I slept late this morning. I didn't get out of bed until nearly six o'clock. (Walt and I recently realized that we never really adjusted our sleep schedules to deal with the change from heure d'été to heure d'hiver this year, though we did adjust our lunch hour.) Anyway, I'll continue the naturalization series this coming week. The process is nowhere near finished, so there's plenty of time. The next post will be a foray into the jungle that is local government terminology in the U.S.
Walt mentioned on his blog yesterday that we went to Blois on Friday. That was a trip to meet with the translator who created official French-language versions of our U.S. birth certificates and other documents. Everything is now translated and heavily adorned with official seals and stamps of one kind or another. After the meeting, we had time left over Friday morning to go shopping at the Asia Store near the train station in Blois and replenish our supply of Asian sauces and special ingredients like okra, Shanghai bok choy, and frozen raw shrimp.
So for lunch yesterday we made a stir fry of bok choy, okra, carrot, onions, mushrooms and shrimp, inspired by this NY Times recipe. I made a mixture of hoisin sauce, sweet Japanese hon mirin cooking wine, soy sauce, Thai sriracha, grated ginger, and mushroom-flavored soy sauce as the seasoning for the stir fry. It turned out to be really delicious (with steamed rice).
Recently (and one time not so recently) we have been making Chinese steamed buns, which are a real treat. They were something we enjoyed eating in San Francisco, which has hundreds of good Asian restaurants. Here's a link to an explanation and recipe.
The buns are a dim sum dish. They are a flour dough leavened with both baker's yeast and baking powder, then filled with a savory stuffing, and cooked in a steamer pot. For the filling, I made some slow-cooker pulled pork flavored with some of the same sauces that went into yesterday's shrimp and vegetable stir fry. We ate the steamed buns with a stir fry of collard greens and roasted winter vegetables.
Impressed that you are able to make these dim sum goodies, and so beautifully formed. Interesting that corn starch is an ingredient...I wouldn't have guessed.
ReplyDeleteI think the cornstarch makes the dough very tender, and using both leavenings lightens it up too.
DeleteI am on a cooking roll at the moment - experimenting with curries to warm up an English winter which has really turned cold here over the last couple of weeks. My kitchen smells of Indian spices most of the time which is an added bonus. I am really enjoying reading your recipes and hope to try some out soon. These buns look fantastic. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh, I've often seen those steamed buns at a local Asian buffet, and wondered what they were all about. I doubt that the buffet ones are as good as yours :)
ReplyDeleteThose steamed buns are lovely.
ReplyDeleteI would fizzle out during the preparations, I have become an extremely lazy cook but I would love to eat any of these :)
ReplyDeleteI have quit eating Chinese food, having developed an unpleasant allergy to shrimp and when they say there is no shrimp, that does not mean it was not cooked in the same oil.
So I know I can trust me when I cook for me :) I will see if I get inspired one day and give this a go.
you are a great cook
ReplyDeleteYou must open a restaurant and I am going to be your first customer
ReplyDeleteThe process for us to get permanent residency in Argentina took about a year.what with translators and who knows what fees etc it would discourage most people.
ReplyDeleteBut boy were we proud when we got those papers and ID cards:)
I think what we have now — la carte de résident — is the same thing as permanent residency. The card is renewable every 10 years, but the renewal is supposed to be automatic unless there is some extraordinary problem. Still...
DeleteYes ... What annoys me is the time and money spent and after we came back to the US .. we were planning on returning to BA in a few months ... my husband died suddenly- * that isn't the "annoying thing" :) ... but I have not been back to BA and all that work and money and time spent to get that little book and now I am not sure it will be any good.
ReplyDeleteI have to take a trip back to Argentina and get it activated or whatever . I sometimes, seriously consider, moving back there.
But I have never done something like that alone .. I have done it in the US but never outside the country. The cats keep telling me not to do it :)