Sichuan Banquet

Our good friends Rachelle and Sid came over for dinner last night and I made a Sichuan banquet.  On the menu was bang bang chicken, fish fragrance eggplant, cumin lamb with hand pulled noodles, red braised pork, cauliflower with bacon and smoked tofu, and water spinach with garlic and ginger.

Timing got a bit away from me.  The noodles were a huge time sink, but they were really delicious.  I wasn't so happy with the lamb visually, that may have been because I used ginger garlic paste instead of minced/grated aromatics...trying to save a bit of time here and there.  The picture on the website Omnivore's Cookbook looked so much better.  I used her recipe for the hand-pulled noodles as well.  Here is a link to that recipe from the Omnivore's Cookbook for hand pulled noodles.  

Cumin Lamb and Hand Pulled Noodles

The eggplant recipe can be found here.  It was the big crowd pleaser last night once again. My husband is not a big fan of eggplant, but he loves mushrooms, so I added a few king mushrooms that I sliced coated with cornstarch like the eggplant, and fried.

Fish Fragrance Eggplant and Mushroom

The big loser was the water spinach with ginger and garlic.  There are 2 types of water spinach, I used the thin leafed last night, there is a larger leaf that more resembles spinach leaves.  It may have been tastier with that type.  I found it was a bit stringy and difficult to manage chewing. Turns out I didn't get a photo of that. Just as well will probably not make that dish again.  Maybe sub in pea shoots instead of the water spinach.

I used a Fuchsia Dunlap recipe from "Land of Plenty", her food of sichuan book.  Her recipes are always really good. Cauliflower with smokey bacon recipe link.  I added smoked tofu to amp up the smokey flavor, not sure that concepts worked but it was a very tasty dish. I had a few asparagus spears hanging around that needed to be cooked, so I threw them in as well.  I blanched the veggies first and they cooked the bacon and tofu before adding the aromatics and vegetables.  A very satisfying dish.

Cauliflower with smokey bacon

I used another Fuchsia Dunlop recipe for the red braised pork one that usually uses beef.  I subbed in 2 pork shanks for the beef.  The dish turned out too salty and I am trying to figure out what caused the overload.  My first idea was the reduction in the liquid in the dutch oven over the cooking time.  What was almost 2 quarts of liquid at the start became about 1/2 deep pool at the end.  That is probably the reason it was so salty.  The flavor was good and in small quantities over rice it was very good.

Red cooked pork

The bones in the shanks just fell out and the skin came off in gelatinous sheets.  It was a very pretty and authentic looking dish.  Next time I will use unsalted stock.

Bang Bang Chicken is another Fuchsia Dunlop dish and it's served cold.  It consists poached chicken shredded by hand and a sesame based sauce.  I liked this dish.  The cold/room temp was a refreshing change from the fresh off the stove stuff.  I steamed chicken thighs, traditionally it is with breast meat, and after they cooled down a bit I shredded the meat discarding any remaining fat and unappetizing looking bits.  I stored the shredded meat in the fridge over night in about 1 cup of the steaming broth which was incredibly flavorful.  I got out the instant pot and put a steaming basket in and filled up to the basket with water.  I removed the basket and added 3 scallions, 2 big slices of ginger, a couple of sichuan peppers and 2 cloves of garlic.  I steamed them for 15 minutes on LOW pressure.  

Bang Bang Chicken

I urge you to read Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks they are truly amazing and every time I peruse through my copies I get jonesing to return to China and eat my way through difference provinces than when we were there for 3 months in 2016.  Not a bad meal was had over that time period.  We were the floor-show in a hot pot place in Chengdu because google translate was useless as all the items on the paper menu translated to something like "star and moon pieces" or "princess eating roses"  Not very helpful in terms of choosing what you want to dip into your bubbling broths. We ended up asking google to translate "chef's choices" and we got some very interesting bits of unidentifiable animal origin and bodily location.   All in all it was a very memorable experience and we still laugh about it 9 years on!

Dateline: April 4, 2021 Grilled Steak, Roasted Whole Cauliflower, and Grilled Potatoes

 I had 2 beautiful strip steaks that I wanted to grill.  So I set up the grill and lit a fire hoping to get everything done before it got dark and cold!  I threw a chunk of wood on to supply a little more smoke for the veg.

I oiled the steaks and seasoned with salt and pepper as well as oiling up the cauliflower and seasoning it with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  I washed up a couple of yukon gold potatoes and oiled and seasoned them up as well.

When the fire was ready, I got it to hold steady at 300°F and put the cauliflower on the grill.  I figured I had about 40 - 60 minutes before it was cooked through and delightfully smokey.  I figured the taters would take about the same amount of time.  They would not fall apart, but get crustier, which is a lovely thing in its own right!

When the veggies were done, I opened up the vents to get the grill hotter, and got it up to 400°F pretty quickly.  I put the steaks on the hottest part of the grill and set a timer for 6 minutes.  After 3 minutes I rotated the steaks 90° for cross hatching.  At the 6 minute mark, the steaks were flipped and rotated again at the 3 minute mark.  I then took its temp and the internal temp was only about 100°F.  So onto their sides the steaks went in 1-2 minute increments.  The grill was getting hotter as the lid was open so a good sear was happening on the edges.  After that I took the temp and it was 120°F, ok getting closer to medium rare.  I put the steaks back on the very hot grill on the less browned side for another minute or two and voila!  Perfect 127° that will rise to 130° as they sit.

The steaks were excellent, I know I usually do sous vide for steak, but I wanted to grill to wake up my grilling chops, if you will.

They were tender, flavorful, nicely seasoned, and quite delicious.  Nothing like meat and taters for an Easter/Passover Dinner.

Dateline: March 5, 2021 What to do with 1/2 a turkey breast? Sheet Pan Dinner #6

I had 1/2 of a turkey breast left over from last nights Indian Night.  What could I do with it quick, as we were on a zoom call until 7 pm. 

I sliced the breast into 4 1-in  thick cutlets, cut up a mess o' potatoes and cauliflower.  These got dumped on a sheet pan, oiled up, salted, peppered and then I realized that the meal was too white.  Yes too white in color, so I made a space between the potatoes and cauliflower and added in 1 lb of trimmed asparagus spears then oiling and salting them as the other veggies were.  I oiled the cutlets and salted and peppered and then realized I had 1/2 a packet of a spice mix from Pensey's that should be used.  I sprinkled that over every thing.  The cutlets went over the asparagus and it was still too white for me, so I grabbed a pint of grape tomatoes and sprinkled them all over the pan.  The palette of the eye was now somewhat soothed.

Into a 400° oven it went for 30 minutes.  By 8 we were sitting down to eat.  Noice!

Dateline: January 14, 2021 Cauliflower Puttanesca

Saw this recipe on Food52 and thought I'd give it a try.

I had all the ingredients and just felt in the mood for pasta.  Didn't want linguine, so I went with gemelle instead.  Bill, who doesn't like olives or anything brined, picked out the oil-cured olives and happily ate.

I decided to add riff a bit and threw in some collards and orange bell pepper and some butternut squash.  I did this for 2 reasons, for color and for disguise factor considering there were olives in the dish.  I also had some nutritional yeast that I threw in for a bit more umami.

The finished product was more than satisfying and down right comforting on a cool winter night.  I would make again with minimal changes.  Those changes being I would double the amount of cauliflower that I used.  I used 1/2 head instead of a whole head, and perhaps less pasta.

Dateline: December 12, 2020 Indian Redux

 Our buddy, Servet, was coming over for dinner and tasting weird beers.  What goes with beer, Indian Food!  I made Achari Chicken, Aloo Gobi, and Baingan Bharta.  Recipes came from Urvashi Pitre.  

The Baingan Bharta is an eggplant stew that is cooked down until the eggplant has broken down completely and it is finished with a dash of cream.  I can't say that it was the best that I have ever eaten, but it certainly held its own.

The Aloo Gobi is a mixture of cauliflower and potatoes with indian spices and some tomatoes.  I was totally happy with how it turned out.

The Achari Chicken, is from Hydrabadwallah website and is an absolute favorite of mine.  A go to chicken dish that never fails to please.

Of course, as we were tasting interesting, and some not so interesting beers and hard seltzers, I only took a photo of the chicken dish.