Summer Food Pr0n - Korean

Dear Korean BBQ'd Turkey,

I couldn't wait to take a picture of you, I had to eat you and your tomato and cucumber sidekicks.  

Love,

Chef Jeff

P.S. You're still photogenic, don't worry.

Summer Food Pr0n - Italian

Deer Paparadelle and Arugula Salad

BBQ Pizza

Eggless Strawberry Ice Cream

This version of strawberry ice cream is superbly delicious.  It may not be as creamy as the strawberry gelato that I've written about previously but it has 2 strong advantages over that recipe.  For one, it is mama-safe and it is so in 2 ways: first, my mother is allergic to eggs, secondly my wife is pregnant and has to avoid raw eggs.  Thirdly, it is baby-safe and my delightful daughter of but one year, already has an incredible penchant for ice cream.  

Ingredients

3 cups Quebec strawberries
1 cup 10% cream
1 cup sugar
2 tbsps fresh squeezed lemon juice
1.5 cups whipping cream

You have 2 choices: chunky strawberries or delicious cream.


Chunky 

If you like chunks of strawberry in your ice cream, crush the strawberries with the edge of a knife and combine the lemon juice sugar and the strawberries 4 hours beforehand, letting them macerate.  Drain the liquid off into the cream when you're ready to start, mix well, whisking it in vigourously to get some air  incorporated into the cream.  Make the ice cream as you would, according to the instructions for your ice cream maker.  Add the strawberries when the ice cream is close to complete, to keep them from getting overly squished.

Smooth

I prefer my ice cream smooth.  I add the cream, lemon juice, sugar, and strawberries to the blender and puree the whole lot of it.  A bit messier, but saves you having to wait for maceration.  If you're a real stickler for smooth, you can cheese cloth out the seeds, but I like a little bit of texture. Make the ice cream as you would, according to the instructions for your ice cream maker.  

Lobster Season

A Lobster Guedille

When I was a child, the fishermen would come down in caravan passing by our  house early in the a.m., rumbling down the gravel road that ran adjacent to our property on their way down to the beach at the bottom of our hill.  The phone would start ringing, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m. as the fisherfolk called to consult with my father before heading out to lay and check their traps.
At least once a week my father came home with a couple of lobsters each.  Every time there was a big storm, the neighborhood kids would walk along the beach, trawling for washed up traps, and we'd roast the big green suckers up by tossing them into bonfires right there on the side of the ocean, smashing their charred and steaming carcasses open with rocks and clawing out the flesh and jamming in our mouths, searing hot, sand and all.

We ate so much lobster at that time of year.  So much lobster every week in the summer, that by the time I came to Montreal, I could barely stand the look of it.  Lobster, you know, poor man's food; lobster, that made great fertilizer for the garden 100 years ago.

Lobster, we'd boil it, crack it, soak and slop it around in searing and heavily garlicked butter and slurp it down, day after day after day.  The leftovers were done up in lunches for the rest of the week, soused with mayonnaise, and squished into guedilles and sandwiches.

So, naturally, every lobster season, my inner Gaspesian awakens.  It's time to feast on the blessed bounty of blue bugs from the bay.  Now the best time to pick these suckers up are mid-way through the season.  The flesh is sweet after they've had a chance to fatten up from the lean winter months, but their shells are still thin from their molting.  The earlier one's are a bit leaner and less tasty; the later ones are less bang for your buck, with thicker shells.  Mid-season lobster, that's what I'm after, and it's right now.

This season I grabbed a big one, a 5.5 lb monster.  I dunno why, but the big ones, they're always glaring at me with a challenge in their eyes and I can't resist them.  They don't taste better, so much as the oodles of flesh they yield is so convenient.

Butchering the Lobster

So, that 5.5 lb monster, I butchered it while it was alive, I sliced it in half.  When you’re embarking on a project like this, whatever you do, don't boil it first, you'll ruin it.  All that awesome flavour will render into the boiling liquid and you'll just toss it.  Where's the point in that?  Save the shell of the torso for simmering in that dashi stock for the risotto.  I've got that one listed below.

In the meantime, halve the lobster.  Dismember it.  Save the torso for that stock and the innards for the tapenade.

Lobster Ceviche, blue corn chips, apple confit, brussel sprouts and cashews, green olive tapenade, red pepper salsa, radish slaw

Lobster tail

1 Tbsp Miso Glaze

Slap the miso glaze onto the lobster tails.  You won’t need it all, so save the rest for other dishes, like future eggplant dishes.  Grill the lobster tail on the BBQ and serve it with the following side dishes, alongside the ceviche.

Miso Glaze Recipe

1 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons red miso
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

All of the ingredients in a sauce pan on a med-high heat for 5 minutes, until consistent.  You’re done.

Green olive tapenade

In this recipe, the bright green lobster goop, the tomalley, that is essentially the lobster liver, replaces the anchovies in a regular tapenade. 

Now, be careful, lobster tomalley can contain high levels of shellfish toxins, however, previous FDA warnings for Maine lobster have mostly been the result of red tides.

20 small green olives (1/4 cup chopped, lightly packed)
1/2 tbsp chopped capers
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 lemon squeezed
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps tomalley or to taste pan fry green shit in butter and olive oil.

This bit is easy.  Chop everything up finely and mix it together with that deliciously fried up green stuff.

Red Pepper Salsa

2 roasted red peppers
3 cloves roasted/bbqd garlic
1/2 tsp roasted whole cumin
1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 tsp paprika (really a dried ground red pepper, making the sauce more red, more rich and earthy, which complements the lobster nicely)
salt to taste

Roast your red peppers on a grill or in the oven.  Roast your garlic: slice the top off the bulb, smear some butter on top and along with the red peppers at around 400F roast until it is soft and brown.  For cumin roasting, cook’er up in a pan on a medium heat until the colour goes a bit brown and the smoke wafts very lightly off, then grind it in a mortar and pestle.  Toss this all in with the peppers in a blender with the paprika and a sprinkle of salt and you have a lovely middle-eastern salsa for the lobster.

Brussel Sprouts and Cashews

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup cashews
8 brussel sprouts
2 slices of well-smoked bacon, thick
4 sprigs thyme

Finely chop that bacon and render the fat out on a low heat, fire it up to a high heat when you add the brussel sprouts and let them brown nicely as the bacon crisps up.  The cashews  can’t brown, so put them in part way between crisping and browning of the sprouts.  The thyme, whole sprigs, throw them in with the cashews, you don’t want them burning.

Radish Slaw

8 radish
3 green onion
1 tbsp mayonnaise
6 slices of cucumber pickle
10 capers

Shred the radishes, finely chop the green onion, the cukes, and the capers.  Add in the mayo and you’re good.

Soy-Butter Glazed Eggplant

4 small eggplant
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsps soya sauce
1-2 green onions
Olive Oil

Slice your eggplants in half and brush them with olive oil. Reduce the butter and soya sauce for 5 minutes on a high heat and pour over the eggplant.  Finish the eggplant on the grill with the soya mixture and garnish with the green onion.

Lobster Ceviche

1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic, chopped
Leaves of 1 sprig thyme
1 green onion
1/4 cup of chopped chervil (about 4 sprigs)
1 tsp black salt
1 large claw

Toss all of these together and let them sit overnight.
Garnish with:
Baby spinach
handful grape tomatoes
2-4 roasted jalapeno
1 bulb Roasted garli
Handful of black beans
Handful of hominy
Half a bell pepper, julienned

Lobster Stock

The shells from the claws, all the little legs, the lungs,  and the remaining claw, simmer, do not boil, them in 4 cups of dashi for 30 mins.  Use the arms from the claws for the ceviche above.    

Dashi Recipe

1 large (6") piece of kombu
2 cups katsuobonito shavings
4 cups water

Making dashi is easy.  Let the kombu soak in the water for at least 1 hour.  Raise the temperature of the water until bubble begin to form and remove from the heat.  Add the bonito shavings and let sit for 30 mins.  The leftover stock, if any, can be used for miso soup, with some cubed tofu and green onion.

Risotto

1 pinch of saffron dissolved in a bit of the hot stock
3 shallots finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf (fresh)
1 cup of rice until the water runs clear through it
1 cup vermouth
1/2 lb lobster claw meat
1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp chervil, finely chopped
1 sprig of tarragon, finely chopped

Begin by softening the saffron into a few tablespoons of dashi and, I use a blender, but you can mash it in to the stock until dissolved

Add the olive oil to a pan and on a medium-low heat soften the onion, cook until very lightly browned and then add the garlic cook until softened.  Add the rice, arborio preferably.  Cook for a minute or two and add the bay leaf. 

Slowly add the liquid, letting it absorb until the rice is cooked.  Because this risotto is one of the liquidy risottos, timing is very very key.  You want the flavours to meld, but you do not want the rice to become soft.  Start with the vermouth, so that the alcohol evaporates, then the stock. 

Finish the risotto with the parmesan, white pepper, lobster claw meat, and the herbs.  Add the herbs and cheese first.

Sundaes, Yay!

 

Puttanesca with Fresh Anchovies

Literally, whore's pasta, it's easy and delightful, but you can't catch anything from it

Spaghetti Puttanesca with Fresh Anchovies

650g anchovies (~2 dozen)

4 tbsps olive oil

4 cloves garlic

2 red chilies

32 Gaeta Olives (Kalamata will do)

4 garlic chives

2 tbsp capers

1.5 cups halved grape tomatoes

6-10 sprigs parsley 

1.5 tsps black pepper

Garnish with fresh grape tomatoes and a grated pecorino cheese

Once you've cleaned your anchovies (see below), heat the oil to a high heat, being careful not to let that oil smoke.  Toss in the fish, garlic, and chilies.  Cook, tossing gently, until the garlic begins to brown.  Add in the capers, olives, and garlic chives and continue gently tossing for a few minutes on a high heat.  Add the tomatoes and cook until the liquid has evaporated.  Finish with the parsley and black pepper.  

When you're getting ready to serve the pasta, reheat the sauce, and mix in your al dente pasta with the sauce adding half of your pecorino and tossing on a medium heat until your sauce is fully incorporated into the pasta.

Cleaning the Anchovies

Cut off their heads, slit open the belly and remove the guts.  Next, rip out the spine (preferably after making a clean incision along the spine the whole way down to the tail).  Rinse.  The small bones around the fins won't cause you any problems, but I did remove them from the one's I prepared for my 3-toothed daughter.

Served with: Blanc de Pomme (Casa Breton), a crisp dry cider that resembles a white wine

Japanese Cooking Techniques: Intro

Dear Readers,

To-date I have been posting what are, to me, stock recipes.  Basic every day recipes that I make to feed my family.  I feel as though this blog has not yet lived up to the spirit of my cooking, which is to explore a multitude of foreign food preparation techniques and couple them with local ingredients.  In short, I have been posting random recipes, instead of engaging in a greater discussion about local Quebec foods and cuisine.

I expect that as this new focus for the blog continues, I will continue to post, from time to time, the same lovely food pr0n and everyday kitchen recipes that I have been posting.  This exercise is meant to provide you with a focused investigation into a particular cuisine and help us understand how our local foods can be elevated through their use.

To that purpose, I will begin with a study of the use of Japanese techniques and how to couple them with local foods.  As part of this study, which I expect to continue over the course of several months, I hope to explore the subject of Japanese food in Quebec cuisine through articles on the following subjects:

• Traditional and Modern Japanese Techniques and Cuisine
• Reviews of the local Japanese food scene in Montreal
• Using Quebec Ingredients to create Japanese-inspired dishes with local ingredients
• We're going hard on this one, from local seafood and seaweeds to local rice, homemade vinegar, booze, and hard to find ingredients from regions that don't speak French, just patois.  Happily, Soy Bean is in rampant production in the townships, so it's more or less local
• Knife techniques
• Fish and Sea Vegetable exposés

Green Papaya Salad

The ultimate staple of Thai cuisine (or so many would have you believe): Green Papaya salad.  Like many Thai dishes, it is a balance of sweet and sour, redolent with the heady richness of shrimp, and accented with the heat of chili peppers.  

If you're a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, it's still a lovely fragrant salad without shrimp.   

Green Papaya Salad

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt 

5 cloves garlic

4 red scuds/birds eye chilies 

1 tbsp dried shrimp

2 tbsps peanuts

12 grape tomatoes

20 green beans 

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp tamarind + 1/4 cup boiling water

2.5 tbsps palm sugar (1/8 lb)

2 tbsps fish sauce

1/2 green small papaya ~2 cups shredded

The tamarind paste that I'm able to secure comes in a brick and it would be hard to fully incorporate into the salad.  I usually add it to 1/4 cup of boiling water in a tall wide glass, and when I'm ready to add it, I shock it into a slush with my hand blender.

Add the salt to the bottom of your mortar and pestle and use it to grind the garlic into a paste.  Next add in the scuds and shrimp, pounding them into a coarse paste.  Crush in the peanuts before adding in the tomatoes and green beans.  Beat the tomatoes and beans enough to bruise them heavily, but not so much that you mash them into a paste.  Add in the lime, tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar (make sure this is not too chunky, I usually pre-mash it with the mortar and pestle).  Sear off your shrimp in a pan and combine everything together in a bowl.

Serve immediately, these flavours do not need to blend.  Leftovers and long-standing salad will become wilted.

Help!  My mortar and pestle was a Christmas gift and I can barely smash up peppercorns in it!

If you're lacking a good mortar and pestle (as many of us are), your green papaya salad making ability will be greatly hampered.  The alternative is to finally chop the garlic, chilies, shrimp, and crush the peanuts.  Mix them with the lime juice, tamarind, palm sugar, and fish sauce and let stand for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to blend.  Smash the tomatoes and green beans in a bowl with whatever you have handy to that purpose.

Too Spicy, Not Spicy Enough?

As always, remove seeds to make things less spicy, leave them in to make it more spicy.  And you can always increase/decrease the quantity of peppers.

Limone Gelato (Meyer Lemons)

Meyer Lemons, that unusually delicious cross between a lemon and a Mandarin.  I like to do them up like a Limone Gelato


Meyer Lemon Gelato


1 cup Meyer Lemon juice (6-8 Meyer lemons)
1/2 cup Meyer Lemon peel (6-8 Meyer lemons); not zested, whole peels are good
1 cup Simple Syrup
3/4 cup whipping cream


Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil and hold at a boil for 2 minutes.  Let cool.  Strain.  Whisk in the whipping cream.  Make into ice cream using the instructions on your ice cream maker.


Note:  Limone gelato is a particularly potent and flavourful gelato.  It makes a great palate cleanser and pairs well with many other fruit gelatos or sorbets.  On its own it is delectable, but I wouldn't scoop out a bowl of it the way I'd eat a whole bowl of ice cream.

Mirin Marinated Mackerel

Serves 2-4

1 Mackerel (2-3 lbs), split as with fillets but with head on

1 cup mirin

1 tbsp red miso

2 drops hickory smoke optional

1 tsp sea salt

Mix all of the ingredients together and blend them well.  It's probably best to mash the miso up with a bit of mirin first, to avoid clumps that will take a lot of whisking or dirtying your blender to incorporate.  Splay your mackerel out, skin side down, and slop the marinade all over the top of it.

Refrigerate for minimum 1 hour.

Barbecue on a high heat, skin side down.  Mackerel is an oily fish, so you should get a way with it not sticking to the grill, if it's hot enough.

Enjoy mackerel, it's a sustainable fish.

Bones  Mackerel are easy to debone, other than the main skeleton, there will be bones around the fins and jutting out from the bottom part of the flesh nearest to the collar.  Otherwise, they have pin bones on the head half of each fillet, right in the center.  Find the pin bones with the edge of a knife and make an incision on either side of them, being sure to keep the knife close to them, to damage the surrounding flesh as little as possible.  

Green Borscht with Salmon

It's St. Patrick's weekend, and while I look quite dashing in my lovely orange sweater, I'm not averse to a bit of green and was feeling a bit celebratory.  Lacking a proper excuse to toss back a shot of vodka instead of Jameson, I made a soup that served both purposes: Green Borscht (with salmon, instead of beef, what with my lenten vegetarianism).

Green Borscht with Salmon

Soak 5-10 dried scallops in 1.5 cup of water for 45 mins (optional)

2 onions

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

Olive Oil, as necessary

1/2 (1.25 lbs) kilo salmon, large cubes, skin removed

2 cups yams (not sweet potato) or yellow potatoes

1.5 cups chopped fresh dill

6 cups Court Bouillon

1 tbsp black pepper

8 or 1/4 cup chopped Perilla leaves (optional; sorrel is a more traditional herb and an adequate substitute)

1/4 cup lemon balm (optional)

4 green onions

Garnish with boiled eggs, fresh dill, black pepper, sour cream

Serve hot with a cold vodka

Begin by soaking the scallops and putting water on to separately boil the yams and then begin the rest of your prep.  Sweat the onions, garlic, and ginger in a large soup pot, being careful not to let the brown.  Crank the heat to high and pop in the salmon, stirring infrequently to minimize breakage.  After 2 minutes, add the yams, and give a stir.  Let cook another 2 minutes and add in the liquid from the scallops.  Break the scallops up on a cutting board and toss those in as well.

Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 mins.  Like most soups, this one is better the day after, so I'd say that the final step would be to let sit overnight.

Help! I can't find dried scallops!  No doubt you cannot, but don't worry, they're optional for a reason.  Most Asian stores that carry dried goods will have dried scallops along with other dried seafood, have you tried there?  Note: Fresh scallops are not an adequate substitute.  In Montreal, you can find them in China town and sometimes at Kim Phat.  I got mine from another hole-in-the-wall Chinese market down in Brossard, next to an awesome Dim Sum place somewhere on Tascherau. They are by no means an easy find in Montreal.

Troubleshooting -- Broth is Too Sour:  It could be your court-bouillon was overly reduced or was simply too sour to start with.  Add a 1 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of salt to your broth before starting, or dissolved in water if your soup is already on the boil.