Amuse Bouche

Korean Radish Salad or Banchan with a twist

 

First seed you attempted to grow? RADISH!

Large contents of your CSA box until at least August? RADISH!

You've had them with butter in a sandwich, you've added them to every salad, you've kept a bowl of them in your fridge in cold water ready to dip in salt and snack? RADISHES!

Now what? You ask.

Looking for something snappy to have with that fatty delicious barbecue?  I've got just the simple ticket.

Of course normally you would make this with a Korean white radish or maybe if you were feeling cross cultural and adventurous a daikon.

This weekend presented a plethora of Korean barbecue at my house from Kalbi to lip smackingly delicious short ribs.  I served this beside my favorite hands down favorite banchan , David Chang's scallion sauce.  Dear lord it is good. (Recipe found in the kalbi link above).

Pardon my iphone snap, but there was dinner to eat!  Just trust me and make this.  Absolutely lovely.

Koread radish salad (American style)

6 - 8 radish, washed and cut into sticks like carrot sticks

1 tsp salt preferably kosher or sea

1T sherry or cider vinegar (i like the sharpness sherry vinegar brings)

2 cloves of garlic minced fine (or if you are me 3 and maybe, just maybe,4 cloves)

1 - 2 T Korean pepper (Gochugaru) very inexpensive but has a distinct taste and heat level.  Order online if your local Asian bodega doesn't stock it - pop it in most anything.

1/2 t raw honey (if you are paleo) or sugar

1 scallion, cut thinly white and green

1 - 2 t toasted sesame seed

Sprinkle salt over sliced radish and let it rest for 10 minutes or so.  Drain off the water that exudes out of the radish.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Stir.  Taste for salt and heat and vinegar snap and adjust accordingly.  Chill.  Serve as one of many sides with barbecue.  Cuts right through the fatty deliciousness of pork.

 

Maitake - Hen of the Woods (Sauteed Maitake and Chanterelle over Creamy Polenta)

Sunday I am pattering around the kitchen working on my 5-hour roast duck.  I'm just stuffing the cavity with ginger and scallions and getting it in the oven when I see Dad pull up.  I pull open the door and he wanders straight over to the kitchen table and digs his hand in a bag and starts extracting the most gorgeous giant mushrooms.

Maitake! Hen of the Woods!  But, Where, How?

Rutebega inserted for size comparison not to masquerade as a maitake

Someone with a '59 Pontiac who comes by the museum sometimes to hang around and check out the cars brought them over for him.  Every year he goes to a certain location and picks them and being a mushroom forager myself I don't press further. Never will a mushroomer divulge their locations!  This year in Maine was horrible for mushrooms, at least in my neck of the woods.  Nary a chanterelle or a lobster mushroom was had and I was rather bereft at not having any delicious wild mushrooms.  There is nothing I love more than being the beneficiary of foraged mushrooms.

There are a whole host of medicinal claims associated with the maitake from helping with insulin levels for type II diabetes to shrinking cancer cells. Are they true? Are they just the usual hype? I don't know, but they certainly taste good so any added benefits are just the icing on the cake.

I spent some time Sunday afternoon removing the dirty base, filling the sink with water and a little salt and floating them upside down and swishing them around.  Rinse, repeat.  Please, don't believe the mushroom is a sponge blather.  A quick weigh before and after showed negligible water gain, but I witnessed maximum creature, worm and dirt demise.  I'd rather be clean and a little waterlogged thanks.  Good luck trying to just 'gently brush' the interstices of a Maitake or a hedgehog.

On Monday I brought some into work and sauteed them with a bit of salt, butter, thyme, pepper, madeira and cream and had them over a few slices of toasted Iggy's Francese. maitake or King mushroom have a nice texture, a chew, that you don't get with other mushrooms.  Wild mushrooms also have a more pronounced earthy taste that I love. It would be very easy to treat these like meat in a braise or a hearty dish they are that substantial.

That afternoon Heather had an 11+ class and somewhere around 6:00 she came strolling into the office with a sample bowl of this crack that she had made from Barbara Lynch's book Stir.  She knows my affection for polenta or as I put it "Oh polenta. Peasant food of many countries in various guises under various names. How I love your cheap comfort food happiness".  I obsessed about those few spoonfulls all night long and by tuesday I knew what I had to have for dinner.

I hit Russo's on the way into work for a few chanterelle which are plentiful lately at around $12.99/lb vs the usual $25/lb, a tub of mascarpone, a few shallot and a piece of tartufo cheese for grating and I headed into work.

Dinner on Tuesday was the following bowl of heaven. 

Shrooms:

Cleaned and torn pieces of maitake, chanterelle or fabulous wild mushroom of your choice

Butter and olive oil

Shallot, peeled and diced fine

1 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 - 4 sprigs of thyme stripped of leaves

Splash of Madeira

2 - 3 TBS cream

s&p

Heat a saute pan to medium heat and add a bit of butter and olive oil.  Once the butter melts, add the shallot, turn the heat down a bit and cook 1 - 2 minutes stirring until it is soft.  Don't let it get brown. Add the garlic and stir, cook 30 seconds or so.  Add the mushrooms, a sprinkle of kosher salt over the top and turn the heat back up to medium.  Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms exude their juice. Add the thyme leaves and continue to cook until the pan is almost dry and the mushrooms begin to brown.  Add the Madeira and cook until it has been absorbed.  Add the cream, continue to cook until the cream begins to brown a bit and then thicken.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Keep warm.

For the polenta:

3 cups milk
3/4 cup cornmeal
5 tablespoon unsalted butter
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup mascarpone

In a large saucepan, bring the milk to a gentle high simmer. Pour the cornmeal slowly into the milk whisking all the while to prevent clumping. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add 3 tablespoons of the butter, season with 2 teaspoons salt and a few good grinds of pepper, and let the polenta cook gently, stirring occasionally, until it’s thick and the cornmeal is tender, about 20-30 minutes depending on how course your polenta is, finer grind will cook quicker.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and then the mascarpone and cook an additional 5 - 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with more salt and pepper.

Place the polenta in a bowl and top with the sauteed mushrooms.  I grate over some truffle pecorino or other truffle based cheese.

Ma Po Dou Fu, Gan Bian Si Ji Dou, Tori Kara Age, Aspara no Nikumaki-Age

Will this horribly long, dark and snowy evil winter ever end? 

I am finally reaching the end of my tolerance for braises and long slow cooking and I am craving bright flavors, scorching heat, fresh tasting, salty things. I've been reading the end of summer blogs in Australia and New Zealand and craving languishing near the grill with only a lemon wedge and some salt to make things complete.

Right around now the only flavours that will make me happy are Asian and  I have learned that take-out Asian food never, ever satisfies. Oh sure, it all seems like a good idea, the descriptions are mouth watering, and I might add often amusing, but on the delivery...not so much. Perhaps if we lived in New York, or on the left coast we might get decent Asian food, maybe if I even lived on the other side of the Muddy Charles in the People's Republic of Cambridge, maybe then I could get good take-out. But over here in Newton. Sorry folks, its all a pipe dream. I woke up Saturday with a craving, so books were perused, inventory of ingredients taken and a shopping expedition to nowhere more exotic than Whole Foods was taken and then I settled in with a few tivo'd episodes of United States of Tara and started chopping and mincing and mise en placing.

First I made the Ma po dou fu or Pock-marked Mother Chen's bean curd, since I knew it would benefit from hanging out in the salty and chili-hot sauce reheating it wouldn't be an issue.  A block of tofu was cut into 1-inch cubes and rested in just boiled salted water in a bowl on the counter.  I rinsed a few tablespoons of fermented black beans. Into the oiled hot wok I tossed some ground beef and stirred it around until it was brown.  Into the wok I splogged 3 TBS of the chili paste I had on hand which was Nam Prik Pao, mainly because chef Jan got us all addicted to it and I am never without a jar in the fridge.  I sloshed it around, added the fermented black beans and then some chicken stock.  Season this to taste with some sugar and soy sauce.  Add your tofu which you have drained well and gently, so it doesn't break up,  squish it around in the sauce.  Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and let it get all flavor filled and happy for awhile.  I shut it off and then when we were ready to eat I turned it back on, in went a slurry of cornstarch and water to thicken it slightly and then I added a good sprinkling of szechuan peppercorns that I dry toasted in a hot pan and then ground fine in a spice grinder and a handful of sliced scallions.  There are a million ways to make this dish, I just happened to follow Fuchsia Dunlop's method.

I also love her dry fried green beans or Gan Bian Si Ji Dou.  Top and tail a bunch of washed green beans.  In a smoking hot wok fry up some ground pork and sprinkle it with Shaoxing rice wine and some soy sauce.  You can either dry fry your green beans until they get all wrinkly, or since I was already going to be frying something later, I fried my green beans until they wrinkled nicely but still had texture.  They were drained and added to the pork and wine and then some sesame oil and maybe a smoodge more soy was added.

Next we headed over to Japan and made an izakaya style nosh of asparagus that has a thinly sliced piece of pork wrapped around and the whole thing is dipped in a tempura batter of flour, baking powder and club soda and then fried tempura style.

I made a gyoza sauce of malt vinegar, sugar, oyster sauce, garlic and chili ground in a mortar and pestle with some salt, some soy sauce and a few dribbles of sesame oil.  We used this as a dipping sauce for the asparagus rolls and the tori kara age.

In the fridge I dragged out a few cups of cold rice from the other night and made a sauce of hoisin, tamari, sugar, malt vinegar and sesame oil.  Into a hot oiled pan went some minced ginger and garlic, when it was fragrant I tipped in the rice and broke it up so it was individual grains, in went the sauce and a load of chopped scallion.

Tori kara age.   When I got home from the store I marinated pieces of chicken thighs for a few hours in soy, sake, sugar, oyster sauce and ginger.  I drained it and tossed it with a beaten egg, some cornstarch, a few pinches of oregano and thyme and then it was quickly fried.

Total prep time was about 20 minutes (marinating took a few hours, but it was put together in 10 minutes) cooking time took about 30 minutes.  If I got take out from Dining in, delivery time is 1 hour. I assure you, I cant find take out this good in my neighborhood.  And now I have the added bonus of leftovers for Monday lunch.

Zucchini (sumer squash) Gratin

Did you know that Friday(Aug 8th) is the official "Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day"? 

I thought my zucchini were never going to make it after the hailstorm in July, but I cut off the shredded leaves, left one or two on for photosyntheses and like the never say die plants they are it has managed to rally and produce at least three gorgeous striped ones so far.  Since I only have one plant (plus one that only produces male flowers) I don't think I'll need to sneak around under the cover of darkness depositing the spare ones on my neighbor's porches, but when all those tomato plants decide to come in at once baskets may start appearing.  Funny how no one ever minds spare tomatoes.

Now if you have to share some zucchini love this recipe is the the one to use.  Who doesn't love a gratin? Anything under a nice crust sounds good to me.  You can knock this gratin up in the cool of the morning and serve it later at room temperature with a nice side salad. I love how in Mediterranean countries the cooking is done in the coolest part of the day and dishes are eaten later at room temperature.  I think it makes the flavours come out more that trying to eat it while it is still hot.  This dish also packs well for travel, and can serve as a nice vegetarian dish to bring to the family barbecue.

This recipe comes from Mediterranean Harvest by Martha Rose Shulman.  We made it at create a cook back in Summer Harvest week in late June and I have been waiting for a chance to make it at home.  A walk through the vegetable bed on Saturday yielded a lovely green striped zucchini and the fat yellow one came from the Waltham farmer's market along with the purple pepper and the two heirloom tomatoes.

Click below for recipe.

Things to do with a Watermelon

Now is the time a year when those giant green orbs beckon from farmstands and grocery store bins, it's finally watermelon season.

I've spoken before about watermelon salad which I adore, but during the summer I do loads of other things with watermelon as well.  What you see up there is one of my favourites. 

I take a watermelon and scoop out the flesh and the juice and put it in the blender, puree the heck out of it, strain it through a fine strainer, decant it into a bottle or a jar and chill it.  There is seriously no drink better suited to summer.  The bonus?  That bubble gum pink colour is all natural!  Some might call it aqua fresca, but I just call it good, and i don't add any water or sweetener to it, who needs it when watermelon is so sweet naturally?

Sometimes I take it and put it in a shallow dish in the freezer and scrape it up every once in a while with a fork to make a nice granita.

I've poured some in a shaker with some campari, lime and vodka and made a nice summer cocktail.

I made a salad last week with watermelon chunks, grilled marinated shrimp, grilled haloumi and some greens and added watermelon juice to the vinaigrette. 

See the possibilities are endless.

Grab some summer now while you can, you can't get this taste in February!

Chanterelle

I drove up to Maine this week to hang up with my mom for a few days.  I had the week off and she is staying up there for a month. Our menfolk had to work.  I'm not sure if you have heard but it has been raining.  A lot.  That is not an understatement.

However I would like to show you the rewards of all this rain.

I picked these in about 15 minutes around our house and if the road verges weren't like small rivers when I left this morning I'd have at least a half a pound more and some lobster mushrooms. 

Since our little holiday was a washout Mom took me on the local gourmet tour of Maine.  I'll show you a few of my finds later.

Meanwhile, what should I do with those lovely chanterelle mushrooms?

Beluga (black) Lentils - Poor man's caviar

Just look at that pile of little black pearls under that barramundi.  Are they not gorgeous?

I had picked up a bag of these black beluga lentils at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and they have been hanging around in my pantry waiting to make their debut. I put them right on the front of the shelf at eye level so that I wouldn't forget that I had them, incidentally they taunted me each time I walked past the glass doors. I thought these might make a great introduction to lentils around here as they were quick to use because they are already cooked.  I am never sure about getting lentils to the exact consistency so they maintain their shape and pop in the mouth without getting all mushy in the pan. I'm far better wih pea soup where you cook the crap out of the split peas just so they make a lovely mush.

These lovely, little pearls however are a whole different story.  They literally pop in your mouth almost exactly like little pearls of caviar.  They taste earthy, without being overwhelming, and they are a great vehicle for other flavours.  These lentils are from Syria and like all lentils, they only lack one of the essential amino acids methionine which can be provided by adding a grain or a nut in order to make it a complete source of amino acids. 

There was the big question of what I would do with them until Saturday night.  I needed a side for my Barramundi filet and I started tearing through the fridge for ideas.

I had a bit of guanciale left over so I chopped that fine and sauteed it until the pieces were crispy.  Pull them from the pan with a slotted spoon and let them hang out on a paper towel.
Then I tossed in a few slices of red onion diced small and sauteed them gently until they were translucent. I minced a garlic clove fine and tossed that in as well. There were a few crimini left over from a stir fry so they were sliced up and tossed in.  Now the package of lentils tells you to boil water and drop in the whole package to warm the lentils.  I couldn't be bothered.  I tipped them in with the onions and mushrooms, seasoned everything with salt an pepper and when they were heated through I turned off the heat an drizzled on some good extra virgin olive oil and tossed on the reserved guanciale.

These gems are really worth seeking out and trying.  Please, report back on any other ways you might have used these.  I would love to work them into my regular dish rotation.

Chicken Tandoor with Butter Sauce and Bengali style mixed veg

My first attempt at chicken Tandoori without a Tandoor and without the food colouring. 
My oven may not hit 900F, but I did get it to a respectable 550F according to Taylor.
Verdict?
Amazingly good, easy to do, will be repeated.
The side dish was purple carrots, potatoes and peas cooked dry with cumin seeds.  Seriously good.
Both of these are going straight into rotation.
Recipe coming later in the extended post.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

You seriously wish you had smell-o-vision at this moment.

My cherry plum tomato plants decided to give up their harvest in one fell swoop.  Following along Kalyn's idea I roasted away.

Cut in half, tossed with EVOO, fresh rosemary and oregano and roasted in a low, low oven for 5 hours, skins pulled off, these are officially tomato candy, tomato leather, tomato heaven, essence of tomato.  Frozen for later delectation when the winds blow and the snow is knee high to a beagle's ear.

I urge you to try it.

Potato and Leek braise

Last night in my Kitchen basics class at create a cook we were working on moist heat cooking.
We made a Cajun Maque Choux stew with chicken and sausage and a steamed Sticky Toffee pudding for dessert but the surprise hit of the night was a vegetable dish I'd adapted from the wonderful book All About Braising by Molly Stevens.  Parents wandered in to pick up their kids and they were stunned to find them scarfing down a vegetable dish rather than the sweet brown sugar coated dessert in front of them.

This really is a very simple dish to make, a few minutes prep and then bung it into the oven for an hour and a half. It also incorporates one of my favourite vegetables, the leek.  I think many people ignore using leeks because they really aren't sure what to do with them.  One of my favourite methods to treat leeks is over here, but I am sure this recipe is going to soon become a favourite in this house as well.

Heat your oven to 325.
Heat up some chicken stock until just before it boils.
Cut the leek where the pale green meets the dark green tops.  Discard the tops or save them for stock. Run your knife gently down the length of the leek through 1 layer and peel and discard that outer layer.  Slice the leek into 3 inch lengths.  Take each 3 inch piece and slice through it lengthwise.  Lay each half down and cut half moons about a half of an inch wide.

Scatter all of these pieces in a bowl filled with cold water and slosh them around.  Lift out the pieces of leek leaving any sand or grit behind in the bottom of the bowl. 

Toss the leeks into a baking dish.

Peel a potato, Yukon gold preferred, but not required.  Cut the potato into half inch chunks.  Toss these in with with the leeks.

Grab a few thyme sprigs and holding them over the potato and leeks, strip off the tiny leaves by running your thumb and forefinger up the sprig against the leaves.  Don't worry if you get a few bits of stem in there as long as they are then tender tops of the sprig and not the tough woody bottoms.  Make sure you have at least 2 teaspoons of thyme leaves scattered about.

Season everything generously with kosher salt and back pepper.

Dot the top with 1 - 2 TBS of butter, unsalted preferred, but again not required.

Now depending on how much volume you have of potato and leeks, add about 5 ounces of chicken stock per 3/4 pound potato.  You just want some liquid in the baking dish, the vegetables will not be covered just gently swimming in a little puddle.

Cover your baking dish tightly with foil and toss it in the oven.

After an hour and a half, take off the foil and add a splash of cream to the baking dish, if the dish looks very dry, add a tiny bit more chicken stock.  Put it back in the oven, uncovered for another 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, check that the potato can be gently pierced with a knife.  If the potato are done, take it out, give it a little stir and serve.