The Ravenous Couple

Pan Seared Black Cod with Miso Butter and All-Clad d3 Armor Fish Pan Giveaway!

chris.smearing@gmail.com — Fri, 28 May 2021 15:06:54 +0000

Eating a filet of fish without skin is like eating a skinless lechon or porchetta. It’s a travesty to miss out on the crispy skin and one we simply refuse to do. But it’s also a travesty to have the skin break and stick when cooking. Which is why we love to prepare our fish with a simple pan sear. Pan searing is one of the best cooking methods for fish–you crispy skin on one side and tender flaky meat on the other and it only takes minutes to do. Yet how many times have you chosen a perfect filet of fish only to have the fish stick on the pan and end up a broken mess? Sadly it’s happened to us before and it wasn’t pretty. The skin on filet was mangled, half sticking to the pan and half dangling from the broken filet. While we could have avoid this with using a nonstick pan, you just don’t get the nice crispy browned skin that we both love. Plus, we don’t want to use such high heat on nonstick pans.

While there’s an entire chemistry lesson on why food sticks to pans, you read our blog for recipes so we’re going share a few key tips we rely on to avoid fish (or any protein) from sticking.

First, key factor is temperature. Make sure your pan (either a cast iron or stainless steel heavy bottom pan) is adequately heated. This is a great video and explanation on how to make sure properly heat your pan.
Second, make sure your protein is nice and dry and at room temperature for at least 10 minutes—excess moisture and cold temperature will drop the temperature in the pan and inhibit browning.
Finally, don’t fidget with the food–leave it alone to develop a nice crispy crust. Even if a bit of sticking occurs initially you can lower the heat and it will release on its own.

Now all the above can be a daunting task if you’re new and have an expensive filet of sea bass before you. But luckily for us home cooks, there are people looking out for us designing pan that can adequately sear a fish without the sticking issue. We’ve had the pleasure to try the All-Clad d3 Armor fish pan over the last several weeks to test how well it would handle and we came away very impressed. Like everything in the All-Clad line, the d3 Armor pan feels very sturdy and is extremely well built right here in the USA. It also looks beautiful on our stove-top, a big plus in our book. The shape of the pan is also great–the oblong oval shape allows for large filet or (steaks for that matter) and it’s low flared sides make it easy handing and flipping. The d3 Armor has a triple ply construction like the regular All-Clad and is for great browning and searing but what sets it apart is it’s unique riveted design that makes for a natural nonstick surface. We have a regular All-Clad frying pan to compare and the release on the d3 is was even more effortless. It was remarkable how easy how proteins just slipped right off without even a bit of stickiness. You’ll see in our video below flipping a delicate filet of black cod was a breeze!

While not marketed as a true nonstick pan, it’s essentially performing as one for us. While we probably won’t make scrambled eggs with it, we won’t hesitate to make it our go to pan for searing and browning. We tested this on several recipes but our favorite is Nobu inspired black cod with miso butter pan sauce. The original recipe calls for making a miso marinade overnight but our version is so simple yet contains the essential flavors of the dish but can be made at the spur of the moment! Here’s a quick 1 minute video of the process using the d3 Armor fish pan:

We’re fortunate to try the All-Clad d3 Armor fish pan in our kitchen but we don’t want to keep a good thing to ourselves. All-Clad has generously agreed to give one of our readers a chance to win the All-Clad d3 fish pan retailing for $199.95! Entering is simple. We’re going to make this an instagram give away.

Just go to our instagram of this recipe, like the photo and follow us and All-Clad and tag 3 friends to enter. If you re-gram the post on your feed and tag us that’s another entry. We’ll randomly chose a winner on 10/17/2016.

Pan Seared Black Cod with MIso Butter Sauce

Simple yet delicious meal for special occasion or everyday dining. This recipe is inspired by Nobu's Miso black cod though you can use any white fish filet. We recommend using a stainless steel or cast iron pan to get the crispiest crust on the fish. Here we served it with steamed baby bok choy but you can serve with your favorite vegetable side. The miso butter pan sauce goes great on vegetables too!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese

Keyword fish,, Miso Butter, Pan Seared, seafood

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Servings poeple

Calories 507kcal

Equipment

All-Clad d3 Armor fish pan

Ingredients

2 filet of white fish such as black cod
1 tbs cooking oil
1 ts minced ginger
1/3 cup chicken stock or white wine
1 tbs butter
1/2 tbs white miso
salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat stainless steel pan on medium. Season fish filet with salt and pepper. To check if your pan is hot enough, add a teaspoon of water. If it sizzles and steams, then it's not hot enough. Continue to preheat until a teaspoon of hot water remains in a small ball and floats over the pan like a "mercury ball." At this point, it's ready. Add oil and filets skin side down. Do not touch the filet until they are cooked about 2/3rd through. Carefully flip and finish the cooking for another minute and remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the pan from the heat. Turn down to medium low and add the ginger and saute until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with stock or wine. Stir vigariously with wooden spoon to scrap up any sticky bits of food on bottom of pan. Continue to heat until liquid has reduced by about 50%. Add the butter and miso and stir until completely dissolved and sauce has emulsified and thickened and remove from heat.
Spoon pan sauce over the pan seared fish and serve with favorite vegetable side.

Nutrition

The post Pan Seared Black Cod with Miso Butter and All-Clad d3 Armor Fish Pan Giveaway! first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Banh Nam Recipe

The Ravenous Couple — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 01:00:00 +0000

Bánh nậm is often called the Vietnamese tamale and it’s similarities to the Latin American treat are remarkable. Both are rectangular dumplings filled with meat and then wrapped and steamed. Tamales dumplings are typically corn flour but can also be rice flour just like bánh nậm, Tamales are often wrapped in corn husks but the more south you go towards central America, the more frequent banana leaves are used, just like bánh nậm. So its remarkable that half way around the world, two different cultures can come up with a dish that is so similar. In Hue and central Vietnam, bánh nậm is typically filled with minced pork and shrimp and these parcels can be eaten as a snack on it’s own or as a dish doused in some nuoc cham.

We’ve eaten it many times but suprisingly we haven’t made it ourselves. The process is very similar to banh gio, but for this recipe, we enlisted instagrammer Kris @rasianbran who makes some of the best looking bánh nậm on the gram and she happily shared her recipe.

The recipe itself is easy but does take some planning and procuring some special ingredients, namely banana leaves which are commonly found in the frozen section of well stocked Asian or Latino markets.

Bánh nậm Recipe

Savory banana wrapped rice dumplings filled with pork and shrimp. Recipe courtesy of Kris @rasianbran on instagram.

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword banh nam, dumpling

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

Assembly 30

Total Time 2

Servings pieces

Calories 147kcal

Author Hong and Kim

Equipment

steamer

Ingredients

Batter

2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 ts salt
2 tbsp oil neutral cooking oil
6 cups water

Filling

1 lb pork finely ground
1 lb shrimp peeled and deveined, finely chopped
1/2 cup wood ear mushroom soaked and finely chopped
1/2 ts black pepper
1/2 ts salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 ts oyster sauce
2 tbs annatto seed oil or cooking oil if not available
2 shallots medium, chopped
3 cloves garlic cloves chopped
2 green onion stalks, chopped

Assembly

1 package banana leaf thawed if frozen, cut into roughly rectangles 6 x 10 inches

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Banana Leaf

Bring large pot of water to boil, blanch the banana leaves for 30 seconds. Drain and wipe dry. Cover and set aside.

Batter

Add all the ingredients into a large pot and allow to mix and set for 30 minutes. Proceed to make the filling. When filling is done, cook the batter under high heat, constantly stirring. When it begins to thicken, reduce the heat to medium/low and continue to stir until it becomes a thick paste (mashed potato consistency).

Filling

Combine everything except for the annatto oil, garlic and onions and mix well and set aside. In a large pan, heat the annatto see oil and when hot, add the garlic and shallots, then green onion. Fry until fragrant. Add the filling mixture and cook until pork and shrimp are done. Allow to cool and set aside.

Assembly and Cook

Using silicone spatula place about 1 tbsp of batter onto center of banana leaf, spread into thin rectangle about 2.5 x 4 inches. Some people really like thick vs. thin, this is up to you. Add 1 ts filling and spread evenly. Fold over sides and then ends. Flip and pat to even out the banh nam. Repeat with remaining batter and filling and steam for 15 minutes and serve still warm as a snack or with nuoc cham.
https://theravenouscouple.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/EE04E93C-83F7-47A5-8806-83A77215B49E.mp4

Notes

Allow the batter to cool slightly and it will be less sticky and easier to spread with silicone spatual or back of wet spoon. Keep the batter covered to prevent drying.

To make annatto oil, steep about 2 tbs of cooking oil with 1 ts of annatto seed. Heat and stir occasionally until the oil becomes dark red color and remove from heat. Drain seeds.

Filling can be made 1 day ahead.

Nutrition

The post Banh Nam Recipe first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Nhà Hàng $1.99 Dipping Sauce

The Ravenous Couple — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:22 +0000

This recipe is for everyone that grew up in Little Saigon in Orange county California. Little Saigon is not a single town but expanse of suburbia that encompasses the largest and most diverse Vietnamese diaspora outside of Vietnam. The first wave, second wave, and new family reunification immigrants all found their way to the warm climates of southern California. Like any community, the range of immigrants was diverse: rich and poor immigrants, educated, uneducated, professionals, and laborers. All of them needed food to remind them of home. Restaurants popped up to serve fellow immigrants and priced the menus to attract them. One such restaurant was Nhà Hàng $1.99 which opened in the 80’s and as it’s name suggested, everything on the menu was $1.99! It fed people of all ages, class, gender, and fed them well and is still going strong today. While most items are no longer $1.99 the name still has meaning and its prices have barely kept up with inflation (at the time, this was great for poor immigrants, but over the years likely contributed to the stereotype that Vietnamese should be cheap to be authentic).

One of it’s most famous dishes is the 1/2 cornish hen with its addictive buttery, sweet, and oniony sauce. Here’s a sample quote on Yelp, about this sauce: “I don’t know what the f**k they put in that sauce but it is CRACK I tell you CRACKKKK!!! Had to start off the review with that because if there’s one thing that could possibly bring the world together during this crazy time, it would be the Chicken Sauce. I could drink a cup of that sauce” A lot of people seem to feel that way and we don’t disagree! Here’s our copy cat version.

Nhà Hàng $1.99 Restaurant Sauce

Famous Little Saigon restaurant serving $1.99 menu items. This is a copycat of their famous dipping sauce. You can add some drippings from the roasted chicken for more flavor

Course condiments

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword sauce

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Total Time 10

Servings servings

Calories 102kcal

Author Hong and Kim

Ingredients

2 tbs oil
1 tbs garlic
1/2 yellow onion medium, finely chopped
1 shallot finely chopped
1/4 cup golden mountain soy sauce or light soy sauce
1 tbs sweet soy sauce
1/4 stick unsalted butter
black pepper
2 tbsp Roasted chicken juice optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In sauce pan on medium heat, add oil and sautée and sweat the onions, shallots and garlic until softened and slightly transparant but not browned. Add the soy sauces and chicken roasting juices if using. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Finish with few turns of freshly cracked black pepper.

Notes

Can be kept for 1 week refrigerated but we promise it won't last that long!

Nutrition

$1.99 Restaurant Sauce

Famous Little Saigon restaurant serving $1.99 menu items. This is a copycat of their famous dipping sauce. You can add some drippings from the roasted chicken for more flavor

Course condiments

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword dipping sauce

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Total Time 10

Servings

Calories 102kcal

Ingredients

2 tbs oil
1 tbs garlic
1/2 finely chopped medium yellow onion
1 finely chopped shallot
1/4 cup golden mountain soy sauce or light soy sauce
1 tbs sweet soy sauce
1/4 stick of butter
black pepper

Instructions

In medium pan, add oil and sautée and sweat the onions, shallots and garlic until softened and slightly transparant but not browned. Add the soy sauces and chicken roasting juices if using. Remove from heat and stirr butter. Finish with few turns of freshly cracked black pepper
. Can be kept for 1 week refridgerated.

Nutrition

The post Nhà Hàng $1.99 Dipping Sauce first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Ca Ngu Kho Thom Braised Bonito with Pineapple

The Ravenous Couple — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 13:00:00 +0000

The main reason we put a pause on blogging is that these posts take time to write and edit. However, we’ve been actively posting recipes and step by step stories on Instagram. We’re going to try a new “quick” post method using our instagram feed as a inspiration to a dish and recipe below. In this day in age when we’re all being asked to be teachers and homemakers and whatever imaginable roles thrusted upon us, lets give this a try and see how you all like this! Think of this as a quick phone call to your mom or relative for a recipe, except we’ll provide measurements. But as always, our recipes are guidelines and always season as you go and adjust.

You’ll also notice a new recipe format! There’s much more information, scalable so you don’t have to do any math, and has nutritional information! On the landing page you can jump straight to the recipe and skip the text. Ingredient and equipment checkboxes for easier organization.

So our first go at this is a classic “sweet and sour” braised bonito. Sweet and sour from the pineapples and tomatoes. The bonito is meaty fish that is great in this braise. It’s not as well known as the clay pot ca kho , but its just as delicious.

Ca Ngu Kho Thom Braised Bonito with Pineapples

Classic braised fish recipe from the central coast of Vietnam where bonito is a common and favorite delicacy to pair with sweet and sour pineapple and tomatoes,

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword braised fish, ca kho, fish,

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Servings

Calories 414kcal

Author Hong and Kim

Equipment

Ingredients

2 lbs Bonito 4-5 steaks depending on size of fish
1 ts salt
1 ts sugar
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp garlic minced
1 shallot minced
1.5 cups young coconut water or plain water
1 ts fish sauce
1 ts nuoc mau optional
1 cup pineapple chopped into 2 inch chunks
1 tomato quartered
2 thai chile optional, chopped
1 tbsp cilantro chopped
1 tbsp green onion chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Marinate the bonito steaks with salt, sugar for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, prep the other ingredients.
In a large shallow pan or dutch oven on medium heat, add oil and saute garlic and shallots until fragrant. Sear the steaks each side for some color. Add the pineapples and tomatoes and young coconut water. You may have to add more or less depending on this size of your pan, just make sure they just barely cover the fish. If you have some prepared nuoc mau, add that now. Bring to gentle simmer and allow liquid to slowly reduce. When it's reduced by about 1/2, adjust final seasoning with fish sauce, thai chile, fresh black pepper. Turn off heat and transfer to serving bowl and top with cilantro and green onion and serve immediately with rice.

Notes

Substitute bonito with other meaty fish such as tuna, king mackerel, salmon, swordfish, or monkfish.

Nutrition

Ca Ngu Kho Thom Braised Bonito with Pineapples

Classic fish to use is bonito, however if you have other meaty fish such as tuna, king mackerel, salmon, or swordfish the flavors will work as well.

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Servings

Ingredients

2 lbs Bonito Steaks roughly 4-5 steaks depending on size of fish
1 ts salt
1 ts sugar
1 tbs cooking oil
1 tbs minced garlic
1 minced shallot
1.5 cups of young coconut water or plain water
1 ts fish sauce
1 ts nuoc mau optional
1 heaping cup of ripe pineapple chopped into 2 inch chunks
1 large ripe meaty tomato quartered
2 chopped thai chile optional
2 tbs chopped cilantro and green onion

Instructions

Marinate the bonito steaks with salt, sugar for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, prep the other ingredients.
In a large shallow pan or dutch oven on medium heat, add oil and saute garlic and shallots until fragrant. Sear the steaks each side for some color. Add the pineapples and tomatoes and young coconut water. You may have to add more or less depending on this size of your pan, just make sure they just barely cover the fish. If you have some prepared nuoc mau, add that now. Bring to gentle simmer and allow liquid to slowly reduce. When it's reduced by about 1/2, adjust final seasoning with fish sauce, thai chile, fresh black pepper. Turn off heat and transfer to serving bowl and top with cilantro and green onion and serve immediately with rice.

The post Ca Ngu Kho Thom Braised Bonito with Pineapple first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Com Hen Baby Clam Rice

The Ravenous Couple — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:49:03 +0000

Among the things we miss most during this pandemic quarantine is not traveling (we had several international trips canceled). We miss not be able to inhale local sights, meeting new people, basking in scenery, and enjoying good food. But clearly, its a small price to pay for staying healthy and we pray for all families affect by COVID-19. But the thrill of being able to enjoy a dish tied to a place, a tradition, and a people at it’s origin is special and something we look forward to. Having said that, it’s also been almost 8 months since we’ve dined out and as a consolation, quarantine cooking has taken us virtually to locales across the world with hyper-local specialties. It’s been close to 10 years since we’ve stepped foot in Huế but one of unique dishes (among many) is cơm hến. While you can find this dish all over Huế, the most popular–and by local accounts, the best– is from a small islet in the middle of the Sông Hương river named Cồn Hến. You would imagine that this islet would be the source for some of the best baby clams in the region. Traditionally, this dish is served with a clam broth from boiling the clams, but here we present a shortcut version using already cleaned and cooked clams that comes together in minutes!

Frozen cooked baby clams is a good substitute for fresh clams without the worry of removing any dirt and sand. We prefer this over canned clams. Since it’s pre-cooked, we forego the boiling process but sacrifice the broth–however, you can certainly use canned clam juice if you opt for that option. Just bring to boil the clam broth and season with squeeze of lemon and salt to taste. The clams are quickly sauteed with turmeric, paprika, garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, sugar and nuoc mam. When cooled, the clams are tossed in some herbs and ready to serve.

The other key component of this dish is room temperature rice. One of great things about this dish is the contrasting textures–hot or even warm rice may wilt the fresh vegetables and dull this contrast. You can also use room temperature vermicelli noodles for a variation of bún hến.

Regarding vegetables, the two main things to consider are tart and crunch. Tart fruit such as green apples, green papaya, green mango or star fruit is a commonly used. Crunchy vegetables are also a key–peeled taro stems add great crunch, but if that’s not available use other crunchy substitutes such as iceberg lettuce.

The dish is tied together with mam nem, a prepared shrimp paste sauce, crunchy peanuts, crispy shallots, bánh đa and even some crispy chicharrons. Again, texture is everything in Vietnamese cuisine!

Com Hen Baby Clam Rice

A Huế specialty of sauteed clams, rice, and variety fruits and vegetables for a uniquely satisfying dish. Rice can be substituted with vermicelli noodles. See notes above for clam broth.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword clam, rice, seafood

Prep Time 35

Cook Time 5

Total Time 40

Servings portions

Calories 236kcal

Ingredients

Mam Nem Sauce

1 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs garlic
1 tbs lemongrass
2 tbs lime
2 tbs fermented shrimp paste
2 tbs sugar
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of chopped pineapple preferably fresh
Chopped birds eye chili optional

Com Hen Baby Clam Rice

1 tbs of vegetable oil
1 tbs of chopped shallots
2 minced garlic cloves
1 ts turmeric
1 ts of paprika
1 ts salt
1 ts ground pepper
1 ts sugar
1/2 tbs of fish sauce
12 oz bag of frozen baby clams defrosted according to instructions
1 bunch rau ram substitute with mint or basil if not available and additional herbs if desired
1 cup of julienned taro stem
1 cup Julienned green apple 1 apple or other tart crispy fruit
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
Fried crispy shallots
Cooked room temperature rice
Banh Da
Chicharrones optional

Instructions

Mam nem sauce
In small pan, heat the oil and sauté garlic and lemongrass till fragrant and remove from heat. Add all mam nem ingredients except pineapple and stir until sugar dissolves. Then add pineapple and birds eye chili. Adjust to taste and set aside.
Baby Clams
In a pan, sautéed garlic and shallots in oil over medium heat until fragrant. Add clams, turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce. Cook only until seasonings are combined, about 2 minutes, do not over cook. Season to taste and allow to cool. When cooled, add herbs and toss together.
In a wide shallow bowl, add room temperature rice, top with clam mixture, taro stems, green apples, any additional herbs, crispy shallots, peanuts and bánh đa.
Finally add about 1 tbs of the mam nem sauce. Stir well and enjoy.

Nutrition

The post Com Hen Baby Clam Rice first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Salmon Belly Spring Rolls

The Ravenous Couple — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 00:00:02 +0000

Who doesn’t love a spring roll? It’s the perfect union between vegetables and proteins bounded by sliver of carbohydrates that even the most ardent low carb fiend would approve.

The typical goi cuon contains pork and shrimp, but we must commend chef Kristen of the very popular Little Saigon restaurant, Garlic and Chives for her ingenious idea of using salmon belly. The salmon belly is fried, it’s exterior cripsy and crunchy, but due to the relative high fat content of the belly, it’s still moist and tender on the inside. Now, rolling up fish in spring rolls isn’t a novel idea—we do it all the time with our turmeric salmon and many restaurants devoted to this using roasted catfish, ca nuong. What’s genius about using salmon belly is the sheer ease to prepare and portion. We have to admit, it’s a laborious task of roasting a whole fish or an entire filet of salmon. Luckily many Asian markets sell salmon belly trimmed off the main filet so easy to buy exactly what you need and it cooks a lot faster. We prefer to deep fry, but you can definitely saute or even oven bake or airfry the belly’s. The texture will but slightly different, but it should all taste great.

The additional vegetables and herbs can be entirely up to you, but we do like to different textures and flavors in our spring roll so that each bite is bursting with contrasts. All the ingredients in our Nem Nuong cuon
is a good starting point, including something pickled like carrots and daikon and crunchy, especially the fried egg roll wrapper. We even improvised and added a nori strip to add a touch of salty and crunchy.

Chef Kristen uses a tamarind based dipping sauce that is tart and savory and complements the salmon wonderfully.

Salmon Belly Spring Rolls

Recipe inspired by Chef Kristen of Garlic and Chives. You can either saute, deep fry or even bake the salmon belly. We prefer deep fry for the most crispy texture. Skin on or off is up to you, but leaving the skin on keeps the meat intact better. We even improvised and added a nori strip, entirely up to you.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword salmon, spring roll

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Total Time 30

Servings servings

Calories 768kcal

Author Hong and Kim

Ingredients

Salmon

8 salmon belly roughly 5 x 1 inch strips
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 ts sesame oil

Accompaniments

8 spring roll rice paper wrappers
1.5 cup leaf lettuce coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Vietnamese herbs mint, basil, roughly chopped
1 cucumber cut same size as salmon belly, about 5 inch strips
1/2 cup pickled carrots and daikon

Crunchy egg roll wrapper

8 wheat egg roll wrappers 6" square, optional
1 ts tapioca starch or corn starch
1 tbs water

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup tamarind concentrate
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
Optional mince chile

Instructions

Marinade the salmon belly with oyster sauce and sesame oil for at 10- 20 min.
Meanwhile, make the crunchy egg roll wrapper. Form a paste by combining tapioca starch and water in small bowl. Roll the square wrappers into tight cigar shape and seal with tapioca paste. Deep fry until crispy, drain on paper towels and set aside.
Make the tamarind dipping sauce by combining tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, garlic and mix well. Top with minced chiles and set aside.
Deep fry or pan fry the salmon belly until golden brown. When cool to the touch, roll into spring roll wraps using your desired greens, herbs, cucumber, pickled carrots and daikon. Serve immediately with tamarind dipping sauce.

Notes

The sauce can be made 1-2 days in advance. The crunchy egg roll wraps can be rolled and frozen and fried straight from frozen.

Nutrition

The post Salmon Belly Spring Rolls first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Pho Bo Recipe Tips and Techniques

The Ravenous Couple — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 15:00:59 +0000

When we started this blog many years ago, pho was the last thing we wanted to blog about. It’s not because we don’t love pho—we think it’s the greatest thing on earth, even better than banh mi—but it’s synonamous with Vietnamese food with many published recipes from major media outlets as well as entire blogs and books dedicated to pho. Instead, we wanted to show readers that Vietnamese cuisine is so much more than pho and focused on home-styled com gia dinh and common folk dishes that our parents made for us growing up in America. Plus, it was our way to record our family recipes for our own use. But finally the time has finally come where we think it’s overdue to post a pho recipe on the blog, so here’s our take on it.

At its core, pho is beautiful amalgam of a golden fragrant beef broth, al dente rice noodles, and accent toppings. While one can argue the merits of each component and it’s relative worth, to us what makes a bowl of pho soup is unequivally, the broth. That’s what this post will focus on. This blog post is not about the origins/history of pho and we won’t even wax poetic about how a bowl of pho can cure the soul of the homesick or your worst hangover–though we’re absolutely sure it could. We won’t give you a definitive recipe, but instead, will give a guideline and magic ratio and technical tips that you can put into practice to make that perfect pot of pho for your family. It’s not a short cut, slow cooker, or pressure cooker method but it’s relatively little active time involved. Why should you believe us? Well, Hong’s grandmother was born around the time pho was invented in Nam Dinh, the birthplace of pho, and she even vended pho in the streets of Saigon in the 50’s before it got to difficult with her family life and nine children. She taught Hong’s mom who then taught her siblings, a few of whom now own several pho restaurants in America.

Before we go further, let us start by saying when we cook pho, we make enough to feed a village. About 15 quarts worth to be exact for our small family of 4. We eat what we can for several days, have friends over, and then freeze the rest in containers for 2-3 servings. We place chunks of cooked beef and oxtail in the broth to freeze as well. Even after a few months, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between frozen broth and freshly made broth. But it’s the perfect emergency solution for our busy family. A quick defrost of our frozen pho is not much more work than cooking instant ramen.

The Golden Ratio

So on to the broth. First start off by asking how big is your biggest stock pot? If you’re like us, we have a 20 qt pot, we typically make 15 quarts of broth (we never do the full 20 due to volume of bones and risk of spillage). For our broth to be sufficiently beefy full flavor with good body, the golden ratio our family uses is 1:1 ratio of beef parts to quart of water. So for 10 qts of broth, we need to procure 10 lbs of beef parts—a combination of bone and meat. You don’t have to be exact, but we typically use about 8 lbs of beef femur long bones (including knuckle), oxtail, and about 2 lbs of beef brisket, shank, chuck or whatever cut of well done meat you prefer for serving with the pho. With 10 qt of broth as your final goal and 10 lbs bones and beef, you’re half way done with the recipe! The final two components are the seasoning and aromatics. For the seasoning we simply use salt, sugar, and…hold on, wait for it— a touch of MSG. Yes, you read that right. For the aromatics we use onion, ginger, and a pre-assembled spice packet containing star anise, cloves, fennel seeds, and cinnamon. There’s no need to buy all the spices separately and it comes with a handle cheese cloth to hold all the spices together.

When cooking the broth, we like to use our favorite quote from the world of bbq in mind: go low and slow. Our ideal broth should be a beautiful clear golden color. Not brown and muddled. To achieve this, never let the pot boil for an extended period of time (we do want it to come to boil at certain times). Always use the minimum heat required to keep the broth at a gentle simmer. From there it’s up to you how long you want to simmer to extract the most flavor from the bones. My parents always did this on friday night and so they simmer all night so we could have pho to eat in saturday morning. We recommend you simmer the bones for a minimum of 4 hours. As long as you keep the heat to low for a gentle simmer it’s perfectly safe to even cook the pho overnight. You’ll wake up thanking us.

Key Ingredients and Techniques

Bones: The majority of your bones should be long femur bones with plenty of marrow. Knuckle bones often included and while they don’t have marrow, they contain cartilage that adds body to the broth so it’s a good idea to include them. We also supplement with oxtail whenever we find it on sale because it has marrow, cartilage, and meat so it packs big flavor and body. Beef neck bones are also a good cheaper alternative to oxtail as it big on beefy flavor and edible meat and much less cheaper than oxtail. But feel free to experiment and use a variety! We recommend par cooking your bones to release the scum and blood products for the clearest and cleanest flavor broth. Don’t worry about losing flavor when you toss out that par cooked liquid-the flavor you want is deep in the bones, not on the superficial surface. Rinse the bones in cold water and clean them of any loose particles and don’t forget to also clean the pot of any residue. It’s the most tedious part of making pho, but it is well worth your time. If you don’t par cook you’ll just have to spend a lot more time skimming the scum. And oh, we don’t pre-roast the bones.

Beef for serving: We prefer to use shank or brisket as our primary cooked beef for serving. Both are relative cheap cuts that are also tough and contains lots of tendon that require a long cook time to break down, but it offers big of beef flavor in return. We love the texture of shank because of the interwoven tendons that adds a nice bite when cut thin and against the grain. We strive to have well done meat, but not falling apart soft. Similarly brisket, especially the point, is well marbled and full of flavor. But chuck, sirloin, and drop flank are also good options. When these cuts of beef are done, remove from the pot and store carefully to before serving. If you’re making a small pot of broth, we would shock them in water bath and then when cool to touch, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and set aside. If you’re making a good size pot with plenty of broth to spare, remove the meat along with just enough broth to cover the meat in a bowl and set aside at room temp to cool until ready to serve.

For thit tai, rare sliced beef, we prefer flank, sliced thinly against the grain on the bias, served separately on the side—pouring hot broth over the rare beef in the bowl will result in a cloudy broth.

While the “xe lua” or “dac biet” bowls are on top of every menu overloaded with every beef part imaginable, is fun to order every now and then, it’s not what we think is the ideal bowl of pho. To us, restraint is key to a great bowl of pho. One or two types of meat expertly prepared really lets you savor what you’re eating. It’s all about balance between the broth, noodles, meat, and condiments. One exception we always allow for is adding Hong’s mom’s homemade beef meatballs with tendon which is a special treat.

Seasoning: We only use salt and sugar in a 1:1 ratio. We use plain iodized salt and granulated sugar. Rock sugar is often mentioned in many recipes and fine to use, but it’s not something we always have readily available in the pantry. As for other flavor enhancers, such as MSG, we think it’s perfectly safe and acceptable to use MSG. Our mom think’s it’s absolute must and swears that pho without MSG doesn’t taste the same. But you can totally skip it if you like, after all, this will be your family pho recipe. If you plan on using MSG, we recommend using bare minimum and titrating up to your taste. What about fish sauce? While we love fish sauce to death, we do not use fish sauce to season our broth. Our family comes from Northern Vietnam in the town of Nam Dinh (near the birthplace of pho) so they are adamant about not using fish sauce to season the broth. We do however recommend having fish sauce option at the table to for each person to use as desired.

Aromatics: For convenience we prefer buying pre-assembled package “Gia Vi Nau Pho Bac” from Old Man Que Huong brand each time we make pho. It contains anise, cinnamon, fennel, clove, coriander and cardamon and a handy cotton spice bag. Storing all these spices separately may lead to poorer quality unless you cook pho very frequently. Dry toasting your spices definitely brings out the essential oils and makes a more flavorful and nuanced broth. Similarly, cooking and charring your onion and ginger will also bring out sweetness and wonderful aromas. It’s important to not just char the surface but to also slightly cook and soften the inside of the onion and ginger to bring out a more nuanced flavor. There are many ways to do this: over a low flame on a grate over a burner; broiling in the oven; or a new way we recently tried: microwaving for about 3 minutes until just slightly softened and then finishing with a blow torch or over burner for the char. We’ve seen people remove or wash off the charred bits–that’s a no no for us. You want some of that flavor and aroma in your broth.

Noodles: Unless you’re living out in the boonies somewhere almost everyone now will have access to fresh pho rice noodles sold in vacuum packed packages in the refrigerated section of your Asian market. We love how quick and easy it is to prepare use it exclusively but if you can’t find them, dried noodle are perfectly fine but just takes more time to prepare. We hate having soft mushy noodles so our technique is pour boiling water over the fresh noodles, wait about 10 seconds and then drain. It’s that simple and results in perfectly chewy yet soft noodles each time. We recommend only preparing enough noodles for what you’re going to eat in one setting.

Herbs: Like a great taco, the flavors and scent of pho is beautifully rounded out by a small squeeze of fresh lime. Plenty of finely chopped cilantro and green onions and fresh torn holy basil are also requisites for us. Bean sprouts, either fresh or blanched, adds a textural crunch and something we always add. Thinly sliced yellow onions and culantro or ngo gai is another great herb to add.

Sriracha/Hoisin Sauce: Before instinctively squirting sriracha or hoisin sauce in your bowl of pho, take a moment to taste the broth alone and savor all the work and enjoy the satisfaction of making your own home made pho.

Lets Do This

Ok, now that you’ve read this far, you’re stomach is tell you to make it probably eager to get started but dreading the long drawn out process. To be honest, if we were to time the active prep time for this recipe, it’ll easily fit into 30 minutes. The vast majority of the time you’re just sitting back and enjoying the aroma. The key is deciding when you want to eat your pho. If you want to eat it for dinner, start it first thing in the morning. If you want it for breakfast, start in the evening. It’s that simple there’s no reason for you not to make a pot of pho right now.

This is a guideline more than a recipe. The idea is to learn the basic guidelines to develop your own amazing pho recipe for your family. The magic ratio is 1:1 beef parts to water. So decide on how big your pot is and adjust accordingly (remember to account for the volume of bones). We'll provide a sample recipe for 13 qt pot below. If you only have a 7 qt pot, scale down below as appropriate. Please read this guideline in it's entirety several times and watch the video above before embarking and let us know if you have any questions!

Ingredients:

8 lbs various beef long bones, femur, etc.
2 lbs serving meat-cut in two manageable pieces (shank, brisket, chuck or combination)
10 qt water
1 pho spice packet
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar or rocksugar
1 tbs msg optional
2 large ginger knob, charred (see above techniques)
2 large yellow onion, charred (see above techniques)

Directions:

Char the ginger and onions using one of methods mentioned in the techniques section above and set aside.

In a dry pan, lightly toast the contents of the spice packet until fragrant. When cool, place spices in a cloth sachet or large tea strainer and set aside.

In place the bones in your stock pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to boil for a few minutes and empty entire contents into a clean sink. Clean the pot of any residue and rinse cold water onto the bones. When bones are safe to handle, rinse them well of any residue and small particles. Add the ginger and onions and spice packet to bottom of clean pot and place bones on top. Add the water, salt, and sugar. Keep heat on high and bring to boil. At this time you can adjust your seasoning adding more salt and sugar if necessary.

At this first boil, it's time to add the serving meat. Since we didn't parcook the serving meat, it will release a small amount of residue/scum so occasionally skim this off. Adding the serving meat will stop the pot from boiling so bring the pot back to boil once more and then, turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. You can cover the pot while it's simmering. Depending on the cut you use it can be up to 1-3 hrs (cuts with lots of tendon can take much longer). When the serving beef is done, store them via one of the methods outline in the above techniques section before serving.

Continue to simmer the bones for at least 4 hours, preferably longer with lid on and slightly ajar to prevent too much evaporation. If you find the water level has dropped significantly, you can more water back to the orignial level and re-season. But do not add so much as to dilute your broth.

Pho Bo Guide / Tips and Techniques

This is a guideline more than a recipe. The idea is to learn the basic guidelines to develop your own amazing pho recipe for your family. The magic ratio is 1:1 beef parts to water. So decide on how big your pot is and adjust accordingly (remember to account for the volume of bones). We'll provide a sample recipe for 13 qt pot below. If you only have a 7 qt pot, scale down below as appropriate. Please read this guideline in it's entirety several times and watch the video above before embarking and let us know if you have any questions!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword guide, Pho Bo

Prep Time 30

Servings people

Calories 1327kcal

Ingredients

8 lbs various beef long bones femur, etc.
2 lbs serving meat-cut in two manageable pieces shank, brisket, chuck or combination
10 qt water
1 pho spice packet
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar or rocksugar
1 tbs msg optional
2 large ginger knob charred (see above techniques)
2 large yellow onion charred (see above techniques)

Instructions

Char the ginger and onions using one of methods mentioned in the techniques section above and set aside.
In a dry pan, lightly toast the contents of the spice packet until fragrant. When cool, place spices in a cloth sachet or large tea strainer and set aside.
In place the bones in your stock pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to boil for a few minutes and empty entire contents into a clean sink. Clean the pot of any residue and rinse cold water onto the bones. When bones are safe to handle, rinse them well of any residue and small particles. Add the ginger and onions and spice packet to bottom of clean pot and place bones on top. Add the water, salt, and sugar. Keep heat on high and bring to boil. At this time you can adjust your seasoning adding more salt and sugar if necessary.
At this first boil, it's time to add the serving meat. Since we didn't parcook the serving meat, it will release a small amount of residue/scum so occasionally skim this off. Adding the serving meat will stop the pot from boiling so bring the pot back to boil once more and then, turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. You can cover the pot while it's simmering. Depending on the cut you use it can be up to 1-3 hrs (cuts with lots of tendon can take much longer). When the serving beef is done, store them via one of the methods outline in the above techniques section before serving.
Continue to simmer the bones for at least 4 hours, preferably longer with lid on and slightly ajar to prevent too much evaporation. If you find the water level has dropped significantly, you can more water back to the orignial level and re-season. But do not add so much as to dilute your broth.

Nutrition

Pho Bo Guide / Tips and Techniques

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword Pho Bo

Servings

Calories 1327kcal

Ingredients

8 lbs various beef long bones femur, etc.
2 lbs serving meat-cut in two manageable pieces shank, brisket, chuck or combination
10 qt water
1 pho spice packet
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar or rocksugar
1 tbs msg optional
2 large ginger knob charred (see above techniques)
2 large yellow onion charred (see above techniques)

Instructions

Char the ginger and onions using one of methods mentioned in the techniques section above and set aside.
In a dry pan, lightly toast the contents of the spice packet until fragrant. When cool, place spices in a cloth sachet or large tea strainer and set aside.
In place the bones in your stock pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to boil for a few minutes and empty entire contents into a clean sink. Clean the pot of any residue and rinse cold water onto the bones. When bones are safe to handle, rinse them well of any residue and small particles. Add the ginger and onions and spice packet to bottom of clean pot and place bones on top. Add the water, salt, and sugar. Keep heat on high and bring to boil. At this time you can adjust your seasoning adding more salt and sugar if necessary.
At this first boil, it's time to add the serving meat. Since we didn't parcook the serving meat, it will release a small amount of residue/scum so occasionally skim this off. Adding the serving meat will stop the pot from boiling so bring the pot back to boil once more and then, turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. You can cover the pot while it's simmering. Depending on the cut you use it can be up to 1-3 hrs (cuts with lots of tendon can take much longer). When the serving beef is done, store them via one of the methods outline in the above techniques section before serving.
Continue to simmer the bones for at least 4 hours, preferably longer with lid on and slightly ajar to prevent too much evaporation. If you find the water level has dropped significantly, you can more water back to the orignial level and re-season. But do not add so much as to dilute your broth.

Nutrition

The post Pho Bo Recipe Tips and Techniques first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Vietnamese Beef Jerky Vua Kho Bo recipe

The Ravenous Couple — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:50:54 +0000

There’s really only one name in the Vietnamese beef jerky game in America and everyone knows it: Vua Kho Bo. Literally and figuratively, it’s the king of Vietnamese style beef jerky. While there are a few imitators, ask Vietnamese-American loving beef jerky enthusiast and that’s the top of the list. Maybe their popularity is because they give out unlimited samples of their jerky (and the teas and dried fruits aren’t too bad either) or their eager customer service (some would say overzealous) or the fact that almost all their stores are centered in densely populated Vietnamese-American communities in California. But there’s no doubt that their jerky is the gold standard. Our out of state relatives hoard their stuff as if they were preparing for the apocolypse. We don’t know for sure, but their mail order business to the rest of the contiguous US (free shipping if you buy over 10 lbs) is a huge part of their business.

Ironically though, Vua Kho Bo is part of a Taiwanese snack and tea company named Lao Zi Hao. But their flavors certainly fit perfectly into Vietnamese flavor profiles. Unlike American style jerky, Vua Kho Bo jerky tends to more moist and tender and of course, packed with Asian flavors. Curry, five spice, sesame, and honey all popular flavors. But the one we use the most is their spicy lemongrass beef jerky. We love it because it’s perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and aroma of lemongrass. It’s a ground beef type of jerky which makes it more tender as well. Whether it’s for snacking or topping on our favorite goi du du (papaya salad) our favorite flavor.

Recently we acquired an Excalibur dehydrator from Craigslist (dirt cheap, yay!) and have been putting it through ringer. If you’re in the market for one, we recommend the dehydrators with the square trays. The round ones with a hole in the center would not be ideal for this. At over $20 per pound, Vua Kho Bo is an expensive indulgence. Thats why this was our first recipe we made on it and we’re super excited to share it with you all. In fact, we made 10 lbs worth of jerky and gave some to our relatives who raved about it proclaimed they never had to buy from Vua Kho Bo again! Welp!

Spicy Lemongrass Beef Jerky Vua Kho Bo style

Use the leanest cut of beef available. We prefer eye round or top/bottom round and grind ourselves using a food processor after trimming out excess fat and silver skin. Pre-ground beef would work, just make sure it's extra lean. You would still process it and it'all go faster. You will need a food dehydrator and dehydrator sheets. If you don't have a dehydrator you can try using the oven at the lowest setting, but we have not tested that method. Your final yield is about 2/3rd the weight of your original beef so scale this recipe to your desired quantity.

Course Snack

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword Jerky, Lemongrass

Cook Time 3

Servings lbs jerky

Calories 1253kcal

Ingredients

3 lbs of ground lean beef eye round, top round, bottom round, sirloin
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tbs fine white pepper
1.5 cup finely minced lemongrass white stem portion only
4-6 tbs chile flakes
1/4 cup white sesame seeds optional
glaze
3 tbs honey
2 tbs water

Instructions

In food processor, grind meat in small batches until it clumps into a ball and becomes a sticky paste like texture.
Combine all the seasonings and massage the meat until it incorporates well and has a sticky like consistency. Allow to marinade and flavors to absorb for at least 4 hrs to overnight refrigerated.
Place a mound of meat onto dehydrator sheet. Using plastic wrap or parchment the size of the dehydrator sheet, lay it over meat then press down and flatten the meat until you can roll out with a rolling pin into a flat square, about 4-5 mm or 3/16 inch thick. Add more meat as necessary until you form a large square. Repeat until all the meat is rolled onto dehydrator sheets.
Dehydrate at 145 F for about 3 hours (you may have to adjust this base on the thickness of your jerky--shorter time will be more moist and soft, longer than this it will be chewy and maybe hard), flipping once half way through. About 30 minutes before it's done, combine the honey and water and mix well. Brush one side and allow to dry for 15 minutes. Flip and repeat with the opposite side. Remove from dehydrator sheets and store in airtight ziplock bags or vacuum seal. These should keep for months but we promise they won't last that long. Enjoy as a snack or in your favorite goi du du salad.

Nutrition

Spicy Lemongrass Beef Jerky Vua Kho Bo style

Course Snack

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword Jerky, Lemongrass

Cook Time 3

Servings lbs jerky

Calories 1253kcal

Ingredients

3 lbs of ground lean beef eye round, top round, bottom round, sirloin
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tbs fine white pepper
1.5 cup finely minced lemongrass white stem portion only
4-6 tbs chile flakes
1/4 cup white sesame seeds optional
glaze
3 tbs honey
2 tbs water

Instructions

In food processor, grind meat in small batches until it clumps into a ball and becomes a sticky paste like texture.
Combine all the seasonings and massage the meat until it incorporates well and has a sticky like consistency. Allow to marinade and flavors to absorb for at least 4 hrs to overnight refrigerated.
Place a mound of meat onto dehydrator sheet. Using plastic wrap or parchment the size of the dehydrator sheet, lay it over meat then press down and flatten the meat until you can roll out with a rolling pin into a flat square, about 4-5 mm or 3/16 inch thick. Add more meat as necessary until you form a large square. Repeat until all the meat is rolled onto dehydrator sheets.
Dehydrate at 145 F for about 3 hours (you may have to adjust this base on the thickness of your jerky--shorter time will be more moist and soft, longer than this it will be chewy and maybe hard), flipping once half way through. About 30 minutes before it's done, combine the honey and water and mix well. Brush one side and allow to dry for 15 minutes. Flip and repeat with the opposite side. Remove from dehydrator sheets and store in airtight ziplock bags or vacuum seal. These should keep for months but we promise they won't last that long. Enjoy as a snack or in your favorite goi du du salad.

Nutrition

The post Vietnamese Beef Jerky Vua Kho Bo recipe first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Heo Quay Sous Vide Crispy Pork Belly

The Ravenous Couple — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 20:30:47 +0000

Instead of holiday leftover recipes we’re going to post a recipe that’s been sitting in our queue for quite a long time, heo quay Vietnamese roasted pork belly. Pork belly is beloved ingredient on our blog, from braised and caramelized pork belly (thit kho to thit rang) to our Asian inspired porchetta. While all of these dishes are great, the king of all pork belly dishes in our mind is heo quay. It’s a show stopper and we’ve been mesmerized by it’s glory ever since we can remember. Growing up, our frequent encounters with heo quay were at the Vietnamese/Chinese Barbeque joints where the entire pig with it’s crispy skin hung starring back at us in a glass case. At every family at wedding we gawked at procession of relatives carrying a whole roasted pig big enough to feed 100 guests as a symbolic dowry between the newly wed families.

The traditional oven roasted pork belly heo quay is fantastic and there are many great recipes across the internet like this and this. The reason why we like to use sous vide is mainly sheer convenience. The beauty of making crispy pork belly sous vide is that we can make a big slab ahead of time and portion and freeze for future recipes such as a bun dish or ramen. Just defrost in the fridge and pop it into the broiler and in about 15 minutes you have crispy heo quay ready to go. Or we can make this one or two days in advance for a dinner party and just finish off right before guests arrive. Plus, if you’re making this during the summer it’s nice not to have the oven on for long periods of time.

Boom, there it is. We apologize for letting this recipe sit in the queue. Here’s a short video of the process. It’s so simple you won’t ever need to go to the Asian BBQ again.

Heo Quay Recipe Sous Vide Crispy Pork Belly

While oven roasting is perfectly good way to make heo quay, we prefer the convenience of sous vide because it allows us to make a big slab ahead of time and freeze for future use in other recipes. You can freeze the pork belly after drying it from the sous vide. To reheat, thaw in the fridge and pop it in the broiler to crisp the skin.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword Crispy Pork, Heo Quay

Prep Time 10

Servings

Calories 4706kcal

Ingredients

2-3 lb skin on pork belly
2 bamboo or metal skewers
2 ts kosher salt
1 ts five spice powder
1 ts ground white pepper

Instructions

Prepare sous vide water bath to 72 C or 162 F. Combine the salt, five spice, and white pepper in a small bowl.
Insert the skewers through the pork belly slab, criss crossing in a X pattern. Score only the skin with a sharp knife. Season entire belly. Place in zip lock bag or vacuum seal bag and sous vide for 4-6 hours. Near end of sous vide cook time, turn broiler on high. Remove and pat the belly dry, especially the skin. Re-season and place on wire rack over roasting pan. Place on top rack underneat broiler and carefully monitor the crispening progess. Rotate if there are any spots getting darker than others. This process will take roughly 10-15 minutes. It's ok if there is some charring, excess charring can be scrapped off with knife. When skin bubbles up to turns golden brown remove from broiler and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition

The post Heo Quay Sous Vide Crispy Pork Belly first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.

Pan Seared Black Cod with Miso Butter and All-Clad d3 Armor Fish Pan Giveaway!

The Ravenous Couple — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:00:39 +0000

While there’s an entire chemistry lesson on why food sticks to pans, you read our blog for recipes so we’re going share a few key tips we rely on to avoid fish (or any protein) from sticking.

First, key factor is temperature. Make sure your pan (either a cast iron or stainless steel heavy bottom pan) is adequately heated. This is a great video and explanation on how to make sure properly heat your pan.
Second, make sure your protein is nice and dry and at room temperature for at least 10 minutes—excess moisture and cold temperature will drop the temperature in the pan and inhibit browning.
Finally, don’t fidget with the food–leave it alone to develop a nice crispy crust. Even if a bit of sticking occurs initially you can lower the heat and it will release on its own.

Yield: serves 2

Simple yet delicious meal for special occasion or everyday dining. This recipe is inspired by Nobu's Miso black cod though you can use any white fish filet. We recommend using a stainless steel or cast iron pan to get the crispiest crust on the fish. Here we served it with steamed baby bok choy but you can serve with your favorite vegetable side. The miso butter pan sauce goes great on vegetables too!

Ingredients:

2 filet of white fish such as black cod
1 tbs cooking oil
1 ts minced ginger
1/3 cup chicken stock or white wine
1 tbs butter
1/2 tbs white miso
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat stainless steel pan on medium. Season fish filet with salt and pepper. To check if your pan is hot enough, add a teaspoon of water. If it sizzles and steams, then it's not hot enough. Continue to preheat until a teaspoon of hot water remains in a small ball and floats over the pan like a "mercury ball." At this point, it's ready. Add oil and filets skin side down. Do not touch the filet until they are cooked about 2/3rd through. Carefully flip and finish the cooking for another minute and remove from heat and set aside.

Remove the pan from the heat. Turn down to medium low and add the ginger and saute until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with stock or wine. Stir vigariously with wooden spoon to scrap up any sticky bits of food on bottom of pan. Continue to heat until liquid has reduced by about 50%. Add the butter and miso and stir until completely dissolved and sauce has emulsified and thickened and remove from heat.

Spoon pan sauce over the pan seared fish and serve with favorite vegetable side.

Pan Seared Black Cod with MIso Butter Sauce

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese

Keyword Miso Butter, Pan Seared, seafood

Servings serves 2

Calories 507kcal

Ingredients

2 filet of white fish such as black cod
1 tbs cooking oil
1 ts minced ginger
1/3 cup chicken stock or white wine
1 tbs butter
1/2 tbs white miso
salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat stainless steel pan on medium. Season fish filet with salt and pepper. To check if your pan is hot enough, add a teaspoon of water. If it sizzles and steams, then it's not hot enough. Continue to preheat until a teaspoon of hot water remains in a small ball and floats over the pan like a "mercury ball." At this point, it's ready. Add oil and filets skin side down. Do not touch the filet until they are cooked about 2/3rd through. Carefully flip and finish the cooking for another minute and remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the pan from the heat. Turn down to medium low and add the ginger and saute until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with stock or wine. Stir vigariously with wooden spoon to scrap up any sticky bits of food on bottom of pan. Continue to heat until liquid has reduced by about 50%. Add the butter and miso and stir until completely dissolved and sauce has emulsified and thickened and remove from heat.
Spoon pan sauce over the pan seared fish and serve with favorite vegetable side.

Nutrition

The post Pan Seared Black Cod with Miso Butter and All-Clad d3 Armor Fish Pan Giveaway! first appeared on The Ravenous Couple.