Egg Drop Soup

This is a recipe I adapted from Susanna (and her mom). The fun part is creating the strands of egg in the soup.
8 c chicken broth
½ c green peas
½ c Chinese black mushrooms (otherwise known as shitakes)
150g silken tofu
1 egg
2 stalks of green onion, thinly sliced for garnish
Heat chicken broth to a rolling boil. While you wait, slice the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the broth when the broth is heated through. Then add the green peas. Chop the tofu into 1 inch cubes (be careful with this because the tofu will be quite delicate). Add that to the broth and let simmer until the tofu has warmed. If you want a slightly thicker soup, mix two tsp of cornstarch with 2 tbsp water and add to the broth. To create the egg strands, first crack the egg into a small bowl and add 1 tbsp water. Beat thoroughly with a fork or chopsticks. Make sure the chicken broth is still at a rolling boil. With one hand, drizzle a thin stream of the beaten egg into the broth. At the same time with the other hand, slowly make a figure 8 motion with your chopsticks or fork in the soup. Thin, white threads of egg should start appearing. Garnish soup with green onion.

Apple & Blue Cheese Salad

The traditional Waldorf salad (named after the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York where it was first created) contains celery, apples, walnuts and grapes – all coated with a creamy dressing. I played with that idea to create this salad. I used gorgonzola cheese at the cabin, but any blue cheese works well.
½ head leafy lettuce, washed
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1/3 cucumber, chopped
2 stalks green onion, chopped
1 apple, thinly sliced
3 tbsp dried cranberries
5 tbsp toasted almonds, roughly chopped
1 boiled egg
2 tbsp raspberry vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
blue cheese, also to taste
Whisk together vinegar, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Rip lettuce into bite-size pieces. Toss with the vinaigrette. Add all the other veggies and the blue cheese. Toss again, making sure the cucumber and bell peppers don’t settle on the bottom of the salad bowl. Slice the egg and place on top with the apple, cranberries and almonds.

Hasashi's Onigiri

1 c Japanese style short grain rice, rinsed
1 can of tuna fish
1 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp roasted sesame seeds or furikake rice seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
strips of nori (seaweed)
bowl of water for wetting hands
shaker of salt (for folding)
Place rice and 1 ¼ c water in saucepan. Bring to boil. Turn down heat and let rice simmer covered for 15 to 20 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed and grains of rice are cooked through. Rice should be slightly sticky. Set aside. To make the filling, combine the can of tuna fish with the mayo and add salt and pepper to taste. (Add a squeeze of lemon juice for some extra fun.) Rice should still be warm, but easier to handle. Mix the roasted sesame seeds or furikake in with the rice. Make sure your hands are clean. Wet both hands in bowl of water. Sprinkle salt into the hand that will cup the rice. Scoop about half a cup of cooked rice into the palm of your hand. Press down so that it’s firm. Make an indentation in the centre of the rice. Drop about ½ tsp of the tuna fish filling into the indentation. "Fold" the rice around the filling by cupping your hand, using your other hand to help the rice encase the filling. Rice should completely surround the filling by this point. Apply some pressure to form the rice into a ball. Or, to make a triangle: cup your free hand so that the thumb and other fingers form the letter "A". This will be the mold for two sides of your triangle. Press your letter A hand on the rice ball so that the sides of the triangle start to form. At the same time, cup the hand the rice is sitting in, squeezing the rice ball into an elongated triangle (it’s more complicated to explain than to do. This site has a good series of photos to follow.) Then, wrap the completed onigiri in a strip of nori. Chill briefly in the fridge. Onigiri’s don’t keep for long because the rice hardens if they're chilled too long. But if you don’t eat them right away, wrap in plastic wrap and store in an air-tight container in the fridge. You can try to make onigiri with more traditional fillings such as pickled plum, salted cod roe or bonito flakes.

Pork Dumplings

I learned how to make these from a Shanghainese lady I booked for a cooking segment at work once. She was a wonderful grandmotherly type – moved to Ottawa to be closer to her son and his family. She taught me how to fold the dumplings so they have little pleats in them – something I don’t think I’d ever have learnt on my own. And man, was she fast at folding. The measurements for this recipe are a bit sketch – I’m going from what I remember. So fry up a bit of the filling in a pan and taste it before you start folding. Adjust to suit your tastebuds.
½ pound ground pork
½ head nappa cabbage, finely shredded
2 tbsp ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
splash of rice wine vinegar
splash of cooking wine
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
salt & white pepper
package of round dumpling wrappers
bowl of water for folding
Combine the pork and cabbage together in a large bowl. Mix well. To that add the ginger, garlic, vinegar, cooking wine, sugar, cornstarch and salt and pepper. The mixture should be quite thick. Put one of the dumpling wrappers in the palm of your hand. Moisten the edge with water. Spoon a little less than a teaspoon of the filling into the centre of the wrapper. Folding is the tricky part. I’m just going to say fold in half and press shut tightly for now. Once I make a new batch of dumplings, I’ll put pics up of how to fold them with the little pleats. Cook the dumplings in a pot of boiling water. Stir occassionally so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Once they float to the surface, cook an additional 3 minutes. Eat them plain or with rice wine vinegar and chili sauce.
To freeze: after wrapping the dumplings, spread them on a cookie sheet and place in freezer for ½ hour or so. Then store them in a freezer bag or a sealed, plastic container.