mmm-yoso!!!

Recently Consumed and it's that Time Again!

So here's some stuffs that I made recently........

A cumin and five spice crusted halibut...with that Purple Cabbage Slaw.

A Garlic Shrimp Po' Boy.

This one went to the reject pile. It was totally "ma-la" - numbing hot. But the Missus rejected it because it wasn't "red" enough. So it's back to the drawing board with the Chili Oil Won Tons.

Still, it was really spicy....

I still get embarrassed when the Missus requests "spicy tuna". So I sheepishly submit this Spicy Ahi Salad.

If you decide to make this, don't forget the tobiko and the avocado. I served this on mizuna, which added a nice mildly bitter counter-point to the dish.

And finally........

Tommy from Catalina Offshore recommended some fresh sardines, which had just come in that morning. The timing of which is excellent. It's that time again. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the Missus and I will be on our way to our next destination(s). So where are we going? Well, the photo leaves a clue.

I'll try to post once in a while while we're gone, but until then, everything is in the fine hands of Cathy!

Thanks for reading!

Guai Wei Yu - Strange Flavor Fish (怪味鱼)

In keeping with the Missus' wish to never have the same fish dish for more than two or three times (there are exceptions of course) I have to keep coming up with various preparations, most of which include some kind of sauce. I'll readily admit that sometimes my answer to the Missus's, "why don't you make something good for a change" can be a hard sell. This one is a good example. I've been missing Chinese flavors, so looking at the nice piece of halibut, I thought why not guai-wei, also known as "strange flavor", but probably even more well known as the flavoring for a popular Sichuan dish called "Bang Bang Chicken"......bang bang ji si. It's basically a combination of "fish flavored" (yu xiang - 鱼香), sesame paste, and Sichuan Peppercorns.

To the Missus this seemed like heresy, She had never heard of such a preparation using fish....but I've made guai wei ji si in the days when the Missus used to eat chicken. Still, She really doubted that I could pull this off.........

In the end, She loved it....well, She loved the sauce. You talk about the classic suan-tian-ku-la-xian, the sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty metaphor for a flavorful, yet balanced dish the Chinese use.

The fish was prepared in typical Chinese fashion. The basic marinade step for the fish is simple:

2 Tb Shaoxing Wine
2 Tb Grated Ginger
White Pepper

Combine and let fish sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile the strange flavor sauce:

3 Tb Chinese sesame paste, mixed well
1 tsp sesame oil
2-3 Tb Chili Oil
1 tsp ground, toasted Sichuan Peppercorns
2 Tb Premium Light Soy Sauce
1 Tb sugar
Salt to taste
water or peanut oil to thin out the sauce

- Combine the first 6 ingredients, mixing well until the sugar is dissolved
- Add oil or water if the sauce is too thick
- Taste and adjust flavors, add salt if desired

I then dust the fish with potato starch and pan fry. Spoon on the sauce, garnish with scallions, cilantro, sesame seeds and some really spicy red chilies.

Drizzle with more chili oil.

I served this with Jinan style purple cabbage slaw on some mizuna.

I lived to cook another day.........

 

Smacked Cucumbers - Pai Huang Gua (派黄瓜)

It's really feeling like record heat isn't it? For some reason, I enjoy dishes like this, called Smacked Cucumber because you smack the cucumbers with the flat of a cleaver a couple of times before cutting. The sauce is that wonderful combination of sour-salty-sweet-spicy-numbing that I find refreshing.

Fuchsia Dunlop has a nice version in her latest book, Every Grain of Rice. I enjoy a bit more of everything, but the recipe in the book is a nice place to start. Even though it might not seem so; the version I made this evening has 6 cloves of garlic, which I grated into a paste. Because there's so much flavor, you may not notice just how much garlic is in this until after your meal.....garlic breath, the gift that keeps on giving. I also cut down on the normal 1:1 ratio of sugar to vinegar because the Missus enjoys this less sweet.

You can cut the cucumber whichever way you choose, either into quarters or use rolling cuts....I just do whichever I feel like. This is more than enough sauce for a pound of cucumbers....I just tend to like more sauce, which you can actually save and use for another batch.

Smacked Cucumbers - Pai Huang Gua:

1 pound Persian or Japanese Cucumbers
1 Tb salt
4 tsp Chinkiang Black Vinegar
2 tsp Sugar
2 Tb Chili Oil
4 tsp Premium Soy Sauce
1 tsp ground toasted Sichuan Peppercorns
2-6 cloves garlic minced

- Smack cucumbers with the flat of a cleaver to loosen and tenderize the flesh
- Slice/chop cucumbers as desired, salt and let rest for 10-15 minutes in the refrigerator (I like this chilled)
- Meanwhile combine the last six ingredients until sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust flavoring.
- Drain cucumbers and pour sauce over and mix. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Eat!

There you go......

Some days you just don't feel like cooking......

Man was the weather nice today......too nice to be cooking. Plus, I've been busy at work so I was a bit too lazy to cook.

So why not have something like this for dinner on a warm evening......

From left to right; nem chua, speck with blue cheese and whole grain mustard, truffle pate, head cheese with cucumber, and tongue and red leaf butter lettuce with whole grain mustard.

Don't kid yourself. Two or three rounds of this with a couple of nice saisons and you'll be full and happy.

I know I was.

I could have used some pickles or something with a bit of acid and maybe some red onion for some pungency, but I really wasn't complaining. Loved the head cheese and the tongue with mustard is nice. We were surprised at how sweet the new chua, a gift from a friend's mom was when lined up with items that are more salty.

This was all we wanted, and really, all we needed tonight.

Here's wishing a happy Friday to you all!

Recently Consumed

Here's some stuff we recently ate at home.

Man, it was almost like summer there for a couple of weeks, wasn't it? Last weekend, I really didn't feel like cooking so I dropped by Con Pane for some baguette and Bristlol Farm for some Truffle Mousse. Combine that with some Blue and Gorgonzola Cheese, vegetables, olives, and a nice Saison........

The next night,  the Missus wanted Ebi-don. I thought it was a bit too hot for that. The Missus got Her rice bowl, I made myself an Ebi-Furai sandwich using the rest of the baguette, vegetables, and I even made some Russian-ish dressing.

Tommy Gomes at Catalina Offshore is a great guy. He's really funny in a gruff kind of way....but we all know he's a pussycat, right? Anyway, he's always making recommendations of new stuff to try, like this.

The problem was....what to make? This screamed for crab claw cocktails, but that seemed like the easy way out. I thought of doing something like my Smoked Portobello Mushroom with Crab, Avocado, and Smoked Corn salad, but there was no corn to be had.

In the end, I did kind of take the easy way out, making a very basic Sherry Wine Vinaigrette for a chopped salad of sorts.

This is one of few times it would be appropriate to bring a hammer to he dinner table with you....

I'm not sure what's up today. It's sort of the "May-grey" a couple of weeks early. Wasn't quite sure what to do with some halibut I got today. The Missus was craving Mok Pa, so why not. It tasted much better than it looked.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Recently Consumed

Here's a nother round-up of what's been cooking in the mmm-yoso household.

The Missus is into Her smoked salmon again, so I've been smoking salmon just about every week.

What I've been doing is trimming off the belly portion of the salmon......Catalina Offshore has had some really nice Scottish Salmon recently. I'll cut the belly lengthwise, season with salt and pepper, dust with potato starch and fry......

I've done this a couple of times already....it's really wonderful. Rich, yet rather mild in flavor.....

Here's a Turkish Spiced Halibut, Crisp Roasted Eggplant, Pickled Vegetables and Afghan Chatni.

Here's Pan Fried Dover Sole with Potato Pancakes and Creme Fraiche - Caper Sauce.

Coming right off surf and turf night, I got another shot in before Bristol Farms Wagyu Beef sale ended.

And from our meatball section......I made those combination ground lamb- ground veal kofte again:

Last night I saw some uncased merguez meat, so we decided to try making merguez kofte, which were delicious.

So that's the round-up.

Happy Easter!

Surf and Turf Thursday.......

I think I've mentioned that the one really big change in the last year was that the Missus really enjoys shopping for food now....She has no problem heading over to Catalina Offshore during the week, or Bristol Farm, or Whole Paycheck. It makes life kind of interesting. Especially when I'm given a bunch of ingredients to fold into a meal. Tonight is a good example..........

So here's a bunch of stuff to make a week (work) night dinner.

So what do we have? From top to bottom, horseradish, duck fat, sunchokes, and a piece of Wagyu New York steak.

So what to make? I took the easy way out......I roasted off root vegetables, including the sunchokes, along with purple potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and whole cloves of garlic, in a combo duck fat-grapeseed oil, and made a duck fat vinaigrette to top it off. Sort of like the Roasted Parsnips and Kabocha with Caper Dressing.

Cook time I estimated about 40-45 minutes, so first thing I did was clean some shrimp. We always have shrimp on hand, it can make for a nice meal just about anytime.

I then made a horseradish sauce, which I thought could be used for both the shrimp and the steak.

Mince shallots, grate garlic, add shrimp, salt, pepper, Smoked Spanish Paprika, Thyme, Oregano, and a touch of Grapeseed oil and marinate the shrimp for a bit.

Season the steak, sear off.......let rest......

Vegetables finished roasting, turn off the heat, add vinaigrette, mix, and leave in warm oven.....

Saute shrimp using the Big Kahuna, which takes literally two minutes. Total time, just north of an hour.

Plate up and eat. It's surf and turf Thursday....

And I've survived to cook another day........

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Shrimp with Indonesian Style Glaze

I've actually mentioned this sauce/glaze in previous posts. I've used it as a sauce for chicken wings, fish, salad dressing, almost anything that you can glaze, if you can deal with just a touch of heat. I think the Missus really enjoyed it the most when used here:

I'm sure you know how to quickly saute shrimp, right? So, I don't think I really have to go over that. This glaze is super easy, the only items you may....or maybe you do have in your pantry is Kecap Manis and Sambal Olek. Not the Chinese/Vietnamese plastic bottled Sambal, but the stuff from Indonesia.

It's really easy stuff.

Indonesian Style Glaze/Sauce:
1/4 cup Kecap Manis
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 fresh squeezed lime juice
2 TB ginger juice
5 cloves of garlic grated/finely minced
2 Tb Sambal Olek
zest of 1 lime
dash of white pepper

- Combine all items, sample and adjust to your taste

The longer the sauce sits, the better it tastes, if left overnight it also gets a bit more spicy.

The shrimp we used for this is wild Mexican Shrimp from Catalina Offshore. We saute quickly in a neutral oil and add some coconut oil for a nice little hint of coconut flavor.

Shrimp:
2/3 lb 21-25 shrimp deveined with tail left on
1 shallot minced
2 Tb Shaoxing wine
dash of white pepper

5-6 Tb canola or grapeseed oil
1 Tb coconut oil
cilantro
sesame seeds

- Combine the first 4 items and let sit for 15 minutes
- Heat a pan over high heat
- Add oil
- Saute shrimp until just about cooked - do not overcook
- Remove from heat
- Add 1/2 cup of glaze and coat shrimp
- Arrange on plate and top with sesame seeds and cilantro

Easy to pull off, especially on a weeknight.

Recently Consumed

Just a quick post of what we've been eating at home recently.

We recently bought a Himalayan Salt Block, so we've been playing around with it.

The best thing so far has been heating up the block and quickly searing some thin sliced Wagyu Beef....too long on the block means some really salty stuff.

The Missus is still lovin' Her fish....here's a Pan Fried Hake with Dilled Vegetables and Marsala Mushrooms.

But the Missus's newest thing is having me make kebabs and kofte. Here's a Lamb Kebab with Turkish Spices. We also made all the meze as well.

It was quite good. Trying to keep those carbs down, we used butter lettuce to make lettuce cups of a sort.

But the Kofte I made from ground lamb and veal was even better.

Very juicy and tender. I also added thinly sliced eggplant that I roasted in the oven. This came together pretty quick for a nice weeknight dinner.

Here's some Red Cooked Oxtails.

From my old recipe.

Along with some Dried Fried Green Beans, which I hadn't made in a while.

 I've got a couple more dishes, but I think I'll save them for full on recipe posts.

What have you been eating recently?

Recently Consumed

I haven't done one of these for almost a month.....so here's a post for a wet Friday here in San Diego.

I noticed how much was lost when we fried merguez from Whole Paycheck....so trying to get the most out of it, I first pan fried the lamb based sausages, then pan roasted potatoes in the rendered fat from the merguez. Man....this was really good.

Here's an interesting fun experiment.....pinenut crusted halibut.

Man, I wish our broiler worked....I'm sure we'd have gotten some better carmelization. As served, this was so moist....I think the Missus know understands that you can do some nice fish in the oven. The drizzle of black garlic olive oil I made was a nice touch.

Then during the middle of our coldest evenings....we had Oden.

You gotta love those portable butane stoves....I think every household should have one. If just as part of their "disaster kit".

Of course I made too much broth.....adding this to some major laziness means that I availed myself of whatever dried product I had on hand.

So wakame, dried mushroom went in.........there was some tofu in the fridge.....I poached some of the Missus' dandelion greens for some pungent bitterness. But this didn't become complete until I made an omelet with Chinese preserved radish.

I've been kinda lazy the last two nights.....so while I've made stuff the Missus wanted to eat for dinner, I've stuck with making sandwiches for me.

 So last night was beer braised veal bratwurst which I then wrapped in bacon and browned. This was really nice on some sauerkraut seasoned with some oregano over melted Swiss cheese and Dijon Mustard. Some sweet pickled red peppers completed the sandwich. The Missus had a bite and now wants me to have this during the weekend.

Tonight was a simple steak sandwich...after all, I need to use up those rolls.

It was the bed of peppers and onions sauteed with a touch of white balsamic that really made this tasty.

So what have you been made at home recently?