Hot and Sour Soup

HOT AND SOUR SOUP

4 dried Chinese fungi (about 1 ounce), such as wood ears or cloud ears
2 tablespoons canola oil
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon red chile paste, such as sambal oelek
1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots, sliced
1/4 pound barbecued pork, shredded
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
Pinch sugar
2 quarts dashi base
1 chunk firm tofu, drained and sliced in 1/4-inch strips
3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Chopped green onions and cilantro leaves, for garnish

Put the wood ears in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for 30 minutes to reconstitute. Drain and rinse the wood ears; discard any hard clusters in the centers.

Heat the oil in a wok or large pot over medium-high flame. Add the ginger, chili paste, wood ears, bamboo shoots, and pork; cook and stir for 1 minute to infuse the flavor. Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar in a small bowl, pour it into the wok and toss everything together - it should smell really fragrant. Pour in the Stock, bring the soup to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tofu and cook for 3 minutes.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and stir until smooth. Mix the slurry into the soup and continue to simmer until the soup thickens. Remove the soup from the heat and stir in 1 direction to get a current going, then stop stirring. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs in a steady stream and watch it spin around and feather in the broth (it should be cooked almost immediately.) Garnish the hot and sour soup with chopped green onions and cilantro before serving.

Notes:

*fresh black fungi works just as well as dried, and dried black trumpeters are easier to find than wood ears

*the vinegar may have to be adjusted. Just keep in mind you need that strong sour taste to go along with the hot, if you can’t taste sour, add more vinegar.

The wine pairing should be somewhat sweet, but not too sweet.  The Barefoot Cellers Riesling worked for us.

Greek Yogurt-Marinated Chicken with Greek Couscous

The recipe for the Greek couscous can be found in the Complete Cooking Light Cookbook on page 259.  I did not use red onion, used zucchini in place of cucumber and doubled the couscous amount.

The yogurt marinade for the chicken, which we used thighs, is simply plain yogurt combined with fresh cilantro, minced garlic and Cavender’s Greek seasoning to taste.  Marinate for as long as you can stand it, a couple hours anyway, and then grill on the bbq.  The chicken turns out very moist and flavorful.

We had The Frenchouse 2005 rose from the south of France with it, and it was an excellent pairing.  The wine was dry and floral with strawberry flavors.

Seared Scallops with Lemon Orzo

Found on page 216 of the July 2007 Cooking Light.  We followed it mostly to the letter.  The only variation I could see coming was depending on how seasoned your iron skillet.  Ours is pretty seasoned, so the scallops tasted remarkably un-fishy.  The orzo was also good, and not too lemony like some recipes for it are.

We had a Murphy-Goode 2005 Fume Blanc from California with it.  And though it was good, it seemed a bit overwhelmed.

Salmon stir-fried rice

We had probably a pound of leftover, already-cooked salmon, but I’m sure just about any other leftover meat could be substituted.  Veggies consisted of a bunch of radishes, julienned, a small package of snow peas, a bunch of green onions and half a package of shredded carrot.  Mushrooms would have been good too.

First, heat up some sesame oil in the wok, add minced garlic and a good amount of minced fresh ginger and stir-fry until aromatic.  Then add veggies, and once they start getting tender, the salmon.

The sauce was a homemade combination of oyster sauce, rice vinegar, black vinegar, mirin, sake, soy sauce, wasabi, chinese mustard and black bean garlic sauce.  Which is added after the salmon.  Then add about two cups of cooked rice and a well-beaten egg at the very end.

Pan-Fried Elk Steaks

By pan I mean a well-seasoned iron skillet.  But an iron skillet should work anyway.  The first step is to sprinkle the steaks with a combination of onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and crushed herbe de Provence.  Then coat them in flour.  Elk is very lean so the flour helps keep the juice in.

Then, quickly fry up some garlic, minced onion and liquid smoke in the pan until nice and brown.  Add some olive oil and then add the steaks.  Elk goes very quickly from rare to well-done, so keep an eye on them.  Regardless of regular meat doneness preference, rare for elk is the way to go. The texture is nothing like beef, instead firm and similar to lightly-seared ahi.

We had a harvest grain pilaf with it. You can generally find this combination at Trader Joes. It includes quinoa and Israeli couscous.  Simply fry up the white parts of a bunch of green onions with some minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant.  Add the grains, fry until coated.  Then add about 2 cups of chicken broth and cover and simmer until done.  Then add some green onion tops and sliced almonds.

The other note is about wine.  What we’ve found works best is a red blend that contains Shiraz.  It should be velvety and spicy and mouth-filling.  It’s not hard for game to overwhelm wines.  This time we had Daves Raijin Red from the Scatter Creek Winery in Washington.  Prior we had a 1999 Meritage from the Dry Creek Winery in California.  Both worked wonderfully.

Linguine with Garlicky Clams

Page 240 of the June 2007 Cooking Light, it originally called for peas, but I omitted those out of personal preference. I also probably doubled or tripled the garlic, doubled the red pepper, and used probably close to a full cup of reserved clam juice. Also the original called for fresh pasta, but I just used a 16 oz package of dried.

Very quick and easy to make, and flavorful. It’s good to leave it standing on low for a few minutes to get the sauce all absorbed though. No thickening is necessary.

Indian-spiced Chicken thighs with Yogurt Sauce

Recipe found on page 242 of the June 2007 Cooking Light.  It’s listed as one of their superfast recipes and it really is.  Simply rub on the spice, bbq the thighs, and while you’re doing that, couscous takes all of five minutes and same with the yogurt sauce, which only contains three ingredients.  Serve with a green salad and perhaps a lighter white such as Pinot Grigio.

The original recipe didn’t actually call for bbqing, but we did and it turned out excellent.

Swordfish Tikka Kebabs

For the Swordfish, follow these steps.

Ingredients:

1 lb of fresh swordfish (boneless and skinless), cut into 2″ cubes
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1″ piece of ginger, finely minced
1.5 cups of good quality yogurt
2 tsp ground cumin powder
1 tsp ground coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chili powder, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
juice of half a lime/lemon
2 tbsp oil (vegetable or canola)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt along with the oil and lime/lemon juice. Add the garlic, ginger and the spices (ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala, red chili powder, salt & pepper). Mix well to combine all the ingredients and add the cubes of fish. Marinate the fish in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour.

I actually accidentally omitted the ginger, which probably toned the spice down, so I wouldn’t recommend it, lol. The veggies we used were green pepper, grape tomatoes and zucchini, seasoned with the same spices as the fish, just minus the yogurt.  We then put them on wooden skewers and bbq’d.  There was enough yogurt marinade left to heat up into a sort of curry sauce for the rice.

Razor Clams

Fairly simple method to this madness.  Simply combine Old Bay seasoning with flour in one dish, two eggs in another dish, and then panko or breadcrumbs in the last one.  That’s for a pound of clams.  Rinse well and pat dry, then dredge in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs or panko.  Deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown.  We had steak fries and salad.  A dry Pinot Blanc from Italy completed the meal.

Lime-Garlic Sea Scallop Kebabs w/Hearts of Palm salad

6 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 tbs lime juice

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs fresh parsley

1 tsp basil

1lb sea scallops

We marinated these for about an hour before putting them on wooden skewers and grilling for perhaps 20 minutes.  Just until scallops are opaque.

The salad can be found on page 132 of the June 2005 issue of Sunset.  We modified it to be a side dish by omitting the shrimp.  Also used a bunch of green onions instead of shallots.

We served Scatter Creek’s Shepherd’s Golden White with it.  Which is essentially a riesling.