China – Grandma’s Cooking

I’ve said this a million times, and I’ll say it again. My grandma is the best cook in the world.  She’s a cook, not a chef. A chef has recipes and rules, and a chef must cater to the critic’s palate. Grandma caters to my critical palate, but she makes her own rules and recipes simply don’t exist.

A chef will slave over combinations of just the right seasoning and taste, but Grandma just throws in a dash of this and a pinch of that. And when she throws a dash of this and a pinch of that onto a leg of fall-off-the-bone Lamb, the savory explosion will stun your taste buds and blow your mind.

In case my description of the lamb didn’t convince you, let me set the record straight. When I say my grandma is a cook not a chef, I say it because I’m proud of her. Chefs can make all kinds of fancy things, but sometimes the simple things are best. Plain old Pork and Vegetable Dumplings put the best of all food groups into a neat little package of meat and vibrant veggies wrapped in a chewy carb.

The secret to any good dumpling dipping sauce is garlic, and few people love pure garlic more than the Chinese. I too love the tingle, the sting, and the undate-able breath.  I love it raw, I love it chopped, I love it cooked. I love garlic, but I love Garlic Scapes even more. The green sprouts that spring from partially-planted cloves of garlic make many light layers with a combined kick of garlic and leek.

I haven’t had much luck when it comes to dates, and I don’t think my breath is to blame. But I always have a great time with my dates when they’re embedded in a homemade Steamed Bun. Maybe my mother made these because she knew they were the only dates I was going to get... As much as my mother nags, sometimes my mother is right. She always told me to find a date that’s attractive on the inside and out, in which case I really can’t do much better than her Pork Buns, which have the perfect proportions of crunchy chives to round out the fatty ground pork. My grandma may be best cook in the world, but in my mother’s case, let’s just say the date didn’t fall far from the tree.