Category — Holidays

With the holidays coming, maybe you’re thinking about making a pumpkin pie. Try this: ditch the cinnamon and substitute Chinese five-spice powder. “I call it the Chinese version of a Christmas spice,” says Chef Ming Tsai, whose revolutionary restaurant Blue Ginger has been defining East-West cuisine for more than a decade. Tsai was kind enough to talk with me about Chinese New Year (more on that as it draws closer — Feb. 3, 2011) and let fly this cool little tip about adding some je ne sais quoi (sorry, can’t say that in Chinese) to your Christmas dessert. And why stop there? Try the five spice powder in bread pudding, rice pudding….just about anything that could use a shot of cinnamon.

Here’s a recipe from Tsai’s PBS series “Simply Ming” for what sounds like the world’s best-ever upside down cake:

Cranberry-Asian Pear Five-Spice Cake

serves 6-8

1 cup sugar

8 ounces unsalted butter

zest of 1 orange

4 extra large eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

cranberry topping:

2 cups fresh cranberries

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons five spice powder

zest of 1 orange

1 Asian pear, peeled, very thinly sliced (between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick)

For prepping pan:

2 tablespoons sugar

2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

round of parchment

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 325 degrees convection or 350 standard. Prepare a 10-inch cake pan by greasing, lining with parchment round, greasing and flouring and coating with 2 tablespoons sugar. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together sugar, butter and orange zest. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each to fully incorporate before adding the next, and scraping continually. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and kosher salt. Add flour gradually and mix until just combined.

Meanwhile, in a saucepot over medium-high heat, combine cranberries, vanilla, sugar, five spice and orange zest and cook until sugar has dissolved and sauce comes together, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange Asian pear slices in an overlapping layer on bottom of pan. Spoon cranberry sauce evenly over Asian pears. Spread cake batter evenly over cranberries. Bake in center of oven until top springs back when touched with fingertip, about 30-40 minutes convection or 40-50 minutes standard oven. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for about 5-10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Serve with ice cream.

Hanukkah starts tonight, which means Fany Gerson’s table is groaning with chili-spiked latkes, coconut-stuffed rugelach and, special for this year, sufganiot donuts filled with passionfruit curd.

“That’s my little spin on it,” says the Jewish-Mexican chef and founder of LaNewYorkina popsicle company.

While most Jewish Mexicans stick to brisket and noodle kugel, Gerson lets her holiday meals narrate her family’s flight from Russia last century to the life they made in Mexico City. She substitutes Mexican coconut sweets called “cocadas” for macaroons, garnishes matzo ball soup with cilantro and limes, and pan fries gefilte fish in a tomato-chili sauce. [Read more →]