asian

It’s Gettin’ Hot In Here

August 15, 2010 by Regina 3 Comments

Summer is in full swing and it is HOT out there! Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen? I actually don’t mind cooking in the summer. I love the change of seasons and continually having new inspiration for food. I love fish in the summer. It’s light and flakey and there are 100’s of ways to cook it or not cook it! In the summer brings our fish truck! I know I have mentioned this before but I just love it. Every Wednesday they drive down here with some of the freshest fish imaginable. For us being land locked in Vermont it is truly a wonderful thing. And their prices! Oh so reasonable; sashimi grade Tuna for $7 lb! Anyway I am running off on a tangent but I do so love the fish truck….

So a Wednesday not too far off in the distant past I meandered my way up to the fish truck to see what they had. With their usual tuna, scallops, lobster they had on sale some very nice scrod. I was feeding company and scrod is such a light, mild fish it would be a perfect summer dinner. Wednesday just also happens to be a farmers market day so I had already picked up some fresh produce; long scallions (like 18” or more!) and some lovely baby bok choy among other wonderful things. As soon as I got home I began planning dinner.

It was a very hot day so I really didn’t want anything heavy like fried so I settled on steaming. Scrod is a perfect fish for steaming; it is a nice firm white fish that is very forgiving; it is really hard to overcook. I began looking for ideas and found this recipe on Epicurious that was my inspiration. Steaming on plates is in my opinion is kind of a pain so I chose to steam in foil packets instead. Plus I put them together a little ahead of time so I could relax with my guests enjoy a glass of wine.

Ingredients:

Any white fish, scrod, cod, sole all work beautifully about 1/2lb per person
1 bunch scallions, greens only julienned in 2 inch long strips
1 inch knob ginger julienned in long thin strips
equal parts soy sauce and rice wine or sake (depending on how much fish you have)
a good pinch of five spice powder (use to taste, it can be a strong flavor I used about 1/4-1/2 teas. for 4 cuts of fish)
1-2 T. sugar (1 tablespoon per cup of liquid)
drizzle of toasted sesame oil
sprinkle of sesame seeds

(I know my measurements are well, nonexistent but trust me it is really hard to screw up!)

Recipe:

Place julienned scallions in an ice water bath and put aside. Then mix together the rice wine, soy sauce and sugar in a sauce pan on medium heat (or you can do this in the microwave) heat until the sugar has dissolved and set aside to cool completely! Once cooled add the five spice powder and whisk to combined. Arrange your fish on individual aluminum foil pieces about 1’x1’ (give or take). Fold up the side and drizzle a couple tablespoons of the liquid over the fish (making sure to reserve enough for plating) and top with a generous portion of ginger. Seal up the packets and place in the refrigerator until ready. You can do this up to 30 minutes prior. I would not go too much further than that due to the acid in the wine. Once ready to cook place in a 350⁰ pre-heated oven in the middle rack and steam for 5-10 minutes. When ready to serve, plate atop stir fried bok choy with a mound of the scallions on top. Drizzle remaining liquid around the plate and a few drops of sesame oil. Top with a scattering of sesame seeds. You can also serve with some steamed rice on the side.

For the bok choy I just stir fried it very quickly in an extremely hot pan with a small amount of oil. I flipped it several times just to show off! You can add a liquid if you liquid if you like to help the cooking process with a little bit of steam.

That’s it! A quick, easy summer dish that is pretty enough and impressive enough for company. In the future, when making this again, and I will be making this again, I think I will add some chili pepper to spice it up. Though, it really was extremely flavorful as is.

China Pattern

September 21, 2009 by Regina 3 Comments

Last Friday was M and I’s 7th anniversary. We have a tradition that dates back to our first anniversary of a feast of chinese take-out. Back then we had just moved into our very first apartment and we had next to nothing plus new nothing of the area. To celebrate we made a picnic on the floor (no furniture either!) and ate chinese take out. I think back then it cost a total of $18 and for us that was about as far as our new budget could stretch. Ever since it has been the tradition to do that every year. This year for some reason was special to me. 7 years is a long time, at least for me and the whole 7 year itch people always talk about. So I decided at trying my hand at making a Chinese feast myself.

I made our appetizers just like we would order, pan-fried dumplings or pot-stickers, scallion pancakes, and a napa and cilantro salad we had tried at A Single Pebble and loved.

I have made dumplings before but M really likes gyozas and I had gyoza wrappers on hand. So I made a traditional pork dumpling mixture and filled the wrappers. I had never folded in this style before so I You Tubed a video on the technique of folding gyozas. Very helpful! Over all for my first try I think I did well. M even jumped in and folded a couple. He was actually better right of the gate then I was. I jump right in and pick it up as I go and am speedy, M on the other hand studies it then meticulously proceeds; its the perfectionist in him!

Here is the quick recipe of the filling:

1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 cup scallions
1/2 tsp. minced ginger
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. rice wine

Mix everything well and refridgerate for 30 minutes. Then fill dumplings. You don’t have to do anything special, you can pleat them if you like or make little beggers purses, or even just a good seal will work fine. I followed this video for a tutorial and It was very good. I made a simple dressing out of Chinese balck vinegar and soy sauce with a tad of minced ginger. It was nice combination. To cook I fried them in very little oil then added a spoonful of water to the very hot pan and quickly covered. You can do that or steam entirely, deep fry or even boil.

For the pancakes I had never made them before at all and I took a little help for a fellow blogger. What is weird is that I had planned this out, googled and ended up on a site I have been to many times. Then later while surfing Tastespotting this exact post from Appetite for China was featured, how serendipitous! I took her exact recipe but I tried to short cut the pancakes by using a method I had read on a Ming Tsai recipe. Next time I will follow her instructions exactly! They came out good but in trying to make it easier I ended up making it harder I think.

The napa salad was an after thought but a good one. We have had this a few times out and I thought with all the heavy food a nice light salad would be a good idea. It is simply sliced napa cabbage and torn cilantro in a dressing consisting of 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, 1 T. sugar, 1 T. light oil (I used coconut), a pinch of salt and about 5 drops of sesame oil. I nuke it for 30 seconds to dissolve the sugar/salt and when cool and ready to eat I dress the salad. Its that easy and very tasty; I can eats bowls of this stuff!

We took a brief intermission from eating to clean up, relax and prepare for the next course, Chinese Red Cooked Beef (Chinese Braised Beef) with noodles. Basically its Chinese pot roast. It takes all day to braise and makes the house smell wonderful! It’s a perfect fall dish.

Recipe:

1 1/2 lbs chuck roast or any cheap cut of meat, cut in to bite size chunks
1 cup sliced shitake mushrooms – I used a combination of dried and fresh, the dried I soaked in hot water for 30 minutes and squeezed out the excess water (save the liquid!)
2 carrots sliced on the diagonal
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1 inch (or so) nob of fresh ginger, minced
1 onion chopped
2-3 cups stock, I used a cup of the mushroom water and 1 1/2 cups of beef stock
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine or dry sherry if you can’t find rice wine
2 T. brown sugar
2-4 red chilies
2-3 whole star anise
2 cinnamon sticks broken in 1/2
1 T. 5 spice
salt and pepper (minimal)
oil for browning, I used coconut

Start out by prepping all your vege and set aside. Now prep your meat by cutting into chunks and seasoning with salt, pepper, and 5 spice. Set aside. In a large dutch oven heat the oil and stir fry the garlic and ginger for a few seconds until you can smell it. In batches add your meat. You want the meat evenally on 1 layer without crowding the pan. This should take about 2- 3 batches once done remove all meat. In the same pan add more oil if needed, but you shouldn’t, you should have more than enough fat from the beef. To the pan add your onions and mushrooms and saute until you see some color, about a minute or 2. Now add the beef and the remaining ingredients. Make sure the liquid just covers everything. Turn the heat to medium low and bring to a boil then turn the heat all the way low and cook uncovered for about 3 hours or until the liquid has almost completely reduced and the meat is tender. When almost done, about 30 minutes out, add your carrots. What I did here was since I knew I was going to serve it later, when it was done I turned off the heat and added the carrots gave it a good stir then covered until ready to serve. This cooked the carrots just perfectly.

You can serve this over steamed rice but really it is a noodle type of meal. Traditionally you would serve it with thick wonton noodles which are chinese egg noodles. Living in the mountains of Vermont I could not find them so I used fresh parpadelle which worked perfect! I also served this with seared bok choy seasoned with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce and to top everything off a seasonal hard cider that is produced for fall and had a hint of cinnamon in it; it was Woodchuck Draft Fall Cider. It was a perfect pairing.

It was a very nice dinner and definitely a step up from take out, though I did kind of miss it in a nostalgic kind of way.

A New Twist on an Old Favorite

April 7, 2009 by Regina 3 Comments

Well just recently I went out a bought myself a very nice large granite mortar and pastel. I had been wanting one for quite sometime but had not found any I particularly liked. So when I found this 1 and it was only $40 plus a 20% off coupon, I ripped it right off the shelf. This was not the best move however as I nearly dropped it and put a hole in the store floor; IT WAS HEAVY to put it lightly.

As soon as I got it home I washed it and placed it ever so gently on my counter to dry. All day (ok only for about a few minutes before I caved) it kept calling to me “use me, use me”. But how I asked? Then I spotted the nice ripe avocados just laying in a bowl coincidentally right next to it. I’ll make guacamole! I love guacamole, it has to be 1 of my favorite go to dips, sandwich spreads, finger foods, anything really! But I had just made guac only a couple of days ago and I wanted something a little more interesting. That’s when it came to me, Asian Guacamole! I know it sounds odd and I won’t lie it is odd but in a good kind of way.

Recipe:

2-3 ripe avocados
1/2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar or lemon juice
2-3 tsp. wasabi paste
1/2 tsp. sriracha sauce or sambol olek
1-2 tbsp. sliced green onions
1-2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro and/or flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the ginger and garlic in the bottom of the mortar and work it with the pastel until a smooth paste forms. Add the lime juice, vinegar, wasabi and sriracha and combine. Then scoop out the meat of the avocados right in the same bowl. Work with pastel until all ingredients are combines and a chunky paste has formed. Stir in the green onions, cilantro and salt and pepper to finish. Serve right in the bowl.

I served this with regular tortilla chips, but you could also serve it with fried wonton chips for that added asian flare!

~Enjoy

It’s a Very Thai Birthday

April 2, 2009 by Regina 3 Comments

Well I had this other post all planned out and even written about my new mortar and pestal I bought over the weekend. However something better came up that I I wanted to share.

This weekend is a dear friend of mine’s birthday and unfortunately I will not be around to celebrate with her. So I asked her what her favorite meal was and promised I would make it for her no matter what it was, even if I never heard of it before in my life! We live in a very small town with not a whole lot of ethnic food options and she asked for a favorite thai dish of Panang Curry. I love Thai and make green curries all the time but I must confess this was the first time I ventured to make panang. For her I decided to go all out and make my curry paste from scratch and after some research I came up with a version I believe to be pretty authentic. To make this meal extra special I made a side green papaya salad and for dessert coconut lime frozen yogurt inspired by the Goddess of all things Asian.

First up the Green Papaya Salad!

Recipe:

1 green papaya, jullianed in long thin strips.
2-4 thai bird chilies (depending on how much heat you like you can add more or less)
1 whole clove of garlic
4-5 green beans (if you can find long beans use 1 of those) cut into 1.5″ pieces
1 Tomato cut in medium size chunks
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. dried shrimp
garnish with roasted peanuts if you like

Start by shredding your papaya, through my research the traditional way of shredding the papaya was a little dangerous for my first time, it involved randomly and rapidly hacking away at the papaya so instead I used a jullian peeler and it worked out great. Next in a mortar and pestal (if your using a stone one be careful, traditionally a ceramic version is used because it is gentler on the ingredients) combine garlic and chilies and mash a few times. Then add your beans and mash a few more times. Add a small amount of the papaya and pound again but don’t go crazy you don’t want a paste. Next add in the sugar and fish sauce and pound a few more times. Now add your tomatoes and pound lightly. Lastly add your lime juice, dried shrimp and the rest of the papaya. Pound a few more times to gentaly bruise the fruit. I like to break up the shrimp a little more, I have found most people don’t care for a big chunk of dried shrimp. T o serve garnish with the roasted peanuts if you like.Now on to the star of the meal, Panag Curry!

Recipe:
For the Curry Paste

10 (or so) dried red chilies, if you like it hot use the smaller a Thai bird chili (I did)
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. galangal
2 Tbsp. lemongrace sliced
1 Tbsp. cilantro stems and leaves (more stems than leave but I like the brightness the leaves bring)
1 tsp. coriander seeds (toasted)
1 tsp. cumin seeds (toasted)
2-3 cloves garlic
1- 2 shallots (about 2 Tbsp.)
1 Tbsp. peanuts (roasted)
1 tsp. shrimp paste or anchovy paste (or 102 anchovy filets)

Soak your chilies until soft for anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. When soft remove seeds. Toast your cumin seeds and coriander sees until fragrant and add to your mortar and pestal (heavey duty stone one works the best for this) with the roasted peanuts. Grind to a smooth powder. Remove from mortar and set aside. Next add the chilies and salt and grind to a smooth paste; this may take some time to break up the skins but it is worth it. Next add the lemongrass, pound to combine, then the galangal, cilantro, garlic and shallots. Grinding after the addition of each one. Now add the peanut, cumin, coriander mixure and the shrimp/anchovy paste and mix well into a thick paste.

For the Panang:

Up to 2 cups coconut milk (use the full fat kind, you want the thick creamy part for this dish)
Curry paste from above (if you are not making your own-you totally should-you can use about 3 Tbsp. of red curry mixed with the ground peanuts)
1 Tbsp. lime leaves, shredded (if you can’t find them in your area fresh you can usually find a jar already shredded. In my small town I had to go that route and it works just fine if not you can use the zest of a lime and thai basil but it will not be the same)
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 cups “meat” sliced thin. Taditionally beef is used but you can use beef, pork, chicken or tofu. If using Tofu press and fry first then add to your curry. I used a combination of sliced assorted mushrooms, beef, and tofu. I have never been good at making up my mind!

Start by preheating your wok or large saute pan on med high heat. Once hot add about 1/2 cup of your coc0nut milk. You want it to sizzle as it hits the pan. Add all of the curry paste you made and stir to combine. As the pan dries up you want to add more coconut milk, a little at a time to keep it most but not soupy. Make sure you keep stirring as not to burn your curry. Keep cooking until very fragrant about 5 minutes. Add your meat at this point (don’t stop stirring!) Cook for another 2 minutes then add the remaining ingredients of lime leaves, fish sauce, and sugar. If your curry looks too dry you can add some more coconut milk. The texture should be creamy/thick sauce but not soupy at all.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice and garnish with more lime leaves and/or thai basil.

I think this is a lot to absorb for now. But don’t you worry I will follow up with the Coconut Lime Frozen Yogurt later today but right now I must run, work calls!!

My First Post and its a Good One!

December 9, 2008 by Regina 1 Comment

Today I was cruising through Tastespotting for ideas on what to do with the roasting chicken I defrosted for dinner tonight. I didn’t want the same ‘ol same ‘ol roast chicken with lemon and thyme; though very yummy I was not in the mood for traditional. SO… I saw a recipe for a soy and ginger glazed bird that looked amazing! So my mind just went in that direction I just spruced it up a bit to my liking.

First I did quick counter brine with a simple solution of sugar, salt and cold water and let the bird swim in that for about an hour or so. Meanwhile I concocted the glaze! In a small sauce pot I simmered Chinese rice wine, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili sauce, worchestershire sauce, and a splash of rice wine vinegar until it became a thick syrup. Then I went to work on the chicken; I took it out of the brine and patted it completely dry. I gave it a good massage with oil and Chinese five spice (go easy, I only used a heaping teaspoon for the whole bird) and stuffed it with a few crushed cloves of garlic and a handful of ginger coins. Then I seared it in a large pan over high heat. Once brown on both sides I flipped it on it’s back slathered it with the glaze and popped it in a 400 degree preheated oven. I then basted it every ten minutes for 50 minutes. Let it rest for 10 and carved. I know this seems like a lot of work but it was well worth it. The skin was so crisp, meat so juicy, and the flavor so unique. Just what I was in the mood for!

I served it with steamed scallion jasmine rice and stir fried asparagus. Perfect meal for a chilly Vermont night.

Recipe:

3-4lb roasting chicken
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups cold water
teas. chinese five spice
2 tbsp. oil (canola, peanut, vegetable)
3-4 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 cup-1/2 cup ginger coins

Glaze:
1/2 cup chinese rice wine
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup worchestershire sauce
heaping teas. chili with garlic sauce or rooster sauce
2 tbsp. hoison sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
good splash of rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup (or so) ginger coins
3 cloves smashed garlic

Combined salt, sugar, and water to dissolve. Add chicken and let sit at room temp for about an hour; you can brine longer if you want but make sure to refrigerate until 1 hour before cooking.

Preheat oven to 400. Retrieve chicken from brine and pat completely dry. Rub with about a tbsp. of the oil and the five spice. Stuff cavity with the crushed garlic and ginger coins; you can truss the bird if you like or tie the legs together but I never do, I just never seem to have the twine on hand. Heat a large oven proof pan with the remaining oil and sear the bird; making sure that each side consists of a leg and breast; about 5 minutes per side. Flip onto its back, liberally apply some glaze with a brush and transfer to the oven. Bast bird with the remaining glaze every ten minutes until internal temp. (inserted at the thigh) reads 155. Take out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Carve and enjoy!

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