fried shallots

Congee With Mushroom, Carrot & Egg

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“Congee With Mushrooms, Carrots & Egg (Chinese Rice porridge)“
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Excerpt from a previous post of Congee on ChefsOpinion :
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” Rice Porridge –
The first thing that comes to mind is probably baby food or hospital gruff.
Most folks would never think of ordering it from a menu in a restaurant, much less wake up and crave it for breakfast, if they hadn’t tasted or at least seen it before.

Now, let’s try again :
Congee. Lúgaw. Chok. Xifan. Juk. Okayu.
OK now, that’s better 🙂

Sounds more interesting and exotic? These are just a few names given to rice porridge around the world. If there is a country or region which traditionally eats rice, then there is some form of rice porridge eaten.
Congee can be enjoyed as breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner. Congee most often contains rice, but other grains can be used.
Ideally, it is made with strong, tasty stock that infuses great taste and debt into the dish. But from there on, let your fantasy run wild. Congee can be made with seafood, meat, vegetables or a combination thereof.
Then there are the toppings – Pickled vegetables, fried shallots, sliced scallions, any mushroom, crisp fried garlic, dried shrimps, 100-year eggs, cilantro, etc, etc.
If you like it, put it on.
Below is a version I made on Sunday for breakfast. The texture is more like a Filipino Lugaw, with the rice VERY soft but still keeping its shape. “.
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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Congee With Mushrooms, Carrot & Egg

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Preparation :
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: to 1 qt chicken stock, add 2 cup cooked Fan (Chinese steamed rice) and 1 cup cleaned, sliced carrots; simmer until the rice and porridge has the desired texture and the carrots are tender (if too dry, add more chicken stock)

: meanwhile, saute 1 cup sliced mushroom of your choice in 1 tblsp peanut oil until lightly browned, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste, reserve

: when the congee has the desired texture, add 4 whole whisked eggs, simmer one minute, remove from heat, check/adjust seasoning, plate in a bowl

: drizzle with chili oil (optional)

: sprinkle with 1 tblsp sliced scallions, top with the sauteed mushrooms

: Congee With Mushroom, Carrot & Egg

: Congee With Mushrooms. Carrots & Egg

: Congee With Mushroom, Carrot & Egg

: Congee With Mushroom, Carrot & Egg

: Congee With Mushroom, Carrot & Egg

: Congee With Mushrooms. Carrots & Egg

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Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

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Duck and noodles – what’s not to like about that ? 🙂
Since I prepare roast duck often, duck soup is naturally on the menu just as much. Even just a few bones, skin, scraps, innards and the neck from one duck, added to chicken or vegetable stock and seasoning, is enough to prep a rich, tasty soup. Any veggie, pasta, even rice thrown-in, and you’ll be rewarded with a tasty and economical meal. You can also strain the stock and use it to fix a great congee for breakfast, just add some scallions and fried shallots and voilà, another satisfying quickie. ( Meal, that is ! ) 🙂
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for ROAST DUCK – PART ONE – “DUCK WITH DIRTY NOODLES”

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Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: for recipe and instructions for “Roast Duck”, click on the link on this page

: remove the meat from the legs and shred, remove the skin and all remaining meat from the carcasse and use to make the duck stock

: add the duck bones, the skin and scraps to 1 qt chicken or vegetable stock, add all the juices and 2 tblsp duck fat that have collected when roasting the duck(see pick next to the roasted whole duck) simmer for 30 minutes or until there is 1/2 qt stock left

: when the stock is reduced, season with kosher salt, cayenne pepper, garlic paste and grated ginger to taste, simmer another minute

: meanwhile, soak 8 oz rice sticks in boiling water for 3-5 minutes or until soft enough to eat

: when the noodles are soft, drain and rinse, then stir with 2 tblsp toasted sesame oil

: with a slotted spoon, remove all bones and solids

: add 1 lb blanched, shocked and drained baby bok choy, simmer for 1 minute, remove from heat, check/adjust seasoning

: place the noodles in a large serving bowl

: top with 5 ea finely sliced red radish, the shredded duck meat and fresh cilantro, add the duck stock

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

: Roast Duck – Part Two – “Duck Soup With Rice Sticks And Baby Bok Choy”

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Old Fashioned Hoisin Glazed Grilled Tuna Steak

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If you wonder why I call this dish “old fashioned”, the answer is simple: “It is fully cooked but still juicy”, which is undoubtedly one of the most difficult things to master in good cooking and unfortunately a part of our craft lost to the majority of today’s cooks/ chefs.
In order to cook any food item, especially seafood and poultry, the cook/chef has to take into consideration the carry-over heat of the food item, which will depend on the thickness, cooking temperature, texture, and the time it takes the food from the time it is removed from cooking equipment in the kitchen to being served on a plate and starting to be eaten by the customer. Get this wrong and your dish is ruined! 😦
Old fashioned, because once this was an absolute necessity for any cook to master in order to be rightfully employed in a professional kitchen, while nowadays, sadly, cooks who perfectly have mastered this most important skill are the exception. (Hence, all the undercooked or overcooked meat, seafood, and even vegetables). It is so much easier to rather just “pan sear” a piece of fish than to perfectly cook it. While there certainly is a place and time for sashimi, and one has to admire the chefs who serve it perfectly, the majority of the fish quality served in most restaurants, homes, supermarkets, etc, make this way of serving fish a ridiculous way of trying to cover-up the cooks/chefs inability to cook the fish and other food perfectly.
NO raw fish has the beautiful texture and is as juicy as a perfectly cooked fish! NONE !
And don’t even get me going on half cooked pork or chicken breast 😦
But enough of this, let’s get back to the dish at hand. Instead of the more common teriyaki glaze, I glazed the tuna with hoisin sauce, which was even better, at least for my personal taste.
If you look at the pictures, you will notice that I have not removed the “blood line” from the fillet. When preparing tuna for myself, I always cook the filet with this dark flesh attached. When I was still preparing food in restaurants, I removed this part because the flavor is very strong and some folks don’t like it. (Bella does, so no questions asked at our house 🙂 (Also see note below)
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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Click here for Steamed Rice Recipe (Fan) on ChefsOpinion
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P.S.
“That dark, nearly black area on the side of your tuna or swordfish steak is nothing bad or unhealthy, although you may not like it’s strong flavor. It is a muscle that is rich in myoglobin, a blood pigment. But lest that sound creepy to you, bear in mind that myoglobin is the same iron-containing pigment that makes red meat red.You can leave it in when you cook the fish: the stronger flavor of that small area will not affect the taste of the rest of the fish.”
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Old Fashioned Hoisin Glazed Grilled Tuna Steak

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures
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: the good stuff…..

: cut filet into 1 inch thick steaks (if you prefer, remove the dark part, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper

: grill to desired doneness; when done, brush generously with hoisin sauce (or teriyaki if you prefer), broil until caramelized

: sprinkle steamed rice with fried shallots

: place the tuna on top of the rice, top the tuna with finely sliced scallion and salted radish-slivers

: Old Fashioned Hoisin Glazed Grilled Tuna Steak

: Old Fashioned Hoisin Glazed Grilled Tuna Steak

: Old Fashioned Hoisin Glazed Grilled Tuna Steak

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Nasi Goreng

Restaurant Version Nasi Goreng >

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Nasi Goreng can be had in one version or another in many Asian countries. Actually, it is the national dish of Indonesia, where it can be eaten at any time of the day from road side hawker carts to 5 star restaurants and in any home.
As with so many Asian dishes I learned about in Germany the 60’s, the”Nasi Goreng” of my youth was usually made with curry powder, which qualified the dish as “exotic” :-).
In later years, while working and travelling in Asia, I got to know the real stuff, usually seasoned with sambal ulek and kecup manis, garlic, sauteed and fried shallots and soy sauce.
However, even back then when I was a kid and enjoyed the curry powder versions, the standard accompaniments (Garniture) were the same as you’d find in a good restaurant then and now anywhere around the world, where appearance is almost as important as taste : Kroepek (shrimp crackers), sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, fried eggs, fried shallots and satay’s with peanut sauce.
Today, after coming home from work, “Garniture” was not in the forefront of my mind but rather a hearty, spicy, quick to prepare dish which would hit all the buttons of my culinary lust 🙂
So here it is : Nasi goreng without the bells & whistles but at it’s tastiest !
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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P.S.
As you can see in the picture, I used fresh-cooked rice. Day old rice is of course preferable for any fried rice, including nasi goreng, but I needed to have my fix NOW.
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Nasi Goreng

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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
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: stir fry 1 1/2 cup diced chicken and 1 1/2 cup peeled and deveined shrimp in 2 tblsp peanut oil, season with kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste; add 2 sliced medium hot chilis, 1 small finely sliced onion 3 cups cooked rice, 1 tsp sambal olek, 1/2 tsp garlic paste, 2 tsp kecap manis, 1 tsp soy sauce

: add kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste, stir fry until well mixed and the rice starts to “pop”, check/adjust seasoning; put the nasi goreng on a serving dish, sprinkle with fried shallots

: top nasi goreng with 3 fried eggs, sprinkle with chili flakes and sliced scallions; serves 3

: Nasi Goreng

: Nasi Goreng

: Nasi Goreng

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No Name Soup

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This delicious soup follows the popular “whatever I find in the larder” principle. 🙂
Today, I found beef bones, mushrooms, canton noodles, eggs, cabbage, chinese sausage and fried shallots, which, together with a bit of time for the broth, is all you need to prepare this tasty delight.
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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No Name Soup

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Preparation :
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: simmer 5 lbs beef bones SLOWLY in 3 qt water, season with 1 tblsp garlic paste, 1 tblsp chili paste, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp grated ginger and kosher salt to taste for two hours or until reduced to 1 quart