Easy Asian Dessert

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

When I cook Asian food, I like to serve an Asian dessert. My favorite easy choice is Fried Banana Bites. Once you see how it’s done on this video, you won’t need a recipe to make it yourself.

Aside from oil, which most people have on hand, you only need two ingredients: bananas and wonton wrappers. We use wonton wrappers a lot at Special Fork, but rarely to make wontons. Like phyllo, it’s a readymade, neutral dough that works in both savory and sweet applications. We use wonton wrappers for raviolis, as well as appetizer and dessert cups.

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Saguette’s Carrot Soup

By Marilyn Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Sometimes a book inspires a meal.

One of our boys’ favorites, Monsieur Saguette and his Baguette, tells the story of a young Frenchman who makes a delicious pot of hot carrot soup only to find he has no bread in the house. He sets off to a boulangerie to buy a baguette and on his way home meets with many challenges that his baguette triumphantly pulls him through.

I’ll bet we have read this book aloud as a family at least a hundred times. It’s a rare read because both boys enjoy it and have for years. Saguette uses his baguette for crazy things on his walk home, like propping open the mouth of an alligator, using it as an extension of his arm to save a kitten from a tree and as a ladder for getting out of a giant hole he fell into.

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How to Cook Brown Rice

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

There's one technique that I still see novice cooks and professionals struggle over: it's how to cook brown rice. The proportion of water to rice, how long to cook, whether to steam or cook over direct heat…these questions trip cooks up.

The extra layer of bran, which differentiates brown rice from the bran-less white rice, is what stymies cooks because it requires a little longer cooking time. My technique, which hasn't failed me in years and always produces perfectly fluffy grains, is easy to remember: one part rice to two parts water. Most use a 1:1 3/4 ratio, but that's hard to remember and leaves you no wiggle room when it comes to getting the heating right.

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The Hakka Cookbook: Linda Finds her Roots

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Growing up, I used to think that Chinese cuisine was one monolithic cuisine – the kind that we got at the local Chinese restaurant. If I had just considered the size of China, both geographically and by population, I would have realized what a myopic view that was. Since then, more restaurants have sprung up and more cookbooks have been written to familiarize us with the regional cuisines of China.

But when my friend Linda Lau Anusasananan first informed me that she was Hakka, and she was writing a Hakka cookbook, I had no frame of reference to digest this bit of news. I knew Linda was Chinese American and grew up in Paradise, California. So where did Hakka fit in?

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Fresh Tomato Sauce for Pasta

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Soon sweet and juicy tomatoes will be in bountiful supply. Funny gnarled heirlooms, dainty red and yellow cherry and pear varieties, and tomatoes of every conceivable shape and color will tempt us with their glorious taste of summer.

It’s time for bruschetta, BLTs, salsas and salads.

When selecting tomatoes of a single variety, pick the ones that have the most vibrant color. Store tomatoes at room temperature. I like to store mine in a single layer (so they don’t bruise) in several brown paper bags. Just don’t forget about them and let them spoil.

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