Doubanjiang Scallop and Shabu Shabu Beef Rib Eye Stir Fry (郫縣豆瓣酱炒扇貝涮涮锅肉眼牛排, Pei4 Jyun6 Dau6 Faan6 Zoeng3 Caau2 Sin3 Bui3 Saan3 Saan3 Wo1 Juk6 Ngaan5 Ngau4 Paai4)

Doubanjiang is a spicy fermented broad bean paste. When using Doubanjiang, the paste is first stir fried until the paste turns a dark red color and then the meat is stir fried in the Doubanjiang. Stir frying the Doubanjiang enhances the flavor and is similar in technique to stir frying curry paste in curry dishes. Stir frying the Doubanjiang and the meat is done at the end of the cooking process, which is different from usual stir fry dishes where the meat is cooked first.

Scallops and Shabu Shabu Beef Rib Eye is a stir fried version of the American classic combination dish referred to as “surf and turf”, where “surf” is the seafood and “turf” is the beef. This spicy stir fried version of surf and turf uses thin sliced beef rib eye usually destined for Shabu Shabu, which is a Japanese dish where the beef is swished in a hot broth before eating. The thin sliced beef can be purchased at your local Asian market (usually frozen). In this case I got the Shabu Shabu beef rib eye fresh from my local Japanese market.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	Scallops (扇貝, sin3 bui3)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
1 lb.	500 g.	Shabu Shabu beef rib eye (涮涮锅肉眼牛排, saan3 saan3 wo1 juk6 ngaan5 ngau4 paai4)
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
1 lb.	500 g.	Sugar snap peas (蜜豆, mat6 dau6)
8 oz.	227 g.	One package fried tofu (油炸豆腐, jau4 zaa3 dau6 fu6)
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces on the diagonal
1 in.	2.5 cm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), thinly sliced
4 cloves	4 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), thinly sliced
		Oil for cooking

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Salted black bean (豆豉, dau6 si6)
3 Tbs.	45 ml.	Sichuan Pixiandouban brand Doubanjiang (郫縣豆瓣酱, pei4 jyun6 dau6 faan6 zoeng3) or equivalent
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

Equipment

		Garlic press
8 qt.	7.5 L.	Pot to parboil the beef tripe
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

Preparation Instructions

Sichuan Pixiandouban Brand Doubanjiang
(郫縣豆瓣酱, pei4 jyun6 dau6 faan6 zoeng3)

1. If using frozen scallops, thaw the scallops overnight in a covered container in the refrigerator. Take the scallops out of the refrigerator one hour before cooking. Marinate the scallops with corn starch, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.
2. Marinate the Shabu Shabu beef rib eye in a covered container for at least one hour or overnight in the refrigerator with the ginger and garlic crushed in a garlic press, corn starch, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. If marinating the beef overnight, take it out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
3. Wash and remove the string from the sugar snap peas by grasping each sugar snap pea in one hand and pulling the tip the length of the sugar snap pea with the other.
4. Open and drain any liquid from the fried tofu package.
5. Thinly slice the ginger and garlic and put into a small bowl.
6. Wash and cut the green onions into ½-inch (15 mm.) pieces on the diagonal.
7. Wash and lightly crush the salted black beans in a small bowl. Put the Sichuan Pixiandouban brand Doubanjiang or equivalent into the bowl and mix the ingredients together.
8. Prepare and mix the other sauce ingredients in another small bowl: add the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil and then the scallops. Stir fry the scallops until brown by forming one layer of scallops in the wok and leaving the scallops alone for a while before flipping it over to brown the other side. You may have to stir fry the scallops in batches, so be sure to reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Transfer the browned scallops to a bowl.
2. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the fried tofu. Stir fry the fried tofu and then transfer to the bowl with the scallops.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the sugar snap peas. Stir fry to brown the sugar snap peas. Add the bowl with the ginger and garlic mixture to the wok, and then some oil to the mixture. Quickly stir fry all the ingredients until the ginger and garlic become fragrant. Transfer the contents of the wok to the bowl with the scallops.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the bowl with the Doubanjiang. Stir fry the Doubanjiang until it becomes darker (red) in color before adding the beef. Stir fry to brown the beef before adding the green onions and the contents of the bowl with the scallops back into the wok, and stir fry all the ingredients together.
5. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to the wok and mix the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish, and serve with Clay Pot Rice (煲仔飯, Bou¹ Zai² Faan⁶) or steamed rice.

Oak Grilled Dungeness Crab and Beef Rib Eye Steak (燒烤橡木北美大肉蟹肉眼牛排, Siu1 Haau1 Zoeng6 Muk6 Bak1 Mei5 Daai6 Juk6 Haai5 Juk6 Ngaan5 Ngau4 Paai4)

Dungeness Crab, a local delicacy, is in season right now (but unfortunately in short supply). Surf and turf is an American meal that refers to a dish of seafood (surf; crab in this case) and beef steak (turf). Meat from a whole cooked crab is placed into the body shell and grilled together with a beef rib eye steak. This recipe easily serves two people and is a luxurious dish usually served for a special occasion.

Like the Mesquite Grilled Boneless Beef Chuck Steak (燒烤豆科灌木牛排, Siu¹ Haau¹ Dau⁶ Fo¹ Gun³ Muk⁶ Ngau⁴ Paai⁴) and Mesquite Grilled Barbeque Sauce Rib Eye Steak (燒烤豆科灌木燒烤醬肉眼牛排, Siu¹ Haau¹ Dau⁶ Fo¹ Gun³ Muk⁶ Siu¹ Saau¹ Zoeng³ Juk⁶ Ngaan⁵ Ngau⁴ Paai⁴) recipes, I’ve totally changed the way I grill beef steaks after reading the method used by America’s Test Kitchen. The recipe was for rib-eye steaks, but it can be used for other cuts of beef and other meats (e.g. pork). Their method produces a charred exterior with a tender medium-rare interior, and uses both the oven and the grill. The basic premise for their method is to preheat the steak in the oven before grilling the steak over a hot fire to produce the desired results. I adapted the method to use the grill only to produce similar results. In my previous grilling recipes, I would place the meat over a hot fire first to char the outside and then move the meat to the cool side of the grill to roast and/or smoke. This produced a charred exterior and medium-rare interior, but the medium-rare interior was sandwiched between a well-done exterior, whereas the America’s Test Kitchen method produced a consistent medium-rare interior without the well-done exterior layers.

So my adaptation is to reverse the previous order of cooking the meat to first pre-heat the meat on the cool side of the grill to smoke it before moving to the hot side to char. This produces similar results to America’s Test Kitchen’s original method even though the fire is reduced in heat when the meat is charred after pre-heating, and you don’t need to use your oven. The new method does take longer to cook the meat, but it’s worth the extra time to get the desired results. The cooking time varies with the thickness of the meat, temperature of the fire, and your previous experience with the barbeque grill, so you’ll have to experiment a little to get the desired results. I think if you try cooking steaks using my adapted method, you’ll also change the way you grill meat.

Enjoy!

Basil Cilantro Lobster Noodles (紫蘇芫茜龍蝦麵, Zi2 Sou1 Jyun4 Sai1 Lung4 Haa1 Min6)

Happy New Year! For the first dish of the New Year, here’s a lobster noodle dish seasoned with basil and cilantro. The normal lobster dish found in restaurants is usually made with a fresh whole lobster (shell included) and you have to remove the meat from the shell in order to eat the dish. The dish is visually stunning with the bright red lobster shell, but a messy pain to eat (at least in my opinion). I would rather not have the visually stunning presentation and use cooked (not fresh) lobster meat removed from the shell. I use kitchen shears to remove the meat from the lobster shells, especially the small legs that contain that hard to get at lobster meat. If a whole lobster is too much of a challenge, you can substitute cooked lobster tails. For this dish, I used basil and cilantro for added flavor in this dish. The traditional lobster noodle recipe just uses lobster, so this variation adds a nice fresh herbal note to the dish.

Enjoy!

Technique: How To Make Shrimp Crunchy

This is probably my last post for 2017. I want to wish you and your family the best for 2018. I hope you’ve enjoyed (and tried) this year’s recipes. As you might have noticed, there have been very few posts since early November. I took a long vacation to Asia for most of November and into early December, so the queue for new recipes is long (and growing larger). I’ve been wanting to start blogging about my travel, so to that end, I made an initial post about frozen turkey prices in Singapore. I expect to start adding more posts in the coming year, so keep an eye out for those posts. The travel blog can be found here: https://ducksoupeasytravel.blogspot.com.

For my last post this year, I decided to post a technique for making shrimp “crunchy”. This technique is really simple and I would urge you to try it so that your shrimp have the same texture as that found in restaurants.

The prawn or shrimp in restaurant dishes always have a crunchiness to them, while shrimp used at home lack texture. This is true for both fresh (which in the USA were previously frozen unless you happen to live a region that truly has fresh shrimp) and frozen shrimp. I’ve been looking for a way to emulate the texture of shrimp found in restaurants, but the methods that I’ve found on the internet involve more steps, ingredients, and work that make the process cumbersome.

I managed to find a way to reliably and simply produce crunchy shrimp, and it involves the use of baking soda. If you’ve read many of my recipes, baking soda is used to tenderize meats like to that found in restaurant dishes. In the case of shrimp, a baking soda solution can be used to give shrimp the crunchy texture like that found in restaurants.

The technique involves soaking the shrimp overnight in an iced baking soda solution and then, one hour before cooking, marinating the shrimp. If the shrimp is frozen, there’s no need to add ice to the solution. The shrimp may be left in the baking soda solution up to 48 hours, so there’s no need to use the shrimp all at once in a single dish. The shrimp should be left in the baking soda solution until one hour before cooking the dish. The crunchiness will disappear from the shrimp, once the shrimp is removed from the baking soda solution. Washing away the baking soda solution from the shrimp under cold water one hour before cooking (and marinating) gives the best results.

Enjoy!

Steamed Tianjin Preserved Vegetable White Bass (蒸天津冬菜鰤鱸魚, Zing1 Tin1 Zeon1 Dung1 Coi3 Lou4 Jyu4)

Tianjin Preserved Vegetable is used to provide the flavoring to this steamed fish dish. The preserved vegetables are very salty, so the amount used depends upon personal preference. I used white bass for the fish, but use any available fish to make this dish.

The fish is always finished with heated oil and a soy sauce mixture. You can use a small pot or a wok to heat the mixtures, but I’ve been using the microwave to heat the soy sauce mixture. As always, you need to be very careful when you pour heated oil and liquids on the fish, as the hot oil and liquid will pop and splatter off the fish.

Enjoy!

Doubanjiang Lemongrass Fish Ball Chicken (辣豆瓣酱檸檬葉魚蛋鷄, Laat6 Dau6 Faan6 Zoeng3 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Jyu4 Daan6 Gai1)

Spicy broad bean paste (Doubanjiang) and lemongrass are the basis for the flavor of this chicken and fish ball dish. The Doubanjiang is first stir fried until it darkens in color and then the chicken is added to the mixture. This is the last step after all the other ingredients have been stir fried, which is backwards from the usual order of stir frying the chicken first in most other dishes. The dish can be made even spicier by adding fresh red chili peppers.

Enjoy!

Mesquite Grilled Pork Chops with Skin (燒烤豆科木豬排, Siu1 Haau1 Dau6 Fo1 Gun3 Muk6 Zyu1 Paai4)

This is a variation on a previously posted recipe, Grilled Hickory Smoked Rib Eye Pork Chops, which uses the most basic method to wood smoke (mesquite, in this case) pork rib chops on a grill. For this recipe, pork rib chops with the skin on are used. Skin-on pork rib chops can be purchased at your local Asian market. You need to cut the skin in two to three places so that the pork chops don’t curl up when the skin contracts as it is grilled. There’s no marinating involved – just take the pork rib chops out of the refrigerator one hour before grilling, coat with sesame oil, salt or Lawry’s seasoned salt, and pepper, and then grill. The flavor is also at its most basic – just pork and wood smoke.

Enjoy!