Ginger-salmon patty with wasabi-yogurt aioli on top of a quinoa patty “bun”
Salmon patties are delicious on a bun, but I served them instead on a quinoa patty (recipe follows), which could be a meal itself in its own right. I like to switch things up in search of healthy choices and alternatives to wheat flour. A sticky rice cake would be another good choice, and one that I have used many times before. This recipe is adapted from Betty Crocker’s Simply Delicious Diabetic Cookbookvia the Washington Post. It has an Asian twist–fresh ginger, scallions, and soy sauce–and is served with a cool yet spicy wasabi-yogurt aioli.
Ginger-Salmon Patty with Wasabi-Yogurt Aioli
Yield: 4 patties
2 salmon steaks, approximately 250g, cut into 3-inch chunks
1 tilapia fillet, approximately, 250g, cut into 3-inch chunks
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2/3-cup/40g panko breadcrumbs
4 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Lime wedges, for serving
Chopped Lettuce, for serving
Sliced onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers, for serving
Place the fish chunks, ginger and scallions in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is chunky in uniform pieces.
Scrape mixture into a large bowl. Add panko and soy sauce and stir until combined. Shape mixture into 4 patties, each half-inch thick.
In a large skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the patties and cook until browned on one side, 2-3 minutes. Turn over each patty to brown the second side, 2-3 minutes. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
Make the aioli
1/2 cup plain low-fat Greek style yogurt
1 -2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon honey, or to taste
1/2-1 teaspoon wasabi powder or prepared wasabi, or to taste
1/4-teaspoon salt, or to taste
Combine ingredients in a small bowl and combine with a fork. Taste and add more honey, wasabi, or salt, if needed.
Quinoa Patty Buns
2 1/2-cups cooked quinoa
2-3 large eggs, beaten
1/2-teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup grated zucchini
1-2 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour, optional
1 tablespoon olive oil
In a large bowl, combine quinoa, 2 eggs, salt, and pepper. Add the cilantro, onion, cheese, and garlic. Add the bread crumbs, carrot, and zucchini. Let the mixture rest 10 minutes to absorb flavors. If the mixture is dry, add the third egg. If the mixture is loose and watery, add 1-2 tablespoons tapioca starch. Mix thoroughly. Shape mixture into 4-5 patties, each about 1/2-inch thick.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook patties 7-10 minutes until the bottoms are browned. Flip the patties and cook the second sides 5 minutes more. Remove from the skillet to a plate.
Serve with the ginger-salmon patties or by themselves tucked inside a pita pocket, a sandwich, or a salad.
Homemade New England style split top buns with sausages, tomatoes, cucumbers,onions and Sriracha mayonnaise
I’ve loved these buns ever since I ate my first one at Gimbel’s in downtown Milwaukee way back in the early 70s. Soft and pillowy, the bun cradles the sausage ever so gently, as you draw it towards your mouth for that first big bite. Sounds perfectly cannibalistic but a good juicy hot dog in the perfect bun elicits this mouthwatering reaction. Of course, Gimbel’s is gone now, it’s but a memory, but I have discovered I can make these buns in my kitchen using a milk bread recipe. I didn’t have the pan to make them (it’s available on Amazon) but I managed to make these buns in my kitchen without buying a special pan. I make two batches of buns out of a single loaf recipe using two 9×5-inch loaf pans.
Milk Bread New-England Style Split Top Buns
Yield: 12 buns
Tangzhong
3 tablespoons/43g water
3 tablespoons/43g whole milk
2 tablespoons/14g bread flour
Dough
2 1/2-cups/298g bread flour
2 tablespoons/14g nonfat dry milk
1/4-cup/50g sugar
1 teaspoon/6g salt
1 tablespoon/10g instant yeast
1/2-cup/113g whole milk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons/57g unsalted butter, melted
Egg Wash
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk or water
Make the tangzhong. Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Heat saucepan over low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and leaves lines in the bottom of the pan, 3-5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Make the dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cooled tangzhong with the dough ingredients. Fit the mixer with the dough hook and mix on low speed until all ingredients are moistened. The dough will appear shaggy. Increase speed to level 6 or medium-high and knead until the dough becomes a ball and is smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes.
Lightly oil a large bowl or a dough-rising bucket. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in the oiled container, turning to coat. Cover and let rise 40-60 minutes until it becomes puffy, about 50% increase in size. Generously grease the bottom and sides of two 9×5 inch loaf pans with butter, and line bottoms with parchment. Set aside.
Scrape the dough onto a lightly greased work surface. Knead briefly and shape it into a smooth taut ball. Weigh dough ball and divide into two equal portions by weight. Put one dough ball in the refrigerator until you are ready to work it, wrapped in plastic. Divide other half into 6 portions by weight. Shape each potion into a smooth taut ball. Flatten one ball and stretch it into an oval. Roll the oval up tightly into a cigar from the short end. Place it in a prepared pan with the ends touching the long sides, seam side down. Repeat with the other dough balls, placing the next one evenly spaced to the previous roll of dough. Cover the pan tightly with plastic and place in the refrigerator while you take out the other dough ball and repeat the process.
Bake the rolls. Take out the pan in the refrigerator and let both pans rise at room temperature until puffy, 40-60 minutes. While the rolls are proofing, heat the oven to 350˚F/175˚C. While the oven is heating, make the egg wash. Brush the tops of the buns with the egg wash. Bake 25-30 minutes until a deep golden brown. Cool in the pans 10 minutes on wire cooling racks. Remove the buns from the pans and let them cool thoroughly on the wire racks.
To eat, pull apart one roll at a time from the rest. If you wish butter and toast the sides. Split the top and fill with sausage and toppings. You can also make seafood rolls and fill them with shrimp, crab, or lobster.
Chiffon cakes, light and airy and not too sweet, are very popular in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. And not just because. Most western style cakes are not very popular here, probably because they tend to be dry, sometimes heavy, and very very sweet. But chiffon cakes… Ah! they are the exception. And exceptional. Despite their appearance, chiffons are very sturdy, if you understand the rules (more on that later). Chiffons are also adaptable. In this corner of Asia, cooks have made this cake their own, adding pandan juice to the chiffon cake. Pandan or screw pine are long green sword-like leaves used to flavor and color all manner of sweet treats and at least one savory dish I know: chicken bits wrapped in pandan leaves. Fresh leaves are chopped and blended with water releasing a deep green color and a delicate sweet aroma. This juice is used to color and flavor the chiffon cake, a recipe adapted from What To Cook Today.
When I first made it, I followed the recipe exactly and used 8 eggs for the 10-inch tube pan, but it expanded to an alarming height in the oven, completely hiding my view of the centerpiece but fortunately, it did not spill over the edges. So I recommend cutting back to 7 eggs, the number of eggs my mother-in-law used in her signature cake, coffee chiffon cake.
Chiffon cakes rely on whipped egg whites for leavening and volume, so just remember these simple rules:
(1) The bowl and whisk must be absolutely grease free for whipping egg whites. Wash and dry or wipe with white vinegar and a soft cloth. Grease inhibits egg whites from whipping.
(2) Make sure there is no yolk in the whites or they won’t whip either.
(3) Whip the whites until they are glossy and quadruple in volume. Remove the whisk and turn it over. The whipped egg whites on the tip should gracefully bend to one side. Another test? Turn the bowl upside down. Well-beaten egg whites cling to the bowl. If not, they will fall out and you will find liquid egg whites swimming in the bottom of the bowl. So best do this move over the kitchen sink and tilt the bowl gradually. Rule of thumb: if the thing moves, whip some more.
(4) Always use a two-piece tube pan. It will make this cake so much easier to unmould. Chiffon cake batter needs to grip the bottom and sides as it rises and bakes in the oven, therefore the pan is never greased. Getting a chiffon cake undamaged and whole out of a single-piece ungreased cake pan is the devil’s work. It is impossible.
(5) Let the cake cool completely upside down in the pan. That’s why a pan with “feet” is best; these are three prongs sticking up on the rim of the tube pan. If you haven’t got this pan, let the cake rest upside down over a narrow-necked bottle inserted through the centerpiece. Never rush a chiffon when it is cooling or you will be disappointed with a cake that sinks and deflates. It needs gravity and being held upside down to reach its lofty promise.
(6) Always cut the cake with a sawing motion using a serrated bread knife. Pressing down on the cake with a knife will merely flatten it.
Pandan Chiffon Cake
Pandan Juice
15 pandan leaves
150ml water
Dry Ingredients
175g cake flour (I used Special Flour, a fine soft low-gluten flour)
1/2 teaspoon/3g fine salt
Wet Ingredients
7 egg yolks (8 egg yolks in original recipe)
30g white superfine sugar
100ml pandan juice or 1 1/2 teaspoon pandan extract
50g neutral oil, e.g. canola
97g whole milk (95ml thick coconut milk) +100ml water if using pandan extract
Meringue
7 egg whites (8 egg whites in original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon/1 gram cream of tartar
100g superfine sugar
Special Equipment: 10″ two-piece aluminum tube pan with “feet” (do not use non-stick)
Make the pandan juice. Snip the leaves into 1-inch pieces. Put them in a food processor with the water and process until the mixture thickens and becomes a paste. Scrape out into a strainer set over a bowl and press out the juice with a spoon. Measure out 100ml. The remainder can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks for another use. DO AHEAD 1 day-1 week.
Heat oven to 325˚F/160˚C. Place oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.
Make the batter. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, while they are still cold, being careful not to get any yolk in the whites. It’s happened to me and I simply scooped the yolk out with an egg shell. The egg whites will whip best when they are at room temperature, which means 72˚F, about 15 minutes in muggy Thailand. Place the egg whites in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
Meanwhile in another large mixing bowl, whisk by hand the egg yolks with 30g sugar, oil, milk, and pandan juice/extract. Mix in the water if using pandan extract. Sift in the flour and salt, whisking into a smooth lump-free batter. Set aside.
Whip the egg whites. In the stand mixer, whisk egg whites on medium speed (Level 4-5 on a Kitchenaid) until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whisking until the egg whites turn opaque and the bubbles are fine. Add the 100g sugar in 3 additions. Once all the sugar is added, increase speed to Level 6 and continue whipping until the egg whites hold a soft peak. It will bend over when the whisk is turned upside down. As I said, the egg whites will cling to the bowl if well beaten. If not, continue whipping for 1-2 additional minutes. The egg whites will be glossy and smooth.
Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Cut down with the spatula at one end of the bowl and drag it across the bottom to the other side, then flip the batter over. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat until only a few white streaks remain. Add half of the remaining egg whites and repeat. Finally add the rest of the egg white and continue folding until no white streaks remain.
Scrape the batter into the ungreased tube pan. Smooth the top. Gently drop the pan 2-3 times on the countertop to dislodge air bubbles. You can also use a skewer, making zig zag patterns in the batter. Bake 50-55 minutes then reduce heat to 300˚F/150˚C and continue baking 10-15 minutes. The top will be a light golden brown. Insert a skewer near the center of the cake and pull it out. If it is dry with a few crumbs attached, the cake is done. Remove from the oven.
Now my cake had swelled up over the top so instead of inverting the pan, I let it sit on the counter on a wire rack for a few minutes to let it deflate. Then I turned it upside down to finish cooling. Let the pan rest on its “feet” or let the pan rest on a narrow-necked bottle inserted in the centerpiece to cool. The cake must be thoroughly cooled before you try to unmould it. If it is still warm, it will fall.
Unmould the cooled cake. Use a long thin blade spatula to first release the sides. Insert the spatula between the cake and the sides. Pull it lightly towards the center then pull it straight out. Re-insert, overlapping with the last point of insertion. Continue until the entire cake sides are released. Using a skewer, do the same with the center piece. Put the whole contraption on top of a small bowl and gently press down the sides. The sides will drop onto the counter. Place a large 12-inch cake plate with the center piece in the middle of the plate and invert the plate and the cake still attached to the centerpiece. Holding on to the base lightly with one hand, insert the flat blade spatula between the cake and the base and press downward lightly towards the cake. Pull it straight out and re-insert it, overlapping with the last insertion point. Go around the base until the cake is released and it drops onto the plate below. Remove the centerpiece.
The top of the cake may have cracks but don’t sweat, it’s on the bottom and no one can see it. If it bothers you, you can trim it. Do snack on the cake trimmings. After all that work, you must eat what you baked.
Gua bao is a flat steamed bun folded in half and stuffed with meat. The most popular is pork belly but any meat and also vegetables will give themselves over to this delicious snack. Here they are stuffed with black pepper pork and cabbage. When I was in college 50 years ago (was it so long ago?) one of the first dishes I learned to make was stir-fried pork and cabbage eaten spooned over hot steamed rice. I have revisited that dish as a savory stuffing for these gua bao, soft and fluffy,lightly sweet and highly addictive.
Make gua bao first. Twelve make a meal but as an appetizer or snack, make fourteen. While the dough is proofing, make the filling.
Gua Bao (adapted from Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho)
Rising time: 80-90 minutes
Yield: 12-14
2 1/2 cups/300g all-purpose flour
1/4 cup/50g sugar
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
scant 3/4 cup/160g warm water (110˚F)
2 tablespoons canola oil, for brushing
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine flour, sugar, instant yeast, and baking powder on low speed. Mix in the salt. With the motor running, slowly pour in the warm water and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Increase the speed to medium-high and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 8-9 minutes. Stop the machine and transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Pinch and pull the dough into a smooth taut ball.
Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough in it. Turn the dough to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place the bowl to rise in a warm spot, 40-60 minutes, until the dough doubles in size. Press down on the dough to deflate it. Turn out onto the lightly floured work surface. Pinch and pull the dough into a smooth taut ball. Weigh it and divide it into 12 or 14 portions by weight.
While the dough is rising, cut 12 or 14 squares of parchment paper or use flattened cupcake lines. Working with one piece of dough at a time, pinch and pull it into a smooth ball and place each ball on a piece of parchment. Cover ball with plastic wrap. Continue with the remaining balls.
Roll out a portion of dough as flat as you can. Lightly brush the top with oil. Gently fold the oiled dough over on itself and put it back on the parchment. Cover with damp cloth. Continue with the other dough portions. Let proof until puffy, 40 minutes
While dough is proofing, boil 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches of water in a steamer pot. Bring to a boil. Put four bao and parchment in the steamer rack. If using an aluminum steamer, wrap the lid in a towel. Cover. Steam the batch 10 minutes. Off heat and rest 5 minutes. Remove gua bao from steamer and place on a large plate. Remove paper, fill, and serve.
Black Pepper Pork and Cabbage (adapted from NYT Cooking)
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black peppercorns
2-3 large garlic cloves, grated
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 cups/375g pork tenderloin, slightly frozen and sliced very thin
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 cup/90g green cabbage thinly sliced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, optional
2 scallions thinly sliced on diagonal, optional
Chile oil for serving (can use sambal goreng/oelek)
In a small bowl, combine crushed peppercorns, garlic, sugar, cornstarch, salt, onion powder and garlic powder. Place pork slices in a large bowl and sprinkle the peppercorn mixture on top. Mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. Add the pork slices in batches and cook until no longer pink and are lightly browned. Sprinkle with soy sauce and stir to coat. Transfer meat to a bowl or plate.
If there isn’t enough oil, add a teaspoon more to the skillet. Add the cabbage and cook until wilted and shiny. If the cabbage sticks to the pan, deglaze the pan with a little water and continue stirring and cooking until crisp-tender. Sprinkle on the vinegar and lightly season with salt. Add pork and juices back to the skillet and stir to combine with cabbage. Top with toasted sesame seeds and scallion, if using. Cool slightly. Stuff gua bao and serve with chile oil.
Foodie Joanie 