August Moon Festival, Yesterday's Recipes

Yesterday, I promised my readers Callaloo.  I did not deliver.  Instead of going to the grocery store, I went to the August Moon Festival in Chinatown!  I got to see several performance groups doing dance, drumming, and martial arts demonstrations, and - obviously - I got to munch on some yummy food, including trying an avocado smoothie with "bubbles" (tapioca pearls) for the first time.  So delicious! 

Boston's Chinatown may be a valuable resource for this blog.  While waiting for my smoothie, I noticed a container of spicy pig's ears in the take-away cooler and realized that I could dine in Chinatown every day for a month and try something new each day.  However, I might not always have the time, money, or appetite for crowds, so it's more likely that I'll end up taking a trip or two to Kam Man or C-Mart to get some inspiration! 

I did promise pictures and recipes - on that, I will deliver.  Below are recipes and accompanying photos of the pasta, stuffed peaches, and cod I made yesterday.



Homemade Tagliatelle (2 servings)
1 cup flour plus extra for dusting
1 egg
splash olive oil
pinch salt

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and use your hands to mix until a dough forms. 

Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours.  Remove from fridge, roll into log, and tear off a golf ball sized piece of dough, keeping remaining dough covered in plastic. 

Roll the dough through a pasta machine, starting with the widest setting and continually rolling the piece through the next thinnest setting, dusting with flour between each roll. 

Once dough is rolled thin, pass it through the wide noodle cutter. 


Allow to dry for approximately 15 minutes before cooking.

Stuffed Peaches (serves 6)

3 peaches

1 oz. amaretti crackers

1/2t. unsweetened cocoa powder

splash amaretto

2T. finely chopped almonds

1 t. lemon zest

1T. butter

Moscato wine

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350.  Halve peaches, remove pits.  Scoop away the layer of flesh that was attached to the pit, and set reserved peach flesh in a small bowl. 

Add all remaining ingredients except wine to the bowl.  Stir until well-blended.

Arrange the peaches skin side down in a baking dish.  Spoon stuffing mixture into each peach.  Pour in enough of the Moscato wine so that the bottom of the baking dish is covered but the peaches are not drowning. 

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven, set peach skin side down on a small plate, dust peach with powdered sugar, and serve immediately. 

Helpful hint:  Place the powdered sugar in a tea ball to sprinkle over peaches if you don't own a small enough fine-meshed sieve.

The seafood recipe (called Merluzzo con Vongole) can be found in October's La Cucina Italiana on page 27, with the following substitution:  instead of peeling the tomatoes, I diced them and added them to the baking dish with the fish. 

Mangiare!