Tag Archive for 'grilled'

Grilled shrimp with tamarind noodles

Published
by
marc
on June 11, 2008
in Fusion, Pasta, Seafood, Southeast and Summer
. 15 Comments

The heatwave finally broke here in NY, but a freak thunderstorm last night made it very humid. This is the kind of weather that makes me crave something refreshing that doesn’t require much fuss (or heat) to prepare. I decided to make use of some rice noodles I picked up at a Thai market over the weekend, stopping by Whole Foods to pick up some nice looking shrimp.

I’ve had a container of tamarind concentrate in my pantry that’s been crying out to be used and I figured its intensely tart sweetness would make the perfect base for my marinade. Making a separate marinade and sauce for the noodles seemed like too much work for my languid mood so, I just made extra marinade to use as a sauce for the noodles.

The grilled shrimp had a smokey sweet glaze that caramelized under the broiler and the noodles tasted a bit like pad Thai. As a whole, the dish was a perfect melding of sweet, sour, savoury and spicy with just a touch of creaminess coming from the avocado’s to smooth over the sharpness of the tamarind.I served this with some mint pickled summer squash that made last night. It added just the right amount of crunch, a vibrant yellow color and it’s own complimentary sweet tartness.

Update: I just noticed the July Jihva for Ingredients is for Tamarind, so this is getting entered.

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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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Nasu dengaku (grilled eggplant with sweet miso sauce)

Published
by
marc
on May 7, 2008
in BBQ, Japanese, Vegan, Vegetable and Vegetarian
. 13 Comments

Here’s part 2 of last night’s light Japanese dinner. But first I have to tell you about this left over stew I made tonight.

After eating Tacos Al Pastor for 2 nights, I was getting bored with them, but I still had almost half of the roast left. I felt like something a little saucier tonight, so I fried up some garlic and onions, cut the roast into big hunks and added it to the onions with some remaining marinade, cumin, half a can of diced tomatoes and some water. Twenty minutes later I had a delightful “Mexican” stew with big chunks of moist tender meat and an unctuous sauce redolent of chiles and garlic with a mild sweetness coming from the pineapple in the marinade. I served it with some sliced sweet onion, cilantro, limes for squeezing and warm tortillas.

I didn’t take any photos because I was thinking “how good could leftover stew be”, but honestly I enjoyed the stew more than I did the tacos. I don’t think I’d ever make a roast just to make a stew, but the next time I make the taco’s I’ll be sure to make extra to make this stew. Not only did the roast meat add an incredible flavour to the stew, it was also much more moist and tender than a typical braised dish.

Okay back to the eggplant from last night. This is a fairly typical Japanese dish you’d get at an Izakaya (Japanese tapas bar). The eggplant is grilled to bring out its smokey flavour and the miso sauce enrobes the eggplant adding a well balanced sweet earthy flavour of its own. Putting it back under a broiler for a minute caramelizes the miso sauce adding even more depth. It’s great as an appetizer with some beer or as a main with some hot white rice.

This recipe makes way more sauce than you need, but it keeps well in the fridge and can be used on all kinds of veggies or even firm tofu. If you want to put it on meat, make sure you start the meat on the grill first as the sugar in the miso will burn if you put it on too soon.

for sauce
1 C dashi
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs mirin
1/2 C miso (I used 1/4 C red miso and 1/4 C white miso)
2 tsp corn starch
1/4 tsp yuzu kosho (yuzu pepper) optional

for grilled eggplant
4 small Japanese eggplants cut in half lengthwise (or 2 Chinese or Italian eggplants)
vegetable oil for brushing
sesame seeds

For the sauce, whisk the dashi, sugar, mirin, miso and corn starch together. Heat over medium heat stirring until the sauce thickens. Take it off the heat and add the yuzu whisking it in to the sauce.

For the eggplant, slice them in half lengthwise and score a criss-cross pattern into them to help retain the sauce. Brush with oil and grill on a BBQ or under a broiler until the tops are a dark brown and the eggplant is cooked. Give the sliced sides a good coating of sauce, sprinkle with sesame seeds then put under a broiler to get a little caramelization (be careful, this sauce will burn quickly).

Serve immediately with some rice.

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