Trout & Shanghai Bok Choy

My dream kitchen is one of those that has professional grade appliances.  An exhaust fan that sucks up all cooking odours would be wonderful.  Only recently did I get my hands on a portable electric burner.  Actually my parents say they don't really use it anymore because they have another one that burns propane.  Luckily I have an outlet on my balcony, so I go out there and pan fry my fish.  The vent I have above my stove just doesn't do the job when it comes to fish especially.  It's a microwave/vent combo.

Today, my fish of choice was trout.  It's similar to salmon, it is from the same family of fish.  It too is high in omega 3.  Baby1 used to love salmon but now she doesn't seem so into it. :(  I think she prefers fish that is more white.  Oh well...  I paired the fish with some shanghai bok choy.  Simple & easy.

  

  

Steamed Spareribs in black bean sauce with Tofu & Enoki mushrooms

One of the simplest and flavourful suppers one can make.  This is a variation on an old favourite.  I added some tofu and enoki mushrooms at the bottom of the plate.

Ingredients:

• spareribs:  as much as you like.  For the 2 of us, about 15/16 pieces (cut short approx. 1/2 to 3/4 inch) - most Chinese supermarkets will have them already cut, I got mine at T&T
• enoki mushrooms
• tofu
• black bean sauce - just get the stuff in the jar
• soy sauce
• chili flakes - if you like a hint of spicy

Mix spareribs with black bean sauce and chili flakes.  Set aside.  Lay enoki mushrooms on bottom of plate and diced tofu on top of the enoki.  Sprinkle with some soy sauce.  (A plate with sides that come up is a must or the liquid produced from steaming would just make a mess if you use a flat plate.)  Lay spareribs on top.  Steam for approx. 15 minutes once the water has come to a boil.  Serve with steamed rice.

Ma Po Tofu

My homemade ma po tofu with white rice.  This one plate meal is a mouthful of homeyness.  I just feel such satisfaction after devouring this for dinner and the leftovers next day for lunch.  Another fast meal for me to cook these days but oh so tasty.

I ground my own pork this time.  Instead of the mystery meat I usually get, this time I know what's in my ground pork and it's also a lot leaner.  You can tell by how pink most of the ground pork looks instead of it being dotted with white pieces of fat.

GRINDING THE PORK

THE OTHER INGREDIENTS:

tofu, green onions, mushroom soy, chili sauce with fermented black beans, chili oil & sesame oil

EVERYTHING IN THE WOK (sprinkle the g. onions last so they don't get all brown)

Sticky Rice

In short, love this sticky rice sold at T&T in the freezer section.  Cost just over $3.  There's a smaller version but I think this is the right size for a quick and easy meal.  There is just enough filling.  Sometimes you get cheaped out on the filling.  The minced pork with a little sauce throughout lets you have a bite of stuffing with every mouthful of rice.  There's mushroom, bbq pork, Chinese sausage, duck yolk, shrimp, chicken...

IN IT'S LEAF WRAPPER

JUST UNWRAPPED

DIGGING INSIDE THE GOODNESS

Lunch: Beef Brisket & Tendon with Mung Bean noodle

Stewed beef brisket & tendon was pre-made months ago by my mom.  A quick defrost and heated up in a pot and spooned over some noodles with some green onions sprinkled on top.  Another great noodle meal.  Unfortunately, this was the last of the reserve.

I must get the recipe from my mom on how to stew a big batch of this.  She taught me once before but she has no set measurements.  She'd say, "Just put some of this in and some of that and more if you don't think it tastes right."

Dim Sum Dynasty

Restaurant: Dynasty
Where: 131 Bloor W., Toronto, ON M5S 1R1, Canada

This Sunday, we tried out this Chinese restaurant that we've walked past many times on Bloor St. I've always looked up to it's 2nd floor location with people sitting at the window seats. I knew they served Chinese food. I assumed they served the "not authentic" type of Chinese food due to its location and just by the way it looked from the street. So dim sum wouldn't be something I thought they served there but after reading the Chowhound message board on the merits of Dynasty's dim sum versus its pricing, I thought we should give it a try. I only thought we'd try it out because I felt it would be spacious enough to fit the babies and so it did. We were comfortably seated at a four person table; stroller replaced a chair and our portable high chair fit on top of another chair. Our table was right next to a stack of fish tanks. No fish in the tanks but a few lonely lobsters and BC crabs.

There was no trolley service at Dynasty, it had the tick off your choices from the carbon copy listing of dim sum.  I found the price to be expensive but the quality was good.  Although I have had the same quality of dim sum at other restaurants for a fraction of the price we paid here.  This may be the trade off for the cleanliness and the amount of space we need for the babies.  There was a premium dish that a waiter came by with that a regular dim sum resto would not have and that was the roasted suckling pork.  YUMMMM!!!!  It was worth the extra $$$.  The skin was a crispy perfection and the meat was oh so tender.  We just hope that on our next visit, the roasted suckling pork is offered again!

Two other items to highlight were the scallop wrapped in egg tofu and the scallop dumplings.  The first, beautifully natural and steamed.  The hollowed out piece of tofu was deep fried oh so lightly.  It's appearance resembled a tator tot.  The dumpling's skin was the perfect chewy consistency that you look for in this type of dim sum dumpling.

Weekend in Review

This was an extended weekend for us, not just Saturday & Sunday, it included Thursday, Friday and Monday. We inevitably go out on weekends because I hardly get out much during the week. The babies are a difficult bunch by myself (they are so young right now). A tag team effort eases the pain. While out in the city, we always eat.

Here is a weekend review of my food life...

Asian Legend, Chinatown: Northern Chinese

What we ordered: Chinese Silver Bun (fried), Xiao Long Bao (steamed soup filled pork/scallop dumplings), Rolled Onion Pancake with Sliced Beef, Hot & Sour Soup and Pork Chop Fried Noodle

Over Easy: A breakfast place (There's non-breakfast items on the menu too.)

What we ordered: I ordered the complete healthy breakfast which included egg whites, oatmeal, multi-grain toast & a bowl of fruit. I forget what the other order across the table was. Something with cheese, egg and bacon mixed together and baked (can see the small casserole dish) plus, hash brown. Also, an order of extra toast for baby1. ...coffee & grapefruit juice too.

John's Italian Cafe, on Baldwin St. (Lots of restaurants on this stretch of the street.)

A little rest and drink after a long walk. Our original destination was an organic farmer's market on John St., but it was nowhere to be found. So we kept on walking and ended up here. We only wanted a bowl of latte and a decaf cappuccino. The cafe has a full menu as well.

The mother's day meal will be posted after this. It deserving of its own entry.

Manpuku, Village on the Grange

What we ordered: kake udon, curry don & takosen

This is a new discovery from the Chowhound. Not the usual Japanese place that everyone is accustomed to around here, no sushi. Will have to go again to try some of the other items, particularly the onigiri and yakionigiri. I really enjoyed the takosen. It's not something I've had before so I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be but I loved it anyway. It's this orb of goodness all wrapped into one - fried outside and chewy & soft on the inside, with just the right amount of mayo on top. yummmm...