It's All About to Happen

Niu Rou Mian Yong Kang Style

2017-12-03T17:45:00.001-08:00

I've heard of this soup before and I'd been surfing through Strictly Dumpling channel on YouTube where he has a couple of different videos about Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup.

First up, his video of Yong Kang and two other places. The Yong Kang soup is well known for its quality and affordability.

He has two other related videos. A beef noodle tour in two parts and a video recipe for how he makes this at home. His recipe seems influenced by the Saveur recipe I used and discuss below, but he does a number of things differently. He also includes potato because he likes potato.

The Yong Kang style appealed to me and looked to be worth trying. I'm following the Saveur recipe for this blog post, which makes a lot of soup. Well, followed it as much as I could. I had some sourcing difficulties with the beef shank.

My local asian grocer had boneless beef shank, but it seemed to me that bones were an important part of the flavor. So I ended up mixing the marrow bones with the boneless shank.

As with Strictly Dumpling's recipe, it starts with bringing the beef parts to a boil to help remove extra scum from the stock.

While that was coming to the boil, I filled a larger pot with the onion, garlic, pepper corns, tomato, star anise and chiles and ginger. Then topped with the "rinsed" beef.

The pot is very full. Soon, a really interesting aroma of ginger and spiced tomato came from the pot. It was quite appealing. The tomato gave up color to the stock fairly quickly.

Simmering now. Savuer instructs to use a sort of poaching method I've usually seen for chicken in Chinese cuisine. After an hour at a simmer, take the pot off the heat, cover and let stand for an hour. Jeff Smith does this for his poached chicken, though in that case you only bring the water and chicken to a boil, then let stand covered for an hour.

Well, it wasn't enough. The shank was still quite tough. Now collagen (gristle) breaks down into flavorful juice at 180 degrees. This is the secret of the plateau when smoking pork shoulder or when you're making a pot roast. At 160, that meat is tough and hard and dry. But you get up into the 185 range and the meat is tender and moist when you use tough cuts. I took the shank's temperature, and it was 186. But this is more than regular gristle. It borders on cartilage or tendon.

Now it could also be that my simmer isn't hot enough for the recipe as tested at Saveur. I'm cooking at 5000 feet elevation so my boiling point is only 202 F. It needed more cooking time. I gave it another hour at the simmer. You'll see I've got better fat rendering as well.

Remove the solids, reserve the meat, strain the stock. Saveur's instructions on seasoning the stock are weak. Between sugar, soy sauce and black vinegar, you can tilt this a lot of different ways.

Break up the meat into your desired chunks. Shank has a lot of interior tendon/gristle that gives that slippery but chewy mouth feel that Chinese love. Meanwhile, boil up your noodles and blanch some baby bok choy. Assemble your bowl. I'm using a lot less noodle than is traditional judging by the videos and photos. But that's just too much noodle for me.

Add the broth and enjoy. Have some extra soy, vinegar and sriracha at the table. I added four drops of sriracha.

Yes, this is pretty good soup. I'm tempted to compare it pho but it's a rather different approach and result. This is richer and heartier than pho. I like the stronger flavored vegetable accompaniment in this soup too to give you some contrast to the richness.

But there are some other variations and instructions to consider. At the second place in the opening video, they offer a chile bean paste at the table as a condiment. Cathy Erway uses chile bean paste in her stock for her version of this soup in her book The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island. She changes some other things as well in ways that I think are worth considering besides recommending three hours of cooking. Saveur went with a lot of black pepper corns, probably because it was an ingredient their readership could readily source. Cathy uses sichuan pepper corns in a lesser amount. And more rice wine and the bean paste as noted.

Having made Savuer's recipe, I'm now more interested in Cathy's version. As a compromise, I added some bean paste to the leftover broth I still have from Savuer's recipe as that's the biggest difference I think. Simmer that for a bit for the flavors to work. Visibly there was little difference beyond some floating chile flakes. But the flavor was more full as well and better balanced. Do use the bean paste.

Layla Fries (Za'atar Fries)

2017-12-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

A local restaurant, Layla's, serving middle eastern food is where I first encountered a za'atar seasoned french fry. On the menu, they're referred to as Layla Fries. There's a number of recipes for a za'atar fry on the net and it's not really a complicated thing to do. At Layla's, the potatoes are fried a little darker than is common for a french fry and the fries are served with a fabulous harissa-spiked toum.

Some definitions:

Za'atar A blend of herbs and spices common throughout the Levant. Wild variants of thyme, marjoram, sesame seed and savory and often some sumac. It varies some by region and even by household.

Harissa A hot chile paste of North Eastern Africa. You can find jars or cans at most middle eastern grocers even though its not traditional to those cuisines.

Toum A form of aioli from the Levant.

One of the things I do differently is to bake the "fries". It's lower fat, and less hassle for home cooks generally. This method works pretty well with Extra Virgin Olive Oil so you get some of that flavor if you want. Because the oil is applied to the potato, which is full of water, the olive oil is buffered from the high heat and doesn't lose all of its flavor.

Another is for the toum. To make toum from scratch, which is certainly the best toum, makes quite a bit, most of which I end up wasting. Regular commercial mayonnaise substitutes very poorly as the base for toum. It's too tangy, too sweet, too whipped. But being an Asian focused food blog, I have Kewpie Mayonnaise in my refrigerator too. And Kewpie Mayonnaise is denser, less whipped and not as acidic. It works pretty well as a stand in for the mayo-like component of toum with a little doctoring. Allegedly, Kewpie is made with rice vinegar. Toum is made with fresh lemon juice and a little splash of fresh lemon juice brings Kewpie Mayonnaise into the right flavor profile.

Specific amounts for the fries will vary with the size of potatoes you use and how you cut them. So the recipe will include lots of "as needed" and "to taste". For the photos show here, I used three medium-large potatoes and two sheet pans for baking them. Russets are my preference in a french fry though Yukon Golds are good for this too.

Peel and slice your potatoes into french fry shapes, lengthwise. 3/16" on a side and as long as you can get them is what works best. Thinner potatoes crisp up on the surface and are soft inside. Larger fries are harder to bake evenly and often end up mushy and limp.

Heat the oven to 425. Arrange racks to the center. If you're using two baking sheets, arrange racks as close low center and upper center as you can. Swap the pans on the racks halfway through cooking.

Rinse and drain the potatoes to remove excess surface starch. I like to spin the rinsed potatoes in my salad spinner to dry them well.

In a large bowl, toss the fries with oil, about 2 teaspoons per potato. If you cut your fries larger, it will take less oil as there's less surface area to coat. I used a Spanish Extra Virgin olive oil, but canola or plain vegetable oil will work fine.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Using a parchment sheet or silicone liner guarantees good release and you can use a little less oil as well. Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet so they don't touch. This helps them cook evenly.

Bake them 15-20 minutes, then toss them to move the bottom side to the top as much as possible for even cooking. Switch the pan positions if baking two pans.

Bake another 10 - 15 minutes. if using two pans, combine fries on to one pan. Set the oven to broil. Broil the fries until they have brown spots, and toss to expose less cooked areas of the potatoes. Repeat until the potatoes are to you liking.

Season with za'atar, sumac generously and some salt. Toss the potatoes to coat evenly, repeating the seasoning as needed. Be generous with the za'atar and sumac.

While the potatoes are baking, prepare the harissa accented toum.

1/4 cup Kewpie Mayonnaise
1 large clove of garlic minced to a paste
1-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice.
1/2-1 teaspoon harissa using more or less to taste

Mix in the lemon juice and harissa in small additions tasting between each addition. In the photo, I'm adding the first dose of harissa to the Kewpie Mayonaisse.

If you're reading this from Utah, it will look like a pale fry sauce when you're done.

At the table. I grant you that sauted zuchinni, hot dog and fries is a little bit odd for a combination, but it was a birthday meal request. The toum is in the small ramekin for dipping.

Brisket: Ropa Vieja

2017-11-19T16:09:00.001-08:00

Ropa Vieja is traditionally a Cuban dish, but it's a good set up for tacos as well. It's especially well suited to pressure cooking because you cook the onions separately towards the end so they retain their character. Onions in the pressure cooker break down into mush. And while there are times that's what you want, just not in this dish.

Trim excess fat and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Season, brown in the pressure cooker or cooking pot.

As I'm going to use these for tacos, my seasoning is tilted Mexican rather than Cuban.

Add liquid, pressure cook on 15 lbs pressures for 50 minutes. Quick release. Liquid will have reduced. Or bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until very tender. Just before the meat is done, you can prep your onions, garlic

chiles and such.

Remove the meat from the liquid, reserve the liquid.

Shred the meat. You can break it apart easily with your fingers or some forks. A potato masher is good too. If using some powered aids is more your style then the plastic dough blade in a food processor works well in small batches. Don't use a sharp metal blade as it will cut too finely. The plastic blade just beats it apart along the fibers. You can do the same thing in a stand mixer with the paddle or dough hook.

Meanwhile, start sauteing the onions and chiles. When the onions have softened, add the garlic. Stir, then add the tomato

Add the shredded meat and reserved liquid. Let simmer a few minutes for flavors to blend.

Toast corn tortillas on a cast iron comal or skillet.

Add your toppings. i like to add the cheese first so it has some time melt. Sour cream, salsa, cabbage round out my taco toppings.

And one that is better constructed, but not any tastier. If you're wondering about the disparity in plates, the picture above is from a trip at my brother's place and the one below is with leftovers from the same batch at home.

Chirashi

2017-11-01T09:14:00.002-07:00

Chirashi is a rice bowl. More specifically it's Chirashi-Sushi building a rice bowl from sushi style ingredients. It's a simpler proposition compared to assembling and rolling sushi. In traditional Japanese cuisine, Chirashi is more structured than what I'm describing. But the concept has deep versatility.

Simply layer in your preferred ingredients. This one was based on Spam Musubi, fried pieces of spam glazed in a teriyaki sauce.

Simply layer in your preferred ingredients. While I list some below, those lists aren't the only possibilities. In the picture above, it was based on Spam Musubi, fried pieces of spam glazed in a teriyaki sauce; cucumber, julienne carrot, avocado, nori and furikake. But there is a broad range of things that can and do work well.

Sushi rice, cooked and seasoned

Vegetable choices

Wilted spinach
Cucumber in small chunks
Carrot sliced or julienne
Green onion, chopped
Sauted onion
Fried garlic slices, use a vegetable peeler, fry briefly until it barely changes color
Bamboo shoots, sliced or julienne

Protein Choices

Any sushi grade fish as for regular sushi
Shrimp
Asian roast port
Asian omelet or boiled egg slices
teriyaki chicken or salmon
Spam, as above
Tofu
Mushrooms
Tobiko

Garnish

Shredded Nori (cut it with scissors, much easier than with a knife)
Furikake

Sauce Ideas

Not every bowl of chirashi needs sauce but you'll want to match your sauce to your ingredients when you do use a sauce.

If I used a teriyaki flavored meat, I'd use teriyaki sauce.
For eel, eel sauce.
For roast pork, a blend of hot Asian mustard and some soy sauce.
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce is pretty versatile
Wasabi Mayonnaise or Wasabi Cream
Sriracha Mayonnaise
Wasabi -- while many would mix wasabi and soy that's not my personal preference. I'd drizzle some soy on the dish and pickup a bit of wasabi on my chopstick or fork by the bite.

Give your assembled bowl a mix and enjoy. I admit, I often break down and use a fork for eating chirashi.

Tuna on Toast with Furikake

2017-10-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Except for Furikake, the heading is pretty obvious what this is about.

Furikake is a savory seasoning usually based in dried seafood, sesame, nori and some other things that vary from type to type.

In the US, the most commonly available type is Nori Komi Furikake

Even Walmart usually has it.

Most often it is used as a rice seasoning and sometimes with sushi. In addition to the Nori Komi Furikake there are many other varieties from the same maker. I like the Kimchi, and Katsuo from JFC and there are many I still need to try. And I have a Shrimp based one from a different maker I like a lot too.

But it's a nice simple addition to a tuna sandwich as well. Mix your tuna with mayonnaise to taste. It's most versatile to let each person season their sandwich to their own taste, and prettier too I think. Season to taste and enjoy.

Buying and Using a Whole Beef Brisket

2014-11-06T09:26:00.002-08:00

Beef prices have climbed strongly over the last couple of years. In the few months I spent compiling parts of this brisket series, the price per pound has gone up over a dollar.

A trimmed flat or point of brisket will cost 6-7 dollars per pound or even more. A chuck roast probably more as well. Buying a whole packer of brisket (includes the point and flat as one large piece) runs @2.50-3.68 per pound over the course of these posts. Finding a whole brisket is a little trickier, but Walmart has had them fairly consistently and at a good price.

You can trim the fat down to about 1/4 inch layer and cook it a variety of ways. Smoking the whole brisket is popular of course. You can pot roast in the Yiddish Gantze Tzimmes style or any other you like. On Big Bang Theory, when Howard Wolowitz speaks of his mother's brisket, Gantze Tzimmes is one possibility of what he means.

But more likely, you'll want to butcher your brisket further, at least down into the point and flat cuts and remove as much fat as you like along the way. I often trim it all the way down to the meat if I'm not smoking it. There's enough interstitial marbling for good flavor as it is.

Separating the point and the flat

The first post of Brisket Butchering 101 is a good guide to this with helpful pictures. You basically follow a seam of fat between the point and the flat. And trim off the fat cap to your desired thickness. A sharp knife 5-7 inches long is a good tool for this. A Boning knife would be good too. In BB101 guide link above, notice that the point is much coarser in texture and less evenly shaped. For these reasons the flat is more popular. You may also see that the grain of the flat and the point don't run in the same direction so carving a whole brisket for service can be a little tricky to get optimal texture.

Char Broil has a helpful video on Youtube as well. In this video, he carves out the majority of the fat between the flat and point, but leaves it otherwise intact for smoking in one piece.

And here is a packer brisket I picked up at Walmart.

Just start cutting away excess fat until you find the meat. I prefer to work in shallow strokes of a sharp knife, using mostly the tip. You can see the successive cuts in the flap of fat I'm pulling on.

Follow the contours of the meat pulling away the fat to expose the junction of meat and fat. The knife will follow the seam pretty naturally.

Notice here how the grain of the point and flat run at angles to each other.

Eventually you'll reach the other side of the meat slab and just trim things off.

The Flat, finer grained and of a more even shape and thickness, this is often the preferred cut for a corned beef.

The Point is coarser grained and thick at the pointed end and thinner on the flared end.

The fat trimmed from this brisket, 6 pounds worth. Even after the fat loss, the price per pound of the remaining meat was a bit over $5.00. Buying a trimmed brisket would probably still have a pound of fat to trim. As you can see above, I left no fat cap. So I save some money and some fat consumption by trimming it out myself. And you can too.

Up next, I'll post some things you can do with parts of brisket.

Simple Asian Slaws

2014-10-23T18:59:00.003-07:00

Salads aren't really common in China though the concept is picking up. Frankly, the safety of raw vegetables wasn't very good historically speaking. While the green head cabbage common in the West isn't part of historic Asian cuisine, they had a range of its relatives and mustards. Still, green cabbage is a versatile and inexpensive vegetable and I like it. It works in most places the celery cabbage or Napa cabbage would be used more traditionally.

When cooking Chinese on a weeknight, there's not usually much time to prepare a vegetable if you're stir-frying the protein or your wok is otherwise occupied. This is when knowing how to season up some simple sliced cabbage, carrots and onions is a handy thing.

Nuoc Cham

Nuoc Cham is one way. I do this more for accompanying a steamed fish dish as I like how the lime plays to the cilantro and fish.

For speed, dress the slaw with nuoc cham to taste just before serving. For better flavor and texture, dress it early and let it stand refrigerated a couple of hours, stirring now and then. Just before serving, pour off the dressing and accumulated liquid from the vegetables. Dress again, using a bit less nuoc cham to account for what was absorbed.

If you're going to use nuoc cham, don't do a salted drain period with the slaw vegetables. Because fish sauce is so salty, it's best not use salt to wilt and drain the vegetables before hand.

Chinese Salad Dressing

There are a number of variations on this out there, and even some good commercially bottled dressings. This is a simple one to mix together and is easy to scale up or down as needed. This one is close to one by Nina Simonds, but modified by myself under the influence of Mai Leung's cookbooks. This works well measured in teaspoons or tablespoons for a triple batch. Just depends how much you need.

4 light soy sauce (not lite or low sodium)
3 rice vinegar
2 toasted sesame oil
1.5 sugar
1 dark soy sauce

Combine and mix until the sugar is dissolved. This one doesn't emulsify well, just stir before pouring. It's good on many vegetables or salads. I'm particularly fond of it on sliced cucumber with a little chopped green onion. It's also a welcome dip for a hot pot.

Because I use Ve Wong XO soy sauce which is low in sodium naturally, I can salt the slaw vegetables to wilt and drain off their liquid. Otherwise, it's as with the nuoc cham where it would be too salty.

Spicy Red Dressing

I first encountered this in Yong Yap Cotterell's Chinese Cooking for Pleasure as the flavored base for Sichuan Chicken Cakes. Shortly after seeing this there, I came across Lexington Slaw which is a pretty similar concept. It's surprisingly simple, basically spiced up ketchup. Yong Yap just used ketchup and dried chile flakes.

Ratios suggested below are a broad guideline. Start small and increase the amounts to taste. Dress it very lightly.

10 parts Ketchup
1 part Sriracha (Huy Fong will work fine, but Shark is better if you can find it)

Prior to mixing:

After mixing:

As cabbages and such are not uniform in size and people's preference for heat varies widely, it's best to assemble this to taste. Start lightly with ketchup, a 1/4 cup will dress quite a bit of cabbage. Similarly, sriracha gets hot fast so start with a small amount, mix it in and taste. Continue adding ketchup and sriracha in small amounts until the balance is to your liking.

This is the slaw I served with the Hoisin Simmered Strips.

Spinach with Scorched Garlic

2014-10-15T09:35:00.004-07:00

This is one of those simple dishes in which description fails to capture the result. Scorching garlic, while generally a cooking mistake, seasons and scents the oil that brings out the best of the spinach, a lighter pungency from the garlic with the earthier flavors from the spinach.

Because the garlic is left intact, it's not too strong and can withstand the cooking that would ruin minced or sliced garlic.

1 pound spinach, washed, drained, chopped in 1 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic crushed but still in one piece
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Bring a good volume of water to a boil, 3-4 quarts is good. Do not salt the water. Use the heating time to finish prepping the other ingredients.

Blanch the cut spinach in the boiling water for 1 minute. Drain, and shock the spinach with cold water.

The spinach will have collapsed and cooked down. Drain, blot or spin the spinach in a salad spinner to remove excess liquid. Spinning works best. I find it easiest to season the spinach after spinning.

Now, when you stir fry the spinach, it will not leak out bitter liquid. The blanching and spinning turns spinach into a great vegetable for stir frying. You can blanch ahead of time and keep the spinach refrigerated or at room temperature for an hour or two before cooking.

Heat the oil in a wok on high heat. Add the garlic and stir fry until the garlic has taken on some dark color on all sides.

Add the spinach and stir fry to coat the spinach evenly in the oil, breaking up any clumps.

Serve immediately.

I picked up this dish from Barbara Tropp's The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. It's out of print as are many of the best Chinese cookbooks, but still readily available in the used book market.

A similar dish done with Yu Choy can be seen at the Steamy Kitchen blog. The basic idea is adaptable to any quick cooking greens.

Hoisin Simmered Strips

2014-10-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

The original version of this dish uses a whole 5-6 pound stewing hen and a proportionally longer cooking time. Here, I simplify this using leaner tender cuts and cooking them quickly though the steps are the same. It's not as rich or intense, but makes for a simpler quicker meal that is still quite good.

As written, this recipe uses a lot of meat. It's one of those dishes that you can make ahead of time and reuse in different ways. For a smaller version, you can reduce the amounts to 1/4 that listed. The ingredients will scale will at that ratio. I'll list those amounts in parentheses.

4-5 pounds lean tender chicken, or pork in strips. (1 pound) Chicken tenderloins work well and are already the right shape.
salt
rice wine

I'm using up a package of chicken tenderloins and pork sirloin tip roast. Trim off any sinews or unwanted fat. Chicken tenderloins often have some of the tendon still attached and its best to remove that. Season with salt and a few drops of rice wine on each side. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Sear off strips in a hot lightly oiled pan on high heat. You don't want to cook it through, just put color on the strips and develop some fond in the pan. The meat will stick at first, but release when it's been seared on the surface. Turn and cook on the other side. Don't stir fry or otherwise disturb the meat, you'll only have a sticking problem. Remove seared strips to a plate and repeat in batches as necessary.

My pan is heavily loaded, arguably overloaded. I'm cooking on induction on maximum wattage. And you'll see it colors and releases well without rendering out liquid or steaming the meat. Work within the limits of your stove and pan.

The brown bits left in the pan are the fond. Notice there aren't meat bits stuck all over the pan. The fond is the basis of many pan sauces in Continental cuisine and it will improve the sauce for this dish as well.

Remove pan from heat, and add the sauce ingredients.

4 large cloves garlic, minced (1 clove)
4 teaspoons minced ginger (1 teaspoon)
3/4 cup water (3 tablespoons)
3/4 cup hoisin sauce (3 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons mushroom dark soy (1 tablespoon)
4 tablespoons rice wine (1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon sugar (1 teaspoon--this is technically more than 1/4 but it works)
1 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon)

Bring to a boil over medium heat, scraping up your fond. Return the strips to the sauce and simmer gently until done, 15-20 minutes.

Remove the strips, slice them, brush with toasted sesame oil and drizzle with the cooking sauce to taste. Serve extra sauce at the table. Keeping the servings arranged as strips improves the presentation.

Sliced

Sauced

Served

A different method for passing through oil

2014-10-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

I was streaming some TV this evening through the apps feature of my TV. I chose an episode of Great Chef's Holiday Table, the one with the Wong Brothers making their Lettuce Blossom (video link) It's a nice chicken and vegetable filled lettuce cup or wrap.

Some interesting technique is demonstrated in the video. I give time marks to the different technique points.

2:03 double cleaver mincing.
2:30 marinate in quite a lot of cooking oil, but this turns out to be a prelude to passing through oil. And I don't think its really a marination step, but a measuring step.
3:02 the commentary indicates to stir fry the chicken. This is a bit of a misnomer in this case. By adding the room temp chicken and oil to the hot wok, it all heats up more slowly and par cooks the chicken gently. The chicken is strained out of the oil with a spider,
3:26 then truly stir-fried in much less oil with the vegetables following on quickly.

I liked this technique of passing through oil for a few reasons. It premeasures the amount of oil needed. By mixing the oil with the chicken before heating, you know how much oil you need. This is a little less hassle and more efficient.

You don't have to measure the temperature of the oil to keep it cool enough. Passing through oil technique usually targets an oil temp between 250 and 275 F. You can visually gauge the progress of the chicken and simply remove it at the right time without fussing with thermometers.

Additionally, the meat will not all cook together quickly as can happen with the usual technique when you first add the meat to the hot oil

However, you're still limited by not overloading the wok. The commercial wok stove they used had plenty of power to heat the chicken up. It will take some experimenting to see how well this technique translates to home equipment.

How a Serrated Blade Works

2014-09-08T08:56:00.002-07:00

Serrated blades work on a couple of different principles. In general, you have a continuously variable cutting angle as you draw the knife in the cutting stroke.

(image courtesy of Sypderco via Amazon)

Other serration patterns exist too of course. I own a Victorinox 10" Bread Knife and New West Knifeworks Super Bread Knife. The Victorinox has had a best buy rating from Cook's Illustrated as it's a good performer for a very reasonable price. The thin blade is a little flexy for certain uses though. The Super Bread Knife is a very good knife for quite a bit of money and uses a less common gentle wave serration. I also like how the tip is un-serrated on the Super Bread Knife for a clean finish to the cut.

The Victorinox uses a fairly common pointed scallop.

And both are chisel ground, meaning they're flat on the one side. Serrations are ground in with shaped wheels. As each wheel will wear somewhat differently, it's difficult to match up the pattern on both sides of the blade. A chisel grind is a reasonable solution.

For a given length of blade, a serrated blade has more total edge length than for a plain edge knife of the same length. There's more distance to a curvy route than a straight one. So for the same cutting stroke, a serrated blade can apply more cutting surface.

Serration patterns with points gain some sawing effects making serrations more efficient on fibrous materials. Further, those fine points concentrate the pressure on a small area increasing the apparent cutting power, but also increasing wear on the points. The points tend to round over with time and use.

Serrated blades seem to hold an edge longer. This is both true and false. The points of the serration are what contact the cutting board. The points take the abuse and are structurally more prone to wear and dulling. Dave_Martell at Knifeforums has a very good photo of this as shown below.

However, the points are the least amount of edge on the blade and protect the curves from the more dulling aspects of cutting thereby preserving the overall apparent sharpness of the blade.

Performance differences

Comparing my two serrated blades, they're fairly similar for cutting bread overall. The serration patterns behave a little differently. The pointy serrations start the cut in crusty bread faster. However, once into the bread, the super bread knife is a bit faster and creates less crumb on the board.

They were indistinguishable in cutting tomato.

When making a long deep cut, as in cutting a cake horizontally for filling, the thinner more flexible blade of the Victorinox can wander towards the tip making for an uneven cut. Converserly, in a denser material, like squash, the thicker blade of the Super Bread Knife has more wander.

There are some simple brackets to help you make the cake cut evenly though.

Sharpening a serrated blade

The primary trick to sharpening a serrated blade is to find a sharpener with a radius equal to or less than that of the serration. Dave_Martell in the knifeforums link above demonstrates using Edge Pro sharpening films around dowels to do so. Spyderco's Sharpmaker has finely rounded corners on the triangle stones purposely for sharpening serrations, though it tends to round over the points a bit. Sharp round tips, but not as pointy anymore. DMT makes some tapering diamond files for this purpose as well. Generally speaking, serrations are ground at 30 degrees on one side only.

It is this fitment issue that precludes some serrations from being resharpened fairly simply and usually requires factory equipment to do so. This is the issue with Cutco style serrations for example.

As the serrations get finer and finer, they become harder and harder to sharpen. Inexpensive knife sets often take this path to offer an initial sharpness and then just become food saws in cheap steel.

The wavy scallops on the Super Bread knife are easier to sharpen than the pointed scallops, at least on the Sharpmaker. It's not a big difference though.

Drawbacks to the serrated blade

Exaggerated glide to finish the cut. When the edge contacts the cutting board with just the points, the cut is incomplete. You have to move the points through the the rest of the cut to finish cutting.
Most of the edge does not contact the cutting board
Requires special tools and techniques to sharpen
Marks the food when. cut Consider those steak knives that tear the steak more than cut it. Serrations are reasonable for a steak knife where they're used on hard ceramic plate that would dull a plain edge. But I don't like what they do to steak. You'll see the marks in other foods as well, even from a sharp blade. Waviness left behind and such.
Wanders in the cut
Junk masked by serrations. Many inexpensive knives are serrated on poor steel because they'll still saw through pretty much anything
Impossible to sharpen some serration patterns without factory equipment.

Knife Skills: When to Guillotine and NOT Glide

2014-08-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

So after the Craftsy knife skills class it may seem there is never a time to cut straight down through something. I suppose one could construct such an argument, most likely based around the exceptions having specialty dedicated cutting gear.

But most of us don't have or want a lot of rarely used specialized cutting equipment.

Most of the foods in this category have a weak but clingy structure such that the gliding action of a cut causes the product to break apart as it clings to the knife in its stroke. Cheese, various pates and terrines and so on. Cheese is probably the one most frequently encountered.

For my eating preferences, cheese is something I often want cut in thin slabs for making a sandwich or similar things. Just about every guide to cutting cheese has you breaking it down into wedges for serving and eating it plain or as part of a cheese course.

And that's useful to know too. So here are a few visual guides to cutting cheese from various shapes.

Cheese Guide from Australia
Huffington Post article on softer cheeses
Wikihow, but notice that this is a thick slab and not good for sandwiches

Prepping the Knife

Dedicated cheese knives often have holes or kullens (often called dimples, but more correctly kullenschliff) to break the clinging action of the cheese. Others use ridges to break up the sticking. On your chef's knife, you experience a similar thing with many vegetables clinging after a cut. Just as the holes or kullens work to break the sticktion, you can create a surface on your chef's knife that has the same behavior.

Using a green Scotch Brite pad or equivalent when you clean your knife blade will scratch the surface up over time. On a Chef's knife, this is somewhat desirable in that it allows air in behind what you're cutting to minimize the sticking. It's not as effective as the holes, dimples or ridges, but you're making your one tool more versatile.

I like a tall knife for cutting cheese rather than a small knife like a paring knife. The tall blade rests against the cheese block during the cut and helps keep the slice an even thickness through out the cut.

I prefer a stainless knife to a carbon knife for cutting cheese. Growing up I had too many occasions where our carbon blade left a black smear of metallic tasting yuck on the cheese. Yes, the knife was not properly cared for as one in proper shape shouldn't do that. . Still, the experience soured me on carbon blades and cheese.

Keeping it Clean

Be prepared to clean your blade after every cut or every few cuts. As residue builds on the blade, this often aggravates the issue of the cheese sticking and deforming. You'll know when it's time to wipe the blade clean. On a similar note, you'll see people say to cut with wet blade or an oiled blade. This can help make a clean cut, but the oil or water residue is often just as undesirable on the cut cheese. No harm in trying it of course and seeing how you like the results.

Technique

Use the pinch grip. The pinch grip helps you keep the blade vertical. It WILL try to tip if it's dull or your pressure is not straight down. Using your off hand for additional pressure only compounds this effect, though I do use my off hand in this way. As with all knife skills, it takes some practice. There will be times the knife breaks free of the cut and plunges to the board with some force. This is not safe, nor good for the knife. It will happen as you learn. You must keep your fingers totally away from the edge, particularly with your off hand. No curling the fingers under. Do this at your own risk, and this is why dedicated tools exist for this task.

Ideally, your knife is long enough and the cheese block low enough that you can keep the knife tip on the board. This gives you more control and accuracy. But that won't happen every time.

This is not a quick drop as a guillotine, but a continuous even pressure. Avoid teeter-tottering the blade as that will lead to an uneven or failed cut.

In Use

Each knife will have a different minimal thickness it can cut evenly. This is related to the thickness of the knife itself. Here's my 10" Henkels with a broken cut and a plunge to the board in a brick of Tillamook sharp cheddar. I'm cutting too far forward for optimal pressure as well but some of that was from the jump.

Ok, my Henkel's isn't my sharpest knife and it's also on the thick side. As you can see from where it snapped, I'm cutting very thinly. Too thin for this blade.

Again with the Henkels, this time it didn't break off mid cut. This slice is a little thicker than the previous one. But it cut thinly at the end as the thickness of the blade wedged it out of line of the cut. This is a serviceable slice for a sandwich but not ideal. Cutting the cheese even a little thicker would have solved this problem.

Here's a good cut with an 8" Ikea Slitbar in VG10. Very sharp, thinner blade stock. Even thickness for the whole cut. Notice its thinner than the last cut with the Henkels and even for the whole slice. Each knife has a minimum thinness it can cut. It will also vary from cheese to cheese by type and even within type as some bricks of the this cheese are moister and cling more. Occasionally you'll get a cheese that just refuses to cut well.

Here's an oblique shot to illustrate residue build up. The thicker Henkels builds more residue for more resistance and trouble in the cut. The Ikea being thinner has less residue. Still, towards the thicker end of the knife at the handle, you can see increased smearing and residue. You can see from the smears that I'm cutting straight through, no gliding forward or sawing which breaks the cheese apart.

And an attempt to show blade thickness differences, Ikea in the foreground and Henkels in the midground. Even with the foreshortening distortion from perspective, the Ikea is still thinner.

Craftsy Knife Class Lesson 5

2014-08-22T15:09:00.001-07:00

Lesson 5, Honing and Sharpening

As Brendan points out in the beginning of this lesson, this topic is deep enough for a whole series itself. What he demonstrates is simple, and uses commonly available equipment.

Within those limitations and to an audience who is not focused on high end knife performance, this is perfectly reasonable and complete enough for most home cooks.

I liked his grip trick for getting close to the edge angles for both "steeling" and the stone work.

Notice that his sharpening stone is pretty long. For sharpening kitchen blades, its best to use a stone that is at least as long as the knife blade. Because you will make strokes the whole length of the knife, you need that long stone to have that much space. You can kind of fudge it on a slightly smaller stone or work in sections on too small of stones. But you're just adding to the work and aggravation to do that.

It's useful to have a few tricks to test sharpness. He cheated on the tomato test. To demonstrate the dull knife, he did a pure push cut on an intact tomato. That's a really hard thing to do even with a scary sharp blade. There's a sort of holy grail test of knife sharpness that you can sharpen a blade to where it will push cut a tomato. Without a little sliding action to initiate the cut, tomato skin can resist a blade quite well. When he demonstrates his sharp blade, he slides it and it cuts easily.

The paper test is a pretty good one and he notes the simple things to look for. I usually use a piece of paper from the junk mail in my recycle bin. Newsprint is even better as it's flimsier and more revealing of edge flaws.

Any way, here's some paper cutting tests I did in 2012 for a particular line of small knives. Click to see larger versions and look at the edges of the paper. They vary in smoothness, feathering, folding and such.

Another hand test is as you're cutting potatoes. The cut surface of a potato should feel smooth and slippery. If it feels pebbley at all, it was cut with a dull blade.

There is a set of downloadable pdf materials to complete the class. It includes a conversion chart for Metric to US and vice versa, pictures of the 4 knife types and some recipes as mentioned in the classes.

Craftsy Knife Class Lesson 4

2014-08-21T16:11:00.003-07:00

Shortcuts for Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs is the title of this lesson.

Paring Knife Use

Jalapeno with the spine of a paring knife, switch to a serrated blade. Notice how much rib and seeds were left behind with his choice of technique. It's a fine technique if you want a half of a pepper for filling or such. And he's right, the skin on any pepper will quickly demonstrate if your knife is dull and you're doing a chop motion instead of a forward glide to finish your cutting stroke. I do prefer to have the skin side up for cuttings same as Brendan does.

My preferred technique, yes even for small peppers like a jalapeno, uses the large chef's knife:

And he does this as well for bell peppers so I don't know why he didn't for the jalapeno. Perhaps just to demonstrate some options and let people use what they like best.

Cauliflower, good technique, and better than I've done it before. I learned something new.

Citrus, good technique again, but the knife has to be sharper than most home cook's paring knife is likely to be. Even his microplane demonstration shows that they dull and become less effective over time. His was dull. A sharp microplane makes a fabulous fine zest without ripping or tearing. A vegetable peeler is likely to be a better tool for most home cooks to pare/peel the zest away. Then clean up the pith as as necessary. Or dedicated zester tools, though I've not yet found one that worked as well as I would like. If you need fine strips, a vegetable peeler and some knife work is my preferred method. Brendan flips the zest skin side up for the cutting for all the same reasons as the pepper.

Citrus supremes, he'd doing it right. The flat top and bottom cuts are important to this technique. One note about supremes. They're great presentation and flavor, but you lose fiber. Our diets are usually too low in fiber and an orange is often one of the higher fiber sources commonly available. This is one of the concerns about drinking fruit juice. It's so high sugar that without the fiber it's little better than soda at that point. Further, fiber slows and even blocks some sugar absorption in our gut. I suggest you save supremes for special occasions and eat smarter and healthier.

Serrated Blade Use

Tomato with the serrated knife. Notice that his circular cutting motions are now much longer on the glide part of the stroke. The edge of a serrated knife only makes contact with the board at the points. So you have to do a longer stroke to cut through the last part of the tomato. This is one of my peeves with a serrated knife is it's less efficient at finishing the cut. A sharp Chefs is just as good if not better at this in my opinion. But that caveat of sharpness is important. For many home cooks, the serrated blade is their reliably sharpest blade. And if that's your situation, using the serrated blade makes sense.

The grape/cherry tomato demonstration is a piece of genius.

Skipping over the peppers, because we discussed them above, Brendan demonstrates preparing a pineapple. He gives a little steering discussion for lefties as they'll have some struggles using the commonly available serrated blades more than the right handed users simply because of how chisel grinds are commonly done. Notice that he keeps cutting on the right side of the pineapple from his perspective. If he tries to cut the side closest to him, he'll run into that steering problem because he's now cutting on the other side of the blade.

Butternut squash, technique is good of course. He clearly knows what he's doing.

Chef Knife Use

Avacado, it was good to see him demonstrate choking up on the blade. That's not something demonstrated very often.

Herbs, he's definitely not a fan of rock chopping and with reason. It's not as even or controlled mostly but less safe as well and damaging to the board and blade. I'm not going to tell you not to if you prefer it. I don't think this is an issue of significant merit in this case. As to floating herbs, spinach, and such for cleaning, that's a good technique to have in your arsenal. Leeks, I can see the appeal, but there's enough grit in cutting the leeks up to that point you could be messing up your blade more than the somewhat simplified cleaning merits.

In summary, there's plenty of good ideas here. Brendan is a good presenter and keeps the lesson moving. It's not especially insightful if you've been cooking a while as you've probably run across them. While he pointed out control and safety issues a number of times, I think he could have explained it more concretely and tied it back to the universal principles he laid out in Lesson 3. Breaking the squash down is not just about creating reasonable shapes. As with the onion, the breaking down cuts create flat stable surfaces for later safe cuts. That philosophy of cutting things will help you as deal with watermelon, cantaloupe, and other large food items.

Craftsy Knife Class Lesson 3

2014-08-18T19:00:00.003-07:00

Lesson 3: The Board and Basic cuts

This was a good video, and I learned and refreshed some finer points of knife skills. I'm enjoying this class.

Cutting Board

Interesting he's using an edge/side grain board, not an end grain. End grain is usually what is espoused by wood aficionados. End grain self heals better but costs more. Edge grain can be prettier to my taste anyway. Also, I dispute his claim that pros prefer wood. Very few Health Departments allow wood cutting boards for professional food prep in contravention of his claims of harboring bacteria. Why? Because you can sterilize a plastic board, but not the wood ones. Sure there's the widely disseminated studies that show wood kills off bacteria on the cutting board. And while that's true to a certain extent compared to plastic, it doesn't kill ENOUGH bacteria to be safe. You have to wash your boards either way.

Grip and board stance

This is a topic that gets very little discussion. He offers very good grip info, good approach to the board. I'd have liked to see some discussion about using the whole board. Because of the angles of the arms in how you use the board, you have dead space, particularly in the corners. You can use that to store cut items, scraps and such to be efficient in your meal prep.

Low Cut

Slicing action--think Guillotine and Glide. The knife comes down, then slides forward to finish. it's more elliptical than circular I think. Listen to the sound of his cuts. There's more of a swishing rub than the whack of a chop. He's doing it right.

His point about really only using the back half of the knife is important. It is for this reason that you are more efficient with a larger knife. Also, with a larger knife, the angles you work through are smaller reducing motion and work.

Another note, because he's cutting for the camera, he deviates from the 45 degree angle he taught. Don't be fooled by the necessities of the filming. the 45 degree work on the board is important for comfort, speed and safety.

When he's demonstrating the claw grip of the guide hand, note how awkward it becomes to raise the knife higher than the knuckle. The pinch and claw, guillotine and glide techniques work to keep you safe and efficient.

When he gets to the low cut summary at just past 12 minutes, the first bullet point is to keep the knife in contact with the board. This maintains the pivot point for the elliptical motion of the cut and is why correct technique for the low cut is so quiet. The knife glides on the board rather than impacting the board.

High Cut

When he demonstrates the high cut, there will be more noise, but not as much as you might think. Noise is a side effect of excess energy and poor technique. Use it as feedback on your technique.

Horizontal cuts in the onion. Notice he uses multiple strokes to make this cut. It' simplest, safest and more accurate this way until you develop a high level of skill. I still use multiple strokes on this cut particularly to not cut all the way through the root.

Onion, vertical and horizontal cuts
When he starts to pull back the knife for the second horizontal stroke. Notice how his knife thins from the heel to the tip. This is the distal taper. It's why you can easily pull back on the blade after it starts to wedge and get stuck. There are many subtle and important features to a chef's knife.

You'll see different chefs do vertical cuts before the horizontal cuts. I don't know that it really makes a difference, but probably I've seen more make the vertical cuts first on TV. I however, make horizontal cuts first. I find it easier. Do what you find easier but do try both methods.

On the vertical cuts, again notice that when he demonstrates poor technique, it gets louder.

Garlic-- this is one reason I don't like wood boards. It's very hard to get onion and garlic flavors out of the wood. As to his peeling technique, I've used it. It bruises the garlic and is not good if you only need a few cloves. Bruised garlic in the fridge gets really pungent and strong. I do use this technique when I need to prepare a lot of garlic for something.

He uses classic French technique for mincing garlic. It works, it's mostly for high end cheffing in my opinion where the chef demands it. For a full mince/paste I prefer the crush with the flat of the blade technique. His crush demonstration was too weak. Hit it harder and slide the knife a bit so the garlic comes apart more completely. Then the following mince doesn't have those large pieces. Alternatively, a press or a salt mince is good too.

While he doesn't mention it, he demonstrates another aspect of good knife technique. His knife is SHARP. He never forces the knife. Most of the work is from the geometry of the blade, the sharpness, it's own weight and some light added pressure. This is also related to his onion commentary on good technique reducing tearing. The sharp knife helps a lot with this as well.

Craftsy Knife Class Lesson 2

2014-08-17T15:44:00.001-07:00

Craftsy Knife Class Lesson 2: Knife Types and which to choose

Perhaps simplistic if you have much kitchen experience. This is, however, a class to cover the basics.

I disagree with the instructor over the value/versatility of a serrated blade for fruit tomatoes and such. If you're keeping your chef's knife sharp, it will do the job easier and better than the serrated blade for most users. Certainly individual taste varies as shown by the instructors recommendation.

I agree with him on the basic 3 knives a cook needs: Chef's, Bread/Serrated Utility and a paring knife. I'd opt for a petty or utility blade before a boning knife personally. And your general home cook would probably get more mileage from a petty compared to a boning knife as well.

My beef with serrated blades is that they're chisel ground, meaning flat on one side and angled on the other to meet and form the edge. On a knife a chisel grind wanders or steers in the cut. The denser the material, the more pronounced the steering effect is. You can compensate for it with practice, but it's a hassle compared to a sharp chef's knife. On bread and cakes and such, it's not such a big deal as that material is fairly soft. Also serrated blades require somewhat specialized equipment to sharpen and some types can't be sharpened at all.

MAC makes a bread knife with a conventional V grind, but I've not used one to have an opinion of it.

At the end, he demonstrates a simple trick on a ceramic cup for touching up a blade if you lack equipment. He's not wrong, but I want to emphasize you find one with the finest smoothest texture or you'll probably do more harm than good. Similarly, there's an interesting bit in Spyderco's Sharpmaker instruction video where Sal Glesser (owner of Spyderco) shows sharpening on a non-glazed large clay pot just to show what can be done.

At the 3:50 mark in this video, Mr. Glesser shows that technique.

I'd have liked some more discussion of profiles, steels, and such. So let me give you some links for some of these concepts.

French vs German knife profiles. You're probably more exposed to the German profile than the French or the derived Japanese profile.

Gyuto- the Japanese Chef's knife

The Kitchen Knife Forums sticky topics This is a set of information that may be deeper than you ever wanted to know, but offers a good jumping off point it you want that kind of information. Steel, design, terminology, makers and more.

On the other hand, it was refreshing that he skipped over forging vs stamping, bolsters, rivets, full tangs and such. Good knives can be made with or without those things. I do have a point i want to make however. Full height blade bolsters. I do not like these. This picture from my Henkels Chef knife should exhibit my issue.

Notice that where the edge meets the bolster that the edge has worn up the knife from sharpening. The bolster now drops lower than the edge. This means that my full edge does not make contact with the board so things don't get cut all the way through. Now, yes, I can grind that down or have it ground down. But I shouldn't have to. The design itself is poor.

With that close up view, it seems that whole edge could use some work. It has been some time since I used or sharpened that blade.

And some links on the the disputable issues.

Forged vs. Stamped This page has some good photos of knives at different stages of forging and stamping. I link it for the discussion of method, not their conclusion. I disagree with the conclusion that stamping is automatically inferior. Many high grade particle metallurgy steels can be stamped or laser cut into great knives of equal or better quality than mass produced forged blades.

Full Tang vs. Stick Tang via the Kitchen Knife Forum discussion of the topic and a useful knife anatomy link showing some diagrams of the designs as well. The rivet issue is part of this discussion actually. My Henkel's chef knife does not have a visible tang or rivets but it's a decent knife. I'd choose a gyuto if I were to spend that much in todays market.

Bolsters or No Bolster Zknives discusses forged/stamped, but the last half discusses the bolster issue. Bolsters can be done to not interfere with the sharpening of the blade. If you like them, great, if not, that's great too.

Craftsy Knife Class and Lesson 1

2014-08-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Craftsy is offering an on-line video course on knife skills. It requires an account (an email address and a password) to access. So free from monetary payment, but they'll likely market to you afterwards.

If you want to take this course, be sure to read their Terms of Use and their Privacy Policy to be sure it meets your expectations. One of their terms of use is that they may withdraw an application at any time so this class may not always be available or free.

I'm always interested in learning new things and brushing up my skills, and the price was right so I signed up. I'll make a review post with my comments and related insight for each lesson. They'll make sense in the context of the lesson, but might be disjointed if you read them without also watching the lesson. Hopefully it will help you decide if you want to take the class or offer alternative perspectives if you do take the class.

The first lesson is a short introduction to the Craftsy classes. It's just under a minute and is mostly self promoting their site which is to be expected. So the rest of the posts will begin with lesson 2.

Lesson 1: How to use your free mini class
Lesson 2: Introduction, which knives you need
Lesson 3: How to make the basic cuts and demonstrations of those cuts
Lesson 4: Further demonstrations on specific fruits and vegetables to help ou be efficient at each task
Lesson 5: Sharpening and Maintenance

The lessons vary in time, from 8-43 minutes, but you can skip around in the video or return to it later as needed.

See you in class.

Braised Omelets

2014-07-29T08:49:00.002-07:00

Here's another dish full of Chinese concepts, but that has drifted with some western influences. It's sort of like an egg fu yung, but this is a rolled omelet and not so greasy. This is also a better knife and fork meal than a chopstick one.

I'm using pictures from a couple of different meals in this style. One is more mushroom and cabbage based, the other zucchini and char shu based. If the picture is fuzzy, it's from the mushroom meal most likely. Something was up with the camera that day.

Make a batch of egg omelette crepes. Figure an egg per person you're cooking for. Each egg makes about 2 1/3 crepes when cooked in an 8" nonstick skillet. This gives you a few extra crepes for mistakes as needed.

Season as you like, I recommend a little salt or maybe some adobo seasoning, some sriracha and sesame oil. Beat to combine well.

Heat an 8" nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray LIGHTLY with nonstick spray.

Pour in about half an egg's worth of the egg mixture, about 1 1/2 to two tablespoons.

Tilt the skillet to coat the bottom of the pan evenly

When it just looks moist on top, it's ready flip. Notice also that the very edges have dried and curled away from the pan a bit.

They're too light to reliably flip with a pan toss. Slip a silicone rubber spatula under the omelet, lift, flip and straighten it out.

Don't sweat the small tears. They'll work fine. You'll break some occasionally. That's OK. Some can be salvaged, others you'll just have to slice up for the filling.

Here's a good one. Usually the first or second one are more prone to break because the pan isn't evenly hot and slick as it will get when fully hot. After the first two, I usually turn the heat down a bit as well.

Set them aside to be filled.

Filling can be most any combination. Dried mushrooms are pretty common as are bean sprouts. Something green like cabbage, some onion. Meat often shows up too. Ham, char shu, chicken, chopped shrimp. Figure about 1/3 cup of cooked filling per egg.

On the left, I have carrots, onion, ginger, garlic, egg crepes, zucchini and some char shu. On the right, I have mushrooms, carrots, onions, cabbage and bean sprouts that were cooked in batches as shown, then combined, seasoning as desired and for contrast with the other ingredients.

Cook the filling. I cooked the carrots and onion with some ginger, salt and pepper. And the zucchini separately with garlic and a touch of light soy. I combined them, then added the char shu to heat through.

For the mushroom batch, I cooked the mushrooms more slowly to draw out their moisture and deepen their flavors.

Lay on 2-3 tablespoons of filling per crepe.

Roll it up. The trick is to make it snug, but not so tight that the crepe tears. A tear is not the end of the world, especially for a family meal. If you're making this for guests where presentation counts more, you should make more egg crepes than you think you'll need to ensure perfect crepes for each guest. Keep them seam down to help hold them together.

I'll include a broken one just to show that it can work out well enough for you. What a terribly focused picture, I apologize.

Lay the completed rolls into a 12" nonstick skillet. Put the broken one in amongst the good ones to help hold it together.

Build a basic garlic sauce. This will make about 1 cup, enough to lightly sauce 10-12 crepes.

1 clove garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced--optional
1/2 teaspoon oil
3/4 cup chicken stock--low sodium preferred
1 teaspoon light soy
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons shao hsing wine
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2-3 teaspoons corn starch--use more or less to adjust thickness as desired.

Combine the stock, soy, sesame oil, rice wine, oyster sauce and corn starch. Mix well.

Heat a small pan over medium heat. Add the oil, then garlic and ginger if using. Stir fry until aromatic.

Give your liquid a final stir to remix any settled corn starch and add to the cooking garlic.

Stir and bring to a boil to thicken. The sauce will turn from cloudy to translucent and glassy.

Pour over and around your filled omelets.

Simmer the omelets gently in the sauce until warmed thoroughly and the sauce has coated the omelets. Serve immediately. Two makes a nice sized serving.

Good Fortune Hot Pots

2014-06-30T08:18:00.003-07:00

A Chinese hot pot restaurant opened recently on 2700 South and 300 East. It's diagonally across the street from a classic Prairie School Architecture church.

I'm not entirely sure of the name. The menu said Good Fortune, the receipt said Good Future. The signage is all Chinese characters which I don't read. In any case, it was a pretty good meal.

The hot pot is set up like a buffet at $14.99/person. Add $1.00/person for every extra broth style you choose. They offer some different broths such as Chicken, Bone, Tonic, Hot & Spicy. We opted for the Chicken and the Bone stocks. The bone is the whiter of the two broths. It turns white from emulsified fat, something considered a failure for western style stocks. It's the same concept as the Tonkatsu broth for Ramen in Japan.

The hot pot operates on a gas burner brought to your table. It's not particularly high output so you have to watch how heavily you load the pot to keep it cooking. Also, it's best to keep the ladles out of the broth between uses or the handles become quite hot.

And the buffet tables of which there are three.

This first photo shows the seafood table. It has shrimp 2 ways, mussels, fake crab, real crab, a fish, squid or cuttlefish and so on.

Next is the vegetable table. This one included potato, daikon, bean curd skin, broccoli, cauliflower, Napa cabbage, Romaine lettuce, and a few different mushroom choices. I was a little surprised by the large pieces of tree or cloud ear. It was a nice touch. The bean curd skin, potato and daikon had been blanched to accelerate the final cooking time at the table.

The meat table offered ham, pork, beef, chicken, fish balls, pork balls, shrimp balls and a fish cake.

Saucing was a little confusing. Our staff couldn't readily offer an English description of all the 5 sauces. The primary sauce in the largest bowl was identified as a sesame sauce. I think it was built from toasted sesame paste, soy sauce and ginger. Probably some other things in lesser quantities.

The Thai Sweet Chili sauce was obvious, and a good choice. There was a hot mustard. A dark ketchupy looking sauce that had an intense hot finish. And a thicker light tan sauce with a vaguely meaty flavor and salty taste.

We quite enjoyed ourselves and you should give Good Fortune/Future a try yourself. I'll be including some daikon potato and bean curd skin in my hot pots in the future. Those were a good idea.

Towards a Theory of Chinese Marinades: Part 5, Cornstarch

2014-06-24T08:38:00.001-07:00

Cornstarch has become very popular in Chinese marinades. Martin Yan uses it in just about everything on his shows anymore, usually with the description of it making the meat tender. It's viewed and used as the great secret to tenderness. I'm not convinced.

Texture is certainly important to Chinese cuisine. Texture is managed in many ways: drying, soaking, brining, how it's cut, how its cooked, velveting...

OK, velveting. That's cornstarch and it is a tender texture technique. Is it marination or is it battering and par frying / boiling in water.

Can you reduce the velveting effect to just including cornstarch in the marinade?

Does the order of using cornstarch matter? Some people think so. http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultryreceo/r/moogoogaipan.htm

Note the emphasis on adding the corn starch last.

And also again in their beef and broccoli
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/beef/r/beefbroccoli.htm I've noticed that Martin Yan tends to add it last, but have not seen him explicitly call for it to be added last, though it is often last in his list of ingredients as well. I've seen no explanation for this but it seems to me it's the easiest way to avoid clumping of the corn starch.

Hsiang Ju Lin notes two uses of cornstarch for controlling texture in his classic Chinese Gastronomy. One is described as "To preserve the natural delicate texture. To form an impenetrable barrier between meat and hot oil". The sample recipe is velveted.

His other is "To bind juices of meat with seasonings. It is essential to add liquid at last stage of cooking." The example recipe is marinated with corn starch and liquid is added at the end. In the recipe description, he indicates the corn starch seals in the juices. I suppose juiciness is a related trait to tenderness but it's not the same thing.

At yet another point in Chinese Gastronomy, he notes that the cornstarch keeps the juices in the meat, to keep the juices away from the other ingredients. He had just finished discussing how in a longer cooking time, the juices from the meat run out and into the dish making everything taste of beef--a more western idea of unified flavors rather than contrasting flavors. And it's one of they key skills in stir frying to not cook anything to the point where it's juices run out. This is hard in the west with our lower output stoves and things tend to steam if one isn't careful in loading the wok.

Similarly, Cook's Illustrated opines (via lthforum.com)

The Mysterious Powers of Cornstarch Most cooks keep a box of cornstarch on hand for a single purpose: thickening. So did we - until we noticed that cornstarch was working its magic in other ways as well. Predictably, adding cornstarch (3 tablespoons) to our soup thickened it. What was surprising, however, were the two other uses we found for cornstarch. Adding just 1 teaspoon of cornstarch to the pork marinade of soy sauce and sesame oil caused the marinade to cling to and coat the meat during cooking, creating a protective sheath that slowed the inevitable rise in temperature that separates moist, tender pork from dry, chalky pork jerky. And adding just 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch to the egg that's drizzled into the soup at the end of cooking seemed to have a tenderizing effect. Cornstarch stabilizes liquid proteins when they're heated, staving off excessive shrinkage and contraction. So this last bit of cornstarch helped the eggs cook up lighter and softer.

Or with a little variation alongside the Hot And Sour Soup recipe in "The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook ". Click the image to read it in a bigger format.

And I agree that cornstarch in the marinade can help seal up the meat's juices. But I don't think it is the same end effect as velveting as is so often portrayed. Also, it's use as a crutch over practicing good technique is saddening. Adding starch tends to cloud flavors. There are times the benefit of retained moisture outweighs the negative impact on flavor and it should be used. But it's not a universal solution to improving every marinade. Before you just blindly add it because the recipe calls for it, or you've heard how great it is, try to understand what it will accomplish in the recipe. It might well be better without it.

One last note. Cornstarch is a relatively recent product of the west. Corn is native to the Americas and while there is a theory that corn was in China before Columbus came to the Americas (see http://yakushi.pharm.or.jp/FULL_TEXT/125_7/pdf/583.pdf) it could be the usage is generic as corn is in English for grains. Corned beef as a term similarly predates the Americas and referred to the size and shape of the seasoning spices. Or early English editions of the Bible use corn as generic for grain in the Old Testament which also would not have used corn in the modern sense. In any event, the early starches used in China before corn were from water chestnuts and millet primarily. (Harold McGee On Food and Cooking)

Other posts in the Marinade series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4

Towards a Theory of Chinese Marinades: Part 4, Ginger and Garlic

2014-06-08T13:54:00.002-07:00

Garlic is a frequent ingredient in the West for marinades. Not so much in China. And the same is true for ginger.

There are a few different reasons for this but mostly scorching of the garlic and ginger, and food philosophy.

In the west, we tend to marinate large cuts of meat, a whole chicken breast or pork chop and so on. It's easy to remove any bits of garlic before cooking. In Asian cuisine, especially the stir fry, where the meat is often thinly sliced, it would be difficult to remove all the bits and they'd scorch and burn creating terrible flavors.

In recipes by western cooks creating an Asian style dish, marinade or sauce, the ginger, garlic and soy sauce abound in ways unnatural to the cuisine. One dish my son cooked for his foods class in high school had him simmering a stir fry in a 1/4 cup of soy sauce for a few minutes toward the end to finish cooking the vegetables and reduce the liquid. Or they shoot for a teriyaki sort of result which is a sauce highlighting soy, sugar, garlic and ginger.

The west sees a marinade as an opportunity to build bold punchy flavors. And this can work. I'm a big fan of Cochinita Pibil or Pernil, roasts of pork usually flavored with a strong marinade of citrus or vinegar, achiote, garlic and so on.

For the Chinese, marination is more about balancing the flavor to bring out the best natural qualities of the item being marinated to best exemplify itself in the dish with the other ingredients. So each ingredient has it's good points and bad points. The marination, along with the cooking technique, accenting/contrasting ingredients and sauce if any are to bring out the best features while minimizing or removing the worst aspects.

Ginger and garlic are often used in cooking then to remove the off flavors of ingredients.

Again, looking at many Chinese recipes originating in the west, the ginger and garlic go in at the start of stir frying with the meat. And they stay there. Or as Cook's Illustrated has done, they add these seasonings later in the cooking so they have more presence and punch in the final dish. Its more likely in a traditional recipe that the ginger and garlic will go in at the start to season the oil, and then are removed. They're not always there to be a noticeable part of the dish, just to correct the other flavors to be at their best.

It's why the Japanese serve pickled ginger with the sushi. Not to be eaten on the sushi, but to refresh your palate for the next taste of sushi. The ginger clears your palate of fish. You'll usually see ginger cooked with fish and other seafood to remove the fishy flavors and let the best qualities of the fish shine through.

Yan Kit So hints at another aspect of ginger, it's acidity, that can be inappropriate in a marinade or even the whole dish. In the recipe for Stir-Fried Prawns in Tomato Sauce from her book Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook she says:

"The Cantonese like to bite into prawns that are 'crisply firm' and to achieve this texture Cantonese chefs leave out ginger and wine when preparing them as we have here."

Or again in her Homestyle Chinese Cooking when she makes Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce,

"In making this dish, the goal is to make the texture of the shrimp crisp. Thus both alcohol and ginger are to be avoided."

She often marinades for hours as well which would exacerbate the issue. Ginger can be as acidic as lemons and can be used to curdle the milk in a ginger custard. So to avoid the acidic cooking effect as in ceviche, omitting the ginger can be important both in the marinade and in the dish itself.

Garlic, onion, green onion, shallot have the same purpose in many recipes, to correct off flavors. Of course, there are some times when these are the main point of the dish and so the flavors of the alliums themselves might be corrected to be less sulfurous or to bring out the sweetness.

In other techniques of cooking, say a baked or a steamed dish as fish often are, there is little or no opportunity to add flavors during cooking. So marinades for steamed dishes usually build the complete flavor profile for the dish or most of the flavors. And with steaming there is no worry of scorching the ginger or garlic. Indeed such dishes often feature a hot oil finish to bring out the best aspects of the aromatics since steaming doesn't get quite hot enough to do so.

Braising, the garlic and ginger are usually in the liquid of the braise, even though some parts are often stir fried first, much as we in the west would brown off the meat prior to braising.

Hsiang Ju Lin writes in Chinese Gastronomy (one of the greatest Chinese Cookbooks), "The cuisine of Szechuan is a brilliant freak which breaks all the rules and gets away with it." Hsiang doesn't recognize Hunan as a noteworthy culinary region of China, but it also often goes for the big bold flavors which is probably why those two regions have come to dominate Chinese Restaurants in the West over the Cantonese style restaurants that lead the way originally. And why Cook's Illustrated feels it necessary to punch up aromatics as well.

If you see garlic and ginger in the marinade step of a stir fry recipe, read the rest of the recipe closely. It's quite possible you'll want to change how the garlic and ginger are used in the dish to get the best results.

Other Posts in the series:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Cheesecake, plain and simple

2014-06-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

As long as I posted a birthday Hot Pot, I need to post the birthday dessert.

I like a good cheesecake. Sadly, most restaurants sell you a Sysco cheesecake or similar mass produced thing. I only order a restaurant cheesecake if its made in house. It's sad really because a good cheesecake isn't particularly hard to make. There are a few techniques that improve the cheesecake and they do add a little work to the process, but it's nothing hard.

A good cheesecake should be dense, tall and rich with a smooth creamy custardy texture. Not too sweet either.

Equipment

Pan--traditionally a 9 or 10 inch springform pan. I've used a number of different springform pans and have largely given up on them. If you have one you like, go ahead and use it. I've taken to using an 8 inch round silicone cake pan. I should get a 9 or 10 inch silicone cake pan and it would simplify things for me a bit. If you're using a cake pan, you'll also need parchment paper so you can release it from the mold.

A rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan-- big enough to hold the cake and surround it with water

A food processor or blender-- a mixer won't create a smooth even batter. The down side of this tool is that it adds in air but that can be fixed. When I made this with my 9 cup KitchenAid food processor, I had to do it in batches. With my 11 cup Cuisinart, I can make it in one batch. I don't have a blender but it should produce an even smoother batter than the food processor. The food processor leaves small bits of cream cheese, but it's smooth enough. But I don't make specialty drinks so I don't have much use for a blender.

I did this once with a handheld immersion blender. It worked, but it about burned out the blender. It's not really up to the task.

Crust Ingredients

If you have a crust you like, use it. Graham crackers, nuts, cookies, they all work. I use Vanilla Wafers for a plain cheesecake. I get more adventurous with other flavors of cheesecake.

1 3/4 cup Vanilla Wafers when crushed to crumbs yields 1 cup crumbs.
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Set your oven to 325 with a rack in the lower third.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the pan. Details on cutting the parchment are at the end of this post. Use a spray oil to grease the pan, then set in the parchment. The oil film holds the parchment flat so you can easily form the crust.

Crush the Vanilla Wafers in the food processor and let it mix in the sugar as well. Pour the crumb mixture into the pan on top of the parchment paper.

Make a well in the center of the crumbs. Pour in the melted butter. Mix the butter into the crumbs. I like to use a fork, but use what you like. Spread them out into an even layer.

Then press them into a tight packed layer. A measuring cup, drinking glass or similar object with straight sides makes this easier. I like to use my meat tenderizing disk for this. Give your packing tool a light twist as you remove it from the crumbs. This helps shear the crumbs off the tool and keep your crust intact.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. If you're using a silicone cake pan, use the sheet pan with it to keep the bottom rigid and crack free.

Meanwhile prepare the filling.

Filling Ingredients

Don't skimp. Low fat, or non-fat cream cheese, sour cream substitutes and such do not make a good cheesecake. Use real vanilla, not imitation. If you want to cut back on the calories and fat, cut a thin slice and exercise will power. But enjoy yourself with the great cheesecake that this is.

Similarly, buy a good grade of cream cheese. The off brands often cut back on the cream. Philadelphia will work well. I usually buy a 3 pound brick of Raskas Cream Cheese from Costco and I like that the best. I give a volume measurement for the sour cream. That's not really easy to measure and it makes a mess. If you have a kitchen scale, it's much easier and more accurate to weigh it out.

Ingredients should be at room temperature.

2 pounds of cream cheese and cut in cubes, about 2 oz each
3 cups of sour cream--27 ounces You can use a full 24 oz container if that's better for you and it will work out just fine. But it's even better with those extra 3 ounces.
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon)
1 cup sugar

Set the oven to 325 with the rack in the lower third of the oven. If you used my crust recipe, things should be ready to go.

Combine the ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. Work in batches as necessary.

Technique 1--Remove Air from batter

If you're working in batches, pour your batches in to a large bowl and mix to combine and work out any uneven quantities from the batches. With the food processor work bowl or large bowl, tap the bowl onto your counter from about an inch height. It takes about 5 taps to form each bubble of air and bring it to the surface. Keep tapping until you get no new bubbles coming up after 10 or 15 taps in a row. There are air bubbles rising to the surface in the picture below.

If you're using a spring form pan, wrap the pan in a single layer of aluminum foil on the outside. You must have no seams where the water from the bain marie can get in. A springform pan will let water in unless you wrap it in foil first.

Pour the batter into your pan form with the baked crust. Smooth it out

Because my pan is a bit undersized, I also pour the extra batter in to a silicone muffin pan and make some small cheesecake pucks which I cook for only a short time.

Technique 2--Cook in a water bath, or bain marie

Put the pan in the oven on the rimmed baking sheet but with a corner sticking out for easy access for adding water. Pour in enough hot water to come up halfway on the cheesecake pan. Put the bain marie fully into the oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The water bath evens out heat and helps prevent overcooking the outer edges before the center sets fully. At the end of the cooking time, the cheesecake will be ivory colored with some light browning, usually more at the edges. You might see some shallow cracking on the surface, again usually towards the edges. Don't worry, the cake will shrink down and virtually heal those cracks. Note how it's puffed up above the rim of the pan about 3/4 of an inch.

Technique 3-- Coast to the finish

After the hour and 15 minutes, the cheese cake will not be done cooking. Turn the oven off and let it finish cooking and start cooling down in the oven with the door closed for 1 hour.

I use the time bake feature on my oven for this so I don't have to stress about timing at all. I know the oven will go off on time and I only have to mark my mind for the total two hours and 15 minutes. So I can go run an errand or whatever. Makes it simple.

If you click the image below, you'll see some minor cracking at the 7-5 o'clock areas, and up around 10 and 2. Those will heal down to minor creases. Also note how the cake has dropped about 1/2 inch in height. It will drop down about flush with the pan when fully cooled.

Technique 4--The Full Cure

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and chill for 8 hours. So make this in the morning if you want to eat it for dinner that night. If you're afraid of spilling hot water, lift it out on a wide spatula, board or whatever is thin, broad and stiff.

If you ever taste a bit of cheesecake warm from the oven, it has very little flavor. It's surprising because foods to be eaten cool or cold are usually overseasoned so they taste correct at the cold temperature. And even after 4 hours chilling down, the flavor still hasn't really developed. it takes a good 6-8 hours after coming out of the oven for the full flavor impact.

Result of the Techniques

Cooking the cheesecake in this way ensures that the cake is evenly cooked throughout, remains dense and self heals any shallow cracks that occur.

Unmolding the Cheesecake

If you used a spring form pan this is simple. Run a thin knife around the outer edge of the cheesecake. Release the tension and remove the springform.

If you used a cake pan, it's trickier. Run the knife around the edge of the pan as with the springform pan. Cover the cake and pan with some plastic wrap. Invert it onto a cutting board. Flex the silicone around the base edges to break the seal between the pan and the parchment paper. Lift the pan slowly increasing the release from the pan and paper as you lift. When it lets go, slide the pan completely off. The cheesecake is dense and sturdy and can support itself without fear of it collapsing.

Peel off the parchment paper. Occasionally a piece of crust may pop free. Simply put it back in place like a puzzle piece. It will stick to the cheesecake for serving.

Put the serving plate on the crust, and reinvert the the plate, cake and board. Lift off the board, wrap the plastic wrap and the cake and refrigerate until service. The board was never even dirtied. And yes, a piece of crust did pop free. Can you tell where it was? No, it's not the light spot towards the bottom left. The lines are from the creases in the parchment paper.

If you click on this image below, the enlargement shows some creases running from about 7 O'clock over to 5 Oclock and two small ones around 10 and the other over around two. These are the remains of small shallow cracks that self heal as it cools. Compare that against the cracking picture in the Further Discussion section below.

Serving

A damp knife blade makes a cleaner cut. Wipe the blade between cuts for best presentation. Note the even texture throughout the cake from the center to the edge.

Further Discussion

The springform disappointment

I tried nonstick springforms, textured aluminum, glass bases. They all are problematic in leaking. After some use, they all impart off metallic flavors under the long curing time of this cake. The base is annoying to serve from unless you have the glass base. They're a little finicky to store compared to a solid pan.

And it discolors my baking sheets when I use the foil wrapped springform with my aluminum rimmed baking sheets as the bain marie.

In the end, they're just not necessary. Lift out bases are better for tender fillings and silicone cake pans eliminate flavor issues and are water tight.

Cracking

For a first effort with no water bath, this is a respectable cake from the blog Little Bit Sweet I use the image here just to demonstrate the more serious form of cracking in cheesecakes.

The main issue in cracking is that the batter has puffed from heat expansion. The outer surface is drying and thus shrinking. This is why cracks happen the most at the edges of the top during baking. That's where the batter has heat exposure on the side and the top. And then when cooling, the contraction of the outer edges is faster than the center leading to the sort of cracks in the image above.

Controlling cracks is about three things.

1. Minimizing heat differences

Using room temperature ingredients is important. You can't make this cheesecake with cold batter. The cooking times would be too short and you will have cracking problems. Also, the water bath keeps the temperatures below boiling around the cheesecake thus buffering the heat. The cool down in the oven also helps minimizing cracking as it cools slowly and evenly.

2. Air in the batter

Mixing the ingredients smoothly will add air to the batter, a food processor or blender even more so than a stand mixer. Air in the batter makes the cheese cake rise even more in the oven leading to a highly puffed cheesecake that then falls. This movement leads to cracks, usually some overcooking making for a curdled crumbiness to cheescake too. The tapping technique is important to getting as much air out of the batter as possible.

If you see a recipe going for a light and airy cheesecake, it's going to have problems in texture, flavor and cracking. And it's really a different dish than the custard that a cheesecake really is.

3. Batter issues

This is more the fault of the recipe writer than the cook. A custard is about getting the proteins to set up just right. So the recipe has to manage liquid, eggs, and cream cheese properly. There's a range where it works, beyond that it cracks and maybe gets runny or with a coagulated grainy crumb.

Shirley Corriher in Bakewise espouses flour as the solution. The vigorous mixing from the food processor activates the gluten in the flour and that gives the structure needed to the final product. As far as it goes, that's true. But flour mutes the taste of the cheesecake and creates a more gummy texture that's a problem in its own right.

Toppings

Plain cheesecake is best plain. So many places add a goopy over-sweetened pie type fruit topping. It's too sweet and the wrong accent. If you want fruit, use a lightly sugar macerated fresh or frozen fruit, sliced as needed.

Lemon, lime or orange curd is a good compatible topping as well.

Cheesecake varieties

Once you start getting into pumpkin, chocolate, caramel and such, the cheesecake gets quite different. The sugar goes up and the nuances of the cream cheese gets lost. Certainly there are good cheesecakes of these types but they're even scarcer than a good plain cheesecake.

The marbled approach is better I think. Where you get strong bites of each type of flavor to compare and contrast on your palate. Even going so far as to where a cheesecake and chocolate cake combine as in a Black Bottom Cupcake.

Cutting the parchment paper to a round

Fold the parchment in half and then half again. The corner where all the creases meet will be the point in all subsequent folds.

Fold it in half at an angle this time.

If you keep folding and sandwiching the creases, the point tends to drift off center and you end up with an oval that won't fit right. So alternate the direction of the next fold.

Then repeat on the opposite site.

Hold the point at the center of the pan and then trim the edge. It's better to err on the large side than the small side as you can always trim off more but you can't add it back on.

It took two trims to get a good tight fit.

Test the fit with it open to judge whether more trimming is necessary.

The edge will often have a slight scallop to it but that's fine.

Hot Pot or Fire Pot

2014-05-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is Fondue Chinoise (according the French and the Swiss) or Chinese Hot Pot or Mongolian Fire Pot. A meal of small food items to be cooked in a simmering broth. The Europeans tend to use a small fork color coded to each diner. The Asians usually use small wire mesh baskets. At my house, both tend to get involved.

Traditional charcoal fired fire pot (from redcook.net) I'm a little concerned about carbon monoxide and such to use one of these in the home.

Divided hot pots (from diytrade.com) so you can have different flavors of broth, often one spicy and one milder. These look a little small for feeding more than 4 very polite diners. Maybe two serious food lovers could get along in one of these.

I usually make a hot pot in either an electric fondue pot (the New Years Hot Pot at the end of this post) or on my induction burner (Birthday Hot Pot below) that can keep a bigger volume of liquid hot even when there are lots of baskets and forks in the pot.

Select a mix of meats and vegetables that cook well simmered or boiled. The list of possibilities is long. As I usually make this for a celebratory meal, my examples below are heavier on the meat than you might want.

Here's some other people's versions for you to use for ideas:

ChinaSichuanFood with some interesting ideas for a "dry hot pot" and an Ice hot pot.

I tend to use a more strongly seasoned asian stock for my broth, but there are many possibilities if you look through the above links.

Birthday Hot Pot for my son (induction burner and larger pan)

Thinly sliced pork and chicken, shrimp, tilapia filet, tofu, asparagus, spinach, zucchini.

If you're using loin chops for the pork, it helps to slice off the fat rind. lay the pork chop on edge and cut along the fat rind, with the knife horizontal to the cutting board.

An array of baskets and forks cooking items in the broth.

When you're slowing down, the broth has reduced and concentrated, finish cooking the rest of the ingredients and ladle the resulting soup into bowls of noodles. For this batch, I used egg noodles. Alternatively, you can cook little baskets of noodles along the way.

A fresh plate would be more formal, but here, I'm enjoying my soup on top of the plate I worked from for the meal. So there's a little bit of shrimp tails and such about.

Lunar New Year Hot Pot 2014 (electric fondue pot)

Scallops, fishballs, squid, tofu, bean sprouts, pork, zucchini, spinach, small bok choy leaves.

This soup used rice noodles.

It's nice to have some different sauces for dipping the cooked items. And also the standard array of Chinese condiments for seasoning the final soup.

I tend to favor a Black Vinegar and Ginger dip as well as a Sesame-Soy Vinaigrette. Use any of your favorites if you wish of course.

Black Vinegar and Ginger Dip

1 teaspoon finely minced ginger

2 tablespoons black vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sweet chile sauce

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

Optional--a flavored oil: chili oil, chive oil, sesame oil. Don't repeat an oil you're using in another dip. Keep them different.

Mix, and let stand at least 30 minutes for the ginger flavor to penetrate the sauce. This is also very good with pot stickers.

The ratios here make this sauce scale easily.

Sesame-Soy Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dark soy

Combine and stir to dissolve the sugar. Shake or stir vigorously before using to mix in the oil. I use this one a lot on salads and slaws.

Frittata

2014-05-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

Frittata is a baked Italian style omelette. It shares some concepts with the Spanish Tortilla, but the fillings are often more diverse. I like the frittata as a simple way to repurpose leftovers quickly into something tasty.

The concept is simple. A 10 inch skillet. Nonstick or well seasoned cast iron or carbon steel simplifies things a lot and I strongly recommend one of those choices. It needs an oven proof handle as well, at least for the technique I prefer.

The ratio is this: 6 eggs to about 3 cups of filling. The filling usually includes something starchy like potatoes or pasta, some vegetables, often some herbs and some meat and/or cheese. For this fritatta, I'm using up some leftover linguine in a tomato sauce, some sauteed zucchini and patty-pan squash, some cut up ham, and a mix of Romano and Parmigiano cheese.

I tend to cook on a lower heat for a longer time than many other frittata recipes you'll see. Those frittatas have a darker overcooked egg surface that is less appealing. You'll see.

Season your eggs. I chose some Goya Adobo, black pepper and a little garlic Cholula hot sauce. That's what I most often s eason my eggs with for most any savory purpose. Then beat the eggs.

Add your filling choices. Mine were pasta, squash, ham and cheese.

Combine those.

Heat your pan over medium heat. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Tilt your pan to coat it evenly. I don't recommend butter. The milk solids tend to overcook and darken the surface of the fritatta and tastes a little off from the longer cooking time of this dish.

Add your fritatta mix. It will set around the edges slowly. Lift the edges and let some egg run under and cook. Do this around the fritatta twice.

Meanwhile, heat your broiler and position your rack about 6 inches from the heat. You can see on the right of my photo I'm down one notch on the position in my oven. Also note that I removed the cover from this pan's handle so it's safe for broiler temperatures.

The surface will set before it's done cooking. Look for the surface to pick up some color is useful clue. When you see some color, to see how the fritatta jiggles. If it moves fairly uniformly it might be done. if the center jiggles more than the edges, it needs to cook some more. You can test it pretty simply for doneness. Poke a knife into the center and look for liquid. If you click the photo below to see it larger, you'll see the liquid shine by the blade. Some recipes say that it will finish cooking from the carryover heat outside the oven, but I've been burned by that technique. If you like your omelets with a littlye runniness in the french style, that's fine. That's just not my preference. The surface here can take a little more browning. so I let it go another 2 minutes under the broiler At that point, it had enough color but was still wetter than I liked so I turned off the broiler, and let the frittata bake in the closed and cooling oven about 5 more minutes

Compare the browning in mine to the wikipedia frittata-photographed by flagstaffotos. Their egg surface is overcooked and will have poor texture and flavor.

Generally, recipes tell you to invert onto a plate. Plates don't give you a lot of extra rim if you're not experienced at that inverting thing. This is where the non-stick cooking surface helps out. A cutting board is easier I think than a plate and it's much easier to cut and better for the knife.

Then slip it onto the serving plate.

Good warm or at room temperature.

Steamed Eggs with Dried Mushrooms

2014-05-11T08:32:00.001-07:00

This is a simple dish and most often an inexpensive one. It's a simple savory custard. I've not come across it in restaurants, but it shows up in a number of cookbooks. You'll often see it with shrimp or ham. Dried or preserved meats are the more traditional but fresh shrimp is probably what I see the most of in modern cookbooks and websites. The toppings are usually on the salty side to accent the mild custard. It can be made in individual servings or in a single larger vessel.

This is a dish of ratios that's easy to expand or shrink as needed, and it's one reason I prefer to make it ramekins so I don't have to hunt up a dish of the right size or worry about different timing.

Per person you want to feed:

1 large egg

1/4 cup + approximately 1 tablespoon extra stock/liquid appropriate to the protein garnish. If you're using dried ingredients, you can use the leftover soaking liquid from re-hydrating them. Keep the extra amount for building the sauce.

salt to taste for the eggs/stock combination. Soy sauce can be used to, but keep in mind the final color of your custard.

white pepper or hot sauce to taste--I used black pepper in the photos for this post and it doesn't look right as you'll see.

Sauce: amounts for 1 person are so small, I left them unstated. I give the amount I used for 6 in parentheses

about 2 dried mushrooms per person
minced garlic ( 2 medium cloves)
minced ginger (1/2 inch piece peeled)
rice wine (2 tablepoons)
the extra mushroom soaking liquid, strained of grit (a bit under 1/2 cup)
soy sauce (1 tablepsoon)
oyster sauce (2 tablespoons)
corn starch slurry as needed

For the photos here, I was making this at a friend's house I brought my steamer and the basic ingredients, but was counting on my friend for basic seasonings, thus my use of black pepper. Further, I was cooking for 6 people including a seafood allergy and a vegetarian, so dried mushrooms were the proper ingredient.

Using the common dried black mushroom commonly used in Chinese cooking will work just fine. They're in the big tub on the right. But I had a few other types of dried mushrooms and thought they'd be fun to work with in a blend.

Add your mushrooms to enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, or just pour boiling water over your mushrooms. Let stand off heat 20 minutes. Reserve all liquid, but strain out any grit.

I like to wring out the mushrooms lightly in my hand so they're not soggy. Again, keep the liquid. Then chop them up.

Set up your steamer, fill with water, enough to boil for 10 minutes or so, and put on the heat.

Combine the eggs, the amount of stock or soaking liquid and seasonings. My friend had no white pepper and while he as hot sauce, I just grabbed black pepper without thinking much about it.

Portion into the ramekins. When your water is boiling, load your steamer. I'm using a 30 cm, two level stainless steel steamer. Steam about 10 minutes. Time will vary with the shape of your ramekins and your altitude and such. I'm cooking at close to 5000 feet so your cooking time may vary. Watch closely the last few minutes so you don't overcook your custard. The lower tier will cook faster and is more prone to bubble and froth.

You can carefully scrape the surface of the custard if it is bubbly or frothy to improve the appearance and delicacy of the dish. Or if you're going to sauce if more heavily, it doesn't matter as much.

While the eggs are steaming, prepare your sauce.

Heat a little oil in a wok or pan. Add the mushrooms, garlic and ginger. Stir fry/saute for a minute or so for the flavor to develop. Reduce the heat and let it cook another minute, stirring frequently. Add the rice wine, mushroom liquid, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Let it simmer for a minute or two, then adjust to your texture preference with the corn starch slurry.

Plate the individual ramekins and garnish with the mushrooms in the sauce. Here's where the black pepper choice reared its head. Notice the black specks especially along the edge of the custard. That's the pepper. Kind of messes up the look of the dish. It tastes just fine of course, but presentation counts too.

This is a versatile dish and can be served at breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be an elegant course in a larger meal.

V gives a good version of this with shrimp where she makes a shrimp stock from the shrimp heads and shells as well as some kombu.

Lee Kum Kee offers this shrimp version with XO sauce. I like the idea, but would have to reduce the amount of XO sauce as it's usually much hotter than I enjoy.

The ham variation is often not sauced or perhaps sauced with a simple clear michiu sauce. I see people often mix in the ham with the uncooked egg. That always settles to the bottom when I try to cook it that way. Others will add the ham in the last third of the cooking time when the custard is thick enough to support the ham.