From Suq to Shuk

A different approach to Ramen - Braised goose with a thai broth, ramen noodles, and a fried egg and a salad to follow

The other day when I was sick of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I made myself some instant Ramen from a package with the powdered flavouring.  As delicious as it was, all I could think to myself was, "I could do better."  When in San Francisco in February my brother and I both got beautiful ramen bowls from a Japanese hardware store and I thought that I could make the contents of that bowl more beautiful than the "done in 90 seconds" stuff.  I had Ilan and Kassandra over to partake in the experience.

Traditionally Japanese ramen is made with braised pork belly, pork broth, ramen noodles and an egg dropped into the soup at the last minute that is just barely cooked.  That type of egg was a little much for me so from the outset I decided to fry the egg slightly before before putting it in the soup.  Furthermore, we Jews, even the ones who eat bacon, have a hard time with braised pork inside a pork broth.  I decided to make a brought that would offer significant contrast to the taste of the goose.  I braised the goose in Asahi beer with some long pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, coriander and fennel seeds.  I made the broth with lemongrass and coriander as well, but added ginger, garlic, galangal, lime juice, keffir lime leaves, Thai bird chillies and a bit of mirin.  I boiled the noodles separately in plain water, then strained them and mixed them with some sliced nori.  I topped the whole thing with chives and some chopped cilantro.  I was considering using miso in the broth but that just didn't happen.  It wasn't a big deal though, it was delicious nonetheless.

The left over juices from the braised goose were out of this world.  We all dipped some bread in them afterward to our great delight with subsequent various noises of pleasure escaping Kassandra's mouth and she indulged in consuming those juices.  The salad I made to accompany the soup was relatively simple to prepare and also quite delicious.  It was a combination of mango, lichee, soy-bean sprouts, cilantro and mint with a soy sauce, tahina, rice vinegar dressing.  It was also excellent and perfectly portioned.  The greatest part about last night is that there were no left overs, I made just enough of everything.  Enjoy making it folks.

   

Ingredients:

For the goose

1 tbls of duck fat

1 tbls of coriander seeds

1/2 tbls of fennel seeds

2 goose breasts, fat removed

1 cinnamon stick, about 3"

1 lemongrass stalk, bottom part only, well bruised

1/2 a longpepper, grated over a microplane (if you don't have long pepper, just use regular black pepper crushed)

1 12 oz bottle of Asahi beer

1 thai bird chilli, slit open

For the broth

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

2" of galangal, grated

2" of ginger, grated

the zest of 1 small lime

2 tbls mirin

1.5 tbls of duck fat

1 tlbs of coriander seeds

1 shallot, sliced into rings

2" ginger, crushed with the back of a knife and coarsely chopped

2" galangal, crushed with the back of a knife and coarsely chopped

3 large stalks of lemongrass, bottom part only and well bruised

3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

the juice of one lime

4 keffir lime leaves

4 green bird chillies, split

1 carrot, small dice

Salt to taste

For the egg

1 tsp chilli oil

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp duck fat

3 eggs

For the noodles

3 squares of ramen noodles

1 sheet of nori, cut into 1/8" thick strips

For the garnish

1 bunch of chives, chopped

6 sprigs of cilantro, stems removed, chopped finely

For the salad

2 large handfuls of chinese bean sprouts

20 sprigs of mint, stems removed

20 sprigs of cilantro

2 medium golden mangos, sliced thinly

10 lichees, peeled, pitted and sliced thinly

1 tsp tahina

2 tsp rice vinegar

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Japanese mustard

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 175C/350F.  Heat the duck fat in a frying pan over medium, add the coriander seeds.  After 3 minutes, add the fennel seeds.  After 2 minutes, add the goose breasts, about 3 minutes on either side.  Transfer all the contents of the pan to a square baking dish and combine with all other ingredients for the goose save the beer.  Pour the beer into the frying pan to deglaze it and then pour that over the goose. Cover the baking dish in tin-foil and poke holes at each corner with a fork.  Place in the oven for 1.5 hours, remove the tinfoil, flip the breast return the tinfoil and return to the oven for another 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Remove from the tinfoil, turn the breasts and then leave in the oven for another 15 minutes uncovered.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the braising liquid.

Combine the crushed garlic, grated galangal, grated ginger, lime zest and mirin in a small bowl and leave in the fridge for an hour.  Heat the duck fat in a large pot with the coriander seeds after 3 minutes add the shallots and lemongrass.  Sauté for 5 minutes, then add the coarsely chopped ginger, galangal and sliced garlic.  Sauté for another 5 minutes then add the grated garlic, galangal etc from the fridge to the pot and add the lime juice. Add the keffir lime leaves, bird chillies and 1.5 litres of water.  Bring to a simmer and add the carrot.  Allow to reduce by half then strain through a chinois or other fine mesh strainer.

Boil the noodles for three minutes in rapidly boiling water, strain, mix with the nori and a tiny bit of neutral oil to keep from sticking and keep covered.

Heat the chilli oil, sesame oil and duck fat in a frying pan, crack in your eggs, after 30 seconds but a lit on the frying pan and remove after one minutes.

Compile all ingredients together in the bowl, pour over broth and top with garnish and serve.

Combine all solid ingredients for the salad in a bowl and toss.  Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl and whisk together.  Plate the salad and top with dressing.

B'Teavon

Breakfast for Dinner

I've had a terrible craving for pancakes, so I made some.  This is unusual for me, for although what I eat for dinner changes almost every day, I'm generally quite boring about my choice of breakfast.  I like scrambled eggs and I like bacon (which was a new addition sometime during my last year of university).  Eggs and bacon generally come accompanied by potatoes and toast in the United States; in Israel they come with cucumber and tomato salad, whole grain bread, tuna and cream cheese.  I much, much prefer the American version, although I'm happy to eat a salad whenever.

So for whatever reason, I felt like pancakes.  I actually developed this recipe on my own, since all I could find were recipes for pancakes with buttermilk, which I have yet to find in Israel.  I once saw an episode of Iron Chef America in which Chef Todd English present a deep fried pastry covered fig stuffed with goat cheese and bacon.  I thought to do something similar, but I ended up eating alone last night and I just couldn't deal with the prospect of even more dishes.

I made a bacon relish with celery and whiskey and it was delicious (it had been the intended filling for my deep-fried fig pastry).  In the good old Quebecois tradition of drowning everything in maple syrup, my "Breakfast for Dinner" was also a good combination of sweet and salty, between the eggs, the pancakes, the bacon relish and the blood orange marmalade.  Most of my recipes betray the fact that I do not keep a kosher kitchen, but perhaps this one even more so.  In any event, it was delicious.

Ingredients:

For the pancakes (makes 6)

1/2 cup of all-purpose white flour

1 tsp of baking powder

a pinch of salt (about 1/8 of a tsp)

1 tsp of sugar

1/2 egg, scrambled (reserve the other half for your eggs)

1 tsp of veg oil

1/2 cup of milk

1 ripe banana, mashed

2 tbls pomegranate syrup (if unsweetened, add 2 tsp sugar)

3 tbls of butter

For the bacon relish

5 strips of bacon, super small dice

1/2 spanish onion, diced

3 branches of celery, diced

1/4 cup of Jack Daniels

a bit of pepper

For the eggs

2 1/2 eggs (the extra half being taken from the pancakes)

2 tbls of milk

S+P

1 tbls of butter

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients for the pancakes in one bowl.  In a second bowl, scramble your egg, divide in two with half going to your fried egg.  Mash banana into egg, then add add milk and veg oil.  Then pour in dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix in well with a spoon.  Add pomegranate syrup, doesn't need to bee perfectly incorporated, there can be some stripes running through the batter.

In a sauce pan heat the bacon over medium for about 5-6 minutes, until it's really crispy and all the fat has been released.  Add the onions, and sautée for another 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the celery, and after two minutes add half the whiskey.  Stir slightly, allow the whiskey to reduce, then add the second half and do the same.

Melt 1 tbls of butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  When good and hot, add 1 ladle of pancake mixture to the pan, making two pancakes at a time.  Allow to sit for 3 minutes on one side and 1 minutes once flipped.  Remove to a baking dish and leave on 75C in the oven to stay warm.  The pancakes will soak up all the butter, so for each batch, add 1 tbls butter.

Add 1 more tbls of butter to the pan.  Scramble your eggs and combine with milk, S+P.  The pan should be good and hot after making all those pancakes, so as your pour the mixture in it will solidify very quickly.  After two minutes fold omelette over.  Then fold over again to serve.

Plate and enjoy!

B'Teavon!

 

Yet another use for those spice mixes

Last night I made standard lazy fair - an omelette.  With sufficient quantities of the spice mixes bought the day earlier remaining, I decided to incorporate one of them into my omelette.  I also bought bacon for the first time in my life and prepared it myself (rather than paying 11 shekels for 3 strips of bacon at a restaurant where they haven't cooked it long enough and it comes out looking grey).  I made my omelette in bacon grease and a little bit of butter for flavour.  I used the method Julia child presents in her first cooking show from 1962, which does not leave one with a semi-circle.  Since I used a cast-iron skillet rather than an omelette pan, the omelette didn't slide out as nicely as I would have hoped, but it was delicious and that's what counts.

The day prior I had made a salad to accompany dinner that was never consumed because we were just too full to eat anymore.  I covered it in cellophane and left in the fridge then took it out yesterday and made a quick dressing that I think I shall be employing all the time now.  My brother called me last night as I was about to go to sleep and asked for a good idea for a marinade and I suggested the salad dressing I had made.  He'll have to comment and say how it turned out.

You might notice that the recipe doesn't call for any salt and pepper.  Well I did use a bit of pepper on my omelette at the end, but there was so much salt in the bacon that it didn't need any, and there was sufficient salt in the soy sauce that the salad didn't need any.  

Ingredients:

For the salad

1 ripe vine tomato, cut into 8 slices

6 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1 avocado, sliced

1 mandarin orange, supremed

1 tbls yuzu juice

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sriracha sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

For the Omelette

1 tbls Persian spice mixture (see yesterday's post

1/4 cup of milk

3 eggs

4 strips of bacon

1 tsp of butter

Directions:

Soak the spice mixture in the milk.  Heat cast iron skillet over medium heat, and prepare bacon.  Remove the bacon to a plate over paper towel.  Scramble the eggs well in a bowl then add in the milk with the spices and the milk, mix in well.  Add 1 tsp of butter to pan, once melted, add the eggs, scramble contents in the pan a bit while the eggs are still quite liquid, then begin to pull the pan back and forth (wear an oven mit, it will get quite hot), pulling the sides of the omelette over each other.  Allow to sit on the pan until you've achieve your preferred doneness.  Serve immediately with the bacon.

Combine all the vegetables in a bowl.  Combine all other ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well, then pour on the salad and serve.

B'Teavon!

   

Spanish style tortilla - i.e. lazy food

I have all the ingredients in my fridge for a fantastic Chinese dinner because I was recently accused by a friend that I just don't cook any Asian food.  Well, I had no one to come over last night, despite my attempts to find people, so instead I convinced myself that I'd be better off not eating.  Think about it, not dishes to clean up, no 4 hours in the kitchen, sounds great.  I stupidly got into bed at 8:30 PM, I even almost managed to fall asleep, until 8:45 when my roommate came home and my stomach said hello louder than I did.

I often make scrambled eggs when I'm too lazy to eat anything else.  Well, that was just too boring to have yet again, so I added some vegetables.  As any frequent reader knows, I don't shy away from the butter, to make this dish, you can't shy away from the butter because it'll just stick to the pan otherwise.  When flipping the vegetables in the pan, it's a good thing to bring them up on the side of the pan to flip, that way the side of the pan is a little greased before you pour in eggs.  This is just simple and yummy and anyone can make it, no special ingredients or equipment required.  One can use normal fingerling potatoes, I used purple ones because they were already in my fridge.

Ingredients:

2 tbls of butter

2 shallots, sliced into 1/8" rings

1/3 of a large carrots, sliced into 1/8" coins

two small fingerling potatoes, sliced in 1/8" discs

1 large clove of garlic, sliced very finely

4 eggs

2 tbls of milk

S+P

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 175C/375F on Broil.  Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a cast iron skillet.  After it's good and hot, add the shallots.  After about 4 minutes, flip the shallots, trying to keep the concentric rings in tact.  Then add the carrots, after 3 minutes, flip, move aside, add the the potatoes.  3 minutes on one side for the potatoes then flip.  Add your garlic to the onion side of the pan.  After 3 more minutes, add the eggs that have been scrambled with the milk and S+P to your pan.  Mix around all ingredients allow the liquidy eggs to fill in any gaps created.  After two minutes, transfer to the oven.  Leave on the middle rack and allow to sit there for 4 minutes.  When removing from oven, the pan will be extremely hot!  Take a silicon spatula and break through any crust that has developed around the sides of the tortilla, then gently slide the tortilla out of the pan onto your plate.

B'Teavon!