Sunday, February 22, 2015

Devilled eggs - but the technique is important

I saw this video a couple of days ago, so immediately had to find an excuse to try it. It works as advertised (much to Madame's surprise).

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1 T mayonnaise
1t habanero vodka
1t sweet pickle juice
1T tarragon mustard
salt/pepper to taste

Method

Using this approach , cook the eggs for 10 minutes. Immediately plunge into iced water. Use the technique from the video to peel the eggs (and it works flawlessly). Scoop out the cooked yolks, mix with the remaining ingredients and reintroduce to the whites. Serve cold with some grilled bread.

You can, of course, add any flavorings to the egg mixture


Saturday, February 21, 2015

Soba noodle soup

After the success of the cold soba noodle salad, madame thought it would be nice to have a soup with soba noodles in it. I figured that cooking the noodles in the soup would probably make it cloudy, so I did things separately. Using the technique that I learned from Chef McDang - make a flavorful broth quickly and then cook the chicken in it. Similar technique to this. But I didn't have any lemon grass or galangal on hand.
Madame gave this the "We can serve this to people" accolade.

Ingredients


4 oz Soba noodles cooked for 4 1/2 minutes, drained and rinsed
3 cups water
1/4 cup fish sauce
4 kaffir (Thai) lime leaves
1 serrano pepper cut into thin rings (more or less according to desired spiciness)
6 green onions (white and green parts used separately
1 1" piece piece of ginger chopped (no need to peel, it will be strained out)
1 medium carrot cut into 1/4" cubes
3" daikon root peeled and cut into 1" cubes
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (yes this really was between the 2 of us) sliced into thin strips
Cilantro leaves to garnish

Method

Place the water, fish sauce, lime leaves, serrano rings, green part of the green onions,
and ginger into a medium saucepot. Bring to a simmer, and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Strain and retain the broth.
Bring the broth to a simmer again, and add the carrot and daikon. After 30 seconds, add the sliced chicken and continue to simmer for about 3 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through).
Place some noodles in the bottom of a warmed bowl, and ladle over the chicken, broth, carrots, daikon. Garnish with some cilantro leaves.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Soba noodle salad with clams

We wanted something light for dinner this evening. Having recently had cold soba noodles as a salad at a nice restaurant, I thought it might be nice to try to reprise it. It didn't come out the same, but it was awfully good.
Here's what it looked like

The wine was a Tavel Rose.

Ingredients - Dressing

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 t toasted sesame oil
8 scallions - white and light green, sliced thinly
Juice of the core of 1 Cara Cara orange
1 t finely minced ginger
3T Rice wine vinegar
1t dry sherry
1T granulated sugar (to taste)

Method - Dressing

combine all the ingredients, taking care to keep the scallions whole. Set the dressing aside.

Ingredients - Salad

Supremed segments of a Cara Cara orange. 
4 oz soba noodles
1 carrot shaved into strips using the vegetable peeler
4T roasted peanuts
12 clams steamed open
Some lettuce leaves

Method - Salad

Cook the soba noodles in boiling, salted water for 4 1/2 minutes. Drain, rinse and allow to cool. In a non reactive bowl, combine the noodles, carrots, peanuts and the dressing.
Steam the clams until thy just open and lay them on top of the salad. They should remain slightly warm.
Serve in small bowls.