huiray

• A variation of bitter gourd & fish soup. Chicken stock, vegetable oil, couple of small handfuls of tiny anchovies (“stock fish”; 青公魚; tiny ikan bilis), dried Chinese “far koo” (花菇) mushrooms, dried Chinese jujubes (“lam jou” (南棗) variety; these have a slightly smoky nature), Chinese dried mushroon stems, smashed garlic (Siberian Red). Simmered for a while. Filtered (fine mesh sieve). Mushrooms retrieved, stems cut out (discarded); jujubes retrieved. Mushroom caps (halved) and jujubes added back to the filtered stock. Reheated. Pre-soaked dried wood-ear fungus (trimmed) went in and simmering continued. Taiwanese #1 type bitter gourd (“white type” hybrid, this one I think) was deseeded, cut into chunks and added to the soup. Simmered. Walleye (de-skinned) was cut into thick slices and added in just before the end of cooking.

Early dinner. • Hot & sour shrimp soup. Thai/Tom-yum inspired. The sequence, more-or-less: Sliced shallots, smashed chopped garlic (Spanish Roja), sliced ginger, sliced galangal, sliced lemongrass (white parts), hot red pepper flakes, vegetable oil; sour shrimp paste (gia vị nấu canh chua; Tom Yum paste) [Golden Boy], sour tamarind slurry (from steeping de-husked sour tamarind pod seeds in hot water & rubbing the pulp loose into the slurry, discarding the seeds & seed coats), palm sugar nuggets, broken up w/ the spatula; water; chopped Japanese Trifele tomato, bruised fresh kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce [Red Boat]. Simmer. Everything poured through a large fine-meshed sieved into a large bowl, pressing on residues to extract juices/stock; filtrate returned to pot. Brought back to a medium simmer. Trimmed hot long green chillies, fresh chopped Japanese Trifele tomatoes, quartered Thai eggplants, trimmed baby Lady’s Fingers, shelled & deveined wild-caught shrimp/prawns then went in. Seasoning corrected. Trimmed coriander leaves were then added in and the heat was shut off. • Wong Nga Pak (Napa cabbage) stir-fried w/ garlic. • White rice (Thai Hom Mali). Cochon Whole Hog 2010 imbibed freely while putzing around with all the above. In fact basically the whole bottle disappeared. :-) On the way there: Some of the stuff. From top left, going clockwise – Palm sugar nuggets, sour shrimp paste, Thai eggplants (green & white variety), Japanese Trifele tomatoes, baby Lady's Fin gers, coriander leaves, a stalk of lemongrass, a clove of garlic, long hot green chillies, kaffir lime leaves, shallots; and a saucer with sour tamarind pods (11-5 o'clock), ginger (6 o'clock) and galangal (9 o'clock). Some of the stuff being processed. The chillies, eggplants, coriander leaves, Lady's Fingers, lime leaves, shrimp, tomatoes, lemongrass, galangal, ginger & garlic, shallots, tamarind slurry. 1) The aromatics (tossed around in hot oil), shrimp paste (stirred into the hot oil + lightly browned aromatics) & tamarind slurry (added after the 1st two) in the pot. 2) Halved and quartered eggplants. The seedy insides were almost-white when immediately exposed to the air and rapidly darkens to the pale color seen in the photo. The (lack of) initial color indicates the eggplants were fresh. Thai eggplants that have been around for a while/"old" show already blackened seeds (black, not just palely discolored) on first slicing apart.

Thanks, patrickamory. :-) Just for the hell of it here's the Google image answer set for "steamed garoupa": https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E8%92%B8%E7%9F%B3%E6%96%91%E9%AD%9A%22&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=m0DdU43CM5KyyATyqoDQDA&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1212&bih=958 :-)

Groceries 2014-0801 to 0802 Asia Mart: Enoki mushrooms, maitake mushrooms, fresh yakisoba [Maruchan], Chinese BBQ pork (char-siu), daikon, kai lan, ginger, opo squash, fresh lotus roots, Japanese cucumbers, long hot green chillies, bitter melon #1 (a Taiwanese white hybrid), fresh galangal, Shanghai choy sum, scallions, coriander leaves, Shin Black Spicy Pot-au-feu Flavor instant noodles [Nong Shim], Artificial Hot & Sour Shrimp Flavor instant noodles [Dragonfly], Artificial Pork-Ribs Flavor instant noodles [Dragonfly], Sapporo Ichiban Japanese Style Noodles & Chicken Flavored-Soup [sanyo Foods], fresh Shanghai Yangchun noodles, soft tofu, firm tofu, short-cut pork spare ribs, sesame oil [Kimlan], dried Chinese jujubes (“lam jou” variety (南棗)), dried Chinese mushrooms (“far koo” variety (花菇)), Hong Kong style thin wonton wrappers, frozen pandan leaves, Taiwanese-origin Fuzhou-type wheat noodles [Hung-Ming], fresh garoupa (石斑魚). Goose the Market: Debreziner sausages, Owl Creek Tomme cheese, Flösserkässe cheese, Ciresa Tallegio cheese. BRFM: Chanterelle mushrooms, Poona Kheera cucumbers, Brown Russian cucumber (old one, the vendor kept this for me), baby Lady’s Fingers (okra). CFM: Japanese Trifele tomatoes. Saraga International Market: Squash blossoms (this was listed as “pumpkin flower”), Thai eggplants (gree-white variety), Thai basil. Plus other meats & shrimp etc from the butcher & the supermarket. Pic of some of the stuff: Center – Brown Russian cucumber. From top going clockwise – Thai eggplants, Poona Kheera cucumbers (stack of three), chanterelles, Japanese Trifele tomatoes, squash blossoms.

• Cantonese-style steamed garoupa ("sek pan"; 石斑; Yale Cantonese sek6 baan1). • Oiled-water blanched romaine, dressed w/ oyster sauce & black pepper. • White rice.

• Maitake mushroom & Taiwan Choy Sum stir-fry w/ ginger. • Shanghai Yangchun noodles w/ duck wing stock/broth¶ and chopped scallions. ¶Meaty duck wings cut into pieces and chopped across the bones; marinated w/ luscious soy paste, sesame oil, jozo-mirin, light soy sauce, a bit of dark soy sauce, ground white pepper. Baked till partly caramelized. Lots of gelatin released. Everything transferred to a pot, water added plus generous sliced ginger, seasoning adjusted, simmered till judged done.

The mini-eggplant parm sliders idea intrigues me - it does sound nice. It would make for nice appetizers too. I tend to think of these small round eggplants as "Thai eggplants" and treat them accordingly, as I suggested above. In fact, they could be (and do look like) the purple-streaked variety of the more commonly found green/white Thai eggplants. (See here and here as examples) There are some other varieties also which resemble them, although slightly elongated/ovoid ones are what I would see in my mind's eye there.** After Sylvia's suggestion is tried perhaps you might consider doing something in a Thai style...? (You don't need *all* the ingredients in a particular recipe to get an idea of what the dish would be like, IMO, or to do it "in the style of..." ) I like to retain the "crunch" of eggplants like these (seeds and all) when I cook them in suitable dishes, as opposed to cooking them till they are "almost dissolving" in the way one would do with the larger and/or long eggplants (including the big(ger) ovoid ones commonly found in supermarkets in the USA). So, for example, when I make a version of Tom Yum soup I would put the halved (or quartered) eggplants - like these - into the simmering soup almost at the end so that they are just cooked (followed soon after by baby okra/Lady's Fingers (and shrimp/prawns) so both the eggplants and the okra remained "crunchy" but still just cooked/not raw). ** ETA: such as the variety called "Fairy Tale"; or "Zebra". I've got small, ovoid ones that look like round ones only slightly "pulled" into an ovoid shape, from a local grower in one of the Farmers' Markets here.

• Tom Yum and equivalent. (Teeny baby okra in it as well would also be nice) I.e. use them as Thai egplants. • Sayur Lodeh. • Sayur Asem. • Any SE Asian curry with eggplant in it. • Stir-fries w/ a thinly-sliced meat of your choice, with seasonings such as some sort of fermented bean curd, fermented black beans (with or without chillies), thick soy paste w/ some sort of heat, etc. It is nice if the eggplants retain quite a bit of crunch, IMO. • Soups w/ meat of your choice, together with complementary vegetables in a complementary sauce - the possibilities span a great range. • Tempura. etc etc. In other words, maybe look to the East. After all, your hubby got them in an "Asian" Market and another poster reports about "Asian" folks scrambling after them. I assume that "Asian" here means E/SE Asian, not South Asian = Indian, or Turkish or Pakistani or Uzbekistani etc etc. (In the UK "Asian" still often means Pakistani or Indian (i.e. South Asian), FWIW; NOT Chinese)

Anna N, you might consider trying out the "Spag Bol Inspired" meat sauce for pasta that I make from time to time, which has as the spice seasonings cloves, cinnamon and star anise. I've posted a representative recipe for this on eG on other threads in the past. Oh -- rice vinegar, soy sauce and TOMATO KETCHUP also go into this. ;-) If this gives you a heart attack, then maybe this is not for you. :-)

Soups since the last post: • Asparagus, baby candy onion & firm tofu soup in dashi stock. (link) • Pickled mustard soup w/ chicken drumsticks, sliced ginger, smashed garlic, salt, rice vinegar, mirin-fuu, umezuke. (link) • Pickled mustard soup w/ duck leg + chicken leg, tomatoes, garlic, etc. (link; scroll down) • Pork belly & lotus root soup. (link) • Chicken poaching broth w/ chopped kale. (link) • Chicken broth w/ some meat & skin, carrots, leafy celery. (link) • Basil, carrots, chikuwa; chicken stock. (link) • Fuzzy squash, snow fungus, chicken, chicken stock. (link; scroll down). • Bok choy in chicken poaching broth. (link) • Prawn wonton soup. (link) • Pickled mustard & jerk-rubbed duck legs soup. (link) • Chicken soup/broth; w/ chicken, carrots, leafy celery; also w/ orecchiette. (link) • Matsutake & spring onion. (link) • Lotus root soup w/ pork spare ribs and Chinese herbs & other ingredients. (link) • Miso soup w/ wakame, tofu, scallions. (link) • Fuzzy melon soup w/ chicken, snow fungus, duck fat. (link) • Fresh porcini soup. (link; scroll down) • Opo squash soup w/ pork belly, garlic, dried scallops, snow fungus, tofu. (link; scroll down) • Red amaranth soup w/ garlic, dried shrimp. (link) • Tomato soup. (link) (another link) • Tuscan kale & garlic soup. (link) • Itek Tim. (link) • Pickled mustard soup w/ chicken & etc, and w/ min6 sin3. (link) • Snow fungus, scallions, garlic, tofu soup. (link; scroll down) • Cucumber soup w/ stuff. (link) • Basil & beech mushroom soup. (link) • Tuscan kale & basil soup; chiocken & pork stock. (link) • Shrimp, garlic, Napa cabbage, scallion soup. (link) Noodle soups: • “Sapporo Ichiban chicken flavor instant ramen” w/ capicola, tofu puffs, negi, leafy celery. (link) • “Sapporo Ichiban Chicken-flavored instant ramen” w/ firm tofu, negi, leafy celery, sirloin top cap roast slices, French Breakfast radishes. (link) • "Mustard Green Duck Soup Flavored rice noodles” w/ additional harm choy, rice vinegar, mirin, scallions & fried shallots. (link) • “Sapporo Ichiban chicken flavor instant ramen” w/ franks, candy onion, leafy celery, tofu puffs, poached eggs. (link; scroll down) • Shrimp wonton & noodles & stuff. (link) (another link)

Zucchini-tomato-beans sauce, with radiatore. Details here.

Another two-stage dinner. • Soup. Pacific White shrimp, shelled & deveined; chopped garlic in medium-hot oil, chicken broth, sliced Napa cabbage, chopped scallions. Seasoning adjusted. • Radiatore w/ zucchini-tomato-bean sauce. The sauce: Very generous chopped garlic (Music) in medium-hot EV olive oil, just barely lightly browned. Halved Juliet Roma tomatoes & chopped Cherokee Purple tomatoes added, heat turned up, stirred around; the chopped tomatoes allowed to break down (the Juliet tomato halves retain a lot of their shape). Salted. Green zucchini cut into stubby sticks & Dragon Tongue beans sliced diagonally were sautéed w/ garlic & EV olive oil separately (salted) then added in to the tomato mixture. Trimmed basil & parsley leaflets were added and stirred in at the end, truffle oil drizzled in and the heat shut off.

Thanks, Smithy; and you're welcome. ------------------------------ The characteristics of the remainder of the short ribs prep from here were altered to unambiguously E Asian in nature by fishing out the potatoes, adding mutenka shiro miso [Miyasaka Jozo], halved bamboo shoots [Dragonfly] (simmered in water for a while & rinsing before adding to the rest), dried thick-cap Chinese/shiitake-type mushrooms (de-stemmed but not pre-soaked; the full flavor of the mushrooms was desired), and dried oiled beancurd sheets (腐竹/腐皮幹; these were pre-soaked) closer to the end of the re-cooking. Seasoning was adjusted. Eaten with soba-yam noodles. The "Western aspect" of the previous dish was removed to an accompanying salad of romaine & red-leaf lettuces plus parsley leaflets, dressed w/ EV olive oil [Alziari], balsamic vinegar (10-year Modena), Redmond salt & ground black pepper. The above gave both lunch and dinner. :-) The dinner salad also had the cooked baby Yukon Gold potatoes (fished out from the 1st iteration of the short-ribs dish). ;-) Lunch: Dinner:

Two-stage dinner: • Garlic & oil, dried shrimp, fuzzy melon, salt, cellophane noodles. (“Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui” (大姨媽嫁女)) • Bone-in beef short ribs (browned), yamabuki miso, garlic (Music, entire head; plus more loose garlic, cloves smashed + de-skinned), water, bay leaves; then baby Yukon Gold potatoes. Braised about 2 hours. Eaten w/ white rice + chopped scallions.

A recent dinner: • Chicken fat, rendered in the pot. Pork & chicken stock. Tuscan kale (de-ribbed) cut into ribbons. Fistfuls of trimmed/washed (Western/Italian) basil. • Beef stir-fried w/ garlic (Siberian Red; lots of it) & bittergourd. • White rice.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148945-dinner-2014-part-4/page-8?p=1980036#entry1980036

Regarding poached chicken Chinese-style: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/85937-singapore-hainanese-chicken-rice/ http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144988-dinner-2013-part-3/page-4?p=1919620#entry1919620 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22pak+cham+kai%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a https://www.google.com/search?q=%22pak+chit+kai%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a http://sundaynitedinner.com/chinese-white-cut-chicken/

Shelby, just wondering - you appear to pick your zucchini bounty when they are "developed". I don't know how many plants you have but you do seem to end up with generous amounts of relatively large/"typically mature" sized zucchinis. Why not pick some of them (if not most) while they are still babies, with or without the blossoms still "fresh" on them? There are various things one can do with baby zucchinis and with the blossoms and/or with the baby zukes+blossoms attached... I have shown some examples here in this thread and on the dinner & lunch threads, and there are other ways of enjoying these tender delicacies. One does not need to wait till the zucchinis are "fully grown"... and the quantity/volume of material one needs to use up or dispose of RAPIDLY diminishes... :-)

Indeed. Including myself. Especially myself. But that was what was ascribed to Pepin. So one could even surmise that he was speaking in meaninglessly non-specific terms. Which could also be a reflection on his vagueness, or his (or his reporter's) Eurocentricity, or on whatever. :-) ;-)

Groceries 2014-0726 BRFM: • Anna Belle’s Garden – Chanterelle mushrooms. These were good today. • Funny Bone Farm – Small-floret small broccoli heads. • Nicole-Taylor’s Pasta – Fresh radiatore & spaghettini. • Silverthorn Farm – Red carrots, shishito peppers, baby new Yukon Gold potatoes, basil. • Yeager Farm Produce – Juliet Roma tomatoes. Still prettily blushed green at the ends. • Fields Farm Fresh – Romaine & (deep) red-green lettuce. • Harvestland Farm – Western chives. CFM: • Farming Engineers – Dragon Tongue beans, Chinese long beans. • Middlefork Produce – Siberian Red garlic. Beautiful. I stocked up. • Van Antwerp’s Farm Market – Green zucchini, heirloom tomatoes.

Some recent lunches. -------------------------------------------- • Soup. Basil, carrots, chikuwa; in chicken stock. • Rice congee. Eaten dressed w/ chopped scallions & Tianjin preserved vegetable (天津冬菜) Generous julienned ginger, vegetable oil, sliced pork belly, short-cut pork ribs, sliced chicken drimstick; a sort of preserved mustard stem (梅菜笋; Mei Cai Sun; (“Taiwanese-taste”; rinsed under the tap before adding to the pot)); another sort of preserved mustard stem (榨菜; Zha Cai; (sesame-taste; added as-is)); water, mix of basmati & jasmine rice (water:rice ~ 8:1), a bit of sea salt. Simmer, stirring occasionally, till done; diluted w/ some water towards the end. -------------------------------------------- • Deep-fried soft tofu blocks. Scallion “flowers”. Lingham’s Hot Sauce w/ rice vinegar. • Soup. Fuzzy squash (mou qua), snow fungus, sliced chicken breast, chopped smashed Spanish Roja garlic, chopped up chicken fat, chicken stock. -------------------------------------------- • Pan-seared shishito peppers, sautéed chanterelle mushrooms, pan-browned sliced king oyster mushrooms. • Zucchini sticks, broccoli florets, chopped Cherokee Purple tomato, sliced Siberian Red garlic, vegetable oil, cut-up lamb bacon. Eaten w/ fresh spaghettini.

My Dear Weinoo, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have no intention of emulating Pepin or any other French chef. Why would I? It might not have come to your attention but I don’t cook French food (or very rarely) or use “French techniques”. Nor do I feel a desire to carve out a career in food filmography or cookbook authorship, even though some may consider those pursuits the only routes to influence or fame. I cook largely E/SE Asian food, with some pan-Indian as well. (While my European-style food more often than not tends towards being Italianate in style or inspiration.**) The techniques and methods (and ingredients) and ways of handling stuff were learned from folks and chefs who cooked in those E/SE Asian traditions. It may be that various techniques between such cuisines and French cuisine look similar or are similar or even identical,¶¶ but that does not mean that one had to learn said techniques from studying French cuisine, let alone learn it from Jacques Pepin. (In anthropology I believe they call such things Parallel Evolution, setting aside issues like the predating of some cuisines compared with others.) In fact, even Pepin himself has said his cooking is influenced by Asian cuisines. I completely agree that Pepin has had immense influence – but that is in large part in the context of French and Western European cooking. By extension, that carries over into “American” cooking insofar as it applies to those expressions of it that are based on French cuisine. It would seem that you (and various others here on eG) consider French cuisine to be the source of all cuisines, judging by your responses – but it might be an idea to consider that that may not be so. Certainly BILLIONS of people do not cook French cuisine and have been happily cooking other sorts of cuisines with techniques developed in those cuisines, some for millenia; and all without benefit of Pepin. I don’t shun Pepin. However, I don’t idolize him either or consider him Divine or to be the Holiest of Holies. The reasons include those I have outlined above regarding what I actually cook. I do learn stuff from him as occasion arises or as needed, but also don’t consider him to be THE seminal influence in my cooking. But that seems to be difficult for you to grasp. Take care. ** So, in fact, Marcella Hazan is a greater influence on me (especially regarding Italian-American cuisine) or the cookbooks issued by other Italian chef-authors or by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. ¶¶ Another poster here in another thread has even commented that the technique of parboiling bones before using them to make stock in French cuisine seems to have been adopted from the Chinese Fei Sui technique.

I trust you will be able to watch it in due course. Certainly one should look for tips and advice from folks of all sorts. Those who did not know about something, or only knew one way to do something, would gain from others. Nevertheless, there is always a danger of ascribing too much value to one or another person in any field, especially if one had not any knowledge or experience of doing something before. Then there is the issue of Holy Cows.** edited for spelling ** ETA2: Or, more correctly, "Sacred Cows".

Anna N, as I said - to each his/her own. I did not say that you could not adore him. I described what I did with leeks without benefit of Pepin and mentioned that I personally did not follow Pepin as avidly as some do. I hardly think that is cause for needing to "lighten up" as it was merely a commentary on what seems logical to do with cleaning leeks.

No, rotuts, I'm quite fine. Thank you for your concern. I think your snark is misplaced, however. I believe you worship Pepin, however, and it may be that anyone who doesn't think the same way is somehow defective in your eyes. That's too bad, for your sake. Just saying.