Most American diners are familiar with the Cantonese spring roll skins made with an egg and flour pastalike skin, but there’s another kind from Shanghai that is made without eggs and is cooked before it is stuffed and rolled. The resulting rolls are skinnier and fry up a little crisper than their Cantonese counterparts. Shanghai spring roll skins can also be used, unfried, like a soft flour tortilla for popiah handrolls, a favorite food in Fujian, Chaozhou, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. In the Thai repertoire, popiah tod refers to fried spring rolls. Asian cooks have also used these skins for Vietnamese cha giò rolls and Burmese samosas. Excellent commercial Shanghai spring roll skins are available at Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, and I didn’t know if making them at home would be worth the trouble. They’re a bit tricky to prepare, but once you understand and get the hang of the unusually sticky, elastic dough, the process becomes addictively fun as you aim for perfect round skins. I rarely achieve it, but the skins fry up beautifully every time. A moderate-gluten flour, such as all-purpose Gold Medal brand, works extremely well. If you are a first-timer, visit Asiandumplingtips.com to watch the video demonstration and to observe the unique cooking process; double the recipe to ensure plenty of extra dough for practice.
Turn humble onions into this thrifty yet luxe pasta dinner.
Serve a thick slice for breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up.
This pasta has some really big energy about it. It’s so extra, it’s the type of thing you should be eating in your bikini while drinking a magnum of rosé, not in Hebden Bridge (or wherever you live), but on a beach on Mykonos.
Caramelized onions, melty Gruyère, and a deeply savory broth deliver the kind of comfort that doesn’t need improving.
Reliable cabbage is cooked in the punchy sauce and then combined with store-bought baked tofu and roasted cashews for a salad that can also be eaten with rice.
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
This is the type of soup that, at first glance, might seem a little…unexciting. But you’re underestimating the power of mushrooms, which do the heavy lifting.
A dash of cocoa powder adds depth and richness to the broth of this easy turkey chili.