Eva's Wine Cellar

It's pretty good if you are very, very good yourself.

It gets quite hot in San Diego, so it must be the humidity you can't stand. Right?

Wow, osso! That must take some time to prepare! What is the filling?

It'll be chopped mutton or pork or shrimp, chopped onion, mushroom and ginger. Nothing to it compared to traditional Lancashire hotpot or Cornish pasties.

Love me some Cornish pasties! What's "Lancashire hotpot"? Never heard of that.

Recipe here: (pork and shrimp)
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pork-shrimp-dumplings-shu-mai-10000001724861/

I've only made them once, back in my play with asian cooking days. I thought at the time it was a lot of work, but in retrospect there are more complicated things to cook. I remember mine as smaller than those in the photo, thus easier to pick up with chopsticks. Think I made the dough too, but that part is easy. People who make these routinely are probably very speedy at it.

No not really, we have a few days where it hits the 90s (due to desert winds) but usually it's around 72 - 76 F in the summer on the coast where we live.
Inland it does get hotter, but it is a dry heat, yes.

There is no weather in San Diego ! Nothing changes ... ever !

Bright, sunny skies,; cool breezes from the ocean; colorful plants & shrubs.... lots of traffic in some areas though.

Twenty miles inland it's a desert and often very hot.

However, nothing unpleasant is allowed in upper San Diego (ahem, La Jolla) where Calamity lives. Every day is like the best summer day in Munich.

San Francisco at least has some decay and funkiness to make the good stuff stand out ... and some cloudy, foggy days to make the sun even more delightful.

Sounds delicious! I've had something similar before, but they didn't look that spectacular. I think you can buy the dough in grocery stores now...lots of people use it for potstickers.

Oh! I've been to SD twice, and both times I remember it being hot while I was touring Old Town. I'm glad it's more moderate where you live! (Mid-70s would be considered cool for summer here. We're used to 90s with some 100s.)

I, on the other hand, have made potstickers a few times recently from those packages (for wontons, not gyoza, which are thinner) and have decided I hate tha - some floury thing, rice flour? over them that gets weird to me. Meantime, I've made some meat pies (or whatever, wee tarts) with left over pie dough like the olive oil crust I talk about. On shu mai, assuming I have shrimp and pork in the house at the same time some sunny day, I think I'll just roll some from scratch shu mai recipe dough out.

What I need is a bigger circle cutter than my biscuit cutters (now nearing antique stage with out the cachet).

I think highs in the 70s, cool ocean breezes, sunny skies & lots of greenery sounds practically perfect, georgeob1!

San Francisco is a great town, but it's too cool and gray for me. I'm used to a lot of sunshine. I'm afraid all that fog would depress me if I lived there. I'll just visit instead! (Hoping to make it out there later this summer.)

Try a large drinking glass or a small bowl. They make perfectly good cutters. No need to buy something special.

What are potstickers? Be good to learn

I love Asian food, one of my favourite, your recipe looks wicked, I think I shall try it

You got that right, George! We live in paradise and know it
This is the outlook for the week ahead




Eva, you might have been here around the time when the desert winds are here. All bets are off then and it can get quite toasty - unfortunately with the desert winds come the fires more often than not too!

What are pot stickers - be still my heart. One of my all time favorite foods.

I've (we've, Diane and I) even found some good ones in Albuquerque. Can't talk Roger into going there (evil nudge, not fair since he isn't near his computer today to answer back).

Not all pot stickers are wonderful, but some are food nirvana. They can be steamed, as in a bamboo basket.
They can be fried in oil, amount varying, sometimes not much, and if not much, then steamed in the same pan.
They are basically simple.

Back with some links.

"Be still my Heart" love it

We steam our vegies in a bamboo basket, in a wok often then rid the water, quickly fry some garlic and chuck them into the pan of garlic, add a teaspoon of oyster sauce and that's it. Love it.

Pork and Chive pot stickers here



This one looks like a photo of all three - fried, fried + steamed, and steamed.
They are all good.

Try it for a month or so and you will likely welcome some variety.

Now you're just playing into Calamity's hands. She is humorless and unforgiving when it comes to upper San Diego..... where nothing ever changes.

The San Francisco fog rarely comes east of "the Avenues" or more than half way from the coast to the Bay (or East of Alcatraz). If you want to escape it, just drive down to the Marina, or, in an extreme situation, across the Bay to the Oakland Hills, Orinda or Alameda.

Let us all know when you come this way. She will likely deny it, but Calamity likes San Francisco too.

Ah, well, maybe those don't show up. Too bad, interesting links.

Back with similar -

here's pork and bok choy:



I hope this one works - shrimp and pork potstickers, recipe, gourmet magazine