Shanghai was a blast!

Shanghai was a blast! Pictures soon to come of all the lovely and exotic food. I have a few videos as well.

Sorry for all those awaiting posts. The holiday season has been hellish.

I have a few posts queued up, as I had been doing some delicious delicious cooking since I've been back. Next post to follow soon...

Gone to Shanghai...

I'll be out of the country for the next two weeks... I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post when I get back!

Things on my plate:

Hairy crab

Eight-jeweled duck

Pork rib in prickly ash and salt

Plain boiled chicken (baht tseet gai)

Crab banquet

Shao loong bao

Babao duck

P.S. My roommate promised to drive me to the airport but he's pretending to be asleep! Aghhhh!!!!

Pineapple Powder

I regularly make homemade pineapple juice at home, but inevitably I always have a large amount of pineapple puree left at the end of every juicing session. What do I do with this? Initially, I threw it out, a waste. Eventually I put this in blended drinks. However, before I learned to do this, I had no idea what to do with all my puree.

One day I figured it out. I would make pineapple powder! Theoretically, you can make any flavor of powder. Popular examples are tomato, fennel, mushroom, etc.. The ingredients are simple and it's easy to make.

The basic idea is to take some puree of whatever you are making powder of (in this case, a lot of pineapple pulp), squeeze as much water out of it as possible in a clean dishcloth, and dehydrate it in a dehydrator. Unfortunately, most normal people do not own a dehydrator machine in their homes, so I jerry-rigged a microwave to do the same thing by using the lowest possible setting for heat over an extended period of time. Since microwaves work on the principle of using water in a substance to produce heat, this works.

First, I took some pineapple puree and squeezed the water out as best I could.


Next, I spread the puree in a thin, even layer on top of a sheet of parchment. I trimmed the parchment into a circle shape so it would sit evenly in my microwave.

I set my microwave on 20% power and "cooked" the pineapple puree on the parchment for about 20 minutes. When I took it out, it was leathery and dry.

I think I might've overdried the pulp because there were some char marks and the flavor of the pineapple was extremely faint. I think overdrying the pineapple muted the flavors.

I put this all in a spice mill and grinded it up until no large pieces remained. It was a fine powder when I took it out.

Finally, I bottled the powder. It should be good for about three to five days. Afterwards, the flavor diminishes.


Now comes the million dollar question. What the hell do you use these powders for?

I have no idea. Anyone care to comment?

P.S. My friend likes to call this "pineapple nose candy."

Shrimp with Avocado Salsa

One of the reasons I love summer so much is because it's a great season to have salsa. I don't mean your horrible, factory-produced, canned salsa, good for those with bland palates and a taste for food that's jarred and frozen. I love, love, love original salsa, even though it might not be the healthiest thing you could eat!

Avocado is a terrific fruit rich with fiber, potassium, and of course, fat, but it makes a terrific avocado salsa that I've used more than once. It goes great with seafood (I've used it on red snapper before, with some minced chili peppers). Today, I decided to make Shrimp with Avocado Salsa.

First step was to make the court bouillon, an acidic poaching liquid which has flavors of anise and lemon. I combined water and aromatic vegetables in a large pot and heated it. The aromatics were carrots, leeks, and onions. The recipe called for fennel, but I don't really use it that often and I didn't feel like paying $5 for a single bulb, so I substituted a small amount of Pernod. I also added a bouquet garni, which is thyme, parsley, and bay leaves tied inside three leek greens.

Once that came to a boil, I reduced it to a simmer and added the white wine, white vinegar, and halved lemon.


Once it was simmering again, I added the shrimp. I got the shrimp from Pescatore in Grand Central Market once again. I opted for medium-sized shrimp with shell-on because I figured it would help keep in the flavor while it poached. Shopping at Pescatore is nice because they have one of those "customer loyalty cards" they punch out every time you purchase a pound of shrimp or fish. Once you get ten punches, you get a pound of ANY FISH for free. I've done the math for purchasing ten pounds of the cheapest carp and getting a free pound of tuna and it's not bad. Nice, eh?

I let it cool on the counter which took about half an hour, then I peeled and deveined the shrimp. In retrospect, I don't know if the whole court bouillon business did much. I tasted only a slight acidity and anise flavor in the shrimp, but I wasn't wowed. At least my compost bin is happy from the ordeal.

While this was all happening, I made the avocado salad. This was the easiest part. I used my brand-spanking new food processor and finely chopped some red onion and cucumber, then I carefully folded in the cubes of avocado, taking care not to break up the fruit. I also drizzled in some olive oil and seasoned it with salt and pepper to taste.

I had some tomato diamonds in the fridge from the previous day, so it was time for plating. I took a large fork and speared a shrimp on the end. On the tines, I added a heaping spoonful of avocado salsa and placed a few tomato diamonds on top. Here's the final canape plating:

Doesn't that look great? I would definitely make this again, but maybe without the court bouillon step. I think you can simply poach the shrimp in white wine and lemon, and it would come out fine. Also, the Pernod worked extremely well; I could taste a little anise flavor, and it was absolutely a cinch to do. Buying a whole piece of fennel, chopping it up, and letting the unused remainder go bad in your fridge is just a waste.

Happy summer everyone!

Sources:
Shrimp from Pescatore in Grand Central Market
Produce from Greenwich Produce in Grand Central Market

Curry with Thai Eggplant

When I want to find interesting and extremely fresh produce, I like to take a trip to Chinatown. Not only are the wares incredibly fresh, but there is a wide variety of vegetables and fruit. Everything is dirt cheap to boot.

A few weeks ago, I was walking past a vegetables stand and saw Thai eggplant, small green golf-ball--sized pellets. I couldn't resist and purchased a pound of the eggplants.


When I got home, I was perplexed. I had never cooked with Thai eggplant before and had no idea how to cook them. I decided to taste the vegetable. I cut one open -- it was incredibly seedy. The flavor was similar to normal eggplant. I noticed that the flesh seemed porous and absorbent. Then it hit me. Curry! A delicious curry sauce would be sopped up by the flesh of the eggplant. I had used normal eggplant in curries before and so I knew it would work.

I modified a standard recipe for curry that is the basic archetype from which all curries are built; you probably already know it. Turmeric root, cumin, and coriander are toasted until fragrant, then grounded up with garlic and peppers in a spice mill. You can add ginger too. Then diced onions are fried until translucent. Lastly, tomatoes and coconut milk are added. The result is Curry with Thai Eggplant.

I looked in the fridge hoping for some chicken, but no luck, only half a chicken breast. I prayed and hoped and crossed my fingers and opened the freezer. Eureka! I found a packet of snowy halibut. I had just stuck it in the freezer a mere few days ago, and I vacuum sealed it so it didn't suffer from freezer burn in any way.

First, I toasted some of the spices. Here we see cumin, coriander, and turmeric being toasted in a small saucepan.

I love my spice mill. You can make "dry" sauces so easily with one. Instead of chopping herbs, garlic, ginger, spices, parsley, cilantro, et cetera etcetera etcetera, just dump it all in the spice mill and coarsely grind. The more finely you grind it up, the more flavorful it will become. I'm not sure if they start to react after a certain point though, so I only ground until it was a coarse paste.

In a medium skillet, I heated some oil and added the chopped onion, cooking a few minutes until it softened.
I added the curry paste and cooked some more, trying to break up large pieces as best I could (it starts to stick together since it's a dry paste).

I added chopped tomatoes (You can peel the tomatoes if you want; I didn't) and cooked a minute or two. If desired, you can always remove the large pieces of tomato skin. I don't really mind it.

I added about a cup of coconut milk (same amount as the tomatoes), and mixed. I loved the melding of the colors.

I let this simmer (on medium or low) for about 10 minutes so that the tomatoes were breaking down. Meanwhile, I cubed chicken breast and the halibut...

I also quartered the Thai eggplants and mixed them into the curry. They benefit from extended cooking time as the curry has a chance to soak into the eggplants and give them a more flavorful characteristic.

I tasted the curry and deemed it worthy of the protein I was about to add. The chicken and halibut were added to the curry mixture and I cooked it thoroughly, until the fish and meat were cooked. If you are worried about overcooking the fish, I would add the chicken first, cook a few minutes (not completely), then add the fish.

For a finishing touch, I added chopped cilantro and incorporated.


The end product had a terrific kick. The Thai eggplants were the star of the dish; the seeds provided fun texture and the flesh soaked up the zingy curry flavor. The curry was both spicy and cooling. There was also well-balanced counterpoint between the spice of the peppers, the spice of the ginger, and the coolness of the coconut milk.

Sources:
Thai eggplant from Chinatown
Produce from Whole Foods
Halibut from Costco

Rambutan in Cocktails

One of the great things about living in New York City is all the great produce and fruit shops. Just the other day, I was strolling through Grand Central Market, a collection of shops that sell charcuterie, gourmet meats, cheeses, fine produce, exotic spices, fresh fish and seafood, rare and exquisite coffees, and more. The products are all of the highest quality, and the breadth of the selection is expansive. You can find anything from a rare type of saffron, to an obscure fish from Hawaii, to a fruit from Vietnam that only started getting exported to the U.S. a mere few weeks ago.

I have a habit of picking up odd produce and fruits that I don't recognize, taking in their aromas through my olfactory senses, enjoying their vivid colors, feeling their unique textures, and thinking about how they might enhance my home kitchen or bar.

So when I first discovered Rambutan, I knew I had to buy some and play with it at home. Rambutan is native to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and southeast Asia in general. It's similar to the lychee in appearance and taste. The outer shell is red and "hairy" with lots of fibrous strands that extend from the covering. The fleshy fruit inside is sweet, sour, and lychee-like in texture -- soft and rubbery.

Rambutan is in season in late fall/early winter usually, but it also has a short season in late spring/early summer. According to the owner of the greenmarket where I purchased the rambutan, the long season lasts about six weeks.

I have used lychee in martinis in the past, but I decided to use tequila and try my hand at a margarita with rambutan flavor. After muddling the rambutan (peeled and de-seeded of course), I added 2 oz tequila, 1 oz Cointreau, and 1 oz fresh lime juice.

Two points here -- first, always, always use 100% blue agave tequila (make sure it's bottled in Mexico), and second, always squeeze your lime juice fresh.

Why, you may ask? The type of tequila you use is extremely important in your drinks. Many people say they dislike tequila simply because they have never had real Mexican tequila. Brands that are bottled outside of Mexico are called "mixtos," which contain less than 51% agave, using sugars and other alcohols to make up for the remainder. The result is a loss of pure agave flavor, a potential for a nasty hangover, and the lack of the deep and rich flavor of real 100% agave tequila. Personally, I always purchase 100% agave tequila, as the difference in cost is nominal and the quality that comes with the extra few bucks is tremendous.

As for the second point, an important tenet of bartending is that fresh fruit juices can make or break your bar. Please don't use the pre-squeezed brands available from the supermarket -- they are either too sweet, sour, sugary, watery, or simply not fresh-tasting. It's so easy to juice your own fruit for cocktails. As a rule of thumb, one lime will yield approximately one ounce of fresh lime juice if you use a citrus reamer.

Anyway, I shook all the ingredients in a Boston shaker filled with cold ice, and strained it into a margarita glass. Delicious.

An alternative is to use 1 oz grapefruit juice or 1/2 oz lime juice and 1/2 oz grapefruit juice in lieu of the lime juice.

Bottoms up!

Recipe: Rambutan-Grapefruit Margarita

Ingredients:
2 oz tequila
1 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
3 de-seeded and skinned Rambutan
6 mint leaves

1. Muddle the Rambutan in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Slap the mint leaves to release their oils and aromas and place in the shaker.
2. Add the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, and grapefruit juice.
3. Fill the shaker with cold ice and shake thoroughly.
4. Strain into a margarita glass and garnish with a lime wedge. Serve immediately.

Chinese Tea Eggs

One of my favorite traditional Chinese preparation of eggs is Chinese Tea Eggs, also known as 茶叶蛋 （cháyèdàn). While hard-boiled eggs are normally flavorless with a dry yolk, Chinese tea eggs are beautifully marbled and delightful to the eye, aromatic, and delicious and full of intense flavor. They are also not difficult to prepare, and you can refrigerate them for a few days and eat them whenever you want.

The idea is to hard-boil regular chicken eggs -- supermarket-bought ones will do -- until they are about 75% done. You can use any type of eggs (I used a mixture of chicken eggs and quail eggs, as you can see above), but chicken eggs are larger and provide more food for your effort. Then, the eggs' shells are cracked carefully with the back of a spoon, and the eggs are marinated in a simmering mixture of soy sauce, black tea leaves, star anise, sugar, and other optional ingredients. The main items in the marinade are the four ingredients mentioned above, but you can add whatever you want to customize the flavor and aromatics as you wish. Some optional ingredients can include cinnamin stick, cracked black peppercorns, or orange zest. You can imagine the possibilities.

Chinese Tea Eggs - 茶叶蛋 （cháyèdàn)

6 eggs (chicken or quail eggs)
3 tea bags of black tea
1 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 pieces star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorn (optional)
2 to 3 strips dried mandarin peel (optional)

1. Submerge the eggs in a pot with cold water. Bring the water to a slow boil, then lower heat to simmer for about 3-5 minutes. Remove eggs from heat and allow to cool (or run them under cold water). Once they are cool enough to handle, take the back of a spoon and crack the shell all over. The more cracks, the more the marinade will penetrate the shell, and the more flavorful the resulting egg will be.

2. Return the eggs to a clean pot, and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring liquid to a boil and simmer for 1-3 hours, or even longer, for more intense flavor and color. Add water if level gets too low.

3. Remove from heat and peel egg immediately before serving. You can store them in the refrigerator for a cold snack.