Asian-Inspired Shrimp Stir Fry

For a few days I've been craving some bold, Asian flavors. The restaurant I work at serves Continental food -- steak, lamb, fish and so on -- so I knew I wasn't going to get my Asian-fix at work. I also work a lot and when I finish my shift at night I like to come straight home so having a late dinner of Chinese food at a restaurant nearby was out. So I did what any cook with a craving would do: I made the food myself. And ate it for breakfast! It was so good that when I told Jen all about it, she asked that I make her the same thing for dinner. So I essentially cooked this meal twice in three hours. It's that simple, that quick and that delicious. At least I think so!



Here's what you will need for the stir-fry,in addition to a wok or a large sautee pan:

1/2 lbs shrimp. I used the 31-40 variety (meaning medium size shrimp, 31-40 pieces per lb)
1 large red bell-pepper, sliced thinly.
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, any variety except Portobello which is a little too meaty for this.
1 stalk of celery, sliced thinly on a bias (at an angle).
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
2 Tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
1/4 cup Soya Sauce

Serves 2 generously.

 Remember, do all your slicing, chopping, mincing and shrimp-peeling (if you bought the peel-on kind) before you start cooking. (In a cook's world what you're doing is called setting up your mis-en-place). All these ingredients go into the pan almost all at the same time and they cook fast so you won't have time to slice pepper once your ginger and garlic are frying. We all know garlic burns VERY quickly.

2. On high heat in a large sautee pan or wok, heat the vegetable and sesame oils.

3. Add the garlic, ginger and sesame seeds, if using, and cook for a few seconds until the garlic has picked up a little color and you can smell its aroma.

4. Add the sliced vegetables and sautee till slightly soft, about 2 minutes.

 5. Now you can add your shrimp and cook for another 2 minutes. When the shrimp is cooked it will change color (translucent flesh becomes opaque) and it will also curl. (This is because proteins coagulate when cooking. As they cook, they lose moisture, shrink and become firm)

6. Add hoisin sauce and soy sauce and toss everything together. Cook until the liquid has evaporated.

*7 If you are using noodles, add the noodles along with the sauces and toss. Some of the liquid will be absorbed by the noodles. If you are using rice, put rice into a bowl and top with stir-fry mixture.

"Pommes Nature"

Don't let the name intimidate you. "Pommes Nature" simply means potatoes cooked without much fuss, doing very little to alter their natural taste. That means you're not seasoning heavily, you're not adding sour cream, or milk, or 35% heavy cream. You're simply boiling them and sauteeing with some butter and parsley at the end.

I grew up with "nature" potatoes. I didn't think my mother was a very sophisticated cook. She's a good cook, my mother, but very much meat and potatoes. So imagine my surprise when once day in cooking school there was a recipe for these "pommes nature!" I was gushing with the pleasure of having the secret, inside scoop on these potatoes when none of my peers had heard of them.

It's child-play simple. It really is. Here's what you will need, aside from a pot in which to boil them and a sautee pan:

2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, or 4 smallish red skinned potatoes

1 tablespoon of butter

flat-leaf parsley, 6-8 leaves, chopped

1. Dice your potatoes and put them in a pot with enough cold, salted water to cover them.

2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil until soft. Do not overcook. If you do, they'll fall apart on you when you sautee. To test for doneness, prick a potato with the tip of a sharp knife. If it goes in easily, bob's your uncle.

3. Drain them and allow them to dry in the strainer/colander.

4. Over medium-high heat add the butter and heat it. When the foam subsides, add potatoes and the chopped parsley and give them a quick toss. Cook for another minute, season to taste and serve.

You can save the pan and sautee some sliced zucchini in it, maybe some chicken, and this is what you get. (Sorry to break it to you but chefs don't cook fancy all the time. They cook tasty!)

Cold Cucumber and Avocado Cream Soup

July and August are made for cold soups. Fresh fruits and veggies are available in large numbers from your local farmer and even at your grocery store you can find them usually at a lower price than you would in the winter. I find soups are not fussy, you can use whatever ingredients you have on hand provided you follow some basic rules. If you're not much of a rule follower, well, go for it anyway, you might discover an awesome recipe! If there is one rule you MUST follow is this one: "garbage in, garbage out". Meaning if you're going to throw any old ingredient in your soup, regardless of how shriveled, old or unappealing, well, your soup is going to be crap. So don't do that. However, if you have a good half pepper in your fridge, maybe a half cucumber that you won't be eating tonight, a couple of tomatoes and or even a scallion or two then you're well on your way to a good cold soup.

For this soup you will need, in addition to a blender, the following ingredients:

1 cucumber
1 avocado
2 green onions
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 fresh jalapeno, seeded (leave seeds in if you like a lot of heat)
1  lime (juice only)
1 cup of 35% cream
1 cup milk
pinch of salt

Here's how it's going to go down:

1. Peel and seed your cucumber

 2.  Chop it up so that you have less work to do with your blender, and put it in a bowl. A glass bowl is  preferable but if you just don't have one, use whatever you have. Try to avoid aluminum.

3. Chop your avocado, cilantro, jalapeno and scallions and add them to your bowl.

4. Add your lime juice, cream and milk and get out your immersion blender if you've got one.

5. When you're done it should look like this:

6. Or, for your guests, like this:

Humber Graduate

"Cook Apprenticeship with Honours" says the diploma I received in the mail from the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. There should also be a letter in there that tells me I finished at the top of my class. I chose not to go to graduation and stand there with all the twentysomethings who are so very proud of their achievement. It's not that I am not proud, but it's not my first degree so it's a case of "been there, done that".

For me, graduating from the apprenticeship program means I am eligible to write my Red Seal at the end of the year and become, as they say, a "papered chef". I'm finishing the practical part of my apprenticeship at a private golf course kitchen and after that it's onward and upward. Or so I hope. There is a very exciting prospect of working in Yorkville in one of Toronto's top restaurants with a Chef I admire greatly but that will not be until much later in the year so I'm trying not to get too excited. I'd love nothing more than to find a home there. I've worked in three kitchens already in just over two years and going back down to gardemanger each time (after previously working saute and grill) is a little more humbling than I can handle.

I have a few sections still to be signed in my apprentice book and a few hundred hours of work left till I reach the 6000 hours the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities requires for Red Seal eligibility. I've given myself a deadline for no later than Dec 31 2011. Wish me luck.

For now, I have three consecutive days off from work during which I plan to enjoy the sunshine and, of course, some food. Tomorrow, Jen and I visit Cafe du Lac for our first Summerlicious experience.