Eric's Kitchen in NJ: Seafood Paella

Jenn and I went to Spain last summer and had amazing seafood Paella at a few different places and I've been dying to attempt to make it myself ever since we returned. Luckily my Mom let me borrow her giant Le Creuset pot and some real Saffron, 'the world's most expensive spice by weight'. You can actually see a strand of it in my picture above right on a piece of chicken in the lower left hand corner. It's red and stringy.

Anyway, I made way more food than Jenn and I could eat in a night so we'll be having Paella quite a lot this week but I can think of worse tragedies to befall on us. It also came out exactly how I was hoping. I used the Paella recipe in the Joy of Cooking as a reference but didn't agree with a lot of their decisions.

Ingredients (serves 8 supposedly):
1 lb. bag of mussells (scrubbed and de-bearded)
1 lb. of shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined
2 chicken breasts
5 oz. of chopped chorizo sausage
5 oz. chopped baby bella mushrooms
1 vidalia onion minced
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1.5 red peppers, chopped
2 cups of arborio rice
4 cups of hot broth (mine was from cooking the mussels plus some chicken bouillon)
1 cup white wine
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Better than Bouillon chicken base
Konriko's Creole Seasoning
Pinch of dried Saffron

So the Joy of Cooking recommended cooking the chicken ahead of time and adding mussels and shrimp at the very end right before serving. I decided this seemed like a terrible idea as I wanted to cook the rice in the broth from the mussels to begin with. So the first thing I did was to steam the mussels in 3 cups of water and 1 cup of white wine with a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic and some chopped cilantro. I had Jenn do a coarse chop of the veggies in the food processor (we just got one) and then I cooked the chicken breasts with half the veggies in some olive oil and seasoned them with some Konriko's Creole Seasoning. I made sure the chicken wasn't overcooked as you're supposed to bake the whole shebang in the oven for 15 minutes at the end at 350 degrees (I also pre-heated the oven). Once the chicken was almost done I took it out and Jenn sliced it and I set it aside.

Then I took the other half of the veggies and cooked them with the shrimp and some more creole seasoning. For whatever reason I put Cajun spices on everything. I took out the shrimp and the mussels when they had opened and set those aside separately since I didn't want to over cook them and decided I'd add them at the very end and let the rice heat them when serving. I also set aside the wonderful broth from the mussels and added a tsp. of chicken bouillon.

So then I put all the cooked veggies and the sliced, mostly cooked chicken in the pan and slowly added the rice and broth, stirring often. I made it as if I was making risotto as it's the same type of rice. You want to coat the rice with a little fat (olive oil in this case) and then slowly let it soak up the broth. Although knowing that it was going to cook more in the oven I just got it started, stirred and then stuck it all in the oven saving the mussels and shrimp for the end.

When it came out all the rice was at the bottom so I had to stir it again but it was perfect. If you want to adjust the recipe it's just 1 part rice to 2 parts broth. If you make this I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I think it's one of the best things I've ever made.

Eric's Kitchen in NJ: Seafood Paella

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Shrimp & Mushroom Dumplings

Another dumpling recipe for the food blog! While these look just like my last recipe from the outside, they are filled with Shrimp and Shiitake mushrooms and so they taste pretty different. Sasha recommended trying to make my own wrappers this time but after looking at a few recipes online and trying to find the ingredients with no success I settled on using the same old wrappers I've always used. They came out great in the end and I definitely recommend this recipe for the filling at least!

Ingredients:
1 package of gyoza style dumpling wrappers
1.5 lbs. raw shrimp, cleaned and cut into thirds or fourths depending on the size
1-1.5 cups shredded red cabbage
4 large shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 bunches of scallions, chopped
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
chili and sesame oil
1 tbsp or 1 clove minced garlic
chopped fresh ginger and or water chestnuts are also a great addition

These are pretty simple to make but require a great deal of time. If your wrappers are frozen make sure to thaw them thoroughly ahead of time. Then I chop up everything and put it in a large mixing bowl and give myself some surface area to wrap the filling. For the filling this time I decided I really wanted the shrimp to be the main ingredient so I made sure the pieces weren't too small and bought some decent sized shrimp. I made the mistake once of using salad shrimp. I will never do that again. Also make sure you add a little soy sauce to the filling mixture as it really brings out the flavor.

I tried to make sure each dumpling had about the equivalent of a whole shrimp as well as a decent amount of everything else. I placed this on the wrappers and you need to wet the edge of the wrapper with a little water and then just fold it up and press the edges firmly together. Try to make sure that they are nicely sealed as they don't cook as properly if they aren't.

When cooking these I use a combination of sesame oil and chili oil to handle the heat well and to give some kick. I'd put maybe a tablespoon of each in a large frying pan and let it get nice and hot before adding the dumplings. I fit as many in the pan as possible just because I'm usually making a large amount of these which is fine since they freeze well and can be reheated in an oven or toaster oven after thawing. It's good to leave them in the pan, uncovered until they are nicely browned on the bottom. You don't want to be eating raw shrimp but I also wouldn't recommend pre-cooking the shrimp as they might get overdone.

After they are browned on the bottom I turn them to brown on the side as well and pour a little water in the pan (maybe 1-2 tbsp) and immediately cover it, letting them steam until the water is mostly absorbed. Again this helps ensure that the shrimp cooks fully and usually helps tighten the wrappers. In the end you get a nice crunchy and slightly spicy shrimp dumpling. I usually end up serving it with some bottled dumpling sauce but making your own is pretty easy and usually just involves some rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger, scallions and soy sauce. Pretty much what we used during our Mongolian Hot Pot as a dipping sauce.

Also see Sasha's Lamb Dumplings and Molly's Pork Hash.

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Shrimp & Mushroom Dumplings

Sasha's Kitchen: Nobu's Spicy Shrimp Tempura

I am about to introduce the most unhealthy thing I have made since starting this blog.  All those sticks of butter in my cupcake frosting don't hold a candle to this one.  I really usually try to cook on the healthy side, so deep fried food is a rarity in my kitchen.  However, I couldn't resist trying out Nobu's recipe for spicy shrimp tempura, and I was not disappointed.  Like most things that are incredibly unhealthy, the deep fried shrimp, coated in a spicy mayonnaise, dipped in ponzu sauce, was mouth wateringly delicious.  In fact, I, the normally somewhat health conscious (or at least fat conscious) chef who cooks using only organic vegetables, am almost ashamed to be writing this one up.  I probably wouldn't share this recipe at all, because of the guilt factor, if it wasn't so good . . .

Nobu, the flagship restaurant of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa is one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in New York for its non-sushi dishes.  The black cod with miso is another favorite of mine (much healthier, too I might add).  The recipe below is from Nobu's cookbook, Nobu Now.   When preparing this dish, I made a couple of slight modifications from Nobu's recipe, while I scaled back the recipe so I would not have extra.    The dish was amazing, but given the cardio-scare from this dish, it is probably not something I will make again.  Then again, it's nice to treat yourself every now and then.  In addition, it is worth adding that I discovered that another blogger has done a very similar adaption from the original Nobu recipe.

Tempura Batter (adapted from Nobu Now recipe)
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup ice water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp lemon juice

Spicy Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
4 tsp sambal
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

3/4 lb shrimp
chives
ponzu sauce
lemon juice

To prepare this recipe, I first made the batter and set aside.  To make the spicy mayonnaise, I bet all the ingredients except the canola oil in a bowl, and then I emulsified by adding the canola oil slowly and beating with a whisk the entire time.  I added both sambal and red pepper flakes to get the desired heat.  You could certainly make it spicier if you like.

One of the things I dislike most about seafood is shelling and deveining shrimp.  However, the deveining process (which I detest) is absolutely necessary.  For that reason, I purchased fresh shrimp that were already shelled and deveined at my local fish market in Park Slope.  To prepare the shrimp, I dipped or dredged each shrimp in the batter and then deep fried it in our electric hot pot, with the heat setting for the oil at about 355 F.  My husband, Brad, actually did the deep frying - he used about 3 inches of canola oil for the small to medium sized shrimp that I had purchased.  Each one took about three minutes.

When the shrimp were done, I coated them in the spicy mayonnaise and served with chives, lemon juice and ponzu sauce.  My husband actually preferred simply dipping the shrimp in the mayonnaise because it stayed a little crispier that way.

This was delicious, but like I said, I prefer to eat to healthy to make this one again!  This was only our second venture at deep frying.  The first was out New Orleans Beignets (doughnuts).

This was a fun Japanese recipe.  I really enjoy all of the ethnic fusion cooking I have been experimenting with in many of my recipes lately.  I am really itching to do some international travel and taste testing on foot.  It's been almost a year since my last trip to Europe and I am feeling some wanderlust right now.  There's such a long list of places in the world I want to see and eat my way through, yet never enough time and money to do it all.

Shrimp

Sasha's Kitchen: Nobu's Spicy Shrimp Tempura

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Fried Rice

I made this with leftovers from the Mongolian Hot Pot we had at my Mom's which is ironic since usually fried rice is a way to use leftover rice. This is actually my 2nd attempt at fried rice and the first time I managed to burn the rice and it was pretty much ruined.

So this time around I decided to check our family cookbook from my Chinese side of the family. Sure enough we had a recipe for fried rice and it called for 'day old, cold cooked rice'. I thought maybe this was some sort of rice cooking process I didn't know about and maybe that was why it didn't come out right the first time so I looked up a few recipes online and it's exactly what it sounds like. Cooked rice that has been cooled for a day.

The meats and veggies we had from the hot pot weren't exactly what I would think to normally put into fried rice but I also thought it might make it interesting. We had sliced lamb, fish, chicken, shrimp, napa cabbage, mushrooms and snowpeas... Overall I found the napa cabbage and the fish to be my favorite parts followed closely by the shrimp which I found interesting as I never would have normally put the napa cabbage or fish into this dish.

My Ingredients:
3 cps cold, cooked rice (day old)
hot pot fish
shrimp (~12)
1/3 cup sliced lamb
1/3 cup sliced chix
handful fresh chopped cilantro
juice from two slices lemon
pinch of sliced ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1.5 bunches scallions
black roasted sesame seeds (~tbsp)
chili oil
sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
dash rice wine vinegar

I cooked the chicken and lamb first with some scallions and the cabbage. I used sesame oil, garlic and some chili oil in a pan and added some roasted sesame seeds as well to give them some flavor but in hindsight I think I should have marinated them as they really didn't get too much flavor from that plus I overcooked them a little.

I then cooked the rest of the veggies, shrimp and fish, again with scallions, sesame seeds and garlic in sesame and chili oil but this time I also added fresh lemon juice and a bunch of cilantro (which my Grandma calls Chinese parsley). I think I must have just timed this batch perfectly because all these ingredients tasted amazing. I set these aside with the other meats and veggies and started my rice.

I got more oil hot in the pan (Maybe 1 tbsp?) and then added my rice and stirred it until it was coated evenly with the oil. Then I added the rest of my scallions (probably a full bunch, chopped) and soy sauce (1 tbsp) and stirred until it was evenly mixed. We also had some leftover dipping sauce from the hot pot meal which was essentially sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and scallions (maybe 2 tbsp total) which I dumped in. The rice wine vinegar and ginger definitely stood out when we ate it and I would have to use them both again next time.

Once the rice was done I just mixed everything together in a big mixing bowl. Overall I was very happy with the results!

Here's a link to Sasha's Tropical Chicken Pineapple Fried Rice

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Fried Rice

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Tofu & Shrimp Pad Thai

This was my first attempt at cooking either tofu or pad thai. I will say from the start that I wasn't particularly thrilled with the results but I think the biggest mistake I made was not reading the label of the sauce I bought. Basically I needed 2 jars of thai kitchen peanut sauce for the amount of noodles that I had and I only used one. If I made this again, I'd probably try to make the sauce from scratch and make a lot more of it.

Ingredients:
1 Package Thai Kitchen rice noodles
1 Jar Thai Kitchen peanut sauce (better to use 2 if going this route)
1 red pepper, minced
1 medium vidalia onion, minced
1 package of straw mushrooms
1 handful of chopped cilantro
1 package extra firm tofu
1 lb. jumbo shrimp

I'll start with the tofu since this was the most interesting part to me, having never cooked it before. I took some advice from Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' and dried the tofu by wrapping it loosely with paper towels and placing some cans of baked beans on top to utilize the weight and drain the tofu. After that sat for 20 minutes or so and seemed less damp, I cubed it and then dredged it with egg whites, wheat flour and bread crumbs. I then pan fried the cubes in some olive oil to give it a little crunch. I do realize this kind of defeats the purpose of making healthy tofu but I figured, hey, at least we're cooking tofu for the first time! Baby steps...

I cooked the shrimp in olive oil, garlic, chopped cilantro and a little lemon juice. I like to cook them in the shells and shell them after cooking as I find they stay more tender this way and near impossible to overcook them unless you're really not paying attention.

On to the sauce (which was mostly from a jar). I sauteed the straw mushrooms, onion and minced red peppers with some garlic in olive oil and added them to the peanut sauce. I also shelled a cup or so of peanuts and crushed them with the back of a wooden spoon. These helped the sauce immensely.

In the end I served this with a slice of lemon and some sauteed snow peas. I have to say both the shrimp and tofu were excellent but the noodles needed more sauce for sure. Maybe someday I will try to follow this up with some homemade sauce instead!

Here's Sasha's versions of chicken and vegan pad thai

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: Tofu & Shrimp Pad Thai