Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Chef Rong (our butcher slash sous vide slash Activa expert) is loving our new chamber vacuum machine, so vacuum he will.

For our upcoming new menu next week we are both trying to work out what the perfect cooking temperature to time ratio might be, so there is no fucking around at the last moment this Wednesday trying to guess what might work.





48°C was just a little wee funky more warm sushi than cooked, probably perfect for Chuck from "Chuck eats". I liked 52°C but I think 55°C is where it is at for the Bangkok crowd.



Chef Roca gives no temperature guide for massive Thai King prawns.




The tail doesn't curl up which makes for a cool presentation style.

For this months menu we have flavoured these bad boys with orange skin, olive oil and few other spices, we will be serving this with barley and saffron.

This is an adaption of a recipe that was part of a Cook-Do sauce advert in Orange Page magazine. Unfortunately for the advertisers, instead of the pre-prepared chinjaorousu Cook-Do sauce I made a 'spicy chinese sauce-base' recipe from the book '15 min Easy Okazu'.

Recipe magazines can be hit & miss, let alone the recipes in advertisements in magazines, but this is damn good. I'll be making this again for sure. If it had a song it would be The Race by Yello. Your mouth gets this all-over tingly spicy warmth. Every ingredient really shines, from the sweetish pumpkin, to the savoury onion, to the fresh shishitougarashi peppers. The original recipe has thin sliced pork in it but you don't need it at all (EDIT: I made the dish again last night and I now think the pork would take it next-level from being a plain pumpkin stir-fry). If you want to add the small pieces of thin sliced pork, add them at the same time as the onion (50 grams per person).

Shishitougarashi are a small sweetish green Japanese pepper - maybe a bit like the Spanish 'pimientos de padron' but a bit smaller. Similarly to pimientos de padron, they taste awesome char-grilled or broiled until floppy, and you don't need to peel: just eat whole. Apart from the little stalk bit.

Spicy Chinese Sauce-Base
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tbsp Tobanjiang or other chilli bean sauce (I used 1 tbsp each Tobanjiang and a really hot Korean BBQ sauce)
1/4 cup sake
3 big cloves garlic finely chopped
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger or that pre-prepared 'oroshi' ginger paste that comes in pottles
1 tbsp oil

Sauté the garlic and ginger in the oil, taking care not to burn, until they start to give off a good aroma.

Add everything else and mix around for one or two more minutes on the heat.

Kabocha+Shishitou Stir fry
The following ingredients are for one person, so just multiply to feed more.

A small handful of kabocha or butternut squash segments (skin still on), roughly 8mm thin
A small handful of thin sliced pork bits
4-5 shishitougarashi (substitute with green bell pepper in bite size pieces or pimientos de padron)
1 onion sliced in strips/ribbons (basically in half and then thin, vertical slices).
sesame oil & olive oil
2 tbsp spicy chinese cooking sauce (above)

Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil and saute the pumpkin segments, making sure to flip over, until cooked through. Add the green peppers and give them a stir.
New learnings from having made the dish a couple of times: Take the pumpkin and peppers out of the pan.
Add a spoon of olive or other oil plus the onion and pork, and cook until the onion is soft. Put the pumpkin & peppers back in and add two tablespoons of the Spicy Chinese Sauce-base (be careful with this, if you add too much it will just taste overpoweringly like soy sauce), toss to coat and sauté for 30 seconds to a minute, check whether you need to add a bit more sauce or maybe some shichimi spice or chilli flakes, and then serve piping hot.

There aren't many things that can make brown rice taste this good.

Evil Eggplant

TRICK. (Yay more pumpkins!)


OR TREAT. (Trust me one minutes listening is plenty)


OR CEREAL. (with a touch of brown sugar?)

The main theme for the August '07 issue of オレンジページ (Orange Page) magazine is 'summer drinking snacks fiesta'.

The recipe which we especially loved this month though, was on a page titled さらさらご飯 (Sarasara Gohan). Gohan means rice. Sarasara is an onomatope which can be used to describe the sound of a flowing brook, the feeling of smooth dry skin or the whisking of tea, amongst other things.

In this case it's being used to describe the special 'tsuyu' used in this summer recipe, a refreshing soup base made only from citrus & rice vinegar & soy a.k.a ponzu-shoyu (most common brand is 'Ajipon') and water.

Ajipon's web site claims Ajipon was developed in 1964, when the now ubiquitous ponzu was not so common. The Mitsukan president had some mizutaki in a restaurant and decided to mass-produce this fabulous dipping sauce. Three years of experimentation with different types of citrus and degrees of saltiness led to 'Ajipon', which includes mirin, katsuo-bushi, konbu (kelp), rice vingar, lemon, mandarin and valencia orange in its formula. Supposedly. Though the ingredients list on the label also includes corn syrup and glaringly omits the sweet mirin cooking sake, katsuo-bushi fish flakes and konbu.




Ponzu is commonly used as a refreshing dipping sauce (especially for nabe hotpot) or as a salad dressing ingredient...this is the first time I've seen it as a soup base. Orange Page also recommends, on really hot days, to pour the same water-ponzu mixture over rice, but to chill the soup first. Now that's sarasara.

Ponzu tsuyu soup base:
Combine 1/4 cup of Ajipon or other flavoured ponzu-shoyu with 1 cup water.

Recipe: rice with chicken-Nira-egg-soup
Adapted from Orange Page magazine.
Serves 2.

1 chicken breast (50 g) - or 1/4 sachet konbu kelp stock powder
Nira (garlic chives, 韭菜 or ku chai in chinese, could be substituted with bärlauch) 1/3 bunch (30 g)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 medium-sized bowls of warm rice (about 300 g, I think we used a little more though)
Ponzu tsuyu soup base

- If you are using chicken, cut it into 5 mm bite sized pieces; trim the nira and cut it into 2 cm lengths.
- In a small pan, heat the chicken or konbu powder and the ponzu tsuyu over medium heat. Skim off any foam and add the nira. When the ingredients seem cooked, add the beaten egg while stirring. When the egg-soup mixture has thickened somewhat, turn off the heat and pour an equal amount over each bowl of rice.

(We made this without the chicken, and instead added a 1/4 sachet of konbu stock powder to the broth. It was totally delicious. Savoury, a little piquant from the vinegar but not sour or sharp at all; warm, mellow and tasty from the Nira/garlic chives, which are available from all asian grocery stores: just look for the long-ish grassy chives-like ready cut bunches).



Note: the ideal time to eat this may be in summer, but let's face it, it's not much of a summer in Cologne at the moment. The deep savouriness of the dish does however lend itself to a warming meal when the skies look so grey and ambivalent - and of course, any soupy-kayu-type dish with rice has its comfort value.

(or) MAKING A STAR MEATBALL THE MILKY WAY

When is a good burger not a burger?
The recipe I'm gonna share is not really a burger - it's a slightly different animal, better defined as a Japanese-style burger or really good homemade German frikadelle (meatball) perhaps. It is not grilled - but what it lacks in smokey, BBQ vibe it makes up for in juiciness, texture and general meat perfection.



I was reading an article by Matt Lee and Ted Lee in the New York Times (whence the above image came), and after a few drearily fancy descriptions of meatballs made with foie gras or veal and stuffed with ricotta (etc), they wrote about a key burger/meatball truth which I'd inadvertently discovered when experimenting with Japanese-style burgers. It seems to be the key to a dream burger. Quite simply, the wetter the better. This may not be anything new to you chef types, but to me it's like a breakthrough: milky meatballs!

"On the vital issue of meatball texture, all the chefs we interviewed had good tips and pointers, most of which spoke to the same issue: water. For Mr. Campanaro, the key is simple. “Just like in Italian sausage, the filling is very wet when it goes into the casing,” he said. “So when it cooks, it’s juicy. That liquid that comes out when you cut it? That’s pork stock!”"

Another chef interviewed, Mr Psilakis, was fond of the same trick I had discovered in my trusty Orange Page japanese food periodical: using breadcrumbs soaked in milk. Except that in his recipe he squeezes out the excess milk, whilst the Orange Page recipe just dumps the milk in with the mince.

Orange Page took it another wet step further: not only do you include milk but after sealing the big, fat burger balls in the pan you steam them at a low heat for 10 minutes, upping the moisture value and creating an incredible burger! (or however you want to call it).

So I shall now share this recipe with you, dear reader, along with a similarly genius milk-based salad dressing which is SO awesome I urge you to try it today. Milk is the new maldon sea salt.

PS: For the vegetarians, here is a link to a very easy vege burger
demo by the New York Times popular food writer 'The Minimalist' - and here is his good tofu burger recipe
.

(I am curious to read The Minimalist's meat-based burger piece. It's not free to view anymore - only available to purchase... how elitist...but nevermind... I am sure the following recipe easily matches or outdoes his recipe. Yes I am that confident.)

Note: this Japanese-style burger has a very simple yet perfect flavour. That's sort of the point. If you require a more macho burger try Jamie Oliver's milk-free roasted Botham Burger
which can also be successfully grilled if formed in smaller patties.

FUKKURA HAMBURGERS
(serves two)

Beef mince - 300-400g
1/2 an onion diced finely
1 egg
a slice of bread (white or brown)
2-4 generous tablespoons of milk
Salt & pepper

Crumble, finely chop or pulse the bread so that you have 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs. How fine they are is not too important. (I generally just roughly chop some medium-coarse brown bread but most Japanese cooks use fine white panko crumbs).
Cover the breadcrumbs with milk (I don't measure but I think I use a fair bit more than 2 tbsp - really just enough milk so all breadcrumbs are soggy and soaking but not swimming in milk. As we have heard, 'the wetter the better').

Mix all the above ingredients (with about 1/2 tsp salt and as much ground pepper as you like) in a bowl, gently crumbling the mince and blending into a mush so that the white fatty flecks in the mince largely disappear and it is a mostly-uniform pinkish shade.

Make two large patties by dividing the mixture and palming each mass back and forth gently between your hands a few times. If you need to redistribute some meat, glue it onto the other ball as gently as possible. The aim is not to compact the meat too much.

Heat 1 tbsp oil at medium heat and cook the patties for about 1 minute on one side. When superficially browned, flip them over, reduce the heat to low, cover with a well fitting lid and steam the burgers for 10-12 minutes. When you are satisfied the burgers are done (most Japanese cooks wouldn't want them to be pink in the middle) and the juices don't run pink when a fork or chopstick is inserted, remove lid, turn the heat up to high and cook for another 30 seconds to one minute.

Serve topped with one of the following:

- KIMCHEESE: finely chop 40 g white kimchi and mix with 30 g grated cheese and 2 tsp sake. Add a-top the burgers before the final one minute of cooking with lid ON.

- ONE SCRAMBLED EGG AND KETCHUP: just what it says, artfully squiggling the ketchup. Egg should be plain egg, no milk added.

- CLASSIC STYLE: make a glaze using 2 tbsp ketchup and chinese-style sauce (or try Korean BBQ sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of powdered vege stock). A mostarda glaze could also be good! Or some kind of premade beef demiglace.

- MILD FRESH SALSA: very finely chop a de-seeded tomato, a quarter cucumber, and a quarter red onion. To let the meat flavour shine you might like to tone down the onion by salting it and letting it sit for a minute or two, and then rinse. Mix together with 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar and generous salt & pepper. This salsa is also improved with some capers and/or chopped anchovy, but again this may overwhelm the burger... try to think in the Japanese way where the dish shouldn't be overwhelmed by crazy sauces. Maybe it's better to just have some nice crunchy cornichon pickles on the side!



Serve with the following kick ass salad (adapted from the recipe book '15分らくうまおかず', or 'easy main dishes to go with rice prepared within 15 minutes'). Original recipe asks for watercress which would be great (watercress rules) but I replaced with rocket and it was also excellent with the soy-ish lime-spiked light creamy dressing.
Who knew a dressing without pepper could be so beguiling?

AVOCADO-EGG-ROCKET SALAD WITH MILK-SOY-KYUPI DRESSING
(serves 2 people) (307 kcal per person)

2 eggs boiled 6-7 minutes, peeled and chopped in large non-uniform chunks.
1 avocado peeled and chopped in chunks (original recipe asks for 2cm cubes but that sounds too fussy)
4 handfuls of rocket/rucola/arugula or watercress
Lime or lemon
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp japanese kyupi mayo

Arrange the greens in 2 bowls and scatter the avocado over top. Squeeze lime or lemon juice generously over the avocado pieces.

Mix together the mayo, milk and soy (we use a handheld milk frothing device to get it blended well and ever-so-slightly foamy, but a fork should be fine!).
Scatter the egg pieces over the salad and pour the milky soy mayo dressing over top of everything.



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MORE ABOUT BURGERS
Typical Japanese-style hamburger presentations:




Burger in a box?




spew-like kinoko sauce (that's kiNOko as in mushroom):




from one extreme:




to the next:




this looks delicious to me - does that make me a pervert?




This Mosburger hybrid also looks damn good:




Horror burger:

If you have the disease where you like to eat different things all the time, monthly Japanese home-maker's magazine Orange Page is a useful solution since many of the recipes are quite simple preparation-wise and have some very good inventive combos of Japanese and Western style cooking... like endless varieties of wiener-asparagus-egg dishes (at least one per issue).

Nothing funny to say about it really but here's a 'simple soup' I pulled out of last month's Orange Page, you'll love it.

Simple Soups: Broccoli Bacon Soup (serves two)

1/2 broccoli head cut into bite sized florettes
3 strips of bacon with most fat removed & cut into 3cm pieces
1/2 red onion cut into slices
2 cups of water plus a teaspoon of high-quality western style stock powder (I used half a sachet of kombu stock powder and a quarter of an organic vege stock tablet, but guess two cups of good chicken stock or whatever would be even better)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
parmesan

Saute the onion and bacon in the olive oil, then when cooked but not too browned, add the broccoli and saute for about a minute. Add the stock & water and simmer until the broccoli is as tender as you like it. Reduce the heat and if necessary skim off any fat. Add lots of freshly ground black pepper and if necessary a little sea salt. Serve and grate a scant tablespoon of parmesan over each bowl.
Later if I can be bothered I'll scan a picture from the magazine so you will be convinced of how yum this actually is!
Erik says it's now his 'lieblings suppe'