Salmon Tartare with Pickled Cucumbers, Red Onions and Capers

An amuse bouche usually consists of a small bite-size treat, courtesy of the chef, that opens up your palate for the meal to come. They are sometimes incredibly intricate, sometimes very simple, and are meant to showcase the restaurant's culinary vision. One of the stations at the French Culinary Institute's restaurant comes up with a different amuse bouche every day. When my turn arrived, I came up with this concoction, a fresh way to get your appetite going on a warm sunny day. The tricky part was to plate quickly as the customers ordered their food. The salmon had to be mixed with the marinade at the last minute to ensure that the salmon would maintain its vivid orange color, so we rapidly found ourselves plating a dozen tartares at a time. It was worth it though, as the plates looked beautiful and the salmon turned out tasty, yet simple. You can definitely serve this as an appetizer as I did with the leftovers.

Since then, I have graduated, and been adorned with a proper chef's hat! The real professional kitchen life will come soon, but I am for now savoring a bit of relaxing time after an intense 6 months of training to become a chef.



Recipe
Salmon fillet
A handful of capers, rinsed and coarsely chopped
One diced red onion
2 tablespoons yuzu juice
Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
1/4 lemon, juice and zest
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup of parmesan
Half cucumber, sliced very thin
Chives, to garnish

Place the cucumber in a bowl. Add the rice wine vinegar and yuzu. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Leave for at least an hour in the fridge so that the cucumbers get a nice pickly taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grate parmesan and spread on a silk pad sheet set on top of a sheet pan. If you don't have one, you can use parchment paper. Spread the cheese on an even layer making a rough rectangular shape. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Break into pieces and reserve.

Dice the salmon and place it into a bowl. Remove any gray areas in the flesh, as well as the skin. Cover and place in the fridge. In a separate bowl, mix the red onions, capers, lemon juice and zest. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once you are ready to serve, add the caper and onion mixture to the salmon. Do not do this too much in advance or the salmon will change color with the acidity of the lemon.

Place a mound of salmon tartare on the plate, and serve with cucumber, a piece of parmesan and a piece of chive as you please. Enjoy!

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Jenn came up to visit this weekend and so I thought cook up this simple little dish that I know she likes. Peanut sauces, either as a dipping sauce, or with chicken skewers or noodles, occupy a central place in the pantheon of North Americanized Asian cuisine and are always very popular. I find that restaurants often make the sauces a little too sweet, so I had a fun time trying to balance the different flavors making up this sauce.



Recipe (Adapted from Ted Allen's The Food You Want To Eat, published at leitesculinaria.com)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup roasted peanuts
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon mirin
2 medium garlic cloves
1 small cucumber
1/2 pound soba noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions, sliced

Dry roast the sesame seeds in a wok or cast iron pan under medium for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a small food processor, blend the peanuts, sesame oil, half of the sesame seeds, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin and garlic until the consistency of a thick sauce. Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise, scoop out the insides with a fork and slice into U-shaped pieces. Cook the noodles in boiling water as directed on the package. Drain, rinse in cold water, and re-immerse in some boiling to reheat. Drain again, mix in with the sauce, cucumber, scallions, cilantro and remaining sesame seeds. Serve hot or cold.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp

So here I am with my first post in far too long. I have to apologize, as Jenn is the one who spends most of her day in a professional kitchen and yet she is the one who still finds time to come home and post in her spare time!

Salt and Pepper Shrimp is a pretty much a standard at most chinese restaurants, and is usually done deep-fried. This variation (another winner from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen) is a pan-fried version that is really simple, and delicious. It's great for those evenings when you're both short on time and have an empty fridge (the only perishable thing it calls for is ginger and scallions). It's traditional to use smaller, thin-shelled shrimp and eat them whole (the shell crisps up nicely and gives a nice crunch), but I've used peeled as well with great success.



Recipe:

2 teaspoons of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of sugar
400g of small, frozen shrimp.

2 cloves of garlic, sliced.
2 inch piece of ginger, sliced
3-4 scallions cut into 1 inch pieces
3-4 dried chilies, deseeded and cut in half (optional)

Defrost, trim and rise the shrimp. Mix together the cornstarch, salt, pepper and sugar and add the shrimp. Heat a wok or cast-iron pan on medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of oil. Spread the shrimp on the pan in a single layer, being careful not to crowd the pan. Cook in batches if necessary. Leave the shrimp untouched for 30-45 seconds, allowing them to crisp. Gently turn them over, to do the other side. Stir fry gently for another 2-3 minutes and remove the shrimp from the pan.

Lower the heat to medium low, add a little more oil. Add the ginger, garlic, and chiles (if using), and stir fry gently to release the flavor into the oil. Just as the garlic begins to crisp, add the scallions and the shrimp back into the wok. Stir fry for 20-30 seconds. Serve with rice.

Goat Cheese and Scallion Eggs Cocotte

Eggs.... As promised, here is one of the recipes made during 'egg day' at the French Culinary Institute. I made it again at home a couple days ago, with a few changes. I am usually not a great fan of eggs and bacon in the morning (well, that is not exactly true, but I do like to think about different ways to use eggs) and I found this to be an easy alternative for brunch/breakfast. The cream does make this a bit of a rich starter to the day, but balanced with scallions and fresh goat cheese it is quite delicious. This could be also be enjoyed for lunch or dinner, with a simple beet and citrus vinaigrette perharps?
If anyone has an unorthodox way to enjoy their eggs I'd love for you to share!



Recipe (for 4 servings)
200 ml of heavy cream
4 eggs (at room temperature)
2 scallions (finely sliced)
A small handful of fresh goat cheese
Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 F (177 C). Butter the inside of 4 ramekins. Place a couple crumbles of goat cheese at the bottom of each ramekin, and break one egg in each, making sure to keep the yolk intact. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Divide the cream between the ramekins ensuring that the yolk is still visible and that the cream evenly surrounds the yolk. Add the sliced scallions.

Place a sheet of parchament paper into an oven-proof pan. Arrange the ramekins in the pan and pour boiling water half way up the sides of the ramekins. This ensures a slow and gentle cooking process. Cook between 10 and 15 minutes, depending on how runny you want your eggs. The whites should be set, and the yolk can be as runny as you like. Serve with crusty bread. Enjoy!

Lemongrass Pork Riblets

My most recent cook-book purchase (on the advice of fellow food-blogger Holybasil) is Andrea Nguyen's superb 'Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.' It's one of those rare cookbooks that you can read almost like a novel. She details the ordeals of her family leaving Saigon in 1975 and establishing a new life on the West Coast, and she talks about how her mom persisted in preserving and recreating authentic meals despite the limited American grocery supply. I like this book so much because it really underscores the crucial role that food plays in the maintenance of cultural heritages, especially in expat communities.

My paternal family also fled from Saigon, probably a few short months after Andrea's, and I grew up in a thoroughly Canadian culture. I don't speak the language, and I've never been to Vietnam. Food, and the family rituals that surround it, remain as my strongest link to my cultural inheritance and I've learned to treasure that.

These little riblets are a real treat and they were really fun to make. The key ingredient is lemongrass, a long-stalk, husk-like vegetable that has all the aroma and freshness of lemon without the acidity. A medium-sized bunch set me back 99 cents at the local asian market. The other secret ingredient is a wonderful caramel sauce called Nuoc Mau, that Andrea Nguyen explains how to make both in her book and on her blog here. In a pinch though, honey will work just as well. The riblets are marinated for 24 hours and then roasted in the oven. They weren't quite as tender as I thought they'd be (I think I will try adapting this recipe by braising them beforehand) but they were packed with flavour. A warning though: they are really messy to eat!



Recipe
1 rack of spareribs or babyback ribs, cut lengthwise into 2 inch pieces
1 cucumber, to serve

For the marinade
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of honey or Caramel Sauce
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (nuoc mam)
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed and minced

To prepare the ribs, carefully peel off the tough white membrane along the back of the ribs. This will take a bit of force, so be careful. Cut between the bones into individual riblets.

For the marinade, mix the garlic, shallot, lemongrass and oil and blend them in a mortar and pestle or small processor. Add to a large bowl. Add in the brown sugar, black pepper, soy sauce, caramel sauce and fish sauce and mix. Add the riblets and, using your hands, coat the meat in the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

30-45 minutes before cooking, take the bowl out of the fridge to let the meat get to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit and put a rack on the top shelf of the oven. Arrange the riblets on a foil-lined baking sheet with the meat side up. Reserve the marinade. Cook for about 7 minutes, remove from the oven and quickly brush with the marinade. Put them back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes depending on how big they are. Serve with sliced cucumber, some small chiles and some soy sauce for dipping. And, of course, a hefty supply of paper towels to clean up afterwards!

Butternut Squash, Chestnut and Pancetta Soup

I recently came across a Jamie Oliver recipe called 'Pumpkin Soup' and got excited: I'd never used pumpkins for anything but roasted seeds, pies, and jack-o-lanterns and was curious about what a soup would taste like. Of course, to my mild disappointment, the British pumpkin is, apparently, nothing else but what we call squash over here. Luckily though, it's exactly the right time for butternut squash and it's such an awesome fall vegetable that we thought we'd give it a try.

I think I like butternut squash so much, in part, because it's only really available for such a short time in the fall. We're so used to eating pineapples shipped halfway around the world in the middle of December that we forget the subtle pleasures of eating seasonally and I guess squash is an example of that. So here is this amazing soup (who would have thought it would take a brit to showcase such a thoroughly North-American vegetable?). The squash is roasted beforehand, not cooked in the broth as I've seen it done before, and I think that helps the soup keep a little texture. The roasted seeds on top are a nice touch too. The only question left to ask, I suppose, is what do the British call pumpkin?

Recipe (adapted from Jamie Oliver)
1 butternut squash
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1.5 tbsp olive oil
5 slices pancetta, cut into ½ inch (1 centimetre) pieces
1 bunch fresh sage leaves
150g roasted chestnuts (about 1 1/3 cup)
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp sour cream or yogurt

Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds, reserving these for later. Using your pestle and mortar, bash up the coriander until fine and sprinkle over the squash. Drizzle with a little oil and roast in a hot oven for at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C / Gas 6 ) until nice and soft. This should take about 60 minutes, but test the squash with a fork: If some parts of the squash refuse to soften up, just leave them behind. Scoop out the pieces into a bowl.

Heat a little oil in a large pan and fry the pancetta with half the sage leaves. Add the chestnuts and the onion and fry gently for about 15 minutes. Add in the squash, cover with the stock and bring to the boil. Remove the mixture and blend until smooth, then pour back into the pan.

Take the rest of the sage leaves and the reserved squash seeds and fry them in a little oil until crisp. Keep a couple whole sage leaves and fry them until they're crisp to garnish. To serve, spoon a little sour cream on top of the soup, sprinkle with a little of the crisp sage and seeds, and finish with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.