Sea Urchin Is Not for Everyone

I love food. I really do. I love trying new things and experiencing new flavors and textures. I love finding the limits of my palate and visiting that edge regularly. The first time I try a new food is like a little adventure that I embrace with eyes (and mouth) wide open, both feet forward, ready for whatever it brings.

This is how I found myself on Friday night starting down a piece of sea urchin sushi. I am a seafood fanatic, and sushi is easily my favorite way to eat fish. There's so much flavor and texture and opportunity for that new and amazing experience that I so enjoy. I've pushed the sushi envelop much further than my counterpart, trying it all, from the rubbery octopus to the quite fishy mackerel (which took several tastings for me to embrace raw mackerel, but embrace it I have) to the fairly exotic conch. So, faced with the sushi menu at the Golden Szechuan Inn in Bel Air and not wanting another roll of grilled eel or spicy tuna, or even a California roll, I walked right up to the deep end of the pool and dove in.

I ordered the sea urchin.

After two decades of rabid sushi consumption, I thought I was ready for anything. When Japan House was still in business over by the Aberdeen Clarion, I would regularly sneak in a sushi lunch in the middle of my Saturday errands. I even tried the oshinko, a vegetarian roll consisting of rice wrapped around picked horseradish. And, maybe because I was a regular, the sushi chef asked me if I knew what I was ordering, as if trying to warn me. When I smiled and shrugged and said, "Not really, but I'm game", he smiled back and said "OK". It reminded me of when my cat ate a stinkbug for the first time and proceeded to lick the floor in an effort to get the taste out of his mouth.

Even that did not prepare me for sea urchin.

When it arrived, my counterpart pulled the visor of his cap down low over his eyes and hunched into his usual California roll and salmon and avocado roll. The sea urchin I got looked a bit like an orange human tongue resting on a block of rice wrapped in nori. But I could look past this. What caused me a moment of consternation was that it jiggled. Even though it seemed a bit wobbly, I was still expecting something fairly solid. So, I took a deep breath, dipped it in some wasabi, and popped the whole thing into my mouth.

What happened next was amazing. The sea urchin proved to be as wobbly and semi-solid as it had appeared on the plate with none of the tongue-like meatiness I was expecting. It kind of squished when I bit into it. And, as I chewed, I noticed that it was sticking to my teeth. I thought for a moment that fish should not stick to your teeth.

And then I got the full flavor - musky and bitter and completely unique. And I thought of the oshinko. And once again was reminded of my cat and the stinkbug.

After I swallowed, I took a drink of water. Then I took a drink of tea. Then I ate all the pickled ginger on my plate. Then I took a break. Then I ate my raw mackerel, which tasted quite bland in comparison.

Then my counterpart looked out from under his cap and asked if I had finally crossed a culinary line. Had I perhaps just gone too far this time. I considered the musky, bitter, pungent film that lingered on my molars and in the back of my throat and conceded that, yes, perhaps I had.

Then I posted a photo on Instagram and one of my friends recommended Johnny's Sushi across the river in Perryville, where I could probably do a bit better. Will I try it? But of course!

What to Do When the Fishmonger Won't Fillet Your Fish, and How to Prepare Fava beans

There is nothing better than fresh food, especially fresh fish. This weekend we took the drive down to the HMart in Ellicott City with a good friend to visit their seafood counter for some fresh tilapia. The fish was beautiful, as usual - plump and clear-eyed and silver. And the really nice thing about the fish counter at the HMart is that they will clean it up for you and even offer several levels of cleaning. We usually go for gutted, scaled, and filleted and end up with pristine fish. At this week's visit, we were informed that the trained professionals do not fillet tilapia. They did do a fine job of the rest of the cleaning, though, and packed our fish in ice for us for the long drive back to Harford County.

Tilapia with fresh herbs

The object of filleting is to remove the fish from its skeleton in two unmarred steaks. Which is why we prefer to have professionals do it for us. But, you can do it at home. You will need:

• A boning knife
• Kitchen shears
• Pliers

Scaled and gutted, but not filleted

Use your boning knife or your shears to remove the gills and fins from around the top of the spine. Then, use your boning knife to cut along the spine, tip to tail. Then take a second cut along the dorsal side of the fish. Using your boning knife, gently cut the fish off of the bone, starting at the spine. Use your kitchen shears to cut through the last if the flesh at the ends of the rib cage.

Remove the gills and fins

Cut tip to tail

Gently ease the fish from the bone

Use the kitchen shears for the final cut

Once you have your fillets cut, use the pliers to remove any stray bones from the fish. Also, if you wait until after they are cooked to skin your fish, most of the time it will peel right off.

Fish fillets, done at home

You can use the fins, gills, and bones for a very nice fish stock. Place them in a pot of water with some onion and leek, salt, pepper, and a moderate pour of white wine and Thai fish sauce. Let it simmer on the back burner to use for a sauce later.

Fish stock - future sauce

And we had plenty of time for our fish stock to simmer this evening as we decided to pair it with fresh fava beans. This large, tender legume has a bad reputation for being fussy to prep. This is because it's a two-step process - once you get the beans out of the pod, there is a membrane that also needs to be removed. This is not as much work as it sounds. The pods are thick and furry on the insides but they come apart fairly easily. Once all your beans have been removed from their pods, dealing with that extra membrane is pretty easy, too. Just steam the beans for about 30 seconds and that hull loosens up. Removing it is similar to removing the red skin from Spanish peanuts.

Fava beans

Removing the membrane

Prepped and ready to cook

Cooking favas is also easy. They cook through in about 15 minutes on the stovetop in a bit of olive oil. We mixed ours with some asparagus and a bit of cooked potato we had from Friday's dinner.

Favas and asparagus in olive oil

While the favas were cooking, we broiled the fish following the technique for The Easiest Fish Ever. We also got back to that fish stock.

We strained the stock and combined it with heavy cream and butter over low heat. We added fresh herbs to flavor it and a little potato starch to thicken it up. We got a rich, slightly creamy sauce with a strong umami element that didn't overpower the delicate tilapia.

A little jasmine rice rounded out our Sunday night dinner, making a pleasing end to a beautiful summer weekend. 

Mary Cooks: Shrimp Burritos

Here's a quick and easy summer meal that comes together fast and doesn't heat up the whole house. By keeping this burrito simple, the light flavor of the shrimp and fresh salsa come through for a satisfying dinner that doesn't leave you feeling bloated. As if the heat weren't already enough.

For my Shrimp Burritos, you will need start with the salsa. Salsa in its simplest form is tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Many feel that cilantro is a must. While it does add a little palate-cleansing freshness, personally I can live without it. What I need in my salsa is citrus.

For tonight's salsa, I used heirloom cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, a little garlic, and a little shallot. I also learned why you should take inventory of your ingredients before you start cooking. Once I had everything cut and ready for the immersion blender, I realized that we had no citrus fruit in the house.

In a move that my counterpart is sure to comment on later, I added a splash of lemonade. Here's why this works: It adds the necessary zip that comes from citrus (lemon, lime, orange, whatever). But it also adds some sugar to cut the bitter in the peppers, garlic, and shallots without clashing with the sugar in the tomatoes or blunting the heat from the peppers. I pulsed the immersion blender about five times and placed the salsa in the fridge to chill.

For the shrimp, you will want to steam them on the stovetop. How long this takes will depend on the size and quantity of your shrimp. I used four tiger shrimp that were only partially defrosted. They cooked through in about 15 minutes. Also, you should steam your shrimp in the shells and shell them once they are cooked.

And, if you are using large shrimp like mine, you'll want to cut them up once they are shelled. 

Once the shrimp is cooked and cut, you'll also need an avocado and some sour cream. Note that I am forgoing the beans and cheese ans they will weigh this down and won't taste right here. Well, maybe the right kind of cheese, but certainly not the beans. I am also omitting the cabbage slaw that usually adorns fish tacos. I consider the cabbage to be a proper culinary mistake on the tacos and certainly a disaster here.

To prep your tortilla, heat it in a flat skillet over low heat on the stovetop. You'll want to warm it so that it loses some of its stiffness. This will make it easier to roll and will prevent tearing.

To assemble the burrito, place the warm tortilla on a large plate. Add the avocado first, placing it in the center. Then place the shrimp on top of it. Spoon the sour cream on one side of the shrimp and the salsa on the other side. Carefully fold up the bottom over the filling. Then bring one of the sides over and line it up with the other and roll tightly, tucking in the bottom securely.

And that's it - avocado, shrimp, sour cream, and salsa. The whole thing came together for me in about 30 minutes. 

Mary Cooks: Shrimp Cakes with Wasabi Tartar Sauce

Last night's dinner included a potato rosti that yielded five servings. For tonight's dinner, I was looking for something that would pair well with that leftover potato. And where I come from, there are few things that go better with fried potato than fried fish. Earlier today over my morning coffee, I found a recipe for shrimp cakes on the Foodista blog and knew it was dinner.

A quick review of the required ingredients without also a quick review of what we had on hand led me to believe that this meal could be made quickly and easily with only the acquisition of a little panko and a little mayo. As my counterpart can attest, any time I claim that we already have something in the pantry, there is about a 65% chance that I will be dead wrong. So tonight's cooking adventure was an exercise in quick thinking and substitution. And it was much more typical of my time in the kitchen as I stumbled around the recipe, arms flailing, wondering how on earth it would all come together.

At least some of what I will need for tonight's dinner

But, come together it did, and it was pretty tasty.

For the shrimp cakes, you will need 1 1/2 pounds of Oregon pink shrimp. And here is where the substitutions begin. We always have shrimp in the freezer. Always. And today was no exception. We did not have Oregon pink shrimp, but I thought we would have a close proximity. We did not. Oregon pink shrimp are those tiny little guys people like to use in shrimp salad. The shrimp I had on hand were jumbo tiger shrimp just short of actual prawn. Undaunted, I pulled five of them out to thaw in a bowl of lukewarm water while I assembled the rest of my ingredients for what I reckoned would be about a half batch:

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs - I used panko
2 celery stalks - even though I was making a half batch, I used the full amount of celery
1/4 white onion
1 small green pepper - I used a serrano pepper, it being both small and green
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp Tabasco - which we did not have on hand, which is shocking. I used Cholula Mexican-style hot sauce
1 egg
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce - which we also did not have on hand, so I used Picka Peppa sauce

I used a food processor to mince the veg and blend it with the spices. Then in a large bowl, I combined this with the egg and the panko.  At a loss for what to do with those enormous shrimp, I coarsely ground them in the food processor as well by pulsing them quickly about 10 times. I added this to the rest of the ingredients and let it rest while I made the tartar sauce.

Shrimp cake mix - it doesn't look like anything is missing....

For the sauce you will need:

1/2 cup sour cream - I used the good crema Mexicana

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 1/5 Tbsp ground ginger

1 glove garlic, pressed

1/2 Tbsp white vermouth - this I knew we did not have. I added a splash of flat champagne instead

1/2 Tbsp seasame oil

1/2 tsp lime zest - I used lemon

1/2 Tbsp lime juice - I used lemon here too

1 tsp wasabi paste - I used wasabi powder

I mixed everything together and set aside in the fridge to chill while I cooked my shrimp cakes.

Wasabi tartar sauce

My mix was something close to a crab cake mix. I got about five patties out of it but noticed that they did not seem to stick together as well as they should and was feeling as if the recipe had left out some key ingredient. I patted some more panko on them before frying them up. 

Shrimp cakes ready for the skillet

I cooked them in a skillet in a generous amount of grape seed oil, allowing about four minutes per side as the recipe instructed, and let them cool on a paper towel-lined plate. I reheated a wedge of rosti in the same skillet.

As I was plating up, I realized that they key ingredient was probably something like mayo, and that I had forgotten it. Sure enough, a good tablespoon of mayo was included in the recipe but not in my little cakes.

Cooking on the stovetop

Even so, my little shrimp cakes were tender and delicious. While the panko really does need the mayo to keep the cakes together, it forms a nice crust on the outside when fried. The cakes were spicy and slightly sweet with a good shrimpy flavor. The tartar sauce was actually a bit busy with a lot of different flavors but nothing really pulling it all together. It was better with these cakes than a more traditional tartar sauce, though, and the creamy texture was nice against the fried cakes.

Even with the mishaps I encountered, I still feel this was a success. I also feel as if I'm learning more about cooking. A lot of it feels like timing. Preparing this meal had me running around the kitchen a lot while last night's roasted poussin did not. While that was the more elegant dish, I think it might actually have been easier at least in part because of the timing. A good plan also helps. I'm not sure I really had one tonight.

Plated up with last night's potato rosti

Mary Cooks: Fish Cakes and Lily Bulb

I love fish, and I especially love fish cakes. I found a very simple recipe on AllRecipes.com. It claims to be Thai, but is also easy to follow and does not contain any ingredients I do not already have on hand. I adjusted the recipe for the two fish fillets I set out to defrost this morning, but otherwise followed this fairly closely

All my ingredients for fish cakes

Combine the following in a food processor until well mixed:

1 pound boneless fish fillets, cubed - I used flounder
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce - I used sriracha
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar - I used a little more to compensate for not having any sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
4 green onions, sliced - I used a little white onion
1 egg

(I also added ginger which was not in the recipe)

Then refrigerate for about 30 minutes to allow the batter to set.

Fish sauce batter for one

While my batter was resting in the fridge, I started some rice and prepared a little veg side.

One of the more interesting things we have in the house is fresh lily bulb. We picked this up a while back at the H-Mart, and it has been sitting in its vacuum-sealed packaging in the freezer ever since. And I've been searching for recipes. Alas, I have found none. At $2.50 for four bulbs, the stuff is fairly cheap, so I pulled it out and decided to experiment.

sliced lily bulb that will later get lost in pea pods and peppers

In the pan

Lily bulb is layered a bit like an onion. I removed the outer layers of one of the bulbs and sliced it thinly. When lily bulbs are sliced, they ooze. Not right away, and not very quickly, but as they rested on my board, they became moist and slightly sticky.

As I was not sure what to do with my lily bulb, I used it to accent another veg - pea pods. In addition to lily bulb, I added a little pepper to my peas, along with a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, and brown sugar. This was a misstep on my part. While the lily bulb added a nice fragrance to the pea pods, its flavor was lost. The next go round, I will make sure it is the primary ingredient and not a seasoning.

A quick and simple Asian sauce

Added to the pea pods

By that point, my fish cake batter had set. I heated a generous amount of oil in a heavy skillet to cook them. The recipe indicates that you should be able to shape the fish mixture into balls. Mine was too liquid for that, so I used a tablespoon to drop it into the oil similar to making silver dollar pancakes.

Yummy little fish cakes

About three minutes per side is about right. I placed mine on a paper towel-lined plate to drain and cool a little. The end result was a batch of small, firm fish cakes with a sweet and spicy flavor. It paired well with the salty sauce I cooked my peas in. And the rice was extra sticky, just how I like it.

An amateur plating job, but a delicious dinner

Mini Po'Boy Sandwiches

February is a cold and dreary month, shortness being its best quality, for who could take more than 28 days of it? As the hours of sunlight increase, we know that spring will eventually arrive if only that cold wind would  just go away. I am huddled in my office looking at a crisp blue sky and a yard full of bright sunshine and am not taken in - it is hovering around the freezing mark today. Even the cat has taken refuge in my bed, having figured out how to turn on the electric blanket. Who among us can blame her?

The saving grace of February is the abundance of mid-winter festivals. Last weekend was Brighid's Day, marking the return of life into the cold dark world with the sprouting of grains and the birthing of sheep. This week brings us the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. It also brings us that famous festival to indulgence, the Mardi Gras.

Taken literally, Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday. This French Catholic celebration is the last day of indulgence before practitioners enter their fasting season of Lent, attempting to emulate the self-induced privations of Jesus as he wandered the wilderness before arriving in Jerusalem to be arrested and crucified. For many modern-day Catholics, and those in other Christian sects, it means foregoing those small physical pleasures to help focus one's attention on the state of the spirit. While I personally think cold and endless February is not the best time for this type of contemplation, this does not stop me from a little Fat Tuesday activities in the cold days of February.

Mini po'boy sandwiches

My counterpart and I participated in on of those MeetUp groups. The one we joined is focused on cooking and food, and the organizer planned a little Cajun potluck on Saturday night. Our assignment was to provide an appetizer or side dish. Gareth decided on a New Orleans classic - the Po'Boy.

First, you will need to make a Roulade. For that you will need:


Mayonnaise
Mustard
Sriracha
Leek, minced
Onion, minced
Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
Salt and pepper
Pickles, minced - we used kosher dills
Lemon Juice

Make the mayonnaise as per usual. Gareth likes egg yolk, grape seed oil, and a little light vinegar. Reserve some for a little garlic mayo or a bread sauce if you like.

Then add the remaining ingredients, tasting as you go. If the sauce ends up too bitter, add a little squeeze of Karo light corn syrup. This will incorporate into the sauce more readily than granulated sugar, which will make your sauce gritty.

Then cook your fish. We used tilapia fillets. Gareth cut them to size, breaded them with potato starch, and slowly baked them in the oven.

Tilapia fillets, dusted with potato starch and ready for the oven

He also wanted some shrimp in there, so he steamed the medium sized (26-30 count) with just the slightest dusting of Old Bay.

Steaming shrimp

To complete the po'boy, we used butter lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and a little garlic mayonnaise.

Washed lettuce

Slicing tomatoes

We were going to serve ours on a baguette we bought at Wegman's (my bread-making has not ventured into this area yet), but our MeetUp host is a professional chef who was trained at the Culinary Institute of America.He had some sourdough that he baked in (I'm not kidding here) an adobe oven that he built in  his back yard. In suburban Maryland. In Joppatown, no less. Who knew?

Our sad grocery store baguette

Actual sourdough baguettes, cooked in an adobe oven

We cooked the fish in advance and assembled the sandwiches at the potluck. They were well received and fit right in with a spread that included coconut shrimp, jambalaya, roasted sweet potatoes, and the best red beans and bignettes I have ever had. We left with full bellies befitting the holiday and a warn feeling of belonging that comes from finding a group of kindred spirits.

Assembling the sandwiches

Ready to eat

Traditional Bouillabaisse

One of the concepts I try to convey in my blog is that cooking is an art, and that the culinary arts are approachable. The more advanced artistry of preparing truly wonderful food can be achieved by the home cook with some planning, a sharp knife, and a little time. And one of my favorite culinary classics is bouillabaisse. I have presented this in the past in a quick form that can be done in the evening after work using items many of us have readily on hand. This is an approach that has worked for us well in the past. This weekend, however, we decided to take a more classic approach and attempted to create it as presented in the LaRousse Gastronomique.

That's a lot of bouillabaisse

This time, we did not hold back. If you want to try this variation at home, you will need to pick up some items that are probably not on your weekly shopping list.

For our stock we used:

Saffron
Fennel
Fresh mandarin oranges, including the leaves and rind
Fresh lemons
Corriander
Cardamom
Sage
Thyme
Oregano
Bay Leaves
Rosemary
Tarragon
Fenugreek
Garlic
Onions
Leek
Carrot

For our fish we used:

Mackerel
Tilapia
Flounder
Large sea scallops (added at the end)

Fresh Tilapia fillets

Flounder and mackerel

We also used some olive oil, butter, and the liquid from a can of stewed tomatoes imported from Italy.

We started with a bouquet garni, which is really just what it sounds like: a garnishing bouquet. We bundled our more pungent flavorings into the bouquet garni, and we did this for a good reason. These are strong flavors that we wanted to infuse into our bouillabaisse  but because they are fairly potent and overpowering, we wanted to be able to easily find and remove them before they developed an undue influence on the dish.

Our bouquet garni consisted of:

Orange rind
Lemon rind
Bay leaves
Rosemary
Thyme
Tarragon

We bundled these up with some kitchen twine, making two little bundles. This will allow you to remove one when the flavor starts to get strong while leaving some in the pot to continue cooking.

Zesting the lemon

Bouquet garni

Once that was completed, we started the stock. You will want to use your largest pot for this dish. On the stovetop, heat up a generous amount of olive oil. Add a good pinch of saffron threads and saute gently. Add to that a mixture of:

Sage
Oregano
Corriander
Cardamom (be generous with this)
Salt

Stir this mixture into the oil. Then add five or six whole peeled garlic cloves (cloves, not bulbs) and continue cooking until the garlic is soft and slightly browned.

Saffron, garlic, and our aromatic spice mixture

Now add your veg. you should have prepared:

Two white onions
A stalk of leek
A bulb of fennel, including stalks and leaves

Add these items, reserving about half of the onion to add later. Continue to cook until very fragrant.

Remove your pot from the heat and arrange your fish in the pot, making an effort to keep the fillets intact. You can also use whole fish if you want to go really old school. We used cleaned, boned fillets and placed them in the pot at a vertical, almost as if lining them around the edge of the pot.

Almost ready for the oven

Gently place in the center of your pot, the rest of the onion, a large carrot cut into large battonettes, and a couple of celery stalks. Also add the sections of the orange and the lemon you peeled previously, and your bouquets garni.

Add the juice from a can of stewed tomatoes, a generous pour of olive oil, and a generous chunk of butter. We also added a pit of a champagne reduction we had on hand, plus a healthy shot of the actual wine.

Place your pot in an oven and cook at about 300 for several hours. You'll want to check in on it form time to time to give it a taste and make adjustments to your liking. After several hours, my counterpart removed one of the bouquets garni and about half of the fennel and citrus.

After about four or five hours, remove the pot from the oven and let cool slightly. Separate the contents into three containers: veg, fish, and stock. Discard the citrus fruit and any other flavors you feel are becoming too pronounced. Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, you have an opportunity to work with your stock and make any adjustments. My counterpart thickened his stock and mellowed it with some heavy cream and fresh parsley.

One thing we noticed about this more classic bouilliabaisse as compared to our previous quick renditions was that this had a more pronounced earthy flavor. While it retained that bright, citrusy flavor of previous attempts, there was also something unmistakably sweet about this version. I could readily identify the saffron, fennel, and orange, while the bitters like oregano, garlic, and cardamom came through as a little afterglow in the back of my mouth.

You will also want to reheat your vegetable matter and your fish, keeping them separate.

Now it's time to cook the scallops. The key to perfect scallops is a well-scoured pan. When scallops stick, they are adhering to crap residue in the pan from the last time it was used. So, to get those perfectly cooked, golden-crusted scallops, start with an immaculate pan.

To serve, reassemble on a plate or in a large shallow bowl. Serve with a nice, crusty bread and unsalted butter.

Bouillabaisse