Stovetop Pizza Bites

Pizza's oddly expensive in Shanghai, and it doesn't even taste right. I only have a small conventional oven, so making a pizza from scratch would likely be more effort that it's worth. I figured I'd try something else - so I decided to make pizza over a stove. It actually worked out pretty well. My supermarket sells freshly made dumpling wrappers, noodles, wonton wrappers, and the like, so I just got some fresh dumpling wrappers for the purpose of this experiment. You can get packaged ones from Asian supermarkets in the US as well.

Ingredients
1 package dumpling wrappers
1 cup Roma tomatoes
1/4 medium onion, sliced
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
grated cheese of your choice (I used chedder and pepper jack)
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder (use fresh garlic if you have it; I don't like garlic, so I prefer keeping it in powdered form for occasional use)

Preheat oven to 450F. Quarter the tomatoes. Put on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and bake for 45-60min, until caramelized. (Add oregano if you have it; I unfortunately do not). If you have fresh garlic, roast that, too.

Saute onions until caramelized. Saute mushrooms until it releases water and browns. Blend onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a food processor. Adjust seasonings to taste

Heat a nonstick saucepan (preferably with a lid) over high heat. Cover the bottom with a single layer of flat dumpling wrappers. When they turn a slightly translucent color and no longer stick to the pan, flip them immediately (you may want to try with just one or two wrappers at first so you don't burn them). Turn down the heat to a medium flame. Spoon the tomato sauce on the wrapper, then cover with grated cheese. Cover saucepan with lid and "bake" until the cheese melts. It should be just about when the wrappers start browning on the bottom. Plate and serve!

Mushroom Yogurt Soup

So I got a new immersion blender and immediately started playing around with it. One of the first actual recipes I made was a modified cream of mushroom soup. There are plenty of mushrooms in China (you can get them at the Asian supermarkets in the States as well), so I decided to use a nice mix.

Ingredients
1/4 cup enoki mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup oyster mushrooms, chopped
1/4 medium yellow onion, sliced
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 bay leaf
salt
white pepper

Optional
2 Tbsp butter
flour

Saute the onion with some olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the mushrooms and saute until mushrooms start to brown and release water. Cover with chicken stock, add some salt, pepper, and the bay leaf, and simmer for 10-12min. Remove the bay leaf and blend with immersion blender. Return the bay leaf.

Optional: In another skillet, make a roux by melting the butter and stirring in flour until it becomes a thick, smooth paste that separates from the pan easily. Add to the soup.

Simmer for another 20min or so, stirring or whisking to mix the roux in and thicken the soup. Remove from heat and add the yogurt (don't add it to the heat directly or it might curdle). Season to taste.

Mini Ginger pancakes

Excuse my absence from the blog; I'm in China where blogspot and picasa are both blocked, so I've been having a heck of a time trying to figure out a way to post. :P I still can't get picasa so no pictures (sad), but at least I can post! I had a hankering for pancakes the other day but didn't have syrup, so I figured I could make flavored pancakes and skip the syrup altogether. It's too late for Christmas now, but next year! Along with gingerbread cookies and spiced milk/coffee, you can try ginger-flavored pancakes!

Ingredients
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup water

1. Beat water, egg, sugar, ginger. Stir in flour.

2. Over medium high flame, pour a Tbsp of the batter onto a nonstick pan. When little air pockets form on the top, flip and cook until the bottom is browned. Serve hot, with a little pat of butter.

Princess Cake

This is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. Its very rich and moist.

Ingredients:
1 box of devil's food chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup of veg oil
5ounce pack of chocolate instant pudding powder
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
2/3 bag of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of warm water
cream cheese frosting
food coloring

Mix up all the ingredients (except the frosting/food coloring). To make the princess's skirt we used a bundt cake and two cup cakes. Bake bundt for 50-55 mins. Bake cupcakes for 20-25 mins at 350degrees.

To decorate. Flip the bundt cake out of its pan. Slide a barbie doll up through the bottom of the cake. (Note, the Barbie will have to be in a sitting position to fit in the cake.) Fill in the rest of the hole using the cupcakes. (You may have to break up the cupcakes.) Frost to look like a skirt.

Holiday Cupcakes

Sorry I didn't have a chance to post this over the holidays, but here is a quick and fun holiday treat.

Peppermint Cupcakes (makes 9):
1/2 box of devil's food cake mix
3/4 cup of milk
chocolate frosting
chocolate chips (1 handful)
6-9 candy canes (to taste)

Grind up the candy canes. Pass the powder through a large - sieve. The small powder will go into the cake mix, and the larger pieces will serve as the cupcake topper. Mix the cake mix, fine peppermint powder, chocolate chips, and milk, and pour into cupcake papers. Bake for 25-29mins. Let cool. Frost. Cover with the larger candy cane pieces.

Walnut Cupcakes (makes 9):
1/2 box of devil's food cake mix
3/4 cup of milk
cream cheese frosting
chocolate chips (1 handful)
walnuts (1 handful)

Chop up the walnuts into very small pieces. Mix the cake mix, walnuts, chocolate chips, and milk, and pour into cupcake papers. Bake for 25-29mins. Let cool. Frost. Decorate with piping frosting.

Mint Pesto Lamb with Ravioli

My first time cooking lamb, and I really didn't know what I was doing, but I loosely adapted this recipe and served it with a side of ravioli. Overall not bad, but bc the meat wasn't marinated in anything, it wasn't very flavorful. In the original recipe you're supposed to use rack of lamb, maybe that inherently has more flavor?

Mint Pesto Lamb Steaks with Ravioli

To prep the lamb:

- Large leg of lamb steak (~3/4 lbs)

- Olive oil

- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. Coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with olive oil and heat over high heat. When the oil is hot, sear each side of the lamb steak for ~3min each, until nicely browned. Then place the skillet (with oil and juices) into the oven and roast for ~30 min, or until the lamb is almost done to your liking (I roasted for 30 min because I like it well done and after 30 min, it was about medium-well done).

For the pesto:

- 1/2 c loosely packed mint leaves (but 1/2 c basil leaves would be way better)

- 2 Tbsp pine nuts

- 1 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan

- 2 garlic cloves, grated

- a few dashes of salt

- 1 Tbsp olive oil

While the lamb is roasting, in a food processor, blend together the mint, nuts, cheese, garlic, and salt. Then add olive oil and a little water if necessary to make a smooth creamy paste.

When the lamb steaks are almost ready, drain the juices from the skillet. Then spread the pesto over the meat and place back into the oven for ~5 min. Serve with ravioli, below.

For the ravioli:

- 1 pack Trader Joe's goat cheese and sun-dried tomato ravioli (from the refrigerated section)

- 1/2 jar of marinara sauce (my recipe for this amount is below)

- 3 medium mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini)

- 1/4-1/2 c frozen spinach

- olive oil

Prepare the ravioli as instructed on the packaging. While the ravioli is boiling, coat a skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat. Then add the mushrooms and spinach. When the mushrooms are cooked through, add the marinara sauce and drained ravioli and sautee until the sauce is heated.

Marinara Sauce:

- olive oil

- 1 medium onion, chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, grated, (preferable) or 1Tbsp dried, minced, garlic

- 3 small-medium tomatoes, chopped

- 1/2 Tbsp dry Italian seasoning

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp black pepper

- 1/2 tsp sugar

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add the onions and sautee until the onions are translucent. If using fresh garlic, add it and sautee for another minute. Then add the tomatoes and other seasonings. Once the tomatoes are completely cooked (i.e., they've completely disintegrated except for the skins), allow the mixture to cool and then blend into a liquid in a blender.

Pumpkin Pie

Oh no. I typed up this recipe. And then accidentally ate all the pie before taking a picture!! Oooops. I feel bad stealing the picture from the blog the recipe is from, so, click the link below to see pictures!!

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Like everyone else, I made a pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. This pie turned out perfect--light and fluffy and not very sweet. Definitely a keeper recipe! (Adapted from here)

this pie crust, but with pecans instead of walnuts

2 large eggs

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup skim milk

1 15oz can pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp allspice

dash of salt

2 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter

1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 10-inch pie pan (the deeper the better) with crust. Bake the empty crust for 10-15 min.

2. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until they are blended. Stir in the brown sugar, cream, milk, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt. When they are blended, stir in the melted butter and pour the filling into the pie shell.

3. Place the pie in the oven and decrease the temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the center of the pie comes out clean. Set the pie on a rack to cool. This pie tastes great cold, room temp, or warm, with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.