mmm-yoso!!!

Ume Dressing

The Missus was getting tired of Her typical Arugula/green salad, even though I made the vinaigrette from scratch.

So, I decided to start looking thru my cookbooks for some inspiration. This one is from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty More. The recipe uses ume puree....so I went hunting for umeboshi paste and found a couple of different brands. The one that won out; both for intensity and balanced flavor was also the most expensive, $8.99 at Nijiya. Regardless; the Missus loves this sprout salad. I use three different types of sprouts; radish, a milder more conventional (i.e. broccoli) sprout, and something with a bit of peppery boldness - arugula or kale sprouts.

I usually make double this recipe, which is good for four good sized salads - in other words four lunches for the Missus.

It does deviate a bit from the original in Ottolenghi's book; but not greatly. I use more ume paste, less Sesame Oil, freshly ground black pepper, I also use more neutral oil (avocado); and also sneak in agave syrup (of course).

Ume Dressing - Inspired by Ottolenghi's Recipe in Plenty More:

2 Tsp Ume Paste (depending on brand, you may need more)
1 Tb Organic Rice Vinegar
1 Tb Lime Juice - Fresh Squeezed
2 Tb Minced Shallot
1 Tb Soy Sauce - I found the Kikkoman works well in this recipe
1 Tb White Sugar
1 Tsp Agave Syrup
1/4 Tsp Sesame Oil
5 Tb Avocado Oil
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

- Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl and whisk
- Taste and season with salt and pepper

That's it!

To make the salad I mix the base ingredients in a salad bowl - 1 cup shelled edamame, thinly sliced radish and onion (sliced then briefly soaked in cold/ice water to remove the harshness), thinly sliced red cabbage, cilantro leaves, sliced cherry tomatoes, the three sprouts...

I put into a Pyrex container for the Missus and add several more items....what She calls "the good stuff", sliced avocado, cucumber, and either thinly sliced smoked duck or duck prosciutto (we get ours from D'Artangnan). Add a container of the dressing. The Missus adds in a container of roasted sliced almonds and pumpkin seeds.

And we have Her current favorite salad. Which She's been enjoying during the recent heatwaves...….

Basic Mushroom Broth/Stock

Well, the Missus wanted Her Mushroom Risotto again.

And while I've already done a post on the risotto already; I thought I'd go ahead and post my very basic mushroom broth that I use to make the risotto and various mushroom soups and such; it's really simple. It's based on a recipe in the late Charlie Trotter's cookbook - Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home. The recipe is kinda hidden away in one of the soup recipes. There is a difference in the version I make. I use various mushroom trimmings that I freeze; the good stuff; you know chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, etc.....and in the case where the Missus wants a soup or risotto before I hit the two pound mark, I'll supplement with cremini mushrooms. It's a very nice broth.

Anyway, here goes:

Mushroom Broth:

2 Pounds Mushroom Trimmings or Cremini Mushrooms Chopped
3-4 Tb Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 1/2 Quarts Water
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
1 1/2 - 2 Cups Roughly Chopped Onion
1 Bulb of Garlic Chopped
1 Tsp Thyme
1 Tsp Oregano
salt and pepper to taste

- Add mushrooms to a cold stockpot. Turn up heat to medium-high and let sit until the mushrooms start giving up its liquid before stirring
- Add olive oil, garlic, onions, and saute until fragrant
- Add white wine to deglaze (the mushrooms will leave a bit of a "fond" in the pot)
- Add Thyme and Oregano and mix well
- Add Water and bring to a simmer
- Simmer for 2 hours
- Strain broth and add salt and pepper (if desired) to taste

You can freeze the broth - makes about 10-12 cups

We use it for our risotto instead of chicken or any other broth. I will also use it in addition to mushroom soaking liquid and reduce for pasta sauce.

I hope everyone is still doing well!

Have a great...and safe weekend!

Cooking the Book - Vegetarian "Eel" in Sweet and Sour Sauce, Inspired by Land of Fish and Rice

Yes, you read right...."mock eel"....like really. I've found some time to cook a bit recently and am now going to try to make it through those cookbooks I've got stacked on my coffee table. I've often done riffs on Fuchsia Dunlop's recipes. Her cookbooks hold a special place on my shelves. So when her latest cookbook Land of Fish and Rice was announced, I pre-ordered it.

Being married to someone from China and working with several others, I've noticed something quite interesting; the Missus's Shandong cum Hunan lineage struggles with the sweet flavors of Su-Cai and similar cuisines. As does our former coworker "Lily" who is from Shanxi. Meanwhile "YZ" can't deal with "Yang Rou"....and so one and so forth. Me? I love it all. So while I'm tempted to go for the Dong Po Rou, the Missus wasn't having any of that. While paging through, I found a rather simple recipe that caught my atttention it's called Vegetarian "eels" in Sweet-and-Sour Sauce in the book. I was mainly interested because the recipe didn't use tofu; which would probably have been the easy out. Instead, dried shiitake mushrooms were used.

Of course I adjusted the recipe to suit our (the Missus's) taste, upping the Chinkiang vinegar and soy sauce, adding a bit of five spice, mushroom soaking liquid, and a chili for some heat. And of course, using the Big Kahuna which cut the cooking time to mere minutes. The dish is best made in small batches. Also, do a good job of "scattering" the mushroom while deep frying, otherwise they tend to stick together.

The Missus really enjoys this; the sweet-salty-sour-savory components go together well.

Vegetarian "Eel" in Sweet and Sour Sauce:

10-12 dried Shiitake Mushrooms
About one-fourth of a good sized red bell pepper
About one-fourth of a good sized green bell pepper
Three thin slices of ginger
One medium sized red serrano pepper
Hot Water

2-3 Tb Potato Starch
1/4 tsp Five Spice Powder

2 cups peanut oil for deep frying

1 Tb Shaoxing wine
2 Tb strained mushroom soaking liquid

The Sauce:
1 Tb Shaoxing
3 Tb sugar
3 Tb Chinkiang vinegar
3 Tb light soy sauce
2 Tb strained mushroom soaking liquid

1/2 tsp Dark Soy Sauce (you may also want to try Mushroom Soy Sauce)
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

- Soak the mushroom in hot water for 20-30 minutes
- Slice bell peppers into thin strips. Julienne the ginger. Cut the serrano pepper in half, remove seeds than cut into strips.
- Remove mushrooms from the soaking liquid, squeeze out excess liquid, remove stems and cut into strips.
- Strain 4Tb of the mushroom liquid
- Combine sauce ingredients until sugar is dissolved
- Combine mushroom slices with potato starch and five spice until coated
- Heat oil and scatter the mushroom, you may need to do in two batches. Fry until slightly crisp and remove from the oil
- Remove all but about 3-4 tb of oil and heat until nearly smoking
- Add peppers into the hot oil and stir fry
- Add Shaoxing, mushroom liquid, and ginger and stir fry until fragrant
- Add the mushroom back into the wok, add the sauce and stir fry until coated.
- Remove from heat and add dark soy sauce and sesame oil. Mix well.

Neua Nam Tok

After having Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao for breakfast, the Missus thought having Nam Tok for lunch would be the perfect thing. And it was.....

Like the Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao, this recipe was based on the one in Andy Ricker's Pok Pok cookbook. And just like the previous recipe, I made some adjustments for our taste; replacing the white sugar (we still used a bit) with palm sugar, using Thai Chilies instead of just ground chilies, since we had some growing in the yard. I also replaced the shallots with thinly sliced red onion.

The Missus really loved this. I'm thinking that there were several factors involved; first, we used grassfed wagyu skirt....'nuff said. Second, the recipe in the book mentions the use of 1 tablespoon of beef stock. What did was pour all the beef drippings into the "dressing". Third, I grilled over hardwood charcoal.

I believed this was going to turn out well, but the Missus shocked me when She said "this is better than Sab E Lee....."

The recipe format might seem a bit disjointed, but I thought I'd present it in the order I did things....

Neua Nam Tok:

Salad Prep:
1/4 cup small mint leaves
1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro coarsely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic sliced thinly lengthwise

Steak Prep:
1 Tb lemongrass thinly sliced
4-5 black peppercorns
1 clove garlic
1 Thai chili
3 tsp soy sauce
1/2 lb skirt steak

- Combine lemongrass, black peppercorns, garlic, and chili in a mortar and pound to a paste
- Scrape to a bowl, combine with soy sauce, and work into the steak.
- Marinate for an hour
- Grill the steak
- While steak is resting put together the dressing

The sauce/dressing:
3 Tb lime juice
3-4 Tb fish Sauce
2 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp white sugar
4-5 Thai Chilies thinly sliced
1 tsp ground chilies
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
Beef Drippings

- Combine the first six ingredients and briefly heat to dissolve the sugar
- Remove from heat and add in onion and beef drippings

Putting it together:
2 tsp toasted rice powder
lettuce or cabbage

- Slice beef thinly on a bias against the grain place on a plate and sprinkle on half the rice powder
- Top with the dressing and sprinkle on the rest of the rice powder

Eat!

I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun with this cookbook......

Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao and a visit to Minh Huong Market

I finally had some time off this past weekend. It has been a busy and stressful couple of weeks and it ain't over by any stretch of the imagination. Things are starting normalize as I finally got a chance to enjoy a couple of cookbooks that arrived during that period which I hadn't had the chance to open. So during the weekend, the one I opened first was Andy Ricker's Pok Pok. I've eaten at Pok Pok in PDX a couple of times and really enjoyed the food, which really did remind me of what came out of all those wonderful street stands in Thailand.

 A couple of recipes jumped out at me and I decided to start with an easy one for breakfast the next day, the Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao.

Free range ground chicken, organic eggs, and greens and peppers from our garden.

One of the main ingredients in this dish is the kaphrao...."Hot" Basil, also known as Holy Basil. So early Sundya morning I headed off to Minh Huong Market and got some Holy Basil.

The recipes are quite precise; even though I deviated to our tastes, I appreciated the gram based measurements.

I've taken to measuring things fairly well nowadays and I basically changed a couple of things to fit our tastes and what we had in our pantry. More garlic, more fish sauce, more chilies, which didn't over-power the dish at all. The long beans looked terrible so we decided not to buy any. In terms of timing; in the book, the chef cooks his eggs first and places them on the side while doing the rest of the dish, making this a basic one-wok process. I prepped and completed the stir-fry portion up to the point of adding the hot basil, then started on the eggs....I also added some coconut oil for cooking as well. Once the eggs were almost done, I put the wok back on the flame, heated and added the basil to finish.

This turned out real well though the Missus told me She prefers regular Thai Basil in this.......

Kai Kaphrao Khai Dao

12 ounces ground chicken
3 Tb Fish Sauce
2 Tb Dark Soy Sauce
3 Tsp white sugar
3 Tb grated garlic
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
6 Thai Chilies sliced
2 Red Serrano Chilies thinly sliced
3 dried chilies crumbled
2 Cups loosely packed Hot (Holy) Basil
2 Tb grapeseed oil

3 Eggs
2 Tb grapeseed oil
1 Tb coconut oil

- Combine fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Mix to dissolve the sugar
- Heat the wok over high heat. When the oil is smoking remove it from heat, add the garlic and stir quickly.
- When the garlic starts to brown slightly, place back on the heat and add the onions and fresh chilies. Stir until fragrant.
- Add the chicken and stir fry, breaking up the ground chicken.
- When the chicken is almost done, add the fish sauce mixture and dried chilies, and combine well
- After about 30 seconds add the dark soy sauce - 1Tb first, until the color is right.
- Stir fry until the liquid has been completely absorbed by the meat.
- Start eggs in grapeseed and coconut oil
- When eggs are almost done as desired, put wok back on heat and mix in hot basil

Serve up with Jasmine Rice.....makes about 2-3 servings

Every once in a while I'll get an email asking where to get items like Holy Basil or Cha Om.

My usual recommendation is that they check out Minh Huong Supermarket.

Even if you're not looking for anything in particular and are in the general vicinity, drop by.....

You'll see some items you won't find in your local neighborhood Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean market. On this day we saw some young women with Thanaka, the distinctive Burmese cosmetic paste applied to their faces. Something I'd never seen in San Diego.

Minh Huong Supermarket
4029 Euclid Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

 

 

Playing with my food - using Tapioca Maltodextrin: Sesame - Salt Powder

Though I love food...both consuming and cooking; once in a while I kind of hit a rut and need a little change of pace. I don't remember where I first about Tapioca Maltodextrin and its effect as a fat stabilizer. I'm sure it wasn't in Modernist Cuisine at Home which I bought last year. And looking through it. Maltodextrin is only mentioned in two recipes and barely in passing. I do recall seeing something, perhaps on Youtube where an olive oil powder was made. Anyway, a couple of months ago I bought Modernist Cooking Made Easy, which had a short chapter on Maltodextrin. It just seemed like fun.....plus Maltodextrin is plant derived and a pretty common food starch. First I cleared things with the Missus who has a Masters in Chemistry, then I went ahead and ordered a pound.

Getting to the point; tapioca maltodextrin can turn fats and oils into pastes and powders. For my first try, I decided to use something that we have around the house and use in sparing quantities...sesame oil was an easy choice.

One of things you'll notice right away is that tapioca maltodextrin is lighter than air....so no sneezing....no heavy breathing either. You don't need anything more than a whisk for this one. Using the recipe in Modernist Cooking Made Easy as my reference, it was a simple as this:

Sesame-Salt Powder (based on the recipe in Modernist Cooking Made Easy)
50 grams sesame oil
2 grams kosher salt
25 grams tapioca maltodextrin (this was about 3/4 cup)
extra tapioca maltodextrin as needed

- Pour sesame oil into a large mixing bowl (a large mixing bowl)
- Add salt and mix
- Add 10 grams of tapioca maltordextrin...gently, unless you want clouds of the stuff all over the place
- whisk in until a paste forms. Slowly add the rest of the maltodextrin. It will begin to clump.
- Whisk until it starts to form "beads", you may need to add more maltodextrin to get the texture you want.

Other than a couple of maltodextrin clouds floating about, this was easy.....

It will stay in powder form as long as it doesn't come in contact with liquid...though it lasted a while even when on some poke I made.

There's quite an interesting sensation...ahem, "mouthfeel" when it turns back to oil in your mouth.

It was also delicious on my Hiyayakko Tofu.......

I really didn't detect much in terms of any additional flavor....by itself, there's a very faint sweetness, which I could not detect when using it with my poke or tofu.

Truffle Powdered Popcorn, caramel - salt powder, nutella, and probably duck fat or bacon powder seem around the corner. This will be great for dipping....

This was a fun experiment.....now it's on to Xanthan Gum and Lecithin!

Fish 3 Days, Fish 3 Ways Day 2: Olive Oil Poached White Sea Bass topped with Tapenade

I felt rather triumphant, having exceeded the Missus's expectations....basically pulling a recipe out of my....well, you know where, and making something She really enjoyed. The following day, the Missus sent me a text, telling me She, "wanted fish made totally differently from anything I've made before....no salt baked, no fried of any kind, no simmered, no baked, no saute, no stew, no pan fry, no stir-fry." No way!!! Not really knowing what to do, I picked up some olives on the way home.....I really don't know why.

I came home and started leafing through some of my cookbooks......some of the recipes were too elaborate to pull off on a weeknight. Until I went through Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore's Fish Without a Doubt. I found a recipe for Oil Poached Halibut with Gribiche. Sauce Gribiche is a classic French sauce, with cornichons, capers, vinegar, and such. Think of it as an unemulsified tartar sauce if you will....though I've come across recent versions of Gribiche that has been blended and it really did seem to be tartar sauce. Instead of that route, I used the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and basically made my tapenade minus the anchovies and artichoke hearts.

The fish itself was pretty simple......the one item being, even though I used the tiniest cast iron pan I had, we ended up using quite a bit of olive oil for this. Still it came out rather well.

There are just four ingredients needed to prepare the fish:

Fish
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

- Salt and pepper fish filets and let sit for 45 minutes
- Heat oven to 175 or the lowest temp. Our circa 1959 oven's lowest is called "low" and bottoms out at 190 according to the oven thermometer
- Place fish in skillet/pan and add enough oil to cover. Remove fish and set aside.
- Place pan in oven and heat oil to about 125 degrees. I could still place my finger in the oil and it just felt hot.....you may just want to use a thermometer though. I don't want anyone coming after me after burning their finger!
- Add fish back to pan, cover (I used aluminum foil), and place in oven. Check after 15 minutes to make sure oil is not too hot....i.e. no deep fry action going, just a mild poach.
- Check after 20-25 minutes.I use a very sharp paring knife and insert into the fish. If it goes in cleanly, almost with resistance the fish is done, or will be done by the time you get in on the plate. White Sea Bass is pretty dense. This took about 35 minutes.
- Remove fish, blot dry, and serve.

The fish is very moist...almost melting away in my mouth. The flavors are mild. Texturally, this didn't do it for the Missus, even with the tapenade. It was a nice experience for Her.....even though She probably won't want me to make fish this way again, at least She tried it.

As we took care of the dishes after dinner, She turned to me and asked, "so what are you going to do with the halibut for tomorrow night? I want something really good.......something with mushrooms!" Stay tuned for the finale!

Sometimes it just doesn't work out: Ottolenghi's Marinated Sweet & Sour Fish

Not everything we make, even if it's made exactly as the recipe is written works out, or is even to our taste. Of course, I've mentioned how much we enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks as evidenced in previous posts. The dude has some great vegetarian recipes and also seems to have a serious egg fetish. And you know me....I love my drippy eggs, right?

On the other hand, I've been a bit leary of the meat and especially fish recipes in his latest book, Jerusalem. But the Missus was taken with the Marinated Sweet & Sour Fish recipe from the book.. It had all the great ingredients we enjoy...the peppers, the harissa, coriander seeds, garlic, tomatoes......

And I took the Missus to Catalina Offshore getting some really nice halibut.....

I did think the recipe bit odd. You basically saute all the vegetables. Then fry the fish in an egg batter, then place the fish in the ragout to finish in the oven. For me, it really got odd when the book recommended you eat this the next day.....at room temperature. I mean, you've created a pretty hard barrier, via the egg batter....would any of the flavor permeate the fish which is simply seasoned with salt? It was strange enough that I followed the recipe to the letter....even doing the steps I usually change around from the book, like not blooming, in this case, the curry powder in oil for more flavor. I even held off and used only two cloves of garlic, crushed. I will say that the dish really did look like the photo in the book.

With nothing to really do the next day; I just made a simple tomato-lettuce salad with a white balsamic vinaigrette and roasted some baby eggplant and small white potatoes in the oven.

The dish was nothing if not bright and vibrant looking.

Man....compared to other dishes I've made from the book; this was pretty bland. The batter from the fish had become mushy....really not a great texture. The flavor of the vegetables was all over the map....a combo sour-curry-coriander, not bad, but just kind of weak.

So no recipe on this one......

I do always say to adjust recipes to your taste, his time I didn't. Get the book though....try out the recipe, just because we didn't care for the flavors doesn't mean you won't like it. I will say, that I found this to be a bit fussy, with maybe too many steps.

The one great thing.....I managed to show the Missus what I like when buying fish...the sheen, etc.... Catalina Offshore has often been problematic because of their hours. But now, the Missus enjoys dropping by and picking up fish for dinner.

Remember that shakshuka recipe from the same book (adjusted a bit of course)? Well, I made the peppers and tomato portion as before. Then seasoned some nice halibut with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, oregano, granulated garlic, then finally some cumin powder to tie it to the vegetable concoction and used it as a relish or salsa if you will. I'm thinking the recipe above might have been great done this way.

This was a really nice dinner........

Pan fried halibut on spicy red bell pepper-tomato relish, with some shaved kale and purple cabbage salad and oven roasted potatoes and eggplant. It's amazing what you can make on a weeknight if you have a plan!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Guajillo Adobo Grilled Chicken

The Missus has noted that I really don't do many Mexican inspired dishes, so I figured why not do something for the grill on this lazy Sunday. A recent impulse buy at Northgate Market were some Guajillo Chilies, which are quite common in many recipes.

I decided to do something simple from Roberto Santibanez's cookbook,  Truly Mexican. There's a recipe for a Guajillo based adobo that sounded like it would be great with chicken and there is indeed a recipe for grilled chicken using this sauce a few pages later in the book. As I usually would do, I initially followed the recipe, which means that several steps that I'd usually take were bypassed; I didn't use the chili soaking liquid for the sauce, nor did I toast the garlic like I'd usually do. When I got the sauce together I tasted it....and though the smokiness of the peppers came through, along with the mild tart-puckeriness, I ended up adjusting to our taste by adding a whole bulb of garlic and twice the amount of apple cider vinegar. The flavor was now more complex, but still lacked something......I ended up raiding the Missus's "healthy stash" and using some agave syrup to give it a bit more umph.... Guajillo's aren't especially hot, but don't get fooled there's a mild sneaky heat. The sauce came out a beautiful smokey red......looking like a good barbecue sauce......and with mild spice, smoke, and sweet, you could probably make one with a few adjustments.

The book says a two hour marinade is good enough, but I think more is warranted. Anyway, the chicken still came out nice and was topped with some of the extra sauce. The Missus is going to use the leftover sauce for shrimp, which I think will be quite good.

Adobo de Guajillo
12 Guajillo Chilies - each about 3 1/2/ - 5" long, wiped clean, stemmed, slit open with seeds and veins removed
water
1 cup water
4-8 cloves garlic
3 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp white sugar
2 Tb agave syrup
1 tsp ground cumin
black pepper to taste

- heat a heavy skillet or griddle (I used my cast iron pan) over medium heat
- toast the chilies for a few minutes, pressing down frequently, turning several times until fragrant and the chilies have slight changed color and even blackened in a few spots.
- tear chilies in half and over with water, soak for 30 minutes
- after 30 minutes, drain the chilies
- place chilies along with 1/2 cup water and the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
- add more water as sauce becomes too thick
- make sure to taste and adjust flavor

Pollo Adobado
2 pound chicken thighs
salt
1/2 cup Adobo de Guajillo

- mix all items together in a ziploc bag and marinate for at least 2 hours (I recommend more)

- Grill to your heart's content

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Peperonata

I don't recall seeing peppers priced quite as cheap as in the last few weeks. The abundance of peppers gave me a chance to make another recipe from Molly Stevens All About Braising. Unlike the Lamb Shanks Braised with Lentils and Curry, this one is quite easy. Peperonata is an Italian stewed pepper dish that tastes great on bruschetta or as an antipasto. While we ate most of it on toasted baguette, the only photos I took were as a relish for a simple pan sauteed chicken breast.

 

As always I did ad a couple of things to the recipe, in this case some garlic and dried oregano. Since the amount of peppers I had was closer to the three pound mark, I ended up using 1/2 of olive oil. The anchovies in the recipe add a deep savory and salty background flavor and I loved the addition of balsamic vinegar instead of the usual white wine or red wine vinegar.

Anyway......here's what I did.

Pepperonata:

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 pounds various sweet peppers (do not use green bell peppers) cut into 1/3" strips
1 large onion also cut into strips
2 coves of garlic minced
4 anchovies minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp dry oregano crushed
2 tb balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

- Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat and add red epper flakes.
- Add onions and garlic, stir ocasionally until softened. About five minutes or so.
- Stir in the anchovies, oregano, black pepper and a large pinch of salt.
- Add the peppers and combine. Lower the heat to low and braise.
- Check and stir every 10 - 15 minutes. Lower the heat if the peppers are sticking or getting mushy.
- The peppers should be tender after about 45 minutes or so.
- Remove from heat, add balsamic vinegar and taste. Adjust salt and pepper.
- Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Easy huh?

I'm thinking that you could find numerous uses for this. Add some fresh herbs to serve with antipasto, use it with meats.......