Posted by Belle

We want to wish everyone (a little belatedly) happy holidays - we hope you’ve all enjoyed the holiday festivities! We have had a great week so far, with a few parties and a few nice family-only days as well: a perfect blend, really!

We’ll be welcoming in the new year at Disney World in Orlando, Florida - and yes, we’ve got dining reservations nearly every day while we’re there, so hopefully we’ll be blogging our Disney food experiences. Not that we’re going to Disney for the food, but it’s funny; our last trip there was ten years ago, and looking back, what do we all (kids included!) remember the most? The restaurants! The food may have been so-so but the environment and atmosphere were most definitely fun. I suspect that’s not changed, and there’s a chance the food may be a lot better!

So here’s to a fabulous new year! Have a great time with your new year celebrations, everyone - Ward and I wish you all the best in 2009!

Posted by Belle

Sometimes, when you stumble across a great little recipe that’s easy to make, with results that are so much better than anything you’ve tried in a restaurant, it holds pride of place in your kitchen as a “keeper”.

Our version of Japanese gyoza dumplings is one such recipe.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, Ward and Belle must not get out often enough, obviously, at least not to the better Japanese restaurants that serve great gyoza, and we’d say, “yes, we grant you that.”

And after looking through the recipe, you might also say, “Hey, wait a minute, these aren’t traditional gyoza! Traditional gyoza are fried first, and then steamed!” We’d nod and say, “yes, that’s true, too.”

But that doesn’t change the facts: we love this method of making gyozas, and have been having them as late-night snacks at least once a week.

They also make a great party appetizer, which is a nice thing now that we’re knee deep in the holiday season. An especially fun thing to do? Put together the filling, and then set your guests to making the dumplings while you start the prep work for dinner. Fry them up while everyone hangs around, mouths watering and little appetizer plates at hand, ready for that first bite of these delicious, fresh, hot and slightly chewy gyoza, dipped into the most marvelous, slightly spicy dipping sauce.

Gyoza that they helped make, we might add. It all adds to the fun. Truly.

I’ve got you now, haven’t I? Here’s a close-up, just in case you weren’t all ready to check out the recipe below even after all that buildup:

Japanese Gyoza Dumplings

And here’s our recipe; as mentioned above, these aren’t traditional gyoza, which are first fried and then steamed. We skip the steaming altogether. You’ll want to make sure you have the right temperature for the oil so that your dumpling skins don’t crisp and brown too fast; you want your pork filling to be cooked thoroughly.

Muse in The Kitchen’s Gyoza Dumplings

Ingredients

20-30 gyoza or Chinese round dumpling wrappers (our preference is for the Chinese dumpling wrappers)

For the Filling:
3 large shrimp (deveined and peeled)
1/8 head of Napa cabbage
1/4 bunch of Chinese chives
140 g (5 oz) ground pork
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

For the Dipping Sauce:
2 tbsp soya sauce (we prefer Japanese soy sauce for this)
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp chili sesame oil

1. Chop the shrimp into small pieces. Finely chop the cabbage and the Chinese chives.

2. Using your hands, in a large bowl mix together all the filling ingredients.

3. Prepare a small bowl of water for dipping your fingers. Place a gyoza wrapper on your hand, then dip your finger in the water and run it around half of the wrapper’s edge (this will allow it be sealed when you fold it in half).

4. Put about a tablespoon of the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the edges of the wrapper together into a half-moon shape. Pinch the edges; they will stick together.

5. Continue preparing dumplings until your filling mixture is all used.

6. Heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a medium-sized frying pan on medium-high heat until hot. Add the gyoza dumplings to the hot oil, five or six at a time, standing them on their bottom. Don’t crowd them into the pan as we will have to lay them on their sides after the bottoms are browned. As the bottoms brown, turn dumplings onto one side to brown, and then the other side. Adjust the heat as needed, so that dumplings don’t brown too fast.

7. Place cooked gyoza on paper towels to absorb any extra oil. As you continue frying up the uncooked gyoza, you may have to add more oil.

8. To prepare sauce, add together all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into smaller dipping sauce bowls to serve with gyoza.

Posted by Belle

Coconut Shrimp with Mango Mint Dipping Sauce

Using Larger Shrimp

Here’s a slightly different take on the shrimp appetizer: Coconut Shrimp with Mango Mint Dipping Sauce has a lovely coconut flavor, and the mango mint dipping sauce makes for a change from the normal range of dipping sauces.

Mango Mint Dipping Sauce

Ward’s made these a few times now - they were so good the first time (and disappeared like you wouldn’t believe), he made them again a few days later. The first time, he used large shrimp; the second time we were out of the larger shrimp, so we used medium-sized shrimp. Didn’t make any difference in terms of taste!

Coconut Shrimp

Coconut Shrimp with Mango Mint Dipping Sauce

Adapted from Small Bites, by Jennifer Joyce

When making these, try to buy shrimp that’s already been deveined; peeling the shells off is easy. Deveining is not.

The Coconut Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 lb (450g) medium-sized or large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup cornstarch
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
1-1/4 cups unsweetened dried coconut, shredded
salt
pepper
2-1/2 cups vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

2. Wash and dry the shrimp on paper towels. Place cornstarch, beaten egg whites and shredded coconut in three small to medium-sized bowls.

3. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Dip into cornstarch. Shake off excess. Dip into egg white and then into the coconut.

4. Heat oil in a large wok or heavy, medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Oil should be hot enough that a small piece of bread will sizzle when dropped into the oil. If using a deep-fry thermometer, heat oil to 375°F (190°C).

5. Fry shrimp in batches in the oil until golden, approximately 1.5 to 2 minutes for each batch. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in preheated oven. Serve with Mango Mint dipping sauce (below)

The Mango mint dipping sauce:

Ingredients

1 large mango, peeled and cut into chunks
3/4 tbsp lime juice
1 small red chili pepper, deseeded and finely diced
handful mint leaves
handful fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp yogurt

Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. (We initially used our food processor, but it’s far less messy in a blender.)

Posted by Belle

I love potato latkes, but up until now, we hadn’t come across a recipe that really worked for us - you know, one in which you end up with the perfect potato latke.

Until recently, that is. Here’s the perfect potato latke, straight from the frying pen onto the paper towel:

The Perfect Potato Latke

You’ll need that paper towel, because there’s a whole lot of oil involved in the making of these perfect latkes:

In the Frying Pan

Don’t let all of that oil put you off, though. These potato latkes were among the best I’ve ever tasted; on par with the ones we had this summer at the Charlotte Lane Restaurant in Shelburne, Nova Scotia (it was their lunch special - potato latke topped with a fried egg and cheese and no, that description doesn’t do it justice at all). The ones we made were slightly different than the ones at Charlotte Lane: the Charlotte Lane ones were thick and very substantial. Ours were crispy on the outside and deliciously moist on the outside; what they shared with the Charlotte Lane ones was that essential potato taste that is so important when it comes to potato latkes.

Here’s the recipe we followed, adapted from Gourmet, December 2008. The first time Ward made this, he didn’t drain the potato mixture, and while the potato latkes tasted amazing, they were very crumbly and hard to handle. The second time? He drained them well, and the result was absolute perfection.

Potato Latkes

Potato Latkes
Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients:

1 medium onion
3 lb russet (baking) potatoes (about three large potatoes)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1. Cut onion in half and grate in a food processor, using the medium shredding disk. Transfer grated onion to a large bowl, but do not clean the processor.

2. Peel the potatoes and put into a bowl of cold water to prevent discolouring while you work with each one. Cut the potatoes lengthwise so they fit into the feed tube of your food processor. Grate and add to the large bowl of grated onions.

3. Toss potato and onion mixture with lemon juice. Add the flour, 2 tsp salt and one tsp pepper. Toss again. Add eggs, and stir so that all the potato and onion pieces are coated.

4. Transfer potato and onion mixture to a colander set over a bowl, to drain - this is very important. Frying up your potato latkes without doing this step will result in tasty but very crumbly, not particularly crispy latkes.

5. Preheat your oven to 200°F. You’ll be using your oven to keep your latkes warm as you fry your way through the batch.

6. Heat about a 1/4 inch of oil to 360°F in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop up mounds of potato mixture into your skillet. We found we were able to fry four mounds at a time comfortably. Flatten with a fork to form 3-1/2 inch to 4-inch pancakes.

7. Cook until golden brown on the outside, about 2-1/2 to 3 minutes each side. Transfer latkes to a baking sheet lined with a paper towel. Keep warm in the oven while you make the rest of the latkes.

Posted by Belle

From the jacket flap:

According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server’s unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he’s truly thrived.

Muse in the Kitchen’s Review

I enjoyed this book - it’s not really a food writing type of book, but it’s an interesting inside look at the restaurant industry, not from the chef’s perspective but from the waiter’s side of things. The book grew out of a very popular blog, Waiter Rant, but since I hadn’t followed the blog, either, I approached the book as a fresh reader.

Dublanica writes well, and his descriptions of his interactions with various customers are a lot of fun: I’ve known people exactly like several of the customers he writes about (and I’d hate to have to interact with some of them!). Waiters see it all - even in a more upper crust restaurant the seamier side of life reveals itself amongst the well-heeled patrons - and in The Waiter Rant it’s dished out in Dublanica’s easy-to-read prose.

Along the way there’s a lot of honest introspection on The Waiter’s side, making the book more than just a rant about waiting tables and dealing with inconsiderate and sometimes extremely rude customers.

People in this country walk past guys like Claude every day and think he’s a loser - just another guy who lost out on life’s lottery. I know many people look at me and think the same thing. I see the looks. I’m thirty-eight years old and waiting tables. I can do the math. Every day I work among the successfully sleek and carnivorous beautiful people. Sometimes I wonder what these people have that I don’t have.

Dublanica’s at his best, though, when describing the stories that occur daily all around him. The ending wasn’t quite as fulfilling as I would have liked; it took him rather long to leave The Bistro. I really would have liked to see him take a stand, say, “you know what? I’m worth far more than this.” Which he does eventually sort of say, but he really gets pushed into it. I know I wouldn’t have displayed the patience that he did. On the other hand, The Bistro was six years of his life, and it can be tough turning your back on the familiar. After leaving the Bistro, Dublanica ends up as a waiter again - but the slice of life he sees every day must be great grist for the writer’s mill.

All in all, this was an interesting read. I’m not so sure I would have picked it up on my own, but I signed up for the Food For Thought Book Club and The Waiter Rant is the first book we’re reading together. You can check out what other members of the book club are saying here.

Posted by Belle

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Soy Glaze

Doesn’t this look so good? This delicious dish combines a sweet Asian glaze with the goodness of roasted sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes have a deep caramel sweetness with a very slight licorice taste.

We like to have this dish as a snack - and it’s the best kind of snack, because they’re good for you, too.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey and Soy Glaze

Adapted from Japanese Pure and Simple, one of our favourite cookbooks.

Ingredients:

1 pound (454g) sweet potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup (50 ml) vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
salt

Glaze ingredients:
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp juice of grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut the sweet potatoes into one-inch cubes. Put sweet potato cubes into large bowl, and add vegetable oil and sesame oil. Toss well, so that the cubes are coated with the oils. Add a sprinkle of salt.

2. Place sweet potato cubes in one layer on a baking tray in middle shelf of oven. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes or until edges are crisp.

3. Remove from heat. Change oven setting to grill, at highest temperature. Mix the honey, soy sauce and ginger juice. Drizzle over hot sweet potatoes, and place under grill for a further 2 to 3 minutes. Shake occasionally, and watch carefully, as glaze mixture burns easily.

4. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve warm.