Ok, lots of people like sushi. Lots of people don't like sushi. Lots of people don't like Yetis either, but I don't hold that against them. This is a recipe that basically uses stuff that I talked about earlier, but in other variations and with sushi rice instead of jasmine. If you don't want to make maki (rolls) that's fine, I've got some alternatives down below.
Also, watch out for the snowdogs on this one, as they love tuna and fish.
Raw or seared tuna maki sushi! Or not!
You need to have prepared ahead of time about 2 cups of sushi rice, which is often about 1 cup before cooking, including seasoning with rice wine vinegar and anything else you want. The rice should be cool. I usually put some lemon or lime rind in with the rice when it cooks for a nice citrus flavor.
2 shallots, small dice
bean sprouts, very fresh, washed, and patted dry
red pepper flakes (optional)
sushi-grade ahi tuna, probably about 1/4 pound or so
seasoning mixture, described below. About 2 tablespoons or so of this mix, depending on how much tuna you have.
about 2-3 sheets of nori (seaweed sheets for sushi, available in many supermarkets) for maki, or you could have this sashimi or nigiri style
Optional: wasabi, pickled ginger as garnish / condiments
For the marinade for a seared tuna version of this see my November 9, 2007 entry. The leftovers work really well in this roll. If you are making this fresh however, read the following.
To use raw tuna (assuming your tuna is of excellent quality and impeccably fresh) you'll want to mix up ahead of time a seasoning mixture. I prefer a tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, a tiny pinch of salt, preferably sea salt, and teaspoon of tamari. Or, if you like it spicy, replace the salt and tamari with a few dashes of Tabasco or other hot sauce of your liking. You can also replace the vinegar with lemon or lime juice and a small pinch of sugar. You'll want to set this mixture aside for use when you are ready to assemble your sushi.
DO NOT MARINADE THE TUNA more than 10 minutes or they will over-cure in the acid in the seasoning. You'll just want to briefly dip the fish in the seasoning before making your sushi.
For maki, cut quarter-inch square, but long (like a square cylinder) slices of the raw tuna.
For nigiri, cut nice thumb-sized, 1/8 inch thick sections of tuna.
For sashimi, cut the widest, but still 1/8 inch thick sections of tuna.
Maki: open up your nori, shiny side up. Spread enough rice on the nori to enclose the tuna and other fillings. Season your raw tuna in your pre-made mixture. Place a single thickness (depending on the length of your tuna you may need to trim to fit or use multiple square cylinders) of seasoned tuna along the rice, with a small sprinkling of shallots, some bean sprouts parallel to the tuna, and some red pepper flakes if you want. Roll. Repeat. Cut. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.
Nigiri: Don't use nori. Form some thumb-sized cylinders of rice. You can place a small dab of wasabi on the rice and then place the seasoned tuna strip on top, or just place the tuna on top. Repeat until all tuna or rice is used up. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.
Sashimi: season the tuna, and then place on a plate. Have some rice with it. Put on a plate with optional condiments. Enjoy.
This serves about 1 Yeti that likes sushi, or 2-4 as an appetizer, or 2 humans that are hungry, or so. It depends on how many pieces you make and how much the individuals like sushi. Watch out for the snowdogs though. They like fish.
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Friday, December 7, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
General Sun Tzu's Chicken or NotChicken. He flanked Tso with the help of Sun Pin.
I made some General's Tofu, or if it was chicken, jeung bau gei kau the other day. It wasn't chicken as my Yeti wife does not eat the fowl nor the flesh, except for fishes and other sea-sonal things. I did some research, or rather searches on Google which substitutes for research for the lazy, into what is typically called General Tso (or other spelling variants such as Zuo) chicken dishes, and I didn't like what I saw. My favorite version of this Americanized Hunan dish had exhibited citrus floral scents, had that unami element that is often missing, and was not sickly sweet with too much sugar. It was also fairly spicy and flecked with lightly toasted sesame seeds. I tried to reproduce that and it was fairly successful.
Purists may think that this is just a version of orange chicken, but that traditionally has preserved orange peel, is based on a chili sauce, and is not sweet. This was one of the few experiments that I tried when the Yeti wife was home instead of trying it out by myself first and then reproducing a more successful version later.
Technique:
First prep the sauce ingredients but do not cook or add to the wok. Then prep and cook the chicken or tofu. I recommend using 12-16 ounces of protein for the amount of sauce this makes. Reserve the chicken or tofu, prepare the sauce, and toss the cooked protein in the finished sauce. I love to serve this with crisp, steamed vegetables tossed with lemon juice and a pinch of salt such as broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or sliced root vegetables.
General Tzu's flanking manuver sauce
Mix thoroughly in a bowl:
1 tablespoon hoisin
juice of 2 large oranges or about 1/4 cup of good orange juice
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, crushed or minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce or, preferably, tamari
1 teaspoon fresh chopped ginger or ginger powder
1 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
(optional if want additional heat) a few dashes of vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Durkee
have handy, but not mixed together:
about 4-6 dried pepper pods or fresh Thai chilies
1 heaping teaspoon of sesame seeds
2 teaspoons of canola oil or peanut oil
1 green onion or scallion, diced pretty thin (optional)
1 teaspoon of corn starch slurried in about 1/4 cup of cold water
Get everything else ready as once the sauce is cooked the dish is basically finished:
Cook some rice. I recommend my sushi rice or jasmine rice (earlier posting). Prep and have your veggies cooked and ready.
Cook your chicken or tofu as you like. I like to cut the protein into small pieces and then lightly bread the pieces and shallow-fry until golden brown.
Set the cooked protein off to the side until sauce is ready.
Add the canola oil and pepper pods to your wok over medium high heat. Allow the pods to flavor the oil. This takes only a few minutes. If you want spicier General Tzu, leave the peppers in at this point. If you want milder Tzu, take the peppers out or don't use them at all. Add the sesame seeds, but be careful as they will start to pop and dance and may exit the wok at a good velocity. As soon as you hear the first few pops, add your hoisin mixture and stir through. Bring this mixture to a boil and slowly add a few dribbles of the corn starch slurry until just before your desired thickness. Stop adding the slurry early (you may need to add a touch of plain water if you get a bit thicker than desired) as adding the protein back in usually causes the sauce to thicken a little more.
Toss your chicken or tofu into the sauce, stir through, and serve over rice. See, wasn't that easy? And it's better than those sugar-and-vinegar sauces you'd normally see Tso eating. Sun Tzu and Sun Pin pity poor Tso T'sung-T'ang's complexity-free and not as good chickeny concoction!
Serves about 2 Yetis, or 4 people with the veggies included, or 2 people with nice and well-microwaved leftovers for lunch the next day.
Purists may think that this is just a version of orange chicken, but that traditionally has preserved orange peel, is based on a chili sauce, and is not sweet. This was one of the few experiments that I tried when the Yeti wife was home instead of trying it out by myself first and then reproducing a more successful version later.
Technique:
First prep the sauce ingredients but do not cook or add to the wok. Then prep and cook the chicken or tofu. I recommend using 12-16 ounces of protein for the amount of sauce this makes. Reserve the chicken or tofu, prepare the sauce, and toss the cooked protein in the finished sauce. I love to serve this with crisp, steamed vegetables tossed with lemon juice and a pinch of salt such as broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or sliced root vegetables.
General Tzu's flanking manuver sauce
Mix thoroughly in a bowl:
1 tablespoon hoisin
juice of 2 large oranges or about 1/4 cup of good orange juice
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, crushed or minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce or, preferably, tamari
1 teaspoon fresh chopped ginger or ginger powder
1 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
(optional if want additional heat) a few dashes of vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Durkee
have handy, but not mixed together:
about 4-6 dried pepper pods or fresh Thai chilies
1 heaping teaspoon of sesame seeds
2 teaspoons of canola oil or peanut oil
1 green onion or scallion, diced pretty thin (optional)
1 teaspoon of corn starch slurried in about 1/4 cup of cold water
Get everything else ready as once the sauce is cooked the dish is basically finished:
Cook some rice. I recommend my sushi rice or jasmine rice (earlier posting). Prep and have your veggies cooked and ready.
Cook your chicken or tofu as you like. I like to cut the protein into small pieces and then lightly bread the pieces and shallow-fry until golden brown.
Set the cooked protein off to the side until sauce is ready.
Add the canola oil and pepper pods to your wok over medium high heat. Allow the pods to flavor the oil. This takes only a few minutes. If you want spicier General Tzu, leave the peppers in at this point. If you want milder Tzu, take the peppers out or don't use them at all. Add the sesame seeds, but be careful as they will start to pop and dance and may exit the wok at a good velocity. As soon as you hear the first few pops, add your hoisin mixture and stir through. Bring this mixture to a boil and slowly add a few dribbles of the corn starch slurry until just before your desired thickness. Stop adding the slurry early (you may need to add a touch of plain water if you get a bit thicker than desired) as adding the protein back in usually causes the sauce to thicken a little more.
Toss your chicken or tofu into the sauce, stir through, and serve over rice. See, wasn't that easy? And it's better than those sugar-and-vinegar sauces you'd normally see Tso eating. Sun Tzu and Sun Pin pity poor Tso T'sung-T'ang's complexity-free and not as good chickeny concoction!
Serves about 2 Yetis, or 4 people with the veggies included, or 2 people with nice and well-microwaved leftovers for lunch the next day.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Three rice stuffing
This is one of the things I make as a holiday dinner dish. It has lots of good colors, those wonderful autumn and winter cooking aromas, and it tastes really good. You can use either sausage, soy sausage (the kind that comes in tubes, not patties nor link style), or leave that part out and just add an additional pinch of salt, pinch of slightly crushed or bruised fennel seed, and extra pinch of sage or a couple of fresh sage leaves. And this also makes for amazing leftovers.
A total of three cups of cooked rice. I usually use 1 cup cooked brown rice, 1 cup cooked wild rice and 1 cup cooked long grain white rice. You can use any combination you like.
1 large red or yellow bell pepper, medium dice (sometimes I add a jalapeño or other hot pepper for some heat. Yetis may live in the cold, but we like heat in our food!)
½ medium onion, small dice or about 4-5 shallots, small dice
1 clove garlic, minced or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 ribs celery, small dice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
pinch dried sage
pinch thyme
pinch rosemary
2-3 fennel seeds
a few pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup vegetable or poultry stock
chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
1/4 pound of good soy sausage (see note above) or 1/4 pound of good, easily crumbled sausage (optional - I like Lightlife's Gimme Lean soy Sausage Style product or Bob Evans' original flavor or sage roll sausage for this)
Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet, preferably cast iron, over high heat with the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, carefully add the soy sausage or traditional sausage in small pieces and stir frequently. If you use soy sausage, you will probably need to add an additional tablespoon of vegetable oil. Cook the sausage product through and then remove the sausage from the pan. Pour out most of the oil from the skillet, keeping about 1 tablespoon in the pan.
Return the pan to the heat, and add the celery, peppers, and onion. Reduce the heat to medium high and sauté the celery, bell pepper and onion until soft and the onion is partially translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Turn heat back up to high, add all spices, herbs, and salt and pepper and any optional ingredients, but not the cooked rice. Stir through on high heat for about 30 seconds. Add the stock and deglaze the pan.
Turn heat down to low or medium. Add cooked rice. Warm through and serve.
Serves 1-2 Yeti or 4-6 people as a side dish.
A total of three cups of cooked rice. I usually use 1 cup cooked brown rice, 1 cup cooked wild rice and 1 cup cooked long grain white rice. You can use any combination you like.
1 large red or yellow bell pepper, medium dice (sometimes I add a jalapeño or other hot pepper for some heat. Yetis may live in the cold, but we like heat in our food!)
½ medium onion, small dice or about 4-5 shallots, small dice
1 clove garlic, minced or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 ribs celery, small dice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
pinch dried sage
pinch thyme
pinch rosemary
2-3 fennel seeds
a few pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup vegetable or poultry stock
chopped toasted walnuts (optional)
1/4 pound of good soy sausage (see note above) or 1/4 pound of good, easily crumbled sausage (optional - I like Lightlife's Gimme Lean soy Sausage Style product or Bob Evans' original flavor or sage roll sausage for this)
Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet, preferably cast iron, over high heat with the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, carefully add the soy sausage or traditional sausage in small pieces and stir frequently. If you use soy sausage, you will probably need to add an additional tablespoon of vegetable oil. Cook the sausage product through and then remove the sausage from the pan. Pour out most of the oil from the skillet, keeping about 1 tablespoon in the pan.
Return the pan to the heat, and add the celery, peppers, and onion. Reduce the heat to medium high and sauté the celery, bell pepper and onion until soft and the onion is partially translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Turn heat back up to high, add all spices, herbs, and salt and pepper and any optional ingredients, but not the cooked rice. Stir through on high heat for about 30 seconds. Add the stock and deglaze the pan.
Turn heat down to low or medium. Add cooked rice. Warm through and serve.
Serves 1-2 Yeti or 4-6 people as a side dish.
Monday, October 29, 2007
My day of starch, with variations on rice and grains
Today when I left the cave for my long day of wandering through the forests and visiting hunters in Pennsylvania, I realized all I had packed for lunch were grains and starches. That inspired me to write up some of my basic rice, grains, and grass seed (read: wild rice) recipes that I will refer to in future posts. I'll put my most heavily used sushi rice and long grain rice in this post, and save my wild rice and brown rice recipes for another day.
My basic sushi rice that I use for all sorts of sushi, stir fries, fresh fish dishes, and general eating:
1 cup sushi rice
water for washing, plus 1 cup water for cooking
Rind of 1 lime, without any pith
1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar or juice of 1 lime
Optional: toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro leaves
Take 1 cup of sushi rice and wash until the water runs clean. Place the wet washed sushi rice in a saucepan and add the 1 cup of water and lime rind. Put over high heat until the water begins to boil. Place a tight fitting lid on the saucepan and reduce the heat to low. Allow to slowly cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the lid on for 5 more minutes. Remove the lid and pour in the rice wine vinegar or the lime juice. Stir through with a wooden spoon or a rice paddle. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro if desired. You can also substitute lemon for lime in both the rind and juice, but I prefer lime in this case.
This will make about two big yeti fistfulls of rice, or enough for 2-3 sushi maki (rolls) or enough as a side dish for 3-4 people with maybe some nice seared tuna, or broiled salmon, or wildebeest steaks.
My basic jasmine rice. You can substitute the same amount of any long grain rice for the jasmine. Other long grain rice using this recipe will turn out just fine but will taste a little different than the jasmine.
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, preferably canola or peanut
1 cup of jasmine rice
2 cups of water or your favorite stock of hand-picked wild mushrooms or whatever you found at the grocery
1/2 tablespoon of butter
1 pinch of salt, unless you use stock and it's really salty already
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or pot, put the rice and vegetable oil. Place over medium high heat and stir frequently until the rice is turning white to slightly golden. Carefully add the stock to the saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Put the butter on top of the liquid and cover. Reduce the heat to low and allow to cook for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the rice mixture from the heat and stir in the pinch of salt. Serve with some nice peas, or, my favorite, asparagus, or maybe a big hunk of red meat and a red wine reduction with morels and cracked black pepper and...
Serves 1 yeti as a snack, 2 people as a main dish with some veggies and a nice salad, or 4 people with the veggies, a nice salad, some thing else, and maybe a nice slice of cake.
My basic sushi rice that I use for all sorts of sushi, stir fries, fresh fish dishes, and general eating:
1 cup sushi rice
water for washing, plus 1 cup water for cooking
Rind of 1 lime, without any pith
1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar or juice of 1 lime
Optional: toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro leaves
Take 1 cup of sushi rice and wash until the water runs clean. Place the wet washed sushi rice in a saucepan and add the 1 cup of water and lime rind. Put over high heat until the water begins to boil. Place a tight fitting lid on the saucepan and reduce the heat to low. Allow to slowly cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the lid on for 5 more minutes. Remove the lid and pour in the rice wine vinegar or the lime juice. Stir through with a wooden spoon or a rice paddle. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds or chopped cilantro if desired. You can also substitute lemon for lime in both the rind and juice, but I prefer lime in this case.
This will make about two big yeti fistfulls of rice, or enough for 2-3 sushi maki (rolls) or enough as a side dish for 3-4 people with maybe some nice seared tuna, or broiled salmon, or wildebeest steaks.
My basic jasmine rice. You can substitute the same amount of any long grain rice for the jasmine. Other long grain rice using this recipe will turn out just fine but will taste a little different than the jasmine.
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, preferably canola or peanut
1 cup of jasmine rice
2 cups of water or your favorite stock of hand-picked wild mushrooms or whatever you found at the grocery
1/2 tablespoon of butter
1 pinch of salt, unless you use stock and it's really salty already
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or pot, put the rice and vegetable oil. Place over medium high heat and stir frequently until the rice is turning white to slightly golden. Carefully add the stock to the saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Put the butter on top of the liquid and cover. Reduce the heat to low and allow to cook for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the rice mixture from the heat and stir in the pinch of salt. Serve with some nice peas, or, my favorite, asparagus, or maybe a big hunk of red meat and a red wine reduction with morels and cracked black pepper and...
Serves 1 yeti as a snack, 2 people as a main dish with some veggies and a nice salad, or 4 people with the veggies, a nice salad, some thing else, and maybe a nice slice of cake.
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