culinary experiments and explorations

Adapted from another one of the discovered trove of Chinese recipes, I kind of threw this one together from a couple of different sources. I tinkered with some of the quantities on the ingredients, because parts of it seemed far out of proportion to what else was up there. Nonetheless, I ended up with a surprisingly tasty result -- pleasantly comparable, I must argue, to the kinds of Chinese dumplings (potstickers, specifically) I've eaten in restaurants or bought in frozen packs at the market.

( Juicy Fried Dumplings )

( Hoisin Dipping Sauce )

Overall, I was very pleased with the way these came out. For cooking the potstickers, I do recommend edging towards a 7-minute cook time rather than 6 minutes -- it makes them a bit crisper without being overcooked. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Being home and not feeling too well, I returned to old habits and decided to make myself some comfort food. I paged through Emeril's Potluck until I came across something that looked tasty (and that I had most of the ingredients for), on page 55: ( Helen's Sausage-Stuffed French Bread. )

As mentioned above, I ended up with a bit of leftover sausage-cheese mixture. Not wanting to entirely spoil my appetite, I tried a little bit with a chip or two -- excellent all on its own! It's got quite a bit of heat to it, though; right now my lower lip and mouth have the vague feeling of sunburn that comes from spicy food which isn't necessarily temperature-hot. The loaves'll be out in about 45 minutes; I'll post my reactions and picture then.

Overall, quite tasty -- meaty, with plenty of molten-cheese goodness and plenty of spicy heat. The picture above really doesn't do it justice; I'd definitely make this again for a party or get-together.