It has been a while since I had a post. Now I am back with more fast cooking methods, recipes and dinner parties. Just this past weekend I hosted a 18 people Chinese New Year party. It took me 2 hours to prepare and cook, 1 hour to cook during the party, and 30 mins to clean up. I had a chance to show off a couple of new recipes that I learned since the last dinner party. But before I talk about recipes, I want to thank all for coming and for the fine wines, drinks, chips, salads and deserts. I had a great time. I also want to thank my mom for making us fried noodles and fried rice.
The dinner party started with an experimental wine tasting. The feature wines were hand selected by Rich Ricci, the wine manager for the Gordon’s Fine Wine & Liquors in Watertown. They were:
California: * Annabella Napa Valley 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon * Geyser Peak 2004 Sauvignon Blanc Bordeaux, France * Chateau Recougne 2001 Bordeaux Superieur * Chateau La Tuilerie 2002 Entre-Deux-Mers (White Bordeaux consisting of Sauvignon blanc, Semillon, and Muscadelle)
The idea is to compare wines from two popular regions. Guests can compare different wines, red and white, from the same region and then wines made from the same grape but from different regions.
Here is what we had for dinner:
Two of them I posted recipes before:
I also made:
- spareribs
- dumplings
- chocolate fondue + strawberry.
I have cooked the spare ribs before but never put the recipe online. So here it is.
McCormick makes several packages called “Bag’n Season for XXXX”. You can get them in any super market. The package not only contains all necessary spices for XXXX but also has a oven proof bag to make preparing and cleaning much easier and thus faster. They used to make one called “Bag’n Season for Spareribs” but unfortunately they don’t make it anymore. I was very disappointed and called their headquarter. Fortunately they gave me the recipe for it. So here it is:
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 1.5 hours
Need: 3 Lb spareribs
Preheat your oven to 350F. While it is heating up mix these together.
1 package McCormic “Bag’n Season for Pork Chops” (important to have, you need the oven proof plastic bag inside the package.)
1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon ground mustard ½ teaspoon ground ginger
Put the dry mix in to the plastic bag. Then cut the ribs into desired size and dump them into the bag as well. Shake the bag so that the dry mix is evenly blended over the ribs.
Add the following liquid into the bag.
1 teaspoon soy souse ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke. (Not really necessary. It just adds some smoky smell to the rib.)
If you add the liquids with the dry mix before adding to the ribs, the liquids will congeal with the dry mix and it is very difficult the blend the spice evenly over the ribs.
Close bag loosely with nylon tie from “Bag’n Season for Pork Chops”. Put the bag into a 13x9 inch baking pan. Cut 4 small hoes in top of bag to allow steam to escape. Bake in lower half of oven for 1.5 hours. Let stand for 5 mins.
The best part is you can just throw away the plastic bag after serving and don’t need to clean your pan.
Next, dumplings are very easy to make. The key is to buy the right one. I found these, (Pictures coming soon) very tasty, cheap and easy to make. They are even better than those with fancier packaging. You can find them in the frozen food section in Asian super market.
First you need to use water that is about two times the volume of the dumpling. More water means less chance your dumpling will stick to your pod.
Bring the water to boil and put frozen dumplings into the water. Stir the dumpling a lot. It is especially sticky at the beginning. Wait until the water boils again. Add a cup of cold water to the dumplings. Wait until water boils again. Repeat until you pour three cups of water into your pod. In general, the dumplings are cooked once they float on top of water. However, I found this particular kind of dumplings taste better after the 3rd cup of water. Another things is that the dumplings taste different depends if you cooked with a cover or without one. You have to experiment yourself.
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