Raw Fish

We decided to make a Japanese themed dinner with raw fish. The New York Times had an interesting recipe: Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Fried Rice Cakes With Scallops, Honey Soy Sauce and Chipotle Mayonnaise. Who ever heard of Fried Sushi? The recipe sounded delicious and different.

We had eaten sushi several times in the last few weeks and saw no reason we couldn’t serve some raw fish. At Shibucho we had a delicious salad served over raw fish. We decided to make a similar dish. We talked to Nate at McCall’s Meat and Fish about the best choices. We decided to serve a Salad with Raw Hamachi. Cathy found some recipes for sauce from a definitive cookbook we have: Japanese Cooking A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. This is an amazing compendium of Japanese food and cooking techniques. We used Three Flavors Vinegar to dress the greens. When we made the vinegar we left out the Dashi and replaced it with Yuzu (available at any Japanese market).

We invited Bea and Tom over to join us. It was wonderful. We would definitely make the Fried Sushi again. Frying the rice was difficult when we followed the recipe. Bea notified us a few days later that the recipe in the New York Times was corrected after we had made the dish. This is the revised recipe. It added that the rice was dredged in Rice Flour before frying. I am sure that would make it easier to fry.

We followed the dinner with a delicious Chocolate Tart from Proof Bakery.

Three-Flavors Vinegar (Sanbaizu)

Japanese Cooking A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji

makes 1-1/3 cups

1-1/2 Tbsps sugar (or mirin)

1/2 cup rice vinegar

2 Tbsps dark or light soy sauce

2/3 cup dashi or water

Mix in a saucepan over medium heat. Dissolve sugar in (or mix mm with) vinegar and add soy sauce, then stir in dashi to taste. Bring just to a boil, remove from heat, and cool to room temperature. Keeps indefinitely refrigerated.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Fried RIce Cakes With Scallops, Honey Soy Sauce and Chipotle Mayonnaise

TOTAL TIME

About an hour, plus resting time

FOR THE RICE CAKES

        1 and 1/2 cups short-grain sushi rice

        2 tablespoons mirin

        1 and 1/2 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar

        2-inch piece konbu

        1 tablespoon salt

FOR THE CHIPOTLE MAYONNAISE

        1 egg yolk

        1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar

        1 and 1/2 teaspoons orange juice

        2 teaspoons lime juice

        1 tablespoon chipotle in adobo, including some of the liquid

        1 teaspoon salt

        3/4 cup grapeseed oil

        1/4 cup olive oil

FOR THE HONEY SOY SAUCE

        1/2 cup light soy sauce

        1/2 cup honey

        2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

        1 tablespoon rice-wine vinegar

FOR FRYING AND ASSEMBLING

        Rice flour, for dredging (or substitute all-purpose flour)

        Grapeseed oil

        Coarse salt

        Minced scallions

        6 big scallops, each sliced into 4 pieces

        Minced cilantro

PREPARATION

1.     Combine sushi rice, mirin, rice-wine vinegar, konbu and 1 tablespoon salt in a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid wrapped in a damp cloth and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until done. (Alternatively, use a rice cooker.) Remove from the heat and let sit for 15 minutes.

2.     Line an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with plastic wrap. Firmly press the rice into the pan. Refrigerate until set, preferably overnight. Remove the rice from the pan and, using a chef’s knife dipped in hot water to prevent sticking, cut into roughly 1-by-3-inch rectangles.

3.     Make the chipotle mayonnaise: Combine the egg yolk, red-wine vinegar, orange juice, lime juice, adobo and liquid and 1 teaspoon salt and purée in a food processor or blender. Add the 3/4 cup grapeseed oil and the olive oil in a drizzle and process until smooth, thick and creamy.

4.     Make the honey soy sauce: In a small saucepan, bring the soy sauce, honey, sherry vinegar and 1 tablespoon rice-wine vinegar to a boil and stir until smooth. Cool before using.

5.     Heat grapeseed oil in a pan, deep enough to just about cover the rectangles. A broad skillet will require more oil than a deep saucepan, but will allow you to cook more pieces at once. Allow oil temperature to reach 350 to 360 degrees. Dredge the rice rectangles in rice flour and cook until golden and crispy, about 5 minutes total, turning once; transfer to paper towels and season with salt

6.     Combine chipotle mayonnaise and scallions. Top each rectangle with a bit of the mayonnaise, then drape with a piece of raw scallop. Brush or drizzle with honey soy, then garnish with a bit of cilantro and a tiny pinch of salt.

YIELD

24 cakes, 6 to 12 servings.

NOTE

A recipe last Wednesday for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s fried sushi cakes with scallops omitted a step. The sushi cakes should be dredged in rice flour or all-purpose flour before frying.

Risotto with Shrimp and Red Pepper

We made another dish, Risotto With Shrimp and Red Peppers from The Balthazar Cookbook by McNally, Nasr & Hanson. This was a good risotto, not only easy to make but re-heated well. (Remove the shrimp, before you nuke when you reheat, after you remove from microwave, bury the shrimp in the hot rice and recover the shrimp will reheat without becoming tough).

Risotto WITH SHRIMP AND RED PEPPERS

The Balthazar Cookbook

McNally, Nasr & Hanson

6         cups Chicken Stock

6         roasted red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch dice

30         medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1-1/2         teaspoons salt

Freshly ground white pepper

4         tablespoons olive oil

2         tablespoons unsalted butter

½         yellow onion, minced

1         garlic clove, minced

2         cups Arborio rice

½         cup white wine

3         scallions, cut into 1/4-inch rings on a bias

2         tablespoons chopped fresh basil

½         cup grated Parmesan

Although risotto can share a plate with such diverse ingredients as shellfish, mushrooms, or butter and Parmesan, the method for making this creamy dish remains steadfastly the same, regardless of what you might add to it. Choose either Carnaroli or Arborio rice.

Serves 6

Bring 5 cups of the stock to a low simmer and keep warm on the stove until needed.

Meanwhile, combine the roasted red peppers with the remaining 1 cup of stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth; some very small pieces of pepper will remain.

Dry the shrimp with paper towels and season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and a few grindings of white pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over a high flame for 1 minute. Add half the shrimp and cook for about 1-1/2 minutes per side, until they look like cooked shrimp. Remove with tongs to a plate and than sauté the remaining shrimp in the same oil. Set the cooked shrimp aside.

Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven along with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium-low flame. Add the onion, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and stir for 2 minutes, both to coat each grain and to toast gently. Add the wine and stir until it has been absorbed, about 1 minute.

Begin adding the warm chicken stock, about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon and let each addition be absorbed before adding the next. When the last 1/2 cup of stock has been absorbed, add the sliced scallions. Then, in 3 increments, stir in the reserved red-pepper puree, again letting each addition be absorbed before adding the next. Taste the rice along the way, cooking it only until it's tender, not to where it's mushy.

Stir in the reserved shrimp, the basil, Parmesan, the remaining V2 teaspoon of salt, and white pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Partial   Cooking Of   Risotto

Risotto purists insist on the importance of the full cooking process just before serving. While that is ideal, it's not practical for the home cook who wants to spend time with guests, or for many restaurants where 20 minutes of stirring one dish would bring the pumping rhythm of the kitchen to a halt. To partially cook risotto, follow the recipe to the point where the rice is a firm al dente, reserving 1/3 of the Chicken Stock (2 cups). Spread the risotto on a sheet pan and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap. Just before serving, heat the reserved stock in a saucepan. Place the partially cooked risotto in a pot over medium-low heat and resume adding the stock according to the recipe completion.

Roasted Bell Peppers

We roast peppers using two different methods: over a flame and in the oven. Flame-roasting is convenient when roasting just a few peppers, because it's as simple as setting the pepper over a burner and allowing direct contact with the flame. While the whole pepper sits on the flame, the skin turns black, blisters, and is then easily rubbed off by hand. The pepper is then cored and sliced. Oven-roasting, however, produces a more mellow flavor, with a softer, moist flesh, preferable in fresh salads or on sandwiches. There's also the added benefit of being able to roast a whole pan's worth at once. Choose whatever method is most appealing according to need and convenience.

Makes   6   Peppers

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Toss the peppers with the olive oil. Lay the peppers, skin side up, on the lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the salt. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until the skin blisters and blackens. Remove from the oven, put the pep­pers in a bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. The accumulation of heat will cause the skins to bubble and separate from the flesh. When they're cool enough to handle, the skins can be pulled off easily.

Use immediately or store in the re­frigerator, submerged in olive oil and covered.

Ingredients

6  bell peppers, any color, cored and stemmed, cut into wide strips

½ Cup Olive Oil

2 teaspoons Salt

Peach Salad and Turkey Meatballs

We like fruit Salads. Fresh Peaches, Burrata Cheese, Almonds makes for a great salad.

With the Peach Salad we served Turkey Meatballs. This recipe from this is the first thing we ever had from Ottolenghi’s cookbook. I really like it. The meatballs have a great consistency. The corn in the turkey meat pops when you fry it. This can both me messy on the stove and hurt if the oil hits you. We have long tongs and mesh that we put over the frying pan that keeps most of the oil in the pan. The sauce that is made from red peppers is delicious.

The recipe is called: Turkey and Sweet Corn Meatballs with Roasted Pepper Sauce from Ottolenghi the Cookbookby Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. You can find it on our blog of: July 24,2011. Click the date to get the recipe.

This recipe is a definite winner!

Turkish Salad

I realized the summer season was almost over and we hadn’t made one of my favorite salads: Turkish Chopped Salad. It is a crunchy salad and extremely tasty. The recipe is from Casa Moro the Second Cookbook. We try to eat at Moro when we are in London and have all of their cookbooks.

The chopped salad is topped with Yogurt and melted butter. It is excellent, a real winner. Try it! You can find the recipe in our blog of: August12, 2008.

Corn Salad and Lentil Pasta

I had grilled some corn on the cob, and we stripped the corn to make a Roasted Corn Salad with Cherry Tomatoes. Two summer ingredients playing well together.

We made one of our favorite pasta recipes: Italian Lentil Pasta from a recipe from the Los Angeles restaurant: Locanda Veneta. We love this recipe. We always use the recipe for Oven Candied Summer Tomatoes from: The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, when making the delicious sauce. This pasta is vegetarian but it has the consistency and taste of a meat sauce. It is great!

You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 22, 2008. Click the date to get the recipe.

Bass

We cooked another dinner from The Balthazar Cookbook, Black Bass with Corn And Caramelized Onions. When we went to McCall’s, Nate said they didn’t have any Black Bass, but did have Striped Bass. It worked out perfectly. I really like this preparation. What could be better than caramelized onions? We will definitely make this dish again next summer when corn is at its peak! The weather has been very warm and we ate on our deck overlooking Los Angeles. Wonderful night!

Black Bass with Corn And Caramelized Onions

The Balthazar Cookbook

McNally, Nasr & Hanson

½         cup olive oil

2         medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

3         tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/4         teaspoons salt

3         roasted red peppers, sliced into 1/2-inch strips

10         ears corn, kernels removed from the cob

6         black bass fillets, about 6 ounces each Freshly ground black pepper

2         tablespoons chopped cilantro

Summer corn is best enjoyed when sauteed. The sweet kernels stay crisp and burst in the mouth. The black bass in this recipe, when tossed with roasted bell peppers and cilantro, is a complete dish in itself. If there aren't any roasted peppers on hand, substitute quartered cherry tomatoes.

SERVES  6

In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over a medium flame. Add the onions and saute until they begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter, reduce the flame to low, and continue to cook until the onions are soft and golden brown; this can take up to 1 hour. Season with h. teaspoon salt and set aside in a large bowl with the roasted peppers.

Preheat the oven to 200°F.

In the same skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter over a high flame. When the oil begins to smoke, add the corn kernels, and toss in the hot oil for 3 minutes. Taste the corn to check for doneness; depending on the variety (how tender the kernels are to begin with), more cooking time may be needed. Add the corn to the caramelized onions and roasted red peppers and toss well to combine.

Season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Return the mixture to the skillet.

Heat a large nonstick or cast-iron pan over a medium-high flame. Season the black bass fillets with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few grindings of pepper on both sides. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil to the pan, and when it begins to smoke, add 3 of the fillets. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, turn, and cook the second side for 3 minutes, until the fish is white and just beginning to flake. Hold the finished fillets in the oven while the remaining fish are cooked.

Warm the corn and caramelized onions over a low flame. Just before serving add the chopped cilantro and toss to combine.

To serve, lay each fillet over several spoonfuls of the warm corn and pepper mixture.

Char Shu Pork

Once again we made Jar Restaurant’s Hosin-Marinated Pork Chops. It is a great dish. The trick is that the Chops need to marinat for several days. This is dish we make several times per year and always love it. The chops make great leftovers or the meat can be used for a Pork Fried Rice. You can get the recipe from our blog of: July 30, 2012. Click the date to get the recipe.

With the chops we served a Rice Pilaf from The Balthazar Cookbook by McNally, Nasr & Hanson. We are really using this cookbook a lot these days!

Rice Pilaf

The Balthazar Cookbook

McNally, Nasr & Hanson

French food is based on creating layers of flavors, usually starting with onions and butter. Rice doesn't escape this treatment. In the classic French method, the rice is covered with a wax-paper lid cut to fit inside the pot and rest on the rice, allowing for just a bit of gentle evaporation. In the contemporary home kitchen, a pot with a tight-fitting lid will do just fine.

SERVES   6

1-1/2       cups long-grain rice

3       cups Chicken Stock

8       tablespoons (1 stick) plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1       medium yellow onion, minced (about 1 cup)

2       garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1       bouquet garni

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash and rinse the rice in cold water. Drain and set aside. In a medium saucepan, bring the stock to a boil, then turn down the heat to the lowest simmer.

In a large ovenproof pot, melt 8 table­spoons of the butter over medium heat until it foams. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes; if it begins to take on color, lower the flame. Add the drained rice and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, making sure that each grain is coated with butter.

Add the bouquet garni and the hot Chicken Stock, cover, and transfer the pot into the oven.

Cook for 25 minutes, remove, and let the pot stand for 15 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butler and use a fork to fluff the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Clam Pasta

We saw a recipe in the New York Times and both of us were keen to make it. We love pasta and we have never made Clam Pasta With Basil and Hot Pepper. Robert had made similar dishes for us before, but we wanted to try to make it ourselves. This read like the one for us! We got our clams from McCall’s Meat and Fish and proceeded to make the recipe. It was excellent, no tricks just a good pasta.

We started with a Melon and Prosciutto Salad.

Clam Pasta With Basil and Hot Pepper

New York Times

TOTAL TIME

About 30 minutes

FOR THE BASIL PURÉE

1         cup basil leaves

1         cup Italian parsley leaves

3         garlic cloves, smashed to a paste

¼         cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

FOR THE PASTA

1         pound bucatini, spaghetti or linguine

3         tablespoons olive oil

2         garlic cloves, minced

½         teaspoon crushed fennel seed, optional

½         teaspoon peperoncino (hot red-pepper flakes)

4 pounds small clams, such as little neck or Manila, rinsed of sand

½         cup dry white wine

Basil leaves, for garnish

Lemon wedges.

PREPARATION

1.   Make the purée: Grind basil and parsley together in a food processor. (Alternatively, hand chop herbs or pound them in a mortar.) Add garlic paste and 1/4 cup olive oil and pulse to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.   Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rapid boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions, taking care to keep pasta quite al dente. It’s best to use a timer, and drain pasta as soon as it’s done.

3.   While pasta is cooking, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy-bottomed wide pot with a lid over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic, fennel seed if using and pepperoncino, and let sizzle without browning, about 1 minute. Add clams, stirring to coat with a wooden spoon. Raise heat to high, add wine and put on the lid. Cook, covered, until all clams have opened, 5 to 7 minutes. Turn off heat. (Discard any clams that fail to open.)

4.   Add cooked pasta and basil purée to pot and toss gently to combine. Transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with basil leaves and lemon wedges.

YIELD

4 to 6 servings.

Grilled Swordfish

We have re-discovered a wonderful cookbook: The Balthazar Cookbook by McNally, Nasr & Hanson. We had a wonderful lunch in New York on cold rainy day at Balthazar. The food was delicious, just like being in a Paris Bistro. We have had the cookbook for a long time, we just hadn’t used it very much. We originally were turned on to the book by Mark Peel at Campanile.

We invited Bea over and made Grilled Swordfish with Beurre Noir. We haven’t had swordfish in quite a while and this turned out to be a great recipe. We will definitely make it again. We served it with saffron rice. You can get the recipe for saffron rice from our blog of: July 20, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe.

WE started with Melon a Prosciutto Salad with Almonds and fresh Cherries. It was a very refreshing salad.

For dessert we had a Chocolate Tart from Proof Bakery.

Bea brought as usually does some wonderful wines to go with the fish.

Try the Grilled Swordfish it is excellent!

Grilled Swordfish with Beurre Noir

Balthazar Cookbook

McNally, Nasr & Hanson

The nutty dark butter that accompanies this grilled swordfish is enriched with raisins, capers, and pequillo peppers—just a few moderate changes to the classic beurre noir preparation.

SERVES   8

¼         cup olive oil

6         swordfish steaks (about 1 inch thick)

½         teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼         pound (1 stick) unsalted butter

2         tablespoons capers

3         tablespoons golden raisins

2         tablespoons dried pequillo peppers

2         tablespoons pine nuts

2         tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Juice of h lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

Rub the olive oil over the swordfish and season with the salt and several turns of a peppermill.

Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high. When hot, add the swordfish steaks and cook for about 4 minutes per side for a moist and medium doneness; test by peeking into the center of the steak with the tip of a sharp knife—the fish should be tender, juicy, and opaque. As always with fish, undercooking is preferable to overcooking. Plate the fish while the beurre noir is completed.

Melt the butter in a saute pan over a medium flame. It will foam, then begin to turn a dark brown, nutty color. Add the capers, raisins, peppers, pine nuts, and parsley. Swirl the butter and then add the lemon juice.

Spoon the buerre noir over the swordfish and serve immediately.