Category: Cooking

I've actually mentioned this sauce/glaze in previous posts. I've used it as a sauce for chicken wings, fish, salad dressing, almost anything that you can glaze, if you can deal with just a touch of heat. I think the Missus really enjoyed it the most when used here:

I'm sure you know how to quickly saute shrimp, right? So, I don't think I really have to go over that. This glaze is super easy, the only items you may….or maybe you do have in your pantry is Kecap Manis and Sambal Olek. Not the Chinese/Vietnamese plastic bottled Sambal, but the stuff from Indonesia.

It's really easy stuff.

Indonesian Style Glaze/Sauce:
1/4 cup Kecap Manis
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 fresh squeezed lime juice
2 TB ginger juice
5 cloves of garlic grated/finely minced
2 Tb Sambal Olek
zest of 1 lime
dash of white pepper

– Combine all items, sample and adjust to your taste

The longer the sauce sits, the better it tastes, if left overnight it also gets a bit more spicy.

The shrimp we used for this is wild Mexican Shrimp from Catalina Offshore. We saute quickly in a neutral oil and add some coconut oil for a nice little hint of coconut flavor.

Shrimp:
2/3 lb 21-25 shrimp deveined with tail left on
1 shallot minced
2 Tb Shaoxing wine
dash of white pepper

5-6 Tb canola or grapeseed oil
1 Tb coconut oil
cilantro
sesame seeds

– Combine the first 4 items and let sit for 15 minutes
– Heat a pan over high heat
– Add oil
– Saute shrimp until just about cooked – do not overcook
– Remove from heat
– Add 1/2 cup of glaze and coat shrimp
– Arrange on plate and top with sesame seeds and cilantro

Easy to pull off, especially on a weeknight.

After having the delicate Olive Oil Poached White Sea Bass, the Missus wanted something a bit more "earthy". Her request for the next day was, "something with mushrooms…..lots of mushrooms……" This one was easy for me….well to conceptualize. Getting it done after work in time for dinner….well, that was going to be fun. This was actually easy since I had about an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms on hand. So for a play-by-play….

Step 1 – Soak about 3/4 of the dried mushrooms in two cups of warm water

Step 2 – Slice cremini mushrooms, 2 shallots, and grate 4 cloves of garlic.

Step 3 – Place the rest of the dried porcini, salt, and pepper in a coffee grinder and pulverize to a powder.

Step 4 – Combine mushroom powder with 2 Tb potato starch and spread all but 1 Tb of mushroom mixture on a plate

Step 5 – Place halibut on mushroom-potato starch mixture making sure to coat only one side, well.

Step 6 – Season the undusted side of fish with Spanish paprika, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper. set aside.

Step 7 – Strain the porcini soaking liquid. Make polenta using all but 1/3 cup of the mushroom liquid, olive oil, and water. Between stirs, chop the soaked porcini, reserving 3 Tb as a garnish. When polenta is almost done, add all but the reserved chopped porcini mushrooms. Finish with truffle oil and set aside.

Step 8 – Pan fry the halibut in a combination grapeseed-extra virgin olive oil. When the fish is almost done, start step 9.

Step 9 – In a dry pan over medium high heat, place the sliced porcini mishrooms. When the mushrooms start to soften and give off their moisture add extra virgin olive oil, shallots, garlic, Turkish oregano, and reserved mushroom powder. When fragrant add reserved mushroom liquid and white wine and let bubble away. The fish should be ready by now. Set aside. Taste sauce and season (remember, there's salt and pepper in mushroom powder) with salt and pepper. Reduce……

Step 10 – Plate the baby up…….

Somewhere along the line, the Missus chopped some parsley for garnish. I also used some of the chopped porcini as well. I test for doneness using a sharp paring knife.

Man, this was really tasty…and moist.

I put the rest of the polenta in a pan greased with olive oil and then unmolded and stored for future use.

I ended up making this again, this time pan frying the "polenta cakes" a couple of days later.

Not bad for a Thursday night……

So there you go…….Fish 3 ways in 3 days. Whew, I needed a break. Though things started up again the next week, but I didn't work quite as hard.

Though this one is just pan fried halibut with a warm white balsamic vinaigrette.

Thanks for reading!

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!