Day 49 - Pages 18 7-188 - Pan-Roasted Dry-Aged Rib Eye

I sort of made this recipe. My version was not dry-aged nor a 2-1/2 lb steak but I got the basic idea and it was a true revelation. I now know that it's the butter basting that makes the steaks at Peter Luger and Ruth's Chris so popular. I hadn't cooked a steak in years and when I make one again, no doubt soon, this is how I'll do it.

After searing the meat on a smoking hot cast iron pan, it went into a 350 degree oven for a couple of minutes. Immediately after I removed it from the oven, I put the butter, garlic, shallots, and thyme in the pan and basted the steak until it reached a medium rare state. That was all there was to it. I think the most daunting part will be to find a dry-aged gigantic rib eye for my next try.

(Kids, this will be on the menu for your next visit)

Day 48 - Page 142 - Cured Hamachi, Horseradish-Edamame Puree & Furikake; Pages 105-107 - Grilled Octopus Salad, Konbu, Bamboo Shoots & Pickled Chiles + Octo Vinaigrette

This is the last week of posts for Mi Momofuku because by Sunday I will have made almost all of the recipes in the book or at least all of the recipes that I wanted to make. I have yet to decide on my next project but I'm intrigued by Jonathan Gold's early, outrageous ambition to eat at every food establishment along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. For a taste of his Pulitzer Prize-winning food writing you can find him at the LA Weekly . 

I've been working on this blog for 7 months and it was just today that I finally made the trip to Japantown. I had a really good time browsing the aisles and aisles of condiments at Nijiya Market. Chang favors Kewpie Mayonnaise, I couldn't resist, and I will have the chance to use it in a mustard sauce this weekend.
It comes in a squishy plastic bottle and comes with a warning:

But I was really on the hunt for all the things I would need for the Cured Hamachi dish. Everything but the horseradish (found at Molly Stone's in Greenbrae) was there.

The cure was roughly ground Sichuan peppercorns and coriander seeds

mixed with some sugar and salt. I coated the hamachi filets and set them to cure in the fridge for about 2 hours - any more time would have made gravlax and we were going for sashimi here!

Next I made the puree. The soy beans and horseradish were a contrast in texture and color.

I chopped the horseradish and pureed it with the beans and a little water in the blender. Green is my color and the pale shade was a beautiful foil for the strong fumes and intense pungency of the radish.

I plated this to look just like the Momofuku photo with fresh pea shoots and wakame chazuke furikake (seaweed and puffed rice seasoning).

The Grilled Octopus Salad was an afterthought because at the store I came across a small package of baby octopus tentacles. The recipe called for whole octopus but this made the job a little easier because I didn't have to check the heads for cartilage. I braised the octopus until tender in a broth of water, soy, sake and vinegar.

 

I sliced a bamboo shoot and boiled it in water until just tender - I wanted to maintain a slight crunch.

I also sliced a sheet of cooked konbu into narrow ribbons and julienned a carrot. Then I made the Octo Vinaigrette, a dressing with ginger, garlic, vinegar, and soy that is served with all kinds of grilled or fried meats at Momofuku. Previously, I made it to go with the Momofuku fried chicken. 

I grilled the octopus and put it on top of the tossed salad. This was spicy, sweet/sour, and a study in textures. 

Day 47 - Pages 166 - 167- Bo Ssäm and Ssäm Sauce

(reminder: you can click on the photos to view enlargements)
It was Wayan's birthday and a good reason to gather some friends around to celebrate with a bo ssäm for 6-8 people.  First: I got a Marin Sun farms pork butt, bone-in, 8 pounds. Covered it with salt and sugar and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day, I was up before sunrise to put it in a 300 degree oven. I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and by the time I got up the aroma was overwhelming the entire house (not necessarily in a bad way but...) so I took it out of the oven and put it in the Weber barbecue.  After 8 hours it was meltingly tender and the meat fell away from the bones without much effort.

While it was cooking there was time to prepare the condiments.  Clockwise, from upper left: Ava's black bean and garlic cucumbers, ssäm sauce (a mixture of ssämjang and kochujang), pickled cantaloupe, ginger scallion sauce, week-old kimchi.

John shucked 50 extra small Tomales Bay oysters.

I was really glad that I was not the only one taking photos and holding up the feast. 

One of the things I like about ssäms, aside from the deliciousness, is that each eater gets to compose their own little version of the dish. This bo ssäm offered lots of choices to put on a lettuce cup.

Everyone dug in without hesitation.

Day 46 - Pages 245 - 248 - Ko Kimchi Consommé, Pork Belly, Oysters, & Napa Cabbage

Today, chefs are experimenting with consommés using the gelatin technique developed by Harold McGee. The Momofuku consommé uses the traditional egg white raft method
to make a clear, flavorful soup that ties together Chang's reinterpretation of the Korean bo ssäm. In this dish, the kimchi becomes a consommé that was somewhat difficult but incredibly fun to make.

First, I whipped egg whites and folded in some lean ground pork and chopped onions.

Then I pureed a cup of week-old kimchi

 
and added it to 2 cups of ramen broth and water. I placed the egg white mixture on top of the broth and simmered it, lightly stirring and basting the whites to keep them moist.

After about 30 minutes, particles in the broth migrated up to the egg whites and formed a semi-solid mass - the raft. I removed the raft and filtered the broth and any remaining bits through two layers of cheesecloth. The elixir was clear, slightly tinged with red from the chiles, and the perfect essence of kimchi.

Next, I roasted the pork belly. By now, I'd done a few times so it was pretty easy.

I cut a triangle into the base of each cabbage leaf to remove the tough, white part and then blanched the leaves in boiling water for a few seconds.

I drove up to Tomales Bay Oyster Company and picked up some of their extra smalls. When got home, I shucked the oysters carefully preserving the liquor in the shells and heated scalene triangle slices of pork belly over a hot grill.

I plated all the elements and poured some of the warmed consommé up to the rim of the oyster shell. I was really happy to see it all come together and it was indescribably delicious.

Day 45 - Page 86-87 -" World's longest recipe for Chicken Wings" + Risi e Bisi

I love chicken wings in any shape or form. It's the bony, gristly parts that I like to chew and gnaw on. So it was exciting to make this because not only is it a favorite food but it involved delving into the mysteries of confit, an ancient technique for preserving food.  For westerners, the most familiar form of meat confit is the French confit de canard, or preserved duck. The meat is salted and stored in its own fat.

It was easy to track down the ingredients for my experiment: I found pork lard (also good for making incredibly flaky, light pastry) and chicken wings in the Marin Sun Farms freezer case.The wings were refrigerated overnight in a brine of sugar, salt, and water. Then they were covered with melted lard and refrigerated for a day. In my case, just long enough for the lard to solidify but the longer the refrigeration the more the wings absorb the pork lard flavor.

I made the taré by browning the wing tips and simmering them with soy sauce and sake until the liquid reduced by about one half. Ummmm. Some serious gnawing potential here.

I then lightly cooked slivers of garlic in some of the lard and added them to the taré to finish the sauce.
I heated the lard just enough to melt it and removed the wings and drained them. I browned them in a hot skillet, all the while pressing down with the lid of a pan. Tossed with the sauce and a few sprinkles of pickled red chiles and scallions, these were, hands down, winner chicken wings.

I also spent the good part of a day making Momofuku ramen broth. A big stash is a luxury and really comes in handy when you want to make up a risi e bisi with fresh picked peas. All the energy that went into making the broth paid off with a risotto of complex depth and ultra smooth creaminess.

Day 44 - Pages 157-158 - Roasted Mushroom Salad, Braised Pistachios, Pickles & Radishes + Milk Bar's Blueberry & Cream Cookies

Chang describes this dish as "a hodgepodge of ideas cribbed from dishes...eaten over the years." I liken it to the Food Network show, "Chopped", where 4 chef contestants are each given a basket of weirdly diverse ingredients and are asked to prepare an appetizer, entree, or dessert using those ingredients. This salad is a stretch because of the unusual combination of ingredients and consists of several parts that require lots of time to prepare. At least that is how it felt for me when I was making it.
I first prepared the pistachios - the prettiest nuts on the planet.

The nuts were boiled in dashi until soft and then pureed with water. I stopped short of blending until smooth since I wanted mine to be slightly chunky.
Radishes and sunchokes (I used apples instead) were pickled.

The mushrooms (I used portobellos) were sliced, sauteed, and dressed with a garlic, butter, and vinegar sauce.

I left out the enoki mushrooms and my micro-greens consisted of a few sprigs of baby chives but there were still plenty of things to work with when I put it all together.

I now know to google Christina Tosi when I'm craving something sweet. Here is her recipe for Blueberry & Cream Cookies . It uses one of Tosi's favorite ingredients: nonfat milk powder. When I made Tosi's cereal milk I had to buy a 2 pound box for the 3 tablespoons I needed. I thought it would languish on the pantry shelf collecting dust but I do use the stuff whenever I want to add an extra bit of milky sweetness to my cooking. This recipe consists of the dough and Milk Crumbs, a dry, crumbly mixture that is the "cream" in the cookie.

The recipe calls for glucose but a good substitute is corn syrup. I didn't substitute the European butter though because it was available at the market and the European is so irresistibly smooth and creamy. The crumbles, along with melted white chocolate, and dried cherries (my market didn't have blueberries) were folded into the dough. The cookies browned really quickly but I didn't mind that because the crispy edge was a nice contrast to the chewy interior. An accompanying glass of milk is de rigeur!

Day 43 - Page 154 - XO Sauce + a trip to L.A.

XO Sauce originated in Hong Kong and started turning up on upscale Chinese restaurant menus in the U.S. several years ago. Now it can be found in neighborhood diners as well as in jars on the shelves of every Asian market. XO, a good Cognac rating, is a Cantonese term that is used to describe anything that is high toned or a luxury item. Having made the Momofuku version, I fully appreciate its use in giving just about any food an instant umami boost.

The two main ingredients are dried shrimp and dried scallops. These can be pricey depending on their size, flavor, and uniformity. I used relatively inexpensive varieties, they were about 1/2 inch in diameter, but they tasted like condensed versions of the seafood.

The dried ingredients were rehydrated overnight in water and then minced in the food processor.
Separately processed were 1/2 cups of garlic, ginger, a piece of Virginia ham, and a couple of lap cheung (sausages that are staples of the Chinese kitchen).

I mixed everything together along with a good helping of red chile flakes and cooked the mixture over a low flame for about 45 minutes. All the components melded together into a dry-ish/flaky "sauce" that was savory, spicy, and slightly sweet. I packed it into small jars so I could share the wealth with friends who might want to try a homemade version of XO sauce.

For dinner I cooked it with green beans.

I spent the weekend in Los Angeles eating. Had a couple of dinners in Chinatown. Zen Mei Bistro is good and cheap and offers free dishes if you spend over $20. I have in my memory some creative photos of roast duck and this is one I'll add to the list:

The next day and a few freeways away was lunch in Arcadia at Din Tai Fung. I ate at the Shanghai branch a few years ago and loved it. I was not at all disappointed with the delicate juicy pork dumplings here. You'd be hard-pressed to find a wrapping thinner than the one at DTF.

Also good were the noodles in a spicy sesame sauce.

This little dumpling steamer guy doing taiji might have to be my new mascot.