"Hot and Spicy" from Taiwan

The highlight of today's Taiwanfest at Toronto's Harbourfront is the culinary demonstration by "Hot and Spicy Chef" Cheng-Chung Chen from Taiwan.  Not normally a hot and spicy fan, I would never have walked into a Sichuan restaurant on my own and Mr. Chen is famous for his Sichuan specialty.  It's a good thing I stayed and tasted the dishes he made - I was pleasantly surprised.

Even the raw prawns were nicely arranged - they had been marinated with egg white, salt and corn starch.  The Chef then proceeded to butterfly them with their shell on.  He then laid them tails up on a bed of glass noodles that had been soaked in water.  

The chef explained the sauces.  He used a sauce that is made up of marinated chopped peppers.  There was a mix of hot, mild and sweet peppers and this looked like it's the key to the flavour of the dish.  Of course, there is the garlic, which he first smashed and then chopped into a million fine bits in no time at all.  (I just realized that I need to get myself another sharp and thin chopper like his!  I was trying to do the same thing the night before using my forty-year old chopper.  It was great for chopping chicken bones but for fine cutting and mincing, it just didn't make the cut.   A knife manufacturer should have been at this show!)

Chopping garlic

He put everything into the sauce - juice of one lemon, marinated chopped peppers, chopped garlic, salt, mushroom essence (another new find*), sugar, vinegar and honey.  He drizzled the sauce over the prawns and the glass noodles, steam the whole thing for 10 minutes and it was done.  The final touch - sprinkle some chopped parsley and green onion on top,  heat up some oil and pour over the top.

We were offered a plate of the prawns over glass noodles and the following dish - Szechuan Hot & Spicy Mussels - all for $2 - a bargain compared to the street food being served outside in the square.

Done!

* Learned something new again when the woman next to me asked me what was that mushroom essence the chef was using.  Never heard of it but a couple of the Taiwanese workers behind us knew what it was - dried mushrooms powder.  The woman beside me extrapolated that she could use dried shitake mushrooms and ground them up.  She had done the same with porcini mushrooms and used them as flavouring - she said it went right into the food and the flavour was very intense.   She then suggested that I buy a large bag of porcini mushrooms to bring home next time I'm in Italy.  What a great idea!