Yeah, I’ve taken to calling anything stewy with cumin and cinnamon in it “Moroccan” even though this is a silly generalization of Moroccan food and I am sorry. But anyway, I made a delicious soup today out of random things we had lying around. I had to come up with something that would go with Jia’s cumin + sesame oil pancakes, which he says are a specialty from his hometown Zhengzhou, China. I’m surprised how well this meal turned out because 1) I was skeptical that I could come up with anything on the spot that’d go well with cumin pancakes (which I’d also never had before, making it difficult to pair) and 2) I’ve been responsible for some pretty epic soup fails before when I was “experimenting” with random combination of things we had on hand. But this was not an epic fail for once (and it went well with the pancakes, which were most delicious). It would have been quite an awesome meal if only it weren’t so infernally hot in our apartment. So I’m noting down the recipe to make again on a colder day when we need something warm, cozy, and chock full of vegetarian goodness.

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Mochi is one of those “projects” I’ve been meaning to make for a long time, along with bread and Mexican mole. The bread I’ve tried before and it was a failure. Mole… don’t have all the ingredients and may never. But today I finally made mochi.

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…Because, again, we didn’t cook like half the things I SFP’d last week. =)

#1

• Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

#1

• Tandoori-less Tandoori Chicken (from Cook’s Illustrated)
• rice

#2

• Pork Mango Picadillo
• rice

#3

• Ham and Lentil Soup
• cornbread muffins

#4

• Jess’ meatloaf
• roast potatoes
• salad

#5

• Sage and Butternut Squash Penne (from Cook’s Illustrated)
• Endive and Pear Salad

Yesterday I made a very simple Chinese-style, pork-stuffed bell peppers dish, which my mother quite enjoyed, which means that it was probably very good. So I’m going to share it with my dear Internets here. I had made a stuffed bell pepper before but it involved baking, and I figured mom didn’t want me to turn on the oven, so I had to do this in our flat-bottom wok. It turned out even better this way, nicely browned on top, but it does require a bit of spatula acrobatics. I think this may ultimately be a better alternative method for making stuffed peppers—sautéing is much faster than baking, there’s no pesky preheating to wait for, and I do like me some low-carbon-footprint recipes. So without further ado…

Chinese Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients
2 small bell peppers
1 lb ground pork
2 stalks of spring onion
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn or tapioca starch
1 teaspoon water

Method

1. Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise (so there is a bit of stem on each piece). Remove the blob of seeds and the stem (usually you can just break it off), then rinse to get rid of all the seeds hiding in the crevices.
2. Mix together everything else in a small bowl. Stuff an equal portion of the meat mixture into each bell pepper half, making sure the mixture is nice and snug so it doesn’t fall out. This is Very Important. Also pat the top flat.
3. Pour enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan (or flat-bottom wok, or what-have-you) and heat to mid-high. A teensy drop of water should sizzle out of existence the minute it hits the oil; that’s how you know it’s ready. (Or, if you are my mom, you just Know. Or or, if you are that challenger on Iron Chef, you stick a finger in. I wouldn’t recommend it, though.)
4. Here’s the fun part. (Extra fun if you only have a metal spatula and therefore won’t let yourself touch the surface of your Calphalon One Nonstick Wok with it. Cough.) Get one of the bell peppers and put it meat-side-down on the spatula. Then gently lower the spatula into the oil and slide the stuffed pepper off into the oil using a pair of chopsticks, or some other long implement. It should start sizzling immediately. Repeat with other 3 stuffed peppers. Wait like 3 minutes for the meat to brown.
5. Then carefully slide your spatula under a pepper. Support the upper side with a pair of chopsticks or fork or something, and flip the pepper over. Repeat with other 3. Wait like another 2 minutes for the bottom of the bell peppers to brown.
6. Pour a quarter-cup of water into the pan. Lower heat the medium-low, cover, and let steam for 8-10 minutes.
7. After a while, check to see if the center of the meat is still red. If not, you’re done.
8. Time for the om nom noms!