stir fry

Shanti Christensen's Book Giveaway and Umami Kale (updated)

April 6, 2017 By Eleanor Hoh 16 Comments

Book Giveaway details below, ends tonight Sunday, April 16: 12am ET, good luck!

If you crave real home cooked Chinese food, you can win Shanti Christensen’s book, “Family Style Chinese Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from My Culinary Journey Through China!” (see details below!) It’s a MUST. Shanti’s quest to learn authentic Chinese cooking led her into 40 families’ homes over a 3 year period and culminated in this treasure trove of family recipes. Her superb story telling makes us feel like an extended family, privy to secrets that have been passed down for generations.

You’ll learn about Chinese traditions, the importance of family and with meager ingredients, you can cook up feasts. Lamb Fried Rice Xinjiang Style (p.161) and Braised Pork Ribs in Aromatic Sauce (p.111), umm, not bad bedtime reading or to dream about.

Simple, no frills recipes. They won’t intimidate you or make you keel over with impossible-to-find ingredients like many Chinese cookbooks. My favorite part of the book? Reading Shanti’s endearing stories about the families gave me a sense of what life was like in China. I was born in China and left when only 9 months old.

You can experience more of Shanti’s China trip here.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in San Francisco,
she produces outrageous popup dinners serving dishes from all over Asia.

To celebrate this book giveaway, I chose Shanti’s Stewed Kale (p.156) because the day I wanted to experiment from her book, that’s all I had in the fridge. And I loved that because it reflects my whole philosophy of using what you have and make the best and tastiest dish you can!

Creating a sauce to put over veggies is a very efficient way of adding flavor
to a big batch of veggies and gives them a different texture and flavor.

As always, I couldn’t help being a Wok Star and put my personal spin on it…

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. kale (ready washed and torn into pieces)
Grape seed oil
Sesame oil

Sauce:
1 tsp Koon Chun brown bean sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp i.e. few dashes of sherry
1 tbsp i.e. few dashes of tamari
1/4 cup chicken broth

METHOD…

Combine all sauce ingredients in bowl
Heat cast iron wok till hot, add sauce and fry till fragrant
Immediately add kale and cover with sauce. Add broth, tamari and sherry.
Cook till kale is wilted, taste for doneness, if not enough sauce, add a little more broth and cook till tender.

This kale goes well with ANYTHING.
I’d love to hear about some of your favorite ways for preparing kale in the comments.

Ready for Book Giveaway? Keeping it simple, here you go:

1. Subscribe to my free newsletter in right sidebar —->
2. Follow Shanti Christensen on Instagram @showshanti
3. Follow Eleanor Hoh on Instagram @wokstar and leave comment on Book Giveaway post
4. Leave a comment below why you deserve to win Shanti’s cookbooks? Then email me eh at eleanorhoh dot com so I have your email if you win.
5. Eligibility: Only for United States residents. Closing date: Sunday, April 16 , 12 am ET. Check back here for winner announcements Monday, April 17.
6. A random winner will be picked and contacted via email. Respond ASAP, otherwise I will pick the next winner.
7. Your book will be sent directly to you, good luck everyone!

If you didn’t win, you can still buy Shanti’s cookbook here.

Want more ideas for vegetable dishes?…

Simple Kale Stir Fry

Three Ingredient Broccolini

How about more Kale recipes?

Serious Eats: 15 Kale recipes

All the Kale Recipes You’ll Ever Need

Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style

December 7, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh 2 Comments

The three elements to delicious food are flavor, texture, color in that order and this Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star style is the perfect dish! Impress your friends with this dish…

TECHNIQUE IS KEY…
So, I wanted to do a festive dish for the holidays and of course squash came to mind. I love the orange color of the squash and lends itself to so many different ways of preparing it. I immediately surf the net for how to make a stuffed squash, my go to site is The Kitchn, I love this site, it’s all about technique.
If you’ve read my blogs, you’ll know I don’t follow, use or teach recipes. Cooking for me has always been about creating a dish from scratch and building on those three elements I mentioned. Recipes are good for inspiration, possibly ingredient combinations and new flavors. Technique for me is the most important element to cooking.
SHAPE YOUR BRAIN TO COOK…
Last night as I was cooking, I was listening to a TED Talk by Dr. Lara Boyd, her talk solidified my philosophy totally! She described how neuroplasticity gives you the power to shape the brain you want! This means, the more you do something, the easier it becomes and you’re exercising your brain. I found this so fascinating because it’s what I’ve been promoting all these years. If you keep training your brain to create a dish, you’d be amazed what dishes you come up with. It’s also a lot of fun because you come up with something new every time, no repeats.
TIPS FOR ROASTING SQUASH…
I find out you have to roast the squash first BEFORE you put your stuffing in. I wanted my stuffing to still have crunchiness and colors, so naturally, stir frying them is the answer! I find when you roast vegetables, the colors are more grey and dull. Do you see where I’m going with this? Don’t just follow a recipe blind and do everything they say.
A good example of this is most Chinese recipes will ask you to make a ‘flurry’, a mix of cornstarch and water to give your dish a nice glaze but I find it’s just one extra step, so I include the cornstarch when I make sauce. Ta Da, eliminated a step.
USE RIGHT CHEESE…
A mistake I made was using hard goat cheese. My husband uses goat cheese in our omelets and it melts beautifully but it didn’t melt as well in this dish. I suspect the heat wasn’t hot enough, only 350. Use cheese like cheddar, Parmesan or any sharp cheese.
VERSATILE DISH…
You can make it totally vegetarian or even vegan and leave out the cheese. It’s a great side dish to go with anything! Add meat to it and you’ve got a one dish meal. If served as a main, you will need a half per person.
You can use whatever vegetables you have lying around but try and get a contrasting color in there to make it pop. Even leftover roast potatoes or rice.
I loved putting together the stuffing for this dish because I had many ingredients I thought would be perfect.
celery for color and texture
chestnuts for festive component
mushrooms for flavor
cooked quinoa for texture, protein and good for you
multi colored bell peppers for color
cilantro for color and flavor

HERE’S HOW TO DO THIS STUFFED SQUASH…
1. Cut squash in half, swish a little olive oil, salt and pepper on the inside. Place on baking tray and roast at 350 for 45 mins. – 1 hour depending on how big your squash is. Give a little fork test to see if it’s soft enough.
2. Chop all your vegetables and leave on chopping board. Grate your cheddar cheese ready
3. Stir fry chopped vegetables with usual, grape seed oil, garlic and ginger, dash of tamari and sherry, I added Flavor God’s dry rub, Everything Seasoning, you can add dried herbs but not both, too much.

4. Remove squash and crank up to 425. Fill squash with chopped stir fried vegetables, add cheese on top and return to oven. Squash is ready when cheese has melted and smells amazing in there! You’re welcome.

I found half was way too much to eat in one dinner, so you might want to even only have a quarter of it. I cheated and grilled some bacon wrapped scallops to go with it, yummy!
There you have it, looks colorful and festive! Stuffed Squash Good a la Wok Star Style! It’s a great dish to serve as a side or a main when you have guests for dinner.
Here are some other festive dishes for the Holidays to try…
Wok Charred Brussels Sprouts
Ginger Honey Brussels Sprouts
Grilled Duck with Stir Fried Brussels Sprouts

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

WokStar-StuffedSquash-redplate — Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style!

Easy Dinner: Grilled Duck, Stir Fry Brussels Sprouts

May 5, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh 3 Comments

This easy weeknight dinner idea involves a little cheating and ghee. Duck may seem a rather opulent weeknight dinner but it’s really not. Grilling duck while stir frying brussels sprouts will get your dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes AND you’ll be showered with loads of compliments! At least, that’s what happens every time I serve duck.

Ready cooked meats…but good ones without processed chemicals is key to success with the cheating and Costco carries some really good ones. Some I’ve tried are octopus, Carnitas and of course Maple Leaf Farm ready cooked Duck, it’s actually cheaper at Costco than buying directly from them!
Notes on duck, ghee and wok…
Duck is very rich, so you only need half a duck for 2 people, it’s all meat, no bones at only $8. The duck comes in 2 half portions with orange sauce for about $15.99, so no more paying $27 at a restaurant for half a duck.
Ghee, clarified butter is excellent for a stir fry, it can handle high heat, coats your meat or veggies with a glossy sheen and makes everything taste good. This article, 15 Amazing Benefits of Ghee will change all the misconceptions about it and if you want to make ghee yourself, take an Ayurvedic cooking class with my chef friend, Sabrina Dora Lopez of Vesta Foods, it was amazingly easy. The Truth About Fats and Oils will debunk all the old myths, read this.
Please do NOT use a nonstick pan or nonstick wok to cook in, it cannot handle high heat! If you don’t have one of my lightweight, thin walled cast iron wok and gas stove setup, I’d rather you use a stainless steel pan or even pot to stir fry in.
Ingredients:
2-4 cloves garlic and 2 slices ginger shredded
6 grape tomatoes, halved
4 handfuls of brussels sprouts chopped
1 tablespoon ghee
dash of San-J tamari
dash of medium sherry
orange sauce heated for duck
Step by step how to…
1. set underside of duck on a grill rack on a baking tray, use top shelf to broil till golden crispy
2. wash & chop tomatoes and sprouts
3. thwack garlic and ginger
4. crank up your cast iron wok on high
5. add ghee
6. add garlic and ginger, then sprouts, hold the tomatoes.
7. when sprouts are nicely covered with ghee, add about 2 tablespoons of water and cover with wok lid to steam fry. When texture is how you like your sprouts, add in tomatoes, add dash of tamari and sherry, swish around till tomatoes blister and soften a little. You’re DONE!
8. remember to check your duck and flip over to grill topside till golden crispy.
9. while plating, heat up orange sauce and pour over duck, wow, dynamite dinner!
Last thoughts…You’ll feel like you’re eating at a high end restaurant. Serve this on your first date and I guarantee you’ll be a hit. I’ve yet to try using the ready cooked duck in a curry or other ethnic dishes because I just want to devour the duck just like it is, it’s so good! Of course, you can stir fry other veggies to go with your duck but brussels sprouts go really well.

stir fry

You can experience more of Shanti’s China trip here.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in San Francisco, she produces outrageous popup dinners serving dishes from all over Asia.

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And if you’re lucky enough to live in San Francisco,
she produces outrageous popup dinners serving dishes from all over Asia.