Gruyère Scallion Scones

When these are baking in the oven, the kitchen fills up with this deep fragrant aroma that makes you want to yank open the oven and immediately eat a scone. I had the hardest time with this post, because all I wanted to do was eat them. Of course, though, I needed to photograph these giant scones. You can also find this recipe in this current issue of Edible Boston! For every issue, they have a Reader’s Recipe contest, and I love to submit something. If you can’t tell, I’m in love with my current city of residence. It makes me happy that there is a high quality food magazine in Boston. I moved here from Saint Louis, which has two beautiful food magazines, Feast and Sauce. I was so happy to see Sherrie in Sauce!! When my STL friends visit, I still beg them to bring me copies of the magazines :). There’s something about flipping through a physical magazine, knowing that it’s about food news in your specific city of residence. When Edible Boston issues come out, I always rush to Flour Bakery in the South End to pick up my copy (and devour a lamb-goat-cheese sandwich).

These scones. I started with a basic buttermilk scone recipe, and then it took me several renditions to get the proportions of gruyère, buttermilk, scallions, scallion puree, and flour right. My first one yielded a tough, unpleasant mess, but you know what? It’s a starting point. I incorporated a scallion puree, so that the taste of the scallion permeates in every bite, not just where there are pieces of chopped scallion. I found it gave a much deeper taste.

Duck-Fat 葱油拌面 Scallion Oil Noodle

葱油拌面 (Cong You Ban Mian) is a classic, Shanghai comfort food. The signature taste comes from frying scallions until they are unrecognizable brown bits and pouring it over drained noodles. I gave it a twist: instead of frying it in vegetable oil, I fried it in duck fat, used ramen noodles, and topped it with medium-rare duck breast with crispy skin. That’s my kind of meal

Duck fat makes everything better. It just does. Similarly to how bacon grease makes everything taste better. However, duck is a special meat for me. It’s the fancy meat that I will enjoy, anywhere. I’ve gone to get whole duck meals when I spent a summer in Shanghai, probably once a week. They cook the duck for you and you eat it in mushu pancakes, then they serve a wonderful broth made from the duck bones afterwards. I salivate while I anticipate my father-in-law making his famous Nan Jing Salt Water Duck (yes, I WILL be doing a post on this later). I drag my parents to my favorite restaurant in the bay area for their roasted half-duck buns. I make an effort to reserve, a month prior, the famed whole rotisserie duck at Momofuku Ssam (which is amazing). I of course ate duck as my main entree during my first night in Paris. When it’s restaurant week, I always look for the restaurant that serves duck as part of that menu. I’ve had duck blood soup (which sounds horrible and disgusting, but is actually quite delicious). Do I have to go on?

Are you a noodle person? Because I am. And because I am, I’m going to share some AWESOME noodle recipes:

• THESE. Xi An Famous Hand Smashed Noodles by Mandy
• Lucky New Year Dumpling Noodles, because we can always use more luck!
• Hipster Lo Mein.
  
• My favorite dish turned to noodles 

Scallion Pancake Quesadilla

I wasn’t originally going to blog about this, but my husband loved it so much that I thought I’d do a quick post. After all, it’s Superbowl season, the one time to indulge in fried foods and cheese, right? I’ve got one for you: scallion pancake quesadillas. I used my go-to scallion pancake recipe, made it SUPER thin, and put some sharp shredded cheddar cheese in there. Of course, between the two of us, we gobbled it all down. I guess I’ll just have to make another batch for tomorrow!

香葱花卷 Steamed Scallion Flower Buns, two ways

香葱花卷 literally translates to fragrant scallion flower buns. Aka, steamed scallion buns. I kept the flower because I liked the image it evokes. It’s in the single digits here in Boston, and I am freezing. I’m downing coffee, tea, ginger soup – whatever works to keep me warm. During times like these, I crave comfort food. I’m not talking about mac and cheese or lasagna (though everyone knows I can’t say no to those either), but this particular afternoon, I was craving Chinese comfort food. I had all the ingredients, so I made scallion steamed buns. This is an easy recipe and very very satisfying. I love shaping the buns and watching them bloom and grow in the steamer. I don’t use a bamboo steamer – I think I was influenced by my parents. They’ve always used a metal steamer, sometimes with a double rack. When it came time for me to acquire my own, I automatically veered towards a meal one. Call it comfort. Call it convenience, whatever. You can use a bamboo steamer if you’d like.

There are two ways you can shape the buns. One uses a knife, the other uses a chopstick. both creates laters, although I have to say the method using a knife creates more layers, and you’ll see why.

Caramelized Shrimp Tacos + Monterrey, Mexico trip

What foods come up in your mind when summer finally starts? For me, it’s ice cream, grilled vegetables, salads, berry pies, cocktails, and tacos. Tacos are such an outdoor food, don’t you think? I still remember the best taco experience I’ve ever had: cabrito tacos and pork tacos in Monterrey, Mexico. Alex and I flew down to Monterrey to attend Sam Hurd’s workshop. You can read about our experience here. Naturally, I wanted to try as many local foods as possible. Surprisingly (or not), I spotted familiar chain restaurants such as Chilis and Applebees! Alex and I avoided these restaurants. They aren’t even restaurants we’d go to in America, so why waste our time there in Mexico?

Instead, I discovered that the local cuisine of Monterrey, Mexico is cabrito – which is baby goat meat. We went to Restaurant San Carlos on the advice of someone on Chowhound. Apparently, this restaurant served good, quality, local cuisine. Speaking with some locals also attending the workshop confirmed the reputation of this restaurant. I had taco de cabritos.

Cong You Bing Jia Dan

Ok, who grew up eating these scallion pancakes? I did!!!! Every time we went out to a Chinese restaurant, my sister, my brother, and I would always insist on ordering scallion pancakes as appetizer. It didn’t matter that they were so easy to make and not worth the price (as our parents told us). The crispy, deliciously fragrant pancake was something I grew up with. When I finally developed an interest in cooking, this was one of the first dishes I tried out. Trust me, it’s easy, fun, and messy!!