Delicious Things

Having a couple of days to cook is a wonderful thing -- it reminds me that I still can cook.  (And getting to eat delicious homemade food is never a bad thing either!)

Here's what I made:

Robin Robertson's Gobi Manchurian.  To make a double batch of the sauce, I pureed raw ginger/garlic/onion together then sauteed them for about 10 minutes until it no longer smelled raw.  Then I added a can of pureed chopped tomato along with the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmered for 20 minutes.  We've made this several times and usually just roast the cauliflower rather than battering it and deep-frying it. 

Steamed veggie buns from the Kitchn.  I followed the dough recipe (although I may cut the sugar to 3T next time) and made my own filling recipe: 

1/3 small cabbage, chopped

6-8 button mushrooms, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

splash of olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 and 1/2 tsp hoisin sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

Saute cabbage, mushrooms, garlic, onions, and ginger with oil and salt until vegetables are cooked through and starting to brown.  Put into a food processor with remaining ingredients and pulse a few times until most pieces of cabbage are less than 1/2 inch long.  Cool and proceed with the original recipe.

We don't have a steamer basket so I used a cooling rack (for cookies) set over a pan of boiling water, and covered with a domed lid to trap the steam.  Steam the buns with the twisted end down for 15 minutes and then flip and steam for another 5 minutes.

Here's to happy times in the kitchen!