Update of The Weekly Menu – April 10, 2011

Monday

Western Beef Stir-fry.

The rice was cooked like a regular fried rice with vegetables but the beef steak was cook in a hot frying pan till medium rare and then sliced into 1” wide strips on bias and then tossed with BBQ sauce. Since no knife is necessary in order to eat it, it makes it a good branch meal where all you need is a fork or chopsticks.

Tuesday

BBQ Chicken Wings.

Yah, I know, I had it last week and maybe week before that but hey, they are so good! Sweet and hot and sticky…heaven on the plate. As is usual for me I served it on bed of chopped Napa cabbage.

Wednesday

The Chicken Vegetable & Rice Soup.

This was a nice light lunch. It was just a previously made chicken stock with meat, carrots, celery, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, rice and topped with Parmigiano cheese. I put a Parmigiano cheese rind in the stock and simmered it for 30 minutes and it gave the soup such a complex flavor! Since I have so much rind from the cheese I will use it in every soup base.

Thursday

Seafood-Mix Risotto.

Rice was the last staple that I didn’t use with frozen seafood mix. Week ago I saw on Food Channel tip for using frozen scallops and squids. As anybody that used them knows that they have a sort of metallic after taste that is hard to get rid off. I think it was on America’s Test Kitchen, they suggested to use lemon juice. I went one step farther: I have marinated the mix with grated zest and juice from 1 lemon. Did it work? Not a trace of any chemical preservatives. Not exactly like fresh stuff but pretty good. This trick will be in my repertoire from now on.

Friday

Risotto Cakes with Bocconcini.

Many restaurants cook risotto for a sole purpose of having it for cakes and I can understand why. When you bite into one first sensation is the super crispy Panko coating. Then you feel the cheesy and creamy rice followed by melted, stringy Mozzarella Bocconcini. Then you take a bite of crispy Napa cabbage. Wow! This is not a leftover meal, this is a meal worthy to be on a banquet menu. I did make one change since I cooked my last risotto: before forming the patty or cake, I mixed in a lot of grated Parmigiano cheese to help in binding it and hold shape. Great move! After all, I bought so much cheese at a basement price J !

Saturday

Stove-top Chicken Teriyaki.

In my opinion this version is so much juicier, tender and quicker to prepare then traditional cooking method over barbecue. Even though I have marinated for 6 hours skinless and boneless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch strips, I am not sure that it is necessary when cooked in non-stick frying pan. The chicken pieces are basically sauted in the marinade and when I turn then over after about 10 minutes I add the green onions and cook another 10 minutes, partially covered. At the end of cooking time the marinade turns into a thick sauce. Served over rice along with cucumber salad makes it a summer delight.

Singapore Noodles with Seafood Mix

This was my third experiment with frozen seafood mix and again it worked out great. This was basically version of Singapore Noodles recipe that I have posted  while ago.  Basically, I have just replaced the pork with seafood mix and added steamed Chinese sausage (Lap Chong).  Also, I have marinated the seafood mix in the sauce with the curry powder. One benefit was that since the curry never touched hot dry wok our house didn’t smell curry for hours like it does when I pass the curry in over high heat.

It is a definite repeat.

Seafood Mix Fried Rice

This is experiment #2 with seafood mix that contains ingredients with different cooking times. As I pointed out in my recipe for Seafood Mix with Pasta, this presents quite a challenge for a cook. After I have prepared the fried rice one thing became very clear to me: the mix has to be just heated through. If you cook it much longer then 2 minutes you end up with some tough inedible seafood. Another thing I discovered is that I had much better results if I thawed out the mix in cold water for about 1/2 hour, drained and marinated in appropriate seasonings. The squid rings and cuttlefish slabs benefited the most; they have perfect texture when cooked.

As is with any fried rice recipe, this one has few steps. Fried rice is not a meal where you plop a pot on a stove and walk away.  When you wok, you wok non-stop J.

Ingredients (in order of prep):

1 tsp. peanut oil

2 beaten eggs with 1 tsp. rice wine and pinch of salt

1 tsp. peanut oil

1/2” piece of ginger, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1/2 red pepper, diced

3 scallions, cut into 1” pieces and white and green parts separated

4 water chestnuts, diced

1/2 cup green peas

1 Chinese sausage (Lap Chong), steamed for 10 minutes and sliced on diagonal

I leaf Napa cabbage, shredded or 1 cup blanched bean sprouts

1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced (cremini, shitake, oyster or King oyster)

1 tsp. peanut oil

2 cups day old and refrigerated rice, clumps broken into individual grains

1 tsp. salt

1 cup frozen seafood mix, soaked and defrosted in 3 cups of cold water

1/2” piece of ginger, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 Tbs. rice wine

2 tsp. fish sauce

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Prepare all ingredients in 5 bowls.

1. Beat eggs in bowl 1 with 1 tsp. rice wine and pinch of salt and reserve.
2. In a large bowl #2 mix pepper, white part of scallions, water chestnuts, green peas, Lap Chong, cabbage and mushrooms and reserve.
3. In large bowl #3 add the rice and separate into individual grains. The rice should be very cold. Sprinkle with salt and reserve.
4. In a bowl #4 add drained seafood mix and toss with ginger, garlic, rice wine, fish sauce and sesame oil. Mix till all ingredients are well coated.
5. Heat up a large steel bowl #5 and keep close to wok.

Directions:

1. Heat a wok and add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. When wok is very hot add eggs from bowl #1 and scramble lightly. Remove to preheated bowl, break up the eggs, set aside and keep warm.
2. Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Add ingredients from bowl #2 and stir fry for about a minute. Remove to bowl with eggs.
3. Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Drop in the rice and stir fry till rice is evenly coated and grains are separated and rice is lightly colored. Remove to bowl with eggs.
4. Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Drop in bowl #4 and cook for 1 minute.

Add all contents of bowl #5, mix till all ingredients are well combined and serve in one large serving plate or individual bowls. Sprinkle fried rice with green parts of scallions and serve immediately.

Seafood Mix with Pasta

Last week while shopping in supermarket I spotted 2 Lb bag of seafood mix. It looked so fresh and had a mix of clams, squid rings and tentacles, small slabs of cuttlefish and small shrimps. Since I know that each item requires different cooking time I turned to Chowhound discussion board. For 2 days we went back and forth about best way to prepare it. Originally I was considering seafood risotto, then there were suggestions of a hot pot and few others. I definitely will try the hot pot. Anyway, I have finally settled on cooking it in tomato sauce and serve it with fresh fettuccine. My wife declared it absolutely amazing and a definite and regular repeat.

There isn’t really much of a recipe. I just heated tomato sauce with 2 Tbs. of leftover béchamel sauce and when hot I added the seafood mix that was thawed out and at room temperature. Cook for no more then 3 minutes and at very end mix in 1 Tbs. of chopped parsley. Since this meal is so quick, cook the pasta before, toss in butter and keep warm. Serve the sauce on top of pasta and garnish with chopped parsley.

Crêpes with Seafood and Mornay Sauce

Since I had a leftover of clams and shrimps from last night’s meal (Spaghettini con Vongole) I had to come up with some recipe that will utilize them. As I wrote in my Crêpe post, I came across my crêpe pans and idea for our dinner started to jell. After I made the crêpes all I had to do was make the seafood filling and Mornay sauce. The filling was a cinch; I just added some pink salmon to clams and chopped shrimps and reheated it in their own juices. Then it was on to Mornay sauce which is basically just a Béchamel sauce with cheese. I used Fontina and Gruyere cheese. Also, when I melted the butter for Béchamel I sautéed chopped shallots till soft then added the flour and when light roux was made I poured in the heated milk and chicken stock (no clam juice or fish stock on hand) in 1:1 ratio. When the sauce thickened I whisked in grated cheese until smooth. Salt, white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg seasoned the Mornay sauce.

Then it was to assembly and final prep. Assembly is very simple: put a tablespoon of filling in center front of crêpe, 2 tsp. of sauce on top and roll like taco. Place in buttered baking pan and when all crêpes are placed in pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake in 350°F for 15 – 20 minutes, basically just to reheat it. To serve, pour some sauce on preheated plate, place crêpes on top and then pour more sauce on top. Garnish with shrimps sliced along spine in half, sprinkle chopped parsley and enjoy. It is (was!) so good!

Start Béchamel with butter and shallots.

Add flour and make roux. Finish by adding milk and then cheese. 

Heat clams, pink salmon and shrimps. Now it is on to assembly. 

Place in buttered baking pan and when all crêpes are placed in pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake in 350°F for 15 – 20 minutes, basically just to reheat it.

Notice the arugula garnish on left side of plate. I grew it in my cold frame till first big snowstorm first week of December when it was harvested and stored, unwashed, in Ziploc bag in an unheated garage that had a constant temperature of about 5 °C. Four weeks and it is still as fresh as when it was picked! Incredible green.