fall Archives - Two Red Bowls

stir-fried lettuce bowl with ginger fried rice and egg

07.27.2019

ginger fried rice with stir-fried lettuce and egg

We have had two big developments of our summer so far. One is that I went back to work (and we can skip discussing that) but the other is much more exciting: We moved! Somehow some people in the world thought that it was okay for this pair of silly babies to actually, honest-to-goodness own a home. Now that we’re done screaming in terror over the biggest purchase of our lives, we are so excited. It’s over on the east side of Los Angeles, and although we’re still new to this part of town, we’re closer to (1) Costco and (2) dim sum so we’re already smitten.

pork sung no knead bread

05.31.2019

Well, I had all sorts of plans to post here more often while on magical maternity leave, but those plans seem to have manifested as three months of nothing but snuggling chubby baby cheeks (Clara now giggles sometimes when I do this and it’s the best, thing, ever) and chasing skinny manic toddlers. Oops.

shanghainese lion’s head meatballs // a common table giveaway!

11.09.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

These lion’s head meatballs are one of the handful of recipes in the book that was originally on my blog. It was one of the very first, actually, posted nearly five years ago to the day! And whenever I’ve been asked what my favorite recipe in the book is, I’ve had to say it’s this. First, and perhaps most importantly, it’s just one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made: The meatballs are a marvel, tender, light, and juicy like little clouds that practically melt into your rice. They’re burnished brown on the outside from a quick fry, then steamed over an impossibly tall pile of bok choy until the greens wilt into a flavorful heap under the juices from the meatballs, so you get a full meal with a side all in one. They’re one of my favorite winter meals, one we used to make in the depths of Brooklyn winters while the world outside was frosted white, and they’re so good that they’ve become one of the most made recipes I’ve ever posted (and, to my utter surprise, even won a contest once!)

asian pear and jasmine crumbles // a common table giveaway!

11.02.2018

My earliest memories of Asian pears are from my grandparents’ kitchen in a concrete high-rise in bustling Shanghai, sitting around an old, worn table under fluorescent lights after a long flight from the United States. Asian pears are meant to be eaten peeled, and I can still see the ribbons of peels as they curled off my grandmother’s paring knife, seamless, swift, and unbroken, piling around the slices as she set them before us. (To my mother’s dismay, this is not a skill I have ever mastered.)

pappardelle with lamb ragu // a common table giveaway!

10.19.2018

I’m back! It’s the Friday before A Common Table ventures out in the world, therefore (1) the last Friday to preorder, if you like, and (2) the first Friday of a ton of giveaways of some of my most favorite things in the book over the next two months! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook and a giveaway every Friday here and on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

salted yolk & lotus paste beignets

09.20.2018

Beignets! It’s been awhile since a capital-P Project has landed on this blog. Since the advent of our little guy, I’ve been more tempted to fill my Saturday mornings with alphabet books and trips to the playground and the occasional quick and easy food experiment than making extended messes in the kitchen. But then a few weeks ago, while daydreaming about the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and all the mooncakes that it heralds, the idea of these salted yolk and lotus paste beignets popped fully-formed into my head. My very favorite flavor of mooncake, silky, fragrant lotus paste and punchy orange yolk, but dispersed throughout an airy, tender beignet instead of in a dense mooncake? They were, at that moment, as good as made.

buttercream roses and rose buttercream

08.14.2018

Believe it or not, these pretty little buttercream roses were piped by yours truly. For someone who is all thumbs and, at best, has a passing knowledge of how to decorate a cake, this is a feat indeed–and it’s all thanks to a dynamo of a friend and her marvelous book, Coco Cake Land, which is coming out today! I truly cannot be more excited.

super savory greens with lap cheong and garlic

12.06.2017

We are now solidly into the magical stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas, that no-holds-barred span of weeks that I typically use to indulge all of my wildest cookie and hot cocoa and cinnamon roll whims, and yet, much to my dismay, I’ve spent most of it so far thinking about, not chocolate or candy canes or marshmallows, but vegetables. In particular, these leafy greens. I am as surprised as you are.

sticky toffee pudding with mascarpone butterscotch

11.15.2017

I’ve been meaning to make some form of sticky toffee pudding for at least a few years, ever since a friend of mine first waxed lyrical about one she’d had at a pub near our offices called the Shakespeare. At that point, I’d never had sticky toffee pudding or, possibly, even heard of it, but her description alone had me sold–of a sticky, soft, eat-it-with-a-spoon cake, gooey with dates and draped in an abundance of caramel sauce, served warm and ideally with ice cream on top (which, in and of itself, is enough to get me on board with anything).

chai masala bundt cakes

10.11.2017

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d enjoy anything about fall other than, say, eating pumpkin-y things and, nominally, wearing fluffy slippers, there’s not a chance I would have believed you. (This is how deep my fear of the cold runs.) But then we moved to a quixotic land where my Michelin Man puffer jackets are happily useless, so I no longer had the cold to dread; and shortly thereafter a very important fall birthday was added to our calendars that B2 and I are way more excited about celebrating than we’ve ever been about our own. A year later, here I am: recovering SAD-sufferer and cautious fall enthusiast.

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