Seafood

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Dragon eel? 盤龍鱔

Eating eel can be an acquired taste.  I can remember being repulsed by the thought of this slithery worm like creature - why would I want to eat it?  And I didn't, not when I was growing up.  The eel my family had was usually served in a hot pot and was considered a specialty dish.  I have since outgrown this distaste and really enjoyed the eel I've tried in sushi houses (not the same kind of eel) and also in Chinese restaurants.  In fact, the highlight of our private room dinner at Delicious was for me, the steamed dragon eel with orange peel 陳皮蒸盤龍鱔.   It was the first time I have tried this dish and it was superb!  The eel meat was tender and tasty, not at all fishy or slithery and the black bean sauce lightly flavoured with orange peel enhanced the eel without overpowering the taste.  I loved it!

So then I became curious - what is this thing?  I'd seen live river eels on our trip to New Zealand when we visited one of the conservation parks near Wellington (Mt. Bruce Wildlife Centre).  As you can see below - these were huge!  I never thought then I'd be eating them!

 I found this video on Youtube that shows you how to cook a dragon eel.  It seems that the most difficult part was slicing up the eel into rings and still managing to keep it whole.  The chef in the video only showed the cut up eel but didn't demonstrate how to do it.  He did emphasize that the stomach should not be cut open in order to maintain the taste.  So the tricky part then is cleaning the stomach without opening it up and not cut through the spine so that the eel remains in one piece.  The rest seems really quite easy to do.

Prepare the sauce (basic ingredients of salt, sugar, oyster sauce, black bean sauce, sesame oil, pepper, etc.), roll the eel in it then arrange the eel curled up on the plate and steam.  The chef in the video also said that the best eel came from Australia near the river estuary as that's where there is a mix of freshwater and salt water giving the eel a distinct flavour and texture.  Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDCBK4142ww

Saturday, 30 March 2013

King Crab Feast

You especially appreciate having friends when you want to have a king crab feast.  According to experienced feasters, the minimum poundage for a meaty king crab is 12 pounds, and restaurants could charge as much as $40 per pound in season (Toronto price, it's much cheaper in Vancouver).  The larger crabs cost more but they are also more meaty and you are paying for a lower shell to meat ratio.  Apart from helping you eat the crab, more importantly, friends also help you pay for it!  

King crab season is very short.  Alaskan king crab fishing lasts only a few weeks some time between October and January (depending on the year) and by the end of March, most of the crab would be gone and of course the "seasonal" price would be skyhigh.  Fishing in the Bering Sea in the middle of winter is no joke, making king crab fishing a dangerous occupation with one of the highest fatality rate in the world - something you wouldn't think of when you see the king crab sitting primly in the tank.   The latest trends are that the highest quality and biggest crabs are now sent to China to feed the nouveau riche, and that the Russians overfish - so stick with American crabs (with strict quotas); not that we would know the difference but one way to avoid eating Russian crabs is to not eat outside of the Alaskan season.

When we arrived at the restaurant tonight, the owner greeted us with the good news that there are still lots of crab and that we are "in luck".  We are definitely luckier than the mister below -

The restaurant made 5 dishes with him. 

Dish #1 - lower legs steamed with green onions and bean threads.  The bean threads soaked up all the juice - yumyum!

Dish #2 - upper legs steamed in garlic and pepper

Dish # 3 - Very meaty and tender "knuckles" fried in light batter

Dish #4 - Fried rice with crab roe

Dish #5 - Smoothest steamed eggs ever (with crab meat)

The luckiest fella of all - he is laughing all the way to the bank - owner Ringo Hui at O Mei restaurant brought in 180 crabs this season.  He charged $448 for a 12 lb. crab (this one is definitely more than 12 lbs).  You can do the math...

SUNDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2013

Squirrel fish?

One of the most important "symbolism" in a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is the presence of a food with "head and tail" to denote a good beginning and end and also the pun on the sound of the Chinese  word "fish"魚 which also sounds like 餘"leftover".  Half of this character 餘 is made up of the Chinese character 食 (eat), yet another indication of how important food is in Chinese culture.

So for a very good reason, we ordered the traditional "head and tail" dish when we had our Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at Delicious Restaurant last night.  We had all the regular goodies - their famous Hainan chicken and braised pork trotters, both perfectly done.  The grand finale was the very delicious "Squirrel fish", so called because in the traditional dish, the fish would curl up when deep-fried and with the head and tail arranged so that it looks like a squirrel.  I have had this dish at several restaurants in Canada but have only seen one that actually looked like a squirrel when I was in China.  But this one tastes terrific (and looks good) with a sweet and sour sauce and because it was the last dish in the dinner, it's almost like dessert.  The way it was served, with the fish almost standing, was both for looks and for practical reasons - the crispy fish and meat didn't get soaked in the sauce and so stayed crisp. The meat was detached from the bone when it was fried so that even the bones were crispy. The tail and fins were all crunchy, and more importantly for the symbolism, in tact.  Perfect!

MONDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2012

A Christmas Feast of Crabs and Lobsters

On the day before Christmas Eve, Mr. A bought two Dungeness crabs and two Maine lobsters on impulse. Only when he placed the sea creatures in his kitchen sink did he realize that he and Mrs. A would be eating shellfish for days.

Mr. A immediately went to work.  He killed the live crabs by pulling off their top shells.  He proceeded to clean the bodies and steamed them whole.  Next, he poached one lobster in a large pot of boiling water with heat off.  He severed the tail from the head of the second lobster and placed it in a bowl of icy cold water to firm up the meat for sashimi.  He saved the crab miso and the green lobster tomalley for later use.

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Mr. A wasted no time to made lobster sashimi.  The chilled meat was firm, crunchy and sweet.  The flavor became more complex when the pieces were seasoned with a little bit of wasabi and dipped gently intamari.  The sashimi was followed by roasted quails with sautéed rapini.  The quails were marinated briefly with a dark soy sauce and Kosher salt before being pan roasted in olive oil.  The rapini was sautéed with bacon, pancetta and red chili pepper.  The wine for dinner was a grower-Champagne from Avize.

*  *  *  *  *

Mr. and Mrs. A feasted on more crab and lobster dishes the rest of the 2012 Christmas week --  egg custard in crab shells, lobster instant noodle, crab and lobster risotto, lobster chowder (twice), Chinese scrambled egg with crab, and finally udon with crab and mushrooms.  

*  *  *  *  *

Egg custard in crab shells:  Mrs. A placed some crab meat in the two empty crab shells.  She filled up the shells with beaten egg mixed with crab jus, crab miso and chopped cilantro, and steamed them for a few minutes.  The result was different from chawanmushi  (the Japanese dish of egg custard with chicken, shrimp, and ginkgo nut steamed in a small lidded ceramic bowl) -- the color was not a pure soft yellow because of the crab miso, and the surface was not mirror smooth because the shells were too shallow for the egg to cover the solid ingredients.  Nevertheless, the dish was a success.  The aroma was intense; the flavor savory and totally umami.  Despite the small portion, its richness made the dish a meal by itself.  

Lobster and sardine instant noodle: Mr. A fried some shallots in olive oil from a can of “Parthos” brand sardines.  When the shallots were soft and slightly browned, he added pieces of lobster head and legs, cilantro and negi.  He warmed the small whole sardines in the pan to finish off the cooking.  The sauté was then placed over bowls of spicy hot “Boku-Uma” brand ramen noodle.   It tasted good.  (“Parthos” from Portugal is the only brand of canned sardines that Mr. and Mrs. A like.  It was packed in olive oil with red chili pepper, clove, a slice of cucumber, a slice of carrot and salt.  The texture and flavor of the fish are impeccable.)  

Crab and lobster risotto:  The idea was inspired by a dish Mr. and Mrs. A eaten not too long ago at Namu Gaji, a New Wave Korean restaurant.  The restaurant version was crab risotto with white truffle from Alba shaved tableside.  Mr. A’s version had no white truffle (sigh!).  He stirred Carnaroli rice in olive oil with chopped onion and garlic, and cooked it with lobster stock and clam jus, adding linguica, lobster tomalley, lobster tail and crab meat, and cilantro along the way.  The risotto took on a green colour from the tomalley.  Yum!  The wine: Roederer Estate l'Ermitage Brut 2003.

Lobster chowder:  Mr. A made the base with roux and lobster stock, seasoned it with paprika and white pepper, then added cream, cream style corn, beaten egg, and at the last minute some lobster meat.  The bowl was garnished with fingerling potato roasted with rosemary and thyme, linguica, cilantro, and fried sage on the lobster claw.  Following the chowder, Mr. and Mrs. A shared a piece of beef filet.  They drank a Fixin, which went well with both dishes. 

Mrs. A liked the lobster chowder so much that Mr. A made it a second time with some modifications.  He used a bottle of supermarket clam juice to supplement the remaining lobster stock.  He skipped the cream, potatoes and linguica to stay healthy.  But at the last minute, he put in chopped “4504” hot dog, the infamous bacon studded hot dog (so much for being healthy) and garnish of chives.  Mrs. A liked that version too.

Chinese-style soft scrambled egg with crab meat:  Mrs. A stirred slowly and gently beaten egg, mixed with crab meat, chopped yellow chive, in a Chinese wok over low heat until it was no longer runny. Chopped cilantro was added before the egg was completely set.  The scrambled egg was fluffy and moist, the chunks of crab meat sweet, the herbs fragrant.  It was Mr. A’s favorite dish. 

Crab udon:  It was Sanuki udon in a kombu broth seasoned with kanro (a thick dark soy sauce), topped with hedgehog mushrooms and maitake, juliennes of abura-age (deep-fried tofu pocket), negi and crab meat. 

Dessert for the week was of course Christmas cake, the pannetone of RubiRustichella d'Abruzzo, made with sultana raisins, candied citron and egg.  It was supplemented by the rich Walker’s shortbread.

SUNDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2012

Scallops again - but service is the key!

I was in Vancouver a few weeks ago and had a food encounter that kind of made my day.  We had gone to this restaurant as a second choice, the original destination had an hour long wait time.  We had walked 15 minutes to this one in the rain and cold and was told it could be half an hour.  After looking at the menu, we decided to stay and wait it out.  When we turned down offers from the bar, we were very graciously served with water while taking up space at the bar.  Score one.  As it turned out, a table was ready for us in 15 minutes.  Score two.

It was hard to make a decision on the menu, things that jumped out were braised lamb shank, duck breast and scallops.  After I ordered the lamb (because of the cold and the rain) and finished my first course of delicious mushroom soup, the server delivered a plate of super-sized scallops to the diner at the neighbouring table. The four jumbo scallops looked so good I couldn't resist. I took my chances and asked the server if it's too late to change my order. He thought so and I wouldn't have insisted (I should be embarrassed to even ask but I had nothing to lose).  But he very good-humouredly said he'd check with the kitchen. I was surprised when he came back and asked me what I wanted to change it to.  When I said "scallops!", he said, "Ï knew it!" and proceeded to let the kitchen know. He had obviously noticed our stares at the scallops when he brought it to the next table.  Score three!

It was worth the wait! The scallops were perfectly done, fresh and delicious!  And especially so because of the circumstances.  (Score four)  Two of my dining companions had the duck breast - also superbly prepared and the meat tender and flavourful.  (Score five)  It was one of the best dinners I've had for a while and I would say - it's in good part because of the service!

The restaurant is Crave on Main and I gave it a four star on TripAdvisor, only because one of us did stick with the lamb shank and it was a little dry.  That's one out of four, so it's less than perfect.  But the service made up for it!

WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2012

Steamed Clams and Mussels

Cooking steamed clams and mussels at home is easy.  I made some last week.  We ate the mussels as starter, and the clams with cirioline all’uovo (an egg pasta) as the main course.  The wine was a Navarro Sauvignon Blanc from California.

The most important thing is to get fresh live mollusks.  I avoid shops that keep their clams and mussels in tanks of water because I cannot be certain about the quality of the recirculating water.  I prefer shops that keep their products on ice in refrigerated display cases.

Once home, I put the mollusks in a bowl, fill it with cold water and leave it in the fridge for them to spit out the sand from inside their shells.  A Japanese old lady once told me that putting a rusty nail in the water would make the clams clear out all their grits.  I never had a rusty nail handy when I cook clams so I cannot vouch for the claim.  Before I cook them, I scrub the outside surface of each mollusk to get rid of grits and rinse them a few times.  I throw away cracked ones.

Mussels have beards.  I just trim off the exposed portion.  If you want to pull them off completely, do it right before cooking because de-bearding kills the mussels.

I heat up some olive oil and butter (or shrimp butter if I have some on hand) in a large heavy pot and fry some sliced shallots, crushed garlic and one or two small red chili peppers.  Sometimes I also add sliced salt pork, or pancetta, or chunks of spicy hot sausages.  Once everything is nicely browned, I pour in some dry white wine and reduced shrimp stock (optional) and bring it to a boil.  I leave the heat at high, dump the mollusks in, and put the lid on for a few minutes.  I then uncover the pot and continue cooking.  I remove them as soon as their shells open to avoid overcooking.  I discard any that does not open (I do not force open them, especially not in the pot or the soup bowl, because in the best case they are bad and in the worst case their inside is filled with mucky grit and slime).