Recipe #50 - Asian Dumplings with Curried Coconut Sauce

Up to fifty recipes published here already. Give us another year and we may be ready to put out an actual cookbook...

We rarely make Asian dumplings. Why? For the same reason we almost never make ravioli or tortellini from scratch at home. It's a lot of time and work.

However, if you're up to the challenge and have the time, here's a recipe for some veggie-tofu dumplings that are pretty good. If you prefer meat instead of tofu, you can substitute lean ground pork or chicken.

Perhaps one way to make the process easier would be to invite several friends over for dinner and let 'em labor in the kitchen, doing the busy work of assembling the dumplings or shui mai.

Makes four to six servings depending on whether it's an appetizer or main course.

8 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 lb. fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 lb. firm tofu, drained and pressed dry with a towel
1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 Tbsp. prepared oyster sauce
1 tsp. sambal oelek (spicy red chile sauce)
1 tsp. dark sesame oil

Combine all these ingredients in a food processor. Pulse it a few times until you have a coarse mixture. (You don't want to run it too much or your filling will become to liquidy.) Chill the filling mixtured for a couple hours in the fridge. Meanwhile, make your sauce:

1/4 cup rich vegetable stock
1/3 cup canned coconut milk
2 scallions, finely minced
2 Tbsp. dry white wine
1 Tbsp. prepared oyster sauce
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. powdered galangal or powdered ginger

Whisk together all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and keep in the fridge until it's time to make the dumplings.

36 wonton wrappers
6 Tbsp. cornstarch

Scatter the corn starch across a large cookie sheet. Put a scant teaspoon of filling on each wonton wrapper. Fold the wrapper over filling to turn a square into a triangle. Press out as much air as possible. Using a fork, fold the edges over and crimp tightly and completely. (You don't want filling leaking out during the cooking process.) Store the dumplings on the cookie sheet while making the rest of them.

3 Tbsp. peanut oil

Heat the oil in a wide, flat non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the dumplings to the pan and fry for two or three minutes, until they're golden brown on the bottoms.

Pour in all the sauce, cover the pan, and steam the dumplings for a couple minutes more over medium heat, until they're firmed up. Remove the pan lid, put the heat back on high, and shake the pan around to keep the dumplings from sticking and to glaze them with the reducing sauce. Serve immediately.

Recipe #49 - Avgolemono Pasta with Asparagus and Artichoke Hearts

We've been tweaking this recipe for several years. Avgolemono soup, a Greek-inspired staple through the centuries, is thickened by egg yolks. This pasta dish has the same theme in mind, with a rich and lemony sauce.

Makes four servings.

3 egg yolks (use the whites for a low-cholesterol omelet)
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt and pepper

8 oz. frozen artichoke hearts
3/4 lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed and sliced in one-inch pieces
3/4 lb. fresh pasta (orecchiette, fettuccine, fusilli, piccolini, whatever floats your boat)
1 cup freshly grated asiago cheese
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until smooth. Whisk in the lemon juice, followed by the whipping cream.

Put the artichoke hearts into a saucepan of boiling salted water. Cook until heated through, a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a wok or large skillet. Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook until done, about three minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the skillet. Bring the water back to a full boil and add the pasta. Cook until al dente.

Reserve two cups of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and add it to the wok with the veggies. Slowly add a cup of the cooking water to the egg/lemon/cream mixture, whisking the whole time. Then add this mixture to the pasta and veggies, along with most of the asiago cheese and parsley. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Toss with a large spatula or spoon over medium heat. The sauce will thicken in a few minutes. Add small amounts of the cooking liquid to make it more creamy.

Serve with the rest of the grated asiago on the side. This goes great with a small piece of grilled salmon and a green salad.

A good wine match would be an unoaked chardonnay or a South African sauvignon blanc.

In Praise of Great Films - The Flawed Masterpiece

Eighth in a series.

Film history is replete with movies that get much-deserved acclaim despite what, in this author's opinion, are fairly obvious shortcomings. One can certainly enjoy a film, even elevate it to "classic" stature, while being able to point out its flaws. This is doubtlessly a highly arguable tenet, so let the debating begin.

Here are some movies which in my estimation are very enjoyable yet contain imperfections which I can't help but point out:

Love Actually (2003) - This movie is thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end, with scenes that reverberate with humor, true emotion, wit and style. (Who could forget Emma Thompson's silent meltdown when faced with her husband's infidelity on Christmas Eve, or Colin Firth attempting to propose to his foreign lover in terribly broken Portuguese, or Bill Nighy's character expressing his love for his longtime agent/manager?)

But ... this film is guilty of a sin many movies commit: Too many unnecessary storylines. The two plot points which Love Actually should have jettisoned are obvious. The first involves a couple who are apparently placed in the uncomfortable "position" of being stand-ins for an adult movie. They meet cute and end up together, which is all well and good, but the scenes they are in push the movie into R-rated territory, which is unfortunate in that it limits the film's audience with a limited payoff. This entire plot point could have been eliminated with zero damage to the overall movie.

The other piece of the movie which could have been hacked out was the ongoing bit involving the young Brit who dreams of going to Milwaukee in America because of a gnawing desire to drink American beer and meet American babes. First of all, why a Brit would want to desire American beer is a complete mystery. And the whole storyline plays out like a sitcom, which is totally out of place for a British film that seems to pride itself on emotional honesty.

Take these two plot lines out of Love Actually, and you have a shorter, better picture. With apologies to writer/director Richard Curtis, it's just my humble opinion.

No Country For Old Men (2007) - I'm guessing most folks who saw this movie ended up with a final "Huh?" at the very end of the film. I don't have a problem with movies which end abruptly or without assumed resolution, but the way this one ended was indeed problematic.

In a film that follows the lives of three very different characters through a harrowing journey, you can't necessarily expect the storylines to be neatly wrapped up with a tidy ending. But this movie cuts to black at a point where you're just beginning to wonder how things are going to play out. It's a filmmaker's prerogative to steer his movie to whatever finale they choose, but it feels cheap and incomplete to the audience when a film just "stops" as opposed to reaching its conclusion.

Crash (2004) - Big fan of this movie, which won Best Picture at the Oscars. However ... there are a couple of flaws which we must point out:

There's a scene where Terrence Howard's character is involved in a pursuit by the LAPD, and ends up pulling over and waving a loaded gun around, only to be "talked down" by a police officer and sent on his way. Sorry, but nobody's buying that. An African-American is chased by LAPD, then gets cornered in a cul-de-sac, gets out of his vehicle with a handgun. And the cops chat him up and then let him go? Sorry, but in real life his ass would be riddled with bullets with the whole thing being captured by news channel helicopters.

Another troubling aspect of this picture is Matt Dillon's cop character. He did a great job playing the character and there's much to like about the portrayal. But this cop was a blatant racist, spewing vicious invective, who also committed sexual assault against an innocent black woman early in the movie. In uniform. Yet we're supposed to feel sympathy for him because his father is sick and later in the film he saves the life of the very woman he assaulted earlier. No sale. This guy or anyone like him should be kicked off the force and put in jail.

Australia (2008) - There's much to like about this movie. The scene involving the herding of cattle before they go off a giant cliff is worth the price of admission alone. But Australia is guilty of a serious blunder.

It's way too long, and it should have ended long before it did. There's a point about an hour-and-a-half in where the two leads (played by Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman) reach a town with their cattle, they finally reveal their love for each other, they embrace and kiss, blessed rain falls to end a long drought, the music swells and ... hey, this would have been a grand place to fade to black and roll the credits.

But here's the thing: The film then goes on for ANOTHER HOUR. Years go by, the couple breaks up, a world war takes place, a boat full of children is put in peril, villains are in nearly every scene (with everything but Snidely Whiplash mustaches to paint them with cartoonish evil). It's like a whole second movie is tacked on to the film.

Australia could have been a very nice little 90-minute film, but instead became a bloated, overblown, soapy misadventure.

However ... the aboriginal kid was pretty cool.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Yeah, we know this is a worldwide phenomenon and critical fave, and in fact we loved it too. But there are some storyline flaws which can't be ignored.

First, there's the issue of the main character's brother. The rapidity by which he goes from innocent good kid to total criminal is unrealistic. It literally takes place overnight. Or same day actually. Try getting your dry-cleaning done that quickly.

Then, toward the end of the movie (spoiler ahead), the brother transcends back from bad to good even faster! Over the course of MINUTES he has an apparent epiphany, gives the keys to the crime boss's car to the girl his brother loves, immerses himself in a bathtub full of cash, and commits suicide by gangsta. All this in a screenplay that won an Oscar!

The other flaw in the story is the basic premise of the main character being arrested and tortured because of his success on a game show. Really ... we're supposed to believe that someone answers a few questions correctly on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and they immediately get abducted by the authorities and submitted to horrendous beatings and torture throughout the night because of ... what? Because they have too much knowledge in their brains? Because they might have had advance advice on the questions on the show? This is a crime worthy of severe beatings and torture in India? If I was from India, I'd be offended by the very notion of this film.

So ... Slumdog Millionaire is a very enjoyable film, although if you removed the story flaws we've pointed out here, the movie would not work. Think about it: the beatings and torture create the necessary tension and dread, and the criminal brother aspect adds the rescue-the-girl-from-the-bad-guy part of the story. What would you have if you took those two elements out of the movie?

Answer: A guy winning a million bucks on a game show after growing up poor in Mumbai.

Recipe #48 - Borscht, Vegetarian-Style

Granted, most borscht recipes call for meat, bones and beef stock, but our version omits all that. We use a rich "purple stock" which is made with trimmings from "red" veggies such as red onion, red cabbage, and of course beets.

Makes eight servings.

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 small red onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced2 red potatoes, diced
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
2 large or 4 small red beets, peeled and diced

4 cups purple veggie stock

Salt & pepper

1 cup light sour cream
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh dill

Heat the oil and butter in a large soup pan. Add the onions and garlic and saute for a few minutes over medium heat.

Add the cabbage, potatoes and beets. Saute for a few minutes more. Add the veggie stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Continue to simmer the soup until the potatoes and beets are soft and cooked through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in wide soup bowls (preferably white to better show off the deep red color of the borscht). Whisk the dill into the sour cream. Add a large dollop of dilled sour cream to each bowl of soup and serve with hot bread and green salad.

Recipe #47 - Mega-Veggie Pizza

We are utterly unable to make a simple plain pizza. Each one is different from any previous creation, and all are colorful and tasty. Sheri' is a pizza artista!

This is an example of a pizza which can make use of ingredients you might have already sitting in the vegetable and cheese drawers in the fridge.

1 premade pizza crust dough (we used one by East Coast Dough Co. of Seattle, Washington.)

2 tsp. olive oil
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves, cleaned and stemmed
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts, cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 cup kalamata olives, thinly sliced
2 cups broccoli florets, bite sized
1 cup chopped asparagus
1 roasted red bell pepper, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Roll the dough onto a pizza stone that's been pretreated with olive oil and dusted with flour. Prebake the crust for five minutes in the oven.

Heat olive oil in a small saucepan and add the garlic and chili flakes. Saute for a couple minutes and add the tomato sauce. Heat to a simmer, then spread evenly across the pizza crust.

Scatter the parmesan cheese across the pizza. Carefully spread the spinach leaves in a single layer across the entire pizza.

Next, artfully and evenly spread the artichoke hearts, olives, broccoli, asparagus and roasted pepper strips across the pizza. Then spread the grated cheddar over the top.

Bake the pizza in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the crust is golden and crispy and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve with a crisp green salad.

Recipe #46 - Penne Pasta with Spinach Sauce

Last week's recipe featured pasta with heavy cream and truffle butter. But sometimes you're looking for a creamy pasta dish without the fat and calories. This one hits the mark.

When you put the ingredients in the processor, it won't seem like the result will be "creamy." But have faith; it will surprise you.

You can have this with steamed or roasted veggies and a green salad. And while this is perfectly appropriate as the centerpiece of a great dinner, you could also serve it as an accompaniment to a protein main dish, such as fish, chicken or other meat.

Makes about six servings.

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 oz. goat cheese
2 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 lb. fresh spinach, cleaned and stemmed
1/4 cup low fat milk
1/2 tsp. salt

1 lb. penne pasta

1/2 lb. fresh spinach, cleaned and stemmed

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put the garlic in the bowl of a food processor and buzz briefly. Add the goat cheese, cream cheese, spinach and salt, and process until smooth and creamy. Add a little milk if you need to make it a bit creamier.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta in salted water according to package directions. Reserve a cup of pasta cooking water, then drain the penne. Add a splash of olive oil and toss so the pasta doesn't stick together.

Put the rest of the fresh spinach in a large bowl. Add the hot pasta and spinach sauce and toss with tongs to wilt the fresh spinach. Add hot pasta water as desired to make it more creamy.

Serve with parmesan cheese. Delightful!