Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

Quick and delicious, stir-fried beef with oyster sauce provides a great introduction to Chinese cooking.  This one “from column A” can be prepared in less than half an hour including rice.  If you don’t have a wok, make it in a stainless steel or cast iron skillet.  Don’t make it in a non-stick skillet as you can’t get it hot enough.

By the way, stir-frying is a misnomer as there is no stirring in stir-frying.  The technique is to lift the ingredients with your spatula and turn them over.  As you continue from different angles, all the food gets seared from contact with the hottest part of the wok.  Make the rice first.

 

Ingredients

¾ lb. steak (flank or boneless strip)

1 T soy sauce (preferably tamari)

2 sweet peppers

1 large onion

1 t  cornstarch

2 T oyster sauce

pinch of salt

Peanut oil as needed

Directions

1. Slice steak against the grain into bite-size strips. Place in a bowl and mix with soy sauce.  Set aside.

2. Remove ribs and seeds from peppers and julienne into bite-size strips.

3. Cut onion into thin slices

4. Make a slurry of cornstarch and water.  Mix in oyster sauce.

5. Heat wok to very hot but not smoking.  Add 1 T oil. Stir fry pepper strips until tender and slightly seared. Add a wee pinch of salt to peppers and onions as thy cook.) Dish into serving bowl.

6. Add 1 T oil into hot wok.  Stir fry onions until lightly browned.  Add to serving bowl.

7. Again, add 1 T oil to hot wok.  Stir fry steak until cooked through.

8. Return peppers and onions to wok.  Stir fry with meat for 15 seconds.

9. Make a “well” in center of hot wok and add slurry.  Stir fry until ingredients are coated.

10. Serve alongside a bowl of steaming hot rice.

Chinese rice (makes 3 cups cooked rice)

Ingredients

1 cup long grain white rice

1 ¾ cup cold water

Directions

1. Rinse rice in several changes of cold water until it runs clear.

2. Place water and rice in a 2-quart pan with a tight-fitting cover. (I add a pinch of salt but this is not traditional.)

3. Bring to a boil without cover.  Turn heat to low and cook with cover at a bare simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Let rest until the rest of your meal is ready to serve.  Fluff rice with fork and serve hot. (Resist the temptation to peek at the rice before it is ready to serve.)

Photos by Michael Kirigin

Paella Valenciana: Bert’s and Mine

This is a party dish for 10 to 12 people.  If you have a group of people you want to impress, this is the dish.  Expect to be put in their wills. You’ll notice there are a lot of ingredients, but once you get them lined up, it goes fast.

What memories I have of this classic Spanish masterpiece.  First of all, I remember this dingy little Spanish restaurant called El Faro on Greenwich Street in the West Village when I lived there in the 1960s .  Out of the way though it was, it didn’t take reservations.  People were lined up on the sidewalk awaiting their turn at the Paella Valenciana.  The serving was generous even for the two people it was designed to serve. It arrived in an enamelized cast iron Dutch oven and was the type of paella wherein all the flavors married.  The rice grains clung together and every bite tasted just like the bite before.

El Faro’s patrons loved it and evidently still do.  It is still holding its own since it opened in 1927 and is, in fact, the city’s oldest Spanish restaurant.  Still in business at the same location, El Faro hasn’t been updated in 85 years!  The faded paint on the walls and crumbling ceiling are part of its charm.

Then on a trip to Europe, I took a special side trip to Valencia on a quest for the real thing.  Paella Valenciana in Valencia—surely this would be a memorable meal.  Well, not so much. The primary thing I remember is how much sweeter lobster from the cold waters off the coast of Maine tastes than Spanish spiny lobster from warm waters.

In the 1970s I met Bert Greene, food columnist for the Daily News, proprietor of The Store at Amagansett and creator of the best Paella Valenciana I have ever had. Every time I come upon a paella recipe I compare it to Bert’s and it invariably falls short.  First of all, unlike El Faro’s, each seafood ingredient and chicken is seasoned and cooked separately so that they retain their identity.  The dish is composed at the end and gently anointed with a splash of Pernod. You don’t need a paella pan, just a large skillet.

Ingredients:

1  2-lb. lobster

 1 1/2 lbs. raw shrimp

2 dozen small clams

1 quart mussels

2 ½ – 3 lbs. chicken, cut up for frying

1 t oregano

1 branch fresh thyme or ¼ t dried

2 black peppercorns, crushed

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 ½ t salt

8-10  T extra virgin olive oil

1 t wine vinegar

2 sticks butter

1 ½ cups yellow onions, finely chopped

4 large shallots, finely chopped

1 ½ oz. salt pork, chopped (or bacon)

1 green pepper, cut in strips

1/2 t ground coriander

2 t capers

5 Spanish chorizos, sliced

3 slices ham, ½ inch thick, cut in strips

4 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 T chopped fresh basil

2 1/2 cups raw short grained rice, unwashed

½ t saffron

4 cups chicken broth, boiling

1 white onion, chopped

½ lemon, sliced

Parsley sprigs for poaching broth

1 Turkish bay leaf

2 cups white wine

2 lbs. any white fleshed fish boned and cut up (such as cod or flounder)

1 10-oz package of frozen peas, thawed

1 small can Pimientos

1 cup Moroccan black olives, pitted

2 oz. Pernod

Chopped parsley for garnish

Procedure:

Remove meat from lobster.  Break claws and leave the claw meat inside.  Shell and devein the raw shrimp.  Wash and scrub clams and mussels and keep in cold salted water.

Cut up chicken into medium sized pieces. Combine oregano, thyme, peppercorns, garlic, salt, two tablespoons of oil and vinegar and mash it all together until it becomes a paste. Smear chicken pieces with this and let stand half an hour.

In a large skillet, melt ½ stick of butter and an equal amount of olive oil.  Add ½ of the onion /shallot mixture and cook until golden.  Quickly add chopped salt pork and then the pepper strips.  Stir over medium heat and add the shrimp, coriander and capers.  Cook, stirring steadily until the shrimp turn bright pink in color.  Set ingredients aside in a serving dish and wipe out skillet lightly with a paper towel.

In the same skillet, place cut-up chorizos and sauté until brown.  Add chicken pieces with enough oil and butter to sauté until golden brown on both sides. (This will take about 10 -15  minutes.)  Put in ham strips and stir until they are well coated with sauce.  Add chopped tomatoes and fresh basil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Set aside.

In a large kettle, melt a stick of butter.  Sauté the remaining onion/shallot mixture until golden.  Add unwashed rice and crushed saffron and stir until rice becomes first translucent and then almost milky in color.  Add boiling chicken broth.  Stir once, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

In a s kettle, place cut-up white onion, sliced half lemon, parsley sprigs and bay leaf.  Pour in 1 ½ cups white wine and bring to the simmer.  Add mussels and clams first and then pieces of fish tied up in washed cheesecloth to hold their shape.  Mussels and clams take about 10-15 minutes to steam.  Fish will poach in about 7-8 minutes.

Arrange a bed of rice and garnish it well with chicken pieces, lobster, ham, chorizo and remainder of ingredients in the serving dish.  Imbed the fish pieces and make another layer.  Stuff the clams and mussel shells with rice and arrange over rice.  Decorate with peas, pimientos and olives.

When dish is composed, dip a large piece of washed cheesecloth in white wine and place over the paella.  Sprinkle with Pernod and dot with bits of butter.  Bake the dish in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes until piping hot.  Remove cheesecloth and garnish with chopped parsley.

Photos by Michael Kirigin

 

 

  

 

Tangy Tofu; Resplendent Rice

Spicy Szechuan Tofu

Sure, you might want to try this recipe because it’s good for you, but you would also be right on target to try it because it’s zesty and redolent with Asian tang.  Tofu is a highly versatile ingredient absorbing any flavors you want it to have, in this case, spicy chili paste, sesame oil, garlic and fresh ginger.

My Chinese mentors, the late Virginia Lee and Grace Chu inspired this recipe.  Both had tantalizing stir fried tofu in their repertoires.  Madame Chu lived to age 100.  She ate good food.

Ingredients

6 squares firm tofu

2 T peanut or vegetable oil

1 cup ground pork

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t salt

2 t minced fresh ginger

1 T hot Szechuan chili paste

1 T dark soy sauce

½ t sugar

1 T rice wine

½ cup chicken stock

2 T cornstarch

1 t Szechuan peppercorns, ground*

1/3 cup diced scallions

1 T sesame oil

Procedure

1. Cut tofu into ½ inch cubes.

2. In a wok or skillet, bring peanut oil to a high heat.  Add ground pork and stir fry** until all pieces are separated and pork loses its pink color.

3. Add garlic and salt, stir frying just until the flavor is released.

4. Add ginger, chili paste and tofu, stir frying very gently.

5. Add soy sauce, sugar and wine, stir frying until mixed.

6. Pour in stock, mixing until it begins to boil and then add cornstarch mixed with 2 T water.

7. Stir fry gently until sauce thickens.

8. Sprinkle with peppercorn powder, scatter on scallions and drizzle with sesame oil to serve.

* You can grind them in a spice mill or just put them in a baggie and role a bottle or rolling pin over them.

** “Stir frying” is a misnomer.  There is no stirring in stir frying.  The technique is to slide the spatula underneath the food at the center of the wok, lift it up and turn it over. Then repeat this procedure from a different angle. Thus, the top surface becomes the bottom surface and all gets cooked evenly. Always heat your wok first before adding the oil.  Get your wok as hot as possible without burning the oil.  Don’t use a nonstick pan.

Entice with Rice

by Victor Ribaudo

I’ll bet you’re thinking, “What does this Italian guy know about rice?”  Well, it’s true that pasta is the carbohydrate of choice is my neck of the boot (Southern Italy, that is.)  Nevertheless, we Italian Americans have a keen talent for spotting a good thing when we taste it.  Truth is, pasta runs a close second to rice in my household.  And really, anything I put on pasta can easily be placed on a dish of rice and taste just as good – even better in some instances.  (Nonna, forgive me!)

Rice plays such a major role in the culinary traditions of so many cultures around the world.  It’s the global favorite.  Think about it.  All of Asia is hooked on rice.  Always has been.  That’s a lot of rice!  Then there’s the Caribbean and South America, where rice is king as well.  In the U.S., Southern cuisine features rice in many of its dishes, especially in Creole and Cajun cooking.  So my affinity for rice puts me in very good company.

Growing up, rice made limited appearances on the dinner table.  Mom did have one good rice recipe up her sleeve, though.  She prepared the rice in chicken broth.  When it was done, she’d fluff it up and mix freshly chopped scallions into it.  So simple but really nice with her fried chicken cutlets.  My grandmother’s rice repertoire was mostly limited to mixing it with butter and parmiggiano cheese.  Every once in a rare while she incorporated Sunday’s left over sauce and chopped meatballs into freshly prepared rice.  It was garnished with grated cheese and served it as a side dish.  It was good.  Her Steak Pizzaiola or Chicken Cacciatore were also ladled over rice.  But that was about it.

When I started living on my own, rice quickly exceeded pasta and potatoes as the norm in my kitchen.  It was fairly inexpensive, nutritious, delicious and extremely versatile.  I became a master at fried rice featuring chicken, pork, beef, vegetables – you name it – and always with scrambled egg, please.  Rice replaced noodles in my soups.  I had a ball as I would gumbo and etouffee my way through the week with ease.  I believe I ate rice every day.  Then I hit my thirties – hard.  Metabolizing carbohydrates slowed down as my weight went up. I had to cut back a bit.

So now I balance the carbs with protein and fresh veggies.  It’s fine, really, because I still eat plenty of my beloved rice. Just not every day!  I will opt for brown rice at times.  Kind of nutty in flavor.  And they say it’s a better choice for those watching their weight.  Wild rice is also pretty tasty.  (It’s not technically rice, but who’s looking anyway.)  I like to mix chopped almonds in mine.  However, a good white rice – whether it’s basmati, jasmine or texmati – is still my preference.  I’ll go as far as leaving the potatoes out of my beef stew so I can enjoy it over rice.  If I’m going to carb, I’ll drop the potato like, well, a hot potato any day.

Have you ever tried a rice salad?  It’s really something special.  Prepare your rice as directed, and let it cool.  Be sure the kernels are separated.  It won’t work with sticky rice.  Then take some really ripe tomatoes and dice, saving all the luscious juice.  Do the same with celery, red onion, flat leaf parsley and fresh basil.  Mix your veggies into the rice, as well as a can of rinsed black beans.  Now you’re ready for a dressing.  I recommend red wine vinegar and olive oil here.  Simple, but classic.  Chill and serve.

I can extol the glories of rice for days and days.  Suffice it to say, since space here is limited, that rice can take center stage or play a supporting role at any fine meal.  In other words, look to entice with rice.  Recipes are limitless, but start with Phyllis’ above.  It’s a keeper.  That’s it for now.  I’ve got some rice pudding in the fridge with my name on it.

Recipe by Phyllis Kirigin

Photographer Bill Brady

Written by Victor Ribaudo

Blog syndicated at the datingsymbol.com

” I like rice.  Rice is great if you’re hungry and want 2000 of something.”  Mitch Hedberg

 

 

May 27, 2011 at 11:05 pm

vanillasugarblog says:  you know what?
i can’t wait to see what you do with ice cream. lately that’s all i’ve been eating since it’s very hot here in NE.
have a good holiday wknd!

The Big Easy to Eat: Seafood Gumbo and Company

A Gumbo with Gusto

Even if you can’t make it to New Orleans, you can still celebrate in high style with southern comfort food at its best, a glorious gumbo. This one features shrimp, scallops, crab, andouille sausage and okra in a nourishing and soul-warming shrimp stock.  The shrimp and scallops are seared before added to the stock and the okra sautéed in a hot skillet to lose most of its “ropey” texture. I hope you’ll love it.

Shrimp stock:

• Peanut or vegetable oil
• Reserved raw shells, tails and heads from shrimp (see seafood
preparation)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 Turkish bay leaf
• 6 cups water
• ¾ cup dry white wine

In a large sauce pan, heat 2 T oil to hot and sauté shrimp shells, carrot, celery and onion for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add bay leaf, water and white wine. Bring to a simmer and cook at medium heat for 40 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and discard solids.

While stock is simmering, prepare the following:

• ½ lb andouille sausage* cut into thin slices
• 1 large onion, finely dice
• 2 celery ribs, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
• ½ cup tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 t fresh thyme, chopped
• ¼ t cayenne pepper

Brown andouille in a lightly oiled large skillet. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Heat 2 T oil in skillet and add onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, thyme and cayenne pepper and cook until soft. Set aside to be added to roux.

Roux

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ½ cup flour

In a large stockpot or Dutch oven make a roux. Melt butter and gradually add flour stirring until a rich caramel color is reached.

Gently add the vegetable mixture. Cook for another 3 minutes.

Bring shrimp stock to a boil. Gradually whisk cups into the roux mixture. Bring back to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.

Seafood

• 1 lb. large shrimp, cleaned. Reserve shells, tails and heads. (If
possible, buy shrimp with the heads on.)
• 6 large sea scallops, muscles removed, cut in half horizontally
• 6 oz. lump crabmeat

Wipe out the large skillet and add 2 T oil. Heat to almost smoking.

Add scallops seasoned with salt and pepper. Sear about 1 minute on each side. Remove and set aside. Add more oil if necessary to sauté shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper. Sauté until just pink, about 3 minutes. Set aside with scallops.

Okra

• ½ lb. okra cut into 1/4 –inch slices

In a dry skillet, sauté okra over medium high heat, turning frequently until they lose most of the liquid and begin to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Be careful not to scorch it. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove from skillet.

• Optional: up to 1 ½ t file powder**
• 2 T chopped green onion

Assembly

Add andouille, okra, scallops, shrimp and crabmeat to shrimp stock.

Stir to combine. If additional thickening is desired, take off heat and add file powder accordingly, stirring constantly. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped green onions and serve in large bowls or soup plates over hot white rice.

*andouille—a spicy smoked sausage found in some supermarkets, specialty markets and online.

**file powder—ground dried leaves of the sassafras tree used to thicken and flavor Creole dishes; available in the spice or gourmet section of most large supermarkets.

The Big Easy to Eat

by Victor Ribaudo

Rampart Street

As a self pronounced foodie, I just can’t help being drawn to the diversity of the cuisine of New Orleans and its surrounding parishes. My Sicilian ancestry taught me how the blending of cultures in a particular region can produce some interesting tastes. Louisiana is a stunning example of this phenomenon.

French Market

With a smattering of influences from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Africans, Native Americans, Italians and more, the tastes and textures of Louisiana fare are varied and always tantalizing. In fact, one can actually distinguish between two schools of cooking here, namely Creole and Cajun. Although they share much in common, the easiest way to describe the differences is that Creole tends to be a bit more complex, gastronomically speaking, borrowing cooking techniques from Europe and adapting them to local ingredients. Cajun cuisine leans more on a simple, down-home culinary philosophy born of the provincial French cooking that the Acadians brought to the bayous from Canada.

Both do, however, share what is commonly called the Holy Trinity. Simply a mixture chopped celery, bell pepper and onions, it serves as the cooking base to most dishes. Add it to local ingredients like crawfish, rice, beans and smoked ham, and you’ll discover some of the finest dishes you’ll ever experience, all with that intriguing flavor that makes them unmistakably Louisiana. (Oh, you can expect lots of cayenne pepper here as well. After all, some like it hot. Actually, in Louisiana, everyone likes it hot!)

Jambalaya

OK, now to some of my favorite dishes. Well, to be honest, they’re all my favorites. I particularly likethe stews, though. They almost always begin with a roux, or a mixture of fat and flour that, depending on how long it cooks, adds a light brown to deep-red color and thickens the final creation. Take gumbo, for instance. This savory stew of meat or seafood, and sometimes okra, is lovingly simmered in a thickened, aromatic stock and served steaming over rice. I mean, come on, has to be good, right? Or etouffee, which is similar to gumbo, but a bit earthier due the dark-red roux used as a thickener. I prefer mine with crawfish, but you can also try shrimp, crab or chicken varieties.

Preservation Hall

Did I mention how important rice is to the Cajun and Creole cook? Not surprising, since we are speaking of the South. Along with red beans and rice, flavored with Tasso ham and usually served on Mondays, or dirty rice (chicken liver or giblets give it a grayish color), I simply adore a dish called jambalaya. Reminiscent of paella, this favorite takes chicken and sausage, such as andouille, and slowly adds rice and stock until it all combines into a heavenly concoction of hearty goodness. Creole style adds tomatoes, Cajun does not. Both are fantastic.

The lover of Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, would be angry with me if I forgot to mention the sandwich. Here, it takes on a whole new meaning. Like the po’ boy. Imagine fried shrimp, oysters or other seafood, piled high on steaming hot Louisiana French bread, and dressed with spicy Creole mustard. Outstanding. Or the muffuletta.

Dressed with a generous portion of marinated olive salad, it combines every type of Italian cold cut imaginable, all stuffed into a hefty, seeded Italian-style bread. Give it a while before consuming – you’ll want the juices from the olive salad to soak into the bread. Makes this Italian boy’s heart sing.

The Famous Po Boys

What good meal doesn’t end with a sweet? So you’ll have to complete your Cajun or Creole feast with the beignet, a square shaped fried dough pastry that’s sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Talk about indulgence. Couple that with a nice cup of New Orleans style café au lait (the addition of chicory makes it authentic) and you’re ready to head home for a long nap.

No wonder they call New Orleans “The Big Easy.” With a culinary tradition that’s world renown, it so easy to be happy there. No time to visit? Not a problem. Try creating a Louisiana taste experience of your own. And invite me over. I’m easy to please.

Photographer Bill Brady http://bit.ly/9wFYxm

Written by Victor Ribaudo theribaudogroup.com

Food Stylist Brian Preston Campbell

Recipe Provided by Phyllis Kirigin, https://sweetpaprika.wordpress.com

http://datingsymbol.com Blog syndicated at the datingsymbol.com