The Yum Yum Factor

So, what is congee, you might ask? It sounds exotic but it's really just a nice, soupy, savoury rice porridge that is the perfect remedy for frigid winter mornings. Even though we go for dim sum regularly, we don't usually order this because it's really filling and it cuts down on the amount of dumplings I can scarf so it's something I save for home, but, pre , I didn't make this as often as I would have liked. Since my wizard pot truly lets me set it and forget it, I plan to make a batch of this every weekend over the winter. I am NOT a sweet breakfast girl but any porridge that lets me garnish it with crispy pork, chilis and other savoury treats is the food of my cold, dark heart. You can make congee with any sort of broth but chicken congee is a great way to use up the leftovers from a roast chicken, whether its a bird you roasted yourself or a bubble chicken that you picked up at the supermarket. Just throw in the entire carcass, all leftover meat, some ...

I have added a new feature to the blog, right over there ------------> It's a yummly button so that you can save my recipes straight to your yummly box. I have been using yummly, myself, forever and for some reason I just never got around to adding The Yum Yum Factor to their gene pool. If you aren't using yummly to search for recipes, it's time to change that so go over there and check it out but first, go straight to The Yum Yum Factor page   (don't worry if there isn't anything there yet - this is a new venture so it will take time to get it going) So, let's move on to something to eat, I am starving. Char siu is that sweet, sticky Chinese BBQ pork that you see hanging from hooks in the window of any decent Chinese restaurant. I make my own version of char sui all the time at home so it made sense that my first attempt at doing some sous vide pork tenderloin would be a batch of this stuff, right? I didn't really change anything, apart from t...

Did I miss the memo that cauliflower is the new black or something? I saw this cauliflower fried rice on The Kitchn the other day and was very intrigued by the idea of being able to eat big bowls of fried rice without actually worrying about the whole eating a big bowl of fried rice part. I already use  cauliflower to make "wings"    which was part of a food blogging trend this past year and  although I haven't tried the cauliflower pizza crust, that was happening all over the damned internet as well so I guess I was somewhat aware that cauliflower was a bit of a thing. Curious, I started to google around and found a zillion recipes for dishes using this pulsed cauliflower as a stand in for a myriad of grains like rice and bulgur, for potatoes and I am pretty sure that you can use it to fuel your car, to power your laptop and as a coffee substitute in a pinch. I think I just saw a dog wearing a cauliflower rain coat just today at the park. Thank god we love ...

One of the greatest thngs about living in Toronto means that I have access to an abundance of fabulous Chinese food. Because of this, there are things that I don't even try to make at home all that often. For the most part, I will think "why would I even attempt BBQ at home when I am a 10 minute drive from Ka Ka?" but you know, I'm in the eye of the stupid winter vortex, I don't have a car during the winter and I didn't think far enough ahead to pick some up earlier in the week and I want to make Cantonese Chow Mein.  Shit happens. I used to date a Chinese guy and his parents made their own BBQ pork and duck and I recall that it was far superior to anything that you could get in a restaurant but I never gave much thought to how they made this stuff. Once, when I was sleeping over at their house I ventured down to the basement in the dark in search of my designated spot on the couch, I had a close encounter with my own  mortality. It was completely bl...

Gong Hey Fat Choy! It's day two of Chinese New Year and I am good to go with our friend, the snake. I cleaned the crap out of my kitchen on Friday and on Sunday, I didn't clean, I didn't wash my hair, I didn't sweep. To be safe, I spent the entire day in pjs and lounged around reading, I watched a movie on my iPad and then I reclined on my couch watching the Grammy Awards. The snake is going to be good to me. One of the traditional things to eat during Chinese New Year are noodles. Noodles represent longevity so if you want a long life, make sure you don't cut them while preparing them or eating them. You have my permission to slurp up entire mouthfuls of noodles - NO BITING MID STRAND IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A LONG, PROSPEROUS LIFE. If you choose to bite down, it's not on me. I warned you. Growing up, I thought Chinese food was nothing but sweet and sour chicken balls, sticky, neon red sauce and chicken fried rice. I moved to Toronto and wa...

I was craving chinese green beans with ground pork but I didn't have any ground pork, which was a problem. I also didn't have any dried shrimp or the chinese preserved vegetables that I would need to make them properly and they wouldn't turn out as yummy as the ones we get at Perfect Restaurant anyway so I gave up before I started. What I did have was a big bag of green beans, some deep fried tofu and a big handful of brown mushrooms so it was time to improvise. I wasn't even going to share this one since it was just a quick weeknight dinner born of desperation and  the absolute lack of desire to go outside but it was so delicious that I changed my mind. We ate this over some brown sushi rice with a side of left over chinese bbq pork - clearly we have reached our sodium limit for the week. I guess we can eat greek yogurt with berries and drink pints of green tea until the weekend to try to even things out but, man, it was some tasty business.