spring dinner party - 2013

We have an unbelievably nice warm and dry spell here in Oregon a good part of last week up until yesterday. I savored every moment outdoors. I can see the daily change in the vegetation in my yards.


Knowing in advance that the past Saturday would be in the lower 70s I invited my friend's family of five for dinner. I imposed a condition that the young children would stay outdoors as they have a tendency to want to play with everything that are new to them. Originally I was going to make smoked chicken for them. For this I would need to go get a couple of young friers the night before.

Being such great weather and it was the spring break I couldn't get myself to drive to the stores just to get the chicken. I thought to myself, I need to go grocery shopping in my Asian stores anyway why not just make them a Chinese dinner? I want to introduce the kids to authentic Asian cuisines and serving them smoked chicken would be too lame. They had my food in a few occasions before.

On Saturday morning I went shopping. I typically go on Saturday morning before I found out that my Asian grocery has fresh vegetable usually arrived on Friday from California on it's weekly delivery.

Even when I was shopping I only had a vague idea what dishes I was going to cook. I wanted to let the ingredients I found in the store dictate. I wanted a few vegetables that are new to the kids. While the ingredients I brought home would allow me to make many dishes I did not settle on them until just a couple of hours before the party's arrival. I have to choose the dishes not containing heat (as spicy hot) that children's sensitive taste cannot handle. I told Angie to make sure the kids did not munch on snack nor sweet drink before they come. Angie told me she starved them that afternoon.

I settled on six dishes:

1. deep fried tofu 炸豆腐 (as an appetizer to tide them over until the main meal proper is ready)
2. pig bone soup with daikon 豬骨蘿蔔湯
3. stir fried clams with basil 泰國羅勒炒蛤 (I made two batches; the batch without Thai chillies for the kids and a batch with the chillies for adults)
4. stir fried beef with Chinese broccoli with oyster and fish sauce 蠔油芥蘭炒牛肉
5. morning glory with fish sauce 魚露炒通菜
6. red bean soup as dessert 紅豆沙

I had a handful entertaining the party of five by myself and I was not able to double as the event photographer. In retrospect I should have told the parents to. Most of the photos are from my collection.
first I made a small batch of deep fried tofu with this medium firm tofu from a small supplier; I don't buy the typical tofu you find in supermarkets

it is just a small batch as a teaser treat - I want them to have room for everything

i served the tofu in the same fashion - the kids get the dipping sauce without hot chili oil

Every one loved the tofu. I wished there were more but all I had was 1/4 pack of this craft tofu.

To keep the dishes fresh I served them the soup first before cooking the main dishes. My biggest fear is the kids may be picky eaters and would not eat certain things. It turned out they love everything. They ate the meat off the bone and said it was delicious. They were also surprised to find out shitake mushroom is delicious instead of something dreadful.

I bought 2 packages of pig bones which I used to make the broth for the daikon soup.
this is actually the photo I took before they showed up

i prefer to keep most of the skin for the different texture and flavor

 always cut them into wedge shape for presentation as well as different degree of doneness

after skimming off the excess fat I then cook the daikon - the pig bone are already cook so they are added just before I was serving; each person get a piece of bone with good amount of meat on it

daikon in pork bone broth

The kids never had daikon before. They said it is delicious. They ate the meat off the bone.

Next I prepared the three main dishes that are to served with a bowl of Thai "steamed" rice.

stir fried beef with Chinese broccoli and oyster sauce - this is the first time the kids have Chinese broccoli; i made a much larger portion for the party of 6

i made a stir fried claim with thai basil - I made two batches; the one without hot chilies for the kids; unfortunately I don't have a photo of the dish

the stir basil fried clam is a sort of like the dish on the left, just substitute the fermented soy beans with thai basil and fish sauce

the last dish is morning glory with fish sauce; instead of making two separate batches I just added hot chilie oil to the adult's serving

 the actually serving was much larger

The dinner was wrapped up with a Cantonese dessert - red pea soup 紅豆沙 with aged mandarin peels. I have served this to my adult friends to are not stranger to Chinese food and yet most could not overcome the thought of a hot sweet soup like dessert. To my delight the kids ate it; Ginger the youngest girl said it was delicious.

the ingredients are simple; just red peas, ages tangerine peels and sensible amount of sugar

i used up the last bit of my good age tangerine peels

 well made red pea soup 紅豆沙 should look like this - it should have the sand like consistency as 紅豆沙 translates (quite poorly) red pea sand

Ginger gave me two pictures she drew that afternoon as the appreciation for the dinner

 this is the portrait of me she drew

The kids are great. They ate everything, including plain rice and lots of vegetable. There were no soda but the soup and the red pea soup was enough to keep them hydrated.