Chef s Log 23 March 2012 The Dinner Party that Has to Be Perfect! (Part 1)

Transcription

1 Chef s Log 23 March 2012 The Dinner Party that Has to Be Perfect! (Part 1) I m lucky. When I go to China I usually get to hang out with my Chinese Brothers. These are a pretty senior group of people, and they are all very interesting, including professors, government officials, senior judges, and editors. They are great fun. They are very helpful, because we share several important goals an economically prosperous China is a good trading partner and a safe neighbor. A nuclear-armed China, if economically disadvantaged and chaotic, would not be a good trading partner or a good neighbor. So we are writing together in ways that we hope will be beneficial to China and thereby beneficial to world. And they have great dinner parties for me every time I am over. I do appreciate this! My Brothers pamper me in ways that I cannot pamper myself in China, with great food and great Cognac and great company. The variety and quality of food available in China defies easy description. At these dinners, there is always too much of everything to finish, and it is always too good not to finish. Rice is no longer even part of the menu. I frequently contrast China today with what I experienced in my first visit in What a difference a couple of decades makes! There is not much that I can do to reciprocate for my Brothers in appreciation for these dinner parties in China. They have access to private restaurants. They have private access to wines and Cognacs. I can bring in Johnny Walker Blue, or a great Kentucky Bourbon, or even a couple of bottles of Victory Yakima Glory. But there is a limit to how much I can legally bring in to China, and there is a limit to how much I can carry in my suitcase. So, mostly, I enjoy their marvelous hospitality without being able to do much in return. But when one of the Brothers children passes through Philadelphia it gives me great joy to reciprocate as best I can. This weekend provided a perfect opportunity. The daughter of an appeals court vice president is in Philadelphia because she is interested in getting a Wharton MBA. This presented a wonderful time for me to round up Chinese Ph.D. students, Wharton MBA students with an interest in China, and friends. This was also a wonderful time for me to prepare the most elaborate Fusion/American barbecue I could arrange, with far too many courses, each of which obviously required its own elaborate preparation. The menu follows: Pre-Dinner Nibbles: Home-smoked English Cheddar Home-smoked Garlic Andouille Sausage Pita Chips and Hummus Veggie Nibbles The Mains: Steve Raichlen s Cambodian Honey Ginger Garlic Pork Loin Steaks Steve Raichlen s Cognac, Brown Sugar Salt Pecan-wood Smoked Salmon Steve Raichlen s Fiery Cajun Rub Blackened Hamburgers Steve Raichlen s Even More Fiery Dry Jamaican Jerk Hamburgers Beijing Restaurant Curry Singapore Fried Rice Beijing Restaurant Chinese Eggplant in Garlic Sauce Beijing Restaurant Chinese Broccoli in Hunan Sauce

2 The Desserts Graeter s Strawberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Papaya and Fresh Strawberries The Beers Victory Reitzplatz Terroir des Tettnang Single Hop Pils Lost Abby Inferno Strong Belgian Ale Stone 15 th Anniversary Black Double IPA Cuvee des Jacobin Rouge Flemish Sour Hoppin Frog D.O.R.I.S. the Crusher Double Oatmeal Raisin Imperial Stout Pretty Things Lovely St. Winefride Do you see all the patterns here? (1) Too many choices (2) Yes, most of the recipes I prepared started with something designed by Steve Raichlen, which I then modified slightly. But, yes, Raichlen is in general the best place to start. (3) Judicious outsourcing (The dessert ice cream was provided by Graeter s, perhaps the best ice cream company in the US. The fried rice and vegetables were provided by Beijing, a restaurant on the Penn Campus.) (4) There is some serious beer education planned as well. The education is not for my Chinese colleagues, but for me. How will the Chinese students react to a bitter, hoppy IPA? How will they react to a cloudy Belgian sour; will they think of it as spoiled? How will they react to a cloudy, golden Belgian strong? How will they react to a sweet and very alcoholic double IPA or to the Pretty Things Dark Lager? Even after focus groups in Shanghai last month, I simply don t know. The preparation of the first of the courses, the Cambodian pork steaks, is simple but tedious. You start with a large piece of fresh ginger and a couple of heads of fresh garlic, peel the ginger and a dozen garlic cloves, and get ready for some serious chopping. The serious chopping is best done with some equally serious tools. I use small Ken Onion handled Shun paring knives for the peeling and the first stages of the chopping, which merely involves peeling and slicing the garlic and the ginger before the chopping.

3 The next step is some equally serious hand chopping. I have already learned that machine processing the ginger and garlic leads to too fine a paste. This requires another Ken Onion Shun, with a larger blade, perfect for rapid rocking. As Colette Tatou tells Alfredo Linguine in the Disney movie Ratatouille, This is not your mother s cooking. At least my mother never had a knife like this, and she never handled it like this. I soften the honey by heating it for ten or twelve seconds in the microwave, and then blend honey, raw Hawaiian Turbinado sugar, a little coarse Pacific sea salt, a little ground black pepper, and the secret ingredients in a mini-food-processor. The whole bean Kikkoman Soy Sauce is extraordinary, for reasons I cannot begin to understand. I mean, you don t ferment whole beans; you ferment crushed beans. The powdered Tien Tsen pepper may also be a secret ingredient. It does not have enough of a slam to be noticed by the unwary, but it does add a small smile to the proceedings. The next step involves spooning the marinade over the pork chops in large zip-lock bags and letting the chops marinate over night. The bags are crude, intended for painting more than for cooking, but don t leak and they work very well.

4 Getting the salmon ready for smoking is the easy part. You start with a shot or two of a Brandy not quite good enough for serious drinking, like an American XO or a French VSOP Cognac. You let the salmon sit for about four hours in the Cognac. This does not tenderize the salmon; salmon does not need to be tenderized! But it does impart a marvelously rich and complex flavor to the sweet and fatty fish. Farmed salmon will be quite fine by the time we finish with the prep, since the salt and the sugar will do wonders for the texture. Next the salmon is buried for about 36 hours in rock salt and more raw Hawaiian Turbinado sugar. Osmosis is a wonderful thing. Excess moisture is drawn out of the salmon. The fish is firmed, and the resulting texture is wonderful. And the salt and sugar flavors interact wonderfully with the natural flavor of the salmon. There s just one more thing to decide. Of course I can use the Cajun Blackening Rub on the burgers, but can I use the even more fiery Dry Jamaican Jerk Rub? The extra lean local farm-raised beef used in the burgers has a marvelous flavor. Which rub will best complement the flavor of the local beef? Will either rub overwhelm the flavor of the beef? There is, of course, only one way to decide. I need to make a small test run, one mini-burger with each rub. For this dinner party, nothing can be left to chance.

5 I cheerfully conclude that they are both wonderful. This was a marvelous excuse to overeat for dinner in the interest of preparation for the final menu. The local farmraised beef, trimmed lean before grinding, is a perfect foil for both of the sets of spices. The Cajun, with its heat, its mustard and ginger, celery seed and powdered bay leaf, works well. The Jerk, with its fiery habaneros and its sweet cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and garlic, may be even better. The secret piquins I put into both rubs, with their how-do-you-do, I m here to rip-off-your nose fire, work perfectly. I will make a half dozen or so mini-burgers with each rub, with a couple with no spice whatsoever for the timid and faint of heart. Our preparation is done! I got up at 5 this morning to start the food prep. Jean was out of the door before 9 to pick up the meats and the fish. I m exhausted. And we have not even started cooking!

6 The plan is to smoke the salmon and the Andouille over sweet wood chips, along with the pork steaks. While everyone is enjoying the Andouille and the smoked cheese and the other nibbles, I ll crisp the pork steaks and grill the mini-burgers. With 3 ½ pounds of beef, 5 ½ pounds of pork, 3 ½ pounds of salmon, and vast quantities of nibbles and desserts, this should be a thank you that at least Jean and I will remember! ekc