Mussels and onions in XO sauce

Alrighty, here is yet another dish I cooked up during my cram week (a few take-out meals after the Roman-style shrimp).

First, I am a big fan of seafood, with the exception of some kinds of fish. Calamari, octopus, mussels, clams, oysters, sea urchins, scallops, conches are all things I adore. Hence, this is one of my favorite recipes (and one of the first I cooked on my own in New York City). It is taken from the following site, and I followed the recipe almost identically (it is easy and inexpensive enough on its own, so kudos to the original creator): http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/2008/10/01/stir-fried-mussels-xo-sauce/.


I prepared the ingredients according to the instructions posted (with slight variations in quantity).

• XO sauce, 1 tablespoon.
  
• Onion, 1 large.
• Scallions, 2, chopped into inch-long pieces.
• New Zealand mussels in the half shell, 1/2 lbs.
• Small cup of water, heated, waiting on the side (you'll see).
  

Some notes of my own: I prefer New Zealand mussels since they're huge. My local supermarket has Canadian mussels, but they're tiny and I find them unsatisfying. XO sauce is another ingredient worth discussing. It is a very unique Asian sauce which is essentially some sort of oils mixed with dried pieces of scallops and assorted sea creatures. Oh, and there's usually a touch of MSG in the mix. Now, personally, I have no qualms against MSG. I try to avoid it when it's an option, but it never stops me from eating anything interesting. In point of fact, it was once a prized spice, just as instant noodles were once a luxury. (This tidbit is from Wikipedia, but I know, citation needed). In the future, I will try to find a substitute for XO sauce. (It's also expensive, relative to other common Asian sauces).


Anyway, I prepared all the ingredients in advance. Sliced the onions and the scallions, and removed the mussels from their shells. I heated just enough oil to slick the pan and sauteed the onions until fragrant. At that point, I added the XO sauce. I cooked for a few more minutes before dumping in the mussels. I cooked the entire mix for roughly 8 minutes (mussels take some time to cook) before adding in the scallions. Finally, I added in just enough hot water to cover the bottom of the pan to help the mussels cook. At this point, I covered the pan with a lid and allowed it to cook until the sauce reduced. Finally, I served it over a bed of rice.


Looks pretty good eh? I certainly thought so. Oh, and I mixed in some chili flakes to give it an extra kick, but that wasn't in the mix originally and is very optional. Some salt would also help.

Roman style shrimp (with mint this time)

Okay, sorry for lack of updates. I've been cramming assignments and this became a lower priority. When I get busy, it usually implies more take-out and Subway and less cooking. But I did squeeze in a few home-cooked meals (I found that cooking helps me unwind) and managed to take pictures, even if I didn't write and post.

So here is the first. I enjoyed the Roman style shrimp so much that I could not wait to try it with mint. So I believe I actually cooked this the day after my last post. There's not much more to say, since it's the exact same recipe, except I threw in a cup of chopped mint near the end. Here are some pictures.


Note the chili flakes. I like spicy things so I added them to the recipe to give the dish an extra kick.


Same ingredients as above---except everything's been chopped up and rearranged.


With the mint, the sauce looks even better than last time. I've seriously been meaning to try this as a pasta sauce (as it was intended), but it goes really great with plain rice.

Next time, I'll experiment with different seafood (shrimp is relatively expensive here), most likely bay scallops and calamari (which I expected to be more expensive than shrimp, but is apparently a lot cheaper here in NYC). I'll also try replacing the mint with parsley.

Roman style shrimp

For lunch today, I decided to try out the following recipe from: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/recipe-of-the-day-shrimp-roman-style/. I found it on Mark Bittman's blog on the New York Times. Quick side note: I've been a long-time fan of both the New York Times and Mark Bittman's columns, particularly the Minimalist. If you're looking for quick, easy and sometimes very nice looking dishes, I strongly suggest you check it out.

The ingredients I used were:

• Shrimp (0.6 lbs).
• Tomatoes (3 small).
• Garlic (5 cloves).
• Olive oil (2 tablespoons).
• Crushed dried red chili peppers (more than I should have).

I forgot to buy mint, so I just left it out. Next time, I'll try it with the mint and let you know how it goes. I also used the crushed dried chilis (the kind in a spice container) since I had it lying around and didn't have dried whole chilis. I used an abundant amount, since I prefer things spicy, but it ended up adding way too much heat to the dish, so next time, I wouldn't suggest more than a tablespoon (I probably used ~3 tablespoons).

I followed the instructions and sauteed the garlic and chilis until the garlic began to change color. At this point, I added the tomatoes and allowed them to cook for awhile (~10 minutes) until they became soft.


Afterwards, I added the shrimp and continued cooking (stirring occasionally) until the shrimp became visibly red (and white). I've heard in the past that you shouldn't overcook shrimp, but personally, with the exception of steak, I'd rather overcook than undercook.


At this point, I turned the heat down to "low" and allowed it to simmer. Meanwhile, I prepared some rice (the blog suggests using this as a sauce for pasta, which I can see being a very good idea, but I don't have pasta handy).


The end result turned out to be very delicious. I'll definitely be preparing shrimp in this way again in the future. Combined with minty greens, I can imagine the dish being very handsome.

"Red cooked" chicken

After my disappointing lunch (see previous post), I decided to cook again for dinner. I usually only cook once a day and dine out or eat something simple, such as a fruit / yogurt salad for my other meal.

This time, I decided to cook some chicken (drumsticks) based on this recipe: http://chowtimes.com/2007/02/16/red-cooked-chicken/. The authors call it "red cooked chicken" and it is a very common Chinese recipe. The term "red cooked" is a literal translation from the Chinese name, but I am not sure if it is the best translation so I am enclosing it in quotations.

I followed the recipe with some minor modifications (mostly due to laziness and availability of ingredients). The ingredients and quantities I used were:

• Chicken drumsticks (4, ~1.2 lbs).
• Dark soy sauce (1/2 cup).
• Rice wine (3/4 cup).
• Water (1 1/2 cup).
• Scallions (1, chopped into inch-long pieces).
• Ginger, (a small knob, the size of a thumb; sliced).
• Garlic (a clove).
• Sugar (regular white granulated; 1 tablespoon).
  

I used less dark soy sauce than recommended since after my previous chicken experience, I feared that the result would be too salty.


I mixed these ingredients (including the chicken) into a pot and brought it to a boil. Then I turned down the heat and allowed it to simmer for 15 minutes. Afterwards, I flipped each of the drumsticks over and allowed it to simmer for another 15 minutes on low heat. When this was done, I turned off the heat, and allowed it to stew while I prepared rice (this took about 10 minutes).


The result was quite good, but not earth-shattering. It made up for my abysmal lunch, so I'll likely try this again. I also kept the liquid sauce, which is commonly used as a "master sauce".

Regarding omasum

I woke up somewhat late today and had an odd craving for omasum. For those unfamiliar with the term, omasum is a kind of tripe. More specifically, it is one of the four cow stomachs. This fact (and its appearance) might put off some people, but those who know me well know that I am usually willing to eat anything animal-based. (If you're interested in veggie dishes, feel free to forget about this blog).


Omasum has a unique, albeit weak flavor. Personally, I enjoy it for the texture. When cooked right, it is rather crisp (overcooking makes it really soft). I've previously consumed it in two forms: as a side during hot pot, and as a dish during dim sum. I don't know how to prepare it the dim sum way but would be most interested in learning, so if you know it, please contact me!


My preparation was simple: cut the omasum into thin strips and flash cook in boiling water for ~2 minutes. Then eat by dipping into a mixture of soy sauce and sesame oil.


I have to confess that the result was very disappointing: very bland (even with the soy sauce) and not very filling. The funny thing is, this is basically the way omasum is consumed during hot pot---yet in that case, it tastes amazing! I guess that is due to the added flavor of the other components and the soup base.

Let me conclude by saying that the next time I crave omasum, I'll go for dim sum or hot pot.

Soy sauce chicken

I made this based on the recipe for "rice cooker soy sauce chicken" which I found here: http://chowtimes.com/2008/01/28/rice-cooker-soy-sauce-chicken/. But since I didn't use a rice cooker (I had one, but the piece of shit broke after two weeks of intermittent use), I'm omitting that from the title.

The ingredients are simple:

• Sugar, 3 tablespoons.
• Fish sauce, ~100mL.
• Dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons.
• Rice wine, 2 tablespoons.
• Two chicken legs with thighs, ~1.6 lbs.

Most of these are approximate since I'm not that careful with measurements. Also note that 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce was a BIG mistake---I had meant to only use 1, but forgot and used 1 extra. The end result was that the sauce was super salty. I also used rice wine since I couldn't find rose wine.


Once the ingredients were gathered, the actual cooking part was really easy. These ingredients (including the chicken) were placed in a pot and brought to boil. I kept it at low heat (the liquid continued to boil) for 20 minutes, after which I flipped the chicken over. At this point, I noticed that the liquid had started to simmer, and decided to raise the heat to medium. (Sidebar: I once got minor food poisoning from undercooked chicken so I've been paranoid of it since). Unfortunately, the result of this was that after 15 minutes, the sauce had completely reduced and was starting to burn. However, the dish was still salvageable after discarding the skin.


I ate the chicken on a bed of steamed jasmine rice. The end result was pretty good, but really salty. Next time, I'll follow the recommendations of the original author and reduce the amount of fish sauce.


Oh, one more thing to watch out for: fish sauce is pungent. It stunk up the room for a couple of hours.

Welcome

Hello all, and welcome to my blog. This is my second attempt at blogging, and hopefully will be more successful than my first (which I updated twice and forgot about).

In short, this blog will be about my culinary experiences while I live and work as a grad student in New York City. Sometimes I will cook, and sometimes I will dine out. Needless to say, everything will be bound by the constraints of a grad student, which I think will make this experience particularly interesting.

Here's hoping that my attention span lasts this time.