Pickled Ginger Asian Pear Coleslaw – Holiday Slaw 2012 Edition

I’m not sure when this relatively new tradition started, but for whatever reason, I like to come up with a new and interesting coleslaw to serve at Thanksgiving. With all the rich, heavy foods that the holiday table brings, I really enjoy the contrast these cold, crisp, bracing salads provide.

I’ve been doing this for five or so years now, and this may be my favorite version. Just adding the always interesting Asian pear to a standard coleslaw would’ve been a nice enough touch, but what made this so special was the subtle heat from the pickled ginger.

I can just imagine how great that piquant punch is going to work with roasted turkey, and while I still have weeks to wait for official verification, I’m pretty confident. I’m also confident you’ll be able to find some pickled ginger, especially if you have any sushi bars near you.

By the way, this is not one of those “make the day before” coleslaws. You want everything fresh and crisp, and if you leave it overnight, not only will it get soggy, but it will be way over-marinated. You can make the dressing beforehand, as well as slice up the ginger and cabbage, but wait until an hour before the dinner to cut the pear and toss everything together.

Anyway, if you’ve never considered a coleslaw for one of your holiday side dish selections, I hope this unusual, but very delicious variation inspires you to give it a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 servings:

1/2 small green cabbage, thinly sliced

1 large Asian pear, thinly sliced

1/3 cup finely sliced pickled ginger

1/4 cup sliced green onions

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

For the dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 to 1 tsp yellow miso paste, or to taste

hot sauce to taste (I used sriracha)

*Best if tossed together no more than an hour or two before service.

View the complete recipe

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Crystal Jade Dumpling Festival 2012

For this Dumpling Festival(端午节), Crystal Jade offers a range of traditional rice dumplings together with their new "Brown Rice Dumpling(红糙米八宝肉粽)" and "Cool Dessert Dumplings(冰冻甜品粽)" which are chilled puddings in the shape of dumplings.

Brown Rice Dumpling(红糙米八宝肉粽)is a hearty, savoury combination of steamed red brown rice, glutinous rice, chestnut, lotus seeds, peanuts, black eyed peas, pork and salted egg yolk. And this is definitely something worth trying for those who love brown rice as well as "beans and nuts".
Price: S$5.20 per dumpling

Rice Dumpling With Pork And Spicy Shrimp Paste(香辣虾米肉粽)is another sweet and savoury combination of pork, chestnut, dried shrimp paste, green bean(split green bean), black-eyed pea and glutinous rice which similar to the Cantonese style green bean dumpling.

Personally I would prefer this compared to the above because of the added green bean which makes it sweet and savoury taste.
Price: S$4.50 per dumpling

For something sweet and meatless, you can go for either this Red Bean Paste Dumpling(红豆沙咸水粽) or the Cooling Dessert Dumpling. This is a very simple traditional steamed “Kee Zhang” that is wrapped with generous amount of  smooth and fragrant red bean fillings.
Price: S$4.00 per dumpling

The NEW Crystal Jade Cooling Dessert Dumpling(冰冻甜品粽) is available in 3 different flavour such as:-

~ Petite Cheese And Peach Cool Dumpling(一口芝士蜜桃青凉粽)
Pudding made with cream cheese and canned peaches for those who like a hint of saltiness in their sweet.

~ Petite Black Glutinous Rice And Sago Cool Dumpling(一口黑糯米青凉粽)
Black glutinous rice which is said to be high in fire and antioxidants is cooked to tender stickiness with fragrant coconut milk.

~ Petite Sweetcorn Cool Dumpling(一口粟米青凉粽)
Delicious sweet corn mixed with evaporated milk based on the local dessert taste

Price: S$2.70 for 3 pieces; or S$5.00 for 6pieces


All dumplings are available from 04 - 23 June 2012 at Crystal Jade My Bread outlets. And savoury dumplings are also available at selected Crystal Jade restaurant. For your information, this year Dumpling Festival falls on Saturday, 23 June 2012.

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Nami Nami Easter Brunch 2012

On Easter Sunday we hosted yet another Easter brunch to our dear friends - something of a tradition by now, as weve done this for almost five years, I believe (see overview of 2009 and 2010 and 2011). This year we were twenty people in total - 16 guests and our own little family of four.

Heres an overview of this years table:



And here are the individual dishes, with links to recipes, where appropriate.



We started with Mimosa cocktails, using freshly squeezed orange juice and Spanish cava. We also drank wine, apple juice and water, followed by tea and coffee later:



Crostini with dill-marinated pork tenderloin and a dab of Meiras cognac-mustard (based on a Bon Appetit recipe):


Our friends Kristiina and Paavo brought along this delicious salad with alfa-alfa sprouts and various citrus fruits:


I had composed a salad of avocado, mango, pumpkin seeds and mozzarella cheese:


Liina (also a food blogger ) had baked this delicious savoury Italian pizza pie, using wild boar meat and Estonian goat cheese:


Estonian home cheese, SÕIR, which I had seasoned with roasted caraway seeds. This was especially delicious with home-baked rye bread (courtesy of our friend Kristiina again):


Fun focaccia shots, topped with sun-dried tomatoes (I got the idea from Kerstin Rodgers inspirational Supper Club: Recipes and Notes from the Underground Restaurant):


Marinated olives (a mix of Kalamata, green Greek and black Amfissa olives) with Aleppo chili flakes, roasted garlic cloves and caperberries (inspired by Kerstin Rodgers again):


Our friend Piret brought along a bowl of wild mushroom salad:


A Mason jar full of beetroot-pickled quail eggs. Ive written about them before, this time I used beetroot juice, balsamic vinegar, caraway seeds, salt and pepper. I find that 12 hours is more than enough to dye and flavour the quail eggs:


Thinly sliced cold-smoked salmon from my favourite fishmonger, Pepe Kala (this was especially delicious on top of all those boiled eggs we ate):


Thinly sliced Estonian "lardo" or Ristemäes herb-crusted lard:


There were three desserts. First on the table, a traditional Easter pudding, paskha. Very creamy, rich and delicious. I added raisins, dried sour cherries, pistachios and flaked almonds to the paskha mixture:


There was also a cardamom-scented apricot and curd cheese cake, topped with almonds:


And a very traditional Estonian curd cheese sheet cake, cut into small pieces to feed loads:


Our friends Liina and Tauno also brought along a traditional Russian Easter cake, kulitch, that they had bought on a weekend trip to Narva:


What was on your Easter table?

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