Category: Cooking

This is basically a very simple stir fry noodle I make at home. It's what I used to accompany my "Three Day Duck". Three oil noodle – three day duck….get it? OK, enough with the silly stuff. The foundation of this dish centers around three oils – garlic, scallion, and sesame. Premium light soy sauce and fresh Shanghai noodles finish the dish off. You can throw in greens, onions, in this case I topped it with some dried shrimp (more on that later), along with onions, sliced the thickness of noodles and left over pea shoots.

The key are two of the flavored oils….which I'll make when I have too many scallions…we always have too much garlic. Anyway, when I'm bored, I'll make these. Stored in the fridge in an airtight container, it'll keep for 3 months or more. I also use these in stir-fries, especially when using something a bit on the blander side like tofu.

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:
1 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. You can use the fried garlic for other dishes.

I'm not going to get all condescending on you and tell you how to stir fry noodles. I'm sure you can do that. Just a couple of key items; don't overcook your noodles and always use a bit more oil than you think. I use a combination of the scallion and garlic oil to get things started. Finish with sesame oil. I topped the dish off with these really tasty, slightly salty-sweet fried and dried shrimp we bought during one of our previous trips to Rowland Heights.

So there you go….real easy, huh?

I hope everyone made the most of that extra hour of sleep this "fall back" weekend!

Here's a fun little recipe, adapted from Cecilia Chiang's autobiographical cookbook, The Seventh Daughter. I've been fascinated by the book, not only are the stories great, but the recipes are deceptively easy. Almost too easy. I finally got around to making a couple of things and I have to say, even though I think the recipes are a bit gringo-ized, the duck turned out very crisp, nicely infused with flavor, though a bit on the dry side. I did bump up a lot of the seasoning, but I was happy with the result.

I'll probably use a glaze like the one for my Char Siu Glazed Duck next time, or maybe I'll come up with something more interesting. Though this duck takes three days to prepare, it's pretty easy stuff……. So here goes:

Day 1

1 1/2 Tb Five Spice Powder (we used the stuff we brought back from QingDao)
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (when using wine of any sort/country, get the drinking variety)
1 thumb size piece of ginger, skin removed (use a spoon), cut into thin slices – about 6-7
2 stalks scallions, green parts cut into 2" pieces, white parts chopped and smashed
1 Tb sea salt
2 duck breast halves

– Mix all ingredients together
– Place duck in marinade and rub well
– Place in a ziploc bag and let marinate overnight

The next day you'll remove the duck from the marinade and take off straggling pieces of ginger and scallions.

Day 2

– Steam these babies for 30 minutes
– Remove from plate and liquid and place on a plate lined with paper towels to cool (I gotta figure something to do with all the oil/liquid that came out of the duck)
– I actually seasoned with a bit more salt and five spice….just because
– Once cool place in the fridge (DO NOT cover) to let dry overnight

The next (big) day these babies will look like they've suffered a bit of shrinkage, which they did.

Day 3

– In my cast iron pan, I heated about an inch and a half of oil to 350 (like I really measured)
– Fry the duck breasts for about two minutes each side

Seemed a bit dry so I served with Hoisin Sauce and sliced scallions.

In her book Cecilia Chiang calls this Sichuan Crispy Duck….but I really don't think that's correct. But whatever you call it, it pretty delicious.

Last weekend when I was bored, I used up five stalks of scallions that were starting to go brown and made some scallion oil. I then used two bulbs of garlic and made some garlic oil…really…I do stuff like that when I'm bored. I served the whole thing up with some Scallion and Garlic Oil Noodles.

Three days, but not much overall time involved…..step 1 I did in the middle of a post when I got bored. Step 2 meant turning on the stove. Step three was tonight……

It was a nice dinner three days in the making.

I'm thinking this is something a bit different. Doesn't really look like much……

We were checking out the "frozen protein zoo" in the back of Seisel's and the Missus had the great idea of cooking up something a bit different….after all, it's getting tougher to come up with stuff for the blog. I've almost exhausted all the basic stuff I've made for years. Actually, I wanted to get the ground kangaroo meat and make burgers….I'd call them "hoppers"….the Missus wasn't amused and immediately said that burgers weren't allowed. So I bought about a pound and quarter of frozen ground antelope, with no idea of what to make.

While discussing potential dishes, shepherds pie came up….well why not? But the Missus came up with the caveat….it couldn't be just any shepherds pie, oh no. So I came up with topping the thing with polenta. In doing a bit of research, I found that antelope was pretty lean….which means dry to me. The Missus didn't want beef stock and I really didn't feel like simmering a bunch of bones on a Saturday. I often use my roasted mushrooms as a base for various dishes and the Missus had bought one of those gigantic bags of oyster mushroom from Zion market. Heck, I had to roast these for Her anyway, right?

So on Saturday evening, I roasted up those mushrooms. On Sunday, I made a double recipe of polenta, 2 cups corn grits to six cups water which I seasoned well. Since butter is persona non grata in our household, I used a good amount of roasted garlic olive oil as a fat. When the polenta was done, I separated off the estimated excess amount, which I formed in an oiled square container. The Missus is having fried polenta cakes with these. The rest I tasted, up the seasoning and fat and mixed in about a cup of thinly sliced scallions, mostly for color. I retrospect, I probably could have added some roasted red peppers or even diced sun dried tomatoes.

As for the base of the Shepherd's Pie, here it is….just a listing. Antelope meat is very lean and very mild with a distinct, almost flat finish. It's easy to come up with a tasteless dish, but this came out pretty well.

1 1/4 lb ground antelope
bacon fat – olive oil – grapeseed oil
1 medium onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
4-5 cups of roasted wild mushrooms
3 cups (or more) mushroom roasting liquid
2 tb dried Turkish oregano
1 tb dried thyme
2 Bay leaves crushed
1 cup red wine
3 tb sherry vinegar
3 tb Worcestershire Sauce
more salt than you think you'll need
fresh ground black pepper

Luckily the roasted mushroom brought a lot to the dish, not only in mushroom flavor, but there's a good amount of garlic and onions as well. If I do this again, I'll not only use the bacon fat, but lardons of a couple of slices of bacon to start as well. I cooked the mess down until it hit the right consistency, but it into a baking pan…topped with the polenta, which wasn't as easy as it seems and baked at 400 for 20 minutes.

It was actually pretty good. Not much in terms of "exotic" flavors, very lean and chewy. Loved the polenta topping. The top was on the crunchy side, while the part laying on top of the ragout was moist and creamy.

Oh, and this is what the bacon was used for.

The Missus actually made this. After all these years, the Missus is starting to find the joy of cooking! I can't help but laugh when I see Her crushing herbs in Her palm to extrude the oils, all the stuff She used to hassle me about! Now it's sharp knives, the immersion blender, and the Dutch oven, go figure…..

Anyway, I'm thinking we'll do something like this every couple of weeks. Any suggestions???

Well, I did need something to accompany my beans, right? Plus, every once in a while I like to experiment around….play with my food if you will. Plus, I've been getting quite a bit of mileage out of my stove top smoker….so why not? When thinking this out, I thought the biggest problem would be getting a nice caramelization on my lamb loin chops….a bunch of pretty inexpensive stuff from Costco….I wasn't going to play around with anything too pricey.

So I decided to do a quick marinade while waiting out my beans.

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil – everyday variety, not the good stuff
3/4 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 bulb of garlic (yes, bulb)
2 bay leaves
1 tb Turkish oregano

I threw everything into the food processor and let rip. Combined with lamb in a gallon ziploc for two hours. After the allotted time, I poured everything out into a large bowl, removed the chops, scrapping off excess marinade and set in the smoker.

 I'll admit, not the prettiest thing in the world….two hours was good as the lemon juice hadn't "cooked" the meat too much. Of course this is hot smoking, I used oak this time around.

While the chops were smoking, I poured the excess marinade into a small pot, added a bit more olive oil, salt, and fresh ground black pepper, heated to a boil, then simmered for a few minutes. I decided to sear my chops after smoking and would use this to baste.

After 20 minutes of smoking, I opened up the smoker, got my trusty cast iron pan onto the big kahuna and some ripping high heat and quickly seared the chops. Actually, these were not bad…….

 They had a nice, light smoked, almost cured flavor, light lemon tones, and surprisingly, not very strong garlic flavor.

I gave several of the chops to one of the Missus' coworkers, who is not a big fan of lamb and he really enjoyed it.

Who said that we shouldn't play with our food?

Happy Friday everyone!

Much like the smoked swordfish, this was something the Missus wanted me to make since we got back from Rhodes this past year. She enjoyed the version from Taverna Kostas (to the right), but wanted something more hearty and moist. At first this seemed like a pretty easy task….but it took me three tries to get something that the Missus enjoyed. First problem; where to get "gigantes", Greek Giant White Beans. I tried large limas, but it wasn't quite the same. I eventually luckily found some dried giant white beans at Balboa Market, not quite the same, but passable. The bean portion is pretty routine….soak overnight. The combination cooking portion I found interesting. The straigh simmer, saute, than bake just didn't do it the first two times. The last time, I played around a bit and made the adjustments for the Missus' tastes. I also went against the old wives tale of not adding acid during the simmer….I added 7 roma tomatoes and two whole heads of garlic with the tops chopped and didn't find that it prolonged the cooking time of  about 1-1/2 hour. I ended up heating a ddukbaegi (Korean earthenware pot) in the oven, coating with olive oil then added the beans with a light layer of extra virgin olive oil on the top to finish.

Anyway….here goes.

Soak 1 pound giant lima or giant white beans overnight.

The Simmer
Drained beans
Water to cover
7-8 roma tomatoes with an 'x' sliced on the bottom
1-2 whole bulbs of garlic, loose "skin" removed, top chopped off
4-5 whole sprigs fresh dill
1 tablespoon crushed dried oregano
2 bay leaves

– combine all items above
– simmer for 1 hour, then check for doneness
– remove garlic, tomatoes, dill sprigs, bay leaf, and any skin that has come off tomato
– when tomatoes are cool enough remove all skin, squeeze garlic out off bulb, chop tomatoes, reserve
– simmer until beans are done
– drain beans saving 1 cup of simmering liquid
– preheat oven to 450 (I also placed the ddukbaegi in the oven to heat)

The Saute
Drained beans
chopped tomatoes
garlic
1 – 1 1/2 jars of tomato paste. (I like the brand to my left – it's very tangy)
3-4 Tb chopped fresh dill
1 tsp dry oregano crushed
1/2 tsp sugar (if necessary)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
reserved simmering liquid (if necessary)

– in the same pot used for simmering the beans, heat olive oil over medium heat, add chopped roma tomatoes, garlic, oregano, tomato paste.
– when the tomato mixture becomes fragrant, add beans, dill, salt and pepper and set the heat at low and mix to combine well.
– taste, add sugar if necessary, adjust flavor, add more tomato paste, salt, and pepper.
– heat through. If the mixture is very dry add a bit of the bean simmering liquid.

The Bake
– Coat the pan, pot, whatever with olive oil
– place beans in pot and heat or broil to finish.

For our taste, the beans should be well coated and fairly dry. What you on top is a light layer of extra virgin olive oil that was bubbling away. Once mixed it was all incorporated into the dish. Again, maybe not traditional, but made to our tastes!

The Missus requested one thing for Herself on my last trip home….no it wasn't (almost tho') jewelry, shoes, a handbag, or gasp, heaven forbid mac nuts. She wanted some smoked fish. So a small cooler and some gel packs later, She got a pound of smoked marlin and some smoked taco….which She proceeded to wack in a couple of meals.

Then of course came my mission…..She didn't want to wait for our next trip back; it was time for me to make this at home….like pronto. So over the course of the last couple of weeks, I came up with something similar. The easiest fish to find was swordfish, though I prefer marlin. Tasting the smoked fish, I figured it to be a soy sauce-sugar/mirin/honey-H20-sesame oil-granulated garlic-ginger kind of thing. This was going to be a bit tricky since I was hot smoking using my Camerons Stovetop Smoker which had served me well over the years. So after the first try, I had pretty much got the marinade fairly close to a starting point for future fun. You can use this for perhaps 2 – 2 1/2 pounds of fish or more. My smoker can hold about a pound-and-a-half.

So here's the marinade sans the red food coloring……

Marinade:
3/4 cup Aloha Shoyu
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup Hoisin Sauce
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground Korean chili powder
3-4 tablespoons ginger juice
3-4 tablespoons good sesame oil
3-4 tablespoons Mulyeot – Korean Malt Syrup
– Combine ingredients, mix well

I was surprised at how much sesame oil and ginger juice this recipe can handle. I'm sure we can bump up both and be perfectly happy.

I sliced the swordfish into strips and marinated overnight in a gallon ziploc bag - about 12 hours or so, before smoking. I used mesquite, because the flavor is somewhat similar to kiawe.

Smoking is interesting. For now I'm at about 35-40 minutes, but may try to cut that down a bit. The longer you smoke the drier the fish will become. Which leads me to the last thing. About 5 minutes before the smoking is complete, I mix 3 tablespoon sesame oil and 3 tablespoons honey and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds.

When the smoking is done, I immediately brush the sesame oil-honey mixture onto the fish. This adds flavor and seals in whatever moisture is left.

I let cool, then refrigerate.

I'd been wondering how the Missus has been eating this…it's usually pupus. I found that She uses it on salads, with even more sesame oil on top and whatever dressing She's feeling like….or even making Her own pseudo temaki.

Hey, who am I to argue. As they say…."Happy wife equals happy life!"

Happy Tuesday to you!