Hello Spices of Life viewers!
 
Have you looked at the moon lately? It is FULL, and tonight Chinese all over the world celebrate the Harvest Moon

Festival and eat moon cakes!! We’re celebrating, too. Watch me and the Moon Cake girls make these delectable cakes

and drink tea at http://www.spicesoflife.com.
 
Join the Moon Cake team — my best friend, Debby, her daughter, Lydia, and MY VERY SPECIAL GUEST, Carol Garfield,

Steve’s BRILLIANT wife!!! — as we make moon cakes, drink tea, and celebrate this wonderful Chinese holidayl!!

Nina   

Best Recipe Ever: Moon Cakes
When the days grow shorter and the balmy breezes of summer are replaced by the brisk chill of fall, it is time to

prepare for the Harvest Moon festival. On the evening of the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the moon is at its

brightest, and for one night only, it is said to be perfectly round. Meet the Moon Cake girls and see how Nina and

“the girls” demonstrate how to prepare this DELICIOUSLY sumptuous cookie in your own kitchen.
Watch video

 Recipe: Moon Cakes

During the Harvest Moon festival, Chinese bakery shelves are loaded with many different varieties of  moon cakes,

savory and sweet. Nina’s easy filling includes apricot jam, raisins, dates, and coconut.
  
Go to spicesoflife.com for recipe

Having dinner issues?  Check out “Dinner Doctor Quick Meals”
 
Fall Tune-up
If you are comfortable with acupuncture, it’s a good time for a for a tune-up to coincide with the autumnal equinox.    

“Invite your friends, make batches of moon cakes, freeze them, then bake the day you serve them!”  
Carol’s tip
“Everybody loves moon cakes, but did you know it’s traditionally a woman’s holiday?”

 Hugo’s Tip

“It’s cool that messages hidden in moon cakes helped the Chinese win a war.”
 
 

Editor Judith Jones has a knack for turning cooks into best-selling authors:

Salem resident Nina Simonds, a Chinese cookbook author, published “A Spoonful of Ginger” and “Spices of Life” with Jones; both won James Beard awards. ” ‘Spices,’ ” says Simonds, “was particularly brutal.” She calls Jones, whom she admires, “a bit of a terror.” They fight all the time, says Simonds, then admits that she does the fighting while Jones remains inscrutable. Once, after a particularly painful session, says Simonds, she decided not to call Jones for a while. Days later, when Simonds phoned her, it was as if the incident had never happened. “That was business,” said the editor. The two, and Simonds’s husband, Don Rose, traveled all over the Far East recently.

Mooncakes are not only loved for their different flavors- sweet and salty-, but for the special role they played in Chinese history. About seven hundred years ago during the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese were ruled by Mongolians, their northern neighbors. They were very unhappy and desparately wanted to overthrow the leaders but they were closely watched and could not talk freely. The Chinese secretly planned an attack, wrote it down on small pieces of paper, and hid the paper slips inside the mooncakes. They then secretly passed the message of the attack from family to family, house to house with the mooncakes.

The battle was difficult, but the Chinese were well-organized. The Mongolians were completely taken by surprise and the Chinese successfully won the struggle. To this day, they believe that the mooncakes were responsible for the victory.

From “Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragonboats,” by Nina Simonds

Video Extra:
Watch Nina and the Moon Cakes girls make The Best Recipe for Moon Cakes Ever in her kitchen.

FIVE-TREASURE MOON CAKES
makes20 moon cakes

During the Harvest Moon Festival, Chinese bakery shelves are loaded with moon cakes — salty with a meat or vegetable filling, or sweet with red bean date pastes or candied fruits. I’ve developed an easy filling that’s a mixture of apricot jam, raisins, dates, and coconut. I recommend using a moon cake mold (see note *), but you may improvise by hand-shaping the cookies into circles and drawing a simple design on top.

CRUST
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried milk powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup apricot preserves (one 12-ounce jar)
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
3/4 cup raisins

Glaze
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons water

1. To make the crust, sift together the flour, dried milk powder, and salt. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, and beat vigorously until the mixture “ribbons” off the beaters, about 5 minutes. Add the melted butter, vanilla extract, and the sifted, dry ingredients to the egg mixture, folding after each addition. Mix to a rough dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly to a smooth dough. Form the dough into a long, snake-like roll and cut into 20 pieces.
2. Mix together the ingredients of the filling and stir to combine evenly. Divide into 20 portions.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Using your fingers, press each dough piece into a 3-inch circle with the edges thinner and the center thicker. Place a portion of filling in the center, gather up the edges of the dough to enclose the filling and pinch to seal. Roll the cake into a ball and flatten it to a 3-inch round. Press into a moon cake mold or carve a crisscross design on top. (If you are using a moon cake press *, arrange on a cookie sheet and chill overnight.) Rearrange the the cakes about 1 inch apart on lightly buttered baking sheets. Brush the surface of the moon cakes with the glaze. Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a rack and serve.

From “Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragonboats,” by Nina Simonds

* Moon cake presses can be ordered through Woks ‘n’ Things, 2234 S. Wentworth Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60616. Phone: 312-842-0701

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Serves 4 to 6

1 tablespoon Longjing tea leaves
1 cup water
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1 pound mediusm shrimp, peeled,deveined, rinsed
4 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon aged rice vinegar
2 ounces fresh snow peas, strings removed
2 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces on the diagonal
1/4 cup scallions cut into 1/2-inch pieces on the diagonal

1. Place the tea leaves in a teapot or heatproof measuring cup. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then remove from heat and let cool for 3 minutes. Pour the water over the tea leaves and brew for 3 minutes.
2. Strain and reserve the tea leaves and brewed tea liquor.
3. Place 2 tablespoons of the cornstarch on a plate and add the white pepper. Mix well. Pat the shrimp dry and roll them in the mixture one at a time. Set aside.
4. Heat a wok or skillet over medium heat for 1 minute.
5. Add 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil and heat for an additional 30 seconds.
6. Add the shrimp and stir to prevent sticking. Cook the shrimp for 2 minutes, or until they turn pink and opaque. Quickly remove them from the pan and drain the shrimp on paper towels.
7. Mix the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar in a bowl and set aside.
8. Add a few tablespoons of brewed tea to the remaining1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch and stir to make a smooth paste. Add 1/2 cup of the brewed tea and stir to dissolve. Set aside.
   Add the remaining 2 tablespoons peanut oil to the pan and heat on medium-high for 30 seconds.
9. Add the snow peas and green beans and saute for 2 minutes. Add the cooked shrimp and scallions and heat of 1 minute.
10. Add the reserved tea leaves and the oyster sauce mixture. Heat for 1 minute, adding a few tablespoons of water to the sauce if it becomes too thick. Serve hot.

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“Lemon sorbet and lemonade perk up the flavors of this refreshing and thirst-quenching blueberry smoothie. It’s equally delicious made with lime sorbet and limeade instead.”

1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries
3/4 cup nonfat milk or soy milk
1/2 cup ice cubes
2 tablespoons undiluted frozen lemonade concentrate
1/2 cup lemon sorbet or sherbet
1/2 cup nonfat frozen vanilla yogurt

Place the blueberries, milk, and ice in a blender and process until smooth. Add the lemonade, sorbet, and frozen yogurt and process until smooth. Pour the smoothies into two large glasses and serve immediately.

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This month we are focusing on healthy food and kids. Myra Goodman of Earthbound Farm Organics and her family are certainly health-conscious. Her children LOVE salads, often coming home from school to snack on raw veggies and fresh fruits - on their own accord! How does she do it? The answer she says (besides having acres and acres of the fresh produce growing around their house) is that healthy doesn’t have to mean sacrifice - healthy can be delicious!

Alternate versions: Quicktime (.mov), MP3 Audio (.mp3), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) for iPod/iPhone

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