Some people dream of a white Christmas. Won't happen if you live in southern Cal or the Sun belt. Dream on.
I dream of having my own restaurant. I also have a pretty good idea what the restaurant is all about: seafood. Daily fresh seafood, never overcooked, always letting the seafood shine. No refrigeration; everything prepared fresh daily.
The location is also set: close to a harbour where there is year round supply of fishing boats offloading their fresh catch. Again, sun belt or southern Cal. Don't worry. I don't care for a white Christmas. Good seafood is good enough.
The menu: each day we cook up what the fishermen bring in. Ample garlic, onions, peppers and tomatoes. Maybe a paella special so now and then, when the bounty is especially plentiful. A cioppino with fresh tomatoes and garlic. Steaks of firm white fish (butter fish or mahi mahi) on a bed of mixed vegetables drizzled with basil oil. Grilled scampi over rice with a white wine sauce. Diver scallops with lemon caper brown butter. Clams with minced pork noodles. Sauteed mixed seafood over a bed of lettuce. Fried Calamari with home made marinara sauce. Spaghetti Vongole. Oven roasted red snapper, filled with lemon, garlic and thyme, finished with basil oil. Garlic shrimp. Ceviche. Home smoked fish guacamole. Screaming fresh fish crudo. Beet salad with trout. A couple of seafood pizza specials. Baby octopus salad.
I can keep going. Cooking seafood is my passion lately. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea on how to cook some piece of seafood. My prefered protein for dinner. My family's favorite protein. I can cook seafood every day and I'll still see nothing but empty dishes. Very versitile, every cuisine known to men has dynamite seafood methods and recipes.
Of course, everything is accompanied by dill cucumbers, or pickled peppers, or tomato relish. And pommes resolees or yummy wheels (potato tortilla). Maybe Spaghetti pomodore on the kids menu.
A small wine collection, but BYOB encouraged.
I know I am dreaming. Ain't going to happen. I already ran some calculations, and we cannot afford it. Not with two children to save for college and our own retirement plans. Not while living in the same house as we now live.
So dream on, chef Pappa; dream on. May your dream be filled with gorgeous plates of perfectly cooked seafood.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Taking stock
How come your stews taste so creamy and rich? Did you use a lot of butter? (Sound the alarm, quick!!) Just a couple of questions I get a lot. More often than not the answer is:No, don't worry. Those extra pounds you'll gain will not be from my stuff.
The trick is the stock. I am not talking about those evil little cubes with compressed powder. A little disclaimer: I sometimes use the cubes as a cop out, when I'm lazy boned and for that I deserve to administer myself 40 lashes right here and now.
Now, what is stock, you might ask. The easy answer is bones from an animal or fish cooked for so long that all the inherent flavor is in the water. It's also cheap. Bones are the unwanted parts of the animal. We "civilized" people eat the breast from the chicken, maybe the wings (if we have a party) and more often than not we pass on the thights and drum sticks. The stock comes from the carcass and the drum stick bones, if you decide to.
It is also very easy to do. Yes, it takes hours to make, so make a lot on a rainy Sunday and freeze it in little cubes. When you need it, just stir it in... I use chicken bones for stock. Chicken bones make for a nice sweet stock, it is cheap and when you buy a chicken whole, you get the bones for free.
Also very important is a pressure cooker. Otherwise, you'll still be cooking stock when the sun comes out again on your rainy Sunday and you rather be out again. Oh, I'll just turn off the flame and start up again when I'm back. Wrong! The bones will start to harden, the stock will start to taste bitter and become cloudy. Just invest in a pressure cooker, or beg your mum for the one she has. She never cooks with it anyway and it's taking up too much room in her kitchen anyway.
Bones in the pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil uncovered. This will take a while, but it is an important step. When the bones slowly come to a boil, it releases more alumbin. You want to take out all the albumin, because that's what makes the stock cloudy. You want clear stock. You eat with your eyes, no?
When the stock boils, skim off the white stuff and the fat with a ladle or a spoon until the water is clear. Add an onion (quartered with skin), a couple cloves of crushed garlic (with skin), a tomato (quartered), a carrot, a couple sprigs of thyme, parsley and two bay leaves. Clamp the lid on and pressurize the cooker. Cook for 3 or 4 hours and your stock is done. Discard all solids and strain the broth. Congratulations, you just elevated your cooking. Use at will and with reckless abandonment.
To intensify the flavor, I usually reduce the stock until it becomes demi-glace, which is a fancy cooking word for reduced stock. Put your strained stock back in a pot and on high flame cook it down. When the color starts to change to darker brown, your demi is done. This something I usually divide in portions and freeze separately.
Here are some possible applications for the stock:
When you sear meat in a skillet what to do with brown bits on the bottom of the pan? Do not throw away; make a pan sauce. Your meat needs to rest anyway, so you can use the time to make a sauce. Remove the fat, cook in the skillet some mushrooms, garlic and onions, deglaze the pan with a little white wine, add some of your stock and reduce until it thickens. You can add some butter to monter au beurre, but that is not necessary.
When you make a stew, substitute water for your stock. You'll never go back to plain water again.
Adding a little of your stock to stir-fried vegetables make converts from carnivores. First in hot oil stir-fry the aromatics (ginger, scallions, garlic etc). Add the vegetables and stir fry a little bit. Add some of your stock and reduce until it's all evaporated. Plate and watch picky eaters chow!
The trick is the stock. I am not talking about those evil little cubes with compressed powder. A little disclaimer: I sometimes use the cubes as a cop out, when I'm lazy boned and for that I deserve to administer myself 40 lashes right here and now.
Now, what is stock, you might ask. The easy answer is bones from an animal or fish cooked for so long that all the inherent flavor is in the water. It's also cheap. Bones are the unwanted parts of the animal. We "civilized" people eat the breast from the chicken, maybe the wings (if we have a party) and more often than not we pass on the thights and drum sticks. The stock comes from the carcass and the drum stick bones, if you decide to.
It is also very easy to do. Yes, it takes hours to make, so make a lot on a rainy Sunday and freeze it in little cubes. When you need it, just stir it in... I use chicken bones for stock. Chicken bones make for a nice sweet stock, it is cheap and when you buy a chicken whole, you get the bones for free.
Also very important is a pressure cooker. Otherwise, you'll still be cooking stock when the sun comes out again on your rainy Sunday and you rather be out again. Oh, I'll just turn off the flame and start up again when I'm back. Wrong! The bones will start to harden, the stock will start to taste bitter and become cloudy. Just invest in a pressure cooker, or beg your mum for the one she has. She never cooks with it anyway and it's taking up too much room in her kitchen anyway.
Bones in the pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil uncovered. This will take a while, but it is an important step. When the bones slowly come to a boil, it releases more alumbin. You want to take out all the albumin, because that's what makes the stock cloudy. You want clear stock. You eat with your eyes, no?
When the stock boils, skim off the white stuff and the fat with a ladle or a spoon until the water is clear. Add an onion (quartered with skin), a couple cloves of crushed garlic (with skin), a tomato (quartered), a carrot, a couple sprigs of thyme, parsley and two bay leaves. Clamp the lid on and pressurize the cooker. Cook for 3 or 4 hours and your stock is done. Discard all solids and strain the broth. Congratulations, you just elevated your cooking. Use at will and with reckless abandonment.
To intensify the flavor, I usually reduce the stock until it becomes demi-glace, which is a fancy cooking word for reduced stock. Put your strained stock back in a pot and on high flame cook it down. When the color starts to change to darker brown, your demi is done. This something I usually divide in portions and freeze separately.
Here are some possible applications for the stock:
When you sear meat in a skillet what to do with brown bits on the bottom of the pan? Do not throw away; make a pan sauce. Your meat needs to rest anyway, so you can use the time to make a sauce. Remove the fat, cook in the skillet some mushrooms, garlic and onions, deglaze the pan with a little white wine, add some of your stock and reduce until it thickens. You can add some butter to monter au beurre, but that is not necessary.
When you make a stew, substitute water for your stock. You'll never go back to plain water again.
Adding a little of your stock to stir-fried vegetables make converts from carnivores. First in hot oil stir-fry the aromatics (ginger, scallions, garlic etc). Add the vegetables and stir fry a little bit. Add some of your stock and reduce until it's all evaporated. Plate and watch picky eaters chow!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What's for dinner - Salad again?
Our dinner modus operandi has changed quite a bit. Everybody used to eat the same thing, but now more times than not I cook separately for the grown ups. In most families the usual pattern is that the kids eat something simple while the grown ups eat more elaborate and difficult food. So call us counter-culture: the kids eat their rice with 2 or 3 stir fry dishes, while the grown ups pick on a salad. We both do not want to eat much at dinner anymore, so a salad is for us a good choice.
Enter the challenge: Make the ordinary salad into something the troops want to eat. It took me a little to get warmed up to the salad thing. Rabbit food was the term I used for salads. Also, salads are the afterthought in most restaurants; they make them hours in advance and serve them straight out of the cooler. Forget about tasting any ingredient, it's so cold, it is like eating ice cream.
To take the salad out of the rabbit food category, we need to get beyond the Caesar salad or the thoughtless house salad and treat them as an entree. So that means proper techniques: each ingredient roughly the same size, all ingredients at room temperature or warmer, dressing added at the last moment to prevent soggyness. Do not forget proper plating. Take a flat plate, pile the salad in a nice mountain and add the toppings over it. Food goes in your mouth, but you eat with your nose and your eyes.
I said this in an earlier post and I still stand by that: do not serve the dressing on the side. This means your eaters need to toss their own dressing, leaving some parts raw and some parts oversaturated. You don't want raw food, you want a nice balanced salad, Your dressing is the binding agents in your salad; it ties the whole thing together.
Finally: use your hands to toss the salad. Tongs or other tools bruise the lettuce leaves and that does not look appealing. Also your hands give you much more control over mixing all ingredients together to ensure proper coating.
I think I have a couple of winners assembled. I will share them with you:
Insalata Milanese
A classic italian salad: Onions, pear and spinach with a pear vinaigrette topped with gorgonzola and toasted walnuts or almonds.
Blend a pear with red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, dried oregano, fresh parsly and olive oil. Strain the vinaigrette to get rid off the pear seeds and hard parts.
Sliver white onions and a pear. Toss with a little vinaigrette. Add baby spinach leaves to the bowl and toss with more dressing. Plate with crumbled gorgonzola and toasted walnuts.
Currently ranked number 1 on our household.
Avocado and fish with citrus dressing
For the fish I use either talapia or flounder, but any white fish does well. I slice the fish thin, and marinade in a little lime juice, olive oil, onions and garlic. Stir fry over high heat until the fish is seared and done.
For the dressing use lime zest, cilantro, lime juice and olive oil. Combine and season well. Should be citrusy and tangy.
Toss spring mix with this dressing. Plate with slices of ripe avocado and top with the warm fish... Money in the bank...
Spring mix and orange salad
Orange zest, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, honey (optional and according to taste), olive oil and salt and pepper. That's the dressing.
Toss spring mix with this dressing and plate with orange parts and crumbled blue cheese or almond slivers.
Fresh, brightness of the oranges, and the richness of balsamic vinegar dressing. Every day is like spring with this salad..
Honey , it's chicken, salad
When I grill chicken breast, we usually have some leftovers. Perfect for this salad. Slice the chicken nice and thin.
Make a honey mustard dressing: honey, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil. Season and emulsify. It should be thick like a sauce, and not sweet and not sour and not mustardy. It takes a couple tries to get the exact balance, but then you're off to the races.
Toss spring mix (frisee or lambs ear works well too)with the dressing, toss in some tomatoes for good measure and plate with the chicken. And, please give the chicken some of that dressing too.
Honey-mustard dressing is my favorite. Easy to make and always good.
As always, the moment it gets back to tasting like rabbit food, I'll try something new, but for now salads rule in our household.
Happy eating and keep the crunch going.
Enter the challenge: Make the ordinary salad into something the troops want to eat. It took me a little to get warmed up to the salad thing. Rabbit food was the term I used for salads. Also, salads are the afterthought in most restaurants; they make them hours in advance and serve them straight out of the cooler. Forget about tasting any ingredient, it's so cold, it is like eating ice cream.
To take the salad out of the rabbit food category, we need to get beyond the Caesar salad or the thoughtless house salad and treat them as an entree. So that means proper techniques: each ingredient roughly the same size, all ingredients at room temperature or warmer, dressing added at the last moment to prevent soggyness. Do not forget proper plating. Take a flat plate, pile the salad in a nice mountain and add the toppings over it. Food goes in your mouth, but you eat with your nose and your eyes.
I said this in an earlier post and I still stand by that: do not serve the dressing on the side. This means your eaters need to toss their own dressing, leaving some parts raw and some parts oversaturated. You don't want raw food, you want a nice balanced salad, Your dressing is the binding agents in your salad; it ties the whole thing together.
Finally: use your hands to toss the salad. Tongs or other tools bruise the lettuce leaves and that does not look appealing. Also your hands give you much more control over mixing all ingredients together to ensure proper coating.
I think I have a couple of winners assembled. I will share them with you:
Insalata Milanese
A classic italian salad: Onions, pear and spinach with a pear vinaigrette topped with gorgonzola and toasted walnuts or almonds.
Blend a pear with red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, dried oregano, fresh parsly and olive oil. Strain the vinaigrette to get rid off the pear seeds and hard parts.
Sliver white onions and a pear. Toss with a little vinaigrette. Add baby spinach leaves to the bowl and toss with more dressing. Plate with crumbled gorgonzola and toasted walnuts.
Currently ranked number 1 on our household.
Avocado and fish with citrus dressing
For the fish I use either talapia or flounder, but any white fish does well. I slice the fish thin, and marinade in a little lime juice, olive oil, onions and garlic. Stir fry over high heat until the fish is seared and done.
For the dressing use lime zest, cilantro, lime juice and olive oil. Combine and season well. Should be citrusy and tangy.
Toss spring mix with this dressing. Plate with slices of ripe avocado and top with the warm fish... Money in the bank...
Spring mix and orange salad
Orange zest, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, honey (optional and according to taste), olive oil and salt and pepper. That's the dressing.
Toss spring mix with this dressing and plate with orange parts and crumbled blue cheese or almond slivers.
Fresh, brightness of the oranges, and the richness of balsamic vinegar dressing. Every day is like spring with this salad..
Honey , it's chicken, salad
When I grill chicken breast, we usually have some leftovers. Perfect for this salad. Slice the chicken nice and thin.
Make a honey mustard dressing: honey, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil. Season and emulsify. It should be thick like a sauce, and not sweet and not sour and not mustardy. It takes a couple tries to get the exact balance, but then you're off to the races.
Toss spring mix (frisee or lambs ear works well too)with the dressing, toss in some tomatoes for good measure and plate with the chicken. And, please give the chicken some of that dressing too.
Honey-mustard dressing is my favorite. Easy to make and always good.
As always, the moment it gets back to tasting like rabbit food, I'll try something new, but for now salads rule in our household.
Happy eating and keep the crunch going.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Smoke grilled Pork Chops
"When there's smoke, there's dinner" - Aaron Guidotti 05/31/2011
Smoking your meat. Like the settlers did. Ok, we do not raise our own hogs anymore, and we outsourced the nasty butchering to the professional, but smoking brings us back in time. It's like when you drive a pick up truck, you immediately feel you need to do a project. Yes, you can call the smoking pit the ultimate man cave for cooking inclined males. Where boys learn the ropes from their fathers, and secret family rubs and barbeque sauces are passed down from generations. A fraternity with its own mores and rules.
Well not me. I grew up in a country where summer fell on a Tuesday and it only rains once a year: from January to December. Although I was born in July, my ultimate birth day gift was a barbeque outdoors, and I received it only once during my entire time at home.
Coming to the East Coast meant 6 months of grilling season; I am still catching up and I am not done grilling yet!!
This weekend was pork chops. Safely covered from the hash weather rest my friend the barbeque, Charcoal, mind you, not that propane nonsense. A real apparatus. And yes, I am very proud to have a barbeque. Also, no briquettes and heaven forbid gasoline soaked coals, just the real charcoal. I use a chimney, for Pete's sake. No lighter fluid, just a little vegetable oil on a piece of paper will do just fine: the chimney is a work of art. I prefer charcoal taste over petrol.
Anyway, for this smoking I use a combination of Apple wood and Mesquite wood chips, soaked for a couple of hours to generate an abundance of smoke. Why this combination? Dunno, I guess. The supermarket sold them both and it sounded intriguing... Lady Luck was on my side.
For good smoking stack the glowing coals on one side of the grill, cover them with the woodchips, open up all the vents and let in a draft. When it starts going, you can lay the food on the cold side of the grill. The hot smoke will do most of the cooking.
On with the food stuff. First up the barbeque sauce:
- Grate an onion. Chop two garlic cloves. De-skin and de-seed 3 roma tomatoes
- Sautee onions, garlic and tomatoes for a couple of minutes
- Add water, ketchup, vinegar, red wine, worchestershire sauce, fish sauce, oregano, smoked paprika and sugar. Blend with a stick blender or bar blender until all is smooth
- Cook over low flame until it is much reduced (about the consistency of ketchup)
It should be sweet, sour and salty. Like barbeque sauce :-)
This is my recipe. You can use it at will, or make your own. Does not bother me, I do not have a secret recipes.
On to the pork chops. Buy the bone-in pork chops, because bone equals flavor and when you smoke the pork chops bone side down, the juices stay in the meat making it less likely to dry out.
Season the chops with salt and skewer them together, with room in between the pork chops. This way they stand up better, and smoke can penetrate the chops from all sides.
Smoke the pork chops for 30 minutes until the ouside is smoky brown and the internal temperature is about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove from the grill, and slather on the barbeque sauce. On direct heat grill the pork chops a couple minutes until you have nice grill marks and the internal temperature is 140 degrees.
Remove and rest for at least 5 minutes.
Last tip, you Pit-boss: cook extra. They will ask for seconds...
Smoking your meat. Like the settlers did. Ok, we do not raise our own hogs anymore, and we outsourced the nasty butchering to the professional, but smoking brings us back in time. It's like when you drive a pick up truck, you immediately feel you need to do a project. Yes, you can call the smoking pit the ultimate man cave for cooking inclined males. Where boys learn the ropes from their fathers, and secret family rubs and barbeque sauces are passed down from generations. A fraternity with its own mores and rules.
Well not me. I grew up in a country where summer fell on a Tuesday and it only rains once a year: from January to December. Although I was born in July, my ultimate birth day gift was a barbeque outdoors, and I received it only once during my entire time at home.
Coming to the East Coast meant 6 months of grilling season; I am still catching up and I am not done grilling yet!!
This weekend was pork chops. Safely covered from the hash weather rest my friend the barbeque, Charcoal, mind you, not that propane nonsense. A real apparatus. And yes, I am very proud to have a barbeque. Also, no briquettes and heaven forbid gasoline soaked coals, just the real charcoal. I use a chimney, for Pete's sake. No lighter fluid, just a little vegetable oil on a piece of paper will do just fine: the chimney is a work of art. I prefer charcoal taste over petrol.
Anyway, for this smoking I use a combination of Apple wood and Mesquite wood chips, soaked for a couple of hours to generate an abundance of smoke. Why this combination? Dunno, I guess. The supermarket sold them both and it sounded intriguing... Lady Luck was on my side.
For good smoking stack the glowing coals on one side of the grill, cover them with the woodchips, open up all the vents and let in a draft. When it starts going, you can lay the food on the cold side of the grill. The hot smoke will do most of the cooking.
On with the food stuff. First up the barbeque sauce:
- Grate an onion. Chop two garlic cloves. De-skin and de-seed 3 roma tomatoes
- Sautee onions, garlic and tomatoes for a couple of minutes
- Add water, ketchup, vinegar, red wine, worchestershire sauce, fish sauce, oregano, smoked paprika and sugar. Blend with a stick blender or bar blender until all is smooth
- Cook over low flame until it is much reduced (about the consistency of ketchup)
It should be sweet, sour and salty. Like barbeque sauce :-)
This is my recipe. You can use it at will, or make your own. Does not bother me, I do not have a secret recipes.
On to the pork chops. Buy the bone-in pork chops, because bone equals flavor and when you smoke the pork chops bone side down, the juices stay in the meat making it less likely to dry out.
Season the chops with salt and skewer them together, with room in between the pork chops. This way they stand up better, and smoke can penetrate the chops from all sides.
Smoke the pork chops for 30 minutes until the ouside is smoky brown and the internal temperature is about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove from the grill, and slather on the barbeque sauce. On direct heat grill the pork chops a couple minutes until you have nice grill marks and the internal temperature is 140 degrees.
Remove and rest for at least 5 minutes.
Last tip, you Pit-boss: cook extra. They will ask for seconds...
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Taiwan Road Trip: Yen su gi
Fried chicken comes in many forms. Southern style fried chicken calls for marinating overnight in butter milk and a whole collection of spices, battered in flour and fried in a skillet where temperature control is paramount. Golden brown, crispy skinned and moist on the inside. I tried to make that a couple times. Sometimes I wished my mother was a southern house wife, so I know from very early age how to make fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy and other southern classics. Well, than I wouldn't know how to cook Indonesian or the other things my mother taught me how to cook. You can't win 'em all, I guess.
Anyone who has spend some time in the Carribean also knows their version of fried chicken. Or fried pork, or fried fish for that matter. Best enjoyed with rice&beans and fried plantain outside where you feel the Carribean see breeze coming in. You feel a completely different person when done eating. Primary reason why every Carribean stay is at least a 5 pound vacation for me.
And then there is the Taiwanese version: Yen Su Gi. Typical night market food. Chicken conveniently served in a paper bag, fried together with basil, which gives it a sweet and herby aroma and sprinkled with a special salt, which is only sold by a limited number of suppliers and is not available in any grocery store. Talking about garding a trade, eh?
It is my Taiwan obsession: every trip I beg and I plead until I get my fix. I remember last trip coming down from the Alisan mountain, edgy from driving in thick fog, my nerves could finally settle with a bag full of Yen su gi. Comfort snack food like only fried chicken can.
Most formal sit down dinners I completely forget, but I remember where I had Yen su gi, I remember where I had Beef noodle soup and I also remember where I had oyster omelet. And yes, mostly it is from side walk food cards while driving in the Taiwan countryside, or small eateries in crowed places somewhere in Taipei or Tainan.
Funny how most memories of Taiwan evolve around come type of comforting snack food. But on the other end, what do you expect from this Formosa Island where everybody knows their food, talks about food and consumes it with delight and joy?
Anyone who has spend some time in the Carribean also knows their version of fried chicken. Or fried pork, or fried fish for that matter. Best enjoyed with rice&beans and fried plantain outside where you feel the Carribean see breeze coming in. You feel a completely different person when done eating. Primary reason why every Carribean stay is at least a 5 pound vacation for me.
And then there is the Taiwanese version: Yen Su Gi. Typical night market food. Chicken conveniently served in a paper bag, fried together with basil, which gives it a sweet and herby aroma and sprinkled with a special salt, which is only sold by a limited number of suppliers and is not available in any grocery store. Talking about garding a trade, eh?
It is my Taiwan obsession: every trip I beg and I plead until I get my fix. I remember last trip coming down from the Alisan mountain, edgy from driving in thick fog, my nerves could finally settle with a bag full of Yen su gi. Comfort snack food like only fried chicken can.
Most formal sit down dinners I completely forget, but I remember where I had Yen su gi, I remember where I had Beef noodle soup and I also remember where I had oyster omelet. And yes, mostly it is from side walk food cards while driving in the Taiwan countryside, or small eateries in crowed places somewhere in Taipei or Tainan.
Funny how most memories of Taiwan evolve around come type of comforting snack food. But on the other end, what do you expect from this Formosa Island where everybody knows their food, talks about food and consumes it with delight and joy?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Hotpot: Silencing the sliced lamb
Hotpot is a tradition in our household as in many Chinese families. Ok, I might be white as snow, but marrying in a chinese family makes for quick conversion. You eat hotpot with big time events like New Year's when the whole family is gathered around.
Center stage a pot filled with boiling water, lightly seasoned and ready to receive the main event: thinly sliced meats like pork, beef or lamb, an array of seafoods and various vegatables. Each item is introduced to the boiling water, swirled around a couple times and quickly rescued from the scaling heat. That's the idea.
As with most simple cooking methods, it's about quality and freshness of ingredients to make a difference.
Today we had hotpot in Beijing. In a famous Beijing style hot pot restaurant located in a department store of all places. The type with the hot coals in the bottom to which a bowl is attached where the boiling water cooks the main ingredients. A true kitchen marvel.
But the true star of the meal was the meat. When we do hotpot at home, we need a lot of sauce to cover the not so good taste of the meat. It comes pre-sliced, deep frozen and I do not know the process from living beast to sliced meat. In other words: it's the company that makes the dinner.
Here you can come with stangers, do not say a word the entire meal and still leave happy. The lamb we ate was how that meat should taste like, tender, slightly fatty and overall succulent. Also on the table were lamb skewers: lamb meat on a metal pin, grilled to perfection and topped with cumin seeds. Lamb and cumin; a combination I should remember as it completely works. Even my wife, the lamb unafficionado, commented that she could eat lamb like this.
That's something I will remember, as I really like lamb meat. I will find us some New Zealand imported lamb and cook it up with cumin. Garantueed to satisfy even the lamb uneaters in my family.
Center stage a pot filled with boiling water, lightly seasoned and ready to receive the main event: thinly sliced meats like pork, beef or lamb, an array of seafoods and various vegatables. Each item is introduced to the boiling water, swirled around a couple times and quickly rescued from the scaling heat. That's the idea.
As with most simple cooking methods, it's about quality and freshness of ingredients to make a difference.
Today we had hotpot in Beijing. In a famous Beijing style hot pot restaurant located in a department store of all places. The type with the hot coals in the bottom to which a bowl is attached where the boiling water cooks the main ingredients. A true kitchen marvel.
But the true star of the meal was the meat. When we do hotpot at home, we need a lot of sauce to cover the not so good taste of the meat. It comes pre-sliced, deep frozen and I do not know the process from living beast to sliced meat. In other words: it's the company that makes the dinner.
Here you can come with stangers, do not say a word the entire meal and still leave happy. The lamb we ate was how that meat should taste like, tender, slightly fatty and overall succulent. Also on the table were lamb skewers: lamb meat on a metal pin, grilled to perfection and topped with cumin seeds. Lamb and cumin; a combination I should remember as it completely works. Even my wife, the lamb unafficionado, commented that she could eat lamb like this.
That's something I will remember, as I really like lamb meat. I will find us some New Zealand imported lamb and cook it up with cumin. Garantueed to satisfy even the lamb uneaters in my family.
Taiwan Road Trip: Beijing Bunalicious
There are buns and there are buns. The kids love Ro bao; they eat it a lot for breakfast. Sometimes we even go all out and make them from scratch. Yeast risen dough, cut up in small pieces, filled with a pork, ginger water and scallion mixture, and streamed until done. Good eating guaranteed.
I have eaten many Chinese buns, not to mention pain au chocolats, croissants, the real German Kaiser rolls, foccatias and such. So I am a experienced bun eater.
We spent a couple days in Beijing and in a Hutong we found a place when you can buy very cheap buns from the Gan Su province in China. If my chinese is correct these sesame buns are called Lan Zhou Muo Muo. Fried in oil to crisp up the outside, inside warm and soft, flavors like cumin, lao yuo, and scallions fight for dominaton. Serious deliciousness. Heaven disguised as a bun. My wife ordered one for me, I just had one delicious bite before we had to load ourselves in a cab. Getting in a Beijing cab with my long and wide frame is a challenge to say the least, add a fully loaded backpack to the mix and a disaster is about to happen: I dropped the bun.
There are levels of sadness in a human being and this one rose to the top very quickly. I felt that just as heaven was in my grasp, it slipped away. Providence intervened, though. The cabbie did not want to take us to where we wanted to go, so we exited the cab within 50 meters.
The 6 Yuan burned a hole in my pocket to get me two more. Never mind the tourist group blocking the pavements, creating a serious overcrowdedness on the sidewalk. I must have set me a world record 50 meter dash. Or was it 50 meter steeple chase?
I have eaten many Chinese buns, not to mention pain au chocolats, croissants, the real German Kaiser rolls, foccatias and such. So I am a experienced bun eater.
We spent a couple days in Beijing and in a Hutong we found a place when you can buy very cheap buns from the Gan Su province in China. If my chinese is correct these sesame buns are called Lan Zhou Muo Muo. Fried in oil to crisp up the outside, inside warm and soft, flavors like cumin, lao yuo, and scallions fight for dominaton. Serious deliciousness. Heaven disguised as a bun. My wife ordered one for me, I just had one delicious bite before we had to load ourselves in a cab. Getting in a Beijing cab with my long and wide frame is a challenge to say the least, add a fully loaded backpack to the mix and a disaster is about to happen: I dropped the bun.
There are levels of sadness in a human being and this one rose to the top very quickly. I felt that just as heaven was in my grasp, it slipped away. Providence intervened, though. The cabbie did not want to take us to where we wanted to go, so we exited the cab within 50 meters.
The 6 Yuan burned a hole in my pocket to get me two more. Never mind the tourist group blocking the pavements, creating a serious overcrowdedness on the sidewalk. I must have set me a world record 50 meter dash. Or was it 50 meter steeple chase?
Taiwan Road Trip: The Ultimate French Fries
Fries: golden brown and delicious. Crunchy on the outside, warm, soft and mushy on the inside. There are simply no bad fries in my opinion. There are just good, better and best fries.
Fries come in many shapes and sizes: thick cut steak fries, long and skinny french fries, wedges, hash browns, potato croquettes and many more. Truely my only real weak point. Everything else I can ultimately cut out, fries I have to consume. Judging by the sheer volume of fries I consumed in my life, I must be considered an expert by experience.
99 percent of the fries you eat follow the same process. Cut up, sometimes battered, and fried in some kind of vegetable oil. Sizzling when they hit the hot oil, thick clouds of steam rising from the vessel as the outside layer's moisture evaporates. The skin quickly crisping up, the inside slowly warming. In minutes, when golden brown they are rescued from the oil, experience and temperature control paramount for the ultimate result. Guaranteed to satisfy even if the fry handler is new at his job.
And then behold the ultimate fry, the Potato King:
Last night we had dinner in Bistro Du Pont in Taipei. A restaurant dedicated to goose. Taiwanese road stand food with a french veneer. I am not a fan of goose, so I thought I was in for a rough treat. Enter The Fry: the potato who's ultimate goal is to be wedged, sprinkled with fine herbs and cooked in goose fat or duck fat. No vegetable oil, but bird grease. I always say, nothing tops butter. But when it comes to fries, bird fat is cooking with gasoline.
Not for the faint of heart, nor the fainting hearts. This stuff seriously clutters your arteries with each delicious, succulent bite. Who cares! Hearts and minds be damned. This stuff is to be savored, one bite at a time, never mind the morning after indigestion.
I thank the goose whose fat these fries were cooked in. You made my day. I was having a rough patch that day, but this was the turn around moment.
Thank you ultimate fry. Until we meet again in a not too near future.
Fries come in many shapes and sizes: thick cut steak fries, long and skinny french fries, wedges, hash browns, potato croquettes and many more. Truely my only real weak point. Everything else I can ultimately cut out, fries I have to consume. Judging by the sheer volume of fries I consumed in my life, I must be considered an expert by experience.
99 percent of the fries you eat follow the same process. Cut up, sometimes battered, and fried in some kind of vegetable oil. Sizzling when they hit the hot oil, thick clouds of steam rising from the vessel as the outside layer's moisture evaporates. The skin quickly crisping up, the inside slowly warming. In minutes, when golden brown they are rescued from the oil, experience and temperature control paramount for the ultimate result. Guaranteed to satisfy even if the fry handler is new at his job.
And then behold the ultimate fry, the Potato King:
Last night we had dinner in Bistro Du Pont in Taipei. A restaurant dedicated to goose. Taiwanese road stand food with a french veneer. I am not a fan of goose, so I thought I was in for a rough treat. Enter The Fry: the potato who's ultimate goal is to be wedged, sprinkled with fine herbs and cooked in goose fat or duck fat. No vegetable oil, but bird grease. I always say, nothing tops butter. But when it comes to fries, bird fat is cooking with gasoline.
Not for the faint of heart, nor the fainting hearts. This stuff seriously clutters your arteries with each delicious, succulent bite. Who cares! Hearts and minds be damned. This stuff is to be savored, one bite at a time, never mind the morning after indigestion.
I thank the goose whose fat these fries were cooked in. You made my day. I was having a rough patch that day, but this was the turn around moment.
Thank you ultimate fry. Until we meet again in a not too near future.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Taiwan Road Trip: Free Range Chicken
All chickens are not equal. You have the poor chickens with the miserable life in small cages, their happiness non-existent, the inevitable result a mass slaughtered, mass produced plastic bag containing the remains of a former living being.
In my opinion, no animal deserves to be one of these.
A slightly better alternative is the "organic" chicken you find in the better supermarkets like Trader Joe's, Wegmans or Whole Foods. Be aware though that organic in this sense does not mean that the birds had a better life It just means they are not exposed to hormones, antibiotics and their feed is better. It is not an indication of quality of life.
On the complete other end of the spectrum are the free range birds who roam the fields and grounds of your local farms, Now we are taking chicken. These chickens had a good life, containing of roaming free, eating what they can find, running around to get the food. In other words, chicken living a lifestyle meant for chicken.
We were on our way to the mud baths last night and Ma knew of a restaurant who's roasted chicken was famous all over Taiwan. Like when you go to the mud baths, stop by to eat chicken there first. So we did.
And yes, it was all worth it. All the food was locally naturally organicly grown stuff. Needless to say you can taste the freshness.
But the chicken was indeed all it was advertised. Moist, juicy, slight smokyness from the hardwood they used to fire the oven, just honest goodness. But the meat was how chicken should taste like. Natural sweetness, no dead meat at all.
What a delight.
I am facing a big dilemma now. What do we do now when we get back from the trip? Go back to eating the miserable birds? I am still struggling with that. Part of me wants to stop eating chicken until we can find a supplier who has the free range birds; part of me thinks of the weekly uses we have for chicken.
The meat is either stir fried or used in a slow pot, but every week I make chicken stock from the bones. That's a week's supply of flavoring for stir fried vegetables. I was just so happy about using our own stock for everything...
In my opinion, no animal deserves to be one of these.
A slightly better alternative is the "organic" chicken you find in the better supermarkets like Trader Joe's, Wegmans or Whole Foods. Be aware though that organic in this sense does not mean that the birds had a better life It just means they are not exposed to hormones, antibiotics and their feed is better. It is not an indication of quality of life.
On the complete other end of the spectrum are the free range birds who roam the fields and grounds of your local farms, Now we are taking chicken. These chickens had a good life, containing of roaming free, eating what they can find, running around to get the food. In other words, chicken living a lifestyle meant for chicken.
We were on our way to the mud baths last night and Ma knew of a restaurant who's roasted chicken was famous all over Taiwan. Like when you go to the mud baths, stop by to eat chicken there first. So we did.
And yes, it was all worth it. All the food was locally naturally organicly grown stuff. Needless to say you can taste the freshness.
But the chicken was indeed all it was advertised. Moist, juicy, slight smokyness from the hardwood they used to fire the oven, just honest goodness. But the meat was how chicken should taste like. Natural sweetness, no dead meat at all.
What a delight.
I am facing a big dilemma now. What do we do now when we get back from the trip? Go back to eating the miserable birds? I am still struggling with that. Part of me wants to stop eating chicken until we can find a supplier who has the free range birds; part of me thinks of the weekly uses we have for chicken.
The meat is either stir fried or used in a slow pot, but every week I make chicken stock from the bones. That's a week's supply of flavoring for stir fried vegetables. I was just so happy about using our own stock for everything...
Taiwan Road Trip Beef Noodle soup
Taiwan, half of my childrens' heritage. Many of my wife's relatives still live there, So the Taiwan road trip is something we do quite often.
Taiwan has grown on me. Ok, I still need a translater everywhere I go, but that's to be expected. I am just a dumb white boy (red hair barbarian is the correct Chinese phrase for my kind), so a lot of the subleties are just lost on me.
At least there is common ground though. It started a while back when I started to cook for my in-laws and extended family. Gosh, a family of foodies! What a delight. And guess what: Taiwan is an entire island filled with foodies. Everywhere you go there is food, drink and such. From small eateries, mobile food stands and night market food to expensive restaurants exploring every cuisine in the world.
The best is also the cheapest. A steaming bowl of noodle soup filled with stewed beef brisket is easily available, and very good. You can find this at a stall that (surprise, surprise) does one thing only. These guys have the procedure down pat and it tastes consistently fabulous.
Today was the day we would do noodle soup. After settling on a local eatery, the feast could start. Within minutes bowls of home made noodles in a sweet, salty and spicy dark broth arrived, the rest of the bowl filled with a cabbage/ lettuce like green vegetable, some type of pickle and succulant beef. I could taste 5 spice powder, garlic, anise and soy sauce. It all worked, a little spicy, not too sweet not too salty, yin and yang in a bowl of noodle soup.
The ritual involves constant eating until blissfully satisfied, conversation optional. After I finished, the sad remainder consisted of a pair of used chopsticks, a bowl, a soup spoon and some paper towl. A battle field indeed. This war had a clear winner: the ones eating the soup.
Until the next time we eat beef noodle soup
Taiwan has grown on me. Ok, I still need a translater everywhere I go, but that's to be expected. I am just a dumb white boy (red hair barbarian is the correct Chinese phrase for my kind), so a lot of the subleties are just lost on me.
At least there is common ground though. It started a while back when I started to cook for my in-laws and extended family. Gosh, a family of foodies! What a delight. And guess what: Taiwan is an entire island filled with foodies. Everywhere you go there is food, drink and such. From small eateries, mobile food stands and night market food to expensive restaurants exploring every cuisine in the world.
The best is also the cheapest. A steaming bowl of noodle soup filled with stewed beef brisket is easily available, and very good. You can find this at a stall that (surprise, surprise) does one thing only. These guys have the procedure down pat and it tastes consistently fabulous.
Today was the day we would do noodle soup. After settling on a local eatery, the feast could start. Within minutes bowls of home made noodles in a sweet, salty and spicy dark broth arrived, the rest of the bowl filled with a cabbage/ lettuce like green vegetable, some type of pickle and succulant beef. I could taste 5 spice powder, garlic, anise and soy sauce. It all worked, a little spicy, not too sweet not too salty, yin and yang in a bowl of noodle soup.
The ritual involves constant eating until blissfully satisfied, conversation optional. After I finished, the sad remainder consisted of a pair of used chopsticks, a bowl, a soup spoon and some paper towl. A battle field indeed. This war had a clear winner: the ones eating the soup.
Until the next time we eat beef noodle soup
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Roasted Almonds
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Roasted almonds are a big hit with almost everybody. Knowing the poor taste of prepackaged almonds, I tried a couple recipes on how to roast your own almonds. I finally settled on this one which I can deliver with constant quality. As long as you do not deviate from the formula you should be fine.
I buy my raw almonds at Trader Joe's, because they are good and not too expensive. But you can find raw almonds almost everywhere in bulk.
What do you need:
- 1 lb. raw almonds.
- 2 egg whites
- kosher salt
1. Preheat your oven at 350 degrees
2. Park the almonds on a baking sheet in the middle of your oven and roast for 15 minutes
3. In the meantime beat the egg whites until stiff peaks.
4. Toss the almonds in the egg white foam until they are nicely coated.
5. Back on the baking sheet and salt the almonds liberally with kosher salt
6. Back in the oven for another 5 minutes
7. Cool the almonds on the baking sheet.
That's all there is to it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
ultimate pizza dough
In the previous post, I discussed making tomato sauce. Another part of the ultimate pizza is the crust. It makes all the difference in the world. Here's my bullitproof pizza dough version
- 2 1/2 cups of bread flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Mix all ingredients in your Kitchen-Aid using Captain Hook until you have a nice smooth dough
Rise until double in size
Roll sections out in thin pizzas. Use the tomato sauce and good tasting mozzarella cheese, and you'll never pay 10 bucks for a pizza anymore. Which in my opinion is the biggest rip off anyway. A pizza costs about 75 cents in ingredients....
- 2 1/2 cups of bread flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Mix all ingredients in your Kitchen-Aid using Captain Hook until you have a nice smooth dough
Rise until double in size
Roll sections out in thin pizzas. Use the tomato sauce and good tasting mozzarella cheese, and you'll never pay 10 bucks for a pizza anymore. Which in my opinion is the biggest rip off anyway. A pizza costs about 75 cents in ingredients....
Sunday, January 30, 2011
My food mill and I
Today I used my brand spanking new food mill for the first time. Set me back 20 bucks at Kitchen Kapers, but it was worth it. Today's dinner was pizza night, which is quite a spectacle in our house. Kids decorating their own pizza's, while I spend (elapsed time) the whole day making sauce and pizza dough. Since I never roasted tomatoes for the sauce (just skinned and deseeded), my pizza sauce was always orange instead of the dark red color required for pizza sauce. And NO, I do not pull a Sandra Lee on pizza sauce. Ever read the ingredients list?Anyway, the food mill performed beautifully.
Here's the scoop on roasted tomato sauce:
Ingredients:
- 20 Roma tomatoes, cut in half
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 cloves on garlic, finely minced
- olive oil (I used half olive oil, half basil oil)
- dried oregano and thyme (or fresh)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Put the tomatoes on a baking sheet and season well with herbs, salt and pepper
- Sprinkle the onions and garlic over the tomato halves
- Drizzle olive oil over the tomatoes. I used in total about 1/4 cup of olive oil
- Park in a 325 degree oven for about 2 hours until the tomatoes start to get dry
- Up the temperature to 425 and roast another 20 minutes until nicely browned
- Run the whole thing through your food mill until it's completely milled; when there's nothing but dry skin left in the food mill
- Add about 1/8 cup of white wine and reduce on medium heat until you have a nice thick sauce.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Korean tofu soup
Korea: centuries of cooking tradition influences by the Japanese and Chinese cuisine. Where pickling is mainstay and spice-intolerance equals slow death by starvation. Everything culminates into Kimchee.
Utter the word Kimchee only with respect and reverence, like a mantra; iIt is that important. Making it well requires a long bloodline of master picklers; it’s not for the faint of heart.
I did some research. It required stone pots half buried in snow covered frozen gardens after it was brined with salt for days. So, skip homemade kimchee for dinner tonight; ain’t gonna happen…
I get such a Sandra Lee feeling; I fail miserably at my own home cooking. I dread going to the Korean store to get me some pickled manna. But I admit defeat. Kimchee is for other people to make; I am just too white…
My poor family has been eating Korean beef soups for the last couple of weeks. They are so sick of it, that there was open revolt last night when I made beef soup again. But I getting the hang of it, finally. It starts with stock: I made mine in the pressure cooker to speed up the process: Pork bones, Garlic cloves, dried shitake mushrooms, carrots, scallions, soy bean sprouts, parsley, bay leaves and thyme
After 2 hours in the pressure cooker, the stock is amazing. Making this stock is already worth the effort; use this at will.
The soup is a mixture of the stock with scallions, garlic, tofu, more soy bean sprouts, Korean red pepper and thinly sliced flank steak. It’s a complete meal by itself. Let cook until very happy and serve piping hot. Nothing better on a cold winter night to warm you with a good soup.
Eat with kimchee, either cooked in the soup or on the side and rice.
Home made bread
I used to be the supermarket bread type. Whatever was easy to grab and not too expensive, I would buy, toast it up with some cheese and that was the extend of my bread eating. Mind you, I come from a country where a “bread meal” is served twice a day, so I would go through a lot of cheap and awful bread just to keep the machine going. Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.
But our years living in France have opened my eyes and I have seen the bread. Moist interior, crunchy crust, rich in flavor, stale in a couple of hours; classic baguette. Since coming back to the US, I have tried many supermarkets and bakeries for the best bread. Results were mixed. Italian Bread from Wegmans is very good and now the default bread in our household. But at $ 2.25 per loaf quite pricy. Considering it cost 20 cents in materials to make, and knowing I do not part with my money very easily, makes me wonder about an alternative solution.
Like every budding amateur chef, I have ventured into making my own bread. Just 4 ingredients: flour, yeast, water and salt. Simple, No? I have tried almost every recipe available, and a variety of techniques and methods. Up until very recently the results were OK. The bread is eatable, but missing something; the peanut gallery just does not eat it.
A short list of things I tried:
- double rising,
- blooming the yeast,
- steam filled oven,
- adding sugar to the yeast/water mixture to kick start the blooming,
- spraying the crust with water to add extra crunch
In short, close enough for jazz, but this is an artisanal process, so simply not good enough.
Then somebody whispered biga in my ear. Oh Biga, oh starter, where have you been all this time? A biga is a starter, a very wet mixture of a scant amount of yeast and equal parts of water and flour, taken from the ingredients, which has been fermented for at least 6 hours. The biga is what gives the bread its rich and slightly sour taste. Now we’re cooking with gasoline! We are really making bread now.
Biga
- ¾ tea spoon dry yeast
- 6 ounces (by weight) water
- 6 ounces (by weight) flour
Mix together in a bowl until you have a wet batter-like consistency. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and walk away for at least 6 hours.
After the biga is all fermented happy, transfer to the working bowl of your bread mixer, or roll up your sleeves and get ready for kneading
Add to the biga
- 10 ounces (by weight) flour
- 4 ounces (by weight) water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon yeast
Punch air out of the dough; form loaves; cut incisions on the top and let rise until at least double in size.
Cook in a 500 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, spraying the top with water a couple of times to get an extra crunchy crust.
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