Dumplings rank high up there amongst my favorite foods: gyoza, potstickers, har gow, mandu, bao, wontons, siu mai, I love them all. And yet it’s highly unlikely that you’ll see a dumpling recipe here any time soon. Sure, it can be a fun project filling and pleating those tasty packages — especially if it’s a group effort — but it’s fussier than the type of cooking I tend to gravitate towards, and in my mind, something better left to the experts, to those whose muscle memory carries them through this task with ease. These Asian-inflected meatball lettuce wraps are a great compromise; reminiscent of the filling of Chinese ginger pork dumplings, they’re super-flavorful, lighter, and much less time-consuming to make.
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Pork
Greek Roasted Potato “Poutine” With Arugula
Stubborn and steady, I’m a creature of habit. In many ways, this is a positive: having a routine means I sleep well, usually manage to fit in some form of exercise (I’m a recent morning workout convert), rarely misplace my keys, and pretty much always have the fixings for a healthy breakfast on hand. Of course, I have my share of bad habits as well. Lately, Andrew and I have been trying to break ourselves of one such pattern: our dependence on delivery and takeout.
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Three-Meat Chili
Andrew and I have very different ideas of what goes into an ideal bowl of chili. As a veg-curious cook, my concept of this Southwestern staple has always involved beans, often to the exclusion of meat. Andrew’s preferences hew much closer to the meat-heavy Texan-style; beans aren’t necessarily off the table, but also aren’t the star. So, it’s hardly surprising that the last couple recipes I’ve auditioned — a dense, three-bean vegetarian chili and a vegetable-heavy vegan option — were met with a somewhat lukewarm response on his part. So, in the spirit of trying something new (to me, at least), and, yes, making a dinner my boyfriend would be excited to eat, I recently simmered up this three-meat situation sourced from Geoffrey Zakarian’s My Perfect Pantry.
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One-Pan Pork Chops With Grapes and Swiss Chard
As this blog’s archives suggest, I’m a big fan of one-pan meals — see: chicken with potatoes, carrots, and onions; salmon with asparagus and spring onions; and roasted Italian sausages, peppers, and onions. Unfussy but full of flavor, these one-and-done recipes dramatically minimize the post-meal dirty dish count, making cooking dinner during a busy week worlds more appealing.
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Thai Cucumber and Sausage Salad
If you’ve yet to try Chinese sausage (also known as lap cheong, lap chong, or lap xuong), you’re in for a real treat. Sort of similar in flavor to the king of bao fillings — char sui — but saltier, these dried pork sausages add a punch of flavor to fried rice, taro cake, lo mai gai (lotus leaf rice), and other delightful Chinese dishes.
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