Hey All,
Its the end of summer in good ol' Salt Lake City. We've had our first freezes, which prompted me to harvest what I could of the tomatoes. With the exception of a few ripening on the counter, the rest have been cut up and frozen (hint, so much easier than canning and you can use them pretty much the same).
In our meal plan for last week, we had a ghetto ceasar on the menu. It never did get made, until tonight. Since I'm going on a television and facebook strike tonight, I figured I'd blog the recipe. Granted its a bit of this, a tiche of that kind of recipe, but hopefully it inspires some creativity.
So first up were the croutons. Making your own croutons is relatively easy. I'll save you details and let you find your own recipe. The biggest trick, of course is having your pan plenty hot. I don't mind if they have a bit of a toast to them, so you may have to play with it a bit to perfect it. I've also taken a shine to using infused oils. I'll have to do a write up with a how-to the chemists' way. Its fun and its easy, and with the help of our good friend nitrous oxide, its quick!
OK, now for the fun:
1 head lettuce (traditionally one would use Romaine, but I use whatever is on sale or I have on hand....hint, swiss chard makes an amazing ceasar, but I'm letting mine grow some more, to see if its true it is a year round green here)
1 tomato cut into 1/8 wedges (oh, I'm gonna miss my garden fresh 'maters this winter)
3 prepared chicken patties, cooked and diced
1 small bag baby carrots
Croutons
Ghetto Ceasar Dressing: Mayo, dill pickle juice to thin, some dried oregano, minced garlic, and a good dose of parmesan cheese. Put it in a jar or other container so you can shake it up.
Clean and cut or tear the lettuce into a bowl with a tight fitting lid. Pour the Ghetto Ceasar Dressing over. Put the lid on and shake the daylights out of it, coating all the lettuce. Top with the tomato, chicken, carrots, and croutons.
If you grill your chicken, it will lighten it up substantially in the calorie department.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Asian Noodles....perfect after a night out
Hey All,
So, last night we went out and did it up right. I can't believe how amazing the past few weeks have been. Decompressions in San Francisco and Seattle, and Bearacuda last night. Dancing, drinking, too much fun, we needed salty, brothy, morning after food today, so I put together noodles. A flour stick noodle with Vien gia vi vit tiem (canard mijote-stewed duck seasoning) prepared 1 bullion cube to 2 cups water, tomago-yaki, char beef and chicken, purple ruffles basil from the garden (last of the season, I fear), green onions, dried seaweed, cilantro, and some celery that was on its last legs. I realized when I got home from the market that I didn't have enoki mushrooms and bean sprouts, but the effect was still awesome. In scouring the internet for tomago and char meat, I found a couple of new recipes I want to get down before I lose them. To assemble the soup, place the cooked noodles in the bottom of a bowl, garnish with the meat and herb condiments, top up with boiling (I can't stress this enough, otherwise the flavors don't meld) broth, let stand 5 minutes, and enjoy. This is the basis for all kinds of awesome asian soups, so please experiment to your heart's content.
First up, the tomago (taken from Momofukufor2)
Tamago Recipe
3 eggs
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
Put it all in a bowl and whip the shit out of it. It won't foam, it should be crazy thin, in reality. Pour a bit in a pan, roll it over like a crepe, pour another layer down, roll it around... Eh, just go read the Momofuku, its hard to explain how to do it. This is by far the best tomago recipe I've found. Mine was a tad brown but still very tasty.
Next up, the char siu that uses maltose (taken from Rasa Malaysia). Maltose is a must here, I've tried recipes without it, and quite frankly, they suck! I do mine a bit differently using a large flat steak and boneless skinless chicken thigh to plus up the balance, rolling the chicken in the steak skewering it before roasting. Oh and a substitute for the rose wine, super dry Chardonnay and a drop of rose essential oil, if your rose EO is diluted, make sure its in a consumable base oil and use a few drops.
BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu/Char Siew/蜜汁叉烧)
Ingredients:
1 lb pork butt (cut into 4 pieces)
3 clove garlic (finely chopped)
1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
Char Siu (Char Siew) Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons maltose
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rose wine (玫瑰露酒)
3 dashes white pepper powder
3 drops red coloring (optional)
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Method:
Add all ingredients in the char siu sauce in a sauce pan, heat it up and stir-well until all blended and become slightly thickened and sticky. (It will yield 1/2 cup char siu sauce.) Transfer out and let cool.
Marinate the pork butt pieces with 2/3 of the char siu sauce and the chopped garlic overnight. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil into the remaining char siu sauce. Keep in the fridge.
The next day, heat the oven to 375 degree F and roast the char siu for 15 minutes (shake off the excess char siu sauce before roasting). Transfer them out of the oven and thread the char siu pieces on metal skewers and grill them over fire (I used my stove top). Brush the remaining char siu sauce while grilling until the char siu are perfectly charred. Slice the char siu into bite-size pieces, drizzle the remaining char siu sauce over and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
The leftover herbs are in the back window of my car drying now. Its a weird trick to dry herbs, but if you put them in a paper bag or box and leave them in your car while its warm, you'll have perfectly dried herbs in a few days. I think I'll mix in some dried bean curd and have it handy as a quick soup ala instant miso.
I hope you all are well and thanks for reading. I haven't written as much, I got really badly depressed and pretty much quit doing everything. I'm much better now after a couple months of pretty intense therapy and hope to write about my culinary conquests more in the future.
Lotsa Love,
3day
So, last night we went out and did it up right. I can't believe how amazing the past few weeks have been. Decompressions in San Francisco and Seattle, and Bearacuda last night. Dancing, drinking, too much fun, we needed salty, brothy, morning after food today, so I put together noodles. A flour stick noodle with Vien gia vi vit tiem (canard mijote-stewed duck seasoning) prepared 1 bullion cube to 2 cups water, tomago-yaki, char beef and chicken, purple ruffles basil from the garden (last of the season, I fear), green onions, dried seaweed, cilantro, and some celery that was on its last legs. I realized when I got home from the market that I didn't have enoki mushrooms and bean sprouts, but the effect was still awesome. In scouring the internet for tomago and char meat, I found a couple of new recipes I want to get down before I lose them. To assemble the soup, place the cooked noodles in the bottom of a bowl, garnish with the meat and herb condiments, top up with boiling (I can't stress this enough, otherwise the flavors don't meld) broth, let stand 5 minutes, and enjoy. This is the basis for all kinds of awesome asian soups, so please experiment to your heart's content.
First up, the tomago (taken from Momofukufor2)
Tamago Recipe
3 eggs
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
Put it all in a bowl and whip the shit out of it. It won't foam, it should be crazy thin, in reality. Pour a bit in a pan, roll it over like a crepe, pour another layer down, roll it around... Eh, just go read the Momofuku, its hard to explain how to do it. This is by far the best tomago recipe I've found. Mine was a tad brown but still very tasty.
Next up, the char siu that uses maltose (taken from Rasa Malaysia). Maltose is a must here, I've tried recipes without it, and quite frankly, they suck! I do mine a bit differently using a large flat steak and boneless skinless chicken thigh to plus up the balance, rolling the chicken in the steak skewering it before roasting. Oh and a substitute for the rose wine, super dry Chardonnay and a drop of rose essential oil, if your rose EO is diluted, make sure its in a consumable base oil and use a few drops.
BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu/Char Siew/蜜汁叉烧)
Ingredients:
1 lb pork butt (cut into 4 pieces)
3 clove garlic (finely chopped)
1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
Char Siu (Char Siew) Sauce:
1 1/2 tablespoons maltose
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rose wine (玫瑰露酒)
3 dashes white pepper powder
3 drops red coloring (optional)
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Method:
Add all ingredients in the char siu sauce in a sauce pan, heat it up and stir-well until all blended and become slightly thickened and sticky. (It will yield 1/2 cup char siu sauce.) Transfer out and let cool.
Marinate the pork butt pieces with 2/3 of the char siu sauce and the chopped garlic overnight. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil into the remaining char siu sauce. Keep in the fridge.
The next day, heat the oven to 375 degree F and roast the char siu for 15 minutes (shake off the excess char siu sauce before roasting). Transfer them out of the oven and thread the char siu pieces on metal skewers and grill them over fire (I used my stove top). Brush the remaining char siu sauce while grilling until the char siu are perfectly charred. Slice the char siu into bite-size pieces, drizzle the remaining char siu sauce over and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
The leftover herbs are in the back window of my car drying now. Its a weird trick to dry herbs, but if you put them in a paper bag or box and leave them in your car while its warm, you'll have perfectly dried herbs in a few days. I think I'll mix in some dried bean curd and have it handy as a quick soup ala instant miso.
I hope you all are well and thanks for reading. I haven't written as much, I got really badly depressed and pretty much quit doing everything. I'm much better now after a couple months of pretty intense therapy and hope to write about my culinary conquests more in the future.
Lotsa Love,
3day
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