Sesame Noodles: A Great ‘Use-it-up’ Dish

I have just added Sesame Noodles to my roster of dishes that I turn to when I need to use up leftover vegetables. This light but tasty Asian-influenced pasta dish is perfect for lunch or a supper side. It tastes good hot and freshly made or cold out of the refrigerator. And it readily takes [...]

Variations on a Theme: Egg Drop Soup

Image via Wikipedia

To continue the theme of spring dishes, I wanted to discuss Egg Drop Soup. This basic soup goes by many different guises, including the Chinese version that is most familiar and Stracciatella in Italy. Heartier versions with garlic, rice, spinach and even chicken can be found in many other cuisines, such as Greece [...]

Fried Rice to the Rescue

I don’t know about you, but I always have leftover rice whenever I make rice. It’s impossible to make just enough rice for two people; I can’t find a good method that serves less than four and still makes good rice.
But fortunately, for every leftover problem, there’s the perfect leftover dish. For rice, it’s fried [...]

A Simple Asian Menu for Autumn

First, you may notice that I have done some reorganizing. I’m trying out a new theme, which offers a little more screen real estate, a cleaner look and spreading out of the sidebar elements. I hope you like it. I’ve also separated out the meta-categories from tags. Look in the tag cloud for specific ingredients, [...]

Sweet & Sour Cucumbers

Marinated cucumbers are one of my favorite starters — refreshing, but not filling. They can be made a few hours ahead of time and chilled in the refrigerator. This is a milder version that pairs well with Asian foods. The recipe is very versatile and can be made sweeter or hotter to taste, so please [...]

Chicken Soup for the Body

Your mother was right — when you’re sick, chicken soup is the best medicine. There’s no denying that when you’re feeling stuffed up and miserable, a bowl of chicken soup can bring relief. (My husband and I both confirmed this in independent taste tests yesterday, he with a bowl of Chinese chicken dumpling soup, I [...]

Valentines’ Day Food Massacre

As I said in a recent roundup, I’ve set myself a personal challenge of cooking a fun theme menu once a week. This week, it wasn’t difficult to decide what to choose for the theme: l’amour, natch. But I didn’t want to go with the tried-and-trite for my menu: aphrodisiacs, red foods, chocolate…
So I thought [...]

Hidden Moon Noodles in Broth

This Asian-inspired soup is called “Hidden Moon Noodles” because of the egg hidden among all the vegetables. It makes a hearty and filling main course.

Hidden Moon Noodles
Serves: 2
Time to make: ~30 minutes

1½ oz. dried shiitake mushrooms
¼ lb. Chinese-style noodles or spaghetti
2 cups chicken stock
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. rice wine
½ tbsp. sugar
¼ head Napa cabbage, [...]

Steamed Vegetables with Sesame Dressing

This Asian-influenced sesame dressing is a light accompaniment for pretty much any vegetable that can be steamed: asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, snow peas or sugar snap peas. (If you substitute another longer cooking vegetable, remember to adjust the steaming time accordingly.) Serve this as a light starter before a heartier soup or stew. Serves [...]

How to Make the Perfect Stir-Fry

The secrets to a successful stir-fry are organization and preparation, which are also the keys to accomplishing pretty much any complex task. Cooking is a small mirror held up to life (profound, huh?). If you can pull off a good stir-fry, you can probably successfully manage three complex software development projects with deliverables expected in [...]