garnish

Is my blog burning?: Spring fried rice with chive blossoms

maki — Sun, 23 May 2004 06:39:32 +0200

The theme of the fourth edition of Is My Blog Burning is Around the world in a bowl of rice, hosted by Chez Pim. I was going to do something sushi-esque, but I'm leaving in a couple of hours for a weeklong business trip and didn't have time to do the shopping needed for what I had in mind. So, I decided to do something with the ingredients I had already....which lead to that good old standby, fried rice.

Fried rice, aka cha-han, is another Chinese dish that has been adopted and adapted into everyday Japanese cooking. It can be elaborate, or a convenient way to use up leftover meat and vegetables, or both. The basics are rice - either freshly cooked or cold; some sort of aromatic vegetable, usually spring onions and/or fresh ginger; and eggs.

I was out of spring onions and the shops were closed already, so I hit upon the idea of using the chives that are growing right now in the wilderness that is the garden in front of the house. (Thank goodness we have no lawn patrol here.) I used both the leaves and the pretty purple blossoms. The results were really quite good - mildly onion-y and garlicky, and tasting quite spring-like. Using chive blossoms as garnish enhances the flavor as well as making plain old fried rice look very pretty.

Spring fried rice with chives

2 cups of cooked rice. I use regular Japonica rice, but you can use any kind of rice you like.
1 cup of chive leaves and blossoms, roughly chopped
1/2 cup of chopped ham
2 eggs
a small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped fine
1/2 zucchini, finely cubed
Oil for cooking
Salt and pepper
Soy sauce
Chicken stock granules (optional)

The key to making fried rice is to have a pan that can get very hot, so an iron wok on gas heat is ideal. Unfortunately, here in Switzerland gas cooking are practically unheard of, and I just have an electric range. I do however have a halogen quick-heat hob, which helps. I can't use a normal rounded-bottom wok however, so I make do with a flat bottomed one. The results may not be as good as if I cooked in a proper hot iron wok, but it is not bad.

Heat the oil in the wok or pan. Add the ginger and fry until just turning a bit brown. Add the ham and the zucchini; sauté until the ham is turning a bit crispy.

In a separate pan, cook the eggs, mixing around vigorously to make little bits.

Add the rice to the pan and sauté, tossing and turning it to separate the grains and coat each grain with the oil. Add the chives and keep tossing. Add the eggs, and if you are using it a sprinkle of the soup stock granules. Clear a space on the bottom of the wok and drop in about a tablespoonful of soy sauce (adding to the hot pan surface makes the soy sauce take on a nice toasty flavor). Toss well; add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, press the rice into a bowl, and turn it out onto a dish. Garnish with chive blossoms.

Camembert in Calvados, and apple bunnies

maki — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 21:19:02 +0200

On Easter, we had a selection of cheeses, one of which was this very interesting Camembert soaked and aged for a while in Calvados. Since Calvados is an apple cider-based brandy, apples seemed to fit well. And, since it was Easter, the apple wedges were transformed into apple bunnies.

In Japan, we sort of grow up knowing how to make apple bunnies (usagi ringo), but they caused quite a sensation on Sunday. It's very easy to make them: with a sharp pointed knife, score a V shape into the skin of the apple wedge. Then with the point of your knife, carefully pick up the point of the V, wiggle your knife under the skin, and peel off, taking care not to break the peel you want to keep on. This illustration shows where to score, and which part to peel off:

Slip your knife under the "ears" part of the apple skin, separating them from the flesh, so that they point up and out. At this point, if you're making several, put them in some lemon or salted water.

The Camembert itself had no label on it - we just bought a wedge at a small local grocery store. It was quite intensely flavored though, much more so than an ordinary Camembert which can be a bit bland. It was very nice indeed with wine and bread.

When I arranged a wedge of the cheese with the apples, I had to take it outside onto a bank covered with spring wildflowers and fresh green leaves to take a picture. The crazy things one does when maintaining a blog.

Is my blog burning: tartine edition (with a recipe for hummus)

maki — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 18:09:47 +0100

I wasn't too well prepared for the tartine edition (hosted by Clotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini) of Is My Blog Burning? (conceived by Alberto of Il Forno). I forgot to buy any special bread, so had to make do with regular toast bread and some pumpernickel. The pumpernickel was not toasted but the sliced white bread was. Then there was the matter of what to put on the bread. We sort of improvised, with mixed results. Therefore, a 2-for-1: choose the one that appeals to you the most!

Tartine 1: Luusesalbi. "I'll make some Luusesalbi" declared Max. Luusesalbi literally means Lice Cream...a somewhat worrisome name. It is made with a very strange Swiss cheese called Schabziger (there is a variety of it called Sapsago which may be more readily available outside of Switzerland). It originates in the canton of Glarus. It's made of skimmed milk, salt, and a mixture of alpine herbs. It is a pale lime green, and comes in little cones wrapped in foil:

Max grated the Schabziger into a bowl, and blended it with about 25 grams (about 2 tablespoons) of softened butter and a tablespoon of milk, with a fork. What emerged was this pale green paste, which was spread on the pumpernickel:

I took a bite - and suddenly remembered why I hadn't had this for more than 5 years. To me, it tastes somewhat like soap. Max however loves it. Maybe it's an acquired (Swiss) taste. If you want to try a very unusual cheese, you may want to give this a go. The ideal bread for this is a rye bread, such as Waliserbrot, lightly toasted. Spread the Luusesalbi on while the toast is still hot for maximum...impact.

Tartine 2: Hummus. Having taken just one bite of the Luusesalbi concoction, I was still hungry. Then it hit me - we still had a bag of hummus in the freezer. We took it out and defrosted it, and spread it on toast. Voila! a delicious hummus tartine.

The red stripe decoration is simply sweet paprika powder. Place two straight knives back to back on the toast, and sprinkle the powder in between. Remove the knives carefully to maintain the clean lines of the stripes. If you are doing a whole party tray full of them, cut long strips of paper and lay them across the whole batch of neatly lined up slices, and sprinkle away. You can use another fairly neutrally flavored powdered herb or spice, such as dried parsley or dill.

Following is my recipe for hummus, to be used as a dip, or as sandwich spread or filling. It is quite garlicky, so beware. This makes a huge batch, which I then freeze: put one cup of hummus into a plastic zip bag, flatten the bag and seal. Take a bag out about an hour before you want to eat it - if you defrost in the microwave it may get a bit watery, but you can just drain that off. Weeks' worth of hummus in one go.

[Update: Clotilde has posted a list of all the Is My Blog Burning participants.]

Hummus

1 kg / about 2 lbs of dried chickpeas
3 lemons
12 large garlic cloves, peeled (more if you can stand it)
1/2 - 1 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup of raw white sesame seeds
Salt to taste

Soak the chickpeas in cold water to cover for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Drain the chickpeas and re-cover with fresh water. Cook for about 3 hours until the peas are completely soft, and can be crushed easily between your fingers.

Drain the cooked chickpeas, reserving the cooking liquid. Mash the peas, with a potato masher, or in batches in the food processor or blender, or with a stick blender. (If you want it to be completely smooth, use the food processor or a blender. I don't mind it being a bit chunky.)

Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan until the seeds start to pop and snap. Remove from the pan as soon as it looks lightly toasted - if you leave them in the pan they will get burned from the residual heat. Let cool, and in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle grind them to a fine powder. Add the tahini and blend to a paste. (Toasted sesame seeds add a nice flavor, but you can omit them and just increase the amount of tahini.)

Crush the garlic cloves to a fine pulp, either with a garlic press, or with the tip of a knife on a cooking board sprinkled with salt. Or you can grate the garlic (your hands will smell like garlic for the next week though).

Juice the lemons, and add the juice to the mashed peas. Add the garlic, tahini and sesame, and olive oil. If it's too thick loosen it up with some of the cooking liquid (which will be rather gelatinous). Season to taste with salt.

If you want the hummus to be a bit more sour, add more lemon juice. If you prefer more sesame taste, increase the sesame seeds or the tahini. You can also try using peanut butter instead of tahini - it should work. Decrease the garlic if you must, but really, try it like this first.