Ruts

We were headed to the Nelson but both my honyocks said they'd rather go to Moon Marble. We were just there, but I caved.





It's a super neat shop and all that, and I love Bruce, but the novelty has definitely worn off for me with sheer repetition. Not that the Nelson wouldn't suffer a bit of this-again-ness, but it's a matter of degree. Moon Marble could file stalking charges on my family.



It's the weather. I used to think I could live in a place like Buffalo or Toronto, even Anchorage, places that get honest to gawd winter on a regular basis. But I was kidding myself, I actually need to know the earth is still revolving around the sun and hasn't spun off its axis to become a moon of Jupiter or something.





So we went to the Moon, and afterward we ate at the Chinese restaurant that has manifested itself in my kitchen. Tempura chicken, again. Another rut to support yet another, because of course I was tinkering with my General Tso's Chicken recipe. This time I cut the saltiness problem out by cutting the soy sauce from 1 cup to 2 oz. and using a quart of reduced chicken broth to make up the difference (reduced by at least half). I also reflected that the too-salty version wasn't peppery enough and added a tablespoon of chili garlic paste and doubled the amount of dried chili peppers in the oil at the beginning of the stir-fry action. One of these two moves would have been appropriate, but together they made for a level of heat our last President would refer to as 'nukular.'






Oh, and I had Szichuan peppercorns this time, I found them online and cheap. Their arrival in Saturday's mail contributed to the decision to make this dish again even with leftovers of the first batch of General Tso's in the fridge and freezer.






Actually, I found today at lunch that if you mix the two together, you get a pretty good average. Not so hot you weep for the choices you've made, not so salty you figure it would be better used to de-ice roads.



I also experimented with a batch of Crab Rangoon. Incredibly easy to make: mix 8 oz. cream cheese, a couple of green onions, a can of crab meat, a teaspoon of Worcestershire, a bit of garlic powder.



Put a little bit of it in the middle of a wonton wrapper and brush the edge with beaten egg (works as glue). Fold her up and drop her in 350ºF oil.





My oil was too hot at first, and I almost burned half the rangoons. Even at 350º, they cook almost as soon as they hit the oil. They aren't as big as restaurant Crab Rangoon, you'd need wonton wrappers the size of bedsheets for that.