Week 11 continued – Momofuku; Chinese; Japan; and a Menu Dev

Momofuku!

Asia week continued with a nod to David Chang’s Momofuku concepts and recipes. This is not about “Asian fusion” where a dish has soy sauce added to it. Actually, do not use the term Asian fusion, period. We talk about using techniques and flavours to execute dishes that are yummy, and all of the Momofuku recipes we put together were. The Momofuku class is seasonal last year’s class didn’t get to do this, and unfortunately next term’s culinary students won’t have it either, so if you are new student coming in January, ignore the following pictures ;):

: Noodle-less salad

: Chicken feets

: Grilled asparagus with a miso hollandaise

: Kimchi hotpot

: Fish taco, so yum and I normally don’t order fish tacos.

Chinese

Chef Ian led the class for Chinese and Japanese cuisine. I was most comfortable and excited with these two days as these were food that were most familiar to me but the recipes are new to me and I’ll definitely be cooking these recipes again and again.

: The doughs we prepared a day ahead. The dan dan dough turned green due to the lye water oxidizing, but it rolled out not as green.

: Spring onion pancake and steamed BBQ pork bun where the secret ingredient in the bun to make it yummy was milk!

: The plated dish for mandarin pancake and smoked quail. This dish reminds me of Peking Duck.

: Classic Szechuan dish, ma po tofu with the original level of spices.

: Dan dan noodles.

: Making sachima. One of my favourite childhood dessert.

: Our stove was looking forward to this black cod, but unfortunately, this particular piece came from a fish that contained a parasite that wasn’t obvious until it was cooked. We learned about Kudoa thyrsites. 😦

Japanese

: Table of Japanese ingredients

: Mushi-pan (steamed bread). One of the other misses, the amount of baking powder in this was too overpowering. But I would make this again with adjustments to the recipe.

: Of course we made ramen! The rich broth was made two days before as part of Momofuku.

: Bento-styled: (top left clockwise): Chawanmushi, Gyoza, Gobo, Tamago, Sushi, Ogura yokan (red bean cake) and Mitarashi Dango (mochi balls). Loved everything here.

: Seafood okonomiyaki involved us cleaning squids, but this was oh so yummy.

Asian Menu Development

My team of three stove made came up with the following dishes for menu development:

: Here’s my team’s dishes presented.

: Gintara Saikyo Yaki – I have always wanted to make this with black cod and it turned out really good. This is inspired by Toshi (in Vancouver) and Nobu restaurant, it is a sweet miso glaze.

: Victoria came up with this dish as a play on Peking duck, but with a crispy base.

: Tere made a cauliflower “fried rice” with pork.

: Red bean pancake with matcha ice cream. This was our dish to satisfy the use of a dough. Oh so good!

: Tatsoi salad with a warm lap cheun vinagrette.

: My vegan Thai red curry tofu dish (with rutabuga and carrots) and rice balls. I need to get the recipe for those rice balls from Victoria! They were addictive!

I love the Thai Red curry paste recipe I made, there was a bit too much content in the curry, and I should have used more coconut milk to create more sauce (but we had a shortage of coconut milk in the kitchen.) Here’s my recipe for the Thai red curry paste, which is completely vegan 🙂

Thai Red Curry Paste (vegan)

1 T shallot, chopped
1 T garlic, chopped1 T galangal, chopped
1 T red chilies, deseeded and chopped (adjust to taste)
1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped
6 Kefir lime leaves, finely chopped
2 T soy sauce
1 t sugar
1/2 t white peppercorn
1/2 lime, juiced

1. Combine all ingredients in a pestle and mortar or a food processor, and process until you get a thick paste. Add to curry recipe with coconut milk.

Another favourite recipe from this menu dev:

Gintara Saikyo Yaki

1 T sake
1 T mirin
3 T miso (red or white, I used a red miso that was made 3 semesters ago in class)
1/4 c sugar

1. Bring the sake and mirin to a boil for 20 secs. Stir in miso and sugar. When the marinate has cooled, allow the black cod to marinate in for at least 30 minutes to 3 days.

2. Sear black cod flesh side down, flip fish over, baste with marinate and finish in oven at 400 degrees F for 10 more minutes.

Here are other dishes cooked up by the class: