Simple Wontons

Have you ever decided that you were going to stop roaming around the aisles of the grocery store, trying to figure out what you wanted to cook for the upcoming week? That's how things usually go down for me, and once in a while I promise myself that I'll make a list of what I feel like cooking for the next seven days.

Last week was a "list week". The problem is, I had accumulated a nice pile of recipes during that terrifying month when I couldn't cook. Just imagine how crazy I would have become in a supermarket without a list. I'm pretty sure I would have grabbed a little of everything, convinced it would be perfect in such-or-such dish. But I had a list this time around. No way was I going to let myself fall into that trap. Right before hopping over to the store, I surveyed the list of delicious food awaiting me this week. And I counted: one, two, three...nine dishes. Each one would obviously leave enough for the next day, and there are not eighteen meals in one week (well, there's breakfast, but I'm not having stuffed bell peppers at 8 a.m.). I can't blame myself: it's almost Mardi Gras and I'm craving gumbo and jambalaya. I'm also craving a ton of other foods, so I had to make a difficult choice: the gumbo and jambalaya will have to wait. Enter my simple wontons!

Easy to make--although folding them up takes as much time as getting a roux going--and light on ingredients, they're also a lot of fun if you're planning on making them with kids. Considering myself to be a life-long kid, I can admit I had a blast. The process is rewarding, too: you end up with fifteen little wontons that can be steamed whenever you want in the coming days and eaten with soup or salad.

So put that huge list down, and get your wonton groove on.

Simple Wontons

makes 15 

15 wonton wrappers
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1/4 c. scallions
1 TB freshly grated ginger
1 medium carrot, grated
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB rice vinegar
2 TS sriracha
1/2 TS salt
1 TB sesame oil

Mix all ingredients except sesame oil in a medium bowl. Marinate for at least fifteen minutes, and up to an hour.

Heat sesame oil in a pan on medium-high. Add all ingredients and cook until pork has browned and juices have reduced.

Place wonton wrapper on a flat surface, and moisten edges with water. Place 1 TB filling in the center. Fold two opposite edges together to create a triangle. Bring both opposite ends of the triangle together, and fold top end onto the other two (moisten with more water if needed).

To prepare wontons, place in a steamer for 10-15 minutes. Serve over salad, or make a quick soup with broth, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Serve warm.

Asian-Style Chicken Udon Salad

One thing I miss the most about New York is how cheap, delicious, and easy to find Asian food was. Feeling like a quick bô-bun? A yummy pad thai? Chances are, wherever your apartment is, you can find either one a quick walk away.

In Paris, thing are different. Sure, there's amazing Vietnamese food to be had, owing to the pretty large Vietnamese population in France, and there are some really good Thai restaurants too. But none of them fall into the "cheap" category, and I can't seem to name a single place apart from the many sushi restaurants or Chinese take-outs that's within a five-minute walk from the apartment here. The crazy thing is, I have pretty much everything except the Asian food I'm craving: Italians galore, Indian, Mexican, you name it.

The only thing left to do is trek down to Tang Frères (I wrote about it a while ago here), stock up on Oyster Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Nuoc Mam, and all the other wonderful things I can find for less than 1 euro. Tang Freres really is an Asian aficionado's paradise--I couldn't get over the fact that I had spent less than 30 euros for 30 items, even though I know prices are probably ten times higher than what you would actually pay in Asia. But I'm in Paris, and 90 cents for a jar of pickled ginger seems just right.

Now that my kitchen has exactly zero inches of free space left, and I've got everything I need, I can finally start cooking Asian food myself. Shrimp curries! Vietnamese chicken and tofu! If I didn't enjoy baking, I think I would spent my time making red and green curries and drown myself in liters coconut milk. I keep thinking I could eat pad thai and curries all day long, until I realize I don't think I would be able to fit into my kitchen if I decided to do that. Sure, my kitchen is small, but still--I won't take that risk.

Anyway, with my 3,000 magic ingredients on hand (did I mention my kitchen has really run out of space? I'm thinking of converting my whole apartment into a kitchen), I set out to recreate a recipe I made when I was back in Urbana for a couple of days: Chicken and Broccoli Udon Salad.

Chicken and Broccoli, pre-Udon

It's fresh enough for a warm summer lunch or dinner, but I can see myself making this throughout the year. The broccoli gives the salad a nice crunch, and the sauce coats all the ingredients nicely. Even better, it comes together in a short half-hour and the results are pretty impressive: this is one of those "one-pot" dishes that are good enough for an informal meal with friends.

And hey, since it won't prevent me from fitting into my tiny kitchen, I'd have seconds of this any day.

Asian-Style Chicken Udon Salad
serves 4

1 lb. chicken breast
1 lb. brocoli
1 lb. udon noodles (I used less, both times)
1/2 c. oyster sauce
2 TB Hoisin sauce
1 TB sesame oil
2 TS chili paste
1 bunch chopped scallions

- Cook the chicken in water, 5 to 10 minutes on medium heat. Drain, but keep the cooking water.

- Bring the water back to a boil and cook the broccoli for 5 minutes until bright green. Remove.

- Bring the water to a boil again, and cook udon. Reserve 1 cup liquid, and rinse udon under cold water.

Mix all the ingredients, adding 1/2 cup of the cooking water. If you'd like a thinner sauce, add the remaining 1/2 cup (I never do).

The temperature of the dish will be warm but definitely not hot, which is just perfect.

Salmon & Black Sesame

I had been wanting to cook a salmon dinner for quite a while. In fact, I'll admit that I had never cooked fish before and was yearning for a nice salmon steak with some vegetables, but was slightly afraid. I wanted the fish to be cooked but not burnt, tasty but not fish-tasty, basically delicious.

Armed with high hopes, I marched to the supermarket and bought two salmon steaks. The rest was waiting at home: fresh green beans from my uncle's garden, and crushed black sesame seeds from my trip to the Japanese grocery store a while ago.

After putting the green beans in the steam-cooker, I proceeded to think about a tasty sauce that would go well with salmon. As you may have guessed, I am absolutely not a fish guru and have actually only been eating it for the past three years or so. I won't get into how I developed a hatred for fish (it involves a particularly traumatizing experience when I was six years old), but anyway, I couldn't eat it. 

Consequently, I don't posses innate knowledge of which sauce goes best with which fish, and simply decided to throw everything I had together. That almost always works right?

This time it definitely DID!

I made up a black sesame sauce by mixing the said ground sesame, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar. The result was a syrupy sauce that tasted great with the salmon. 

And, to my surprise, the salmon was seared just fine. I coated the two steaks in normal sesame seeds beforehand to add a little crunch, which didn't really change anything in the end.

Only problem is, it was all ready for 9:30 and my doorbell didn't ring before 10... I should have entitled my post "COLD Salmon & Black Sesame", but oh well. At least I'm now reassured as to my fish-cooking skills, and am proud to say I am no longer traumatized! (by fish, at least--don't get me started on other phobias)

Black Sesame Sauce

30 gr ground black sesame seeds

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons soy sauce

Asian Supermarket Heaven

Imagine walking into a store, and seeing everything you could possibly want for less than 2 euros...

This is (almost) exactly what happened to me last night. My friend Jérôme and I decided to do a sort of cooking swap: he was going to teach me a Vietnamese recipe (his mother is Vietnamese), and I would bake a carrot cake (again! More on that later...). Perfect excuse, really, for a trip to Tang Frères. I hadn't been in years, and last time I did go I must have bought a lotus-shaped candle or something like that. 

With my experienced tour guide by my side, I got into Tang Frères 20 minutes before closing time, a short shopping list in hand. We strolled into the vegetable isle and Jérôme nonchalantly picked up a huge bag of cilantro...and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price. We ended up paying around 60 cents for something you would pay 2,50 for at any Monoprix or Champion.

As I got really excited about all this delicious-looking AND cheap food, Jérôme concentrated on what we really needed for our recipe--fresh tofu, tomatoes, and fish sauce. Meanwhile, I grabbed some Jasmine tea bags (58 cents for 20!), Jasmine loose tea (1,15!), candy, soba noodles, etc. Too bad Tang Frères is almost a half hour away by subway, otherwise I think I would go every day. Who doesn't need 10 different kinds of soy sauce??

Amazed by my purchases like I used to be when we went to the Sanrio store on our way to O'Hare airport, I had to take pictures of my shopping bag:

Lemongrass, Sesame oil, fish sauce, nougat, tea, soba, sesame... an Asian Supermarket Heaven.

Tang Frères: 48 avenue d'Ivry, 75013 Paris.