Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel Brittle"

[ts]
Conceptualizing our Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice dish, we thought it would be fitting to complete the meal and come up with a similarly Asian-esque dessert that also used citrus, ginger and whole grains.


We decided that our entry to The Royal Food Joust (hosted by the Leftover Queen) should be a complete meal!

We visited a soy pudding place earlier in the day and while downing cold soy pudding (with evaporated milk for me, plain for JS), this dessert was born.

We bought a small container of unsweetened soy pudding and went on our merry way.

Orange-Ginger Syrup


[ts]
I juiced 2 navel oranges and poured the juice into a pan. I added slices of ginger and let the mixture reduce by 50%. I added brown sugar and let it reduce another 50%.



"Streusel Brittle"
I'm not kidding about the love of quotation marks, am I?


This is the topping I use for crisps. It ended up as a solid mass and I broke it up like brittle. Hence, the name.

I added orange zest to the oats, brown sugar and butter and baked it until the butter was melted.



After it was out of the oven, it firmed up and I proceeded to break them into chunks.



[ts]
To assemble, simply layer soy pudding, orange-ginger syrup and "streusel brittle" in a glass or bowl and enjoy! Be sure to serve or eat immediately, as the brittle will soften or get soggy if left sitting in the pudding.



Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel Brittle"

Makes 2 to 4 servings

2 cups unsweetened soy/tofu pudding

orange-ginger syrup
2 oranges, juiced and zested
3-inch piece ginger, sliced or grated
1/4 cup brown sugar

"streusel brittle"
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oats

To make the syrup, place orange juice and ginger in a small sauce pan. (You can substitute ginger powder if you wish. Add it to taste.) Heat on low/medium-low until reduced by half. Add the brown sugar and reduce again by half. Take off the heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For the "brittle", mix together the ingredients and place on a small sheet pan. Bake until the butter is melted and the mixture is golden-brown. Take out the pan and let the brittle harden/firm up. Break into chunks.

To assemble, layer soy pudding and orange-ginger syrup and "streusel brittle" in a glass or bowl. Serve immediately.

Alternatively, serve the soy pudding and the components separately, with each person topping up their serving themselves.

*************************************

This complete meal:
Ginger-Guava Jam
Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel Brittle"


This is our entry to the Royal Food Joust (created by The Leftover Queen).

[eatingclub] vancouver Royal Food Joust posts:
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Cream of Fennel Soup with Parsey Oil
Ginger-Guava Jam
Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel" Brittle
Squash Churros with Orange-Sage Hot Chocolate
Coffee Pancakes with Honey Ricotta and Black Pepper & Coffee-Crusted Bacon
Caribbean "Fish & (Banana) Chips"
Steelhead Trout and Enoki Mushrooms with Wasabi Cream Sauce


We're submitting this to Culinarty's Original Recipes.

More information here.
The Round-ups here.

Jalapeño Cupcake: My Very First Cupcake

[js]Never in a million years did I think I would bake a cupcake.

First, I honestly don't even know what a cupcake is. I mean, I knew it was some sort of baked good and usually came in one of those liner things, but I always thought they were just muffins.

Muffins and cupcakes: to this ignorant non-baker, they have the same shape, so what's the difference?

I saw Alton Brown in the cupcake episode of Good Eats saying that cupcakes were actually cakes baked in a smaller form, in cups, but that didn't help me any. Cakes, muffins: again, what's the difference?

Anyways, I decided all this questing to alleviate my ignorance is futile and beside the point. Best to dive into making a cupcake, because Maybelle's mom, who shall henceforth be known as my blog-whisperer, told me to.

I wanted to do some sort of guava-jalapeño cupcake, based on our salad, because, as mentioned, my blog-whisperer told me to. A guava-jalapeno cupcake would actually be doable, because fortuitously we still had some of these hard-to-find guavas in the house.

Un-fortuitously though, I was the one who had to do the guava-jalapeño cupcakes, and given my absolute ignorance, I don't think I could have played around with the basic recipe too much. At least, more than I already had.



I used America's Test Kitchen recipe for yellow cupcakes, halved it, and used our expired yogurt (strawberry-in-the-bottom) in place of the buttermilk.

I grated one jalapeño into the batter (and the cupcakes could have used more). The resulting cupcakes had the merest whisper of strawberry, which was great, and a hint of a very fragrant green-ness from the jalapeño.

To add more jalapeño goodness to the cupcakes, I grated some more and rubbed it over the top (for that green tinge). I also added some of it to the inside as I was eating.



These cupcakes are evil, because they were so good! It was actually very surprising. It exceeded my expectations and made me exceed my daily recommended intake of fat and calories.

I don't think I'll be a cupcake hero here, since these cupcakes are very basic, no-frills, like a discount cupcake. But they were yummy enough that they got devoured during the first day.

(I had originally planned to add our ginger-guava jam as a topping to the cupcakes. But, after eating a cupcake adorned only with grated jalapeño, I decided it was perfectly fine the way it was.)

We're submitting this to Cupcake Hero.
Though, of course, I'm no hero. I think my cupcake is, at most, a Cupcake Sidekick.

This edition's hosts are Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart and Teri of The 90/10 Rule.

Info on Cupcake Hero here.


Jalapeño Cupcake
adapted from an America's Test Kitchen recipe
Makes 12

dry ingredients
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2/3 cups sugar
6 tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup yogurt
1-2 jalapeños, grated

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Sift together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla extract and sugar until combined. Then add the melted butter, yogurt and grated jalapeño. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet until combined.

Fill each cupcake liner until 3/4 of the way full. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, rotating halfway through, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. (Check at 15 minutes.)

Cool pan on rack. If desired, cupcake can be decorated with more grated jalapeño.

Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice

[js]
This is our entry to The Royal Food Joust (hosted by the Leftover Queen).

This month's Joust ingredients juxtaposed ingredients that are familiar to us (citrus and ginger) with the slightly unfamiliar (whole grains).

As in most kitchens, citrus is a vital ingredient in ours, and the usual suspects are lemons and limes. I am still hoping for a calamansi source, but then I am an eternal optimist.

We love ginger in this house. My mother uses it in all of her dishes. In all of the non-pork dishes, that is.

Pork and ginger together?
After quite an extended discussion, we decided to break with tradition and use ginger with pork. It's not like we don't eat pork that has been gingerly touched or lasciviously lathered by the rhizome in some way. To wit, our father regularly orders a ginger pork dish in Japanese restaurants.

Given the components of the dish, we thought pork would be the ideal meat to play against the flavours. The meat has a sweet, full richness that is also surprisingly, pleasantly light. Little piggy will not overpower the other elements of the dish.

Playing choose-the-best-protein, of course, we also could have used the gravitas of beef or the gaminess of duck to the advantage of this dish. Not chicken though, because I believe chicken would have just disappeared here and would not have held its own. Not lamb either, because it just might be too gamey in this application.

My point being that we did consider other proteins and we did give some thought to breaking the ordinance against a pork-ginger pairing. We don't disobey just for the sake of disobeying. ;)

Whole grains
The whole grains component is the trickiest one, because we do not really use a lot of whole grains in the house. Whole wheat flour, but the rules forbid flour unless we mill it ourselves. We used to cook some brown rice in addition to white, but I got lazy and just had to content myself with the white rice everybody ate.

We couldn't really decide on a grain. We could have used corn but corn would have overpowered everything else in the dish.

On a side note, our original idea for this Joust was some kind of caramelized popcorn, with orange and ginger somewhere in there. Lo and behold, Maybelle's mom of feeding maybelle also had the same idea! This just proves that great minds do think alike. ;)

You can check out the pictures of her gloriously delicious popcorn balls. I can just imagine the first bite of caramel popcorn goodness!

We chanced upon this bag and it had -- not one, not two, not three, but FIVE -- different grains! And even better, four of the five (I'm not sure about the black glutinous rice) are whole grains.


Unpolished rice, oats, black glutinous rice, millet and pearl barley.

[js]
And they're from the Good Boy's Farm, you know. Just to confirm that these whole grains are good for you.



[ts]
The dish came together pretty quickly. To cook the rice, our good ol' rice cooker did all the work. Look, it turned pink!



[ts]
The item that took longest to do was the ginger-guava jam, but that's unattended time. It contained guava, chile peppers, ginger, lime juice, garlic and sugar, all cooked down until, well, jammy!


Recipe here

[ts]
Now, to the pork! We bought pork shoulder butt already sliced very thinly. (They were pre-sliced for hotpot.) I squeezed some lime juice onto them and added a small splash of fish sauce. They were so thin that all they needed was about 10 minutes in the marinade. I doubled the slices up, rolled and skewered them.



A quick pan-fry and they were done.



[js]
This was very good, and the pork butt was a well-chosen cut. You could do this with something leaner, like a pork tenderloin or the pork loin, but it just would not have the same inside-the-mouth-flavour-explosiveness as a fattier cut.

The guava-ginger jam complemented the pork and rounded out all of the flavours. The heat coming from the ginger and the peppers balanced out the fattiness of the meat. The five-grain rice worked out well too, because its earthiness gave each spoonful (rice-pork-jam) some heft.

Admittedly, we wanted to grill the pork skewers too but it's been raining like crazy here in Vancouver for the past week (it feels like November right now), so I didn't want to go outside to fire up the grill. If grilling, we would have not gotten pork butt sliced so thinly. A little thicker, and skewered like we would do with a Philippine-style barbecue, stitching the skewer across the meat. It would have made for a nicer presentation, methinks.


Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
One serving

2 Tablespoons ginger-guava jam

1/4 cup five-grain rice
1/2 cup water, approximate

1/3 pound pork shoulder butt, sliced thinly
1 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons fish sauce

Make ginger-guava jam according to recipe. Spoon about 2 tablespoons for condiment use.

Cook five-grain rice in rice cooker, with water quantity according to manufacturer's instructions.

Marinate pork slices in lime juice and fish sauce for 10 minutes. Roll up slices and skewer. If the pork slices are very thin, you may need to double up the slices before rolling. You may also need 2 sticks to keep the pork rolls stable and not too floppy. Heat oil in a saute pan. When hot, pan-fry skewers until done, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve pork skewers with ginger-guava jam and five-grain rice. You may add some diced cucumbers if you wish. You can also include a handful of lettuce leaves and wrap the pork-rice-jam combination and eat it that way.


But wait!
There's more...

*************************************

This complete meal:
Ginger-Guava Jam
Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel Brittle"

This is our entry to the Royal Food Joust (created by The Leftover Queen).

[eatingclub] vancouver Royal Food Joust posts:
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Cream of Fennel Soup with Parsey Oil
Ginger-Guava Jam
Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel" Brittle
Squash Churros with Orange-Sage Hot Chocolate
Coffee Pancakes with Honey Ricotta and Black Pepper & Coffee-Crusted Bacon
Caribbean "Fish & (Banana) Chips"
Steelhead Trout and Enoki Mushrooms with Wasabi Cream Sauce


We're submitting this to Culinarty's Original Recipes.

More information here.
The Round-ups here.

Duck Breast with Pomegranate-Chipotle Glaze and Guava-Jalapeño Salad

[js]
Prior to this dish, we've never prepared duck at home. Or at least, I don't recall working with duck at all.

For this blog -- oh, the things we do for this blog! -- we wanted to explore the world of duck and come up with interesting and hopefully delicious duck applications to enjoy.

Seared duck breast is one of the first things that came to mind. I've seen many shows on TV how they sear duck breasts and it seemed like it was very, very doable.

And so, onward march, to hunt ducks.

We want some great-looking, meaty duck breasts, like those seen on TV.

The problem was, when I see these duck breasts, they can run up to $9.99, $15.99, $19.99, or even $24.99 per pound. Eh, twenty-something bucks for a couple of duck breasts? Seems a little bit too much to be spending on merely the breasts. A whole duck perhaps for that amount and I will consider.

I know sometimes our super-duper-convenient Chinese supermarket sells these so-called frozen "utility" ducks for very, very cheap.

In fact, these ducks were so cheap that some time ago (probably six months ago) a Chinese woman was even surprised.

I was standing in front of the meat counter, thinking of what meat I should get when I heard this woman mutter to herself.

"1.09 per pound for this duck? How come so cheap?"

She started inspecting the duck, although of course she couldn't see anything of the duck because it was enclosed in an opaque plastic film. I suppose she was feeling the duck up, checking to see if all the parts were there.

I read the sign that explained the classification "utility" for the consumer. The sign assures us that these ducks have passed all inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and are marked as "utility" because they have some part of them missing, like the wingette or the leg or some other part beside.

The woman finally chose a duck she liked and proceeded to talk to the clerk behind the meat counter.

"Hi. Could you cut this duck up into parts?"

The meat clerk looked at her and said, "No."

"Please, I want this duck, but I just need it cut up. You can just divide it into quarters."

"No, I can't. We don't cut frozen items."

"Please, okay? Just cut it in half. I'm going to buy it already."

"No, I can't cut it up for you. We don't do that. Once we cut it, we can't sell that duck anymore."

"Oh no. I really want it and I'm getting it for sure. Just cut it in half for me."

"No, I can't do it."

"I guarantee you that I will get the duck."

"No, sorry, I already told you I can't do that."

At this point, I had already chosen and left the section. I never knew if the woman's persistence paid off and she did get her duck cut up into sections.

Lesson learned: the frozen utility ducks are cheap but you can't ever get the meat department to cut it into parts for you.

No matter, I thought. We wanted a whole duck to experiment with, so I got one for a measly $4.83. For a whole duck! It sold for $1.09 a pound.

We were excited at the possibilities and we had all sorts of things planned for the duck. We can sear its breasts and confit its legs.

A whole new world of duck goodness awaits and for so little a price!



[ts]
A funny thing about this utility duck: it was not bred to be busty! Good thing for MACRO photography, like the photo above! ;D

Yes, this utility duck had no breasts. They wouldn't even fill an A cup. Looky here: they were only about 4x as thick as the dull end of the knife blade.



[js]
These ducks are probably the breed that make Chinese roasted barbecued ducks, so they're not overly busty. These specific utility ducks are probably ducks that did not make the cut, perhaps not gaining the requisite weight to be serving ducks.

For those interested in eating locally, ducks are bred in the Lower Mainland and most of them are consumed locally as well.

[ts]
Our dish was dead simple. First, a pomegranate-chipotle glaze. That simply called for reducing pomegranate juice with chopped chipotles, then seasoning the glaze to taste.



[ts]
I had planned to render the fat off the breasts on the stovetop and finishing the cooking in the oven. I had planned to keep the breast medium-rare. However, since they were so small, I just did all the cooking on the stovetop. I also had to keep the duck cooking past medium-rare to render off as much fat as possible.

How I cooked them: I scored the fat on the duck breasts, then, starting with a cold pan, placed the breasts skin-side down. I turned the heat to low and waited for the fat to trickle out. When I rendered off as much fat as I could, I turned the breast over and started glazing the skin side.

Let me show you again how small these breasts were. That there is one duck breast beside a half a lime. A regular-sized lime.



[ts]
Whereas one duck breast would be a good size for an entree, this was definitely appetizer-sized. I sliced the breast and served with the Guava-Jalapeño Salad and more pomegranate-chipotle glaze. Ta da!



[ts]
The breasts were about medium-well, but still succulent. This whole dish was delish! (It rhymes!)

Not bad for a $5 bird!



We have so much more in store for this little ducky.

$5 Utility Duck Series
All the following made from one duck!
Duck Breast with Pomegranate-Chipotle Glaze and Guava-Jalapeño Salad
Duck (Interim)
Roast Duck Legs with Cabbage-Portobello Pappardelle
Duck Fat Potatoes
Duck Tortellini in Brodo

Other [eatingclub] vancouver Duck dishes:
Duck Shepherd's Pie, or "Duck Coop Pie"
Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Duck Stock Risotto with Portobello & Chard, with Hazelnut Gremolata
Shredded Duck and Rice Noodle Soup
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa

Char Siew Sandwiches à la "Singapore Noodles"

[ts]
When we made sesame seed buns, we had to think of a way to use them up. We thought to use char siew (tsa shyo in Fukien/Hokkien) -- that is, HK BBQ Pork -- as the filling.

Now, that got my brain working: what accompaniments should go with a char siew sandwich?! I thought of the different applications for char siew. Well, actually, besides eating them as is with rice (of course), the only dish I could easily think of that uses char siew, besides Yang Chow Fried Rice, is Singapore Noodles.

I decided to make, and name this dish, Char Siew Sandwiches à la "Singapore Noodles"! ;)

[ts]
The name is perhaps a little deceptive as there are no noodles in the sandwich. I simply stir-fried some Singapore Noodle-esque ingredients with Singapore Noodle-esque flavors.

I started with garlic and ginger, then added sliced onions and red bell peppers. To season, I added curry powder (of course), soy sauce, shao xing wine and a little sugar and sesame oil. The egg went in next, then I finished with green onions, bean sprouts and cilantro.



To make the sandwich extra tasty, I "toasted" the buns in a little butter. =) I used the same pan; those buns might as well pick up more of the stir-fry flavors.

To assemble: a layer of char siew on the bottom and a mound of the stir-fry on top.


Oh, in all the Singapore Noodle excitement, I failed to mention that we bought, not made, the char siew.

The day I wanted to make the sandwich, JS went to two char siew places but they were both closed! Coming home, she tried to convince me to change my sandwich concept. I refused! I fought for my idea! =) We had to postpone making the sandwich until the next day.



This was so good! The char siew went perfectly with its Singapore Noodle-esque accompaniment! (Well, of course it would! The two components already go well together in their Singapore Noodles incarnation.) As for the sesame seed bun, it was buttery and slightly sweet, making it the perfect vehicle for my sandwich.



We're submitting this to Snackshots #6: Sandwiches, hosted by Michelle of Greedy Gourmet.

We're not really sandwich people, so I'm a little bit surprised that we actually have something to contribute to this theme!

Blueberry, Genoa Salami and Apricot Panini

[ts]
We've toyed around with similar panini combinations before: capicollo with apricot jam and cream cheese; mortadella with pineapple-coconut cream cheese (which we liked to call "Mortadella Maui"). This time, we added blueberries into the mix.

To make a brilliant panino, start with the bread.

This is a round herb foccacia from Calabria Bakery (5036 Victoria Drive, Vancouver). This foccacia is amazing. It smells heavenly while toasting or grilling. We've caused many a hungry person some suffering by exposing them to the aroma in their state. (Of course, their patience was well-rewarded.)

We used a 7" round foccacia. (They also have a GIGANTORMOUS 15" foccacia, which we've used before.)


Next, the apricot jam and cream cheese combination that we love.

I added the blueberries at this stage so they'll stick to the cream cheese and jam. (Never mind the pattern. I was just being silly. More blueberries were added.)



Genoa salami was our salumi of choice this time. (Incidentally, this genoa salami we have smelled and looked like lap cheung/Chinese sausage!)



Of course, one mustn't forget salt and black pepper.

I added the black pepper to complement the apricot. The touch of salt was needed to counter the sweetness of the jam, as well as the sweetness of the genoa salami.

Here it is.

pre-toasting

The blueberries worked very nicely here, providing not-too-sweet-a-little-tangy bursts of flavor with each bite. One might even say that they provided some "crunch" to the panino. The herb foccacia made it smell superb spectacular fantastic sensational er... you get the idea.

This Blueberry, Genoa Salami and Apricot Panini will be great for breakfast or brunch. (Or for tea... or for lunch... or for a light dinner... or for a midnight snack... or...)

Blueberry, Genoa Salami and Apricot Panini
Makes one 7" round
Serves 1 to 4 people

1 7" round herb foccacia bread
2 Tablespoons cream cheese
2 Tablespoons apricot jam
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
200 g sliced Genoa salami
salt & pepper, to taste

Cut foccacia in half, making a top and bottom. Open bread like a book. Spread one side with cream cheese and the other with the jam. Spread blueberries evenly on one side and lay out the salami slices on the other. Season with salt and pepper. Close sandwich. Toast or grill as desired. Cut into half or quarters and serve.



We're submitting this to Weekend Breakfast Blogging.
This edition is hosted by Sia of Monsoon Spice.

Dimsum Seafood Trio (Prawn, Scallop, Masago)

[js]
We are new to the world of food blogging and are becoming increasingly amazed, day by day, at the riches it offers. We have "met" many wonderful people travelling through the food-blogosphere, stalking their blogs and drooling over the food they cook and create.

Up until a month ago, we did not even know that blog events existed! Now that we have discovered them, we can de-lurk and come out from the blog-stalker shadows into the full light.

One of the sunniest of these blog events, it seems, is in Florida: The Royal Food Joust (hosted by the Leftover Queen).

Now, being our first participation in a joust, we don't know how bloody this event would be or how battered we might be after the tournament. At the very least, we have seen people losing the shirts off their backs and the pants off their legs!!! (See for yourself!)

The three ingredients
[js]
When we heard that seafood, sesame, and cilantro are to be the ingredients for the August food joust, we immediately thought Chinese. These ingredients are certainly staples in Chinese cooking (and more generally Asian cooking).

But.

We don't really cook Chinese food. That is, we don't cook Chinese food very well. We are unfamiliar with some of the techniques and the ingredients used in Chinese cookery. Add to the general unfamiliarity the language barrier of not reading and speaking Chinese (more or less) and we have almost given up on achieving even the basic competence in Chinese cooking.

Almost, but not quite.

The joust ingredients were just begging to be made Chinese.

[ts]
In my words, they had "Chinese" written all over them!!!

[js]
Thus, we persisted. See, we are also eternal optimists. Besides, there is the consolation that we are able to tell ourselves that our Chinese food does not turn out well because of equipment woes, not having the hot-hot-hot fire needed for wok-cooking.

Now that our optimism is gushing forth like a geyser, for this joust, we even chose to go the dimsum route. Never mind the fact that we know next to nothing of the seemingly painstaking techniques dimsum chefs use to create their masterful little morsels.

[ts]
Thinking that dimsum recipes will be forever out of reach, we even gave away the lone cookbook in our collection with dimsum recipes just a few days prior to the conceptualization of our entry dish. That book had been collecting dust on our shelves for quite a number of years.

[js]
For better or for worse, we present as our entry to the Royal Food Joust these three little morsels, our dimsum-inspired trio.

Black Pearl Prawn Toast
Scallop in Nest
Jewelled Rice Cup

[ts]
Like the names? ;)

[js]
Our goal was to have each dimsum morsel self-sufficient. That is, that each already contain all of the joust ingredients in itself. The plan was that the three had to complement each other, yet be able to stand on their own. Taken individually, each is fairly easy to do and the recipes are fairly straightforward and uncomplicated.

Black Pearl Prawn Toast
aka Black Sesame-Crusted Prawn Toast


[js]
One of my favourite dimsum items, although it is a tad dated now and I don't see the dish on dimsum tables anymore in Vancouver, is "shrimp toast". I loved gobbling these: there is something about fried bread that was irresistible.

[ts]
This was simply a matter of making the shrimp/prawn paste and spreading it on bread, then "toasting" them in some hot oil. The prawn paste had cilantro and sesame oil. We also coated the top with black sesame seeds for extra flavor and crunch.


This mixture smelled so good even before we cooked it! In fact, these prawn toasts were quite beautiful pre-frying.






Scallop in Nest
aka Seared Scallop with Sizzling Sesame Oil, on Chow Mein Nest


[js]
The next item is scallop on a bed of stir-fried chow-mein noodles. The noodles were stir-fried in a little sesame oil, soy sauce and more sesame seeds (this time, white sesame seeds).


[ts]
For the scallop preparation, we were inspired by the classic Chinese steamed fish. After steaming, the fish is garnished with ginger slices, green onions and cilantro. Then, very hot oil is poured over the top.

Our scallops were quickly seared and garnished with slivers of ginger, green onion and cilantro. We heated some sesame oil and soy sauce, then spooned that over the top.


Jewelled Rice Cup
aka Masago with Lap Cheung-Cilantro Rice, in Wonton Cup


[ts]
Our last item is loosely inspired by sushi. For the seaweed portion, we simply brushed a piece of nori with sesame oil and used it as a "placemat", if you will.

The rice portion is quite delicious and very Chinese. We sautéed some finely-diced lap cheung (Chinese sausage), then mixed in cilantro, sesame oil and cooked white rice.

The beauty!



[ts]
To make the wonton cups, I brushed both sides of wonton wrappers with oil and baked them in small glasses (as we didn't have a mini muffin pan).




[js]
The seafood component is bright orange masago on top, dotted with black sesame seeds.

[ts]
The masago was indeed very bright! Very neon! I was almost blinded going through pictures of it. The black sesame-studded masago topped each rice-filled wonton cup.

And there you have it!

Again, each dish was not too difficult to do. But of course, please feel free to make them as a trio as well.

If you wish to participate in the Royal Food Joust, or to vote for us (teehee), please visit the Leftover Queen's Forum for all the info.

eatingclub Hong Kong/Cantonese
Chicken Chow Mein
Cantonese Braised Beef Brisket, Two Ways
Lobster Congee from a Lobster Feast
Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Gailan (Chinese Broccoli) with Oyster Sauce, Two Ways
Chinese Pork Bone Soup with Carrots and Water Chestnuts
Hong Kong-style Curry Cuttlefish
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Prawn Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Hong Kong-style Singapore Noodles (星洲炒米)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Water Spinach with Shrimp Paste (蝦醬通菜)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Rice Noodle with Beef (乾炒牛河)
Sweet and Sour Pork
Hong Kong-style Curry Beef Brisket (咖喱牛腩), 1st Attempt


THE RECIPES

Black Pearl Prawn Toasts
aka Black Sesame-Crusted Prawn Toasts
Makes 12 toasts

6 ounces uncooked shrimp/prawns, peeled & deveined
1 egg white
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

3 slices stale white sandwich bread
1/4 cup black sesame seeds

Shrimp paste
Mix shrimp/prawns, egg white, cilantro, cornstarch, rice wine, ginger, salt, sesame oil and white pepper in a food processor. Purée until mixture is smooth.

Cut off the crusts of the bread. Cut each slice into 4 pieces. Put black sesame seeds in a small shallow bowl.

For each piece of toast, spread about a tablespoon of shrimp paste on one side, making sure the paste is level. Then place the toast, shrimp paste side down, into the black sesame seeds to coat.

Heat oil in deep pan or small pot over medium (not high) heat. There should be at least 2 inches of oil. Test the oil with some scraps of bread. It shouldn't brown too quickly.

Place a shrimp toast, shrimp paste side down, in the oil. Cook for about 1 minute, until the edges of the toast start to brown. Turn over and cook for another minute. Remove from the oil and place on paper towels to drain. Repeat with remaining toasts.


Scallop in Nest
aka Seared Scallops with Sizzling Sesame Oil, on Chow Mein Nests
Makes 6 servings

6 scallops

chow mein nests
1 cup chow mein noodles (thin egg noodles)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon white sesame seeds

sizzling sesame oil
2 pieces of of ginger, 1-inch each; julienned
1/2 stalk green onion, cut into 2-inch pieces and "shredded" lengthwise
6-12 cilantro leaves
6 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce

Noodles
Bring water to a boil. Add chow mein noodles and cook until done, about 1-2 minutes. Drain.

In a sauté pan, heat sesame oil. Add noodles, soy sauce and sesame seeds, stirring until well tossed and hot. Set aside.

Scallops
Pat each scallop dry on both sides. In a small pan, heat vegetable oil or butter. When hot, sear scallops on one side until golden brown, approximately 2 minutes depending on the size of the scallops. Flip over and sear the second side. Place on paper towels.

Make 6 chow mein nests. Place a scallop in each.

Sizzling Sesame Oil
In a small bowl, combine ginger, green onions and cilantro. Garnish each scallop with the aromatics.

In a small pot, heat sesame oil and soy sauce. When hot, spoon over each scallop in nest.


Jewelled Rice Cup
aka Masago with Lap Cheung-Cilantro Rice, in Wonton Cups
Makes 6

6 wonton wrappers

1 lap cheung, finely diced
1 cup white rice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 Tablespoon sesame oil

9 teaspoons masago or tobiko
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds

nori sheet(s), enough to make 6 squares (2.5" x 2.5" each)
sesame oil for brushing nori

Wonton cups
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brush both sides of wonton wrapper with oil and place each in mini-muffin pan, making a cup shape. Bake until wonton cups are golden brown and crisp, approximately 7-12 minutes. Take out of pan and set aside.

Rice
In a small dry pan (no oil), add diced lap cheung and turn on the heat. When they start to render, add white rice, cilantro and sesame oil. Toss until heated.

In a small bowl, mix masago and black sesame seeds.

Cut nori into 2.5" x 2.5" squares. Brush each nori sheet with sesame oil.

Fill each wonton cup with the rice mixture, then top with masago & black sesame seeds. Place each wonton cup on a nori sheet.




This is our entry to the Royal Food Joust (created by The Leftover Queen).

eatingclub vancouver Royal Food Joust posts:
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Cream of Fennel Soup with Parsey Oil
Ginger-Guava Jam
Lime-Marinated Pork Skewers with Ginger-Guava Jam and Five-Grain Rice
Soy Pudding Parfait with Orange-Ginger Syrup and "Streusel" Brittle
Squash Churros with Orange-Sage Hot Chocolate
Coffee Pancakes with Honey Ricotta and Black Pepper & Coffee-Crusted Bacon
Caribbean "Fish & (Banana) Chips"
Steelhead Trout and Enoki Mushrooms with Wasabi Cream Sauce


We're submitting this to Culinarty's Original Recipes.

More information here.
The Round-ups here.