Tag: appetizer
Wood Ear Mushroom Salad
Wood Ear Mushroom Salad
Wood ear mushroom salad is a popular cold appetizer eaten all over China. The mushrooms have are firmer in texture unlike most other mushrooms. You can sometimes find them fresh in the produce section of the grocery store. They are most commonly found dried and labeled as black fungus. They just need to be soaked in hot water, then boiled for 3 minutes to eat. They will more than double in size once soaked.They salad dressing that the mushrooms are tossed in is a mixture of soy sauce, black vinegar, raw minced garlic, Thai chilies, sugar, and salt. A simple Sichuan peppercorn infused oil is added to the dressing, giving it a slight numbing sensation. If you don’t like a little spice, omit the chilies.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried wood ear mushrooms
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 4 tsp black vinegar
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp sichuan peppercorns
- 4 thai chilies finely chopped
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 20 minutes.
- They will expand to more than twice the amount.
- Add the mushrooms to a pot of boiling water. Boil for 3 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Drain. Give the mushrooms a rough cut.
- Heat up cooking oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Fry the Sichuan peppercorns for 3-4 minutes. Turn off the heat. Scoop out the peppercorns with a slotted spoon.
- Mix the oil with the soy sauce, black vinegar, garlic cloves, chilies, sugar, and salt.
- Toss the mushrooms with the dressing. Mix in the cilantro. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Kandhari Murgh Tikka
Kandhari Murgh Tikka (Chicken with Garlic, Chilies, and Pomegranate Molasses)
Pomegranate is a common ingredient in Northern Indian cuisine. A popular way to use them would be in this Kandhari chicken tikka recipe, where the chicken is marinated in pomegranate molasses, yogurt, ginger garlic paste, and Kashmiri chili powder. The chicken is then skewered and either broiled or grilled. Throughout the cooking process, the chicken is basted with ghee, giving it a nice char crust. Serve the chicken with parathas and red onions.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- metal skewers
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into large pieces
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp chickpea flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 1/2 cup pomegranate molasses
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- salt to taste
- ghee for basting
Instructions
- Mix together the yogurt and chickpea flour, making sure that any lumps are broken up. Stir in the ginger garlic paste, Kashmiri chili powder, pomegranate molasses, garam masala, and salt.
- Add in the chicken, making sure that all the pieces are evenly coated. Marinate overnight.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Skewer up the pieces of chicken on metal skewers. Place on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil.
- Broil for 5 minutes a side. Baste each side with ghee and broil for another 5 minutes a side.
- Let rest before serving. Skewers will be hot.
Sai Ua (Thai Sausage)
Sai Ua (Thai Sausage)
I was a butcher for 14 years. Sausage making was definitely my specialty. I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for quite sometime. I first had this Northern Thai sausage years ago at a local a Thai restaurant. Holy shit was it good! Super spicy. It was served with slices of cucumber and sticky rice. I’ve had it a few times since then, but have never made it at home. If you have the right equipment, it’s fairly easy.To make the curry paste, simply mix all of the ingredients together in a food processor or with an immersion blender. A nice tip when making curry paste: if the paste has turmeric in it, mix that separately in a bowl in last so you don’t permanently dye your food processor yellow.If you are able to grind your own pork, I recommend that you do so. When I make a pork sausage, I like to grind the pork once through on a medium grinding plate. If you don’t, you’ll have to ask your local butcher to do this for you. You can also use fatty ground pork, but that is ground twice through. Either honestly work. I just have my personal preference in texture of sausage.Mix the curry paste into the ground pork along with finely chopped lime leaves, green onion, and cilantro stems. Put on a soaked sausage casing on the sausage horn. Feed the sausage through the sausage horn attachment, keeping the sausage firm but not so tight that you can’t twist it. Pinch the end of the first link. Measure out by hand about 6”. Crimp with your left hand. Twist forward 5-7 times to create your first link. Move down another 6” and crimp, twisting the sausage backwards in the opposite direction. Repeat this process crimping every 6”, twisting forward one link, backwards the next, until all of the sausages have been twisted. You should yield 10-12 sausages. Let the sausages settle for 2 hours before cutting and cooking.There are a couple of different ways you can cook these sausages. You can either grill, broil, or pan fry the sausages. They will only takes 5-6 minutes a side. I highly recommend to not par boil the sausages. Par boiling boils out a lot of the fat and seasoning, ultimately making the sausages dry. I prepared mine on the stove top. To make sure that they get cooked all the way through, put a cover on your pan. I served these with slices of cucumber. The cucumber helps cut through the heat of the sausages.
Equipment
- Kitchen Aid mixer with grinder and sausage attachment
- Food processor or immersion blender
Ingredients
Curry Paste
- 24 dried arbol chilies seeded and ground
- 9 slices galangal chopped
- 3 stalks lemongrass bottom half, chopped
- 1 tbsp ground turmeric
- 1 cup shallots chopped
- 1 head garlic peeled
- zest of 1 lime
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 tsp shrimp paste
Thai Sausage
- 3 lbs fatty pork shoulder
- 15 lime leaves finely chopped
- 15 cilantro stems finely chopped
- 3 green onions finely chopped
- pork sausage casings
Instructions
- Mix all of the curry paste ingredients together in a food processor or immersion blender. Set aside.
- If using a Kitchen Aid grinder attachment, cut pork shoulder II to small strips. Grind the pork once through using the medium grinding plate.
- Mix in the curry paste, lime leaves, green onion, and cilantro stems.
- Using the sausage stuffer attachment on the Kitchen Aid mixer, put on a soaked sausage casing on the sausage horn. Feed the ground sausage through the stuffer, keeping the links firm, but not over stuffed.
- Pinch the end of the first link. Measure out by hand about 6”. Crimp with your left hand. Twist forward 5-7 times to create your first link. Move down another 6” and crimp, twisting the sausage backwards in the opposite direction. Repeat this process crimping every 6”, twisting forward one link, backwards the next, until all of the sausages have been twisted. You should yield 10-12 sausages. Let the sausages settle for 2 hours before cutting and cooking.
- Heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a small sauté pan over medium high heat. Add in the sausages.
- Cook for 5-6 minutes a side. If you are concerned about the sausage being cooked all the way through, cook with a cover. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
