Pasta, Rice and Bread

Thai-ish Crispy Dumplings

July 8, 2026August 27, 2026

I love a dumpling, especially one that arrives golden, crisp, and dangerously easy to keep eating. These Thai-style dumplings are my own loose interpretation. Not exactly authentic, and certainly not something I’d dare present to a grandmother in Bangkok. But they’re savory, crunchy, a little sweet, and deeply satisfying.

Ingredients:

3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon avocado oil, plus more for deep-frying
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon cilantro stems, minced
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
4 ounces white mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch dice
8 ounces ground chicken
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and cut into 1/4-inch dice
25-35 wonton skins
3/4 cup sweet chile sauce, for serving

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the sliced green onions, garlic, cilantro, white pepper, and mushrooms and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until the onions and mushrooms have softened. Add the chicken, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and water chestnuts and stir with a wooden spoon, breaking up the chicken as you stir. Continue to stir-fry for about 7 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the liquid has evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat and let the filling cool to room temperature.
To assemble the dumplings, lay a wonton wrapper flat on a work surface and put 1 tablespoon of the cooled filling in the center. Dip your finger in a bowl of water and brush the perimeter of the wonton wrapper with your wet finger and fold the wonton over diagonally to make a triangle shape and seal the wonton to close. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers and filling.
To fry the dumplings, pour the oil to a depth of 1 inch into a wok or frying pan and carefully heat to medium-high. Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.
Using a slotted spoon, carefully lower a few dumplings into the hot old and fry for 2 to 3 minutes per side, turning carefully, until golden brown all over. Using the slotted spoon, transfer the dumplings to the towel-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the dumplings are cooked.
Serve the dumplings with the sweet chile sauce.

Pad See Ew

June 17, 2026August 3, 2026

Pad see ew is not a flashy dish, which is exactly the point. Wide rice noodles, a hot wok, a little char, a little sweetness, and enough soy sauce to tie everything together. It’s the kind of food that doesn’t need to show off because it already knows you’ll finish the whole plate.

For the chicken:

6 ounces thinly sliced boneless chicken
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

For the stir-fry:

1/4 cup avocado oil
6 ounces Chinese broccoli, cut diagonally lengthwise so that no stems are wider than 1/2 inch
1 egg
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 ounces wide rice noodles, preferably fresh (and cooked according to package instructions if dry)
Soy sauce and white pepper
Prik nam som, as desired

Prepare the chicken: place the chicken in a medium bowl, cover with cold water, and vigorously agitate it. Draine through a strainer set in the sink and press on the chicken with your hands to remove excess water. Combine the chicken, soy sauce, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and massage with your fingertips until the cornstarch is evenly distributed. Stir vigorously with your fingertips for 30 seconds. Cover and set aside for at least 15 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
Make the sauce: combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar in a small bowl.
Make the stir-fry: when ready to cook, rub the inside of a wok with a thin film of avocado oil, and carefully heat over high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the avocado oil and swirl to coat. Add the chicken and cook, tossing occasionally until nearly cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a clean bowl.
Wipe out the wok and return to high heat until lightly smoking. Add 1 tablespoon oil. Add the broccoli and stir-fry until lightly charring in spots, about 1 minute, and transfer to the bowl with the chicken.
Wipe out the wok and add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Heat until shimmering, then crack the egg into the wok, being careful to avoid splashing the hot oil. The egg should immediately start puffing. Let it puff for about 15 seconds, then flip it. (It’s okay if it breaks.) Add the garlic and stir-fry, breaking up the egg with your spatula until the garlic is fragrant and the egg is cooked through, about 30 seconds.
Add the noodles to the wok and give them a good toss to coat with the oil, then add the sauce, swirling it around the edges. Return the chicken and broccoli to the wok and stir-fry until the sauce is cooked off and the noodles start to sizzle and char a little, about 1 minute. Season with soy sauce and white pepper to taste. Transferred to a serving platter and serve immediately.

Cheeseburger Potstickers

May 27, 2026May 30, 2026

At first glance, cheeseburger potstickers sound like the sort of thing that should never have happened. Then you take a bite and realize it’s a perfectly logical collision of two great comfort foods. Inspired by a recipe from Shirley Chung, these crispy dumplings pack all the familiar flavors of a cheeseburger into a package that’s a lot more fun to eat.

1 pound ground beef
1/3 pound shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon avocado oil
Potsticker wrappers
Thousand Island dressing, for serving (you can also make an easy version by combining 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup ketchup, and 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish in a bowl)

In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, cheddar cheese, red onion, and Worcestershire sauce together, and season with salt and pepper.
Put 1 tablespoon of beef filling in the middle of a potsticker wrapper and fold the potsticker. Repeat to make all the potstickers.
After all the potstickers are folded, heat 2 tablespoons of avocado oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, line up the potstickers flat side down in a pan. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover it with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 4 minutes, then remove the lid. Increase the heat to medium and allow the bottom of the potstickers to crisp up, about 2 minutes. When they are golden on the bottom, the potstickers are done. Transfer to a serving platter and serve them alongside the dressing.

Yakisoba

May 15, 2026May 30, 2026

Yakisoba is not health food, and it’s not pretending to be. It’s noodles, sauce, a little cabbage to make everyone feel better about their choices, a deeply satisfying flavor. This version isn’t particularly authentic, but it’ll still make you go for seconds.

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons okonomi sauce
2 teaspoons ketchup
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

For the stir-fry

1 tablespoon avocado oil
4 ounces turkey bacon, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 small carrot, cut into 2-inch matchsticks
1/2 head green cabbage, thinly shredded
3 green onions, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound yakisoba noodles, rinsed under hot water to loosen them
Pepper
Ao-nori, for garnish
Beni-shoga ginger, for garnish
Kewpie mayonnaise, for garnish

Make the sauce: combine the okonomi sauce, ketchup, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sugar in a small bowl and stir together until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
Make the stir-fry: heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the turkey bacon and cook, stirring occasionally until it is starting to turn brown, about five minutes.
Increase the heat to high, then add the onion, carrot, and cabbage and stir-fry until the vegetables are tender and starting to brown slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the green onions, stir to combine, then transfer everything to a bowl and set aside, leaving some of the oil in the skillet.
Reheat the skillet over high heat and add the noodles and cook, tossing, until hot, about 1 minute. Return the vegetables and turkey bacon to the skillet and toss everything to combine. Stir the sauce and add to the skillet. Cook, stirring until the sauce cooks everything. Season to taste with pepper. Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with ao-nori and beni-shoga, drizzle with Kewpie mayo, and serve.

Hot and Sour Wontons

May 5, 2026May 30, 2026

Hot and sour wontons are one of those dishes that make it almost impossible to settle for a bland meal. Tender dumplings swimming in chili oil, black vinegar, garlic, and spice: sharp, rich, and unapologetically bold. Learning to make them at home felt less like a project and more like a necessity.

For the wontons:

1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 green onions (or Chinese chives), minced
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
40-50 square wonton wrappers

For the sauce:

1/4 cup chile oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar or a mixture of 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

To serve:

2 tablespoons crushed roasted peanuts
Small handful cilantro leaves, chopped

Make the sauce: Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Set aside until ready to use.
Make the wontons: Combine the chicken, salt, sugar, pepper, green ionions, garlic, and wine in a medium bowl and knead and turn with clean hands until the mixture is homogenous and starting to feel tacky, about 1 minute.
Fill the wontons, using a tablespoon of filling per skin. Use your fingertip to add a thin layer of water around all the edges of the wrapper. Pull two corners together and pinch them shut to form a triangle, then seal up the edges of the triangle, making sure to push out as much air as possible. Moisten the folded corners, then pull them toward each other, making them meet and cross in the center. Repeat until you’ve made all your wontons.
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Cook about 20 wontons at a time until they are completely cooked through, about four minutes. Drain the wontons and transfer to a warm serving platter. Repeat with the remaining wontons and spoon the sauce on top of the cooked wontons. Sprinkle with peanuts and minced cilantro and serve.