Category Archives: Ginger

Grilled Chinese Sweet & Sour Pork Kebabs

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If you leaf through the new February issue of Coastal Living magazine, you’re sure to stop in your tracks to admire the recipe and full-page, color photo of  “Grilled Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork Kabobs.”

Well, at least I hope you do, because it’s my very own recipe — my first one published in the magazine.

It’s part of the story, “Fresh Tropical Flavors! Pineapple,” which I helped developed recipes for.

I solicited well-known chefs, including legendary Hawaiian toque, Sam Choy, for favorite dishes that showcase fresh pineapple.

I also came up with my own — a riff on everyone’s favorite take-out dish of sweet ‘n’ sour pork. Instead of greasy, battered, fried pork, though, I lightened the dish by threading skewers of pork with red onion, green and red peppers, and chunks of fresh pineapple that get thrown on the grill.

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Spread It Around & Food Gal Contest

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(From top to bottom): Golden Flaxseed Spread, Savory Flaxseed Spread, and Lemony Flaxseed Spread.

Mayo, mustard, and tapenade.

Been there, ate that.

If you’re looking to spice up your sandwiches with new flavor and flair, look no further than Laxmi’s Delights flaxseed spreads.

Made by Bay Area cookbook author Laxmi Hiremath, who wrote “The Dance of Spices” (Wiley), the three organic spreads are made with flaxseed, a plant source high in good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids.

Hiremath sent me a sample to try. There are three flavors: Lemony Flaxseed Spread with Ginger and Honey; Savory Flaxseed Spread with Sun-Dried Tomatoes; and Golden Flaxseed Spread with Dates and Orange Juice.

Hiremath created these bold-tasting spreads to smear on Indian flatbreads. But they also work well on your favorite sandwiches, as stir-fry sauces, marinades for fish, and flavorings for all manner of vegetable dishes.

Organic spreads with bold flavors.

The Lemony Flaxseed Spread is tangy, sweet, and spicy with the bright sunny notes of citrus. The Savory Flaxseed Spread is like Italian meets a little bit of India. Sweet, plump sun-dried tomatoes get an earthy complexity from Indian spices. The Golden Flaxseed Spread is a cross of Middle Eastern and Indian flavors. A little sweet and a little savory, this quite thick sauce has the lovely, deep, concentrated flavors of orange peel and sticky dates.

One tablespoon has 30 to 100 calories, depending on the particular spread. The sun-dried tomato spread has 10 grams of fat, while the other two have just 1 gram each.

Each 7-ounce jar is $9.99. If you’d like to try them, Hiremath has a deal for you: If you order three jars, she’ll waive the cost of shipping, if you mention you read about the spreads on FoodGal.com. Just go to the “contact” page on the Laxmi’s Delights site to order by sending her an email or calling.

Even better, one lucky Food Gal reader also will win the grand prize of three free jars of the spreads (one of each type).

How?

By spreading it on, so to speak.

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Giving Thanks for a Non-Pie Pumpkin Dessert on Thanksgiving

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A pumpkin dessert that's not pie.

I love all things pumpkin — except pie.

Forgive me my idiosyncrasy with this hallowed squash.

Many of you already know I won’t ever turn down pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins or any savory pumpkin dish. But if pumpkin pie comes to the table, I’d just as soon pass. I think I find it just too dense and one-dimensional.

Yet, I still enjoy the autumn taste of pumpkin and I know it rightfully deserves a place on the festive Thanksgiving table.

That’s why I’m always elated when I find a lovely pumpkin dessert recipe that is not pie.

“Crema di Zucca” or “Creamy Pumpkin Custard” stars pumpkin in the form of creamy, smooth individual puddings that get dolloped with whipped cream and boozy golden raisins.

The recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Dolce Italiano” (W.W. Norton & Co.) by Gina DePalma, pastry chef of Babbo restaurant in New York.

Cream cheese, mascarpone, and egg yolks give the batter luxuriousness and a fluffier texture than pumpkin pie filling. Pulverized crystallized ginger gives it a special little kick.

The golden raisin compote gets its sweet, grown-up taste from orange juice, sugar, butter and rum.

The custards bake in a water bath, then are chilled before serving.

The original recipe calls for chilling the custards for at least four hours, before inverting them onto individual plates. Try as I might after that allotted time, though, I couldn’t get my custards to release from the ramekins.

The custards after being baked, then chilled overnight.

I conferred with DePalma via email, who noted that at the restaurant, they actually chill the custards overnight. She thought that might make them firmer and easier to remove from the ramekins.

So I waited overnight, and tried again. And what do you know — it worked this time. The custards were indeed firmer. I ran the tip of a knife around the edge of each custard, then let the ramekins sit in a bowl of very hot water for a few seconds, as DePalma also had suggested. Then I placed a small plate over a ramekin, turned it over, and gave it one big shake, which helped release the custard onto the plate. Voila!

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Memorable Ginger Cafe

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Lamb with steamed buns -- a dish I would go back for again and again.

For two years — as long as it’s been in existence — I’ve driven past the Ginger Cafe on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.

Yes, driven right past from the get-go, not stopping at all to collect a mere whiff or a taste.

Yup, me, a bonafide ginger fiend had never stepped foot inside this pan-Pacific Rim eatery.

Go figure.

Fortunately, when owner Tuyen Chung invited me in for dinner last week, I finally atoned for that faux pas.

Good thing, too, because I’d really been missing out.

Chung, who immigrated to the United States as a teen-ager by way of mainland China and Hong Kong, started cooking with his mother at her restaurant more than 25 years ago. In 2004, he opened his first Ginger Cafe in Gilroy. In 2007, he followed suit with the Sunnyvale locale.

The comfortable, well-lighted restaurant, decorated with Asian art work, serves up a mix of Asian street food and classics — often done up with Chung’s inventive, modern takes. For instance, a spectacular platter of lamb sauteed with caramelized onions gets a dusting of grated Parmesan cheese, and is served with pillowy, steamed, clam shell-shaped buns. And boy, does it all work together perfectly.

Crunchy soft-shell crab with irresistible panko bread crumbs.

Fried Fongsa soft-shell crab is fragrant and tinged yellow from cumin. It gets tossed with crispy, chile-tinged Panko crumbs that are dynamite mixed with plain steamed rice. It’s like a traditional Chinese version of salt-and-pepper fried Dungeness crab. But Chung noticed that many Americans don’t like to get their fingers dirty when eating, so he substituted soft-shell crab instead. Eat the shell and all using chopsticks and there’s no mess whatsoever. Genius.

Dumplings filled with shrimp and bok choy.

Shrimp and calamari atop crisp shrimp chips.

Dim sum is served all day. We tried the shrimp-bok choy dumplings, which were delicate, with plump whole shrimp in them.  An appetizer of shrimp and calamari atop fried shrimp crackers is a two-bite treat heady with green onions and fried shallots that would make a great cocktail party snack.

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A Profusion of Pears and Spices

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Autumn pears star in these cheesecake-like bars.

That’s just what you’ll find in these creamy-dreamy “Pear Cream Cheese Bars with Macadamia Nut Crust.”

They’re potent with ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon and coriander — a whole teaspoon of each. Whoa!

The fact that they’re so spice-heavy shouldn’t come as a surprise — not when the recipe comes from a cookbook with the name, “The Spice Kitchen, Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices” (Andrews McMeel) by Sara Engram and Katie Luber with Kimberly Toque. Engram and Luber have their own line of spices. And Toque was an assistant test kitchen chef at Lawry’s.

My friends who sampled the bars found the amount of spice overwhelming. I didn’t mind the pronounced flavor, except that it did make it very hard to actually taste the pears in these treats.

Next time, I think I would cut the amount of spice in half, which is how I’ve adapted the recipe below. Feel free to cut the spice amounts even more if you prefer.

The bars have a great interplay of textures — a crisp, nutty cookie foundation, then an almost cheesecake-like middle, followed by slices of fresh pears, and a quite sweet, thick layer of crunchy streusel on the very top. The flavor is reminiscent of a heady pear spice cake in a whole different guise.

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