BBQ Cooking - Week 3: Fish on the grill!

In this week's class, we tried two ways to cook fish on the BBQ. We grilled Whole Striped Bass Stuffed with Lemon/Thyme/Ginger, and Miso Honey Glazed Atlantic Salmon. For the sides, we made Grilled Acorn Squash which I really liked, as well as Candied Sweet Potatoes that I didn't try due to my severe allergy. 

Whole Striped Bass Stuffed with Lemon/Thyme/Ginger

Ingredients

1 whole striped bass

a large piece of ginger, chopped

1/2 bunch thyme

1 lemon, sliced

olive oil, salt/pepper to taste

Methods

1. Clean the fish, cut off the fins 

2. Rub the inside of the fish with olive oil, salt and pepper

3. Stuff the cavity with ginger, thyme, and lemon slices

4. Use a skewer to go through the fish and secure the stuffing 

5. Make a few cuts on the fish, to expose more surface area, grill on the BBQ

* Each side takes about ~10min to cook, but it depends on the heat of your BBQ. To check if the fish is done, poke it with a toothpick/skewer, if the stick comes in without any resistance and comes out clear (no meat attached), the fish is ready. 

Miso Honey Glazed Atlantic Salmon

Ingredients

4 6oz salmon fillets

* We had to fillet the whole salmons ourselves. Maybe when I get some free time, I will do a sketch on how to fillet round fish. For now, just look at the whole fish photo below, and picture nicely cleaned fillet portions. 

Glaze

20g miso paste

40 mL rice wine mirin

20 mL honey

salt/white pepper to taste

Methods

1. Mix the ingredients in the glaze in a bowl, whisk everything to a homogeneous mixture

2. Marinade the fillets in the glaze mixture for a couple hours, or you can leave it overnight. Save some uncontaminated glaze for basting later.

3. Grill the fillets on the BBQ, at 45 degrees angle to the grill bars for 3min, then move them 90 degrees (perpendicular to the initial position) for another 3min. This is how you get good looking crossed grill marks on the fish. Baste the fillets with the saved glaze from time to time. 

4. Turn the fish to the other side, grill the same way for about 6min.

Grilled Acorn Squash

This is a very tasty and easy side dish to make. Basically, you just cut some squash slices. Then take a bowl to melt some butter, stir in brown sugar, ground cinnamon, and salt/pepper to taste. Pour the butter sauce over the squash wedges, coat them well, and grill them on the BBQ! It takes ~10-15min to cook them until they become soft. 

Don't cry over your onions!

     After I posted a picture of myself cutting 50 lb of onions on Facebook a couple weeks ago, I got many people asking me the same question: did you have to wear goggles to prevent the tears from pouring down. The answer is, if you cut the onions the right way, you don't get teary. Allium species including onions, garlic, chives, and leeks are able to synthesize a unique set of secondary sulfur metabolites derived from the amino acid cysteine. When the tissue in the onions are crushed during chopping, an enzyme called alliinase is activated to break down the amino acid-based compound S-alkyl-L-cysteine S-oxide (alliin) to an alkylated sulfenic acid and 2-aminoacrylate. When two sulfenic acid molecules condense, they produce a  new compound called allicin. Sulfenic acid will bind to another enzyme, lachrymatory factor synthase (LFS), producing a volatile compound, propanthial S-oxide, a.k.a., the tear-inducing factor that makes you cry like a baby. 

                    

     I have heard of some absurd ways to reduce the unpleasant eye irritation caused by onions. Like, cutting onions in water, or chill the onions before cutting (to slow down the activities of the enzymes in onion), or just wear a pair of ski goggles. I have tried some of the methods above. Some worked, some didn't. And then one day in my cooking class, I finally learned the most legit and reliable way of cutting onions without getting teary. The key is, to cut along the grains of the onion, so that you crush the min. amount of cells which in turn will release the min. amount of lachrymatory factors. Since then, I have passed the trick to many people around me who suffered the eye irritations by onions. But judged from the confused looks on my friends' faces after they got my verbal description, I decided to make a quick sketch to illustrate what I mean by cutting onions "the right way". This by no means the only way to cut onions. But at least to me, I now seldom shed a tear while cutting these troublemakers.

After Step 4 in the illustration, you will get diced onions. If you want to get really small dices, you need a Step 5 to slice the onion horizontally. Imagine the cuts in Step 3 are on the x axis, cuts in Step 4 are on the y axis, then Step 5 would be on the z axis, perpendicular to Step 3 and 4.  If you want to julienne the onions to get slices, stop at Step 3. If you want onion rings on your burgers or something else, you need to halve the onion along its waist to get a cross section in Step 1. 

BBQ Cooking - Week 2: Pulled Pork Burgers!

Our BBQ class got postponed for 2 weeks because of the Victoria Day long weekend and  Memorial Day (our chef went to visit families in the States). The long wait was highly anticipated and it was totally worth it! Despite the labour intensive cooking session, it was a fruitful class that generated many meals for the following week and many happy stomachs. 

To assemble the perfect pulled pork burgers, we prepared Slow cooked BBQ pork butts with Sweet chili and smoked paprika rub,  Bourbon BBQ sauce, Blue cheese coleslaw, Caramelized onions, and calabrese buns. 

Ingredients

Rub (for 10 lb pork butt):

1 cup smoked paprika
1/4 sweet dried ground chili
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 kosher salt
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder 
1 tbsp onion powder

BBQ sauce:

2 cups Heinz chili sauce
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 perpared mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
90 mL Bourbon 
4 crushed garlic cloves
1 small onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 dried red chilies
1pc star anise
30 mL vegetable oil
salt to taste

Methods

1. Mix all the ingredients for the rub, coat the pork butt with the dry rub

2. Place the meat in the smoker for about 1hr, then transfer the meat to the oven to continue  

    roasting at 300F for another 2 hrs. 

 * you can slow cook the meat in the oven the whole time if you don't have a smoker

3. For the sauce, in a large pan, sweat the onion, red pepper and chilies until soft

4. Add Bourbon or whiskey and reduce the volume by half

5. Add sugar, stir and wait until it's dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until    

    desired consistency

6. Use a food processor to purée the sauce

For the Blue cheese coleslaw:

Ingredients for the dressing

100 g blue cheese

1/4cup cider vinegar

1/2 sour cream

1/2 bunch chives, chopped

salt/pepper to taste

Methods

1. Mix all the dressing ingredients together for the coleslaw. 

Voilà, the best pulled pork burger that I've  ever had! 

BBQ-Week 1: Korean Ribs and Grilled Asparagus!

Summer is finally here! And you know what that means, time to light the BBQ! To me, grilling chunks of meat in front of a BBQ has always seemed like a guy's job. But after hearing many good things about this particular BBQ cooking class, I decided to give a try. I had no prior experience of BBQ cooking besides grilling a couple burgers and buns for a quick dinner, so a lot of new techniques are ahead of me to learn! Unlike all my other classes, students work in teams in this one and we are working in a special lab, equipped with industrial food prep tools and gadgets. In this first class, we made Grilled China Town Style Beef Short Ribs (really, it's more Korean than Chinese) and Balsamic Grilled Asparagus. 

Ingredients

1.5 lb cross cut short ribs, quarter inch thick

salt/pepper to taste

Marinade: 

1 cup pineapple juice

60 g ginger grated

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 Thai chili

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 tsp seasame oil

Methods

1. combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and whisk

2. save 1/4 of the marinade for basting later

3. marinade the ribs for about 3hr

4. grill on medium heat, and use the 1/4 marinade to baste

* to get nice grilling marks on the meat, grill them 45 degrees to the grill mark first, then turn the rib 90 degrees (perpendicular to the initial direction)

* if you don't have a BBQ, you can just cook the ribs in a non-stick pan or in the oven using broiling for a few minutes 

Sunday brunch - Baked avocado egg!

I have been craving for home-cooking for a week now as I spent a few days in San Diego at a conference. As today is the first Sunday that I got since my return, I decided to have a lazy morning with some home-made brunch. I found this recipe online a while back, and finally, I got a chance to try it. Usually I am quite skeptical about online recipes, but this turns out to be really nice!

Ingredients

1 large avocado, halved and cored

2 eggs

Parmesan cheese

salt/pepper to taste

Methods

1. choose a large avocado, ripe but still firm. Cut the avocado into halves, remove the core, and  use a spoon to take out more flesh so that the hole is big enough to hold 1 egg each

2. season the avocado with salt and pepper

3. put one egg into each avocado half

4. grate some cheese on the avocado

5. bake at 400F for 15-20 min, depending on how hard you want the egg to be

               

* the baked avocado egg was served with Ciabatta bread. Once baked, the avocado becomes softer. You can almost spread the avocado on the bread like a pâté! 

Indian-Week 1: Lamb Curry!

Spring is finally here! So is the spring semester at George Brown! Having taken the French course and two Italian courses in the past winter term, I started to notice that even though we got new recipes in every class, the cooking techniques, on the other hand, are getting repetitive: browning, braising, baking, roasting, etc. If you are like me with a short attention span,  learning new techniques, even with a risk of messing up, is a lot more appealing than repeating the reliable old tricks. So here I am, signed up for the Indian class, which I know absolutely nothing about. 

Unlike all the other classes, Week 1 in Indian is not just a Demo-only class. It actually has a lab component, and we made lamb curry. I knew that I found the right class when I couldn't identify half of the ingredients on the recipe. Challenge is good. Challenge = Excitement. 

Ingredients

600g lamb, boneless, diced 
40g ghee 
5g cumin, whole
1 cinnamon stick
2pc cloves
3pc cardamom
5g red chili powder
5g turmeric powder
5g coriander powder
5g garam masala
ginger paste
garlic paste
1 onion, chopped
250mL canned tomatoes, crushed
1 lemon, juice
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped
salt to taste

Methods

* Our Chef kept emphasizing the secret of good Indian cooking: the sequence of adding ingredients. Garam masala needs to be added at the very end. If it's added during cooking, it'd add a bitter taste to the dish. 

1. get a pot, heat up the ghee

2. add all of the whole, seed-based spices (cumin, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom), wait until the cumin starts to crack open

3. add chopped onion, sauté until golden brown (takes about 20min w/o lid on the pot)

4. add garlic and ginger paste, sauté for 2 min 

5. add all the powder-based spices EXCEPT garam masala  (chili, turmeric, coriander)

6. add the tomato sauce, mix well

7. add the lamb, cover the lid, cook at low-medium heat for 1hr (1.5hr to get very tender meat)

8. once the meat is done, stir in garam masala

9. garnish with lemon juice and chopped cilantro 

TA-DA..... my very first Indian dish! 

Northern Italian-Week 3: Polenta con Gorgonzola, salsa funghi

Polenta at Osteria Giulietta e Romeo

Also in Week 2's class, we learned how to make polenta with gorgonzola cheese and mushroom sauce as a side dish for the breaded lamb rack.  I find that this polenta loaded with cheese is too heavy to company the lamb, so that I made it separately and served it like a main course. The first time that I tried an authentic polenta dish was in Verona, last summer when I visited my two dear Italian friends. They took me to Osteria Giulietta e Romeo for lunch. If you ever find your way to Verona, I highly recommend this awesome restaurant where you can get a nice tasting menu of Northern Italian food. Being lactose-intolerant and having grown up with Chinese food, I have only been  learning in recent years to appreciate the beauty of cheese in small quantities. The Gorgonzola is definitely one of the stronger tasting cheeses that I still need to get used to. But for the sake of this traditional Italian dish, I kept this cheese in the recipe regardless. 

Ingredients

Polenta flour, 250 g

1 L water to get firm polenta, or 1.2 L water to get softer polenta

gorgonzola cheese, 400 g

4 portobello mushrooms

1/2 onion

beef stock, 1.5 cups

1 garlic clove

salt/pepper, olive oil

Methods

To make the mushroom sauce:

1. add oil in a pan, sweat the onion and garlic

2. add mushrooms, and a pinch of salt to further sweat the mushrooms

3. deglaze the pan with the beef stock

4. simmer the stock and reduce the volume until it thickens up

To cook the polenta:

1. in a pot, boil the water, season it with salt generously

2. pour in polenta while stirring fast

3. when polenta starts to thicken, change to low heat

4. keep stirring for another 1 min 

5. take a tray, splash the surface with some cold water,  spread a layer of polenta, then add a layer of cheese chunks, then a layer of mushroom sauce, repeat the layers for one more time 

6. garnish with parmesan cheese and parsley

Northern Italian-Week 2: breaded lamb rack!

In this week's class, I learned a new way to prepare lamb racks, the "Modena" style. Basically, the lamb rack was first breaded, then pan-seared, and finally baked to complete the cooking. To be honest, this is not my favourite way of making lamb racks. I find the breaded surface  a bit weird. I prefer the French way (http://ppcao.blogspot.ca/2013/02/french-week-6-mmm-lamb.html)  to cook the rack a lot better, which gives you a lovely crispy skin on the lamb from the browning process. 

Ingredients

1 rack of lamb, Frenched
1 egg beaten 
white breadcrumbs, dried
1 clove garlic
1 sprig sage
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig mint
flour, salt/pepper, olive oil






Methods
1. French the lamb rack to expose the bones
2. take some flour, add salt and pepper, mix well
3. beat the egg, add a splash of cold water
4. prepare the breadcrumbs: chop up the herbs and garlic,  mix them into the breadcrumbs as well as a pinch of salt and pepper and 1 tbsp olive oil 
5. roll the rack first into the flour (make sure you shake off the excess flour), then dip the rack into the beaten egg, then cover the rack with breadcrumbs and herbs. 
6. add oil into a pan, heat it up, and brown the breaded rack at all sides
7. transfer the rack to a baking tray, bake at 400F for 15 min (medium rare) to 20 min (medium)

*always rest the meat before you cut it, so that you wouldn't lose too much of the juice

8. balsamic vinegar goes really well with lamb. To make a balsamic sauce, you can add the vinegar into a small pot, heat it to simmering, and reduce the volume to half, then whisk in a bit of olive oil to thicken up the sauce. Or if you feel lazy like I did, use a thick, aged balsamic directly works well too.  

French-Week 10: Seared duck breasts!

This week was our final French cooking class. According to the recipes in the class notes, we were supposed to make Caneton Roti au Confit d' Airelles Rouge (roasted whole duck). Our chef decided to teach us a bit extra. He roasted one whole duck as the recipe says and for the second duck, he took the breasts and legs off and cooked them separately.  The breasts were pan-seared and served with a cranberry/apple sauce, the legs were made into duck confit. For the duck that I got, I wanted to practice both ways of making the breasts and legs. The seared duck breast was very delicious, however I can't say the same about the duck confit. I accidentally neglected it for too long on the stove, it needs optimization next time. So for now, I will just cover the breast recipe. 

Ingredients

2 duck breasts (marinated overnight with salt/pepper/a splash of Brandy)

For the sauce:

360 g cranberries, chopped

1 cup sugar

2 tsp lemon, rind

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup diced apple

1 cup diced celery

Methods

1. take the marinated breasts, dry the surface

2. heat up a pan, add oil, pan-sear the skin side of the duck breasts first

3. turn the breasts and pan-sear the other side of the breasts 

 * the breasts should be 80% cooked from the skin side, and the rest 20% should be completed  from the other side

4. transfer the breasts to the oven, bake at 375F for 10min for Medium 

5. for the sauce, heat up a different pan, add a bit of water, add sugar and cranberries, lemon zest

6. bring the liquid in the sauce to a boil, then simmer for for 1hr to reduce the volume 

7. add in the diced apple right before the sauce is ready

* on the duck, I added a bit of warm fig jam which turned out to be a great addition!

Northern Italian-Week 1: Gnocchi!!!

Ever since my trip to Italy last summer, I have always wanted to relive the incredible gastronomic experience at home. Here I am, taking both the Northern and Southern Italian cooking classes. Each class lasts for 6 weeks, with the first class being demo-only. 

In Week 1-Northern Italian, our chef showed us 4 things, gnocchi di patate, sugo di pomodoro (basic tomato sauce), finissima di branzino marinata (marinated sea bass with Italian salad), and panna cotta (creamy dessert). Gnocchi was definitely my favourite by a large margin! One of the most memorable meals that I had in Italy was a gnocchi dish with smoked salmon in a creamy tomato sauce in Murano, a small island near Venice. To recreate that dish, I tried once, using the gnocchi that you can find in a groceries store and it usually comes in an air-tight bag. It turned out to be a bad, BAD idea. I think because of the packaging, preservatives were added and they make the gnocchi taste "off". You could almost taste the assembly line! I guess gnocchi could look a bit intimidating to make, but really, it's a lot easier than I anticipated. This is my first time to make those lovely potato dumplings, and they are way beyond my expectations! 

Ingredients

1000g baking potatoes

300g all purpose flour

3 eggs

60g Parmesan cheese, grated

salt/pepper/nutmeg to taste

Methods

1. boil a large pot of water

2. put potatoes (with skin on) into the boiling water, cook until done

3. peel the skins off the potatoes, press them through a potato ricer

4. add eggs, flour, cheese and salt/pepper/nutmeg, combine everything to make a dough

5. kneed the dough for 5min or so (when you pinch, the dough should spring back slowly)

6. take a small piece of the dough and throw it into the water as a tester. If the dough holds together for 3-4min, the dough is good. If the piece falls apart, you need more "binding" agents in the dough. Add an egg and try again.)

7. don't rest the dough and work fast with it. Roll it out to small logs and cut it into bite size. Lay them out on a floured tray. (you can freeze them at this point)

8. throw the gnocchi into heavily salted boiling water. They are done as soon as they float to the surface of the water. Then take them out. 

9. heat a pan, add olive oil, saute smoked salmon quickly. Then add tomato sauce, and gnocchi, toss them up until they are coated with the sauce. 

10. grate parmesan cheese on top when you serve it, garnish with parsley

Until next time, my friends, buona sera!