Heat up a grill or broiler and put on it: 1/2 onion, unpeeled 2-3 inch piece of unpeeled ginger
Grill until skin is blackened. Meanwhile, in a stock pot heat up: 6 cups chicken stock four cloves one star anise 2 teaspoons sugar one tablespoon fish sauce the grilled onion peeled and quartered the grilled ginger cut into chunks a handful of cilantro on the stems the stems of the shiitakes you're about to sauté
Let all that simmer together for about an hour (but don't boil!)
Put a pot of water on because you need to boil rice noodles (1 lb or so) and rinse them well in cold water after they're cooked.
Now the fun part, the many toppings you get to put on at the table. Here's what I used: Sliced shiitakes sautéed in olive oil (with a little salt) Chopped green onions Cilantro leaves Parsley leaves Limes Chopped chives Sliced jalapeno Sriracha (a.k.a. rooster sauce)
Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Salt to taste.
In a large bowl place rice noodles, poor broth over them, top with your favorite protein (we used seared, local albacore) and serve alongside the many bowls of toppings.
This is a really fun dish for kids because they get to top it with whatever they like. And a really fun dish for adults because you get to control the heat level with the jalapenos and Sriracha.
I was putting pictures of this dish on Twitter, but decided it was so good I needed to put a detailed recipe up.
Take one can garbanzo beans, rinse, and stir in two or three tablespoons lemon juice, a minced garlic clove, and some good olive oil. Set that aside and let it marinate for as long as you have time for.
Put 1 1/2 cups quinoa, 2 cups water, and some salt in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa is tender.
Finely chop one medium leek and sauté it in a tablespoon of butter.
Once the leeks soften a bit add about 1/4 cup of stock. I used chicken, but vegetable stock would work just as well and keep this dish vegetarian. Simmer the leeks in the stock until the stock is just about gone. Turn off the heat and add the garbanzo bean mixture, to chopped green onions, handful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper.
Stir in the cooked quinoa and season to taste.
I had two servings of the quinoa. I think it turned out great! It could've been its own meal, but I picked up sand dabs at the farmers market so I fried those up in butter and served those alongside the quinoa.
Surprisingly, this large, layered tower remained upright long enough to take a picture and carry it to the table before it slowly got leany and eventually toppled. It's a recipe loosely based on one from On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernadin. I felt that I wouldn't like certain aspects of the recipe (I'm sure I'd love it if Eric Ripert prepared it for me!). I, however, didn't want to mix mayonnaise into my fresh, local crab.
So what the tower consists of is: - One layer fresh crabmeat - One layer sliced avocado - A drizzle of jalapeno emulsion - One thinly pressed, chilled, cut out piece of mashed potato ( mixed with lime juice, jalapeno emulsion, olive oil, salt, and pepper) - One more layer fresh crabmeat - One more layer sliced avocado - Another drizzle of jalapeno emulsion
- Atop all that I took some of the mashed potato and put it into a frying pan with some olive oil. I thought I would get some sort of potato chip like thing but that's not exactly what happened. The potatoes dissolved into the oil but I just left them there until they were brown and got a very thin chip-like topping.
At the very top was an onion relish that was pretty close to what was in the book: 2 tablespoons red onion 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar --let that sit in the fridge for two hours
I drained off the vinegar and added: A teaspoon or two jalapeno emulsion A minced shallot The juice of two limes A drizzle olive oil Salt and pepper
I went to the store to get the ingredients for this great salmon recipe in my On the Line, Inside the World of Le Bernardin cookbook and, oddly, my fish monger had no salmon! So this went from a Le Bernadin recipe to a Le Bernadin-inspired recipe. This was night two of my exploration of the new cookbook (this is night one).
It is alternating layers of trout, apples, and smoked salmon. It's topped with a salad of julienned apples, celery, celery leaf, parsley, and lemon zest tossed with lemon juice and olive oil. The whole thing is drizzled with a serrano pepper emulsion.
I'd like to try it again with the proper ingredients, but this was amazingly good.
So, I'd a made my fish and couscous dish enough times now that I felt I needed to move on. I still bought some wonderful, local flounder at the farmers market and like the preparation of it dusted and semolina and pan fried but it needed to be reworked. I was losing interest. I picked up some mustard greens, which I don't usually buy and I'm not sure why. Dinosaur kale is really my favorite so it was my go-to green. I changed it up this week. I started by sautéing some shallots, then adding garlic and the mustard greens. I sprinkled about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar into that and about a cup or pre-cooked lentils (1/2 cup dried; I'd made lentils the night before and had some left over).
While that was cooking down, I chopped up half the cucumber (I took out most of the seeds) and blended it with a cup of plain yogurt and a minced garlic clove, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
I prepared the fish the way I typically do. I dusted it with salt, pepper, and semolina flower and fried in butter.
To plate I put a mound of the mustard-lentil mixture, placed the fish on that, and then poured the raita mixture on top.
The salad is so easy and so heavenly. It can be done with spinach or arugula, I prefer arugula. Throw a diced shallot into a pan with far too much olive oil (this will be your dressing and you won't be adding more oil) and let them cook at medium heat until they're soft. Whisk in juice of a lemon, salt, and pepper and voilĂ ! Easy fancy pants salad dressing. Spoon the concoction over the arugula and top with toasted pecans, chopped apple or pear, and crumbled Point Reyes blue cheese.
While the couscous is cooking, take a thin fish fillet such as Petrale sole or, my favorite, sand dabs, dredge them in semolina flour and pan fry them in butter.
Assemble on a plate and enjoy with a crisp white wine!
I picked up some snapper at the farmers market the other day with the plans to make fish tacos. When I went to actually prepare the fish tacos I realized I'd forgotten to go to the store to get anything else for them such as tortillas, salsa, etc. So I had to move on to plan B. I whipped up a fish soup. I, unfortunately, spaced out taking a picture of it but I did note down the recipe:
1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 smallish fennel, 2 stalks celery -- all diced or chopped Throw all those in the pan and sauté them until they are soft.
Add 1/4 teaspoon saffron, 1 bay leaf, 2 diced tomatoes, and a pinch of chili flakes. Let those cook together a few minutes.
Add 2 cups white wine and let that cook until it reduces down to about 1 cup.
Pour in 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add 3/4 pounds snapper cut into bite size pieces and let that simmer until the snapper is cooked.
Serve the soup poured over garlic toasts and garnish with pesto (I made my pesto with marjoram, parsley, basil, garlic, pecans, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper)
Wednesday nights are my night to experiment with different ingredients within a similar dish. I get Ahi at the farmers market and see what I can dice together. All the ingredients except the salt, pepper, pine nuts and nanami togarashi are from the farmer's market or my garden.
Tonight: Ahi (obviously) 1 clove garlic 1 medium shallot 1 avocado 1/2 of a cucumber a handful of toasted pine nuts juice of one lemon 4 baby green onions a handful of basil from the garden a few sprigs of parsley (also from the garden) yummy olive oil salt and pepper to taste nanami togarashi sprinkled on top
Everything minced or diced accordingly.
Mix, eat on toast and love life.
September 24, 2008 This week, and didn't realize that I didn't have many crunchy things to mix into my tartare. So what I put in it this week where shallots, avocado, celery, pine nuts, and of course olive oil, salt and pepper, and I topped it with nanami togarashi as usual. What I did have this week was another Brandywine tomato from the garden to accompany the ahi. Wednesdays are yummy.
I went to the store to get the ingredients for this great salmon recipe in my 
