YUMMO - 365 Days of Eating and Being Fed

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Jun 6th - Kalbi and BBQ Portobellas for a Korean Sunday Dinner

Since our BBQ is back in commission after a year on leave, D immediately wanted to have some Kalbi. He lured a friend over to help him replace the BBQ in its rightful place by proffering some yummo Kalbi from my mom. DD was in charge of bringing Kimchee. He was mortified to find out that I did not keep a steady supply in my fridge. I told him it is not as easy to do when all residents of a home are not Korean to keep Kimchee in the fridge. Unless it has been properly made to last, it will start to go off within in a week and bully your fridge. Most store bought Kimchee is bought to eat right away. Particularly, the Kimchee sold in the condiment area of a Korean market in the disposable trays, ready made is ready to eat only. It is not a true 'pickle'. I found that out the stinky way. Mom's Kimchees can be in the fridge for months and months. Of course, that requires a lot of other ingredients mostly left out as well as lots of Salt which is a known health issue amongst Koreans who munch on Kimchee daily.

I was originally going to join in with some Portobella Burgers and even made some Wholewheat Rosemary Foccacia to go with them but when I saw the Banchan that DD brought over as well as the Kimchee, I could not help but decide to go another way. I decided to do a quick Kalbi inspired marinade for the Mushrooms, which D pointed out were way too big for me to have two. I thought they would shrink.

Korean Kalbi Inspired Portabella Mushrooms

1/2 c Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
2 T Brown Sugar
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 inch fresh Ginger, minced
1/4 cup Onion, chopped
1 T Sesame Oil
1/2 T Chili Powder/Flakes
1 T Canola or Peanut Oil

Whisk all the ingredients except the last one in a small bowl.
Tear the stem away from the mushroom. Brush the cap clean with a mushroom brush or dry paper-towel.

Rup the top of the cap with some Peanut Oil or other neutral high smoking point oil. Place in a shallow dish and spoon on the mixture generously all over the mushrooms.

Shake them add place them outside up for 2-3 minutes on the BBQ. Turn and spoon more of the marinade. on. Since it is not raw meat or fish, you can serve the remaining marinade in a dipping bowl on the table.

YUMMO!

D and DD had Mom's Kalbi (Korean Beef Short Ribs). We are down to our last couple servings. Mom packs them in servings of four ribs so it is great for portion control and ease of defrosting.

As Banchan, we had Bechu Kimchee (Korean Pickled Cabbage) and Ooi Kimchee (Korean Picked Baby Cucumbers). DD also brought Steamed Veg with light Sesame Oil (Spinach, Carrots, Zucchini and Bean Sprouts). Mom would often have tossed with Toasted Sesame Seeds as well. Sweet and Hot Cuttle Fish (similar to dried Squid) and finally some Gochu Jang.

To wash it all down with we had a big and bold Robert Hall Syrah 2007. Did I mention the best bit? We got our BBQ back! Wooohooo, worth repeating.

Friday, June 11, 2010

June 5th - BC Spot Prawn Black Bean and Ginger Stir Fry with Soba Noodles

D was painting all day today. After a hard slog of a year with rainscreening by unbelievably useless Western International contractors who I watched take down and rebuild our balcony not once but twice and have to repair the same wall 3-4 times, and take over 3 months to fix a sky light, it was very exciting to put paint back up on the walls, fix the carpet, and hang stuff back up. As D was painting, I ran all the household errands. I went down to Granville Island Fisherman's Wharf to buy some BC Spot Prawns off the boats parked by Go Fish.

We were not sure what we would do with them but we like to have them as often as possible during the season. D reckoned we could use a recipe for Lobster or Crab with the sweet meat of the BC Spot Prawn. We dug up a recipe we learned at a seafood cooking class that we have adapted over the years. As well, we further changed the proportions in order to keep the taste the Spot Prawn front and centre. Hence, the amount of Black Bean sauce in this version is about 20% the original but no less tasty!

We served this on Soba Noodles, prepared as per package. You can serve on Rice as well.

Black Bean Ginger BC Spot Prawn

1 lb live BC Spot Prawn
1/4 c Black Bean sauce
1/2 T chopped Chinese Chili (from a Jar)
1/2 c dry White Wine
1 inch fresh Ginger, chopped
2 cloves Garlic
1/4 c Water, as needed

This will not take long so: 1. Chop everything and have it all with in reaching distance of your secondary hand. (i.e. the hand your wok spatula is not in). 2. Have the fan on. 3. Heat on as high as you can get it. 4. Do no go anywhere or try to multi-task.

In a hot wok, eat some Peanut Oil or Canola Oil (neutral flavoured oil with a high smoking point), 1/2 T - T (Big T means Tablespoon on YUMMO and most books. Little t means teaspoon. There are 3 t's in a T and there are 3 T in quarter-cup.).

In the wok, add the Garlic and Ginger and Prawn. Stir for 3 - 4 minutes. Move alot. Add the White Wine. Stir for another 2-3 minutes. Add the Chili and Black Bean sauce. Stir until even coated. Add water as needed if too dry or add more wine.

You can leave covered if you are not ready but off the heat.

Serve hot on the noodles. Garnish with Spring Onion, optional.

We had a bright, Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Great with the spicy seafood.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

June 4th - the Reef - Disappointing re-Visit - No Plantain Blues :'^(

Cold Johnny Cake

The Reef is normally one of my favourite restaurants for casual dining here in Vancouver. The food is normally high quality ingredients, authentic Jamaican and very tasty. That was not my experience this Friday. I have not been back for a while because recently Dad found a supermarket in Toronto that sells Ackee in tins and sent me a care package. I scolded him of course because as thoughtful as it was to think of me and my ackee addiction, mailing heavy tins of food is not the best way for him to spend his money. Anyhoo. I have been making Ackee and Saltfish at home lately and have had the joy of controlling the amount of Ackee. As I have said before, the great thing on other nights with the Reef is that they are not stingy about the amount of Ackee which is why I go. I have written before that you do get more ackee on a middle of the week night because they are less busy with fewer people ordering the delicacy.

Seemed like a fair statement at the time but looking back it is a bit of a cop out. A restaurant of any decent rating should be able to hold its own on any night and the busy weekend nights more than others! I had been looking forward to the Reef for a couple of days. D had been out of town for work and when he called ahead to see what I wanted to do for dinner, he already knew the answer. There were two things on my mind for dinner, a nice helping of Ackee and fried Plantain. On the drive up Main Street, we past the Ukranian Orthodox Church on 11th. It dawned on us both simultaneously that it was the first Friday of the month and that mean Peroghy night! We were a hair away from deciding to turn around for homemade Peroghy served in a Church Hall. I wish we had.

When we sat down, I noticed a sign over the till saying '3 Plantains left'. I quickly waved to our waitress and tried to order Plantains (recall, it was one of the reasons for my wanting to go). She said that note when up ages ago and they were already out. She walked over to the mini-whiteboard and sadly, wiped of the note and replaced it with '86 the Plantains'. EXCUSE ME? Is this not a Jamaican restaurant? It was Friday evening, still quite early and the sun was still out and they were out of Plantains! WTF? I was on the edge of my seat. D, bless him, would have supported my wanted to change venues but I knew he was tired and hungry.

Weak Rum Punch

We started with a Pitcher of Rum Punch. It was just the two of us and we did not so much as get a buzz on, though that was not the aim. The Pitcher was a better offer than single drinks. But the jug was nearly 2/3 full of ice as were the glasses they came with. It was tasty but there was very little rum and way to much water by the end. The ice in the photo is not floating. That was the level of the ice as it came to the table.

We got their adored little Johnny cakes which they provide instead of bread. It is a sort of sweet, doughy fried bread. I remember it being called Festival bread when I was living there. Normally they are piping hot and you have to bounce them around as you try to spread the Coconut butter on. Not tonight. They were stone cold and rather small.

We ordered Yardie Yam fries to start but really the mains are large enough to forego a starter and as there were no Plantains, I could have skipped it. I wish we had. I think there must be a new chef or something because there were a number of these disappointing changes. The Yam Fries used to be lightly crispy and piping hot. These were skin-on, which on its own is not a bad thing, oily, too salty and SOGGY. They were over cooked and so it was basically chewy Yamskins. Terrible.

I ordered the Ackee of course. The slaw was different too and gross. It was either the bottom of the batch or unable to decide if it wanted to be sauerkraut. I left it. The Ackee was lean and had been over worked. The flesh of the Ackee is very delicate. When you get it out of the tin or after steam fresh Ackee, it has the appearance of say, curled thumbs and the texture is like Fois Gras. If you move or stir it too much it breaks down like when you use Egg Beaters and they start off looking like real scrambled eggs and end up looking like yellow baby food after it's been spit up. There was a decent amount of Saltfish at least!

D ordered the Lime Coconut Chicken. It was too sweet and D did not touch the stodgy mash.

All in all, a very very regrettable night at the Reef. If this had been my first night there, I would never go back. It's a shame. It has been a while since I have been there for Brunch and they have a great Jamaican inspired Brunch menu and I was tempted to suggest going the next day but after that showing, I do not know when I'll go back. If I do, I'll go on a Wednesday where the food might be better.