Cooking up a storm

After a successful trip to Lyon this past Sunday, my pantry is fully stocked, enough supplies to prepare a CNY's feast for R and the neighbors. Attempting to have oversight of my pantry, I decided to organize the Asian vs non-Asian goods which were haphazardly piled onto one another. Post re-organization, the lentils, red beans, corn meal, couscous, lasagna sheets, and long grain rice (among other things) are grouped together; they live below green mung beans, red azuki beans, soybeans, bean thread, and my 4 precious boxes of tofu (AOT). However, the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and oyster sauce all live in perfect harmony.

Tangent: "It's so hard to get tofu in my area and when I do find it, it's insanely expensive compared to Boston",  I said to Steven while in Boston. A true foodie and great cook as well as tofu connoisseur (among many other things), Steven suggested I make my own tofu using soybeans. Apparently, in Vancouver and Japan, there are restaurants that not only make their own tofu, but they specialize in it. Research on tofu and tofu experiments will commence next week. I'll compare the quick powdered soybean mix (from Supermarche Asie) to the straight from soybeans method (from Hung Diep).

My neighbors are old French country folk who raise their own food, including 2 huge vegetable gardens, bunnies and chickens for their eggs. P used to hunt pheasants, deer, and wild boars as well, but he hasn't done that in years owing to his age (which is 73). Hunting requires getting up way too early, sitting for hours in hopes of bagging some wild game and not getting shot by fellow hunters (In France, a few people get accidentally shot while hunting. In my woods, the wild boar season is not over yet and every other day, I hear gunshots and think "Poor sanglier. I hope it was quick and I hope it wasn't a hunter who got shot.") Then it includes hours and hours of cleaning, butchering, and packaging. Back when P used to hunt, he'd give R some fresh and frozen meats. Would have been interesting to cook these meats for R but alas, I'm not a huge fan of gamey meats.
Anyway I digress. The last time I brought my homemade dumplings to P and D's house, I plopped a good amount of Sambal Oelek on the side (more of a garnish to brighten up the plate). Both loved the dumplings and P even devoured all the Sambal Oelek on his last bite, and then right afterwards, asked if he could keep the ginger soy dipping sauce. His intention for it? A topping for pizza! I laughed my butt off.

P and D, and Helene are coming over for CNY and the menu encompasses tastes from both Vietnam and China. Armed with a new 9" bamboo steamer, I feel like the whole dumpling world is now open to me. I'll be using it to make shumai and for steaming the whole fish--hoping to channel Miho so my shumai comes out as beautiful and delicious as the ones she made for our Asian potluck a while back. After the tofu experiments, I'll try my hand at making har gow, steamed char siu buns, and stuffed shiitake mushrooms - all using my bamboo steamer.

LE MENU
Some kind of apero and peanuts. If I have time, I'll spice them up with 5-spice powder
Pork egg roll lettuce wraps. Aka Vietnamese nems with sweet thickened fish sauce with cucumbers
Instead of the thick Chinese egg roll wrappers, I'm wrapping mine the Northern Vietnamese way which is with rice paper. The same kind you use for fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, aka as summer rolls to me and my friends. We like to eat these all year round, but especially during the summer because there's little stove cooking involved.
Pork and shrimp shumai (Hong Kong style with gingered soy sauce)
Chinese egg noodles with vegetables and red pork (which is marinating in the refridgerator right now)
Steamed whole fish (Chinese way with soy sauce, ginger, scallions)
Vietnamese tapioca pudding with bananas (in a coconut broth, garnished with sesame)