Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing

A few weeks ago I was asked to help out with creating a menu for Japan Night, an event at my church where a missionary family was sharing about their vision for Japan.  We definitely wanted something that was Japanese, or at lease Asian-inspired, and would be easy enough for a small team to cook for upwards of 100 guests in a couple of hours.  After testing a few recipes at home, we ended up with the following menu:

Green Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu and Edamame

Matcha Mochi Cupcakes

The spring rolls we bought frozen and just baked them in the oven, but everything else was pretty much made from scratch!

The carrot ginger dressing is the same bright orange dressing you often get at sushi restaurants before the start of a meal.  I never really knew what was in it and had guessed some type of citrus and probably soy, but in fact the main components are carrots, ginger, and miso!  This totally boggles my mind because I normally don't really like carrots or ginger (in a non-sweet dish) but I can't get enough of this dressing.  It must be the miso.  =)

Carrot Ginger Dressing (adapted from goop)

makes a little over a pint

1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large shallot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh peeled ginger
1 tablespoon sweet white miso
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seed oil
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons water

Pulse the carrot, shallot and ginger in a blender until finely chopped.

Scrape down the sides, add the miso, vinegar and sesame seed oil and whiz together. While the blender is going, slowly drizzle in the canola oil and the water.

The dressing will keep refrigerated in an air-tight container for about a week.

I like to eat this over butter lettuce, but we used a mesclun salad at Japan Night.

Next up:  Cold Soba Noodle Salad with Baked Tofu and Edamame

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Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Fried Rice

When I first saw this recipe on Bitten, I knew I had to make it the very next time I received leeks in my Boston Organics delivery. Finally, my patience paid off. This fried rice recipe is familiar in some ways--using day old rice and eggs--but quite novel in others. There are no vegetables other than the leeks or any chopped, leftover meat. Instead, minced fresh garlic and ginger are fried until crisp and then sprinkled on top to dress the rice along with a drizzling of sesame oil and soy sauce.

In the article, Mark Bittman writes that Jean-Georges uses rendered chicken fat; since I had duck fat leftover from making the duck fat fries, I used that instead. Also, instead of using day-old cooked rice, I used rice that had been cooked a month ago and frozen in the freezer. Whenever I have leftover cooked rice, I always divide it into first-sized portions and wrap them in plastic wrap and stick them in the freezer when they're still warm. That way I can just heat it up in the microwave for a minute to thaw, and none of the moisture is lost. Of course, after sitting in the freezer for a whole month, some of the moisture is lost, which makes it perfect to use for fried rice.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Fried Rice (from Bitten)
makes 2 servings

1/4 cup duck fat
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
Kosher salt
1 cup thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried
2 cups day-old cooked rice, preferably jasmine, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce

In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup duck fat over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly.

Reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons duck fat and leeks. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt.

Raise heat to medium and add rice. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Season to taste with salt.

In a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining duck fat, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny.

Divide rice among two dishes. Top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.

I added a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions on top as well just for a little more texture and color. I was a little scared that the ginger might be too strong for my liking, but it was a lot more mild after frying, and the crunch it delivers is a real highlight to the dish.

This recipe is truly inspired. There are very few ingredients, but because each is an aromatic, and you keep using the same fat to cook the ginger, garlic, and leeks, you end up building a lot of flavor in the final dish. At the same time, I finally know what they mean on Top Chef when they talk about simple, clean food. Thank you, Jean-Georges and Mark, for sharing this recipe. Now I really want to go to one of Vongerichten's restaurants. Luckily, he's opened one in Boston, and it's also participating in Taste of the Nation Boston tomorrow!

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Toasted Coconut Ice Cream with Sesame Brittle and Crystallized Ginger

I'm a big fan of Häagen-Dazs' Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle ice cream so when I saw this recipe on Tastespotting, I jumped at the chance to try to make it for myself. After reading the recipe, however, I realized it was missing a vital ingredient that the original had: ginger. Since I wasn't sure how to infuse ginger into the sesame brittle, I chopped some of my homemade crystallized ginger and added it to the ice cream.

First, a short lesson on candy making, as you will be making your own sesame brittle. This recipe calls for the use of a candy thermometer to know when to stop cooking the sugar mixture. If you have a food thermometer, but aren't sure if it's a candy thermometer, check and see what the highest temperature it will read is. If it goes up to about 200 °F (and says do not insert in water), it is a meat thermometer. Do not use this thermometer for this recipe! If it goes up to about 450 °F, it is a candy thermometer, and you are all set.

If you don't happen to have a candy thermometer, you can still make this recipe, but you'll have to be extra-vigilant not to let the sugar syrup get too dark in color. What will happen during the cooking process is first all the water will boil off. The temperature will stay at about 230 °F for quite a while until this happens and the color will remain clear. Once most of the water has evaporated, the bubbles will get thicker and the temperature will gradually climb. At 320 °F the syrup will just start to turn golden. A few minutes later, it should turn a deep, golden brown, and at this point the syrup will have reached 340 °F. This is where you want to turn off the heat and add the butter.

Similar to when adding the cream to molten sugar for the salted butter caramel ice cream, the butter will melt rather violently in the super hot sugar. But that's just the beginning. When you add the baking soda to the syrup, it will start bubbling and foaming up, kind of like when you add baking soda and vinegar together to making your paper-mâché volcano "erupt". Except this is a true eruption of some very hot molten sugar, so make sure you are ready to pour it onto the oiled pan once you've added the baking soda.

Finally, after pouring the syrup out, you may want to lick the spoon or use your finger to scoop up any leftover syrup from the pot. Please don't. Or at least if you really feel the need to play with molten sugar, use a toothpick or something to spin your own sesame brittle lollipop or something. But just don't be stupid, okay?

Sesame Brittle (adapted from here)
makes 15 - 20 servings

Vegetable oil
3/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a large, un-oiled frying pan, toast sesame seeds until golden brown. Set aside.

Generously oil a baking sheet with raised edges with vegetable oil.

In a medium-sized heavy saucepan, combine the water, sugar, cream of tartar, and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium heat. Using a candy thermometer, boil the mixture until it reaches 340-350 °F, and the color is a deep golden brown.

Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, then mix in the toasted sesame seeds and baking soda. Be careful during these two steps as the butter will react violently with the very hot molten sugar and the baking soda will cause the volume of the sugar to expand rapidly.

Pour the mixture onto the oiled pan and spread it out with the back of a wooden spoon. Let the brittle harden, uncovered, in a cool place for at least 30 minutes.

Using a metal spoon, crack the brittle to remove from the pan and store in an airtight container.

You'll only need 1 cup of this sesame brittle, which is about 1/5 of the recipe, but you can eat the brittle on its own, and after you take a bite (after it's cooled, people!) I'm sure you'll be glad you made extra. And now onto the ice cream itself. I didn't have any coconut rum, so I substituted it with half vanilla rum and half coconut extract.

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream with Sesame Brittle and Crystallized Ginger (adapted from here)
makes 1 quart

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla rum
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut extract
1 cup sesame brittle, broken into small shards or pieces and place in the freezer
3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Toast the coconut in a skillet over medium-high heat, shaking and stirring until a golden brown. This will probably take less than a minute so be very careful not to burn the coconut. Store in the freezer.

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the cream, coconut milk, and sugar to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, add the rum and coconut extract and chill the mixture in the refrigerator overnight.

Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Once churned, stir in the sesame brittle, toasted coconut, and crystallized ginger and freeze until firm.

I was a little suspicious at the small amount of sugar that was used in this recipe. Only 1/2 cup for a whole quart of ice cream? But the end product tasted fine. The addition of the brittle and crystallized ginger add enough sugar, and if the ice cream itself were more sweet, the effect would be entirely too cloying. As it is, the brittle gives the ice cream a nice crunch while the ginger adds the slightest amount of heat at the end that balances out the creaminess of the coconut ice cream. Now if only I could find a recipe for Häagen-Dazs' Sticky Toffee Pudding ice cream....

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Homemade Crystallized Ginger

I used to really hate ginger, mostly because my mom would use it a lot in her cooking, and I'd always end up with a huge chunk of it in my mouth. But since I've started traveling so much, I always make sure I have a bag of crystallized ginger or ginger candy on me in case my stomach feels queasy. So I was really excited to find this recipe for homemade crystallized ginger on The Kitchn yesterday. It's super simple, and best of all, you get ginger syrup as a byproduct! This is the stuff that they add to dou hua (tofu pudding) in the winter, and it's just amazing how it will warm you up.

Serendipitously, as I was walking to the dentist yesterday from work, I passed the Chang Shing Tofu factory just as someone was coming out for a smoke. Four years ago, I had tried to buy tofu from there because I had heard tales of MIT students doing so, but could never figure out how to get past the locked front doors that didn't have a doorbell. So this is a quest four years in the making, my friends. I excitedly asked the guy if I could buy tofu, and he said in broken English that I should go to the door. I went to the same front doors I had tried years earlier, and wouldn't you know it, they were still locked. But then I heard the guy telling me to go down to the next door. There's another door? About half a block down next to the garage door, there's a little door (that does have a doorbell next to it) that was...unlocked!

So I went in and am immediately confronted with another guy packing tofu into these large containers. I timidly ask him if I can buy tofu here, and he kind of gestures for me to go further in. I start wandering around by myself, and it's just a bunch of big machines with guys working them and ignoring me for the most part. I feel as intimidated as I do when I'm in a Home Depot. After wandering through a few rooms without finding anything that looks like a storefront, I wander back to the first guy and ask again. He stops what he's doing for a second, opens the door to the outside, and sets off some sort of buzzer (okay, maybe he just rang the doorbell, but it looked more complicated than that). Finally, this guy from another section comes over, and I ask again if it's possible to buy tofu here. He indicates a product listing on the wall, and happily tofu pudding is listed. So I buy a container from him and head back out to coldness that is Cambridge in November. Mission: accomplished!

Back to the ginger: make sure you pick roots that are young and firm (vs. old and spongy). It is easier to peel big bulbs, and the best tip I ever picked up is to peel the ginger with the edge of a metal spoon instead of a knife or peeler. The skin is so thin it comes off super easily, and a spoon is much easier to handle when you get to the weird crevices. One change I made to the recipe is that I used rock sugar (the big yellow crystals you find in a box at Asian grocery stores) because I like the flavor better.

Homemade Crystallized Ginger (adapted from The Kitchn)

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups rock sugar, plus extra white sugar for coating
1 cup peeled ginger, sliced into 1/8 inch strips or coins

Combine water and 1 1/2 cups rock sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Add ginger, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using chopsticks, transfer ginger pieces onto parchment paper.

Let stand until dry, turning over if necessary, and then roll slices in white sugar.

Store in an airtight container for up to three months.

The next time I make this, I will see if I can get away with not rolling it in sugar at the end, so I get something more akin to Trader Joe's Uncrystallized Candied Ginger. Since the ginger is quite tacky after the sugaring process, I might need to coat it with something so that it's not so sticky, though. Maybe a light dusting of a mixture of confectioner's sugar and corn starch....

For the tofu pudding, I just scooped some out and plopped it into a bowl and then drizzled the ginger syrup on top. That's it! Ah, sweet happiness that can be found in a bowl.... =)

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