Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 78 – Writing With My Mouth Full

China: Blue Crab Special

I could imagine Anna when she was a kid picking and sucking out the meat from these steamed crabs until her fingers turned wrinkly and raisin-like. She told me that most Cantonese grew up with the salty egg and meat patty combination but her father made it extra special by mixing it with steamed blue crabs. This was one of my best homecooked meals this summer. Be careful of the live crabs. One of them pinched me and it hurt! If you have some extra time before cooking, put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes so they “fall asleep.” Cracking them open later would not feel so bad. The best part of this recipe is pouring that super hot oil over the blue crabs before serving. Again, be very careful because the oil will be very hot, but oh, that crackling sound!

Ingredients:
half a dozen blue crabs
2 cooked salted duck eggs, shelled
1 regular egg
1/4 pound of ground pork
cilantro, roughly chopped
scallions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
oil

1. Open the blue crabs by pulling off the shell from the body. Remove apron and gills. Cut the crabs in half and using a pincher, smash the claws for easy access to the meat later.
2. In a bowl, combine the salted egg and regular egg and mix in the ground meat. Using your hands, mash the meat in the egg mixture then pour over the blue crabs. Sprinkle with cilantro and scallions, saving some for later.
3. Using a large Dutch oven, steam the crabs for about 15 minutes or until the crab shells are deep orange.
4. In a separate wok, heat the oil and add the garlic. Without waiting for the garlic to burn, quickly but gently pour the hot oil over the plate of steamed blue crabs. Garnish with the rest of the cilantro and scallions.

Naeng Myun, Korean Noodles in Cold Broth

Adapted from a Korean calendar photo

Ingredients:
half a pound of London broil, rinsed
1 package of buckwheat noodles
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 shallots, cut in half
1 hard-boiled egg, sliced thinly
1 small daikon radish, sliced thinly
a few slices of pickled radish or cucumber (from a Korean store)
a few slices of Asian pear
4 tbsps rice vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
chili powder
salt and pepper

1. In a large stock pot, add London broil, garlic, shallots and salt and pepper with enough water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour, or until meat is cooked through, occasionally skimming foam and fat.
2. Strain the broth into a large container, discarding solids. Add half of the rice vinegar, half of the sugar and salt to taste. Place the seasoned broth in refrigerator to chill.
3. Meanwhile, cook buckwheat noodles in boiling water until tender, about 12 minutes. Rinse with cold water several times, gently squeezing the noodles each time to make them chewy. Drain.
4. Soak the radish with the rest of the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Let stand for a few minutes then drain. Toss and sprinkle red pepper powder and drizzle with sesame oil.
5. When ready to serve, place about a handful of noodles in a soup bowl. Top noodles with meat slices, radish, cucumber, pears and egg. Ladle cold broth. Serve with kimchi and roasted seaweed.

Summer Vegetable Terrine

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients:
a handful of haricots verts, trimmed
4 golden beets, trimmed with1/2-inch of stems intact, cleaned off dirt
fresh chives, cut in shorter pieces
2 small envelopes of gelatin
2 medium carrots, cut in small pieces
3 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 sprig of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
1 cup dry white wine
whole peppercorns
oil, salt and pepper

1. Roast beets. Preheat oven to 450Âº. Wrap beets in heavy-duty foil and put in a shallow baking pan. Roast for about 1 hour and a half. Let steam in foil for an extra 10 minutes outside the oven. When cool enough to handle, gently squeeze to peel off skin. Cut into wedges and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Make the gelatin mixture. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil with white wine, shallots, scallions, peppercorns and salt over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add rosemary, thyme and half of the chives and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour stock through a fine mesh and discard solids. Save 2 1/2 cups of the stock.
3. Make the gelatin. In 1/4 cup of water, stir in gelatin powder and let stand for a minute to soften. Add to the gelatin mixture and stir until dissolved. Set aside.
4. Prepare haricots verts while roasting beets. Boil in salted water for about 7 minutes. Blanche in ice water to stop cooking. Drain and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. Assemble terrine. Lightly oil a nonreactive terrine or loaf pan. Line the bottom and sides with Saran wrap while smoothing out the wrinkles and leaving overhang around the pan. Pour about 1 cup of the gelatin mixture and quick-chill in freezer for about 20 minutes. When the first layer of gelatin is set, lay some of the haricots verts over, sprinkle with some chives and top with some of the beets. Repeat layering until all vegetables are used leaving some space between them for the gelatin to fill and hold them together. Stir the remaining gelatin mixture again and pour over vegetables except for 1/2 cup. Make sure all the vegetables are covered with the gelatin mixture. Chill in the refrigerator, uncovered, until the top is set, about 2 hours. Stir the remaining gelatin mixture and pour over set terrine. Put the terrine back in the refrigerator and chill until firm.
6. When ready to serve, run a thin knife along the sides of the terrine. Invert on a plate and gently pull off Saran wrap to help unmold. Carefully slice and transfer on a plate using a spatula. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Fish Fumet, Concentrated Fish Stock

Whenever I buy a whole fish, I ask the fish monger to have it cleaned but I also ask to keep the fish head and the bones. If I’m lucky, Blue Moon Fish from Mattituck, Long Island at the Union Square farmers’ market gives them away for free. My dad especially likes using them for Filipino paksiw, which is a fish soup made less fishy by adding a lot of ginger. For a non-Filipino recipe, I use my own fish stock to make an accompanying sauce for the fish itself.

Fish fumet is the French version of a concentrated fish stock. Because it’s such a classic, I turned to my Larousse Gastronomique to find a solid recipe.

fish heads and bones, rinsed well
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 leek, thoroughly washed, chopped
1 large red onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
salt, pepper

1. Put all the ingredients in a pot with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then immediately lower the fire. Skim impurities carefully and let the stock simmer, without boiling, for about two hours.
2. When the stock has reduced to about 75%, strain to a container. Let cool before storing in the fridge.

Nepal: Stuffed Chataamari

Ubin gave me a lecture about the Newar people of Nepal when he gave me this recipe. They are the indigenous people of Kathmandu and the largest ethnic group according to the 2001 Nepalese census. He grew up eating chataamaris–what he would translate as rice crepes–and drinking San Miguel beer to match. He claims that Newari food is the best cuisine in Nepal but grounding the rice and lentils was laborious. I can imagine that a powerful mixer or blender would have been beneficial to use instead of my old-school mortar and pestle.

Dal is what the Nepalese use to refer to lentils, split and skinned. But they also use the term for all peas and beans that go through the process. Split lentils don’t hold their shape well, so they’re usually used for purÃ©es. I bought a package of black beluga lentils from Whole Foods. Even though the instructions said I didn’t need to soak them, I did anyway to follow the recipe. I also found a block of paneer cheese at Whole Foods. I also found it easier to make the chataamaris separately and serve the stuffing on the side instead of making them empanada style like the recipe originally suggested. We ended up tearing the chataamari and eating it like bread, scooping and soaking up the chicken while we ate.

Ingredients:
2 cups long-grain rice
1 cup black dal or lentils
1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted, crushed
4 pieces of boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1 cup paneer cheese, crumbled
3 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and crushed
2 fresh chilis, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
clarified butter
oil, salt, pepper

1. For the chataamari, soak rice and black lentils in water overnight. Rinse the soaked rice and lentils mixture thoroughly. Using a mortar and pestle, ground mixture into a smooth batter-like paste, one small batch at a time. Pour into a large mixing bowl and add cumin seeds and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and add more water as necessary to keep that batter consistency. Let the batter rest for at least six hours, covered, in the fridge.
2. When ready to prepare, take out the batter from the fridge and let it come down to room temperature. Make the stuffing. Heat oil in a skillet and sautÃ© garlic and ginger until light brown. Add chicken with some salt and pepper. Brown the meat under medium-heat. Add chilis, tomato, cheese and scallions. Stir for a few minutes in low heat until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. To assemble chataamaris, heat a tablespoon of clarified butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Pour in some batter and spread out into a paper-thin crepe. Cook until the bottom has crisped up. Scoop some of the chicken stuffing and add on top of one side of the chataamari. Using a heat-resistant spatula, turn over the other half of the chataamari to cover. Turn and cook the other side until crispy. Repeat until you finish the batter.