I had always thought of condiments as a mere accessory to dumplings (just splash some black rice vinegar at the dumplings, amirite?), but my recent dish obsession called 红油抄手 (Sichuan red oil dumplings) have changed my mind.

红油抄手 is a commonly found dish to be honest, and New Shanghai in Melbourne makes a particular terrific version with peanut butter (!) that I'm still thinking about years later. But recent cravings caused me to spend the better part of a month fervently mixing up vinegar, soy sauce and chili in different proportions to get the most flavour out of them. 

Dumpling Sauce

Original Recipe from The Woks of Life
For about a dozen dumplings

I've adjusted to the sauce to my taste, and bumped down the saltiness. I've kept all the ingredients listed in a single unit, which simplifies scaling up/down as required. If you think need a bit more sauce, use a slightly larger spoon, or a tablespoon, a serving spoon, or even a small cup. 

INGREDIENTS
1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1-2 cloves) 
1 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoon hot water
4 teaspoon soy sauce 
1 teaspoon black rice vinegar
1 teaspoon chili flakes steeped in chili oil, such as 老干妈 Lao Gan Ma
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted 

STEPS

Mince garlic. Set aside. 

In a bowl, combine sugar with hot water until well dissolved. Add garlic and the rest of the ingredients (excluding the sesame seed) and stir to combine. 

In a small saucepan set over low heat, lightly toast sesame seeds, about half a minute. Just before serving, stir the sesame seeds into the soy mixture. Serve alongside the dumplings. 

Warning: this bread will make you take a video, so you can record yourself cutting into the crunchy blistered crust.

The bread baking craze of the pandemic has been around since last year, but because I'm a little slower on the uptake (and a backlog of other recipes to explore), I've only been able to get around to baking my own loaves of bread now. There have been batches of terrific cinnamon rolls, courtesy of King Arthur, and an English brioche-like loaf from Paul Hollywood, but this marks my journey into the world of crusty bread loaves that I adore.       

This recipe is the first crusty bread that I'd ever made, and is a success from the first go. The steps are pretty simple to follow, there are no special ingredients. As the name suggests, you just have to mix the ingredients together, and no need to knead. 

The dough has a long downtime. As the dough develops over the course of a week, each step is spaced apart by days. This is a feature and not a bug! It’s great for the days when everybody is stuffed to the brim, but you still have the itch to do something with your hands. Between each long downtime, you can bring it out and work on it a little, then pop it into the fridge at your convenience and let it flourish.   

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Kenji López-Alt's Better No-Knead Bread, with additional steps taken from his video
Makes 1 small loaf of bread

INGREDIENTS

300g bread flour or all-purpose flour
4.5g (about 3/4 teaspoon) salt
3g (about 1/2 teaspoon) active dry yeast
210g water

STEPS

Whisk flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl until well-mixed. Add water and combine the ingredients with a spatula until no areas of dry flour remains. Cover the bowl with a lid and let rest at room temperature for between 12 to 24 hours. The dough will rise over the day and double in volume, so choose a large bowl with adequate volume. 

Place the large bowl in the refrigerator, and let rest for at least 3 days (and up to 5 days). The dough might deflate from its time in the fridge. The long resting period allows the gluten to develop, and is not meant for the dough to continue rising further.    

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface, such as a large cutting board or a clean table. Turn it once or twice and shape it into a round loaf. Line a large bowl with a well-floured kitchen towel and nest the dough inside. Cover the bowl with a metal tray (you will be turning out the dough straight onto the metal tray and baking directly on it after). Rest it at room temperature for at least 2 hours, and up to 4 hours. 

About 30-45 minutes before you want to bake the bread, preheat oven to 230°C with a rack set in the lower middle position.

When you're ready to bake, turn out the dough onto the metal tray. Coat the blade of a knife with flour and slash the top of the dough about two to three times, 1/2 inch deep each. Set the dough with the metal tray into the oven. Lightly wet a large oven-proof bowl that can fit over the dough (Essentially, you just pour a bit of water into the large bowl, swirl the water around to coat the sides of the bowl and then pour excess water out. You can see the process here - skip to 20:00 minute.) Then set the bowl upside down to cover the dough in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes with the bowl on, then remove the bowl from the oven and continue to bake for about 20-30 minutes more, until the top and bottom is crisp and well-browned. Remove the bread from the oven. Rest on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving. 

Storing
Excess bread can be wrapped in foil and stored at room temperature for up to three days. Lightly toast in a hot oven or toaster before serving.

A Sally Lunn bun first struck me with its whimsical name. Exactly what is this bread that everybody has been low-key making over and over again? And how can I get my mittens on one? 

Well, it's a bread with a great-looking exterior, that's for sure. A deep golden brown crust, shiny from a milk glaze. It's soft and yields easily to a bread knife. The bread interior is fine-crumbed and lightly yellow, gorgeous with a daub of clotted cream or a smear of jam.  

This teacake dates back to the 17th century, and attributed to a Huguenot refugee called Solange Luyon who settled in Bath and brought this sweet yeast bun to the region. The English language butchered her name into "Sally Lunn", and 400 years later, here we are (or so the legend goes.) Others offer up another version of the teacake's origin: it was originally known as "soleil et lune" ("sun and moon" in French, representing its golden crust and white interior). . A similar amount of butchering of the French words over 400 years, (I'm sensing a common theme here), voilà, it's now known as Sally Lunn. I'll leave the origins debate to the experts, while I focus on what I do best: snacking. 

Sally Lunn Buns
Original Recipe from Paul Hollywood's British Baking
Makes 1 loaf
As good as each slice tastes, cut straight from the loaf while still warm from the oven, I find them even better when sliced and lightly toasted.   

INGREDIENTS
275g bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp granulated sugar
7g sachet dried, instant yeast
30g unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, beaten
100-120ml milk
To Glaze: 2 tsp sugar mixed with 2 tsp milk

STEPS

In a large bowl, add flour. Add salt and sugar on one side and the yeast on the other. Make a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and add the butter, egg and about 2/3 of the milk. Using your hand, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients in a circular manner, all the flour has been incorporated. Continue to drizzle in a little more milk at a time, until the dough becomes be soft and sticky (You might not need all of the milk.)

In the same bowl, continue to knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes; it will be progressively less sticky, and more cohesive and smooth with kneading. Then place the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise for about 2-3 hours.

Lightly butter a deep cake pan, and tip the dough into it. Push the dough around a bit and fold the dough in on itself until the skin of the dough is taut and vaguely round in shape (no need to be obsessive). Leave the dough to rise for about an hour, until about doubled in size.  

Preheat an oven to 200C/180Fan/Gas6. In a rack set to the lower 1/3 of the oven, bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden brown on the top. 

Brush the top and sides with the glaze as soon as it comes out of the oven. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. It could be sliced and served warm as is, or individual slices can be lightly toasted prior to serving, until each slice has a slightly crisp exterior.   

I've loved cinnamon rolls at a wee age when I first bit into an ethereal cinnamon roll from Cinnabon. I'd tried my best to patronise Cinnabon as often as I could (though seeing that there isn't a Cinnabon in Singapore, isn't really all that often. Get on it Cinnabon!) But back when I was touring Bangkok, I couldn't contain my joy at seeing Cinnabon in Siam Paragon, and bought enough to sustain everybody on a sugar high for the rest of the day. When I was staying in a part of California without a Cinnabon presence (!!) - I was so forlorn for a cinnamon roll fix that I bought a roll of frozen Cinnabon from Walmart. 

Despite my fondness for this snack, I'd never seemed to be able to get a hang of making cinnamon rolls at home, and they'd never turn out as fluffy and soft as the ones I remember. Each attempt turned out to be an abject failure. Until well, now.

Tangzhong is a technique to make the soft, chewy Asian breads and buns we all know and love. It's a small simple step; cooking some of the dough's flour and liquid before adding the paste to the rest of the ingredient gives the final bread a much softer texture. This lends itself perfectly to making cinnamon rolls. (The science is explored in King Arthur's introduction to the technique.) The technique must've have been around for a long time, and was finally codified in 2007 in Taiwanese cookbook author Yvonne Chen's 65 Degrees C Roux the Bread. The book was originally written in Chinese, but gradually over the next couple of decades, the technique diffused over to the English-speaking community. 

There's a bit of contention online on whether using freshly grounded cinnamon is better than store-bought ground cinnamon. The first time around, I ground up cinnamon sticks using a mortar, a pestle and a heckuva elbow grease. Despite my best efforts, the grounded cinnamon still has shards of soft cinnamon bark which distract from the texture of the buns. Using freshly ground cinnamon also didn't result in a more pronounced flavour than pre-ground cinnamon. In subsequent batches, I ditched the mortar and pestle for a box of pre-ground cinnamon, and life was immeasurably better. 

Most cinnamon sticks sold in the market are Cassia cinnamon, which are tougher and hardier than Ceylon cinnamon. They do not take kindly to neither a mortar and pestle nor a microplane. Even spice mills may have trouble with cinnamon. Another source on the internet (attributed to Alton Brown's Good Eats) mentioned that cinnamon sticks sold to the public are of a lower quality than those sold to factories for grounding. I’m inclined to use store-ground cinnamon when a recipe calls for ground cinnamon, and save the cinnamon sticks for drinks (such as mulled wine, or hot chocolate) to avoid a murky gritty residue in my cup.

It's took a few days to delve into this delightful recipe, and the upshot is that I spent my first morning of holiday drinking a strong cup of coffee from my moka pot while baking off cinnamon roll dough that I'd frozen a few days before. As the scent of cinnamon rolls mingles with the smell of coffee, there was no better way to spend the holidays. 

Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Adapted from King Arthur
Makes 8 cinnamon rolls 

This recipe can be scaled. When you take your first bite into this bread, you'll also wish you'd made more. I'm a sucka for 100% fluffy cinnamon rolls, and my favoured version is now to bake off the rolls cramped edge-to-edge; the way that Cinnabon does it. The rolls are plenty sweet by themselves without the icing, but I'm happy to leave the icing on for the good ol' all-American indulgence.

INGREDIENTS

Tangzhong
1/2 cup (113g) milk
3 tablespoons (23g) Bread Flour

Dough
Tangzhong, as above
151g (2/3 cup) milk, cold
300g (2 1/2 cups) Bread Flour
6g (1 tsp) salt
25g (2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
6.2g (2 teaspoons) instant yeast
57g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened

Filling
14g butter, melted
70g light brown sugar
15g Bread Flour
8g to 10g cinnamon* (*Use the lesser amount for stronger cinnamons, like Vietnamese (Saigon); the larger amount for milder cinnamons, like Indonesian/Ceylon.)
1/16 teaspoon (pinch) salt

Icing
21 + 10g butter, melted, divided
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/16 teaspoon (pinch) salt
80g confectioners' sugar, sifted
7g-14g milk*, to thin the icing to your desired consistency (*Using cream instead brings an extra layer of richness, while buttermilk adds a subtle tang to undercut the overall sweetness.)

Cream cheese frosting (optional, as below)

STEPS

1. The tangzhong: Combine both the ingredients in a small saucepan until no floury lumps remain. Set over medium heat and cook the mixture for 1-3 minutes, stirring as you do, until the mixture thickens into a paste, and drawing your spatula through the mixture leaves a trail at the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and transfer the tangzhong to a large mixing bowl (or to the bowl of your stand mixer). 

2. The dough: To the large bowl containing the tangzhong, add the cold milk, and then the rest of the ingredients for the dough. Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until well-combined, and then continue to knead the dough together for 15 minutes, until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. This can be done with a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment instead, which may take 10 to 12 minutes on medium-low speed. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a lid and let the dough rise for about 60-90 minutes. 

3. The filling: in a small saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients. Combine well and set aside.

4. Assembly: Transfer the dough to a large clean work surface. Press the dough into a rectangular shape (with corners), about 10” x 12”. It should be about 1/2" thick. Scatter the brown sugar filling evenly over the dough, but leaving a 1/2” strip bare along one long side. Gently lift the long filling-covered side of the dough, and roll up the dough into a log. 

5. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, each piece should be about 1.5"-2" in length. A bench-scraper or a sharp knife is adequate, though a loop of dental floss (unscented!) will give the most even cut. Place the rolls on an ungreased 8" cake pan (ideally a loose cake pan with a removable base), and cover. Let rise for about 30-60 minutes, until the rolls are puffy and lightly pressing a roll with your fingertip should leave an indentation. 

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C for about 20 minutes, with a rack set in the middle of the oven. Bake the rolls for 16 to 18 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden. If using a digital thermometer, the centre of the middle roll should read about 87°C (190°F). While the rolls are baking, you can also slip in an oven proof bowl containing 21g (1 1/2 tablespoons) of  butter to melt alongside. Allow the butter to completely melt, about 3-4 mins, then remove the bowl from the oven.  Remove the rolls from the oven when done, and brush the tops with the melted butter. Let the rolls cool for 10 to 15 minutes before icing.

7. The icing: In a medium saucepan, melt 10g of butter. Add the rest of the icing ingredients and stir until smooth. The icing can be tightly covered and kept at room temperature. Spread the icing evenly over the rolls just before serving. 

STORAGE
Un-iced rolls can be kept in an air tight container for a couple of days at room temperature; or be wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.

Parbaking is a process meant to freeze cinnamon roll dough and bake them off at a later date. I have mixed successes with it; it results in squatter and denser pastry, about 1-inch tall discs. It’s an additional hassle to bake and then cool off the half-baked rolls, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the fuss. In future attempts, I’m planning to cut the cinnamon log into thicker pieces (say 6 piece instead of 8 pieces), and then just freeze It straight. Cinnamon rolls dough when frozen, can be kept up to 6 weeks in the freezer. 

VARIATION

Cream cheese frosting: for a tangier frosting to offset the sweetness. Add 4 to 6 tablespoons (57g to 90g) softened cream cheese alongside the other icing ingredients (sugar, salt, butter), then drizzle in 2 teaspoons of milk. Then add more milk, a teaspoon at a time, to get it to the consistency you prefer.

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ small onion, medium dice
1 cup roughly chopped kimchi (6 ounces)
2 tablespoons kimchi juice, or to taste
1 tbsp gojuchang (optional)
½ cup small-dice Spam, ham or leftover cooked meat (optional)
2 cups cooked, cooled short-grain rice. 
2 teaspoons soy sauce, and more as required
1 teaspoon sesame oil, and more as required
Vegetable oil, for frying eggs
Eggs, one per person
Crumbled or slivered nori (roasted seaweed) for garnish
Sesame seeds for garnish

STEPS

In a nonstick sauté pan set over medium-low heat, melt butter and add onions. Stir occasionally, for about 2 minutes, until the onions start to sizzle. Add kimchi, kimchi juice and gojuchang, and let the mixture come to a boil, about 3 minutes. Add spam if using. Cook until most of the water has evaporated, about 5 minutes.

Using the flat side of a spatula, break up the cooled rice into individual grains (no need to be OCD about it), Increase the heat to medium and stir the rice in. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, until the rice is very warm and well-coated in the kimchi sauce. 

Pour the soy sauce and sesame oil in by the side of the skillet, such that it comes into contact with the walls of the skillet first before reaching the food. Taste, and adjust with more soy sauce, sesame oil or kimchi juice as required. As you cook the eggs (see below), turn heat down slightly, but let the rice cook, untouched, to lightly brown. 

In a separate non-stick pan, fry eggs. To get the nice sunny-side-up eggs, cover the pan with a lid after cracking in the eggs to allow the top of the egg to cook by steam 

Serve rice topped with fried eggs, nori and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

North-West Singapore lies an expanse of farmland and wetland reserves. For walking enthusiasts, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is a particularly lovely place to visit in the early morning. Their walking trails take you past forests, mangroves and coastal regions, which are home to regional wildlife. During the migratory season from September to March, shorebirds can also be spotted as they fly in from northern regions to avoid the winter chill. 

Bollywood Veggies is a place that I've been wanting to go to. Several people had recommended this place to me within a few weeks of one another, which was rather serendipitous. Also, a little scary. Anyway, we reached the café, in time for what I'll say was an early lunch, but the place was so popular, it was already running at full capacity. 

The café occupies a small part of their 10-acre estate, with the remaining land dedicated for growing produce. And it is a marvel to see what they've done with the place. All sorts of tropical plants were growing on small plots side-by-side. Copious amount of butterfly pea vines can be found (and their blue pea flowers can be seen on the food their café serves), and banana groves co-exist with canola plants and fig trees. There are many plants that I'd never heard of, such as a Crystal Fruit Trees. (Online sleuthing deduces taste like a cross between a longan and rambutan.) There's even a paddy field growing rice! Walking in further, I found the two plants closest to my heart: their coffee and cacao tree. 

Cooking classes (Bollywood Bhanchha) also run at regular intervals throughout the year, and there is also a museum showcasing art exploring the relationship between civilisation and agriculture.  

The good news about my planned day trip isn't just that we can stuff our faces with fresh food made from the gardens of the café. Our next stop is Farm 85 Trading. My companion is part of NTU's gardening club, and many of their bountiful harvest came as seedlings from Farm 85. So close to Farm 85, I couldn't resist the urge. Once there, we flagged down a helpful farmhand who showed us the plants they offer. I delightedly bought pots of basil (for pizza and pasta!), Chinese parsley, roselle, and wee sprouts of ladyfinger and eggplant. It's about $6 for each pot, and the farmhand threw in a pot of kale for free.  

A month has passed since my visit, but I may still get a little teary-eyed when recounting the moment where he told me I could take the pot of kale home with me. Speaking of which, I am now a dedicated supporter of Farm 85 and will no longer visit any other nursery in Singapore... :-)

Walking around in the tropical heat made me a little spazzed out, and we didn't complete my ambitious itinerary to visit the animal farms on my first go. But I finally got my wish to visit Hay Dairies Goat Farm on my return trip to the region. To the consternation of some people online, it's a busy goat farm and there won't be workers waiting for visitors on a welcome bandwagon, but this suits me just fine. I can poke around just fine by myself. Visitors can buy bags of feed for the goats, or watch the milking process. relatively popular with the crowd of young parents and their children. You may purchase their goat milk on the way out, which I am lusting after eyeing to make a batch of raspberry-ripple goat milk gelato. 

Another place of interest is DairyFolks, with their herd of 100+ cows producing fresh milk daily, some of which goes towards churning ice cream. There isn't any cheese-making going on at the moment, but a guy can dream. Viknesh Dairy Farm is currently closed to public as part of their coronavirus precautions, but much in the same vein, also produces milk for sale. I would love to visit one day!

Cooking a multi-course meal for everybody is no easy task, particularly when I mostly have recipes which hog the oven for hours. Once dinner starts and I sit down with everybody, it's also not enjoyable to get up to check on food cooking in the oven. Sometimes, a baked soft cheese fits the bill, as it can be baked in the time it takes to clear the table. But mostly, recipes that you can do ahead are a god-send. A crème brûlée also fits the bill. It's a show-stopper that demands to be refrigerated a day before serving, and with the finishing touches - breaking out the blow torch to complete a layer of crunchy caramel on the custard - applied at the dinner table. 

A burst of flame, and as the scent of slightly singed, caramelising sugar fills the room, it'll be a dinner to remember. 

Crème Brûlée

Adapted from the New York Times 
Makes 6-8 servings
Crème Brûlée, à la burnt cream, is meant to be a luxurious affair: rich, indulgent and to sate with one serving. Because half-and-half leads to a runny custard which may not fully set, I prefer to go all-cream. If you wish to substitute some of the cream with milk, the milk should be capped within 25% volume.   

INGREDIENTS 
480ml (2 cups) heavy cream 
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
⅛  teaspoon salt
5  egg yolks
50g granulated sugar + more for topping

STEPS

Preheat oven to 160C. 

In a small saucepan set over low heat, combine cream, vanilla bean and salt. Bring it just until it starts to simmer, and then remove from heat. If you are using vanilla extract, add it just as you remove the pan from the heat. Let sit for a few minutes. If using vanilla bean, remove that from the cream mixture. 

In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar together until light. Lightly temper the yolks by slowly drizzling a quarter of the warm cream into the yolk mixture while whisking briskly, before pouring the yolk mixture into the pot of warm cream. Whisk continuously as you do. Avoid using an electric mixer at this stage, which can cause the cream mixture to foam up. Strain the mixture. 

Set shallow ramekins in a leak-proof baking tray. Pour the cream mixture into the ramekins. Place tray into preheated oven, and then fill baking tray with boiling water about 1cm in height (roughly half the height of the ramekins). Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until centers are barely set. Remove from oven and carefully remove each ramekin from the hot water bath. Allow to cool completely to room temperature, and then refrigerate for several hours until well-chilled. At this point, the custard can be kept for a couple of days. 

When ready to serve, top each custard with a light scatter of sugar (about 1-2 teaspoons). Apply blow torch at a low heat to the sugar to gently melt and caramelise it to an amber hue. The caramel will harden as it cools. Allow it to cool slightly before serving.

Just as the COVID vaccine is rolling out across the general population, and restrictions on social gathering is (sorta) loosening up a little, I’ve taken the chance to get out of the house a little. I've had a week of respite from work, and filled my calendar with leisure and activities. 

I’ve bought some tennis balls, dusted off my racquet and am easing back into the game.  Tennis as a sport is probably as socially distanced as one can get, so I'm pretty safe. I’ve started jogging as well, and also (well, attempted to) play golf at a driving range, all activities suitable to keep people at a healthy arm’s length away. (Especially in golf, where me swinging metal clubs with impunity gets me a wide berth from other people.)

I've also taken to exploring Singapore for a bit. A trip to a local farm in the North-West farming regions of the country had netted me an ample pot of sweet basil, and baby plants of ladyfinger, eggplants, roselle and kale. I really don’t have a good record with young plants, but #8thtimelucky? 

This week of respite from work also coincided with a grocery store’s sale on beef short ribs, and so I spent one morning carting several kilos of these beauts home. At the top of my to-do cook list is Anne Burrell’s Short Ribs, which was spectacular indeed.  

The first time I did this recipe, adding the marbled beef ribs to the hot pan filled the entire kitchen and living room with the fragrance of seared beef, which I didn't mind so much. But as I discovered, searing beef indoors also deposits a thin film of oil all over the kitchen and the floor of the living room. Oops. So now I’ve wisened up, and started using my outdoor stove, which also made adding bits of herbs from my garden into my pot a little easier.    

Anne Burrell’s Braised Short Ribs 
Adapted from the Food Network
Makes 3-4 servings
Short ribs yield much more tender meat than cheaper cuts like general packaged 'stew meat', and should be used for better results. I've used both bone-in and boneless, and both versions are delicious. As a general rule, One rib (bone-in) per person should be adequate alongside a side dish such as mashed potato, noodles or rice. There's plenty of downtime in this recipe, which I use to put together a quick mashed potato recipe from Gordon Ramsay. (I add one minced garlic to the milk/butter/cream component of the mashed potato recipe, which adds an additional depth of flavour to the potato.) Leftover meat can be deboned and tossed with its sauce and pasta the next day for a quick meal. 

INGREDIENTS

3 bone-in beef short ribs (about 1.3kg), cut into individual ribs
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 large Spanish onion (if you can’t find Spanish onions, regular is fine)
1 rib celery
1 carrot, peeled
1 clove garlic, smashed
180ml (3/4 cup) tomato paste
1 - 1 1/2 cups red wine
About 2 cups water
1 small bunch of fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
1 bay leaf

STEPS

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Season each short rib with salt and set aside as you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cut the carrot, onion and celery into small pieces. Purée them with garlic in the food processor, until a coarse paste is formed. If you don't feel like cleaning up a food processor after, I mince the vegetables as finely as I can manage instead.  

When ready, place a roasting tray or large pot over high heat, and add olive oil. When the olive oil is lightly smoking, add the short ribs to the pan. Do not overcrowd pan; cook in batches, if necessary. Brown each side of the beef rib very well, about 2 to 3 minutes per side, and then remove from pan. 

Drain the oil and scrap any burnt bits off the bottom of the pot. Return to high heat, and add more fresh olive oil to the bottom of the pot. Add the pureed vegetables and season with salt. If you have minced your vegetables instead of using a food processor, you may need to drizzle a couple of tablespoons of water in to help the vegetables soften more. Stir occasionally, scrapping the fond off the bottom of the pot, and cook until the vegetables are dark brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Lower the heat if things start to burn. Add the tomato paste, and let brown for 4 to 5 minutes, scrapping off fond that develops. Add the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pot, and continue to cook until the mixture is reduced by half.

Return the short ribs to the pot and add water, until the water has just about covered the meat. Add thyme and bay leaf. Cover the pot and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 2 - 2.5 hours. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more water, if needed. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. In the last 20 minutes of cooking, remove the lid from the pot so the sauce can further reduce and get nicely browned. Remove from the oven when the meat is very tender but not falling apart. Serve with the braising liquid.

Using equal parts cornflour/AP flour leads to thin, wafer-like and non-lattice structure (as compared to the lattice structure using tapioca starch - as below)

Of all the recipes that I do, the ones that get revisited a lot more are those that can be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even as a between-meal snack. That means things that are things that are simple and fast (no slow roasts, and not platefuls of carbohydrate). An omelette is one such dish, as are Kimchi pancakes and dumplings. Today, I'll like to, if I can, to ponder over my love for dumplings. 

Of course, this isn't a recipe to make dumplings from scratch. This post is about a simple trick to get crispy thin "wings" attached to your pan-fried dumplings. Using frozen, store-bought dumplings are perfectly fine. Given that the technique was first developed in Tokyo in the 1980s, Japanese gyoza would be perfect for this, though I've seen Chinese restaurants employ this technique for their 饺子 (potstickers). I've gotten my dumplings from a store near my workplace in Jurong Gateway at 山东東记拉面小笼包 (the current rate is a bag of frozen dumplings at 30 for $10, and as you can see, these are huge and juicy!) My home non-stick skillet is 8-inch, though any size would work as long as the dumplings fit and there is a well-fitting lid.  

Pan-frying dumpling involves adding dumplings to a hot pan with a thin layer of oil until the bottom is browned, then adding water to the pan, covering it with a lid and steaming the dumplings well cooked on the inside. The trick to getting delicate crisp wings is adding half a tablespoon of tapioca starch to the water you use to steam the dumplings. As the water cooks off, the starch remains and forms the wings.

Tapioca starch

Dumpling Wings Recipe
Original recipe from J. Kenji López-Alt
I've tried this recipe with both gyoza and regular Chinese dumplings. The essence remains the same, though plumper dumplings (like the Chinese ones I've made with) will require a bit more water to completely cook the dumplings.  

INGREDIENTS

1-2 tbsp flavourless oil, such as canola oil 
Dumplings, fresh or frozen
80ml water 
1/2 tbsp tapioca flour
Black vinegar, with julienned ginger (cut into long thin strips) - optional

STEPS

1. Set a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add a thin layer of oil. 

2. When the oil gets hot, add dumplings. If using gyoza, you may choose to arrange them in a spiral pattern. Whichever way you choose, leave some space between dumplings to develop the 'wings'. Allow the bottom of the dumplings to brown. 

3. As the dumplings are cooking, add flour to a measuring cup. Drizzle water in, stirring as you do to form a thin slurry. When the bottoms of the dumplings are browned, pour the slurry into the hot pan (beware of rising steam as you do so), then cover the with lid and continue to cook until the water has evaporated and you're left with a 

4. Evert onto a serving plate. Serve immediately. Black vinegar and ginger are common accompaniments.