Chinese Five Spice Meatballs Wrapped in Cabbage

I woke up with a dim sum craving, which would be fine if I were still in New York, but here in East Farnham, Quebec it is a problem. Growing up in the Bay Area I had dim sum at least once a week but it's been at least three months since my last dim sum feast. While starring into the fridge trying to decide what semblance of dim sum I can concot, I spotted the ground beef and cabbage and remembered the beef balls my brother used to always order.

Now I have no idea what the recipe for those beef balls are but I'll bet it starts with ground beef. I had salvaged a packet of Chinese five spice powder from the onslaught of our moving out with the intention of making tea eggs with them, but the pu-erh tea container busted and we had to shake tea out of all our clothes back in Minnesota. Perhaps the beef and five spice powder will hit it off here in Canada?

What I ended up with wasn't exactly like the beef balls I remembered, but it was still tasty and I would definitely make it again. The beef I used was super lean and I think fattier ground beef would've worked better in getting the super soft texture I remember from those beef balls.


CHINESE FIVE SPICE MEATBALLS WRAPPED IN CABBAGE
(Serves 4)

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1-2 eggs
• 1 heaping tablespoon of Chinese five spice powder (can be found in most Asian grocery stores, the five spices are cinnamon, anise, fennel, ginger and cloves)
• 1 piece of ginger root about the size of a thumb, peeled and chopped finely
• crushed red pepper and ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 water chestnuts, peeled and chopped finely (optional)
• cabbage leaves, about one small head (lettuce will work better though I've always liked the taste of cabbage more)

Rinse the cabbage leaves and tear off the stem. Set aside to drain

Mix the ground beef with all other ingredients.

Form a meatball about the size of a golf ball and wrap it in the cabbage. It doesn't have to be perfectly round or enclosed. The cabbage provides a bed for the beef so that it doesn't stick to the steamer, also because it is tasty and juicy. Arrange single layer in a steamer and steam covered on high heat for 5-7 minutes. It is done when the center of the meatball is not red.

(5-7 minutes doesn't sound like enough time to cook through a thick wad of meat, but if the meat is overcooked it will be tough)

(any leftover cabbage and the torn off stems can be turned into a stir fry or quick soup)

Onion Pita Tart

Pardon the terrible picture but it really does not do justice to the subject. The refrigerator had little more than condiments and the pantry nothing but herbs and spices; there were two and a half pita, some onions, a can of anchovies and a few olives and I had to think fast before we passed out from starvation. These tarts were delightful and was oh so easy to put together.

Yesterday I made fresh pita bread and we ate it with skordalia and warmed olives for super. It was the first time I had made pita and it was much easier than I had anticipated and tasted way better than ones found in plastic bags in stores. The skordalia is adapted from a New York Times recipe, except I used pine nuts instead of walnuts, less oil and more garlic than the original calls for. It tastes like flavored mashed potatoes, nutty, garlicky and slightly tangy.

The onion tart idea came from a recipe in Sarah Woodward's The Classic Mediterrean Cookbook, but the original recipe seemed too time consuming as it calls for the sliced onions to be cooked in low heat covered for an hour. The only time I cook anything on the stove for an hour is chilli or soup and even then I always end up having a bowl before it's completely done.

ONION PITA TART
(serves 2)

• 2 pita pockets
• 2-3 onions, chopped into half moons (yellow or white onions work better as they are sweeter than red onions)
• anchovies (smoked herring, or any other sort of salted/smoked fish)
• olives, pitted
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, or to taste, chopped
• dried herbs (I used tarragon, thyme, dill, and corriander but other combination will also work)
• spices (I threw in some cumin and paprika but again, whatever you prefer)
• pepper (fresh ground black pepper and some crushed red pepper is it's on hand)
• salt
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenhait.

Heat oil over medium heat and add onion and garlic when hot, sautee for 1-2 minutes. Add herbs and spices, salt and pepper. Turn heat down to medium low and cook onions covered for about 10 minutes.

Onions should be soft and only browned at the edges. Arrange pitas on a baking sheet and pile onions on top. Add anchovies and olives and bake for 10-15 minutes in middle rack of oven.

DELICIOUS FACTORS:
The twiced baked pita turns crispy and provides the perfect bed for the slightly carmelized sweet onion; the tart olives and salty anchovies compliment the sweetness. That's three flavors in one bite!

Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

Though I’ve been baking my own bread on a semi-regular basis for the past year, I’ve only used Mark Bittman’s recipes in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. We got pretty good with the sourdough recipe and kept our starter going in the refrigerator. I followed Bittman’s advice and used garden stones and water in a cast iron pan under the bread to create steam in the oven to get a crispier crust. The addition of olives mades for a particularly tasty loaf. Since I read the New York Times daily online and check the Dining and Wine section obsessively for new articles and recipes, I know that Bittman is a big fan of Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread. Having found relative success with Bittman’s sourdough and overnight French bread recipes from his book, I had little incentive to try the Lahey recipe, especially since because I actually enjoy the kneading part. Besides, Lahey’s recipe call for the dough to be baked in a heavy covered pot, which my kitchen was not equipped with. But that was back in old New York, where I was stuck in my ways and thought I needed nothing beyond my own sense of smell and taste, Bittman’s cookbook bible, Chinatown grocery trips last minute bodega runs and weekly supplies from the Farmer’s Market. All has changed now that I have uprooted myself indefinitely; It is now Jim Lahey’s time to shine in my new borrowed kitchen here in Quebec.

My boyfriend and I are into the second week of our six-week house-sitting gig in East Farnham, a tiny little village about an hour south east of Montreal. We are in the middle of nowhere with no means of transportation other than our own feet and hitchhiking thumbs (our feet have so far proven to be more useful than those lazy hitchhiking thumbs). No more access to fresh produce whenever we wanted and no more impulse buys from the corner bodega (there is a depanneur about 7 minutes away and we made the mistake of buying Nestle brand ice cream one desperate night. it tastes like marshmallow fluff on a sugar high). We are left with whatever is in the house (which is a lot but all of it either frozen or canned and probably at least a decade old) or whatever we can carry back from the supermarkets on our walks into town (one hour each way! through knee deep snow! uphills both ways!)

Since we’ve been here, I’ve baked Mark Bittman’s overnight French loaf twice, the first time it came out perfect, with a hard crust and chewy body; the second time, however, the body was dense and crumbly. The challenge of being in someone else’s kitchen is that it forces you to cook differently than in your own space. I had at least five wooden spoons of various sizes, this kitchen have none. I had three rubber spatulas of various sizes, this kitchen have none. I had three cast iron pans of various sizes that I used daily, this kitchen have two cast-iron-like pans. I had finally gotten myself a good cookie sheet around last Christmas, this kitchen have a misshapen one with burnt-on grease stains. However, this kitchen does have many heavy covered pots that can go into the oven; it was finally time I jumped on the Jim Lahey bandwagon that ‘s been sweeping the food blogosphere.

The bread came out wonderful! And it was super easy! The crust is shiny and browned to perfection and the body is deliciously chewy and airy. As much improved as this loaf is in texture from the Bittman recipes I've been using, I thought the Bittman breads were more flavorful. Could it be due to the dual mixing in the Bittman recipes as opposed to the single mixing in Lahey's? Next loaf I make, I will merge the two recipes together and see if I can get that perfect combination of texture and flavor right. More to follow!