SCALLION PANCAKES

The perfect appetizer for a small group. Make a batch and let your friends gather in the kitchen to nibble the crisp edges as you scrape these off the hot griddle.

INGREDIENTS

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• 9 tablespoons White Rice Flour
• 6 tablespoons Sorghum Flour
• 1/2 tablespoon Tapioca Flour
• 1/2 tablespoon Potato Flour (flour, not starch, take heed)
• 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 1/2 cup Boiling Water (boil first, measure later)
• Salt and Pepper
• Sesame Oil
• ~1/4 cup finely chopped Scallions
• Oil for pan frying

GET BUSY

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
2. Pour the boiling water over the flour mixture and stir everything together. The dough will be tough, so get in there with your hands and knead it toward the end.
3. Pinch off some dough the size of a ping pong ball. Dust your counter with some extra rice flour and roll the dough out into an oblong shape, about 1/8 inch thick.
4. Brush the flattened dough with sesame oil and sprinkle gently with salt and pepper.
5. Scatter about one tablespoon of chopped scallion on the dough.
6. Roll the dough up like a cigar and pinch the ends to secure.
7. Roll the cigar into a spiral.
8. Using your rolling pin, roll this spiral out to about 1/4 inch thick. You should have a pancake roughly 5 inches in diameter.
9. Heat some oil in a saute pan until it is almost smoking.
10. Pan fry the cake for 2-3 minutes per side, or until golden brown and crisp all over.
11. Let the cakes cool on a paper towel to absorb some of the oil, then slice and serve!

BLACK BEAN BRAISED BASS

If my family is going out for dinner, the odds are high that we're having Chinese food. With Linda at the table we're never stuck ordering American standbys (General Tsao's is just fried chicken, you know that, right?) and my favorite dish is the whole braised fish. To celebrate the new year I decided to serve a few of my friends whole striped bass. Best part? No one fought me for the cheeks.

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INGREDIENTS

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 2 inches Ginger, sliced thinly
• 3 Garlic Cloves, sliced thinly
• 3 Scallions, minced
• 1/2 cup Preserved Black Beans
• 1/2 cup Shaoxing Rice Wine
• 2 cups Chicken or Veggie Stock
• 1 tsp Corn Starch

Fish

• 1 Striped Bass, ~2 pounds
• 2 inches Ginger, sliced thinly
• 3 Scallions, roughly chopped
• Stems and Roots of one bunch Cilantro

BUSINESS

1. Begin with the sauce. In the base of a wok heat oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add ginger, garlic, and scallion. Stir fry for 5-7 minutes, until browned and fragrant.
2. Rinse black beans under hot water until the runoff is relatively clear. Add washed beans to hot wok. Stir fry for another 5 minutes.
3. Add rice wine to wok, stir to deglaze pan.
4. Add stock to wok and drop heat to simmer. Whisk in corn starch and cook for ~10 minutes, until slightly thickened.
5. Prepare the fish. Have your butcher remove the scales, gills, and guts, but leave the head, tail and spine intact. Stuff the raw fish with sliced ginger, and scallions. Using the back of your knife, bruise the cilantro stems until they are fragrant, stuff into fish.
6. Slide fish into hot wok with sauce. Increase heat to medium. Cover wok with lid or large bowl. Cook fish for 8 minutes, remove lid and flip the fish. Replace lid and cook for another 8 minutes, until the flesh is white and tender. Serve with pan sauce.

FU GWA WITH SHITAKE

Do yourself a favor and scour Chinatown for veggies. You'll see things you never knew existed. Like this, Fu Gwa. It's known as Bitter Melon in America and the name is no joke. Be prepared for an intriguing taste at your table. The texture is close to zucchini, but firmer. Chop it up, stir fry it with some shitake mushrooms and put it on the table. It'll be gone in no time.

INGREDIENTS

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• 2 cups Dried Shitake Mushrooms
• Hot Water
• 2 pounds Fu Gwa
• 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 3 cloves Garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons Soy Sauce

BUSINESS

1. Soak the mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes, until they're tender enough to cut. Cut them into bite sized pieces.
2. Cut the Fu Gwa in half and scoop out the seeds, then chop it into rounds or cubes.
3. Heat the sesame oil in the base of a wok and add the garlic when it's hot. Stir fry until garlic is browned.
4. Add mushrooms and stir fry for 7-10 minutes.
5. Add Fu Gwa and Soy Sauce, stir fry for 5-7 minutes, then serve.

DOU MIAO WITH FERMENTED TOFU

Without a doubt, Dou Miao is my favorite vegetable. The pea shoots are easy to cook, tender and crunchy all at once, sweet and savory. I can eat more Dou Miao in one sitting than any other vegetable. I guess I should tell my parents they raised me well.

INGREDIENTS

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• 3 tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 3 Cloves Garlic, sliced thinly
• 3 cubes Fermented Tofu (they're small but mighty)
• 2 pounds Dou Miao, washed
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing Rice Wine

BUSINESS

1. Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir fry until golden.
2. Add fermented tofu, mash into paste.
3. Add Dou Miao, stir fry until reduced by at least half (about 7 minutes)
4. Pour in rice wine, deglaze pan, toss veggies and serve.

CUMIN ROASTED CARROTS

Appetizers don't have to be fried and starchy (though I am a fan of a good french fry), start your next party with an extra serving of veggies. Carrots are perfect finger food.

INGREDIENTS

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• 6 slim Carrots, with greens attached
• 3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Orange Zest

GET BUSY

1. Heat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Bisect the carrots from green to tip (without going through the top root). Then turn the carrot 90* and repeat, making four squiddy legs to the vegetable. Place them in a roasting tray.
3. Drizzle oil over the carrots, then sprinkle salt and cumin. Toss to distribute spice.
4. Roast the carrots for 18-22 minutes, until just barely fork tender and slightly browned at the narrow tip.
5. Remove the carrots from the oven and sprinkle orange zest over them. Plate the vegetables and serve.

SEARED CHICKEN LEGS

Stop baking chicken breasts and boring your guests. Buy whole legs, learn how to cut them at the joint, and impress your friends with impeccably crisp skin.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 whole Chicken Legs (thigh and drumstick together)
• 2 pounds Cremini Mushrooms
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 tablespoons Olive Oil (separated, 2, 2, and 2)

GET BUSY

1. Pop the stems out of the mushroom caps and slice the caps. Save the stems for making stock.
2. Sauté the sliced mushrooms with 2 tbs oil and a sprinkling of salt until they're reduced by half and tender.
3. Heat your oven to 375 degrees.
4. Using your fingers, separate the chicken skin from the meat, all the way down the drumstick.
5. Take about 1 tablespoon of the mushrooms and stuff them under the skin of each leg, making sure to get it all the way down the drumstick and across the thigh.  Do this with all six legs. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the skin of each leg.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-high heat in two separate oven-safe stainless steel pans. When the oil is rippling in both pans, use tongs to place three chicken legs skin side down in each pan. Sear for 3-5 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Flip the legs so they are facing skin side up and place both pans into the preheated oven. Cook the legs for 25-30 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let the chicken legs rest a few minutes before serving. Remember, the handles of your skillets will be scalding hot, be careful!

BUTTERNUT RISOTTO

The most important ingredient in your risotto (and by far, the most often overlooked) is the stock. Go ahead and bicker over the rice (arborio or carnaroli?), the fat (olive oil or butter?), the acid (lemon juice or wine?), you’re just wasting time. No matter what combination of rice+fat+acid you settle on, if you use boxed vegetable or chicken stock your risotto will grow fat on that antiseptic flavor, the sanitized taste of cartoned stock.

INGREDIENTS

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• 1 small Butternut Squash (about 1 pound)
• 1 Yellow Onion
• 3-4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 cup Arborio Rice
• 1 glass White Wine (~3/4 cup)
• 1 quart Squash Stock 
• Salt and Pepper to taste

 GET BUSY

1. Heat your oven to 450 degrees. Using a sharp knife, cut the rind off the squash, leaving bright orange all around. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and then cut the flesh into small cubes (less than a centimeter). Add the squash rind and seeds to a small sauce pan on the side. Cover them with water (or extra veggie stock) and heat it over a low flame.
2. Thinly slice the yellow onion and sauté with the olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy bottomed stock pot. Add salt.
3. When the onion is translucent, add the rice to the dutch oven and sauté just until the rice grains look lightly toasted.
4. Add the white wine to the dutch oven, deglazing the pan. Stir in the cubed squash and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Begin adding the warm stock one ladle at a time to the dutch oven.  Allow the rice to absorb the liquid slowly, when it looks like the liquid is gone, add another ladle full.
6. Stir and continue to ladle in stock until all the stock is gone, this should take about 30-35 minutes. Remove the risotto from your stove and serve.

APPLE COBBLER

Screw pie, I want cobbler. Cobbler is easy (I’m never one to turn down an easy date). I cook the apples in a skillet a bit with sugar and spices before pouring them into a baking dish, it speeds up their time in the oven. And for the crust? Whip out your food processor and dump in the ingredients for this biscuit dough. It comes together in a few minutes and is easy to scatter on top of the tender apples.

INGREDIENTS

    Apple Filling

• 6 Green Apples, peeled and sliced thinly
• Juice of one Lemon
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• ¼ cup Coconut Oil
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon Sea Salt
• ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg

   Biscuit Topping

• ¾ cup Brown Rice Flour
• ¾ cup Millet Flour
• ¼ cup Tapioca Flour
• ¼ cup Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
• 4 tablespoons Shortening
• ¾ cup Milk (a non-dairy alternative will work)

GET BUSY

1) In a medium saucepan, combine the apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, coconut oil, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until the  liquid is syrupy and the apples are soft but not mushy, about 20 minutes.

2) While the apples are cooking, heat your oven to 450 degrees.

3) In a food processor add the brown rice flour, millet flour, tapioca flour, sugar, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and shortening. Pulse until it is the texture of sand.

4) With the food processor running, pour the milk in slowly. Pulse the dough until it forms a loose ball.

5) When the apples are ready, pour them into an 8×8 baking dish.

6) Sprinkle the dough over the apples, roughly, it doesn’t need to be even.

7) Put the dish in your oven for 13-15 minutes, or until the dough is lightly browned.

8) Remove from the oven, let cool for 5-10 minutes, then enjoy!