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

View fullsize

• 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

View fullsize

• 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.

BEETS AND CHORIZO

Beets are always paired with blue cheese, which is lovely but needed a kick in bum for this dinner party. Cheese provides fat and acid which pair well with beets, so I opted to trade them for chorizo. Spicy, fatty, crisp, they make the perfect accompaniment to luscious beets.

INGREDIENTS

View fullsize

• 3 medium Beets
• 2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 4 small Chorizo (the hard, cured kind, not raw meat)
• 2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• Salt to taste

GET BUSY

1. Heat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Peel and quarter your beets. Place in a roasting tray and drizzle with oil.
3. Roast the beets for 75-90 minutes, until they're fork tender.
4. While the beets are roasting, slice the chorizo into small discs and throw them in a large sauté pan. Cook the chorizo over a medium-low flame, rendering out the fat, for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly, until crispy. Scoop the crisped meat out of the rendered fat (save the fat for another recipe).
5. Remove the beets from the oven, allow them 10 minutes to cool, then slice them into filets.
6. Toss the beets and chorizo together in a bowl with salt and balsamic vinegar. Plate 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

View fullsize

• 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!