Large salmon line caught off the Pacific coast yesterday.
St. Louis cut ribs with my dryrub for slappetizers.
Strawberries Romanoff with Lebni cream yoghourt for dessert.
Friend’s galpal has big bag of Jasmine rice and wants to do it up.
What about some sort of recipe for this stuff? I’m thinking of an Asian flair on this. A shrimp fried rice would be good, but I’m concerned about the rice perfuming it a bit much.
Another thought that has come to mind, is carmelized shallots and garlic along with some roasted peppers to harmonize with the rice’s sweetness.
Any suggestions from y’all? All styles welcome. Should be flavorful and not delicate.
I don’t have much to offer except for caramel fish but since that requires some amount of stirring and simmering, I think salmon would fall apart too easily for that. Howz about stuffing it with crab imperial and throwing in the baker? Or bake it and then just drizzle the caramel over top?
As for fried rice, it’s hard to make unless the rice has had a chance to sit in the fridge a couple of days and really get dried out. Taking freshly cooked rice from the rice pot into a frying pan will give you some kind of pasty rice-mush-glue creation.
p.s. Zenster probably knows this but the caramel in most Asian caramel dishes isn’t candy, but a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, maybe a little fish sauce and lots of freshly cracked pepper simmered with shallots or scallions until it reduces to a sauce which is about the consitnancy of pancake syrup. A kind of peppery/spicy/sweet thing. After the sauce has reduced, toss in some catfish chunks until cooked (just a few minutes). If you don’t want to make your own, most Asian markets sell a thick, sweet soy sauce to which you only need ass the pepper.
To get a taste of good carmel fish, go to a Vietnamese restaurant and order cá co tô, or if the menu is not in Vietnamese, look for “caramel fish in clay pot” or sometimes just “fish in clay pot”.
Zenster, jasmine rice is a product developed to grow in the poor soil of northeastern Thailand. I don’t know that it’s ever really done as anything other than just plain rice in this regard. They do use it as an ingredient in fried rice dishes, mainly as leftovers (AFAIK). I can get you a recipe or two for Thai style fried rice, which can be different than Chinese. For example maybe with pineapple and tomato and some dried red peppers. I’ll check but not sure that’s the direction you’d want to go, or how it would mesh up with the other dishes on your menu.
Just checked one of my cookbooks and consulted the missus. The missus agrees with my initial assessment (“but rice goes with everything, just steam it!”) I have some (Thai) recipes for coconut rice (made with coconut milk), fried rice with shrimp paste (kapi), classic Thai fried rice, and fried rice with peppery curry. Let me know if any of those sounds interesting.
Shibb, your research is appreciated. I think I’ll go for some peppers and carmelized onions dressed with green curry paste plus a little chicken stock. Thanks.
I usually do this with wild rice, so I’m not sure that it would work with Jasmine.
I cook some a couple of rashers of chopped bacon in a saucepan and then remove and set aside. In the same pan, I cook some onion and garlic until softened. Then add about 200g of rice and 1.5 cups of chicken stock and a bay leaf. Boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 15 min. Once it is done, you stir some chopped parsely, thyme and toasted pine nuts through it and serve.
I’d just cook the rice normally, then add a little coconut milk. That’s all they do at a wonderful Toronto Thai restaurant, Young Thailand.
More involved? This is good.
2 cups rice, 2 tsp. peanut oil, 2 tsp lemon juice
0.5 tsp each mustard seed, cumin, urad lentils (husk-free)
0.5 tsp each red dried pepper, minced fresh ginger, jalapenos
0.125 cups each raw peanuts, cashews, split almonds
1 small onion cubed, 1/4" pieces
1 medium potato, cubed, 1/4" pieces
1 cup (frozen) mixed vegetables
0.25 tsp tumeric powder
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
pomegranate seeds, finely chopped apple or cilantro for garnish
Heat oil in saucepan on medium heat, add mustard seeds (and cover the pan for thirty seconds while they pop), add cumin, lentils, red peppers and nuts together, stirring for two minutes. Add onions and stir frequently for another two minutes. Add cubed potatoes and vegetables. Mix well, add 2 tbsp water, cover and cook on low heat until tender. Then add salt, tumeric, cayenne, lemon juice, ginger and green pepper. Stir well, cover and cook for another 2-4 minutes. Sprinkle garnish(es) if desired and serve hot.
Zenster - the Moosewood cookbook (the original one, I believe) has a great recipe which I’ll just briefly go over until I get home and can type it out.
Basically…in a pot, put some olive oil, a few tablespoons of chopped lemon grass, garlic and a dash of salt. Smells heavenly as you cook it down. Then add jasmine rice and some water along with a can (small can, undrained, unsweetened) crushed pineapple. Freshly chopped basil along with it. Stir, cook til done - holy cow is it great. I eat it with fish all the time.
I’ll get back to you with the full recipe tonight!
