Tag Archive for 'Dinner'

Japanese Style Broast Duck

Published
by
marc
on August 24, 2008
in Duck, Japanese and Uncategorized
. 5 Comments

Okay, this is admittedly a terrible name. I always cringe when I see any recipe that starts with “Japanese style” (replace Japanese with any country). It tells me that the creator either didn’t feel confident enough in the authenticity of the dish to give it its proper name, or they were just too lazy to come up with a better name for their new dish (which doesn’t bode well for the recipe). In this case it’s more the later than the former, but this one is tasty, I promise!

What the hell is a broast you ask? Well it’s a rather un-witty name I came up with for half braising / half roasting something. As it turns out, it’s also a trademarked technique of pressure frying chicken, but I’m too tired to think of a better name, so until someone posts a comment with a better name, this dish is forever blighted with its rather unoriginal trademark infringing name.

So how did it come to be? I had 4 duck legs sitting in the freezer waiting to be turned into confit, but I just wasn’t in the mood to do a real confit, so I started thinking of other ways I could cook this. One of my favourite Japanese dishes is Buta Kakuni (braised pork belly); it’s a great way to prepare fatty cuts of meat and duck legs squarly fit in that category.

One of the best parts of duck though is having crisp skin, and several hours of braising aren’t exactly conducive to that end. Braising then broiling won’t work because the skin would absorb too much moisture, and I could always braise and deep fry it, but I really didn’t feel like using up a quart of oil for 4 legs. So how could I make the the meat moist and fall-off-the-bone tender while having crisp golden brown skin? Broasting!

Broasting starts off with a quick browning under the broiler, then with just enough liquid to braise the meat half of the duck, it goes in the oven allowing the skin half to slowly roast, unimpeded by liquid. It finishes up with a few quick minutes under the broiler to make sure that the skin is nice and crisp.

It worked! The meat was tender and moist, with a thin layer of creamy melt-in-your-mouth fat, topped with a crisp layer of skin. It’s similar in flavour to its more porky cousin, but but the roasting intensifies the flavours of the dashi and soy sauce creating a slightly sweet glaze on top.
Continue for full recipe

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Karei raisu (Japanese curry rice)

Published
by
marc
on July 18, 2008
in Japanese, Poultry and Soups & Stews
. 12 Comments

In a country where you can get everything from hamburgers to underwear out of a vending machine, it’s no surprise that home cooks have many instant options that make “cooking” a meal as simple as slice and bake cookies.

For some dishes like mapo tofu, it’s become the accepted norm to combine a packet of sauce with some meat and veggies, and preparing them from scratch is almost unheard of. Curry is another such dish.

Like many foods in Japan (tempura is actually Portuguese), curry is a dish that was imported from another part of the world (presumably India). Typically the mix comes in segmented bars like chocolate that you break off and add to a pot of meat, veggies and water. It’s sweeter, milder and thicker than Indian curries and used to be one of my favourite dishes growing up.

I haven’t made Japanese curry since I started blogging since using packaged food is against the very ethos of this blog. Last night, I fixed that by figuring out how to make it from scratch. For those that love the packaged curry, the taste and texture are similar, but the flavours are brighter and more intense. It has an almost creamy quality about it that the packaged kind just doesn’t have.

For those that have never had Japanese curry, this dish is chock full of big tender chunks of meat and potatoes, all covered in a slightly sweet sauce that’s redolent of caramelized onions, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg.

The best part is that this requires only a little more effort than using the packaged variety and almost no extra time (since you make the roux while the veggies and meat are cooking).

For vegetarians, just double the amount of caramelized onions and replace some of the meat with firm tofu. In my hunger, I totally forgot to add the peas, so you’ll just have to imagine how great this dish looks with little bubbles of green popping out of the dark sauce.
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Summer Veggie Stew

Published
by
marc
on June 28, 2008
in Soups & Stews, Vegan, Vegetable and Vegetarian
. 7 Comments

I almost hate calling this a stew because it doesn’t really do it justice. There’s no liquid added, so any sauce that develops comes out of the veggies, melding together and caramelizing in the pan to make a wonderfully hardy “stew”.

Its great on pasta, but I think it’s even better scooped up with soft flatbreads like a pita or naan.

For this batch I used some incredibly tender young summer squash along with sweet grape tomatoes, spring onions and fresh peas, but you could really use just about any mix of just-picked farmers market produce. For the seasoning I went with a home made Herbes de Provence mixture of fresh rosemary, lavender, sage and bay leaves, but it’s also great with sumac, lemon rind, and harissa.

While I included measurements below, they’re just guidelines. The idea here is to get the fewest pans, plates and utensils dirty, so do what feels right, taste it then adjust the seasonings until you’re happy.
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Bay scallops in basil cream sauce

Published
by
marc
on June 18, 2008
in Dinner, Pasta and Seafood
. 17 Comments

I’m back from Oregon! During my short trip to attend my step-fathers graduation, I picked up 6 bottles of Willamette Valley wine (mostly Pinot Noirs) and a sunburn (I didn’t get the memo about the 4 hour ceremony being outdoors).

I actually got back on Monday, but the past 2 nights have been occupied working out the details of the Tastespotting replacement project I’ve started with a friend. It’s not quite done yet, but if you want to check it out, leave a comment and I’ll invite you as we need beta testers.

I honestly haven’t been in the mood to cook but this is a simple classic no-brainer for bay scallops. The tartness of the wine and lemon offset the cream and the caramelized onions and scallops add an enormous amount of umami it’s by no means a light dish, but it’s also not too heavy or cloying.

For those of you that know me, you know I’ll eat almost anything, but licorice flavored things are a rare exception. That said, I enjoy challenging myself to take food I don’t like and turn it into something I like so I’ve found uses for anise flavored things. Pernod in particular goes pretty well with seafood and I’ve even found myself craving the combo sometimes. I still won’t touch those black tar sticks though.

The basil in this dish goes well with Pernod and if you have a fennel bulb sitting around, add it in with the spring onions. Tarragon would work too. If you want to do something different, try replacing the basil and Pernod with saffron and ginger.

1/2 lbs dry bay scallops (see footnote here for info about dry scallops)
1 Tbs butter
1 tsp olive oil
1 spring onion chopped small
1/2 C white wine
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 C heavy cream
1 tsp Pernod (or other anise flavoured liqueur)
1/4 C basil chiffonade
salt and pepper to taste
8oz pasta (I used homemade pappardelle)

The trick with this recipe is to make the sauce ahead, then time the pasta and scallops so they are done at the same time. Depending on the type of pasta you’re using it will take different amounts of time, so I’ll leave it to your discretion as to when to start the pasta.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a pan. Saute the onions until soft and starting to caramelize. Add the wine and lemon juice and reduce until thick and gluggy. Add the cream and Pernod and turn down the heat to keep it warm.

Clean and dry the scallops. Heat a non-teflon pan over high heat until hot. Lightly salt and pepper the scallops. Add the butter to the pan and swirl to melt. When the bubbling subsides add the scallops in a single layer without overcrowding the pan. Sear undisturbed until brown then flip with tongs. Cook until the top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of the scallop is opaque and the middle 1/3 is still translucent.

Transfer the scallops to a plate then add the cream sauce to the pan that the scallops came out of and deglaze. All that brown fond on the pan adds umami to the sauce. Add the basil to the sauce then put the drained pasta in the sauce and stir to coat.

Plate the pasta then top with the scallops and drizzle any remaining sauce on top.

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Kabocha browned butter pasta

Published
by
marc
on March 19, 2008
in Dinner, Fall, Pasta and Vegetable
. 0 Comments

Kabocha browned butter pasta

If you’ve never had kabocha, stop reading right now and go buy one. They keep forever and they’re quasi-decorative, so I almost always have a small one sitting on my counter ready to become a side, main course, or desert. Yes, you read that right:-) Its sweet, firm flesh is somewhere between a butternut squash and sweet potato, which makes it very versatile. I’ve even used it successfully in ice creams and custards (I’ll post a recipe one of these days).

This dish is simple (took me 30 minutes start to finish and I was trying to document a recipe) but the nutty browned butter plays nicely with the kabocha and sage and creates a rich flavorful coating for the pasta without being overly greasy or heavy.

On a slightly unrelated note, this blog has been up a few weeks, but I haven’t seen much feedback in the comments. To get things rolling, let’s hear how you like to prepare kabocha!

8 oz pasta cooked al dente
4 Tbs unsalted butter
1 C Kabocha (japanese pumpkin) cut into 1/4″ cubes
1 small shallot minced
2 Tbs chopped sage

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Boil the pasta according to the package directions in salted water.

While the pasta is cooking, put the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat and allow it to foam and start to turn brown while swirling regularly.

Add the kabocha and shallots when the butter is a nice tan color and saute until the kabocha is fork tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the sage and then the well drained pasta and toss to coat the pasta with the butter. Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

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