Xiao Wan's Banana Bread

I have become excited about baking recently and started by experimenting with banana bread. This is my second solo attempt and I'm very happy with how it turned out. In my humble opinion, by adding fresh ginger to the recipe it added a special extra layer by counter-balancing the character of the banana.


Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup mashed bananas ( approximately 3 VERY RIPE medium size )
• 1 1/2 cups raw brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 2 tablespoons VERY FINELY CHOPPED ginger
• 1/2 cup dried currants

Directions:

A: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes. Put 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil in each loaf pan and use a paper towel to coat the insides.
B: Mix the eggs, whole milk, vegetable oil, and bananas for about 2 minutes.
C: In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and VERY FINELY CHOPPED ginger.
D: Blend B and C together until they are mixed well but don't make it too smooth (either by hand or with an electric mixer.) You want to keep some banana texture. Pour the mixture into 1-2 loaf pans.
E: Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. I suggest inserting a wooden skewer in the center between 55-60 minutes. The bread is done if the skewer comes out clean. Let sit for about 20 minutes before serving.

Xiao Wan's Spring Couscous Salad

This is a killer dish... especially when the weather gets warmer. Whether you are a fan of couscous, or not, give it a try. If you want to go vegetarian, leave the shrimp out.


Ingredients:

• 15 medium size shrimp, poached
• 3 1/4 cups water*
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 3 cups Tri-color couscous or regular couscous
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2-3 lime or lemon wedges
  
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium size cucumber, chopped
• 2-3 sprigs rosemary
  
• approximately 15-18 cherry tomatoes, cut each into halves
  
• 2 medium size fresh jalapeno peppers, finely chopped with seeds all removed
  
• 1 medium size ripe avocado , chopped
  
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro,finely chopped
• 2-3 scallion, finely chopped
  
• salt, paprika, and ground black pepper

Optional Spicy Mayo:**

• 2 tbsp Mayonnaise
• 4 tsp Sriracha Sauce
• A few drops of Sesame Oil
• A pinch of ground Black Pepper

-- Mix Spicy Mayo ingredients together in a bowl. You can apply it by placing in a plastic sandwich bag and cutting a tiny piece of the bottom corner off.

* Make sure you have enough water for the couscous... you don't want it painfully dry.
** One of Xiao Wan's guilty pleasures.

Directions:

In a pot, bring the water to a boil and add the couscous. Remove from heat, cover, let sit for about five minutes, then fluff with a fork. In a large frying pan, on high heat, add olive oil. Quickly cook the rosemary for less than 1 minute, turn the heat off, immediately add half of the onions to the cooling pan, and stir until coated with olive oil. Add shrimp, remaining onions, jalapeno pepper, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, scallion, cilantro, salt (to your taste), pinch of paprika and black pepper. Toss the mixture well in the same pan.

Finally, place the couscous salad on a serving plate, arrange avocado on top, and squeeze fresh lime or lemon to finish it off. If you made the spicy mayo, drizzle it over the couscous. This salad is great at room temperature, served as a side-dish or a meal, and should serve 4-5 people. Enjoy!

Xiao Wan's Shrimp Latkes

I used leftover mashed potatoes, mixed with fresh shrimp, onion, and celery,
(all chopped), an egg, flour, and Panko bread crumbs. I will try to remember exactly how I usually make them and add the recipe. This dish was one of the happy accidents in Xiao Wan's kitchen.

Xiao Wan's Shrimp Fried Rice

If you prefer seafood to pork, you can follow the recipe for Xiao Wan's Pork Fried Rice. Simply substitute shrimp for pork. If you'd like it vegetarian, just prepare it without meat or seafood.

Xiao Wan's Pork Fried Rice

Today I felt like making something homey......

Ingredients:

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, diced
• 3-4 scallions, chopped
• 3 sprigs of rosemary (an worthy alternative to basil)
• 1 cup of pork tenderloin, sliced into 2" strips (you can add more pork if you like)
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
• 5-7 cups cooked rice (chill in refrigerator for at least 5 hours)
• 2 large eggs, pre-scrambled
• 2 small Thai chili pepper
• salt and pinch of fresh ground white and black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame seed oil
• 1 teaspoon of Szechuan spicy chill, canned
• 3-4 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

Heat 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. On high heat, saute garlic, rosemary, onion, Thai chill pepper, carrots, ginger, and half of the scallions for 2 - 3 minutes. Keep heat on high and add pork. Saute until the pork is well done, add the scrambled eggs, and rice, then stir until everything is mixed and heated well. Lower the heat and mix in the soy sauce, remaining scallions, sesame seed oil, Szechuan spicy chili, a pinch of salt, and ground white & black pepper. Continue mixing until the rice has soaked up the flavor of the other ingredients and the color is uniform. Garnish with julienned scallions or finely chopped fresh cilantro. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you like.

Xiao Wan's Special Vegetable Soup

I spontaneously made soup for late lunch today as the weather was supposed to be overcast. I thought having some hot soup could make the weather somewhat bearable. Anyway, this soup is good for all seasons. It's healthy,soothing, tasty and complex.

When you look at the ingredients photo it might seem a bit complicated but the process is actually quite painless.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a medium sized carrot, cut into coins, then halved
  
• 1 ear of fresh sweet corn (shave the kernels)
  
• 1 fresh bamboo shoot, peeled and sliced (easily found in Chinese market)
• 1 leek (remove green ends) sliced into 1 inch pieces
  
• 1/4 of a medium sized bermuda, or sweet onion, quartered
  
• 2 small taro, about the size of a child's fist, diced into about six pieces each
  
• 1/3 of a medium sized daikon radish, cut into coins, halve each coin
  
• a handful of "Chinese mushrooms"(I always get these from chinese markets but never know the real name. I promise to update later)
• 2 small "chinese chili peppers", quartered (I have the same problem as "chinese mushrooms" but you can find them just about anywhere)
• 1 sahuaro pepper, halved
• 2 scallion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 slices of ginger
  

Seasoning:

• 3 tbsp of shao xing cooking wine
• 1 cup of somen seasoning soy sauce
• salt to taste
  
• ground white and black pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp of dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp of soybean paste (if you prefer a stronger flavor you can add more but I personally think the soybean paste can be overpowering, so add in small bits and test it as you go)
  

Directions:

First, make the broth. Bring 16 cups of water to a boil. Add the onion, sahuaro pepper, carrot, ginger, garlic,taro and 1 scallion. Bring to boil again, then reduce heat to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add 1 more cup of water, the daikon radish, bamboo shoot, mushrooms, leek, and sweet corn. Add shao xing cooking wine, or any kind of sake, somen seasoning soy sauce, dark brown sugar, salt, pinch of ground black and white pepper and soybean paste. Cook approximately 25 mins longer, or untill Daikon is semi-translucent.

The soup is now ready to serve.Add a few drops of sesame seed oil if you wish. Fresh, finely chopped scallions really top it off and are essential*.




* note: I discovered that adding freshly chopped scallion, at serving, to miso, or any kind of soup containing soybean paste, brings out the best flavor.

Xiao Wan's General Tso's Tofu

I use the same preparation as Xiao Wan's General Tso's chicken. Just replace the chicken with firm or soft tofu. Marinate and deep-fry the tofu the same way you would the chicken.
This makes a great vegetarian dish. Serve over rice!

Xiao Wan's General Tso's Chicken

Read on to see how to make General Tso's Chicken

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/4 diced chicken breasts
-1 egg
-1 cup of all purpose flour
-scallion, garlic, ginger, fresh or dry chili pepper

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup water (I personally think it's redundant to use chicken stock.)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar (I don't like to abuse the use of sugar.)
• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
  
• 1 tablespoon Shao Xing cooking wine
• 1/2 teaspoon pure dark sesame seed oil (I like to use dark sesame oil for this dish as it is very strong, concentrated and more flavorful.)
  
• 2 tablespoons of tapioca starch or sweet potato starch (I never use corn starch.)

I often improvise as I cook, so you may find the need to adjust certain things to your personal taste.

Mix all the above well in one bowl and set aside.

Dice chicken breast. Marinate the chicken in mixture of 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp Shao Xing cooking wine, 1/4 tsp pure dark sesame seed oil, ground black pepper and white pepper, 1 tsp soy sauce for about 15 minutes. Toss the marinated chicken in flour.

Set burner to high heat and deep-fry chicken pieces until golden brown

Place the chicken on wax paper or paper towels to dry. Drain/dispose of most of the oil (leave small amount of oil on the pan.) Add cut scallion, chili paper, chopped ginger, minced garlic and stir fry about 45 seconds until sauce mixture is thick. Be sure to stir continuously. Add chicken to the mixture in the pan and quickly cook until all is coated with the sauce. Do not prolong this process so the chicken will stay crispy.

Serve immediately! It's great with rice.

Sprinkle sesame as desired.


Xaio Wan's General Tso's Chicken is not too greasy, sweet, or salty! You will enjoy this if the traditional General Tso's Chicken is too strong for your tastes. Xiao Wan's version is refreshing and flavorful.

Xiao Wan's Crispy Fish with Hot & Sour Sauce

Three Cup Roasted Calamari

I sauteed calamari with 3 cup sauce, removed calamari to quickly roast and, while roasting calamari, refined 3 cup sauce by blending with a hand blender. Arrange the calamari on a plate, cover with the refined 3 cup sauce, and garnished with freshly squeezed lime juice and a lime wedge. Serve with rice. This creation was inspired by the traditional 3 cup chicken dish.

Xiao Wan's Somen Noodle soup with Tempura

Xiao Wan's Crispy Tofu

Xiao Wan's crispy tofu with Szechuan sweet & spicy sauce