Archive for the 'Seafood' Category

Paella

Published
by
marc
on June 8, 2008
in Seafood, Spanish, Spring and Uncategorized
. 23 Comments

Being Asian, I like rice. Being Japanese, I love seafood. Add to that my affinity for smoked meats and it’s no wonder why Paella is one of my favourite foods off all time. Sadly it’s so often relegated to the ranks of mediocrity by pan wielding Cretans manning the stoves at “Spanish” restaurants here in the States. Perhaps I’m being a little harsh, but if you’ve been disappointed as many times as I have by mushy or dry paella you can probably relate.

I have to be honest though, I’ve never been to Valencia (or Spain for that matter). I have had a lot of paella though and I can’t imagine a Valencian being okay with bland pasty mush with chewy bits of mystery seameat. On rare occasion I’ve had a memorable paella, and this is my attempt at recreating some of the best ones to grace my non-Spaniard palette.

I was actually planning on doing something with a pork butt and green tea today, but after seeing Heather’s post about Orzo with Linguica and Clams at Gild the Voodoolily this morning, my menu made an abrupt turn.

For me, a truly great paella is loaded with meat and seafood, with an intense smokey flavour coming from browned Chorizo and tender chunks of chicken. The seafood should be fresh, plump and succulent including things like shrimp, octopus, squid, mussels, or whatever other seafood is fresh at the fish monger today. The rice should be overflowing with umami having a velvety texture and a deep golden hue imbued by the saffron and soffrito. Most importantly, there has to be a layer of mahogany brown soccarat at the bottom of the pan from the rice and sauce caramelizing to the pan.

The following recipe achieved all my goals and best of all it’s simple enough to make on a weeknight. While I always encourage you to improvise your own version, here are a couple tips for a successful paella.

First, make sure you use the right kind of rice. Ideally you’ll find some Arroz Valencia, but if it’s not available, Arborio or Carnaroli will do. Second, make sure you get the right kind of Chorizo. Mexican Chorizo is not the same. There are also a lot of impostor “Chorizos” out there that are really just cooked sausages with paprika. Spanish Chorizo is cured and is typically pretty dry. If in doubt, get one that’s actually from Spain.

So what’s your favourite rice dish?
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Tofu stuffed squid

Published
by
marc
on June 5, 2008
in Japanese and Seafood
. 9 Comments

Over the past month I’ve seen a couple bloggers writing about stuffed squid and it got me curious. Kyoto Foodie posted about ika meshi that they picked up at Takashimaya. Then last night, Jonny at We Are Never Full posted a delightful looking Morcilla Stuffed Squid.

On the way home from work tonight, I stopped by the Japanese grocery and they had some giant squid that was so fresh I could have sworn it winked at me. Taking that as a sign I picked 1 up (yes, just 1, this thing was almost 2 feet long with tentacles). I decided to stuff it with pressed tofu and and some veggies to go along with the cherry blossom rice I’d picked up a mix for.

Having never been a big fan of squid (other than battered and deep fried), I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it, but it was good, not mind blowing, but good. The stuffing was crumbly, savoury and moist with the surrounding squid firm but not chewy, all happily glazed in caramelized teriyaki sauce.

For a veggie alternative I think the tofu mixture would be fantastic stuffed into “age” (deep fried tofu pockets, the things used to make inari sushi) then simmered in some dashi.

What’s your favorite stuffed squid recipe?

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Salmon with a minty miso glaze

Published
by
marc
on May 22, 2008
in Asian, BBQ, Japanese and Seafood
. 16 Comments

First things first, I entered my Orecchiette with Ramps and Fiddleheads recipe into the Spring Pasta Competition over at Italy Magazine. There are a lot of other delicious sounding entries to check out. Oh and don’t forget to vote:-)

Also, Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy gave us a Yummy blog award. While we don’t participate in memes, I wanted to post a link to her truly yummy blog to say thanks!

I knew I was going to be home late from work today and was trying to figure out what I could make that wasn’t going to have me eating at midnight. I decided to do some kind of seafood and it was either going to be prawns with a tamarind sauce, or salmon… whichever was cheaper/fresher at Wholefoods.

I got there and they had the end pieces of bigger fillets on sale for $4.99 a pound. SCORE! I’d originally thought about having it with some baby mizuna greens, but on the way to the cashier I saw a little yucca sitting there all by its lonesome just begging to be cooked. More on this in my next post…

While I love having most fish prepared simply with some olive oil, a dash of salt and lemon for squeezing, salmon has a bit of a “taste” and I didn’t much care for it as a kid. I’ve grown to like it, but it’s still not one of my favourite fish.

Among salmon’s redeeming qualities are that it’s got a ton of oil if you get the right cut, it’s easy to find and it’s farmed (although there’s some debate as to the ecological impacts of fish farming), so you don’t have to worry about depleting the ocean’s supply.

When you buy salmon, in addition to checking for freshness (firm, glistening meat), try to get cuts that come from closer to the head as they tend to have more oil that will keep it moist. You can tell where it’s from by looking at the shape, the cut’s near the tail are shaped like the letter “D” when viewed in profile while the cuts coming from near the head are shaped like a the letter “P” when viewed in profile. You can also usually see more marbling of fat in the pieces from near the head.

Getting back to that “taste” that salmon has, I think of it kind of like lamb. It’s not so unpleasant as to make it inedible, but it’s not something I look forward to tasting. Despite this, I love lamb and I’ve found ways to mask some of the “taste” without covering up all the other good qualities of the meat. Using lots of aromatics like garlic and mint really help. I thought I’d try out the same technique on my salmon.

The glaze is decidedly Japanese with its sweet miso and sesame base, but the garlic, cilantro and mint add a wonderful fresh Southeast Asian element that really makes this dish. The combo of flavors is quite unique and I’d imagine it would go well on all kinds of things (grilled eggplant, grilled squid, lamb kabobs, etc).
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Unagi Kamameshi (iron pot rice with eel)

Published
by
marc
on May 12, 2008
in Asian, Japanese and Seafood
. 15 Comments

While it’s not exactly a culinary mecca, Texas is loaded with gut bustin’ soul satisfyin’ comfort food. My weekend was filled with elephant sized portions of smokey bbqed sausage, cajun spiced bbq burgers, tender carne asada, and chicken fried steak drowned in creamy gravy, all washed down with margarita’s and Coors light.

Gut busted and soul satisfied, I returned to NYC craving something a little different… something a little more asian and little less cajun… something filling, but not heart-attack inducing… something like kamameshi!

Kamameshi is rice cooked in a cast iron pot along with a flavored broth and some other goodies. It’s similar to takikomi gohan except the pot it’s cooked in encourages the bottom layer of rice to lightly burn (known as “okoge” in Japanese) giving it a nice flavor reminiscent of rice crackers.

Unfortunately I don’t have a kama (iron pot) and I imagine most of my readers don’t either, so I made this using a small Le Creuset (enameled cast iron pot). You could probably use any heavy bottomed pot with a lid you have as long as it’s not teflon.

The rice cooks with a sweet soy sauce flavored broth and is topped with a layer of mitsuba (which I talk about more in this post) and unagi while it steams. After it’s all done, I mix it all together before serving which helps integrate all the flavors.
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Hamachi with yuzu and olive oil

Published
by
marc
on May 8, 2008
in Appetizer, Asian, Japanese and Seafood
. 9 Comments

This is actually one of my favourite ways to have sashimi. It’s so simple and light, somewhere between carpaccio and ceviche. The 2 types of yuzu add a phenomenal flavor with a floral tartness form the juice and a bit of green spice from the yuzu kosho. The salt crystals, provide little bursts of brine on your tongue and the olive oil brings it all together without being greasy.

What’s yuzu kosho you ask? It’s one of my favourite condiments, right up there with Thai sweet chili sauce. It’s made with yuzu rind, green chiles and salt making a rough paste (a bit like wasabi) that’s spicy, salty and intensely citrusy. It’s a little too potent to use like ketchup, but it can be mixed into mayo, dressings, olive oil, soups, sautes, bbq sauces, the list goes on… It is a bit hard to find, but I scoured the Internet and found it here for about 12 bucks. Sounds a bit pricey for such a small bottle, but trust me, it goes a long way.

Well, I’m off to Houston for the rest of the week, so I won’t be posting till I get back on Monday, but I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

sashimi grade hamachi (yellowtail)
yuzu kosho
good quality olive oil
yuzu juice (you could substitute lemon or lime juice)
sea salt ( I used Portuguese fleur de sel)

Put a plate in the freezer for a few minutes to get it very cold.

Using a very sharp knife, and cold hands, slice the hamachi into thin slices.

Place the hamachi on the chilled plate then place a small dab of yuzu kosho on each slice. Drizzle with olive oil, a couple of splashes of yuzu juice and then sprinkle some sea salt on top.

Serve immediately.

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