Salon.com > Grace Hwang Lynch http://www.salon.com Sat, 25 May 2013 01:08:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jasmine-scented Meyer lemon bars http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2011/02/14/meyer_lemon_bars Early February has been unseasonably warm in the Silicon Valley; the sun is shining, and kids wear shorts and T-shirts to school. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, temperatures were dipping below freezing at night and front lawns were crunchy with frost in the mornings. Even when winter is cold and gray in the Bay Area, there are little drops of sunshine in the form of citrus trees in yards, decorated with grapefruits you could pitch in a softball game or kumquats no bigger than a thumbnail. When the sun does pierce through the Northern California gray skies, it is often blindingly low on the horizon. Likewise, these homegrown citrus fruits can often come with a tang that will scare off all but the scurviest of sailors.

Enter the Meyer lemon. Native to China, this petite, thin-skinned variety is actually a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, giving it the perfect blend of acid and sugar. However, the delicate rind and high sugar content make for poor shipping and storage, and the Meyer has never caught on as a supermarket item. Pricey in gourmet stores and farmer's markets, the best way to obtain them is by knowing someone.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars/feed/ 1 Jasmine-scented Meyer lemon bars recipe http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars_recipe/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars_recipe/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2011/02/14/meyer_lemon_bars_recipe

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 cup flour
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • ½ teaspoon jasmine tea

Filling:

  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice
  • 2-3 teaspoons grated Meyer lemon zest (or more, if your lemon yields it)

Glaze:

  • 1 teaspoon jasmine tea
  • 4 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.
  2. Using a chef's knife and a rocking motion, mince the jasmine tea leaves.
  3. Cut the butter into small pieces. Add flour, sugar. When the mixture looks like coarse crumbs, mix in jasmine tea.
  4. Press the crust mixture into the baking pan.
  5. Bake in 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes.
  6. While crust is baking, make the filling: mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
  7. Lightly beat the eggs, adding lemon juice and lemon zest.
  8. Add dry ingredients from Step 6.
  9. As soon as the crust is golden brown, pour the filling over it and return to oven. Bake 25 minutes longer, or until the top is mostly set.
  10. Make the glaze: steep the jasmine tea in one cup hot water. Strain the leaves, and add the brewed tea one spoonful at a time into the powdered sugar, stirring to make a glaze consistency.
  11. Run a thin, sharp knife around the outer rim of the pan as lemon bars are cooling. Drizzle with glaze and cut into 16 squares.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/15/meyer_lemon_bars_recipe/feed/ 0 Chili for Chinese New Year http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2011/01/31/chinese_chili Early in my marriage, my husband and I were trying to make plans for a certain weekend at the end of January. It was Chinese New Year, and I wanted to visit my family several hours to the north of where we lived. My husband, however, had other ideas.

"My parents are having a big party. All the relatives will be there," he explained.

"But it's tradition to spend this weekend with my side of the family," I countered.

"Why? They don't even watch the Super Bowl!"

Count it as one of the joys of a mixed-race marriage. We bring some really different cultural perspectives into our lives. One spouse's important cultural tradition is ... well, the same day as the other person's important cultural tradition. Fortunately, Chinese New Year is determined by the lunar calendar, meaning it's a moving target -- in mid-January one year, late February other years.

This year, Chinese New Year begins on Feb. 3, meaning the Packers and the Steelers will have to face another contender: the Rabbit. As in, Year of the Rabbit.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili/feed/ 0 Chinese New Year chili http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili_recipe/ http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili_recipe/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2011/01/31/chinese_chili_recipe Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves shallots, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, diced
  • 2 slices fresh ginger
  • 1 pound ground pork
  • 1 teaspoon Five spice powder*
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 teaspoon bean paste with chili**
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Shao Xing Jiu (Chinese rice wine; you can substitute Johnny Walker or a splash of lager)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3-4 inch strip orange peel
  • 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, with green chile is a nice touch
  • 2 cans black beans

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/02/01/chinese_chili_recipe/feed/ 0 The real problem with “Tiger Mother” http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/asian_american_perspective_on_tiger_mom_open2011/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/asian_american_perspective_on_tiger_mom_open2011/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/01/14/asian_american_perspective_on_tiger_mom_open2011 Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" kicked up instant controversy when an excerpt ran in the Wall Street Journal. Chua, a professor of law at Yale, strives to shape her two daughters into Julliard-trained, Carnegie Hall-worthy classical pianists and violinists. Her story casts light on the gut-wrenching dilemmas faced by parents who want to reconcile their own strict, achievement-oriented upbringings with the current "child led" philosophies espoused by many Americans. But readers were quick to express horror at Chua's means: One child's hand-made birthday card is rejected as "not good enough"; she calls one daughter "garbage."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/asian_american_perspective_on_tiger_mom_open2011/feed/ 121 Pasta puttanesca: No need to get dressed or go out http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_open2011/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_open2011/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_open2011 If you need advice on how to survive a snowstorm on the contents of your cupboards, ask someone who lives in the Sierras -- namely, the Eastern Sierra ski town of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. A ski town is at the mercy of Mother Nature. No snow, no tourists, no business. Luckily, Mammoth Mountain's geography ensures no shortage of precipitation. It was not uncommon for a foot to fall overnight. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

A serious weather system could drop 4 to 5 feet of snow in a day, shutting down Highway 395, the only route in or out of the town -- and the only route for the delivery trucks carrying food from a Southern California warehouse to the only grocery store in Mammoth. On the evening before a big storm, the supermarket shelves would be bare. I don't mean "Oh no, they're out of canned pumpkin!" I mean looted -- as if Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Rodney King riots and the apocalypse were all rolled into one.

Luckily, the scarcity of grocery stores was balanced by an overabundance of restaurants. I happened to wait tables at one of them, a new Italian eatery owned by a well-known jazz musician. But sometimes, a large crowd coincided with a large snowfall, stranding lots of (hungry) people and depleting the restaurant's cold storage.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_open2011/feed/ 3 Pasta puttanesca recipe http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_recipe_open2011/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_recipe_open2011/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_recipe_open2011

Ingredients

  • 1 28-ounce can of tomatoes
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 fillets of anchovies (drained canned tuna can be substituted, but the sauce will take on a different character), cut in ½-inch pieces
  • 1 tablespoon capers, or to taste
  • ½ cup sliced olives
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, as needed
  • 1 pound dry spaghetti
  • chopped fresh parsley, if available, to taste

Directions

  1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet, add garlic. When garlic is golden and aromatic, add anchovies, then olives and capers.
  2. Add canned tomatoes, breaking up large pieces by squeezing them through your fingers, if necessary. Reduce heat to simmer.
  3. Meanwhile, boil spaghetti in plenty of salted water.
  4. Add cooked, drained spaghetti to the skillet and toss to coat. Garnish with parsley and serve.
  5. Be thankful that you have food to eat and a warm place to sleep.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/pasta_puttanesca_recipe_open2011/feed/ 0 Pumpkin curry chicken pot pie (for the busy) http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie/ http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2010/11/01/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie Fall, with its bountiful harvest and cool temperatures perfect for baking and simmering, is the ideal season for cooking. Unfortunately, fall is also the season packed with soccer practices, school volunteering, PTA meetings, meetings to train volunteers ...

Every parent I know has some variation of this life. Over Labor Day weekend, a friend of mine who lives just half an hour away told me, "I guess I'll see you after the holidays."

Makes me want to just order out for dinner for the next few months. Which wouldn't be too hard, considering the local restaurant row could provide me with a different cuisine for each night of the week. Recently, two interesting new eateries have opened up in my neighborhood. The first is a Burmese restaurant. Burmese food is a little like Thai food, a little like Indian food, and then something altogether its own. The menu offers samosas, tea leaf salad, and several curry dishes -- the most interesting of which is the pumpkin and beef curry.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie/feed/ 1 Pumpkin curry chicken pot pie recipe http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie_2/ http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie_2/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2010/11/01/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie
Serves 4-6 as a main course

This recipe includes several "shortcut" components (remember the part about fall being my busiest season?) to make it a slightly ambitious, yet realistic, weeknight family dinner. It may be more Rachael Ray than Julia Child, but hey -- at least it's not Ronald McDonald!

Ingredients

  • 2 ready-made pie crusts, thawed (Trader Joe's makes a good one)
  • ½ yellow onion, diced
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut in 1-inch pieces
  • 1-2 tablespoons red curry paste (available in Asian markets or in your grocery)
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1 cup coconut milk (I don't recommend low-fat, as it may make the filling too runny)
  • juice of ½ lime
  • ½ cup puréed pumpkin
  • 1 cup raw pumpkin or butternut squash, cut in ½-inch cubes*
  • Vegetable oil, as needed
  • Optional: handful of frozen peas, diced carrots, diced potatoes or garbanzo beans

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/11/02/pumpkin_curry_chicken_pot_pie_2/feed/ 0 Oolong-flavored white peach iced tea http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2010/08/23/white_peach_iced_tea As a very young child, my bedtime stories didn't come from a book. Nor were they the fairy tales and nursery rhymes familiar to most American tots.

My father told the stories — mostly the same folk tales he heard as a young boy in Taiwan. One of my favorites was the legend of the Peach Boy. It is a story similar to the Japanese folk tale Momotaro, which literally translates into Peach (momo) Son (taro). From the late 1800s until the end of World War II, the island of Taiwan was under Japanese occupation. The northern country's influence can still be seen in many aspects of Taiwanese society: food, pop culture and education

The tale of Momotaro starts out with an elderly couple who yearn for children but are getting on in their years (sort of the Asian equivalent to the Judeo-Christian Abraham and Sarai). The old lady is washing clothes in the river one day, when a peach -- the biggest, most beautiful peach she has ever seen -- comes floating downstream. She takes the fruit home to her husband, and they slice it in half. Out pops a beautiful little baby boy, and against all odds they are parents. That is the way I remember the story, at least.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea/feed/ 0 Oolong-flavored white peach iced tea recipe http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea_recipe/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea_recipe/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2010/08/23/white_peach_iced_tea_recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe white peach
  • 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste, if necessary
  • 3-4 tablespoons loose Oolong tea leaves
  • 4 cups cold water

Directions

  1. Put the oolong tea leaves in a tea ball or wrap in cheesecloth to form a sachet. Or use an iced tea pitcher with a built-in strainer for leaves.
  2. Place tea ball or sachet into pitcher.
  3. Pour cold water over the tea leaves.
  4. Steep for 3-5 hours at room temperature.
  5. While tea is steeping, peel peaches and cut into chunks. Reserve a few slices for garnishing.
  6. Using a food processor, purée the peach chunks.
  7. Add sugar, if peaches are not especially sweet.
  8. Remove tea leaves from pitcher.
  9. Add peach purée and stir. The tea will be pulpy, not clear

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/white_peach_iced_tea_recipe/feed/ 0 Farmer’s tomato cucumber salad http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2010/08/02/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad The most mouthwatering tomato I've ever seen was at the home of a farmer. A potato farmer.

When I was working as a small town television news reporter, I got invited into a lot of homes. Back in the early 1990s, the local TV station was still the main source of information for many rural areas, and a reporter on a doorstep was welcomed in like a neighbor. At a job in southern Idaho, I was assigned a story about potato farms. Actually, many of my stories had to do with potato farming, but for this particular assignment, I arrived at the designated address and knocked at the door of the ranch home, video camera in hand.

The farmer's wife, a friendly older lady, answered the door. "He's still eating his lunch," she informed me, inviting me in. I was escorted into their kitchen, where the potato farmer was sitting at the table, leisurely eating a large beefsteak tomato, clearly homegrown.

I introduced myself, and explained the questions I was planning to ask him. He listened to me, but made no effort to speed up his lunch.

Slowly, he sliced the tomato, letting its red juices run all over the plate. Then, he generously spread each slice with Miracle Whip as I talked about where I'd like to set up the equipment for the interview.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad/feed/ 2 Farmers tomato cucumber salad with creamy dressing recipe http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad_recipe/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad_recipe/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2010/08/02/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad_recipe

Ingredients

  • 3-4 tomatoes, preferably vine-ripened
  • 1 small cucumber
  • ¼ red onion
  • 1 handful Italian parsley

Dressing:

  • ¼ cup plain yogurt
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon dill weed
  • Dash of white pepper and sea salt

Directions

  1. Slice the tomatoes into wedges, the cucumbers into rounds, and the red onions into slivers. Arrange gently in serving bowl.
  2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a separate bowl until smooth, adding white pepper and sea salt to taste. Drizzle dressing over the vegetables right before serving, garnishing with torn parsley leaves.
  3. Enjoy!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/03/farmers_tomato_cucumber_salad_recipe/feed/ 0 Great audiobooks for your kids http://www.salon.com/2010/06/30/kid_audio_books_open2010/ http://www.salon.com/2010/06/30/kid_audio_books_open2010/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2010/06/30/kid_audio_books_open2010 As a child, I always wanted to read in the car during long road trips. But somehow reading in the back seat of our wood-paneled Aspen station wagon usually left me dizzy and heaving on the side of a highway. Plus my mother said it was bad for my eyes (that part might have been right, judging from my contact lens prescription).

My own children are blessed with a built-in DVD player in our minivan. But a parent can only take so many animated features during a long car ride -- and so much whining and poking of little brothers. And what if we have to drive Dad's (more, err, "rustic") vehicle?

That's where audiobooks comes in. OK, they're technically not reading, but it is listening to literature read aloud -- verbatim -- by people who can do the voices much better than Mom or Dad, and they lack the noisy sound effects and soundtracks of most kids entertainment. Plus, there's usually a good supply of high-quality stories available at your public library.

Here are a few of my favorites:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/06/30/kid_audio_books_open2010/feed/ 3 How hot dogs got into sushi rolls http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_open2010/ http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_open2010/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/kitchen_challenge/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_open2010 Hot dogs are always eaten with buns, right? That may be how Americans consume their Oscar Meyers, but in many other parts of the world, hot dogs are incorporated into the local cuisines. In places where the U.S. military has historically had a presence, surplus army rations -- including Spam and hot dogs -- were introduced to the local population, which incorporated them into their fare. Prompt any Filipino child with "spaghetti and..." they will finish the sentence not with "meatballs," but "hot dogs!" In Korea, hot dogs might be found in a stew, or simply with white rice and seaweed.

I was first introduced to Korean food through a Korean Baptist church. This particular house of worship was theologically strictly Southern Baptist: no drinking, no dancing, and members of the congregation addressed each other as "Brother" and "Sister." The church was also culturally very Korean. Elders were addressed with the proper honorific terms: "Ajooma" for the older ladies and "Ajooshi" for the older gentlemen.

Like any faith community, this body has its share of church luncheons and picnics, all involving vast quantities of Korean food prepared by the church ladies in the basement kitchen. The picnics included the standard hamburgers and hot dogs, supplemented by marinated barbecued short ribs (galbi) and kimbap.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_open2010/feed/ 0 Korean hot dog sushi rolls (kimbap) http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_recipe_open2010/ http://www.salon.com/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_recipe_open2010/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/recipes/2010/06/29/hot_dog_sushi_recipe_open2010

Ingredients

  • Seaweed sushi wrappers
  • 2 cups short grain white rice
  • 3 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 bunch spinach
  • 3 carrots
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 hot dogs
  • Takuwan (pickled daikon radish) and pickled burdock root (optional, if you can find it at an Asian market), sliced into thin long strips

Special equipment: You will need a bamboo sushi rolling mat

Directions

  1. Cook rice according to directions, or with slightly less water, to keep the grains from turning mushy.
  2. Blanch or steam spinach and carrots until barely cooked. Slice the carrots into long, 1/4" wide strips.
  3. Fry the eggs in a lightly oiled skillet as if making a thin pancake. Let cook until set on one side, then flip the entire thing over without breaking it. Slice into thin strips.
  4. Heat the hot dogs in a skillet until they turn slightly brown and plumped. Slice lengthwise into quarters. Have all the ingredients ready when the rice finishes.
  5. While rice is still warm sprinkle with salt, sugar and sesame oil. Gently mix the rice and seasonings by turning sections of it with a rice paddle or large spoon, to not smash it into a paste.
  6. Place a sheet of seaweed on the bamboo mat. Spread a thin layer of rice on the bottom four or five inches of the seaweed. In the middle of the rice, carefully arrange the strips of vegetable, egg and hot dog. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and a little more sesame oil if desired.
  7. Without lifting up the bamboo mat, take the bottom of the sheet and fold the rice over the fillings, forming a roll. You may need to press loose fillings in as you do this to keep the roll looking nice. You should now see only plain rice and the non-rice end of the seaweed ahead of you as your roll from the bottom up. If necessary, sprinkle a little water on the inside of the seaweed to help it stick together when you have rolled everything together into a tube.
  8. When you have formed the roll, then wrap the bamboo mat around the whole thing and gentle squeeze. This helps the kimbap to hold together without sticking to your fingers.
  9. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, then slice into 3/4" rounds with a sharp knife. Dipping the knife lightly into water between slices will help prevent sticking.

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