The Louisville Chef

This is a dish that I often used to order at Din Tai Fung in LA. Along with their rightfully  famous  xiaolongbao. I had tried it a few times in China, but not with shrimp. After tracking down the rice cakes (who knew there were so many types and shapes), it was a bit of a learning curve to figure our how to prep them for the wok.  I finally settled on boiling them in water with a splash of fish  sauce. The big take away, was it only took about 2 minutes for them to cook and they were done when they floated. Additionally once you drain them and start stir frying everything else, they tend to stick together, but quickly release once they hit the wok. Ingredients 3 Tbsp Vegetable oil  1 cup Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced  2 cups Bok Choy, hard ends removed and cubed and sliced 2 Green Onion, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces.  2 cloves Garlic, minced 2 cups Rice Cake, see note.  10-12 large raw Shrimp, cleaned and peeled, tails intact.  1 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine Sauce Mixture: 2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce 

There are so many options to make your own pizza. I really enjoy my 72 hour cold proof pizza dough, but sometimes I want something faster. The pizza dough in this recipe is more like a focaccia texture, but that makes it perfect for a pan pizza.  It is a recipe from the amazing Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. It is from his book "My Bread". Ingredients  3 3/4 cups/500 grams Bread Flour 2 1/2 tsp Instant or Active Dry Yeast 3/4 tsp Salt 3/4 tsp Sugar 1 1/3 cups/300 grams Water, at room temperature.  2 Tbsp Olive Oil  Mix all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl, slowly add your water and mix well with a spoon or spatula until well mixed. About 1 minute. Cover and allow to rise for two hours.  Turn it out onto a floured surface and form into a ball and allow to rise for another 30 minutes covered with a damp cloth.  Preheat your oven to 500°F. Once the dough has finished its second proof, oil a half sheet pan well and