shortcook

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OYSTER: Mix mayo, sesame oil, soy sauce, crushed garlic. Spread sauce on shucked oysters. Pan-broil w/ oyster liquor. http://is.gd/4GxI0T

Notes: This is quite rich so it might benefit from the addition of lemon. I broiled the oysters on low for about 10-15 minutes on one side, flipped them, then broiled another 10-15 minutes on another, but you can adjust that to your liking. I just watched for the edges to curl to see how cooked they were. There is a lot of tasty sauce in the pan after broiling so I ate it with steamed white rice, and with vermicelli another time, plus a side of vegetables.

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ZUCCHINI: Soak dried scallops in hot water until soft. Use water to sauté sliced zuke w/ sesame oil & crushed garlic. http://is.gd/VHTYXD

Notes: The water used to soak the conpoy (dried scallop) adds flavour to the dish and creates a bit of a steaming effect in the pan to make the zucchini softer. The conpoy, garlic, and oil all give it a fragrant savouriness. This is really good served with steamed white rice because the rice soaks up the sauce from this dish.

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DUCK: Score skin of duck breast at 1” intervals. Season with pepper. Broil skin side down 10 mins. Flip & broil 12 mins http://is.gd/qItmQ4

Notes: Franco made roast vegetables for Christmas dinner but I of course had to prepare a treat for myself. You can broil longer/shorter as needed. My duck breast was just under a pound (405 g). I served it sliced with a small mandarin slice so the citrus could cut through the richness of the meat. For the record, whereas the vegetarian-to-omnivore ratio of the household used to be 3:1, it has now shifted in our favour at 2:3 as a result of the youngest’s conversion and the addition of the cat to our family. While the cat feasted on the duck, though, the youngest didn’t touch it. I only had about a third of it that night, so there were leftovers.

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UNI: Put sea urchin on shiso leaves. Use 1 big or 2 small pieces per leaf. Sprinkle smoked salt on very conservatively. http://is.gd/glmeqw

Notes: Another simple one with an amazing flavour combination that doesn’t actually require any cooking. The shiso leaf has a very floral, minty aroma and flavour, so if you find it overwhelming, you could just use half a leaf for each piece of uni. This was one of my Christmas treats. The cat also had some plain uni.

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TATERS: Parboil nugget potatoes. Bake, then chop. Eat with sauce of mixed mayo, soy sauce, scallion & diced raw oyster. http://is.gd/sjuTDH

Notes: I looked in the fridge and made this up with the ingredients I had as I went along. While it has a very boring and monotonous appearance, it was very tasty. I shucked a Sawmill Bay Pacific beach oyster, chopped it up, and mixed the meat and liquor into the sauce, and it gave it a sweetness that cut through the thick mayo, while the green onion provided a bit of kick. The soy sauce added savouriness. I coated the warm, chopped potato pieces with the sauce, which was a nice way to enhance the relatively bland, starchy root vegetable with its bit of smokiness from being roasted. As I’ve said before, I prefer my oysters plain and raw, but this was a really nice treatment of the bivalve.

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SPOT PRAWN: Remove heads+shells of live prawns. Serve tail meat w/sauce of sesame oil, soy sauce, minced garlic & water http://is.gd/hFsQUQ

Notes: You can do this with the heads. Buy your prawns fresh and live, and if you prefer them firmer and with a more subtle flavour, eat them right away. I’ve always preferred letting the flesh break down for a day so that they become softer (not mushier) and develop more flavour. Click here to see all my prawn posts.

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SPOT PRAWN: Steam live prawns. Pull legs from carapace to open head.Scoop meat+roe+tomalley onto arugula leaf; wrap;eat http://is.gd/RYaPcZ

Notes: This is essentially the same thing as in the last post, except that was about eating the tail meat and this is about eating all the edible stuff in the heads. It is so flavourful that it needs no condiment. As you can see above, there is so much meat in one prawn head that it makes me sad to think about it being tossed out without being eaten or used. Some people also like to suck the juices out of the raw prawn heads, which is really tasty, but there is so much more in the heads than can simply be sucked out. I’d rather get it all out with a utensil—or my fingers!—and not waste any of it, raw or cooked.

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SPOT PRAWN: Steam prawns 3 min on rice cooker steaming rack as rice cooks. Serve w/arugula, lemon juice, shaved truffle http://is.gd/1C3EUx

Notes: As I have mentioned before, I prefer eating my spot prawns raw, but I thought I would try some steamed too. They generally only need to be steamed for a minute or two, but I did them a little longer because I figured the heat was lower on the rice cooker I was using than it would have been if I had used the boiler. Steam prawns while still live. Prawns were straight from Organic Oceans’ boat at False Creek fishermans’ wharf. The arugula, from Klipper’s Organics at the Vancouver Farmers’ Market, was very strong and peppery so I ate this less as a salad than as “bites”: wrapped a small leaf around each prawn, with each bite also containing a tiny bit of warm truffle shaving and lemon juice. I used summer truffle in water and salt from a jar, from St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. This added an earthy flavour to the bites. Next post on what to do with the edibles in the prawn heads.

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SQUID: Mix sesame oil, soy sauce, water+garlic. Refrigerate 1 day. Sauté squid arms, sliced mushroom+onion in the sauce http://is.gd/87gQBd

Notes: I used cleaned, frozen squid tentacles for this. I had actually made the sauce weeks earlier and been using it for seasoning bit by bit. I may have added a bit of olive oil to the pan too. There was quite a bit of moisture from the mushrooms, onions, and the squid, so it ended up a little like a braise instead of a sauté, perhaps. The onion and mushrooms took on more of the squid flavour the next day, so the leftovers were great, even when cold. The sauce was great and I ate this with steamed white rice.