Ahhh, cooking. It's not just for sustenance any more. It can be, dun dun duuun, an ADVENTURE. So I'm told at any rate. I am also certain that cooking with me is definitely something other than routine. I've heard of recipes before, I've even read a few. What I haven't done so much is follow them. I take a more nuanced approach to cooking. Well, if nuanced means throw a bunch of stuff together and pray it's edible then I take a nuanced approach. I may be deliberately confusing it with chaotic.
Let's take this evening's episode as an example. My girlfriend has suggested that we need a bit more adventure in our lives. Perhaps some shared hobbies would work towards that idea. I figure cooking has sharp edges, open flames, risk of trauma... yeah, that can qualify as adventure. I should mention that I generally do the cooking. She can and does cook, but I'm really finicky about textures so I generally cook. Well, and she has this thing about grocery stores. Short of a) dragging her, b) bribing her, or c) being dead sick so she has to go; she does not grocery shop. She also made an amazing discovery this evening. I have a spice rack. I've had said spice rack in the exact same location since I unpacked my kitchen in May 2008. She spent three months with me over the summer. I'm at a loss. She doesn't cook and she doesn't grocery shop. What do you do princess? Clean. She cleans. In the "germ warfare" sense, or would that be "The War on Germs!" I don't think I've ever had this clean a kitchen.
At any rate my methodology for cooking is generally to stick my head in the fridge, grab a few things, and decide what to do to them as the preparations ensue. Fridge diving at it's finest. Cooking with someone else really changes the game. This can work really well if there's a plan. If there is not a plan? Less effective, but potentially entertaining. Ahhhhhh, adventure. To start I'd suggested we could do shu mai. They're pretty labor intensive so it would take a couple of good hours to get to the eating part. In general Chinese cooking is preparation heavy with a lot to do before you actually cook anything. Now, I know what you're thinking... stop that! That wasn't what I was talking about. Preparation heavy? For someone whose idea of a long cooking session is 15 minutes? I know, I know, but it's supposed to be an adventure right?
For those of you that don't know it shu mai are Chinese dumplings; they are similar to potstickers. You can check out the Wikipedia link if you're so inclined. Traditionally the first step in this process would have been to make the dough for the wrappers and let it sit overnight in the fridge covered with a damp towel. Ummmm... overnight? That's going to make it hard to cook tonight. Fortunately, I'm not bound by tradition. The nice folks at the grocery store sell pre-made wrappers. The idea being those great folks at the manufacturing plant have lovingly made the dough and let it sit overnight for you before rolling it out into thin sheets and cutting it into wrappers just the right size. Well, that's the idea any way.
The next thing on the list is the filling. There are, I am sure, thousands of recipes for the filling. I've even read a few. So I must be an expert. Yeah, that's it. I mean I've been eating Chinese food for over 30 years, how could I not be an expert? Besides, cooking is about creativity and experimentation, right? Off to the grocery store, girlfriend in tow. Now, I live downtown and the grocery store is within walking distance. It is a Publix. Publix is a good grocery store, but it caters to the standard type of clientele, which admittedly I am not. I could have wandered off to the Whole Foods, but that's about five miles away. Also, it's dangerous, or at least perilous. So we improvise!
Ok, so we need a base... the girlfriend suggests shrimp. She's been thinking it's been a long time since she had any. Wow, they have nice looking... farmed shrimp. Hmmmm. Drive five miles, live with the shrimp? OK! All your base... errr, shrimp are belong to us. Now, what to combine with our shrimp? Hmmmm, need some oomph. How about scallions? No scallions, but they have green onions. Green onions? You have to draw the line somewhere. Hey, they've got leeks. Leeks will work. Green onions? Not so much. Ginger, check. Cilantro, check. Hmmmmm... think that's about it for the produce section. Off to the "Ethnic Cuisine" aisle. Oh wait. They don't have one listed. After four aisles we found the Asian section sandwiched in between the, much, much larger Italian and Mexican sections. Bamboo Shoots, check. Water Chestnuts, check. Hoisin Sauce, check. We are set. It's time to walk home and start cooking. First rule of cooking: if you are in charge delegate the things you don't want to do to the person helping you. This would be why the girlfriend got to wash and de-vein the shrimp. Me, I stared at the leek. Sooooo... it's just a tall onion, right? Apparently, unlike a green onion, you really aren't supposed to use the green leaves. OK, so slice and dice. Ginger and cilantro are up next followed by the shoots and water chestnuts. Is she done with the shrimp? Not yet. After everything has been chopped I pull out the skillet and dump in some oil and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic. Saute until the ingredients start to give off a strong aroma, then dump it back into the bowl. She done yet? No. Ok, get down the steamer and put water in the base. She done yet? No. Hmmmm... I bet I can do some stuff on the computer. Huh? Oh, you're done! Cool. Dump the shrimp into the skillet and saute them. Don't overcook them. They're going in the steamer next. Next I chop up all the shrimp while my girlfriend pulls out the wrappers and gets them ready. Well, opens the package at any rate. We did choose the easy way. Now for the moment of truth. Did sheer guesswork and instinct triumph or do I need to find a recipe? Mmmmmmm. Instinct wins. The filling tastes great.
Resisting the urge to grab a spoon and just start eating out of the bowl we begin to make the dumplings themselves. Here's the process. Put a dab of hoisin sauce in the center of each wrapper. They are about 3"x3". Next put in a small spoonful of the mix. Next wet the four corners of each wrapper then squash them together. This is a style of shu mai I've been told is called Four Birds Eye or Four Phoenix Eye. True or not it does have four eye shaped openings which you can see the fillings through. After being formed the dumplings go into the steamer. I should be using a bamboo steamer, but I don't have one so I'm afraid my regular one will have to do. We do up six of them and put them in the steamer to cook. Just a trial run.
A few minutes later the smells coming from the steamer are making our mouths water. Yay! Pull the steamer basket off and open it up. Grab the chopsticks and... hey, let go of the steamer basket. I want to eat you, quick holding on for dear life. Well, damn. The shu mai have one and all stuck to the bottom of the steamer. By the time we coax them out they've been mostly eviserated. Still they're just going to get masticated so no big deal. We each assemble one from parts and make ready to taste test. Oh wow. The hoisin sauce adds a faint sweetness that's complemented by the bamboo shoot. The ginger, cilantro, and garlic are all unique notes in the symphony of taste. The shrimp is just perfect, firm but not chewy with excellent flavor. The water chesnuts add a poignant crunch to counter point the softer ingredients. The wrappers... yeah. The wrappers... Well, mayble we overcooked them.
Round Two. Cook! As a precaution we oil the bottom of the steamer so that we won't need a pry bar this time. Same drill as before, but even thought the wrappers have only been out a couple of minutes they're drying out. Quick! Fingers flying we make the next batch. Into the steamer they go, but this time we watch them closely. Just as the wrappers turn translucent we pull the dumplings out. They do not cling to the steamer this time. No, this time they're going for solidarity. Arm in arm, or at least dough in dough they stand defiant of our gluttonous intent. This works about as well as it did last time as you can imagine. We are armed and hungry. Fear us little morsels. Again the filling was awesome. The wrappers... not so much.
Maybe they just don't steam well we think. Maybe frying will help. I mean, frying makes everything taste better right? So I pull out a large skillet and start heating the oil. We assemble the next batch, but a bit differently this time to adapt to the frying. Same setup, but this time we put another wrapper on top, basically making a square won ton. Into the oil they go. Sizzle, sizzle, oil and trouble, fire burn and skillet bubble. Only three this time, just to test. Guess what? The frying didn't help much. The wrappers still suck.
You know how there's a fatal flaw in every plan that you can't fix, but can only adjust for? For this recipe the silver bullet came down to the wrappers. Remember the store bought wrappers. The standard middle America grocery store, store bought wrappers? Yeah, that didn't work so well. I am forced to admit that I should have sucked it up and gone to Whole Foods. That or made the dough from scratch, but let's not get crazy here. We have about half the filling left in the fridge. Guess I'll try again tomorrow night.
