dim sum

At the end of a long trip last month, I stopped in DC and had dinner with two friends, one a naval officer and the other a Foreign Service Officer. Our conversation turned to the early years of our careers, in the waning days of the Cold War and the period just after the Berlin Wall fell. It was very interesting to hear tales of living in Romania – so challenging that embassy folks knew to carry their own light bulbs when they traveled outside of the capital! I talked a bit about my job in South Korea, where I spent a lot of time escorting news media up to the Demilitarized Zone, peering into communist North Korea. When my dad came out to see me, we took a trip to Hong Kong and made a tour up to the border with communist China.

I told my friends about the trip to Hong Kong. My dad had first traveled there while an enlisted man serving in the Pacific Fleet at the end of World War II. After the war ended he got an appointment to the Naval Academy, where an upperclassman told him he could never make it as a Naval aviator. That got Dad’s goat, and he buckled down and graduated in the top part of his class, earning a spot in flight school. After earning his pilot’s Wings of Gold, he joined a squadron in the Pacific Fleet. It was during the Korean War, and they deployed to the theater, with a stop in Hong Kong on the way. (As a side note, Dad’s aviation career was cut short when his plane and the deck of an aircraft carrier became intimately acquainted. Fortunately he walked away with little more than a scratch, but realizing that the upperclassman at Annapolis had been correct all along, Dad became a surface warfare officer and spent the rest of his career driving ships.)

When we went to Hong Kong in 1988, it was fun to watch my dad experiencing the city again, 35 years or so after his last visit. He was amazed by the modernization and growth of the city. I’ll never forget standing on Victoria Peak with him, and what he said as he looked out at the busy harbor and bustling city below. “Wow, this place sure has changed from the last time I was here.”

The Washington Post had done a special feature on dim sum shortly before my dad’s visit. When we got to Hong Kong, he was eager to partake in the Chinese delicacies that traditionally accompany afternoon tea. We ate a lot of dim sum that week. Dad was so taken by it that I’m pretty sure if there had been such a thing as a dim sum breakfast, we would have found it and partaken of it, too.

That is the story I told my friends last week, over dinner in DC. The next day I returned to New York. When I went through the large amount of mail that had accumulated, there was a package from my uncle, forwarding a couple of things he had found while going through some boxes that had been in my grandmother’s attic. One was the certificate given to my dad when he completed flight training. The other was a postcard my dad had mailed him from Hong Kong on October 18, 1988. “Hong Kong has changed one heckuva lot since I was here in 1945, 46, and 53; and they’re still building skyscrapers. Came down here from Seoul with Ellen. The Navy’s giving her a real education – when she leaves Seoul in December, she goes to Spain. Love, Dave” Twenty-four hours after telling my story of a trip taken twenty-two years earlier, I was holding Dad’s version in my hands.

I don’t know why he didn’t tell Uncle Andy about the dim sum; we certainly tasted enough to fill a postcard or two! Here’s a recipe for a dim sum-inspired treat.

Squash Potstickers

Makes about a dozen

One small butternut or kabocha squash

Salt and pepper

3-4 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts or pecans

1 package won ton wrappers

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Wash and dry squash. Cut squash into quarters, removing membrane and seeds. Place on tray, drizzling with 1-2 tablespoons oil and seasoning with salt and pepper.

3. Roast in oven for about 40 minutes, until you can insert a knife into the flesh easily. Remove from oven and let cool.

4. Scoop roasted flesh into a bowl, mashing with a fork to bring it to a puree-like consistency. Stir in cinnamon, nuts, and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Make the dumplings by laying an empty won ton wrapper on a cutting board. Scoop a small amount of the squash mixture into the center of the won ton skin, making sure there is plenty of room on the sides so that you can fold over the wrapper without the innards oozing out. Seal the dumpling by dipping your finger in a bowl of water and running it along the edge of the pasta. Press together to seal, and crimp the edge with a fork.

5. To cook the potstickers, you will need a sauté or frying pan that has a lid. Heat remaining oil in pan on medium high heat. Add the dumplings and sauté for two minutes. Then pour about a quarter cup of water in the pan, cover and steam for two minutes. Serve immediately.

Notes

- Won ton wrappers are available in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores.

- If desired, serve with a mix of soy sauce and dark sesame oil mixed with sliced scallion and minced ginger.

Baking Beans...and making memories

The Navy has been a big part of my life; in fact, I wouldn't have one without it. In 1953 a Navy lieutenant from a small town in Indiana made a trip up to Boston with one of his buddies. They were serving on ships in Newport, RI and went to see some gals that the friend knew. The lieutenant was quite taken with one of them, a young woman who hailed from a very small town in very northern Maine. Unfortunately he didn't get her phone number, and his friend got underway on an around-the-world cruise before he could get it from him. This was well before the age of email at sea; after waiting six months and deploying several communications techniques, the young officer finally got a postcard containing the much sought after contact info. He called her, she remembered him, and on their second date they got engaged. They were married for nearly 50 years. I still have the postcard that brought my mom and dad together.


Mom grew up in Aroostook County, the largest of Maine's sixteen counties. Most Mainers refer to it as simply "The County." Having grown up in a predominantly agricultural area (potatoes were the big crop), one of the many gifts my mom gave us was an appreciation for where food comes from. No matter where the Navy had us living, we'd always venture out to farm stands and pick-your-own fields and enjoy local flavors. She was also a great cook, which was pretty entertaining given that her maiden name was Cook. Destiny perhaps? Our family developed a nice culinary tradition, rooted in our folks' Hoosier and Yankee backgrounds, and flavored by the influences of the places we lived and travelled and the many people we met, a sprinkling of Southern here, a dash of Phillippine there.


Being from Maine, Mom had a bean pot, of course. We enjoyed many a Saturday Night Supper of baked beans and brown bread. It was on a trip to Maine in the summer of 1993 that I got my very own bean pot. It was one of those moments when I finally felt like a grown up, even though I'd been out of school and on my own for a very long time. Mom gave me her mother's recipe for "Kosher Baked Beans" and we began our favorite little game. You see, the recipe instructs that "in the a.m." you put the ingredients in the pot and place it in the oven, and then "after lunch" you add the key ingredient, the molasses that gives the beans their delicious sweetness. Every time I baked beans, I'd have to call Mom. It went something like this: "Mom, when did your mother get up in the morning and when did she eat lunch?" answered by "Oh, you must be baking beans" and chuckles from both of us.


Mom isn't with us anymore, but every time I pull out my bean pot and read the recipe on the card tucked inside, I can hear the chuckle in her voice again. I hope to share many recipes in this space, and I think it's fitting that this is the first one. This is a direct transcription from my mom's handwritten recipe card, with some comments and clarifications from me in parentheses. I hope you'll enjoy these on a Saturday night - or anytime - with those you hold dear.


Kosher Baked Beans
1 pound (dried) beans = 2 1/2 cups


Soak beans overnight. In the a.m., put an onion cut in quarters in the bottom of the bean pot. Add beans and oleo (butter is okay) cut in pieces in layers. (Note: For one pound of beans, I use about 1/2 stick of butter.) Mix 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 3/4 tablespoon salt with 1 pint of boiling water - pour over beans; may need to add more water to cover beans. (Note: I've taken to adding the salt much later in the baking, with good results.) Cover pot and bake at 300 Fahrenheit. Add more boiling water during the day if necessary. After lunch add 1/2 cup unsulphured molasses dissolved in a little boiling water. Bake 6-7 hours total.


(Another note: the best beans to use are Soldier Beans grown in Aroostook County. If you aren't lucky enough to take a trip to Maine to stock your larder, you can enjoy Yellow-eye Beans from your local grocer.)