okay substitute), hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sugar, salt and lemon zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until slightly reduced. Stir in sliced lemon and simmer for another 5 minutes — if you cook longer it could turn bitter.

3) Combine plain flour and 1/3 cup cornstarch, add to the marinated chicken and mix well. Heat oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. (There should be enough oil to just cover the chicken pieces.) Deep-fry half the chicken over high heat for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium and fry for 1 minute, or until chicken is almost cooked through.

4) Remove chicken with slotted spoon and drain on plated paper towels. Repeat with remaining chicken.

5) Finally, return all the chicken to the hot oil and deep-fry for 1 minute or until lightly browned, crispy and just cooked through. Be careful not to overcook the chicken as they will become dry. But also don’t be afraid to go over the 1 minute increments here if the chicken looks undone. Drain well on paper towels before serving.

6) Gently reheat lemon sauce, stir in lemon juice and remove from heat.

Now, I made steamed white rice to go with this. Obviously, steamed brown rice is more healthy and highly recommended for this dish. Unfortunately, perhaps because I was forced to use tamari soy sauce instead of oyster sauce, which I ran out of, the sauce was a bit too watery for my taste. So, when you eat this together and if you’d like a bit more flavor, try adding some hoisin sauce to your rice and/or some soy sauce. This will liven up the rice and, in my estimation, add to the flavor of the dish as a whole. But, the chicken has a wonderful flavor and texture of its own, so don’t try to mask it with sauce. In fact, try it first without any extra flavoring, it may just be enough. (I’m just weird and saucy.)

Making Chinese Dumplings – for Clumsy Cooks

There’s this place in Cambridge, too far away for me to get to when I crave Chinese, but they make the best dumplings I have ever tasted in my life. Instead of the thin noodle wrappers, they’re made of a plump thick dough and steamed –not fried– to perfection.

Anyway, dumplings might be in my top ten favorite foods. Handheld, they come in perfect portions, and always with a tastilicious sauce for dipping. So, I thought I’d try and make some myself instead of waiting an hour for the delivery guy to remember where my house is.

Now, I have an irrational fear of dough. While there are some recipes out there for making fairly easy dumpling dough. Ming Tsai has a good one for those of you unafraid of dough-failure (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_4997,00.html). But I turned to Nasoya.

These guys are already coated lightly in cornstarch, so they don’t stick together or dry up while you’re prepping. Make sure to keep them in the bag while you make your other dumplings.

Now, I used the following ingredients, but you can feel free to replace some of the veggies with your own favorites, so long as you keep them in the same quantity, you should be fine.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 pound lean ground turkey — *You can use any ground meet you like, even shrimp if you finely chop it or pulse it in the food processor. I used lean turkey, but the more fat in the meat the juicier they’ll be, so if you’re skinny, take advantage of it by getting fatter meat. Also, traditionally, dumplings are made with either ground pork or chicken. I just had turkey on hand.
3/4 cup finely chopped bok choy (or green cabbage)
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion — *This adds a nice bite and Chinese flavor to the dumplings, so I probably wouldn’t replace this with another veggie
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper — *A good replacement here would be carrots or water chestnuts
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce — *Again, for more, richer flavor, try tamari soy sauce or full sodium
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of Tabasco
24 Nasoya wonton wrappers (or equivalent in homemade dough)
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon sesame or peanut oil
A small bowl of water

TO PREPARE:

Combine all the ingredients through Tabasco sauce in a bowl until well mixed.

Using one wonton wrapper at a time (keep the rest in the package as you make the others), plop about a teaspoon and a half of the turkey mixture in the middle of the wrapper. Too much more than this will break the wrapper.

Dip your finger into the small bowl of water and wet all 4 edges of the wrapper. Bring up two opposite corners of the wrapper and pinch together. The water serves as glue, so if it’s wet enough, it will stick and stay. Now, bring the other two opposite corners together so that all four corners meet in the middle. Pinch them together forming a point. Now, pinch the corners to seal.

Set the finished dumplings aside on a plate or baking sheet. If you notice them sticking to the plate or baking sheet, sprinkle it with cornstarch. The Nasoya wrappers are already dusted with cornstarch, so they should be fine.

Once you’re finished, heat the sesame or peanut oil, whichever you’re using, in a large skillet on medium-high heat until hot. Place the dumplings in the skillet. You’ll probably fit about 12. Cook for 2 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Slowly add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and cover and cook for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook 3 minutes or until the broth evaporates. Repeat with remaining dumplings.

SERVING SAUCE:

5 tablespoons mirin

1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce (it might be too salty if you use anything else)

1/4 cup rice vinegar

3 tablespoons chopped green onions

1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic (find this in the Chinese food section of the market)

Mix all ingredients together.

Emma’s in Kendall Square, Boston, MA (by Gourmandette T)

For some reason, every time I go to the Kendall Square theater near MIT, it’s in bad weather. Either there’s a blizzard and my friend’s eyebrows freeze like some evil Jack Frost sprite, or a water main breaks and we’re drenched by the time we trudge courageously to the theater just to find it closed, or in the case of last Wednesday, it’s raining in the middle of a week that’s book-ended by beautiful summer weather.

So, once again, after the movie I was looking for some kind of happy ending. Luckily, we found Emma’s, a pizza parlor (I’ll respectfully refrain from calling it a “pizza joint” as I usually would), small and nondescript, as most good places are.

The small dining room is all wood and fresh and clean with light pastel colors making it a very pleasant place to be, especially when it’s spitting outside. The menu is simple, few thrills and words that are hard to understand, but full of flavors and mouthwatering combinations.

My boyfriend had the Chicken Panchelle sandwich. Simple, it came with roasted tomatoes and bacon and mayo. The basics. It arrived on a small appetizer-sized plate with a pile of gherkins. Cute, but not as satisfying, probably, as chips or fries. Still, he said he tasted something that reminded him of curry. Basil perhaps? In any case, it packed a surprising punch of flavor for such an ordinary-looking sandwich.

Because the wall’s littered with awards for their pizza, I decided to jump in in spite of the price: $9.00 for the crust and the sauce (of which they have 3 varieties, Regular, Rosemary or Garlic-Olive Oil), and then $1.25 for each additional topping. Still, the pizza’s large enough for two meals, so it was worth the price in the end. (Side note: While pizza “joints” make great leftovers, Emma’s pizza wasn’t terribly delicious on second reheating.)

I ended up with a grilled chicken, sauteed mushroom, sundried tomato, and smoked mozzarella pizza. Their array of base cheeses are what really make them special, offering everything from goat cheese to Gorgonzola. Unlike traditional pizzas, the cheese is layered on top of all the goodies, and since I ordered smoked mozzarella it really allowed for the flavor of the cheese to come through rather than be hidden or overwhelmed by the toppings.

I couldn’t help but say a few times how good the pizza was as I was eating it, even better when I washed it down with their homemade Arnold Palmers with unlimited refills.

Undoubtedly, Emma’s was the among the top three pizzas I have ever had. Even if you have to do the foul-weather trudging, make it there. It’s worth the suffering.

THE PLACE: ****
THE FOOD: *****
THE PEOPLE: ***
OVERALL: ****

TO GET THERE: Take the Red Line to Alewife. Get off at Kendall. It takes some walking from here, and every time I prepare myself to get lost, but as long as you pass the Railroad tracks, you’re fine. There are tour guides hanging around right outside the subways, ask them for street names. Seriously, it’s always a crap shoot whether I’ll find One Kendall Square or get lost.