Made in China

I'm not a fan of Westernized Chinese take-out fare. Dishes like General Tao's (or Tso's) Chicken are really American/Canadian inventions. The real General Tso's own descendants have never even heard of the dish, let alone tasted it. I'm not offended so much by the lack of "authenticity" as I am by how bad these foods are for my arteries and waistline.

That said, I do resort to eating Chinese Canadian fast food on occasion, mostly when I am dying for some rice. (I go through serious withdrawals if I go without rice for more than a day.)

Recently, I had lunch at Made in China, located in downtown Toronto. It's a popular venue that blends North American chic with Communist kitsch. Most of the clientele is Asian, which is its biggest claim to credibility.

I ordered a beef brisket and radish stew -- which came with rice, of course. Much to my amazement, it had deep flavors and a "gravy" that I ended up sopping up with every last grain of rice on my plate. I wondered if I could emulate the dish at home.

Sadly, my neighborhood supermarket has a lousy selection of meat and produce. Instead of beef brisket, I ended up with pork loin. Not having beef meant that I could not produce a brown gravy. The radish in the stew was supposed to be daikon, but all I could find were the small, red, "Cherry Belle" radishes. Nevertheless, the result was quite tasty.

Note: I braised everything in the oven, but next time, I think I will start it on the stove top to skim off any impurities from the meat, then move it into the oven for a long braise. The result willl look more attractive that way.

General M's Braised Pork Loin and Radish
Serves 6-8

6-8 strips of pork loin cut close to the ribs (or fillet a top loin/tenderloin into strips the thickness of ribs)
1 bunch of Cherry Belle red radishes, radishes sliced and its leaves coarsely chopped
3-4 cups of vegetable stock (homemade is best)
¼ cup sake
1 Tbsp mirin
6 ¼-inch slices of ginger
8 scallions cut into ¼ length pieces
4 cloves garlic
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole star anise
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy)
salt, to taste
sesame oil, to serve
chopped cilantro, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. In a deep roasting pan, add all of the ingredients except for the salt, sesame oil and cilantro.
3. Put the pan in the oven for 1-2 hours. Turn over the meat periodically. Remove the pan from the oven when the meat reaches the desired doneness and color. Add salt to taste.
   
4. To serve, cut up the pork strips in to bite-size pieces, spoon the other ingredients over the meat, drizzle some sesame oil and garnish with the chopped cilantro.
   

Gimme Kimchi

You know the second half of "Cannibal Ferox" in which the cannibal tribe of the Amazon exacts their terrible, sadistic, gory revenge on the white men and women who enslaved and murdered their people? No? Doesn't matter, as long as you understand that my week at work has been worse than that.

Which means I haven't had much opportunity to cook this week. However, I have tried to stay in touch with my passions: watching some Food Network and also catching an episode of Gourmet magazine's Diary of a Foodie. This time it was an episode titled "Korea: Ancient Food, Modern World". (Click on the link to watch the whole episode online.)

I thoroughly enjoy Korean cuisine, but I've never been instructed on the differences between Northern and Southern dishes, nor have I heard of Korean royal court cuisine (vaguely similar to Japanese kaiseki cuisine) before seeing this program. Last but not least, I had no idea that there was so much more to kimchi than just Chinese cabbage and red chili paste. Did you know that there are 187 recognized varieties of kimchi? Watch Inja Yoo -- a certified royal court chef -- prepare some extraordinary dishes, including bossam kimchi, which is a gorgeous stuffed/rolled cabbage filled with seafood.

Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken

As I was reading Persian cookbook reviews on Amazon, I was struck by one post that complained about chefs who overplay the exoticism of their ethnic cuisine by adding far too many obscure ingredients and making a recipe more difficult (and thereby inaccessible) than necessary. It's a kind of cultural snobbery to keep foreigners at bay. This complaint was from an Iranian who insisted that his/her family makes traditional dishes using simple grocery store items that should be available pretty much anywhere.

I was grateful for that feedback because I wouldn't know what makes a Persian dish "authentic". However, I can say that the same complaint applies to the glut of Japanese cookbooks out there. If a Japanese Canadian who knows her way around Asian groceries can't get her hands on a certain ingredient, then what is the point of even publishing such a book?

I adapted the Persian Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken recipe posted at the Mage Publishers site to accommodate the restricted diet I'm following. Apart from some minor changes, there wasn't much I needed to do to simplify the recipe. It takes a bit of time to prepare because of the number of things that need chopping or filleting, but it is not at all difficult.

Sweet and Sour Stuffed Chicken
Serves 6-8

6-8 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 Tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup prunes, pitted and finely chopped
1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1 baking apple, diced
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp saffron, steeped in 2 Tbsp of hot water
1 tsp honey
juice of 2 oranges

1. Butterfly and pound each breast to an even thickness.
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil at medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, prunes, apricots, and apple. Don't allow anything to sear; just heat through gently.
3. Add the pepper, saffron with water, honey and the juice of one orange. Lower the temperature and allow the mixture to soak up the moist ingredients for about 10-15 min.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Place a ¼ to ½ cup of the stuffing mixture in the middle of each chicken fillet and wrap the meat around it. To hold it together, truss the the stuffed breasts with kitchen twine as shown above.
6. Place the stuffed breasts in a roasting pan and pour the remaining orange juice over them.
7. Bake for 1½ hours or until the chicken meat has reached at least 180°F. Baste the breasts frequently with the juices that have run off and mixed with the orange juice.
   
8. To serve, remove the twine and slice into cross sections.
   

Chilled Cucumber Soup

Persian cuisine is relatively new territory for me -- one that I am excited to learn more about. Having an Iranian friend who cooks her native dishes effortlessly and intuitively is a good way to start. However, I can't keep imposing on her for information, so I went on a hunt for a good online resources.

The good peeps at Mage Publishers -- an indie publisher of Persian literature and cultural books -- have generously posted a few recipes from Najmieh Batmanglij's "New Food of Life" and her other cookbooks in the Mage catalogue. (Note: "New Food of Life" was described by some reviewers on Amazon as being the best English cookbook on Persian cuisine, so I promptly ordered it today.)

By coincidence, the first recipe on the Mage page is for a Yogurt and Cucumber Dip/Soup (Mast-o khiar) which is ridiculously similar to a Scandinavian recipe for a chilled cucumber soup that I wanted to try. It just goes to show you that we all live in a tiny global village.

I modified a couple of ingredients to suit the restricted diet I've been following. I also have the good fortune to have successfully grown herbs from seed, including dill, sweet marjoram, basil, and lemon basil. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but I am the grim reaper of plants and the fact that any greenery has lived under my care is a miracle of biblical proportions. Anyway, the fresh dill was a great addition to this dish. [Note to AP: This is an Option #1 recipe.]

Chilled Cucumber Soup
Serves 4

¼ cup shallots, coarsely chopped
1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
2-3 cups plain yogurt (depends how thick you like it)
1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
1-2 Tbsp fresh sprigs of dill
salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp walnuts, chopped *optional for garnish
½ cup raisins, soaked and drained *optional for garnish

1. In a large bowl, combine the shallots, cucumber, yogurt and herbs.
2. Puree the mixture until relatively smooth. (Note: the cucumber flesh will give it a porridge-like texture, which is what you should be aiming for.)
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish with walnuts or raisins if desired.

Note: the mint will turn black if not eaten right away. This doesn't impact the flavor too badly, but it isn't as pretty as when it is green. If this is a concern, add chopped mint only at serving time.

An Alphabet for Gourmets (1949)

It is with great regret that I confess total ignorance of M.F.K. Fisher (1908 - 1992) and her body of work up until today. She was not so much a "food writer" as a writer who thought a lot about food through essays and short stories. She published over twenty books and two volumes of journals and letters written in her unique style that led many readers to believe for a while that she was a man.

Fisher even produced a translation of Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's "The Physiology of Taste" in 1949. I've been reading the 1970 translation by Anne Drayton, which is perfectly competent but I wonder now what Fisher's interpretation must be like.

Gourmet magazine has republished a series of her essays online called "An Alphabet for Gourmets" -- a collection later printed as a book.

By chance, I stumbled upon her "S is for Sad..." segment. If you want to know what my book is about, I encourage you to read Fisher's take on the inextricable link between death, food and appetite.

"...underneath the anguish of death and pain and ugliness, hunger and unquenchable life are facts, shining, peaceful. It is as if our bodies, wiser than we who wear them, call out for encouragement and strength and, in spite of us and of the patterns of proper behavior we have learned, compel us to answer, and to eat."

Japanese-Style Curry

Before anyone starts lecturing me that curry is Indian in origin, let me reassure you that I know that. The word itself originates from the Tamil word "kari". The spice mixes that we know as "curry" are South Indian inventions.

The fact that a spice-averse culture such as Japan has adapted its own version of the curry sauce is a testament to the dish's immense appeal and undeniable deliciousness. In fact, the Brits have done the same. Of course, only the Japanese would find a need to tone it down a bit, making a mild or sweet version to suit their own delicate palates.

Every Japanese kid has had the curry that comes in the Glico box (yes, that's the same Glico company that makes the world famous Pocky sticks -- now offered in more than a dozen flavors). You just heat up some onion, chicken, carrots, potato and water in a pot then throw in the cubes of Glico curry roux, and you magically end up with a thick, creamy stew that tastes brilliant with a bowl of white rice.

For decades I have made Japanese-style curry in this way, never realizing how absurdly easy it is to make my own "karee" (カレー) roux, even under certain dietary restrictions. Better yet, this means I can also have fun customizing the flavors.

[Note to AP: This is an Option #2 recipe.]

Japanese-Style Curry
Serves 6-8

2½ Tbsp curry powder
½ cup oat flour
4-6 Tbsp light olive oil

2 chicken breasts, skinned, deboned and cubed
1 medium onion, sliced
2 small carrots, coarsely chopped in rounds
2 cups okra, stem caps removed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
2½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
½ Tbsp curry powder
½ tsp garam masala

1. In a skillet, lightly heat the 2½ Tbsp of curry powder and oat flour over medium heat for about a minute.
2. Add the olive oil and rapidly stir it into the dry ingredients. If necessary, add more oil only until just enough to yield a brown paste. Heat the paste through, stirring constantly to avoid burning. After a minute or two of stirring, remove from heat. Set aside.
3. Throw into a large pot the chicken, onion, carrots, okra, ginger, garlic and stock. Bring to a boil and immediately lower the heat to a simmer.
   
4. As the pot simmers, skim off any foamy scum that forms at the surface and discard. The scum consists of impurities -- mostly from the chicken -- that have floated up. Don't let the scum get mixed back into the liquid because it will impact the taste.
5. Add the remaining curry powder and the garam masala to the pot.
6. Mix in the paste from the skillet and gently stir the pot.
   
7. Continue simmering until the stew becomes thick and creamy, at least 30 min, or longer to allow the flavors to infuse. Check that the chicken has cooked through.
8. Serve with rice.
   

Blueberry Yogurt Tartlets

Oddly enough, it started with chicken pot pie.

Still following the rules of a strict diet, I tried to devise a recipe for chicken pot pie without cream, butter, shortening, puff pastry, or any wheat-based flours. The filling was fairly intuitive to figure out. But the flaky, golden pie crust was going to be a bit of a challenge.

Pie crust is basically flour, salt and/or sugar, butter / shortening / lard (i.e. fat), and ice cold water. While I'm not an expert baker, I have made enough pies in my lifetime to have attained a modest mastery of the pie crust. And if there's anything I know about pie crusts is that you don't muck around with the fundamentals. Baking is a science -- getting the chemistry wrong makes the difference between light pastry and rock-hard dough.

As I've said before, non-wheat flours are relatively new to me. I've come to like oat flour in particular because of its nutty taste and grainy, crumbly texture like in shortbread. I decided that a sablée ("sandy") crust would be a palatable alternative to the flaky crust.

However, I wasn't sure if substituting light olive oil for butter would work. So I needed to test it out first in a simpler recipe.

I had seen the Yogurt Tartlets recipe posted on 101 Cookbooks and appreciated the fact that the custard was made of (light) yogurt and eggs -- ingredients that are allowed in the diet -- and yet somehow still turns out creamy even in the absence of heavy cream. Heidi's recipe uses maple syrup as a sweetening agent, but I replaced that with mild honey. I couldn't use her crust recipe because it is full of banned ingredients, so what better occasion to test out the oat flour crust I had in mind?

[Note to AP: This is an Option #2 recipe.]

Oat Flour Pie Crust
Makes 1 large pie crust or 7-8 tartlet crusts

1¼ cups oat flour
¼ tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp light olive oil
4-8 Tbsp chilled water

1. In a large bowl, combine the oat flour and salt.
2. Add the olive oil and stir it in a little.
3. Add one tablespoon of chilled water at a time until all of the dry mixture is clumpy and moistened. The dough should be able to hold its shape when pressed into the shape of a ball. If it feels very sticky or runny then you have added too much water; compensate by adding a small amount of oat flour. If it is too crumbly to form a ball, then add a bit more water.
   
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill it in the freezer for about 10-15 min. Chilled dough is always easier to roll out.
5. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a flat surface until approximately twice the thickness of your pie tin, say the thickness of a dish rag. There's no need to flour the surface, as with conventional pie dough, but you will find that the dough is very crumbly and uneven. Don't worry about tears or holes because you can easily patch them by pressing down or smoothing some dough over the gaps.
6. With a wide knife or a scraper, lift up what you can of the dough and lower it into your pie tin(s). Gently press down the dough into every corner of the tin and cut off the excess from the rim. Patch any holes. You can skip Step 5 and opt instead to press a wad of dough into the tin and smoothing it out by hand. However, this could yield a crust of uneven thickness, so beware.
   
7. Refrigerate the crusts until ready to fill.

Blueberry Yogurt Tartlets
Fills 5-6 tartlets (I know this is inconvenient, like getting a package of 10 hot dogs with a package of 8 hot dog buns. I will try to adjust the quantities in the next version of this recipe.)

2 eggs
1 cup plain Greek (or Balkan-style) yogurt
¼ cup honey
zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp ginger juice (grate a ginger root then squeeze/strain out the juice)
5-6 Oat Flour Pie Crusts (see above) in tartlet tins
1 pint of fresh blueberries (or go wild and try other types of fruit)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
   
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs.
3. Add the yogurt, honey, lemon zest, and ginger juice. Whisk thoroughly until well combined.
4. Fill the pie crusts no more than ¾ to the top. The custard will rise a bit during baking.
5. Bake 20-30 min or until the crusts look dry and the custard doesn't jiggle too much.
6. Allow the tartlets to cool.
7. When ready to serve, top the tartlets with blueberries.