Cooking – Page 16

Fish 3 Days, Fish 3 Ways Day 1: White Sea Bass with a Oyster Sauce-Chinkiang Vinegar-Honey Glaze

January 9, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

In my New Year's post, I mentioned the Missus's new found love of shopping and markets….we now share our weekend mornings grocery shopping, something that was a solo job for me less then a year ago. She even shops on Her days off, most Thursdays you'll find Her buying a thousand bunches of kale and chard from the Linda Vista Farmer's Market. Since Catalina changed their set-up, She'll even shop for fish and seafood, often texting me what She thinks is good…..often buying more then She thought….I guess it always looks smaller on the other side of the counter. There is one thing that sometimes makes this a challenge…….She'll often somewhat vaguely request "something good for a change". On the Tuesday after Christmas, She went to Catalina and ended buying a good amount of fish. The wheels were turning…..when I got home from work I received the request. "I want something with Asian flavors that I like….something you've never made before…." On a Tuesday evening?

Luckily, I have some idea of the flavors the Missus enjoys….the "suan-tian-ku-la-xian" thing. Plus, I had a surplus of scallions and a ton of garlic on hand during the Christmas weekend and made scallion oil and garlic oil:

Scallion Oil:
1 cup peanut oil
4-6 bunches green onions, green parts cut into 1 – 1 1/2" pieces, white portion roughly chopped.

– Heat wok until smoking
– Add peanut oil. when oil slightly shimmers, add scallions
– Lower heat. Let scallions lightly fry under low heat until the oil turns a greenish-brown, about 20 minutes. Do not burn scallions!
– Strain into a heat proof container

Garlic Oil (more concentrated then usual):

1/2 cup peanut oil
3 whole bulbs of garlic, cloves peeled, and sliced thinly lengthwise

– Heat wok until smoking
– Add peanut oil. when oil slightly shimmers, add garlic slices
– Lower heat. Let garlic lightly brown under low heat. Do not burn garlic.
– Strain into a heat proof container. Save can use the fried garlic for other dishes.

I also had some baby bok choy on hand. The rest was pretty simple and the result was this:

The Missus had bought almost two pounds of white sea bass….nice, meaty, and mild. I used half of it, going for the typical Chinese fish marinade….you could almost think of this as the traditional step one - marinating:

2 Tb Shaoxing Wine
2 Tb Grated Ginger
White Pepper

Add ingredients to fish. Gently coat and let sit for 15 minutes.

Right before cooking, I added 2 Tb potato starch to the fish to coat, the traditional step two.

While the fish was marinating, I put together a simple glaze/sauce:

3 Tb Honey
2 Tb Oyster Sauce
3 Tb Premium Soy Sauce
2-3 Tb Chinkiang Black Vinegar
1 Tb Hoisin

– Soften honey in a microwave for 10 seconds
– Combine ingredients

I pan fried the fish in a combination scallion/garlic/peanut oil. At the end, I poured half the glaze over the fish and carefully turned to coat.

I poured the rest of the sauce over the baby bok choy….I went for a pretty classic, old-school, Chinese banquet dish presentation. I topped the bok choy with sesame seeds and fried garlic saved from making the garlic oil.

She enjoyed t so much…..I made this again the following week. This time with halibut.

I was feeling pretty happy putting this together on the fly on a weeknight…..but this just meant that the Missus had to come up with another "challenge"…….. stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2013 mmm-yoso Cooking, Japanese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Sushi and Sashimi

Don't know about you, but we've just finished doing the dishes of our New Year's dinner. Nothing fancy mind you, just me and the Missus.

I hope everyone had a most happy New Year!

Like most we've, well I've had a routine on New Year's Eve……I get up early then hit Nijiya, Marukai, and maybe Mitsuwa to see what was going on, something I've done just about every year since our first New Year post. As I've noted over the last couple of years, the variety and quantity of Osechi-ryori, the traditional Japanese New Year dishes has flagged. I'm sure that it will never totally disappear, but what's available has surely gone down over the last couple of years as old traditions fade and new ones replace them.

This year I had a shopping companion….the biggest change in our household over the last year is that the Missus has taken an interest in cooking and shopping……so it was great having a companion when browsing the aisles.

Though there were many temptations….

We decided not to do the time consuming typical Japanese dishes I'd usually make for New Year. Instead, we bought something I don't recall seeing at Marukai……some really nice Argentinian Red Shrimp…not the freezer burnt stuff from TJ's, but some really nice, almost sashimi grade stuff.

I ended up doing a simple salt bake…….

This was so simple. you didn't even season the shrimp…..just make sure not to overcook them. They go really quickly….like 8 minutes over a hot bed of salt in 500 degree oven.

The Missus was in heaven. We paired this with a shaved kale salad, I made some three oil noodles, and also a dish that had been created a couple of days before. Late the previous week, the Missus just wanted to eat fish each day…..so She kind of threw down the gauntlet so to speak and I had to come up with three different fish dishes on three consecutive days….I call it pulling a dish out of my rear end…so to speak. Anyway, one of the winners was a pan fried fish with a Oyster Sauce-Chinkiang Black Vinegar-Honey Glaze on top of mui bok choi.

The flavors were right in the Missus' Northern Chinese flavor ballpark – sour-salty-sweet…..

For dinner we picked up JohnL and headed to our favorite little neighborhood sushi joint.

Loved the "two way ika"……

It was a nice low-keyed evening. The Missus and I almost never go out on the eve, but decided that this would be a perfect new year eve curveball…….and we really enjoyed it.

Sushi Yaro
7905 Engineer Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Nothing fancy for New Year morning….well, at first glance it would seem so. The Missus had challenged me with coming up with zhōu like we had at Shanghai No.1. So this meant starting the night before….I changed up my porridge technique and soaked the rice the previous evening. The next morning while I got the zhōu started, I warmed some water and soaked 2 ounces of dried scallop. I shredded the scallop and added the strained soaking liquid to the porridge. Then made a very Taiwanese thin omelete of egg and prevserved turnip. After about an hour and a half, the porridge looked close….I added more water and turned up the heat to allow for the total breakdown of the rice….giving it an almost luxurious texture…..

Dried scallop congee…..

Of course I'm of Japanese ancestry, so I needed to have soba as my meal to enter the new year – toshi-koshi soba. I went with a version of Sansai Soba……of course I needed to have some egg with it, right?

Dinner was the other half of the Argentinian shrimp….salt baked of course.

Some salad, oven-blasted cauliflower, and another item whose recipe is coming up soon. Porcini crusted ono, with seared truffled polenta, and a porcini-cremini sauce.

So this is the way we started 2013!

I hope you all had a great New Year, and a most delici-yoso 2013!

Thanks for dropping by!

Recently Consumed……

December 26, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking

We've been eating at home quite a bit recently……here are some of what we made.

Didn't know what to make for dinner…ended up buying some Italian Sausages and making a very basic sausage and peppers.

I do the thing where a brown the sausages over medium low heat and then cook the peppers and onions in the rendered fat. Surprisingly, the Missus enjoyed this and I ended up making it as one the dishes for Her Xmas potluck.

We had that alongside one of my favorite things….oven blasted brussel sprouts.

I love those leaves that fall off and get crisped up like chips…..I'm surprised that they haven't packaged that yet! Or maybe someone has and I just don't know about it.

Leftover sausage and peppers means a fritatta.

Alongside roasted baby white potatoes……

As you can tell, the oven is getting a bunch of work…..

Loved the oven roasted baby eggplant…..

How about some oven roasted cauliflower????

I've been making that pepper-tomato-harissa-cumin shakshuka thing. Here's a flat-iron steak seasoned with cumin-salt-pepper-paprika-granulated garlic-oregano, on top of the salsa/sauce.

There had been a a couple of packages of tempeh in the fridge that the Missus bought….tempeh…..sigh…. I went ahead and smoked it for the Missus, which She told me tastes really good. I'll take Her word for it. She decided to take what was left of the "shakshuka thing" and mix that with shaved vegetable and roasted kabocha, sauteed, with an egg cracked in the middle finished in the oven.

She's really into that "Ottolenghi look", huh?

I'm thinking slicing the smoked tempeh thin and frying it….bacon style…maybe….well…maybe not.

I saw some wild Mexican 41-50 white shrimp at Catalina Offshore. It might be small for many uses; but I think it's perfect for Gambas al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp).

So there you go….been cooking at home quite a bit lately….have you?

Sometimes it just doesn’t work out: Ottolenghi’s Marinated Sweet & Sour Fish

December 20, 2012 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, yoso-silly

Not everything we make, even if it's made exactly as the recipe is written works out, or is even to our taste. Of course, I've mentioned how much we enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks as evidenced in previous posts. The dude has some great vegetarian recipes and also seems to have a serious egg fetish. And you know me….I love my drippy eggs, right?

On the other hand, I've been a bit leary of the meat and especially fish recipes in his latest book, Jerusalem. But the Missus was taken with the Marinated Sweet & Sour Fish recipe from the book.. It had all the great ingredients we enjoy…the peppers, the harissa, coriander seeds, garlic, tomatoes……

And I took the Missus to Catalina Offshore getting some really nice halibut…..

I did think the recipe bit odd. You basically saute all the vegetables. Then fry the fish in an egg batter, then place the fish in the ragout to finish in the oven. For me, it really got odd when the book recommended you eat this the next day…..at room temperature. I mean, you've created a pretty hard barrier, via the egg batter….would any of the flavor permeate the fish which is simply seasoned with salt? It was strange enough that I followed the recipe to the letter….even doing the steps I usually change around from the book, like not blooming, in this case, the curry powder in oil for more flavor. I even held off and used only two cloves of garlic, crushed. I will say that the dish really did look like the photo in the book.

With nothing to really do the next day; I just made a simple tomato-lettuce salad with a white balsamic vinaigrette and roasted some baby eggplant and small white potatoes in the oven.

The dish was nothing if not bright and vibrant looking.

Man….compared to other dishes I've made from the book; this was pretty bland. The batter from the fish had become mushy….really not a great texture. The flavor of the vegetables was all over the map….a combo sour-curry-coriander, not bad, but just kind of weak.

So no recipe on this one……

I do always say to adjust recipes to your taste, his time I didn't. Get the book though….try out the recipe, just because we didn't care for the flavors doesn't mean you won't like it. I will say, that I found this to be a bit fussy, with maybe too many steps.

The one great thing…..I managed to show the Missus what I like when buying fish…the sheen, etc…. Catalina Offshore has often been problematic because of their hours. But now, the Missus enjoys dropping by and picking up fish for dinner.

Remember that shakshuka recipe from the same book (adjusted a bit of course)? Well, I made the peppers and tomato portion as before. Then seasoned some nice halibut with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, oregano, granulated garlic, then finally some cumin powder to tie it to the vegetable concoction and used it as a relish or salsa if you will. I'm thinking the recipe above might have been great done this way.

This was a really nice dinner……..

Pan fried halibut on spicy red bell pepper-tomato relish, with some shaved kale and purple cabbage salad and oven roasted potatoes and eggplant. It's amazing what you can make on a weeknight if you have a plan!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Recently Consumed

December 15, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Here's some of the stuff that we've had recently.

I had made three different types of wings for the pig-fest. One of the sauces was sort of a Indonesian inspired sauce that I threw together during a break. It used Kecap Manis, Sambal Olek (an Indonesian brand), lime juice, and honey. Since the only chance I really have of getting to Catalina Offshore is during Saturdays……I try to make the best of things. Here's a pan fried grouper which I cooked in a combo coconut-grapeseed oil.

The sauce went really well with the fish.

The Missus liked it so much that She ended up using it as a dressing.

She placed the fish on top of a shaved chard, kale, brussel sprout salad. The dressing did quite well with the rather bitter salad….even I liked it. So maybe we've found a use for this "wing sauce", which actually wasn't too bad on wings either……

Not everything I end up making is particularly good:

I couple months back, I finally ordered David Chang's Momofuku cookbook. An aquaintance of mine had gone on and on about the "ginger scallion sauce" and the ginger scallion noodles. So I went ahead and made it….exactly like the recipe was written and man, it was pretty bland….so I made adjustments, more scallions, more salt…….man, it was still fairly mild.

The sauce on the right is my ginger scallion pesto, which I made to compare…and I preferred more. It had more body, the garlic helped the sauce as well….I think hot peanut oil also brought out more flavor. So I dunno……if you look at the photo in the book, the sauce on David Chang's noodles is much darker.

Sometime's recipes from even a trusted source doesn't quite come out. I love Pei Mei's Chinese Cookbook Volume 1. Just about everything I've made from the "Julia Child of Chinese Cooking" has turned out….except for the Sauteed Lamb with Scallions.

I'm thinking it was the additional of vinegar that killed this…… I'll make adjustments and try again.

Luckily, I used only half the lamb and the next night I went back to my stand by; zi ran yang rou.

Cumin Lamb, one of my favorites…….

Shakshuka

December 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

This is more of the Tunisian style shakshuka, then the potatoand eggplant Turkish version….we love both. But we were a bit disappointed in the versions we had in Tunisia……so much of it looked like scrambled eggs. So when the Missus, a big fan of Yotam Ottolenghi's vegetarian cookbook, Plenty, gave me the green light to get his latest, Jerusalem, I went ahead and ordered it. And wouldn't you know, the first page the Missus opens to is the recipe for Shakshuka! From previous experience with Ottolenghi's recipes, I was certain, with adjustments to our taste, (remember, a recipe for cooking is just an outline) that things would turn out okay at the least.

This recipe uses no onions, but still has a good amount of pungency from the harissa we used. It's a brand we bought from a woman who seels French good at the various Farmer's Markets. You'll have to adjust the amounts based on that. I also bumped up the garlic slightly. You can also check out Cathy's recipe here. The dish she makes is quite similar. The version in the book also uses 4 whole eggs plus 4 yolks….sounded a bit much for us. So we just stuck to three large eggs.

Shakshuka

2-3 Tb Olive Oil
2-4 Tb Harissa (depending on brand)
2-3 Tb Tomato Paste (we used more since we used fresh tomatoes which weren't super ripe)
2 large red bell peppers cut into 1/4" dice
5-6 ripe roma tomatoes diced
4-6 cloves garlic finely minced
2 tsp ground cumin
3-4 large eggs – I crack them in bowls and leave them on the side
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

– Heat olive oil over medium heat in a pan. We used our trusty cast iron pan.
– Add the cumin to "bloom" (not burn), then quickly add harissa, tomato paste, and garlic.
– When fragrant add the red bell peppers and some salt. Stir occasionally for about 8-10 minutes until softened.
– Add tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens.
– Taste and adjust seasoning.
– Make divots in the thick sauce and pour eggs into the divots. I stir the whites of the eggs lightly to enhance the cooking time.
– Lower the heat and simmer for 8-12 minutes, or more to let the eggs set-up to taste. If you enjoy your eggs a bit more well done, you can cover them for a few minutes.

The Missus loves the silken texture of the whites…She expected rubbery, but the couple times we've made this, the eggs have always been wonderful.

Here's the requisite drippy egg shot.

One evening, the Missus bought some merguez. I ended up making the shashuka in the sausage drippings……

Really good stuff!

What we did this past weekend – Porcine Party

December 10, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Memorable Meals, yoso-silly

In case you were wondering why the blog was so quiet on Friday and Saturday…..first I was kinda fried, then there was the pig. As noted in other posts on this blog, I've got a great group of friends who are pretty much up for anything. We'd been joking about trying to do a whole hog for a while. Finally, a couple of months ago, FOY (Friend of Yoso) Candice got involved and things atartedrolling. First, the twin's mom allowed us to use her back yard, second Candice put the twins in contact with a pig farmer who slaughtered said piggy…..meanwhile, I provided a marinade recipe…..I was out of town until just before the said swine was toast.

So on Saturday morning at 5am, there we were………

There were a bunch of glitches…..but that's what makes things interesting. First the pig had been butterflied instead of prepped for the rotisserie…..so that meant extra sewing. Candice gave the hog a rubdown, while the guys got the pig on the rotisserie.

I got the hardwood charcoal started….a lot of charcoal. 30 pounds to start with refueling as necessary. All told about 120-130 pounds of charcoal.

We were delayed when we figured out that the darn rotisserie just wouldn't cut it….the kept skipping, it just wouldn't work….so after trying a whole bunch of things we just pretty much did it by hand. The sun had risen by the time things got started…….things looked grim.

We ended up doing 1/8 to 1/4 turns manually….it wasn't easy, the pig was over 80 pounds, then propping it up with one of several garden implements.

Things were going swimmingly until our next bump in the road. John thought we needed to lowerthe hog. Well, the heat had caused the metal stands to swell making movement pretty tough…it was also hot as heck and John didn't do too well with it. So we got a step stool thingy, I climbed up placing one leg on the edge of the pan and basically did a modified deadlift while Candice and John pounded the stand with a hammer to loosen it. First side wasn't too bad…the second side we'll be talking about for a long time. I was up on the edge of the pan….John and Candice were trying their darnest to get the thing loose while I held the hog up. I actually watched the hair on my leg (I wore shorts) burn off, but there wasn't anything I could do. Then my shirt caught on fire……so what to do? Third degree burns or drop the hog into the charcoal??? Luckily, just as I was thinking about skin grafts, they got everything adjusted correctly….and I had brought along a spare shirt. Don't ask me why, for some reason I just did. Of course all the vibrations had loosen one of the retaining rods and the pig almost fell face forward…back to the pig lift while the rod was pounded back into place. This was when I popped open my first Beer Lao of the day….

It was already 10am….time had really flown by. Guests had been told to come at 3pm by Peter. The pig had started developing a nice tan….and John was getting into the habit of peeling the skin off the pig and eating it! Sheesh….. Of course the middle of the pig started getting too brown, so the twin's mom suggesting wrapping those parts in aluminum foil.

The pig was doing nicely…Candice was doing a great job of first basting with coconut oil, then coconut water. At right before 11 Peter returned and Candice and I left….we had to prep some of the other dishes.

The Missus dropped me back off at just before 2 pm and this is what the pig looked like.

By this time reinforcements had already arrived…..Ange had worked getting the tables and everything else set-up, TFD and MrC, YY and MrQ (and "Kyle"), Xianjiang…the whole gang. Everyone took their photo with the pig….then it was covered back up.

It was starting to get darker and the internal temp of the hog was still just over110, we weren't going to make it.

Luckily there was back-up. YY and MrQ brought a bunch of food from Mien Trung…Banh Bot Loc and Hen Xuc Banh Trang.

I set about to fry up about 15 pounds of chicken wings….I loved this set-up.

YY told me that the twin's mom knew that we'd need a "plan B" from the beginning and requested the legs. I've previously mentioned what a great cook she is. So I'll let the photos do the talking.

It was some great stuff. Xianjiang appeared with Fanny Bay oysters…….

It became clear the the pig wouldn't make it. So they did what they could…..and left to cook it further.

I had two slots for guests, so I invited Kirbie and DH. I feel bad that I was so busy behind the fryer that I couldn't spend time with them….my apologies!

Of course, eventually the karaoke started up……and etc……. It was an epic night, something we'll always talk about. Thanks to John and Peter for taking ownership and Candice for keeping things on schedule, YY and MrQ for making sure we had some contingencies, Ange for making sure the area got set-up and decorated, TFD and MrC for always being there for support and help…..and especially the twin's sister Van and their wonderful Mother (thanks for sneaking me all those special dishes!). It was great meeting those folks I knew and those that I met for the first time.

In the end, it wasn't about the destination, but the journey. In the end (no pun intended) we have a heck of a tail,ummm tale, don't we!

Thanks again guys……this was quite an effort……I have heard Ange's request for a goat….but we'll have to get a rotisserie that actually works. And I need some time to recover.

Recently Consumed: Ostrich Patties with Bacon and Poached Egg, Merguez, Sriracha-Honey-Garlic Wings, and other stuff

November 24, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, yoso-silly

Here's some of the stuff we've been cooking over the last week.

Ostrich Patties with Bacon and Poached Egg:

We stopped by Seisel's and while I was buying calves liver for Da' Boyz, the Missus brought me a package from Seisel's "Frozen Protein Zoo". This time it was ostrich….. this one was going to be fairly straight forward, the Missus wanted simple pan fried "burgers" to have with bacon and poached eggs. I told Her that my one previous experience with Ostrich was that it was D-R-Y. But the Missus doesn't mind dry….so I went ahead and made some ostrich patties. Red onions, a bit of panko, roasted garlic olive oil, granulated garlic, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. I pan fried these in bacon fat, trying to save every little bit of moisture. I turned out to be dead wrong….man this was moist and tender. And the Missus loved it! I had mine on rice, loco moco style with a light pan sauce……man, this was really good.

The flavor wasn't very exotic….think clean-beefy without a bovine aftertaste.

The Missus had Hers paradoxical new age style…….on quinoa, but with bacon and poached eggs (cage free vegetarian of course…sheesh!).

She actually ate the leftover patty, making a sort of "dirty rice" with kale and quinoa……

Merguez Sandwich:

I went to Whole Paycheck with the Missus and was checking out the meat department, when I noticed they had Merguez! I guess it's one of the standard items they carry. Merguez was one of my favorite items from our trip to Tunisia and I was excited to see these. The price wasn't too bad, $6.99 a pound and the really nice woman behind the meat counter even checked on the ingredients…..100% lamb! My favorite preparation of these sausages were fried….which is what I did. Ate it in a roll, with harissa (of course)…..this was really nice.

These were actually pretty good, even more spicy than Tunisia. The sausages there were a bit more dense, less moist, thinner, and more gamey. The seasoning was pretty close and the casing was thin, which was perfect.

I was really happy eating these as it brought back some nice memories.

I'll definitely have these again.

The Missus even made a shaved kale and brussel sprout salad with pomegranate dressing.

Sriracha-Honey-Garlic Wings:

I bought some chicken wings……and decided to just grab some items out of the pantry.

A bit too sweet, so it needs a bit of work. Nice and sticky-crunchy though!

So there you go…..

What have you made at home recently?

Mushroom Risotto Arancini

November 23, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

On my last recently consumed post, I noted that I had gone through the two day process for making my mushroom risotto. This time around, I used up my parmesan rind in the stock to make the risotto….which added a wonderful flavor to the risotto, but also made it really rich, perhaps too rich for the Missus as we had a good amount leftover. The left me just the opening I needed to make something I'd been itching to try….Arancini, basically rice croquettes of Sicilian origin. Most arancini have additional filling, meat, a ragu, or the like, but the mushroom risotto had so much flavor I just moved forward "plain jane".

I did make a spicy fresh tomato sauce with some that were getting a bit soft paired with a nice fresh chanterelle mushroom ragu, that was pretty much like this. Roasted baby eggplant finished the whole thing off.

This was super easy….I used panko instead of breadcrumbs, but it was a total by-the-numbers egg wash deal.

I didn't want these too large, so used one of the missus' scoops for cookie dough, then rolled into a golf ball size orb.

Deep fry at 350, until they float, remove for a minute, then place back into oil for about another minute or so.

I knew that I'd enjoy these, but didn't know just how good they would be! Crunchy at first bite, then practically melting in your mouth…. Really delici-yoso!!!

The sauces were a nice compliment. The Missus didn't care for the tomato version, but I thought it really helped to cut the richness.

I'm sure to be making these again…..it almost has me wishing for leftover risotto!

Recently Consumed

November 12, 2012 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I'm still in "long weekend mode" so I hope you don't mind this post of stuff I've recently made at home. I'll have something new in San Diego tomorrow!

I mentioned working with leftovers from China Islamic, especially the suan cau yang rou, which really wasn't ready for prime time. By the next day however, the sour flavor of the preserved vegetable had permeated the broth and also tenderized the lamb. We added some frozen tofu and it was a very "cleansing" and hearty lunch served hot pot style.

As for the deep fried duck leftovers; I diced the meat and skin, crisped it up, then went at it "sisig style"…..which, at least to me, sounds much better then "gundam style", or as the Missus calls it "condom style"…..

Sour, spicy, salty….good stuff.

The "back up" canned goods we had was starting to get on the Missus' nerves, so it was time to use and replace them. Time to clear out the cupboards. The baby corn and straw mushrooms were the target of Her wrath, so I needed to use them up. The Missus hates the "tin-ny" taste, so I pour boiled water over them. Did a quick stir fry using both dried and red chilies as my base, hit it with white pepper and shaoxing wine…thickened with a combination of premium soy sauce-sugar-oyster sauce-sesame oil-cornstarch and topped with sesame seeds and cilantro.

We finally had enough left-over mushroom trimmings to make some mushroom stock….so of course that meant mushroom risotto. This time I further fortified the stock with old romano and parmesan cheese rinds….the hard parts, making it richer then ever. The Missus wanted pan seared halibut, so I went with a porcini crust…….

Really easy to do…..I ground up a couple of pieces of dried porcini mushroom with sea salt and added that to my usual seasoning. I dusted one side with potato starch to give it some crispness.

The dish needed some color and also something to cut the richness. So I sauteed some diced vegetables seasoned with dill and lemon juice. I used the leftover mushroom powder and the tomatoes worked well with the dill.

I reduced the leftover mushroom stock combined with onions, oven-dried tomatoes, and garlic confit left over from the risotto to make a nice pasta for me.