Author Archives: Dave

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Lettuce Wraps

Posted by Dave in asian, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Lettuce Wraps

Failing to find a recipe that used a significant amount of whipping cream and Romaine lettuce, I settled on these lettuce wraps using just the lettuce. :-)

They’re much as set out in the recipe below except I used bacon (optional) and fried firm tofu… to see if I could cause a bacon/anti-bacon explosion. Oh, and I added chopped peanut… so, y’know, it was a typical sort of asian lettuce wrap meets BLT.

“Lettuce Wraps”
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/fusionrecipes/r/lettucewraps.htm

Here’s that P.F. Chang’s version that everyone seems to like:

“Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry Romaine Wraps with Citrus Soy”
http://www.pfchangs.com/chefscorner/ginger_chicken_stirfry.aspx

Spicy Cashew and Basil Curry

Posted by Dave in asian, gluten-free, vegan and tagged with , , ,

Spicy Cashew & Basil Curry

This is the first vegan dish that I’ve made… well, intentionally made vegan, anyway. So I didn’t use fish or oyster sauce. An inspiration for it is the whole basil curry at a local restaurant.

One unusual ingredient I used was tahini in the sauce; since tahini paste is just mashed sesame seed, I figured this is an alternative to sesame oil for flavor and may add substance to the sauce.

Ingredients: peanut oil, raw cashews, minced ginger, scallions, green cabbage, red bell pepper, baby bella mushrooms and whole basil leaves.

Sauce: orange juice, water, black bean paste, soy sauce (substitute tamari to be gluten-free), rice vinegar, palm sugar, tahini, chili garlic sauce, and cornstarch slurry to thicken slightly at the end.
(A similar sauce with coconut milk would be nice too.)

Here are some related recipes you might like:
“Spicy Beef with Thai Basil”
http://prettypeasrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/08/spicy-beef-with-thai-basil.html
http://thefoodaddicts.com/spicy-beef-with-thai-basil/
(I don’t know why they say the basil will turn black if you cook it… mine didn’t when I added it last with the mushrooms, and I wanted it wilted.)

Braised Chicken a la King

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , ,

Braised Chicken a la King

This dish is a modification of Chef Ming Tsai’s “Braised Sake Chicken a la Ming” recipe:
http://ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-8/braised-sake-chicken-a-la-ming.htm

I added red pepper and garlic to the mirepoix, added a couple bay leaves with the stock, and substituted 1 1/2 cups of Sauvignon Blanc for the sake and substituted sour cream, thinned slightly with milk, for the creme fraiche.

Overall, I rate it 3 out of 5 starts, i.e., I wouldn’t make it again as-is. The chinese mustard and wine are a nice improvement from your (my) mom’s Chicken a la King, but it is still reminiscent of that fairly mundane comfort food. The chicken is super tender when cooked this way though… the knife turned out to be just a photo prop. :-)

Fish Roe Fried Rice

Posted by Dave in asian, fish and tagged with ,

Fish Roe Fried Rice

My awesome ex-housemate left some interesting things in the freezer… including pieces of grilled fish roe. (I had to ask her what it was; I had no idea.) She said it’s good with rice, I used just a bit (as shown on left, which was plenty for flavor) for this serving of fried rice. It thaws and disintegrates almost immediately, even in your hand, because it is porous and the eggs are so tiny. These broken pieces (left photo) are browned on one side, which was the outside of the egg mass, as seen in this photo of grilled fish roe:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/odinchoy/japan275.jpg

Fried rice ingredients: canola and sesame oils, green cabbage, egg, scallion, sliced garlic, sticky rice, green peas, bean sprouts, soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, chili garlic sauce, black pepper, and grilled fish roe.

Moo Shu Catfish

Posted by Dave in asian, fish and tagged with , , , ,

Moo Shu Catfish

This is a delicious moo shu that I made with an asian variety of catfish.

To make this dish, pan-fry a light-flavored, white fish fillet in canola oil with thin strips of fresh ginger and a bit of chili garlic sauce, removing it as soon as it’s cooked and flakes easily.
In the same pan, deglaze with perhaps 1/3 cup thin sauce made of water, oyster sauce, honey, bean paste, and soy sauce and quickly stir-fry thinly-sliced cabbage, matchstick carrot, sliced scallion, thinly-sliced black mushroom, and bean sprouts. Remove while vegetables are still slightly crisp; flake the fish and add it to the mixture. (You might also add scrambled egg, as in many moo shu recipes.)
Serve wrapped with moo shu pancakes or in a flour tortilla as I did here, or with rice.

I bought the fish by the name “Swai”; it’s also known as basa, tra, panga (e.g., France) or pangasius, vietnamese river cobbler (U.K.?), and iridescent shark (although it’s a catfish, not a shark.) In the U.S., it is not allowed to be sold by the name “catfish” because it competes with U.S. catfish in the market.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark
It’s a commonly farmed fish in the Mekong Delta region.

I made Ginger Catfish previously, and this is likely the sort of fish that would be used in Vietnam.

Here’s some more info on the fish, which has gotten some scrutiny as it has become popular world-wide with a commensurate explosion in farming of it in asia. Perhaps surprisingly, it has become one of top ten most popular fish in the U.S., due to its flavor and low cost. (For instance, I bought a 6.5 ounce fillet for under $2.)

“What is Pangasius? Only the 9th most consumed fish in the USA”
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2011/09/13/what-is-pangasius-only-the-9th-most-consumed-fish-in-the-usa/

“Pangasius hypophthalmus”
http://www.fao.org/fishery/culturedspecies/Pangasius_hypophthalmus/en

Here is a documentary film, critical of its farming, c. 2008:
“Qu’est ce qu’un Panga ?”
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo87j_quest-ce-quun-panga_sustainable_dev

Stuffed Shrimp and Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Posted by Dave in shellfish and tagged with , , , , ,

Stuffed Shrimp and Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Here’s a delicious, decadent dinner!

Ingredients (to serve 2):

Large raw shirmp, ~3/4 to 1 pound (6-10 whole with tails intact but otherwise peeled and deveined, the remainder peeled and chopped)
Extra virgin olive oil (a few tablespoons)
White onion, (~1/2 cup)
Scallions, (2, thinly sliced)
Fresh garlic (2 cloves, minced)
Celery (2 stalks, finely diced)
Fresh mushrooms (e.g., Baby Bella or white, ~3/4 cup, finely chopped)
Salted butter (1/2 cup)
All-purpose flour (~1/4 cup)
Soup stock (e.g. chicken or fish, ~1/4 cup)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Thyme (dried, 1 teaspoon)
Cayenne pepper powder (1/8 teaspoon)
Worcestershire sauce (~1 tablespoon)
Saltine crackers (6-8, finely crushed)
Fresh lemon or lime (1)

Optional:
White wine (a few tablespoons)
Fresh asparagus (oven-roasted, as a side)

Here’s my video recipe for Stuffed Shrimp:

This recipe is based, in part, on a recipe by Chef John Besh.
Check out his site here:
http://ChefJohnBesh.com

Enchilada with Chard, Olives, and Chickpeas

Posted by Dave in texmex, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Enchilada with Chard, Olives, and Chickpeas

This large enchilada, prepared with a burrito-sized flour tortilla rather than the traditional corn, is a modification of my earlier recipe for Olive and Chard Enchiladas.

I added chickpeas (for protein), a bit of feta cheese, and ground whole, dried oregano to the filling and added chopped stewed tomoato to the cheddar cream sauce. Otherwise it’s as described there.

This is a really tasty combination of ingredients, and I think it could be done with a tomato-based sauce as well.

Thanks to a local pub for the idea to make one ginormous serving-sized enchilada rather than so many smaller ones!

A tip: unfortunately with sauces made of cream and cheese, the oil tends to seperate when reheating. I experimented with reheating both slowly in an oven and quickly in the microwave and didn’t see a substantial difference; in both cases the sauce separated. To rememedy this, I suggest microwaving, and then mix in a bit of milk with the sauce afterward, and blend the sauce with a whisk or fork.

Pepper Steak and Tofu

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , ,

Pepper Steak and Tofu

I made up this dish based on leftover ingredients from other recent meals; it is essentially a tasty combination of asian pepper steak and fried rice.

I used Angus Beef stew meat, thinly sliced. I also used tofu, cut into 1/4″ thick triangle-shaped pieces and fried in shallow peanut oil, so that just one side was browned. I like this restaurant-inspired way to prepare the tofu for its visual appeal.

The beef is sautéed in peanut oil with minced fresh garlic and ginger, then with coarsely diced green bell pepper and white onion. I also added some rice (prepared earlier), fresh whole basil leaves, and stir fried it, and mixed with a brown sauce of water, white wine, rice vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, black bean paste, chili garlic sauce, and honey then reduced to desired consistency.

Rice Stick Noodle and Beef Sauté

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , ,

Rice Stick Noodle and Beef Sauté

This dish is my approximation of a favorite a local noodle restaurant where it goes simply by the name “D8.” :-)

Stir fried in canola oil, ingredients are: sliced beef (I used relatively inexpensive Angus Beef stew meat), jalapeno slices, minced garlic, minced ginger, bean sprouts, scallion, egg scrambled in a bit of sesame oil, and combined with sauce consisting of fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, and honey, cooked until sauce reduced to desired consistency.

The noodles were extras, left over from my recent Pad Thai, and had been sitting in water in the refrigerator for a few days. (This seemed to neither hurt nor help; the noodles were just as they were after soaking only a half hour or so.)

This dish is a variation of fried flat noodles known as “Char Kueh Teow” as in the following recipes, popular in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s probably no surprise, then also, that it is somewhat similar to Pad Thai from adjacent Thailand, that is partially located on the Malay Peninsula.

“Fried Flat Noodles/Char Kueh Teow”
http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2008/11/fried-flat-noodleschar-kueh-teow.html

“Char Kuey Teow (炒粿條/Penang Fried Flat Noodles)”
http://rasamalaysia.com/char-kuey-teow/2/

“Fried Flat noodle (Char Kueh Tiaw)”
http://www.chopstickdiner.com/index.php?m=recipe&c=show_recipe&recipe_id=96

Fish Chowder

Posted by Dave in fish, soup and tagged with , , , ,

Fish Chowder

This is a thin, mild chowder with flavors of salmon, fennel, and thyme, and sweetness from tarragon and sweet corn.

First, I prepared a fish stock, roughly according to this recipe, except I used fresh tarragon rather than thyme:

“Traditional Fish Stock”
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Traditional-Fish-Stock-105267

Then I used that fish stock rather than chicken broth according to this recipe:

“Salmon and Vegetable Chowder”
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Salmon-and-Vegetable-Chowder-3042

Other modifications: I substituted celery for zucchini and diced white onion for leek. My original intention was to make a salmon chowder, but having had only about a pound of salmon bones and fin portions (the butcher’s leftovers – hey, it cost $1) with only a modest amount of edible fish meat, I added 1/2 pound of bite-sized pieces of tilapia fillets. Also, I used slightly less fennel seed than the recipe suggested since a fair number of people seem to object to the flavor if it’s strong.

A tip: if you buy frozen tilapia fillets, I suggest thawing them in water instead of the microwave, because they can overcook easily and get a rubbery texture.