no shishito, sherlock

you know that kind of meal that changes everything?  that makes you feel like somehow, in some way, your life shall never be the same again?  that makes you want to escape saturday morning detention and do crazy 80’s dancing in the school library instead, as you defy stereotypes of simple terms and convenient definitions?  the kind of meal that makes you find yourself, months later, sitting at your desk typing in such absurdly dramatic fashion that you almost don’t believe it yourself?  enough, let us holster our hyperbole, stash our john hughes references, and talk about rice cakes…

asian rice cakes are, let’s not mince words here, awesomesauce.  (and i don’t use words ending in “–sauce” lightly.)  now, these aren’t the crunchy, airy discs of near-cardboard you’ll find in the snack aisle, dredged in dust and a complete dearth of flavour.  no, no.  these are like noodles to the nth degree; rice compressed into a single bite that is at once dense, chewy, toothsome and delicious.  i have a weakness for rice cakes in the same way that i do for dumplings: for me, one is george clooney, the other is matt damon.  no matter which one ends up on your plate, either way you’re watching ocean’s 11, someone’s awfully dishy, and you’re one happy camper.

i had a spectacular night out at Joule this summer; one of my favourite restaurants.  less breakfast club, more dinner club, but just as life-changingly awesome.  i now know, for one, that should i ever be in the dire situation of choosing a last meal, it’s going to be crispy rice cakes with chorizo and pickled mustard greens.  done and boom.

the food at Joule (and its sister restaurant, Revel) is beyond amazing; the kind that lives on in your taste memory, igniting appetites and yelling rousing battle cries, “to the kitchen!  stand by your spatula!”  never one to ignore my appetite, i decided that, by gum, if i couldn’t eat at these restaurants every weekend, then i would just bring the mountain to me.  a food detective i became, jotting down scrawled (more scrawled the more wine i drank) notes breaking down what i believed the flavours to be. 

some chili, for sure.  salty: perhaps soy?  the sauce was sweet, but also pungent.  it was almost miso-like in its somewhat fermented, funky way.  armed with my pages of notes and conspiracy theories, i donned my deerstalker and headed off to my local asian supermarché.  middle menschkin agreed to be my watson, dressing in what she deemed an appropriate way. 

hmm.  perhaps more ron swanson meets dolly parton, but still.  off we went, regardless.  after scouring the aisles of uwajimaya, i discovered a chili paste made with…  fermented beans.  ding ding!  slap my bum and call me sherlock, i think we’ve cracked it!  home we rolled to 221B baker street, armed with ssamjang, doenjang, gochujang, some other things ending in –jang, and by george we set to work…

crispy rice cakes with chorizo and pickled mustard greens (attempting to live up to the wonderful original that you can order from Joule)

sauce:

½ cup water

¼ cup sugar

1 cup ssamjang (fermented bean & chili paste)

2 tbsps soy sauce

2 tsps rice vinegar

1/2lb good-quality bulk chorizo (local peeps, i like the kind you can buy from ballard market)

1 pack frozen rice cakes, thawed

¼ cup finely-chopped pickled mustard greens

2 tbsps thinly-sliced shallots

to make the sauce, heat the water and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves.  add the ssamjang paste and stir until it’s incorporated and smooth.  stir in soy sauce and vinegar, then simmer for 5 minutes or a titch longer until it has reduced & thickened somewhat.

in a skillet over medium heat, sauté chorizo until cooked through.  remove chorizo from pan, leaving 1-2 tbsps of oil behind.  add rice cakes and sauté until cooked through and crispy on the outside, 3 mins or so on each side.  (take care to not cook too long, as i have been known to do, or they can become a bit stodgy.)

add sauce to the pan with the rice cakes, add chorizo, and stir to coat.  sprinkle the pickled mustard greens on top, then the scallions, and dig in.  (if eating the real thing in Joule, try not to order a 3^rd or 4^th portion.  it’s hard…)

for those of you who might be interested, and want the short-hand recipes, the other dishes at SleuthFeast were as follows: 

Revel’s braised short rib dumplings:

shred meat from braised short ribs, mix with some sautéed ginger, garlic and shallots.  add some finely chopped scallions, soy sauce, and sesame oil.  stuff dumpling wrappers with 1 tbsp filling.  

pan-fry and serve with chili oil.

david chang’s cured hamachi with horseradish-edamame puree and furikake:

i used the more sustainable black cod, and it still tasted great.  pound some peppercorns and coriander seed, add some salt and sugar, and coat your piece of fish.  leave to cure in fridge for 2-3 hours.  puree cooked edamame with grated horseradish, soy sauce, and water, then strain.  thinly slice fish and serve sprinkled with furikake seasoning and sauce, with some pea shoots to garnish.

shishito peppers:

wash shishito peppers and sauté whole with a glug of olive oil for 10 minutes or so until slightly charred and wilted.  sprinkle with a little salt and serve.  (i ate these so fast, i have no photo of them.  love these bites of happy spicy goodness.)

and momofuku pork buns:

i’ll let the good people of epicurious explain this one.  we used pre-made buns from the freezer section of our asian supermarché, but they were still heavenly.  

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Belly-Buns-240258#

in conclusion, i don’t know which of these recipes was the brain, the athlete, the princess, the basket case, or the criminal… but i do know that my weekend in cooking detention was worth every bloody bit of it.  and i, for one, can’t wait to do it all over again. 

does that answer your question?  

sincerely yours, the dinner club.

leftovers, feat. j-jizzle

i was never a headliner.  now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a post mired in self-loathing or self-deprecation or self-doubt (or any others of those self-attributes with bad connotations).  no, no.  i just always felt that i slotted in better as a supporting act.  the understudy.  the “feat.” to a new release pop song.  (side note: jay z, if you need anyone to be “feat.” on your new track, i am available.)  let me clarify: this is not a “waahh, woe is me” comment.  far from it.  sometimes those supporting roles are, in fact, the most memorable.  shit, judy dench won an Oscar for 8 minutes of screen time.  true story.  and i AM way hotter than her.  (on a good day…)

i digress…  as the wise snoop dogdy (typo, but it stands) once said: back to the lecture at hand.  sometimes the lead actor isn’t what draws you to the theatre.  sometimes there’s something about peeling back layers over layers, and then suddenly someone’s an onion.  sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  (and THIS, my sweet four readers, is the first time in history that snoop diddy (word) and aristotle have been quoted together in the same paragraph.  boomba!)  bloody hell, let’s stop beating about the bush and let’s talk about LEFTOVERS!

many moons ago, my fridge was the death of all food.  it would arrive, amazing produce, fat and plump from the market, full of vibrancy and succulence and the promise of feasting to come, and then…  some would find a dish with its name on it, sure, but the rest of it would wither…  shrivel…  wrinkle and fade…  until it only left the hint of a brown shadow on the glass of the vegetable drawer.  not just a waste of money, but a terrible waste of food (surely with these and the leftover goldfish crackers strewn about my minivan, we could end world hunger??  i’m serious, somebody call sally struthers.)  i even arrived home from work one day in my mid-twenties to find a dear pal cleaning out my fridge.  she just couldn’t take it anymore.  well, those days are over.  now, and perhaps somewhat propelled by three small people slowing my roll, i am all about making something from a refrigerated nothing.  give me a collection of random, seemingly-conflicting leftovers, and by GUM i shall find something interesting to do with them!!  it’s time for the supporting act to shine.  somebody get judi dench on the phone and tell her she’s an onion, too.

now, the trick to making leftovers shine is having a few ingredients on hand that make you a little weak at the knees.  you know, the ones you want to call the morning after, without waiting the obligatory three days.  for me, this is chili bean sauce, pickled mustard greens, fermented black beans, and kim chi.  they might not all make the same appearance in the same movie each time (every dish can’t be “the expendables,” after all (side note: thank goodness)), but they certainly bop around and star alongside each other in many a feature, telly show, and PBS special.  if tonight's dinner of soba noodles, leftover chicken, and pea shoots were a harry potter movie, the fermented black beans would be maggie smith as professor McMacklemore: a little saucy, a little spunky, and they left me wanting a bit more of her next time.  boom! 

so there is no recipe for this post, readers one, two, three, and four.  nothing but a manifesto, if you will.  scour thy fridge, take your staples of protein, of veg, and potentially of carb, and then by gum you tart them up!!  a hint of acid (no, not a hit of acid, walter white) with a squirt of lemon juice or vinegar, a dab of something pungent and savoury (think fermented black beans or miso paste), a bright smattering of thinly-sliced scallions or preserved lemon to make it dance, and suddenly you've created something special.  something worth remembering.  eat every forkful knowing that it cost you nothing, and that sally struthers and judi dench (and possibly even snoop dizzy) are cheering your every bite.  (“so just chillll, ‘til the next episode…”)

in a pickle (oh myyyyy)

many lifetimes ago, back when i lived in the yellow glare of los angeles and not the deep greeny-blue of seattle, when i drove a convertible and not a minivan, when i was 20 times blonder but 20 pounds heavier, and when instead of running after three small people, i translated english-to-klingon for a living (true story), a good pal & i used to have a fun little tradition: the daily top five list.  there were no rules, other than you had to give it some serious thought & the old college try.  any list, any theme, any topic would do:  top five menu triggers, top five most evokative smells, top five awful movie accents, top five guys-you-wanted-to-sleep-with-but-not-marry…  the choices were endless.  perhaps i’ve been missing that pal recently, or perhaps i’ve been missing the excellent adult conversation that those lists would generate, but for whatever reason i have decided that for you, my four readers, i would bring back the much-revered TFL!  (drum roll, rev the engines, hold your hands up like the ceiling can’t hold us.  here we go…)

top five random ingredients you will always find in my fridge:

1) fermented black beans:  

perhaps the mustiest, funkiest legume i have ever encountered, i reluctantly tried them on the vehement assurance of a recipe blurb.  exceptionally savoury and wickedly delicious, after trying them you shall never buy a bottle of pre-made black bean sauce again.

2) kim chi:  

(though i just learned that “kim chi” is more of a verb than a noun, much like “pickle.”  so i suppose i should say cabbage kim chi.)  the spicier the better.  bring it.

3) miso paste: 

essentially the asian equivalent of anchovy paste, miso gives you way more than just the base of a refreshing soup.  add a dollop to a braise or stew for incredible depth of flavour, or mix with orange juice and a little soy for a versatile sauce.

4) pickled mustard greens:  

a random discovery at my local asian supermarché, more of a dare than anything.  i think i referred to these in a different post as kim chi on steroids.  (quoting myself??  how gauche.)  chop then top anything and everything with these strange and pungent leaves.  they take a simple buckwheat noodle with soy/vinegar dressing to a new level.

upon re-reading, i now see there’s somewhat of a well-preserved asian theme going on here.  i’m rather expecting, should i dig deep enough, to find george takei lurking in the depths of my refrigerator.  

ohhhhh my!

lastly… 5) za'atar:

okay, so it’s not kept in my fridge as such, but these days i am never without a jar of za’atar close at hand.  a delicious middle eastern herb blend that supermensch and i discovered together a while back, it’s mostly thyme, sesame, sumac & salt, with a few other bits and bobs thrown in.  spread some hummus on some good stodgy flatbread, sprinkle on some za’atar, and i call that lunch.  or breakfast.  or a snack.  or just “delicious.”

now to the recipe.  i had the pleasure of seeing edward lee speak about his new book “smoke and pickles” a few weeks back.  this book rocks socks, and most recipes contain either miso, kim chi, or both.  ed is my people.  he spoke for over an hour about his life, about cooking, how cooking influenced his life, and how his life influences his cooking.  (i feel dizzy.)  sitting there for an hour as he talked with nary a cue card in sight, it also made me realise that i could never do a book tour.  i think you also can’t do a book tour when your blog has four readers (and you don't have a book), but still.  my presentation/speech would go a little something like this:

“hi, my name is jo, i live in seattle and i love to cook!  uhm…  so, actually, i like kim chi and pickled mustard greens…  lots of other things are terribly yummy, too…  [big pause]  can’t actually think of any right now…  uhhhh, what the bloody hell was i going to say…  something about nicki minaj?  somebody throw me a hoopity hoop hoop here.  crap…  actually, uh…  HEY, look over there, a cute animal doing something cute and totally distracting!!  (what does a girl have to do to get a glass of wine around here???)”  then i’d probably pass out from nerves and wait for supermensch to fly in and save me. 

thank you for coming to my book tour.  you’re welcome.  (on the other hand, i did happen to have dinner with sue from subeeskitchen.com the other night, and i bet she would give an excellent book tour.  not a british mumble in sight.  good recipes, too, check it out.)

the following recipe is a sauce from saucy ed’s awesome book.  actually, it’s like a version of ed’s recipe if you take off your specs, squint your eyes, and look at it in a wonky thrift shop mirror.  ed uses a classic remoulade as a base, but when you’ve just moved house and are still trying to unpack whilst three small people nip at your heels and literally hang off your apron strings, the phrase “classic remoulade” is not exactly tripping off your tongue.  so my version is simpler, easier, and far lazier.  these days, i call that survival.  

(pretend there's a chalkboard picture here.  truth be told, i've not yet unpacked my chalk & actually have no clue where it might be...  nothing to see here, carry on.)

orange-miso sauce (adapted so terribly-loosely from ed lee’s “smoke and pickles”)

2 tablespoons red miso paste

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

a good dollop of mayo, sour cream, or even greek yogurt, beaten until smooth

add miso to orange juice and whisk until blended.

add sesame oil, soy sauce, and your lazy remoulade-substitute.  mix well and refrigerate until needed.  flavours develop if made a couple of hours ahead.

brilliant over chicken, salmon, pork, and i bet it would even show a green salad a pretty good time.

there you have it!  simple, easy and lazy!  thank you for coming to my book tour, i’ll be here all week…  mostly due to nervous stammering and inability to finish a sentence…  actually…