Three Waves of Cuisine

In cooking one can boil the where of their culinary homeland pretty easily. When it comes to recipes the case is a little harder, but still manageable. Many times though when people ask someone who cooks what kind of food they like to cook this little detail goes out the window. In any case here are the three general time frames of cuisine.

Classical
This would be the recipes that are often heralded by many critics. These are the ones that have passed from generation to generation. Things that have been around for many years in some cases hundreds or even thousands. From here you will see less technical ways with common ingredients of the era. This food often while have a higher bar of detail in flavoring using a strict set of ingredients while still trying to create new recipes within it. Le Tour D’argent’s hey day was due to more popular recipes that could be seen as classical french food. Often times also the French, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian cuisines will go more back in to their culinary history as they have many centuries of recipes to go through in a style of food that has been found pleasing on the world stage.

Modern
This would be the most popular time frame of cooking simply with what you have using the basic techniques that the common person has access to. Most places nowadays will go through this era of food as it is often the easiest to create often by here say or just by the equipment and time available to cook. Here is where will we say newer countries really begin to make their stand as well as some who maybe have not been given the same opportunities due to simple lack of knowledge about it. This would include a fair mix of countries including the America’s, Spain, Indian, Korean, and most of the Arabic states.

Neo Cuisine
This is where fusion would be situated, and the realm of neo cuisine is the unexplored the new and brash scientific edge meeting a different set of flavor combinations that neither era of cuisine before it could have dealt with. David Chang has a great penchant for making good food no matter the ingredients. Another style of food that would be here is molecular gastronomy. Where more of the new ground is still being made. Every national cuisine can be done in to a new style making it an interesting exchange between the new style and the older version. A restaurant idea could be even made on highlighting the difference between the old and the new while having the tasters enjoy them both in their own special ways.

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Ten Colors of Chinese Food

Chinese Food has always interested me for many reasons. One is the simple size of the country translated well in to bringing a wide diversity with many different forms. Another is the diversity of recipes withing the styles. To be a master of Chinese cooking makes someone respect the ingredients and use them with great grace, attention to detail and more then a thousand years of food history to go look through for inspiration.

Eight Regional Styles

Sichuan – Any self respecting fan of the old iron chef will know a little about this as Chen Kenichi was trained in this form of Chinese cuisine by his father. It is popular for using fresh water fish as well as beef, pork, and chicken. Most times it will be associated with hot and spicy flavor combinations using different kinds of peppercorns and condiment with garlic as the basic flavor components in sauces. Sichuan peppercorns will make an appearance sometimes and one of the more well known dishes is mapodoufu. A spicy chunky bowl of warming happiness with tofu.

Anhui – From the Huangshan Mountains it is relatively close to everything allowing it and Jiangsu style to be the family when it comes to style. What separates Anhui from many of the others is the more prolific use of herbs. Many Chinese styles classically use spices and not herbs or very little in comparison. Herbs give the most flavor through liquids, and that is the case as some of the more popular cooking techniques include wet methods like stewing and braising. It also a larger number of mushroom dishes due to the home environment in the forests I truly think as we all get more health conscious there may be a resurgence of Anhui and Jiangsu dishes.

Hunan – Hunan in some cases may be the spiciest of cuisines, but that doesn’t stretch to every dish with one of their most well known dishes being orange beef. It is one of the more unknown cuisines. You can look at this and Sichuan as brother cuisines both known for using chili and garlic, but each having slightly different ways of using ingredients. Preserved meats are also popular in both often times to add a bit of seasoning as well as protein to the dish.

Beijing – Based on the capital of China it has a more well rounded appreciation not making it strong or weak using any cooking technique. It is more difficult to do well as it will often use more complicated procedures to make everything just right. It is also known as Peking style food the most well known recipe is Peking duck and one of the more interesting subsections of food comes from this city cuisine.

Shandong – One of the most interesting things in this version of Chinese cooking is the uses of steamed and fried breads instead of using rice exclusively. It also seems to be one of the most influential depending on who you ask. In any case this food from the northern coast line. It can almost be looked at a step from the balanced Beijing style to the more specialized cuisines. Between those two camps lies Shandong style food with some ingredients that people in western countries that people would be more comfortable using then those found in other cuisines.

Jiangsu – As the brother in style to Anhui you will find a major difference when looking through some of the food and that is the basis of texture. Texture is very important in Chinese food on the same level as the basic flavor of the thing. Jiangsu brings out softer textures in food for people to enjoy and works on keeping that while flavoring the dishes making sure the texture works with the flavor. Braised spare ribs are popular dish and a good example of this relationship of texture and flavor.

Fujian – This cuisine has more seafood dishes then some of the other cuisines due to its placement on the south eastern coast. A number of their dishes do not focus more on the spicy or salty instead trying to be the fifth flavor, umami to the forefront. For those who do not know umami can be categorized as a harmonizing savory flavor. Soups and broths are more popular in this style of food as well.

Guangdong – This is also known as Cantonese and is one of the more popular forms of Chinese cookery in Hong Kong and does not favor one technique of cooking over another. So you are just as likely to deep fry in this cuisine as steam. Seasonings will be a little lighter with a wider range of fruits and vegetables being used versus something like Hunan. Dim Sum would also mostly based from this style of cuisine.

Two Circumstantial Styles

Imperial
Imperial Chinese cuisine or the food based on the recipes used for the royal family. Normally when trying these recipes my experience shows it will be more meticulous then other cuisines. But, if you have the passion to add then this can really be artistry on a plate. Often times the balance of flavors will be important while other cuisines may be more known for one set of flavors over another.

Chinese Medicinal Cuisine
As America and the rest of the world begun the shift to pharmaceuticals the ancient way of medicine in the forms of meals still continues. The history that this cuisine has can reach back a couple millennia by conservative estimates meaning that this has had many years where new ideas can be built and re worked and I really think that every country should have a form of native medicinal cuisine. People can eat themselves to better health, and some people may have problem because many of the items is based on the health first.

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Fried Tofu with Teriyaki Sauce

For this dish it is suggested that you have some cooked rice to pair it with. For this you will need the following ingredients.
Serves 5-7 with rice

Flour for dusting and Oil for frying
A block of Extra Firm Tofu (16 oz)
1/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Rice Wine Vinegar
Shredded sushi seaweed for garnish

Pour your oil in the narrowest pot you have as to save on the amount of oil needed put it on medium heat. It will take a couple moments to get to frying temperature. Next put a cup of flour in a wide bowl, and set aside. Press your tofu lightly with a paper towel so it will remove as much of the moisture as possible before cutting in to cubes at an inch squared. After cutting, check the oil by pinching a small amount of flour in to the oil if you get a fair reaction that looks just like a soup on a low simmer then you can begin. Dredge them in the flower in batches before dropping them in to the oil you don’t want to do it all at once because that will drop the temperature of the oil and for most stove top burners you will not be able to hold temp without splitting them in to at least two batches. I did mine in four batches total, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Let them fry until golden brown or a light manilla color for those who know their around an office better.

The bubbles don’t have to be big you just want to make sure that when they come out they can drain. rinse and repeat with all batches until all the tofu is drying off. For the teriyaki sauce take a small pot and put your sugar, vinegar and soy in it before bringing it up to a simmer making sure to stir until the sugar has been dissolved and let simmer for a couple minutes until all the flavors meld together or about three or four minutes.

I got a little impatient and cranked up to high which you can do if you want to watch it for a minute or two. You do not want the sugar to burn or else you will need to try again. After your tofu has dried appropriately you can use your sauce to dip into or pour over depending on how you like your sauces to be done. Some people are picky, no judging here.

I got my tofu placed on cooked white rice and seaweed around it and from here I just poured the sauce over the top and dug in. The picture didn’t come so clear as I had hoped but its tofu blocks on rice. So I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you liked what you saw give some of my other dishes a chance their in the cooking category on my blog.

Have a good day everyone, oh and before I forget starting in December their will hopefully be more posts I am getting a little bit more comfortable doing this as well as the youtube videos if you watch those link is to the side. I am going to try to up my game to do two a week I feel like it can be done. Wish me luck.

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Fried Rice –

Hey everyone, time for another simple recipe this time to use up any rice you may have this works best after the rice has cooled. You will need the following.

3 large eggs
1/4 C chopped green onions
2 qt of long grain white rice

Of course you want to have your seasonings of choice on hand. In a non stick pan on medium high heat start by cracking your eggs in to the pan until they begin to get opaque. Next is to toss your rice mixing the two together until the eggs are almost completely cooked. Picture below for example. Make sure to keep your rice moving as to not get over cooked in places this dish from start to finish takes less then five minutes if the rice is already cooked.

Last is to add your green onion as well as any seasonings you prefer, making sure to mix everything up with your spat of choice.From there just plate up Mine in the pic has a little bit of chili powder for color and a touch of heat. Shredded seaweed works well, and of course you can always just grab a spoon and dig in.

If you do not want to use or do not have a non stick pan then just a drop of oil is needed before putting the eggs in. From there just go for it.

Next, two recipes on this blog will be a tofu dish fried and with sauce over rice once again. Rice was on sale so I got a big bag to last me for a while. The other recipe will be a dish I actually took as a challenge / idea from someone on twitter. Breakfast cupcakes. Me being a stickler for things got to be a problem there, but over all the dish tasted good and was actually very good for breakfast. If you

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Game Day Quesadillas

I am more of a sunny day or in the Oregonian case the rainy day sports fan. However, one must have some game day grub that is easy to eat so let’s go with a good quesadilla. I make quesadillas full size with two tortillas each so a full one can get you eight pieces of a good size. In these pictures I am using an eight inch tortilla here.

Ingredients:

2 tortillas per quesadilla
2 pieces of bacon or 1/4 C of refried beans
2 slices golden cheddar
2 T chopped green onions

The secret comes in the cooking we will be doing this in pan and it take close to five minutes on medium heat. Cooking it in pan is closest to the flattop stove that most restaurants. You want to have your bottom layer with the cheese in their first so that everything melts together. Doing it this way also allows the tortilla to crisp up a little before cutting in to it and that means less on you when your team is fighting for the win.

Flip it over when it looks like this.

Finish it up.

For the bean and cheese quesadilla I like adding some green onion to it to give it just a little more aroma. Make sure to spread it as evenly as possible without having an O.C.D panic attack.

When your food is done cut it up and use the green onions to garnish. It adds just a little bit of aroma to the overall dish and aroma is the one sense that can make you hungry better then your taste buds. Cut in to eight pieces like a pizza or four if you know some of the hungrier guys are coming around. For twelve inch tortillas you want to go to three basic slices of golden cheddar. If you don’t get the sliced stuff then you want about 1/3 C shredded or diced small.

A little bit of ketchup or your favorite salsa on the side and this makes a good snack to watch a game, play a game, even make a game of your trying to be or already are an indie developer.

Now when your cooking for yourself you’re not going to be so finicky in the exact placement of garnishes. That will be for another blog post. Have a good one.

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Chili tofu

Now with this you can put it over rice or noodles. I still wasn’t sick of ramen so I used dry pack ramen noodles. The chili tofu is hot though so if you can’t stand the heat find a substitute. Cooked vegetables work well or even just a touch of soy after the tofu is browned in pan. For the chili tofu you will need the following.

A 16 oz package of tofu – Extra firm – tofu normally they come in 16 oz portions so no worries about over shooting and if you don’t want to make a full batch just replace the water in the tofu container before putting your remainder portion and that should give you about a week of time to play with it.

2 t of vegetable oil to help lubricate a wide shallow pan for the tofu

2 T chopped garlic

1/4 C sweet chili sauce or (1/8 C water, 1/8 C sugar, 3 T red chili flake)

1/4 C ketchup or (1/2 C tomato paste, 1/2 C white wine vinegar, and reduce to half)

Your seasonings of choice in my case.

Set your pan up and place on medium high heat. Oiled and ready we then move to the tofu and for this you will need a plate and a couple extra paper towels to make it easier on yourself. Open the package and drain it before setting it on the plate and pressing the paper towels lightly in to it. What this does is help remove some of the excess water so it will be easier for you to saute without breaking in to chunks.

What if it breaks in to chunks anyway? Use less sauce smaller pieces will not need so much to represent the same heat level. Other then that no changes so go for it. Next take your knife of choice and chop it up first in to planks before going in to cubes.

Behold cut tofu. Now after chopping your tofu up toss it in the pan.

You should get some sizzle as you drop it in so after that if you have to fuss with it you can set up your sauce to be poured in later. It will take some time to get a nice even browning or you can be like me.

After about ten minutes let it flip and toss in your garlic. If you want it to be more browned what you do not want to do is try to scrape it from the bottom of the pan within the first few minute you will have more of a chance of the tofu cubes breaking if that happens. After the garlic gets some browning time you want to add your sauce.

What if I let the garlic cook to long or everything seems dry in the pan?

Great question, now with tofu because it is so porous their will always be some absorption and the garlic will help with that so if you need a little more liquid as soon as your going dry you can add a couple drops of oil to finish your browning. Or if you say my ingredients I also had a lemon and an orange. They were on sale and I don’t get a lot of fruit so you can add the juice of a couple citrus.

I like mine a little hotter then normal so this is with an extra teaspoon of chili powder with the citrus juice to produce that red color. As soon as you finish this if you let things cook until they stick the pan still the juice will help bring those particles back up to add some flavor to your sauce. Add your mix of sweet chili sauce and ketchup to the pan and let it reduce a little making sure to get all the flavors together to properly introduce each other.

Ketchup has been used in dishes like this for many years, and old fans of Iron chef will remember the Chen ken min had a delicious prawns in chili sauce recipe that worked with ketchup as a base. If you don’t feel comfortable though you can pull back on it or make a quick version from the ratio I put up.

So after your sauce is ready its thick, full bodied, and delicious you need to have something to serve it with. For things like this I gotta go with the incredible edible egg. High in protein and adds just the right match to spicier things over rice or noodles in my opinion.

Lightly fried egg and spicy tofu over noodles. Enjoy, if you like anything I have been up to comment and if you know someone that could enjoy one of these please show them the way to my little corner of the internet.Oh and before I forget you can actually catch me at the twitter thing call me old fashioned if you like but I am at oneguyportland on the twittery thing. Have a good one everybody.

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Pork with Blackberry Cream

This dish pairs well with the apple onion salad from last week.

Here is what you need for this dish for a pair of servings. 4 thinly cut 3-4 oz pork chops, a cup of cream, 12 blackberries, an orange as well as a pair of rosemary sprigs. Garlic always matches with pork and S/p for seasoning is always good to get all the flavors to meet up on amiable terms.

Begin cooking your pork on medium heat. After they are just cooked let them rest for a moment. Seeing my pan after the salad and pork their is a lot of bits stuck to the bottom. Using a high acid liquid like a citrus juice or vinegar we can use those bits to flavor our sauce in a technique called deglazing.

After juicing your orange on medium heat let it simmer and mash your blackberries and rosemary making sure to scrape up the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan before continuing. Those bits are flavor particles ready to add to the arsenal of the sauce. When the juice is half reduced strain it before adding your cream.

Let the strained juice and cream mix before reducing until the cream is half gone. As soon as it is thick enough that it holds to the back of the spoon for just a second before dripping completely off. Now this was actually made for a co worker who was leaving. She wanted a meal cooked by me on her last day. This paired up with the apple onion salad for a box lunch like

This. The small containers are the blackberry sauce and the mustard dressing.

The pork was so thin I did not get the color I wanted on the outside, but it was still juicy without being pink. The sauce was a great compliment that was much more graceful then I originally thought it would. All in all it was a good thin and if you try it let me know if you do any of your own twists on it.

One thing I did not like was the color everything was kinda beige without the blackberry cream. After this I garnished with a couple pinches of fresh chopped rosemary before heading to work.

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Apple onion salad with garlic mustard dressing

This is a nice dish that will work well with the pork dish for next week. If you are vegetarian no fear this works just as well as a light potluck dish. For two servings you will need the following.

Salad: One green apple, half a white or yellow onion, salt and black pepper to taste, one lemon to juice. In this picture the orange and lemon are already zested because I used the zest for making my own bath salts. Like put in the bath and make everything smell nice as you relax and mine is all natural. Salt, teas, extracts, zests, etc. So ya mine are already zested if you have a moment you can use the zest as a garnish on top.

Dressing: A tablespoon mustard paired with one of honey or two tablespoons honey mustard, one teaspoon chopped garlic, a pinch of cocoa powder.

So core your apple chop it in to quarters before slicing and toss it in a pan on low heat. Next you want to take your half onion and slice it up julienne style making sure to do it a little thicker then normal julienne. tossing it in the pan we will mix it together and let the flavors meet each other as the onion begins to sweeten. Sweating on medium low with a touch of butter or oil of your choice if you do not have a non stick pan.

Mix up your dressing as everything is sweating just mixing it all up before tossing a portion in to toss with the reminder of the dressing on the side to taste.

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Potted shrimp

For two servings you will need the following…

Half lb of shrimp meat, three ounces of salted butter, teaspoon of chopped garlic, teaspoon of honey mustard, four slices of sourdough bread and chili powder for garnish.

This appetizer comes from across the pond originally made with brown shrimp you can make it with shrimp meat like me if you do not mind seasoning your butter a little bit stronger.

I like having the butter melt so you can season and make everything mix completely. Whisk your mustard and garlic in with the butter over low heat before dumping your shrimp in the butter. Cook in the butter until meat begins to turn white , and for the miniature shrimp that is about ninety seconds on low heat.

Mustard and garlic halfway mixing before tossing the shrimp in. After your shrimp is done you pour in to a pair of ramekins and while some prefer this chilled I actually enjoy this the most while everything to smear on toast making a delightful meal. Garnish with Chili powder if you like a little bit of heat at the end all the a quick grind of pepper works too.

When you chill the butter mix with the shrimp the butter will grow opaque but the shell will be much thinner then you think. After you chill them the meal is just delicious with some toasted sourdough for breakfast. I had some garlic sourdough I bought on sale from the local Franz store I just warmed up to eat with. Chilled properly the potted shrimp can last a week without major issues as long as it is refrigerated.

If you can find your way to get some butter and shrimp with a couple slices of good bread then you can make this the focus of a good meal in the autumn sun watching the beautiful colors of the leaves maybe with a nice glass of whiskey and cheesecake. Hope you enjoy your own version of this dish.

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Thoughts in the culinary world – Bobby Flay and James Beard

Now it seems that everyone worth their knives has something to say. The world of professional cooking is sometimes akin to the world of professional wrestling when larger then life personalities clash. Everyone has their own thing to say and everyone makes mistakes. When you do something you love so much, and someone makes you feel subpar some people are going to shoot off their mouths. From Top Chef to Paula Deen everyone seems to have their hand halfway in a boiling soup pot which is sad.

Bobby Flay is the most hated person in cooking. Which I can see as he seems very abrasive, almost disrespectful of other cultures and just sometimes acts like an ass. Seeing the food he makes and listening to him talk as well I really would not want to go to his restaurants. One thing no one can take away is he knows the business side enough that he has put himself in position on cooking shows for many years. Releasing books and through all the mistakes he has made one must give credit that he has used his business to back up where his cooking fails.

It is kinda sad he will be the most well known chef of the era because one of my cooking heroes is an Oregon born man by the name of James Beard. Cooking wise his recipes were never the absolute best, but across the board there was not a man who could boast the skill set he did. On top of that you would have to search to have someone say a bad word about him he always seemed to have a love of food that was only matched by the size of the man himself. The only thing you may find if you actually looked was how nearing the end of this life he decided to take endorsement deals to open more cooking schools. Which he even said made him feel like a “gastronomic whore”.

Sometimes we forget that the measure of a person is not just by popularity. A man can be the best without being the most well known. For the most part we as a culture bring much more infamy for all of our bad before allowing some to spotlight the good. Just some thoughts

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Eight Regional Styles

Two Circumstantial Styles

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