What's Cooking (Take Two!)

Jenise,

The recipe that I use is mainly from Fuschia Dunlop's book "Sichuan Cookery". But I add finely shredded carrots as well as the celery, as per Joyce Chen's recipe. The seasonings are shredded ginger, scallion, rice wine, and Sichuan fermented fava bean paste with chile (toban jian; I use the Lee Kum Kee brand).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, sounds good. I love the shredded celery-carrot combination in szechuan flavored stir fries. I've never seen a Chinese fava bean paste. However, I've probably looked right at one without knowing what I was looking at--the Asian markets are full of all kinds of jars of things that are probably highly interesting ingredients if one knows how to interpret the label. Lacking that, I don't know how to begin venturing out. Reminds me that I once bought a jar of something that "looked" interesting, though I had no idea what it was. I ended up using it to flavor several stir fries and LOVED it--I'd have bought more but I never found again anything that seemed to be identical and looks were all I had to go on as there was no English on the label.

I'm currently on a no-carb diet. I should work on putting some Chinese food into my routine, huh. Such great flavors, and the kind of vegetables that work well in stir fries are generally low-carb ingredients.

That's interesting, I have bought and used Toban Jian, and the Korean version, Gochujang, but I never realized the beans were fava beans. Wikipedia confirms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubanjiang

In H mart there is like an entire aisle of different brands and versions of Gochujang. And in fact Lan Chi, besides the delicious green label chili garlic sauce, also sells jars (blue label) of black bean sauce with chili, I suppose that's different with the black beans.

Most of the hot chile stir-fries in Fuscia Dunlop's Sichuan cookbook seem to use either toban jian (fermented fava bean paste with chile), or ground pickled chiles with garlic (essentially Lan Chi green label chili garlic sauce), or dried red chiles stir-fried in the oil (as in Kung Pao chicken).

The Lan Chi blue label black bean sauce with chili is made with fermented black soy beans and the resulting sauce has a different flavor than toban jian.

-Paul W.

For our family get-together on Memorial Day I made two different types of satay: gai yang takrai (grilled lemongrass chicken) and Thai chicken satay (satay gai).

Here is a link to the gai yang takrai recipe: http://importfood.com/recipes/gaiyangtakrai.html . At that page you can find a link to the satay gai recipe. The satay gai recipe includes the peanut sauce and cucumber salad that are traditional Thai accompaniments to satay.

-Paul W.

Working on cleaning out the freezer and fridge in anticipation of garden produce....a "put me together" meal of ricotta gnocchi sauced with leftover frozen Romesco, seasoned with Mourad's dry harissa. Surprisingly bland. Only used about 1/4 cup of Romesco with as much if not more left. Have to say it was much better with roasted shrimp on the first go-around but couldn't bear to ditch as I used Marcona almonds at great cost. Froze 1/2 # ricotta gnocchi for a future quick fix so....no net reduction of freezer space I have to quit doing this!!!!

I had some chicken breasts and wanted to make something tasty -- and ended up with a kind of saltimbocca / marsala / cacciatore / fiorentina. But it was good. When I have to pound chicken breasts I always think prosciutto, why not pound them thin with a slice of prosciutto on top? Tastes so good after frying. And then garlic, sliced red bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and deglaze with Marsala. I wouldn't make it for a fussy Italian but for the 2 of us it was kind of a treat. Oh yeah, cooked up some spinach, squeezed it, put it under the chicken breast with the sauce on top. Hence florentine!

Thai mahogany fire noodles last night. This batch turned out particularly incendiary, and I broke out in a sweat while eating it.

-Paul W.

We have been cooking butterflied leg of lamb for more than 20 years -- mostly following Julia Child's recipe where you marinate in olive oil, garlic, lemon, etc. and grill or cook in the oven. For most of that time I had to deal with taking out the bone as part of the process. Of course after Costco arrived, I got spoiled and it's already butterflied when I buy it. Which is nice.

Tuning around I happened on America's Test Kitchen and they did a recipe that knocked my socks off. I knew I had to make it some day and I joined the site just so I could print out the recipe. You butterfly and then you cut "accordion" slits in the non-fat side (same as Julia) but you also pound it down to about an even inch thick throughout. And then you cut a checkered pattern in the fat and rub that side with salt for broiling. But the coolest thing was the first step.

You combine a tablespoon each of mustard seed, cumin seed, and coriander seed with 3 bay leaves and 1/3 cup of olive oil. You thinly slice 3 shallots and stir those in, and mash 4 garlic cloves and stir them in. Add 2 two inch strips of lemon zest (use a peeler). You stir this mixture and then spread it out on a rimmed cookie sheet, in the approximate shape of the lamb. Bake in a 250 degree oven for about an hour (I thought it was done after 45 minutes).

Meanwhile the salted lamb was lying under wax paper and cookbooks getting flatter. After the cookie sheet comes out of the oven (smells really good) you give it a last arranging stir and then put the lamb on top, meat side down. Put back in the 250 oven and roast until the meat hits 120 degrees. Take it out and set the oven on Broil. When it's hot, put the meat back in on a high shelf until the top browns. BTW after baking/roasting for 20-25 minutes the meat looks kinda sad and gray. If I hadn't seen the transformation from the broiling step on TV I might have been discouraged at this point. But look at the picture:

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/rec ... tard-seeds

Lamb1.jpg

Sounds great, Frank!

Threw together a pizza last night that had fresh porcinis, mozzarella, and zucchini flowers on it. It was ok - I should have sauteed the porcinis first, though.

Thanks Mike -- I love all of that, zucchini flowers, porcini!

Sunday I didn't have time to mess with the sauce. And they call for mint and cilantro, I hate mint with lamb. That is probably because 100 years ago when I was a kid, the only time we ate "lamb" it was actually mutton, with a really strong flavor, and my grandmother would serve it with mint jelly which I think was mainly to cut the stench. So when I have delicious mild flavored lamb I am NOT going to serve it with mint and remind myself of that ancient mutton.

So I had scraped out the cookie sheet -- you are supposed to force the remnants thru a sieve. I microwaved it and got it hot, I mixed in some hot chicken broth (umami is umami) and I forced it through a sieve. Because I didn't want cilantro or mint covering up my lamb, I had the idea that I would use tiny doses of the whole spices I had used on the cookie sheet. Literally about 1/16 of a teaspoon. Ground coriander, ground cumin, a touch of mustard, a sliver of lemon zest, some ground ginger (I forgot to mention the ginger slices). The idea was to "wake up" the extra flavors with the lamb. I also mixed a tablespoon of soft butter with some flour and whisked that in while simmering. I got a delicious lamb gravy, slightly thickened and brown. I sliced thin slices of the lamb and put it on top of rice (nuked it) and dressed with a little of the sauce. Mmm. Even better than on the first night! And there is still a good chunk left (we gave a good bit of it to our friend, we like to leave him with leftovers -- he can't do his own cooking).

I made a new batch of Inner Beauty hot sauce last night. Anything with 15 habaneros AND a tablespoon of ground cayenne pepper in it has to be handled carefully....

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Another variation on pesto using fresh seasonal produce: Spaghetti with broccoli. garlic and pine-nut pesto with chopped cilantro.

Yesterday, fried lotus root sandwiches and a roast duck with "Peking" accompaniments.

Today, paella.

The rest of the week... leftovers!

Asparagus....the patch has been prolific and not wanting anything to go to waste....soup, steamed, tempura, risotto, risotto with scallops, risotto with shrimp, ravioli, grilled. broiled with sweet onions and red pepper, sauce for ricotta gnocchi. Have not had quite enough to process to pesto for freezing or pickling yet. Just no comparison when cut from the garden and cooked and eaten within the hour. Such a nice time of year.

We have a new vendor at our Farmers' Market who specializes in game birds. They had "semi-deboned" quail yesterday at $10 for 2 small birds. That's a bit pricey for what you get but I wanted to give them a try, so I picked up a pack of two. It was also the last weekend for fresh porcinis, so I grabbed some of them as well. I chopped the porcinis up and browned them in butter with some thyme and then stuffed them into the little quail bodies. These were wrapped in bacon strips and roasted. They came out very nicely. I probably should have pulled them out a bit sooner as they could have been moister, but they weren't overly dry and they tasted great.

[Robin Garr]

Sichuan shredded beef with shredded carrot, celery and onions with garlic, ginger and Sichuan spice. Only I subbed Heart and Soy five-spice tofu for the beef, and it came out great!

Red Charmoula chicken drumsticks.....using up the accessories from the Moroccan Birthday party. However, the charmoula from Mourad is so good I' keeping a jar in the fridge for quick dishes.

[Jenise]

I want Frank's lamb.

But ah, going to a wine tasting tonight. Am going to roast a chicken for Bob and I to gnosh on before going so we don't show up hungry (participants are spotty about bringing food), and I made a potato salad to take. Theme is "summer reds".

Crispy potatoes (actually, a couple of baked potatoes cut into thick coins, heavily seasoned, and heavily fried) with pork/beef sloppy joe.

Chicken jambalaya for dinner tonight.

-Paul W.

Norma's Three Grain Wild Rice Bread.

Three Grain Wild Rice Bread 003.JPG

[Jenise]

Yum. Her breads are truly breathtaking.

Tonight I'm shooting from the hip to make a ground turkey version of veal Bolognese--wish me luck. The sauce needs to cook at least three hours and isn't done yet, but I can already tell that it won't have the deeper flavor or silky texture of beef. Starter salad will be chilled asparagus with lemon juice, olive oil and pecorino cheese.

Interested to hear your thoughts on modifications to the turkey Bolognese sauce, Jenise.
I've been thinking about a turkey tonnato and I've already decided to have a heavy hand on the poaching broth and a very easy hand on the heat and cooking time and a very long cool in the broth but I am worried that the taste and texture will just not be right. Not that I want it to turn out "just like the real thing". It should be different but just not sure how to alter the flavors of the poach and sauce for a seamless meld. I just don't cook with turkey except at Thanksgiving