Chinese Take Out, Made In

The kids all know and like, if not love, Chinese take out. It's cheap, it's available, it's filling, and strongly flavored. Outside the fact that it's "Chinese" and tends to be made in shops with Asian people in it, there is not too much deep knowledge going on.

I started the class with a story about my friend Sonja, a Brit who liked to travel and have adventures, and when she got married, she and her husband decided to have the trip of a lifetime for their honeymoon. They flew to Hong Kong, took a train out as far as it would go, then took a bus even further, then hitch hiked further, then the roads ended, and they hiked into the countryside, where the villages are connected by foot paths.

As you can imagine, there is no hotel, no restaurants, no running water. In the villages, you are invited to sleep in the barn of a farmer, and the village came out for a communal meal to welcome their odd, foreign guests. Sonja & hubby remember being served, with great pride, a plate of white rice topped by a whole, roasted and crispy field mouse. This was the best the village had to offer, and it would have been poor form to do anything but eat it with great smiles and gusto. Suffice to say, Sonja lost a lot of weight on her trip. And after the mouse, they turned back and headed home.

Part of the character of Chinese and Asian cooking is the use of all sorts of sources of protein and food, and nothing is wasted. Such a large country with so many mouths to feed and limited resources -- being resourceful is job #1 of the chef. Multiply that with 1000s of years to develop a cuisine, and it was inevitable something interesting would emerge.

I presented the students with smells of the different soy sauces, oyster sauce, rice wine, rice vinegar and of course stinky fish sauce, all part of the artillery that Asian chefs use to make plain stuff extraordinary.

I broke up the students into two teams -- one did the pork dumplings and pad Thai, the other did the scallion pancakes and the chicken & broccoli. There was some resistance from the students: despite knowing and loving much of the menu, the recipes seemed to be....so long and full of words. There's few things more annoying in life than taking the time to go over a recipe with a student step by step, and when it's time to get started, they first thing they ask is what is the first thing they need to do.

The pork dumplings went well, though upon tasting, adjusted with a little bit more soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine.

PORK SHAO MAI

Yield: 60 dumplings

Pork, ground 2 lbs
Gingerroot, minced 3 tbsp
Scallions, mostly green, minced 4 each
Rice wine 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Soy sauce 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Sesame oil 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Egg whites 4 each
Cornstarch 3 tbsp
Water chestnuts, fine dice ¼ cup
Thin round dumpling skins 60 each

1. Hand mix pork, ginger, scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg white and cornstarch. In batches, place mix in a food processor. Pulse to mix further, then puree.
2. Once the entire batch in pureed, fold in the water chestnuts. Chill until ready to use.
3. Place approximately 2 tsp of the filling in the center of a wrapper. Bring sides up and push/pleat sides together so that the dumpling has an “Empire waist” and some of the filling pushes out the top. Place the shao mai on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp cotton towel until you are ready to steam them.
4. Place enough water into a wok or pan so that it comes up to inch below the steamer basket. BTB. Open the steamer and arrange the dumplings in the steamer basket with space between them. Steam until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

The pad Thai came out surprisingly well. The thing about this dish (and the Chicken & Broccoli) is that it's a stir fry -- it's pretty fast in the cooking, all the work is in the mise en place, getting all the components together.

PAD THAI

Yield: 8 entrée portions

Fettuccine-width rice stick noodle 1 lb
Peanut oil 1 cup
Tamarind paste 1 cup
Honey 1 1/3 cup
Fish sauce 1 cup
Rice vinegar ½ cup
Red pepper flakes 2 tsp, or to taste
Chopped scallions 1 cup
Garlic cloves, minced 4 each
Eggs 8 each
Nappa cabbage, shredded 1 head
Mung bean sprouts 2 packs
Peeled shrimp and/or pressed tofu 2 lbs
Cilantro, chopped 1 cup
Peanuts, chopped 2 cup
Limes, quartered 8 each

1. Put noodles in a large bowl and add boiling water to cover. Let sit until noodles are just tender; check every 5 minutes or so to make sure they do not get too soft. Drain, drizzle with a small amount of peanut oil to keep from sticking and set aside.
2. Put tamarind paste, fish sauce, honey and vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and bring just to a simmer. Stir in red pepper flakes and set aside.
3. Put remaining oil in a large wok over medium-high heat; when oil shimmers, add scallions and garlic and cook for about a minute. Add eggs to pan; once they begin to set, scramble them until just done. Add cabbage and bean sprouts and continue to cook until cabbage begins to wilt, then add shrimp or tofu (or both).
4. When shrimp begin to turn pink , add drained noodles to pan along with sauce. Toss everything together to coat with tamarind sauce and combine well. When noodles are warmed through, serve, sprinkling each dish with peanuts and garnishing with cilantro and lime wedges.
   

I never made this recipe before, and was happy how authentic they came out. One student who claimed to hate any kind of onion said that she really liked these, because the scallions were subtle.

SCALLION PANCAKES

Yield: 4 thin 8” round breads

DOUGH
AP Flour 9 oz
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Cold Water 5 to 6 oz

PREPARATION
AP flour for dough rolling as needed
Toasted sesame oil as needed
Scallions, thinly sliced, all white and a little green 2 bunch
Kosher salt as needed
Vegetable oil for pan-frying as needed

1. Add flour, baking soda and salt to the work bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. With processor running add water slowly until dough forms a bowl
2. Remove the dough and knead into a ball with the heel of your hand until “earlobe soft”, 1 to 2 minutes. Coat the dough in sesame oil and place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
3. Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured board and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Divide into 4 equal pieces and keep one covered with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Roll out the balls of dough into 4 1/8” thick rounds.
4. Brush these well with sesame oil and sprinkle evenly with scallions and salt. Roll up the circle into a cylinder – not too tight or too loose. Pinch the ends shut. Wind this cylinder into a flat, round spiral. Press this to flatten and roll out to about 8” diameter. (THINNER is definitely better for this bread.) Keep the breads covered until you cook them. (If they become too rubbery and hard to roll out, simply cover and wait 15 minutes. The gluten will relax.)
5. Heat a heavy skillet. Add oil to the depth of 1/8”. When oil is hot, add the bread – it should sizzle. Cover and cook over moderately low heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the bread is golden, about 2 to 5 minutes. Check frequently.
6. Flip the bread over and add more oil if necessary. Cover and cook again, shaking the pan occasionally, until the remaining side is golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. Slide the bread onto a cutting board and cut into pie-shaped wedges. Sere immediately

We used a Thai Jasmine rice for this, and it came out perfect. Nice and sticky, flavorful, everyone agreed they wished when they ordered take out, the white rice would come like this.

CHINESE LONG-GRAIN PLAIN BOILED RICE

Yield: 10 servings

Long-grain white rice 4 cups
Water 8 cups
Salt 1 tsp

1. Wash rice well with cold water. Drain. Put rice and 7 ½ cups water into heavy sauce pan. Add salt, bring to boil.
2. When water boils, lower heat to a simmer and cover. Cook 15 minutes, no more. Turn off the heat and quickly pour the extra half cup of water in around the edges of the rice. Then cover and don’t touch, uncover, stir or move the rice or pot. Just leave it to steam for another 10 minutes.
3. Uncover the pot and fluff the rice with a fork. Fluff onto a serving platter or bowl. Try not to mash or break the grains.

This was the most complicated recipe of the day, involving a lot of mise, and several times of using the wok, cleaning it out then using it again on different components before doing the final thing. The final result was really good, but the broccoli was a little over cooked and we should of doubled up on the sauce...

CHICKEN WITH BROCCOLI

Yield: 8 entrée size portions

Chicken breasts, 1” cubed 2 lb
Egg white 2 each
Cornstarch 2 tbsp
Salt ½ tsp
2 tablespoons oyster sauce 4 tbsp
Light soy sauce 2 tbsp
Dark soy sauce 2 tbsp
Water 2 tbsp
Broccoli 2 lb
Water 1 cup
Salt ½ tsp, or to taste
Sugar 1 tsp, or to taste
Garlic cloves 4 each
Cornstarch 2 tsp
Water 2 tsp
Peanut oil 5 cups

1. Mix together egg white, cornstarch and salt. Add mixture to chicken cubes, coat evenly. Marinate the velveted chicken in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
2. Prepare the sauce: mix together the oyster sauce, light soy, dark soy, and water in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Prepare the thickener: mix the cornstarch and water thickener and set aside.
4. Prepare the vegetables: wash and drain the broccoli. Cut the stalk diagonally into thin slices. Cut the florets into 3 or 4 pieces. Crush the garlic.
5. Preheat a wok. Heat 2 cups oil in the wok until it reaches 275 degrees Fahrenheit. (Test the heat by placing a piece of chicken in the wok - it should float). Add the chicken cubes, and let cook until they just turn white (about 30 seconds), using a wooden spoon or chopsticks to gently separate them. Quickly remove the chicken cubes from the wok as soon as they turn white, and drain in a colander or on paper towels.
6. Drain the oil out of the wok or preheat a second wok on medium high to high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is hot, add the crushed garlic and stir fry for 10 seconds.
7. Add the broccoli, sprinkle the salt and sugar over, and stir fry briefly, turning down the heat if necessary to make sure it doesn't burn. Add the 1/2 cup water, and cook the broccoli, covered, for 4 - 5 minutes, until it turns a bright green and is tender but still crisp. Remove from the wok and drain.
8. Clean out the wok and heat 2 more tablespoons oil. Add the broccoli and the velveted chicken, stirring and tossing to cook the chicken through. Add the sauce and cornstarch mixture in the middle of the wok and stir quickly to thicken. Mix everything together and serve hot over steamed rice.

Next week, breakfast foods!

Student's Choice/End of Semester

To close out the semester, the students suggested what they wanted to make. One said pork dumplings, another said fried calamari, the third suggested brownies, to which I steered to the next step up in elegance: flourless chocolate cake. One three students suggesting 2 appetizers and a dessert does not a meal make, so I rounded it out with a dish I wish I had hit up on grains day: risotto.

First up was making the cake. Flourless chocolate cake was trendy a few years ago, but now that everyone has taken a crack at it, people have recognized it for what it is: an extra dense brownie that doesn't have much chew.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Yield: 16 small serving

Semisweet chocolate 4 oz
Butter ½ cup
White sugar ¾ cup
Cocoa powder ½ cup
Eggs, beaten 3 each
Vanilla bean, scrapings 1 each

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease an 8” round springform pan, dust with cocoa powder.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Remove from heat, stir in sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla.
3. Stir in eggs. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

This is a VERY chocolaty and rich dessert, requiring something to compliment and mute it's strength. Vanilla ice cream (which I made at home and brought in -- not enough time and not enough equipment to make it at school) is a nice, straightforward companion, but a fruit sauce is also pretty classic.

RASPBERRY SAUCE

Yield: 2 cups

Raspberries 1 pint
White sugar ¼ cup
Orange juice 2 tbsp
Cornstarch 2 tbsp
Cold water 1 cup

1. Combine raspberries, sugar and orange juice in a saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk cornstarch into cold water until smooth. Combine cornstarch mixture into the sauce pan, BTB RTS
2. Simmer for 5 minutes or so until the desired consistency, constantly stirring. Note: sauce will thicken further as it cools.
3. Puree in blender. Pour through fine metal sieve. Serve warm or chilled.


Fried calamari is as simple as simple can be. I didn't really do any deep frying in class because it doesn't take much skill or talent to do it -- monkeys run the deep fryers at fast food restaurants. But if we were going to do it, I'm glad it was squid -- I got a student to take whole squid and take them apart. And unlike somethings, calamari only needs a minute in the fryer. Our first few batches came out perfect, but the last was a flop -- the temp of the oil dropped, and instead of coming out light and crisp, the last calamari came out heavy, greasy, overcooked and nasty. Mistakes are a learning opportunity.

FRIED CALAMARI

Yield: 16 small appetizer portions

Peanut oil 1 gallon
Squid, tubes & tentacles 2 lbs
AP flour 1 cup
Plain cornmeal 1 cup
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

1. Place oil in appropriate vessel. Bring to 375˚, measuring with fry thermometer.
2. Combine flour and cornmeal in a mixing bowl.
3. When ready to fry, in small handfuls, dredge the squid in the flour and cornmeal mixture and shake off the excess. In batches, gently lower the squid into the hot oil. Cook for 1 minute. The squid will not be browned, but lightly golden in color. Remove the squid and transfer to a cooling rack turned upside down set over a newspaper-lined sheet pan. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Repeat until all of the squid is cooked. Make sure to check the temperature of the oil before each batch to ensure it is 375 degrees F. Serve immediately.

Dumplings at their core are meatballs wrapped in dough. In this case, a Chinese-style pork dumpling involves pureeing the pork to make a mouse, spiked with a variety of Asian flavors like ginger, scallion, garlic, sesame, soy sauce and rice wine. We didn't have time to make the dough, but the premade goza wrappers were pretty good.

The dipping sauce was made on the fly, mixing ingredients from the recipe (soy sauce, sesame oil) and spiking it with a bit of vinegar.

PORK SHAO MAI

Yield: 60 dumplings

Pork, ground 2 lbs
Gingerroot, minced 3 tbsp
Scallions, mostly green, minced 4 each
Rice wine 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Soy sauce 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Sesame oil 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Egg white 4 each
Cornstarch 3 tbsp
Fresh water chestnuts, fine dice 2 oz
Thin round dumpling skins 60 each

1. Hand mix pork, ginger, scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg white and cornstarch. In batches, place mix in a food processor. Pulse to mix further, then puree.
2. Once the entire batch in pureed, fold in the water chestnuts. Chill until ready to use.
3. Place approximately 2 tsp of the filling in the center of a wrapper. Bring sides up and push/pleat sides together so that the dumpling has an “Empire waist” and some of the filling pushes out the top. Place the shao mai on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp cotton towel until you are ready to steam them.
4. Place enough water into a wok or pan so that it comes up to inch below the steamer basket. BTB. Open the steamer and arrange the dumplings in the steamer basket with space between them. Steam until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Risotto is a very interactive method. Once you have sauteed the aromatics and the rice andcooked off the wine, it's all about stirring while adding small portions of the liquid, to bring out the starch in the rice to make that thick sauce between the grains. Finished with lots of fatty things, it doesn't take a lot of add ons (in this case asparagus) to make a loud flavor.

CHICKEN ASPARAGUS RISOTTO

Yield: 14 servings

XV OO ½ cup
Onion, medium, dice 2 each
Garlic, minced 1 tbsp
Asparagus, peeled, diced 2 bunch
Asparagus spear tips 2 bunch
Rice, Arborio 3 cups
White wine 1 cup
Chicken stock, hot 16 cups
Butter, cold 8 tbsp
Parmegano-Regiano, grated 1 cup
Mascarpone 17.5 oz
Parsley, minced 3 tbsp
Chicken breasts, large dice 6 each

1. Sautee cubed chicken until medium rare. Set aside. Deep fry asparagus spear tips for 1 minute in 375˚ oil, set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large rondeau, add onion and asparagus, sweat until translucent. Add rice and cook until toasted and opaque, 3-4 minutes.
3. Add wine and cook until alcohol smell dissipates.
4. Add 1-2 ladles of stock at a time until absorbed, constantly stirring. Keep adding ladle by ladle, absorbing fully each time, until all is gone.
5. Remove from heat. Add butter, cheeses and parsley. Stir 30 seconds. Season. Add cooked chicken. Garnish with more grated cheese, parsley and fried asparagus spears.

And that was that. My wife and child came to the school, a few extra staff joined us, and rather than do family-style, I did some plating with the students, using garnishes to decorate appropriate sized portions.

After eating and clean up, I thanked the students, and told them that they were better than the other 7 students who dropped out over the semeseter -- in their professional lives, just being consistent and showing up will be a large part of what proves them to be successful, more than the flakes and the fakers.

There was some talk of starting a new semester in March, perhaps twice a week -- we could get through a lot more recipes and methods, and drill much deeper into theory and directed experimentation. So until then, have a happy new year!

Asian Dumplings (Shrimpos, Processed)

Today started with a quick review for tomorrow's exam, then straight down to it. All three groups did the same group of recipes -- Shrimp Shao Mai, Pork & Shrimp Potsticker, Vegetable Spring Roll, and Mu Shu Chicken. My group seemed pretty apathetic to the dishes, so I jumped on the shrimps.

First, make the mousse. In the robo coupe goes chopped peeled and deveined shrimp, minced ginger, minced scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, egg white and cornstarch. Blend it so it's a bit chunky. Fold in some minced minced water chestnuts. (Fresh water chestnuts are wonderfully mildly sweet and juicy, nothing like the canned junk you find in cheap Chinese food.)

Unfortunately, most of the dumplings used pre-made wrappers. Looking at the ingredients, there was some questionable ingredients -- yellow dye #6, sodium sulfate, etc.

The technique of making the dumpling was a bit tricky, but I imagine if I worked in a dumpling factory, I'd be able to do it fast in my sleep. Wet the wrapper, plop a spoonful of the mousse in the middle, fold pleats around to make into a little cup, open topped.

Before wacking them in a steamer, dipping sauce: cilantro, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soysauce, rice wine and roasted green chili (burnt on a burner just like in mod 1) all blended together in the robo coup.

The metal steamer is lined with cabbag leaves to prevent the shumai from sticking, and covered with a bamboo cover. Once the mouse turns completely solid and slightly orange, they're done. They came out pretty damn good, and they disappeared before anyone could think of packing them up to take home.

Tomorrow, an end-of-mod quiz and a day of sushi.

ADDENDA:
Went to a demo of Japanese ingredients after class, there sure is a lot I don't know or even experienced. Learned a cool recipe for a (vegan) green-tea smoothie, though the Japanese chef referred to it as a "smoosie". (Based on the method, it would be pretty easy to make green tea ice cream and green tea soy ice cream....) Afterwards, went to yoga, watched people do all sorts of poses I couldn't dream of attempting. Made me hungry.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

Good milk, good yogurt, banana, cherries, grapes, freshly ground flax. Taaaasty!

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, shrimp shumai, pork and shrimp pot stickers, fried vegetable spring rolls, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTINGS: 1-3pm, green tea smoothie, steamed cod, dried salted cod fish, .25 bowl, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, school-made wild boar ragu with fresh pasta, a few scrapings of mint chip ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Feeling hungry, from my local

EVENING DRINK: 8:30pm, 1 cup beer
On the concrete of Maclarren park in Greenpoint, or as my grand dad called it, "Greenpurnt". Alcohol is so overrated.

Asian Noodles (Balance from Funk)

I was disappointed to find that we were only using pre-made noodles, mostly dried. I've read a bit about the intensity that goes into making this staple of the Asian diet, and though there are few and simple ingredients, the method and detail is anything but. Dirty Dave and I assembled the large mise for Pad Thai, then I went and did a Cold Soba Noodle with Dipping Sauce dish.

Pad Thai, when broken down, is a simple dish...until you taste it. It's basically broad nice noodles in sauce, garnished with a protein or two and a handful of vegetables and egg. First, soak the rice noodles in water for 20 minutes to soften to flexible. Mix the sauce: fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice and tamarind past. This, I found, is the key to the dish -- depending on your ratios here will determine the flavor and balance of the dish. All four of these components balance each other out: sweet, acid, salty, sour. Next, heat wok, drop in whisked egg with a little water, keep moving it to cook it all, remove and break up into little pieces. Add curry paste and oil to the wok, heat it, then saute proteins (in this case chopped chicken breast and whole shrimp), until just cooked then remove. Stir fry cabbage and carrots to tender, add noodles and the sauce you made. If more liquid is required, add stock. Fold in proteins, taste.

Our first try was way-limey. DD added a dash of fish sauce, and it came back into balance. However, now everything just tasted....strong. Weirdly overly sauced but still relatively dry. I guess we could of added more noodles to cut it, but we wanted to have enough to start again. Plated, sprinkled with ground up roasted peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges. On the second go around, DD used chili sauce instead of curry paste and while the heat was a little higher, the over all flavor was definitely more balanced.

Next up was the cold soba, which was a bit simple but healthy and delicious. The soba noodles are made out of buckwheat, and came in cute little round bands. Boiled for a few minutes to soft, then plunged into an ice bath to halt cooking. The dipping sauce was made up mostly of dashi, the stock base that we made on Friday for miso soup, but today was made from instant dashi -- just add water. A dash of mirin and soy sauce was added, and that was the sauce. Some wasabi paste was made from powder (again, just add water) and served on the side too. Nori (dried pressed sea weed) was cut up and used as a garnish. No salt was used in the boiling water, the dipping sauce delivered all you needed.

Tomorrow, we visit Dumplingville.

ADDENDA:
I listened to an interview with Michael Pollan on an NPR podcast today, promoting his "In Defense of Food" book. I kind of found his previous books annoying and overly personal (not unlike an, ahem, blog), but I have to admit, I want to read his new one anyway -- he addresses how the U.S.'s lack of established food culture has allowed scientists to drive us crazy with nutritional info -- how nutrition can be regarded as separate from foods by putting it in pill form, and how it never quite works. The whole drive to demonize fat in the 70s and 80s made people fatter -- in fact, how in our food culture there is always an urge to make some element good and able to cure everything, and another element wholly bad and causes all evil. I wonder, how will it all end? Will it ever shake out with established, proven facts about nutrition that fits most people?

Felt heavy from a crappy eating weekend. It was fun to eat slovenly and revisit some habits of old, but don't want to live there. Thank goodness ice cream and cookies aren't heroin! Scale surprisingly said 224 this morning, I was sure I was gaining...

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, 1 banana, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30am, small plate of pad thai, bite of sesame noodles, bite of beef and broccoli with fried noodles, bite of cold soba noodles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, small amount of organic sports drink chasing a pint of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Thirsty when I got home, sport drink looked appealing, but cut the desire with swigging water first.

DINNER: 5pm, large green salad with vinegar and oil, school beef & broc, school pad thai, small amount of almond ice cream, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Betsy left an empty bowl in the freezer, with some smudges of ice cream on the edges.

EVENING TASTINGS: 7-9pm, equivalent of 1 glass of wine, one bread roll, a little bit of cheese, water, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
First of 6 sessions of wine tasting with B. Laid out 7 glasses with about 1/3 of a glass each, only had a couple of snorts from each, except the final port, which was surprisingly mildly sweet and musky, like raisins and leather. He he he. I said raisins and leather.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanut butter and wholegrain crackers, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Asian Soups and Bread (Explorations in Dough)

Today started with kitchen work, as some doughs had to be set up to rise. There were a lot of interesting but simple recipes today, of which I got wrapped up in two....and naan. Naan is a flat bread similar to pizza, but after making the dough twice and baking it a handful of times, learned to appreciate how it's not pizza.

First the dough: like pizza, yeast, water, flour and salt. Unlike pizza, ghee, yogurt and black onion seeds. The dough is mixed, kneaded to smooth, and coated in ghee and left covered to rise. The recipe we were using was annoyingly imprecise -- "2 cups" of flour is a volume measure, and could be packed light or tight. 2 cups is also 16 ounces, which is weight and is the same every time regardless of volume. My first dough was dry, tough and slightly lumpy after kneeding, so I did a second one, which was looser and pliable.

I prepped and cooked a mango chutney. Cumin and mustard seeds sauteed in some ghee until they make popping noises, thrown in diced onion, green chile and ginger till soft. Then jaggery (an unrefined sugar-cane substance), salt, ground cardamom, diced mango and lime juice are thrown in wit a little water and cooked till thick.

Moved on to miso soup. First, you make dashi, basic Japanese stock. Put kombu (sea weed) in cold water, bring to simmer and remove kombu. Bring to boil, add bonito flakes (dried makerel) and remove from heat, sit 5 minutes, strain. For the miso soup, simply add some miso paste and whisk. Garnish with sliced scallion and cubed tofu. My soup actually tasted a lot less salty then many restaurant soups I've had.

Then back to the bread, both which rose nicely. The recipe called to make 6 breads out of each recipe, but really only made 2 restaurant-sized naans. Punch down, divide, roll into a teardrop shape, sprinkle with onion seeds and brush with ghee. As the school does not have a tandoori oven, pizza stones were placed in ovens going full blast. I treated the dough like pizza, and made them as thin as possible with a light coating -- it just wasn't very good. By my 4th and final naan, I allowed the dough to be thick, particularly around the edges and drenched it in ghee. When it came out, it just looked right, and tasted it too.

ADDENDA:
Spent the afternoon prepping mise for a pizza dinner for 5 of B's friends and relatives. Was a lot of fun, did a few pizzas I haven't done before. Rather than words, here's the pics!:
Salad pizza: romaine, shredded carrots, cuce, scallion and red onion dressed simply in balsamic and olive oil over a garlic and oil crust. Vegan!


Bufalla moz and raw tomato sauce with basil. The first two pies I undercooked a little.


Fresh school-made moz with spinach, onion and mushroom. Gave it an extra minute, wonderfully crisp but chewy.


Thin sliced wild caught scallops over a garlicy wine sauce, came out surprisingly good for a first try, though could of used a little less garlic and a squirt of lemon.


Tarte Flambe. Screwed this one up but saved it from disaster by spreading the over-salted, over-mixed cheese sauce (cottage cheese and creme fraiche) VERY thin. Bacon and onoiin on top, could of carmelized the onion more to make them sweeter.

Roasted pear and and honeyed mascapone, really good and not overly sweet.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic chex with good milk

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, 1 naan, lentil daal, miso soup, paratha, poori, chapati, scallion pancake, tomato chutney, mango chutney, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, almond ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Straight out of the machine.

PM SNACK: 6pm, peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry while prepping dinner.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 6 different kinds of pizza, ice cream, 1 glass wine, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

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.