Asia (Shrimpos Supreme)

Today we conquered Asia, and again just about every student did a different recipe. After a full lecture, we sampled a variety of soy sauces, some light and bright, some dark and funky, some in between. Sipping on soy sauce is not exactly a prescription for low-sodium -- a large batch of unsalted white rice was cooked to serve with most of the dishes, as it's blandness is required as a sop for all the salty sauces happening.

I made Crisp Velvet Shrimp with Walnuts and Shitakes (not quite as cool a name as some of the other dishes, such as Cloud Chicken or Nude Fish with Strange Flavors) First step were to peel and devien a pound of shrimp. This is a particularly satisfying exercise, as I started prepping fresh shrimp at home months before I started school -- then it felt challenging and a bit scary, now it's easy-peasy. Line 'em up, shuck the shell, butterfly the back, then run each under water to get out the mini poo-tube.

The first step is the 'crystallize' the shrimp. Basically, you throw a 1/4 teaspoon of salt on the shrimp, mix it around for a minute, wash the shrimp in a strainer, towel dry, then repeat twice. This draws some moisture and stickiness off the shrimp. Next is to marinate the shrimp for about 30 minutes, a step referred to as 'velveting'. Take some salt, rice wine, egg white and cornstarch, mix it together and when its done marinating, strain but do not wash.

From here, the shrimp will be blanched in oil, similar in concept to blanching french fries. The shrimp are deep fried in a wok for about a minute, so it's about 3/4 cooked, then held aside to the final step.

A sauce is prepared, made with soy sauce, more rice wine, cornstarch, fish stock and toasted sesame oil, and then held. Into the wok is a little oil, and hunks of crushed garlic and ginger. These are tossed around the wok to flavor the oil, then are discarded. Sliced shiitakes and scallions are thrown in....

Note on scallions: Chef K demoed the proper way to cut scallions, which was odd, as I've been cutting scallions all my life for green salads. What she showed made sense. First, cut off the root end and the few inches of the very green limper end. From here, peel the top layer of the stalk away all around the scallion. This is what you wash. From here, either cut into 1" pieces to use as an aromatic that will be removed, or slice thin on the bias for maximum surface-for-flavor.

Back to the shrimp dish: once the mushrooms are tender and the scallions (which I sliced thin) wilt a little, the sauce is given a quick stir then thrown in. It goes in liquidy, but once it starts to boil and is stirred, thickens pretty quickly. It got very thick and I had to add water to calm in down. Velveted shrimp and crush walnuts are thrown in, folded to heat and cook through.

I called chef over for a taste and we were both surprised that it did not taste salty enough -- leave it to a slanty-eyed devil like me to make bland Chinese food! Chef K suggested I add fish sauce, that soy-sauce looking stuff that smells like rotting carcasses. On one smell, I added a table spoon to the good half gallon of stuff I had going. Mixed it in, and BAM it was on the edge of almost being too salty -- fish sauce ain't no joke.

Chef said it came out excellently, the velveting and the sauce really done well. It did taste good, a simple shrimp-in-brown-sauce thang. The velveting gave the shrimp that weird Chinese-restaurant feeling in the mouth, it tastes like shrimp but is non-sticky like chicken. Because of the crystallizing process, the shrimp just tasted more....shrimpy.

Dora made a similar dish for her group, Chef called the class over to taste it as an example of improperly crystallizing -- reportedly, it tasted like a salt lick, but I couldn't bring myself to taste her potentially poisonous food.

Wok cooking is fast cooking, and I was done with my main dish before 10:15. So I made a stirfry, a method the Chef demoed earlier. First thing, get all the mise together -- once you start rolling, it happens fast. Got some chopped mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, scallions, peppers. Set up a few cups of soy sauce, rice wine, fish stock and sesame oil. Crushed some hunks of ginger and garlic. First thing, heat the wok. Hit it with oil. Throw in garlic and ginger, toss it around, remove it. Put in slow cooking veg (carrots, broccoli), then the fast veg. Hit it with soy sauce and wine, to sec. Hit it with a little stock, lot of steam, cover the wok for a minute, let it steam in the yummy stock. Uncover, should be a little liquidy but not too much. Hit it with a dash of sesame oil, then plate.

There are no measures, just vibes. First time I did it, it was swimming in overpowering salty liquid, to the point of inedibility. Chef saw me pulling faces, said I could do it again. Second time, I was much more conservative in the liquids I threw in and the final product was just wet, not swimming. Taste-wise, I was shocked -- this is what I get in restaurants, about 10 times better than the random "stir fries" I've made at home with all the wrong ingredients. Chef tasted it, and complimented me on learning from my mistakes.

Tomorrow, we get down with Asian, Thai and Indian breads and soups.

ADDENDA
You know my mom would of called today's dish, "Shrimpos Supreme", or at least that's what I'd name it when I ran to her home after class. It's a good thing my parent's ain't around, or I'd be hogging up all the left-overs and running them straight to them everyday for a senior-citizen critique. I'd have gotten my mom to be a guest critic on this blog!

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10am-10:30am, stir fried shrimp in brown sauce with white rice, a spoonful of spicy tofu, tamarind drink, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, small quantity of tortilla chips and salsa, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Visited Y during lunch, I wasn't planning to eat anything but we ALWAYS eat when we get together, so we popped by an Emac & Bolio on Houston. Hanging out with Y (who I told all about today's Chinese odyssey, as she is Chinese and her parents run a Chinese restaurant) is always fun, and eating (and talking) food always amps it up a little.

DINNER: 7pm, baby carrots, hummus, multigrain crackers, robusto cheese, a couple of fancy rolls, glass of sake, seltzer, chocolate pie, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our meeting, B & I replicated our first date by having a picnic in Brooklyn Bridge Park then dessert at Bubbies. The first time, I brought a lot of what she didn't eat (smoked fishes) and she brought a lot of what I didn't eat (syrupy fruit salad). This time, it went a lot smoother.