Mao's Musings

Back in Mill Valley

Jeff — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:21:30 +0000

Back in Mill Valley again. While I’ve been back a couple times for brief visits, today’s visit is the first when I’m expecting to catch up with old friends.

Of course, as is probably not unexpected, I’ve arrived at Boyle Park at the appointed time and no one is here yet. But I guess some things never change.

Had breakfast downtown at a place called Toast with Rebecca. She is my contact at Common Sense Media and just happens to live in MV a few blocks from my old home. Had a nice omelet with salsa and avocado. Yum… Not something you’d find in Maine really.

A lot is the same here and other things have changed. Mt. Tam looks the same. Beautiful as always. Tam HS has a lot of new construction including an all-weather track. It has a nice big sign
“Bruce Grant Track” a well deserved honor for Mr. Grant. I looked him up online and it appears he’s still in Corte
Madera. I’m debating if I should give him a call…

Busy place

Jeff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:02:59 +0000

Waiting for our table at the Kona cafe. This place is a Zoo of Humanity! Nathan found a hat in the gift shop.

Arrival in Orlando

Jeff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:04:47 +0000

We’ve arrived in Orlando. We’re
Waiting for the Disney bus now. At least they hbe to foresight to mount a big TV so the kids cam watch. Of course, they are showing ads for Disney movies…but at they also added in some environmental ads too…plant a tree, clean the beach, etc.

On the road again…

Jeff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:41:06 +0000

We’re off to Disney World! We board in a half hour if all goes well, so in the meantime it’s airport school time. I’m watching the kids work on very 19th century math worksheets…pencils in hand. I’ve got two laptops and an iPhone, an iPod nano and an iPod video with me. I’m sure there’s a better source of math education available to us, but for now, I guess I’ll just have to wait until elementary education joins the “personal digital device” bandwagon.

There are a lot of kids flying today, some wearing Disney t-shirts. I bet we’re all headed in the same direction.

Peter works on his math homework

Nathan and Deanna work on more math homework

More random thoughts…I searched the app store this morning, and I was surprised that Disney has not released an app for DisneyWorld and their other parks. There are some retail 3rd-party apps, but nothing from Disney. I picked up one of them, and we’ll see if it is helpful.

Reminds me of when I was in school and there was talk of a math/physics curriculum based on theme parks. How much fun would it be to take an iPhone with the accelerometer in it with an app that could record data while zooming around on a roller coaster? Do some geo-caching, etc. I remember my first trip to Epcot when I was a teenager, and there was a computer that had a touch screen. You got to pick different roller coaster elements like a hill, curves, loops, and string them together, then it would play an animation of you riding the roller coaster you designed. It had a gopher or beaver that talked to you on the screen if you choose elements that shouldn’t go one after the other. It was the first time I had ever used a touch screen. How things change!

Next stop, Philadelphia airport!

Thanksgiving Parade – Zuroski style

Jeff — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:47:21 +0000

I just had to repost this because I thought it was so funny! The shot of Greg is classic One question…who is holding the camera?

NYC Thanksgiving 2009 from Patricia Zuroski on Vimeo.

Xiǎolóngbāo – Day 3 – version 1.1

Jeff — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:38:18 +0000

OK. So, I made the wrappers too thick. This makes sense…not only did they taste not quite right, nor did they feel wuite right in the mouth, the quantity of dumplings was off. Katie’s recipe says enough for 200. I halved the recipe including the wrapper dough. Using half the dough recipe, I ended up with almost 30 dumplings as opposed to something closer to 100 as one might expect if the recipe is right.

Today, I used the last of the filling that I had left. I did not alter it to test to see if the wrapper thickness would affect the broth content of the dumplings. I made a wrapper dough batch using just 1 cup of flour or one-sixth the recipe. One might expect that this would yield 33 dumplings. I ended up with 20, so definitely more then last time given the quantity, but still not on track to make 200 with a full recipe. Nonetheless, I made much thinner wrappers, although a few were too large, so I probably could have been more careful and ended up with 25. Even at 20, that’s twice as many as before.

So, after all this math, were they better? Turns out, yes they were much better. The dumplings were not pouring out broth like the ones I had in Shanghai, but they were clearly “wet” inside, and I could see a little broth pooling in the spoon as I bit them open.

Next time, I’ll try increasing the aspic to meat ratio, and working on even thinner wrappers. Like some comments I read on a blog Katie referenced, I may need to pull out my pasta maker and use it to roll the dough even thinner…but I’d rather not have to resort to that if possible. Maybe brute force (ie just add more aspic) will do the trick.

Xiǎolóngbāo – Day 2 – Video

Jeff — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:28:06 +0000

Here’s a little video I shot of the making of the wrappers and the dumplings themselves.

Xiǎolóngbāo – day 2

Jeff — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:07:27 +0000

Aspic

So, before day 2 had even arrived, I checked in on the broth/aspic after returning from Thanksgiving dinner. It was clear that the broth and aspic were not forming into a gelatin. So, I took a ladle full of the broth, heated it in the microwave and stirred in another teaspoon of agar agar powder. At the time, I realized that I had been halving the recipe all along, but I hadn’t halved the broth. That is, the recipe calls for 3 cups of broth, and I had 3 cups (actually 6 – but in two 3 cup containers) of broth. So, adding a second teaspoon made sense. I mixed this back into the rest of the broth and returned it to the refrigerator.

Aspic cubed and added to the meat

Woke up the next day, and found that the broth was still liquid. In fact, I could barely tell the difference between the broth with the agar agar and the other 3 cup container that I had not added any agar agar to…so, I decided I’d add yet another teaspoon. This time, I took all the broth and heated it on the stove until it was just boiling, then turned off the heat. I took a ladle full, and added another teaspoon, then incorporated this back into the broth. I also noted that the recipe called for a glass container, so I transfered the broth to a glass bowl.

I’m guess it was something to do with the fact that when I added the second teaspoon of agar agar powder, I did not heat the broth completely when I added it, and not the glass container, but with 3 teaspoons of agar agar powder, heat and a glass container, the final outcome was a very solid gelatin — a lot more solid then I had imagined was necessary, and I suspect more then is desired. Nonetheless, I had aspic, and I was ready to use it now.

I chopped up about half of it until I had a cup and a half to add to the filling I made the day before. I mixed it together before starting on the dough for the wrappers. I strayed a bit from the directions here and used my Cuisinart rather then a spoon and my hands to mix and knead the dough. Once I had the dough, I started to make the dumplings.

Xiǎolóngbāo

I was surprised that I managed to create dumplings that look generally right. Initially, they were bigger then they ought to be. I started rolling out smaller, thinner pieces of the dough into rounds. In hindsight, I’d say that even the smallest thinnest ones I made could have been a tiny bit smaller, and definitely thinner. Overall, I was pleased with my pleating efforts, and at least the dumplings visually looked right. So, all that remained at this stage was to steam them and eat them.

***

Xiǎolóngbāo

Turns out, my suspicion was correct…the dough was too thick, and it made for a less then delicate dumpling. Not bad, but not what I wanted. Further, I suspect that the dumplings were surprisingly dry and lacking any broth because the dough soaked up any liquid it could find.

All told, the dumplings looked pretty good, but they didn’t taste as I had hoped. However, I still have some meat filling left, and I’ll make another go at thinner wrappers!

Thanksgiving Turnips – revisited

Jeff — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:49:23 +0000

Dinner at Brian and Marge’s went well. A total of 46 people for dinner…glad it wasn’t at my house…we’d have to rent a tent, heat lamps, etc. to feed that many people!

The turnips all got eaten…not sure that is a sign of success or simply the ravenous hoard of 46 people

Xiǎolóngbāo – day 1

Jeff — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:07:44 +0000

I’ve been back for a week now, but my internal clock is still set to the Far East. That means too much time up in the middle of the night…which means I also get hungry at weird hours. This leads to cravings for things I can’t have…like Xiǎolóngbāo. So, yesterday I decided to attempt to make some. I picked up the necessary ingredients at the asian market, and this morning at 4 am, I started.

I’m using a recipe I found online at Katie’s Kitchensidecar blog. So, here’s a recap of the start of the process…

Broth simmering on the stove

The Broth Aspic
Katie’s recipe calls for 2 pigs feet to make the broth. I didn’t find pigs feet at the grocery store, but I did find Ham Hocks. Close enough I figure. I set up a stock pot with the necessary ingredients, and let it simmer for a few hours. Not really knowing what it ought to taste like, all I can say is that the broth was tasty, and will hopefully firm up now that I’ve added the agar agar powder.

Green onion and ginger juice

The Juice
I waited on the juice until about 6 am this morning once everyone else was awake. Running a blender isn’t conducive to sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake everyone up! Interestingly, the juice came out as expected, but Katie doesn’t really make any mention about what to do with the solids leftover once you strain the mixture. Since its really just ground up green onion and ginger, I saved it, and I think I’ll try making some sort of dipping sauce later. I guess that’s a whole other post.

Meat filling with the Juice

The Filling
I was surprised, as the recipe notes, that the ground pork can consume so much of the juice, but it did take every drop! I’ve mixed this up with everything except the aspic since that’s still settling into gelatinous form. I figure it never hurts to let the meat marinate overnight.

The Dough
I’ll work on that tomorrow when the aspic is ready to be incorporated into the filling. The larger challenge that I foresee is the folding of the actual dumplings. I’ve watched as many of the youtube videos that I can to watch, but I’m still not confident that I’ll be able to get the dumplings pleated neatly like the traditional dumplings. More on that tomorrow when I get that far!