Welcome to the reporting thread for our October 2023 COTM, and the Woks of Life blog. We’ll use this thread for all discussion and recipe reports.
To report on a recipe, put the name of the recipe in ALL CAPS and include which book it’s in and the page number, if it’s available to you. If you are the first to post about a recipe, please reply to this post. If someone has already posted about the recipe, reply to their post so all the posts about each recipe are linked for easy reference.
To respect the author’s copyright, please don’t post photos or verbatim copies of recipes. Links to recipes online are welcome, and you may post ingredients and summarize instructions in your own words.
Find links to past months’ books in the COTM Archive, and feel free to keep adding to them.
I’ve tried quite a few of their recipes previously; if anyone is looking for some sure winners, here are four that are excellent and also very easy:
I mentioned this in another thread, but anyone not feeling like cooking Chinese food this month can still participate! They’ve typed in cuisine tags, but not set up an organization for them on their website, so you can find the ones they’ve labeled “American” by doing a search like this:
Agree with @MunchkinRedux on the String Bean Chicken Stir-fry, which I think was first recommended to me by @Amandarama. Delicious and fast!
Also love this chicken with snow peas stir-fry, which I sometimes embellish with rehydrated shiitakes, using their soaking liquid instead of chicken stock. Either way it’s excellent.
I also use their methods for velveting beef, pork and chicken whenever I stir fry, which is not often enough. It makes such a difference!
Since I don’t enjoy frying (too messy) this was a one time deal, also pretty time consuming. I bought raw peanuts in the shell so had to shell them … this took a while.
I have to admit, they were very tasty and well received by all.
I’ve only made the loaves, not rolls. From the first time, recipe has turned out right for me (once I had to interrupt and proofing took longer than it should have … bread ended up flatter but still tasted fine). Once I tried another recipe from Mooncakes and Milkbread but it didn’t work for me.
I think this bread tastes best sliced and toasted. I wrap it in plastic wrap but eventually it gets a little dry and stale but I toast it and it still tastes lovely to me; my friends love it too. My daughter has turned it into garlic toast using her air fryer.
From advice long ago on CH, I store my yeast in the freezer and it never seems to go bad.
The first image is using the bread for a grilled cheese sandwich … white American cheese … melts really well.
I love reading about their vacations and all the work on their vegetable gardening/raising chickens/ducks etc. Those people sure have a lot of energy, work very hard!
I’m undergoing some surgery in a couple days that may keep me out of the kitchen for a chunk of the month, but I am looking forward to watching the rest of you explore the book and website. I have the book too, so I am looking forward to seeing which recipes people like!
This is an easy one-por dish with marinated chicken and mushrooms layered over rice and gently cooked together. I used my baby pressure cooker in lieu of the clay pot.
The only mushrooms I had today were dried shiitake so I used more than I otherwise might have.
Two chicken thighs, deboned and cut up, but I kept the bones in the mix as well. Marinated for about an hour with the seasonings, onion, and scallions while the mushrooms rehydrated. Then I added the sliced-up mushrooms and a bit of cornstarch and layered it over the rice.
Cooking liquid for the rice was the mushroom soaking liquid with some chicken bouillon.
I decided to use a mix of sushi rice and quinoa today because I’m trying to use up both.
This was very comforting, as it usually is, but a bit different than previous versions given the components varied, as they also always do.
They have about 6 different wonton soup recipes on the site, though I have yet to make wontons from scratch because I’ve been stocking some lovely frozen ones from Chinatown.
I used chicken bone broth for the base and adjusted seasonings per the recipe.
Wontons were boiled separately, as were some noodles to make this a more substantial meal.
Finished with scallion greens, a simple and delicious dinner.
I’ve made this as loaves, burger buns, hot dog rolls, mini buns, stuffed buns, cinnamon rolls,monkey bread… it’s worked well every time. I always have extra cream almost at or past expiration, and it’s nice to have this recipe. I make the dough in the bread machine and then shape and bake in oven.
