Glazed Goodness

Hoisin, like ginger or ancho or southwestern, is one of my trigger words. The presence of any those words in a title is enough for me to perk up and take a serious look at the recipe in front of me. In the past week I made two different recipes that use hoisin and I even didn't realize it until I downloaded the photos from my camera. The first is from Rick Moonen (that's him with me at the Chicago Gourmet Event) and his book Fish Without a Doubt. It is a simple hoisin glaze that has some lime juice and garlic in it. This is a no-cook sauce that you can just easily mix up and use on a variety of fish. Above I used it on Rainbow Trout with great results. I served it with a slaw dressed with his asian vinaigrette and the obligatory spinach sauteed with garlic. This is a good one to brush on your salmon, folks.

Rick Moonen's Hoisin Glaze.

2 T hoisin sauce

juice 1/2 lime

1t honey

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 T fresh minced cilantro

coarse salt

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Taste and season with salt. Brush it on after your fish is cooked. Can be halved.

Below you'll find Hoisin-glazed Scallops with Spinach from the current issue (96) of Fine Cooking magazine. These are too simple to be true. The seared scallops are just brushed with some hoisin right from the jar, no mixing at all. This time the spinach is a little special though. You saute spinach with some cilantro and green onions and drizzle the wilted greens with toasted sesame oil. (I took the liberty of adding garlic and using mature, not baby, spinach.) Its asian flare compliments the scallops very well. This makes a flavorful little dinner, and healthy too. I got unsolicited compliments from Dear Husband for this one.

And finally one thing I wanted to say is that I really recommend Kikkoman's Hoisin sauce. I read somewhere, (it probably the Cook's Illustrated people,) that, after taste-testing, it was the best one. So I gave it a try. And I really do find it more delicious than the others. However, I was never unhappy with the other brands I tried either. So use what you can find.

Wrinkled Green Beans

I haven't shared a recipe with you for a few posts, so here's a really good one to make up for it. Green beans are great right now. They're in season so they are at their lowest price, plus they are probably the freshest you'll get all year. This is a recipe for those wrinkled green beans commonly found in Chinese restaurants. They're sauteed over a med-high heat with some garlic and finished with a simple sauce of honey, soy sauce and a little water. The beans get shriveled from direct contact with the hot oil and the sauce makes a nice glaze for them. I think most of us keep soy sauce, honey and garlic in our kitchens, so this can be put together without much advance thought. If you like a little heat, you can toss in a few red pepper flakes and stir for 30 seconds before adding the sauce.

You could serve these with grilled anything (chicken, fish, steak, pork.) If you like teriyaki sauce, you might consider brushing your grilled meat with this teriyaki sauce, available in most supermarkets. It is really good, almost as good as my own homemade. I buy it because I use teriyaki often. It is nice to just quickly pull out a bottle from the fridge rather than make a sauce from scratch each time. Salmon and teriyaki sauce are great together. Just remember to brush the teriyaki sauce on toward the end of cooking so it doesn't burn. You can brush it on roasted salmon too, if you're not in the mood to grill. And serve it with these green beans and some rice. Oh, and be careful with the heat on the green beans. There's butter in the recipe and you don't want it to burn.

(In my picture, the teriyaki salmon is garnished with some peach salsa.)

Chinese Restaurant-Style Sautéed Green Beans
by Susie Middleton

To learn more, read the article:Fast & Flavorful Vegetable Sautés

Choose young, fresh green beans that are all about the same size for this dish. I think it’s easiest to start out stirring the beans with tongs and then switch to a heatproof spatula to add the garlic and sauce.Serves two to three as a side dish.
ingredients

1 Tbs. less-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
12 oz. green beans, trimmed
Kosher salt
1 Tbs. minced garlic

Combine the soy sauce, honey, and 1 Tbs. water in a small dish and set near the stove. Set a shallow serving dish near the stove, too.

In a 10-inch straight-sided sauté pan, heat the butter with the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the butter is melted, add the green beans and 1/2 tsp. salt and toss with tongs to coat well. Cook, turning the beans occasionally, until most are well browned, shrunken, and tender, 7 to 8 minutes. (The butter in the pan will have turned dark brown.)

Reduce the heat to low, add the garlic, and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula, until the garlic is softened and fragrant, 15 to 20 seconds. Carefully add the soy mixture (you’ll need to scrape the honey into the pan). Cook, stirring, until the liquid reduces to a glazey consistency that coats the beans, 30 to 45 seconds.

Immediately transfer the beans to the serving dish, scraping the pan with the spatula to get all of the garlicky sauce. Let sit for a few minutes and then serve warm.
serving suggestions:Serve these with roast pork or even as a substantial part of a vegetarian meal.

From Fine Cooking 91, pp. 45

Spicy Orange Shrimp

A fiery orange sauce is great on a stir-fry, especially with shrimp. My favorite recipe is adapted from a Fine Cooking (#58) article on stir-frying. The only thing I changed was to add a large dollop of chile paste with garlic to make it a little hot. And also, to make the orange more orangey, I love to add a whopping tablespoon of this orange sauce from Trader Joe's. I use this instead of orange zest. It really brings a great flavor to the sauce.

For the stir-fry above, I used bok choy and shiitake mushrooms. It really could have used some red bell pepper. I like those with the orange flavors. But of course you can use any veggies you want. The article on stir-fries is long and I can't type out the whole thing. But I'm including the sauce recipe in case you want to try it in your own stir-fry efforts. I was also thinking you could add actual thin sliced oranges to the stir-fry. They would take on a candied flavor with the glazey orange sauce and the heat. I might have to try that.

=For the sauce recipe below: In a measuring cup, combine the cornstarch with the second ingredient in the list, whisking to blend. Then whisk in the remaining ingredients.

Cantonese Orange Sauce (yields ½ cup)

1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons soy sauce
¼ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons thawed orange juice concentrate
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 ½ teaspoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chile paste with garlic (optional)
Orange zest, grated (optional) or some Trader Joes Mandarin Orange sauce

Sake et al.

When I first read this recipe, Salmon in Crisp Rice Paper with Sweet & Spicy Sake Essence (FC 57), I was intrigued by the idea of wrapping rice paper around fish and pan-frying it crisp. Up till now, my only experience with rice paper has been wrapped around fresh cold ingredients for spring rolls. I had to see what the rice paper did for the fish because, you know, anything that promises added crunch is a must-try. I didn't consider the sake essence until I was elbows deep into the recipe. And that's funny to me now because really, it is the sake essence and not the rice paper that makes this recipe quite good.

The essence is comprised of sake, mirin, rice vinegar and some aromatics like ginger, garlic and green chile. You boil it down to its "essence" and then add some soy sauce and tiny diced veggies for a beautiful sauce. I don't know the first thing about Sake, a Japanese rice wine. I used Trader Joe's brand - hoping, at least, they picked a decent one to put their name on. Mirin is a sweet Japanese wine. Here I was stuck with the only brand available from Jewel, Kikkoman's. I'm sure connoisseurs would frown upon these choices; but everything worked out just fine, so relax. I included the spring roll package in the picture, just for reference.

So you prepare this sauce and then move on to the fish. The rice paper is not difficult to work with. You moisten it very briefly (2 sec.) in water, give it a moment to soften out of the water and then wrap your seasoned salmon fillet up in it like a burrito. These little packets are then pan-fried in a med. hot non-stick skillet to which you've added a little canola oil. By the time both sides are browned, the salmon is cooked through. You can then plate the salmon in a pool of sauce. For the best presentation, a white plate would be best. My Fiestaware did not compliment this dish in the least bit.

The rice paper-wrapped salmon does get a little crispy, especially on the edges. But I really prefer the fish itself to be browned, not the coating. So that part ended up not being all that exciting. But the sauce... the sauce is amazing. It gets sweet from the reduced mirin, and there's some heat from the chile. The little diced veg. makes it gorgeous. I didn't use a yellow pepper in mine but that would've made it even more attractive. There is no detectable booziness to the sauce, although it is comprised mostly of strong wine. I will be making this sauce again, but just serving it with pan-fried or grilled salmon. It is great for guests because it can be make in advance and held warm.

Salmon in Crisp Rice Paper with Sweet & Spicy Sake Essence

Serves four.

For the sake essence:
1 cup plus 2 Tbs. sake
1 cup mirin
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
2 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. seeded and minced fresh serrano chile
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 Tbs. finely diced red bell pepper
2 Tbs. finely diced yellow bell pepper
2 Tbs. finely diced zucchini (skin side only)
2 Tbs. finely diced carrot
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. chopped fresh cilantro; more sprigs for garnish

For the salmon:

4 skinless salmon fillets (about 6 oz. each)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup canola oil
4 rounds rice paper (8 to 10 inches in diameter)
how to make
To make the sake essence:
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, combine the sake, mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and serrano. Bring to a boil over high heat, and reduce to about 1/2 cup, 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the peppers, zucchini, and carrot until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce and vegetables to the sake essence; set aside and keep warm.

To prepare the salmon:

Sprinkle both sides of each salmon fillet with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little of the vegetable oil, using 1 Tbs. total for the four fillets. Completely immerse one round of rice paper in a bowl of warm water for a few seconds. Transfer to a work surface and let stand until pliable, about 30 seconds. Set a salmon fillet in the center of the softened rice paper. Fold the paper over one long side of the fillet, and then fold the paper in over the two short sides. Roll the fillet over until it’s completely enclosed by the rice paper. Set it aside with the seam side down. Repeat with the remaining fillets.

Heat the remaining 3 Tbs. oil in a heavy 12-inch skillet over medium to medium-high heat until it’s hot and shimmering but not smoking. Put the wrapped fillets in the skillet without touching and sauté, turning to brown top and bottom, until the rice paper is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side; don’t overcook. (If the fillets are very thick, you can also brown the sides for 1 minute each, but most fillets will be cooked through—just barely opaque—if just the top and bottom are seared.) Transfer to paper towels and let drain.
Stir the chopped cilantro into the sake essence and spoon some onto each of four warm dinner plates. Put a salmon fillet in the center of each plate, top with a cilantro sprig, and serve at once.

Make Ahead Tips

The sake essence can be made several hours ahead and kept covered at room temperature. Wait to sauté and add the vegetables until just before serving. The fillets can be wrapped in rice paper up to two hours ahead. Put them on a plate in a single layer without touching. Drape with a damp paper towel, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to cook.

drink suggestions
This recipe calls for sake, which would make for delicious sipping with the finished dish, as well. Try Ginyushizuku Samurai Shion or Nigori Takara.

From Fine Cooking 57, pp. 42

Garlicky Tortellini, Spinach & Tomato Soup

I can't say enough about this simple soup (from Fine Cooking #47) made with stuff you can buy at a regular grocery store (like bagged washed spinach, frozen tortellini, canned tomatoes and broth.) There's a good amount of garlic in here and it just transforms store-bought chicken broth into something fresh tasting. This soup has become a staple in our household. I've talked about it before but never given the recipe. So here it is. Please buy good tortellini for this. If you are in Chicago, the ones from Dominick's, the Safeway brand, are just awful. They're gummy and you won't be happy with your soup. The Contadina brand (from supermarkets, (here in Chicago)) are somewhat better and Whole Foods carries a Perfect Pasta label (in the frozen case) that is great.
You could do mushroom tortellini here, or of course, some sort of chicken tortellini would be good. Pretty much anything that sounds good to you would work. We always just do cheese tortellini though. This recipe is easily made vegetarian with veg. broth. If you're going to buy broth, you'll need one of those big box cartons. I recommend Swanson, low-sodium, Healthy choice chicken broth.

Marinara Sauce

Talk turned to signature dishes over at CT this week. Defined as a dish that you've made repeatedly and have been asked by others to make, something you are proud of and that's been with you for a long time, I decided that my marinara sauce would have to be my signature dish. It's not difficult to make and there's no secret to making it. But I can make it with my eyes closed and it turns out good everytime. I see no reason to try another basic tomato sauce. I've given the "recipe" to people but the recipe is sort of just a vague description of what I do. It's really just an adaptation of my Mom's sauce. In my own hands, I reduced the onion, use fresh basil, and puree a bit with the stick blender for a smoother finish. Also, I upgraded on the tomatoes because I think Muir Glen Whole Tomatoes are especially good. I think I'll work on a concrete recipe and include it here soon. For now the picture above will have to do.

My marinara goes especially well with these fantastic ravioli from Perfect Pasta. This is a company from the Chicago area. I don't know if they're national or not. I find the pasta in the freezer section of the local Whole Foods. We like the big pillowy cheese ones, but there are quite a few varieties. All are made from rich egg pasta. You can really taste the ricotta inside. I think the quality is very good.

A Good Product

I used Stonewall Kitchen's Roasted Garlic and Onion jam as the "sauce" to make a goat cheese pizza. I can think of so many uses for this jam. I think it would make a really nice glaze if brushed on grilled pork tenderloin or chicken. Or serve it with brie and crackers. The only problem I might anticipate is that the sweetness might make dry wine taste funny. So choose your wine carefully.