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Mmmm-*mmmh*!
Sep. 21st, 2002 09:03 pmToday was not a good day if you were with me and were one of my dietary-restricted friends. I was on day 2 of a three-Saturday course at the Culinary Institute of America, and I think about the only major food group forbidden to one or more of my friends, whether for medical or religious reasons, was dairy. The course? Flavours of Southeast Asia, taught by chef Hinnerk von Bargen. (Oh, hush. He worked in China and southeast Asia for years and would've been an executive chef in Jakarta if the economy hadn't collapsed and the hotel gone out of business. The fact that he's a 6'5" German is kind of irrelevant when you can cook like that.)
So what was on the menu? Well, today we did South China, Malaysia, and Singapore, so...
Jiao zi - New Year's dumplings. I spent I don't know how long chopping the Napa cabbage fine enough to be part of the filling for these, a fact which meant I earned the right to use the food processor on the scallions we substituted for leeks. The filling also included ground pork. There go my Jewish friends.
Hui guo ro - twice-cook Sichuan pork. Jewish friends are already out the window, but cholesterol or fat-restricted friends should follow them, because we used pork belly. This is not intestines. This is the meat that becomes bacon when smoked. It was not smoked, it was fresh - but it's still something like half lean, half fat. Tasty, though. I'm a sucker for anything Sichuan.
Zha au he - stuffed lotus roots. Peel the roots. Slice the root so your pieces are half a centimeter thick. Combine ground pork and more chopped leek in a bowl, and put this between the slices. Now batter it and deep fry it, and afterwards, dip it in a mixture of kosher salt and Sichuan peppercorns. The batter's made from all-purpose flour, salt, water, and eggs, so there go the celiacs.
Singapore style fried noodles - Lovely stuff, truly, but they've got shrimp in.
Lamb curry 'just like in a banana leaf restaurant' - Well, the vegetarians have long since... oh, wait. Sorry, this curry includes potatoes, onions, black cardamom, fennel seed, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, chilies, black mustard seeds, salt, pepper, garam masala, cilantro... and yoghurt. I knew we had dairy somewhere.
Street-corner Kuala Lumpur style satays - No real problems here for anyone except vegetarians and those with an objection to fish sauce or peanut allergies. But damn, I love that peanut sauce.
Hai nan ji fan - Hainanese chicken rice. Very nicely done, actually. I wish I could run this past some of my Asian friends in person just to see if it's really like what you get over there; it's an amazingly simple dish and those are always infinitely more challenging than anyone really suspects.
Beef rendang - Again, nut allergies are the big thing here, as we used macadamias in the rempah; also we used coconut milk and plenty of chilies and similar things. I did have a friend in my foods prep classes who was allergic to beef, so if the satays didn't chase him away, this would.
Aaaand two of the people in class were vegetarians, one of whom expressed an interest in kao fu/chao su/seitan last week, so they made their own 'meat' by kneading up all purpose flour and cold water into a dough, then washing it until all the starch went away. that sound you hear is the celiacs and the grandmother of a wheat-sensitive autistic child simultaneously breaking out in hives. Good stuff, though.
I swear, one of these days I'm gonna open a restaurant called 'Café Allergé' just so folks on dietary restrictions have a place to go.... and then I'm opening one for everybody else called 'Eat Dammit', and if you ask how many calories are in the dessert, the wait staff won't let you have any.
So what was on the menu? Well, today we did South China, Malaysia, and Singapore, so...
Jiao zi - New Year's dumplings. I spent I don't know how long chopping the Napa cabbage fine enough to be part of the filling for these, a fact which meant I earned the right to use the food processor on the scallions we substituted for leeks. The filling also included ground pork. There go my Jewish friends.
Hui guo ro - twice-cook Sichuan pork. Jewish friends are already out the window, but cholesterol or fat-restricted friends should follow them, because we used pork belly. This is not intestines. This is the meat that becomes bacon when smoked. It was not smoked, it was fresh - but it's still something like half lean, half fat. Tasty, though. I'm a sucker for anything Sichuan.
Zha au he - stuffed lotus roots. Peel the roots. Slice the root so your pieces are half a centimeter thick. Combine ground pork and more chopped leek in a bowl, and put this between the slices. Now batter it and deep fry it, and afterwards, dip it in a mixture of kosher salt and Sichuan peppercorns. The batter's made from all-purpose flour, salt, water, and eggs, so there go the celiacs.
Singapore style fried noodles - Lovely stuff, truly, but they've got shrimp in.
Lamb curry 'just like in a banana leaf restaurant' - Well, the vegetarians have long since... oh, wait. Sorry, this curry includes potatoes, onions, black cardamom, fennel seed, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, chilies, black mustard seeds, salt, pepper, garam masala, cilantro... and yoghurt. I knew we had dairy somewhere.
Street-corner Kuala Lumpur style satays - No real problems here for anyone except vegetarians and those with an objection to fish sauce or peanut allergies. But damn, I love that peanut sauce.
Hai nan ji fan - Hainanese chicken rice. Very nicely done, actually. I wish I could run this past some of my Asian friends in person just to see if it's really like what you get over there; it's an amazingly simple dish and those are always infinitely more challenging than anyone really suspects.
Beef rendang - Again, nut allergies are the big thing here, as we used macadamias in the rempah; also we used coconut milk and plenty of chilies and similar things. I did have a friend in my foods prep classes who was allergic to beef, so if the satays didn't chase him away, this would.
Aaaand two of the people in class were vegetarians, one of whom expressed an interest in kao fu/chao su/seitan last week, so they made their own 'meat' by kneading up all purpose flour and cold water into a dough, then washing it until all the starch went away. that sound you hear is the celiacs and the grandmother of a wheat-sensitive autistic child simultaneously breaking out in hives. Good stuff, though.
I swear, one of these days I'm gonna open a restaurant called 'Café Allergé' just so folks on dietary restrictions have a place to go.... and then I'm opening one for everybody else called 'Eat Dammit', and if you ask how many calories are in the dessert, the wait staff won't let you have any.
