fish sauce

Korean kimchi seafood bouillabaisse AKA haemul jeongol

by Heguiberto on October 21, 2011

This yummy recipe comes from The Kimchi Chronicles by Marja Vongerichten, a marvelous and very accessible Korean cookbook. Marja writes that she learned this recipe from her husband, who apparently first discovered it on a visit to a small island off the southern coast of Korea, called Jeju.

Korean kimchi seafood bouillabaisse AKA haemul jeongol

Korean kimchi seafood bouillabaisse AKA haemul jeongol

I love bouillabaisse-style seafood soups with flavorful clear broths, though this is not your typical one at all. This turned out lively with a powerful spicy and sour flavor. Somewhat reminiscent of Thai bouillabaisse this one does not use the aromatic herbs, galangal root, lemon grass and kafir lime leaves. But the umma paste gives it wonderful flavor.

I used store-bought kimchi this time but for the next, I want to make my own.

store-bought kimchi

store-bought kimchi

Korean kimchi seafood bouillabaisse AKA haemul jeogol

3 cups chopped kimichi with juices
8 cups water
1 small onion, cut into large cubes
6 Korean radish (moo) or daikon root sliced thin, ~ 2 cups
1 bunch watercress
3 tbsp umma paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp sugar
Salt
10 clams
10 mussels
6 shrimp
1 piece red snapper

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan, add chopped kimichi and boil for about 5 minutes. Add moo, umma paste, fish sauce, sugar and salt and cook for 8-10 minutes. Adjust flavor with more salt, fish sauce or even umma paste. Add fish and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove fish and keep warm. Add clams and mussels and let them cook until they open. Discard unopened shells. Turn temperature to low, add shrimp, fish and watercress. Turn heat off, keep it covered until watercress has wilted and shrimp turn pink. Serve and enjoy!

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umma paste

by Heguiberto on October 21, 2011

umma paste ingredients

umma paste ingredients

I fell in love with this Korean cookbook, The Kimchi Chronicles by Marja Vongerichten, while perusing a book shop at The Japan Center in SF recently. I adore kimchi and the book has a whole variety of recipes for them, and for banchans, those tapas style Korean side dishes. I can’t wait to try them all. I’ve made a couple delicious vegetarian kimchis before: look here, and here.

The Kimchi Chronicles has other great recipes too, including amazing sauces and pastes, many perfectly adaptable to our pescatarian diet, just like this umma paste.

Umma is a Korean style chili garlic paste. The word, “umma” is the phonetic equivalent of “mother” in Korean. So umma paste translates into mother paste. She uses this paste ubiquitously and liberally on her dishes. I made a large batch and used it in several things: first in her Korean Bouillabaisse, then on sushi rolls and finally as a flavorful spread on toast topped with a fried egg. All were delicious.

Umma paste has a uniquely bold earthy, salty, sweet, sour, spicy, umami, garlicky, funky (in a good way) flavor, which I think defines a lot of what Korean cuisine is about. This is a new addition to my top favorite hot sauces: chili garlic sauce, sriracha and harissa.

I forgot to take a decent picture of the umma paste!  Darn it.  The one that I do have is so blurry that it looks like an abstract painting in a moving car.  As such, it is bound to make you dizzy so I’ve left it out of the article.  Instead, I put a pic of the ingredients, which are quite colorful. The paste is a very deep red color and was quite thick.    

umma paste

4 large garlic cloves
3 tbsp gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
3 tbsp sake

Throw everything in the food processor and whiz it until all turns into a smooth puree. Scoop it out into a bowl. Use as needed.

We got the Korean ingredients at Kukje Supermarket.

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Thai bouillabaisse

by Heguiberto on September 15, 2011

I always ordered this dish when eating out at the Thai Pavilion restaurant in Astoria, Queens, my favorite Thai place when we lived in New York. There they called it Potek. It was this clear aromatic and spicy broth with loads of fish and shellfish. After moving to San Francisco, I learned to make it myself because I got tired of asking at restaurants whether they could accommodate my needs by making the soup with vegetable broth or just plain water. Plus I like making Thai food.

Thai bouillabaisse with salmon and clams

Thai bouillabaisse with salmon and clams

The soup can be like Tom Yum on steroids. Beyond shrimp, potek is packed with other types of seafood, such as fish, clams, mussels, sea scallops, crab claws or lobster. Heaven! You can use the seafood of your choice, like I did here: this time, just salmon and clams.

key ingredients for Thai bouillabaisse

key ingredients for Thai bouillabaisse

Thai bouillabaisse

7½ cups water
2 stalks lemon grass, smashed with a cleaver
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 inch piece of galangal root, cut into chunks
½ cup cilantro, chopped
10 mint leaves
10 Thai basil leaves
½ Thai red chili pepper cut in thin rounds
1 tsp garlic chili pepper
½ tsp sugar
7 tbsp fish sauce
Kosher salt
3 small individual pieces of sushi grade king salmon
1 lb clams
1 cup button mushrooms, quartered

Bring water to a boil then add lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and galangal root. Simmer for about 10 minutes so flavors meld. Add garlic chili paste, sugar, salt and fish sauce. Adjust flavor with more fish sauce, salt or chili sauce for spicier results. Add clams and cook for a couple of minutes or until they begin to open, add mushroom followed by the salmon. Remove from heat. Let it poach in the broth. Toss in Thai basil, red chili, mint and cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a side of Thai Jasmine rice.

{ 7 comments }

som tam AKA spicy green papaya salad

by Heguiberto on September 13, 2011

som tam AKA spicy green papaya salad

som tam AKA spicy green papaya salad

We had a Thai inspired dinner the other evening. This som tam was served with a spicy potek soup and Jasmine rice. In Brazil we frequently ate green papaya at home but the way my mother made it was completely different. She cooked it with garlic, oil, salt and pepper and sometimes stewed with tomatoes. That was good, but not as incredible as this Thai dish that is just packed with amazing flavors: spicy, sour, umami, salty, sweet and crunchy. I love it!

green papaya

green papaya warming in the afternoon sunshine

som tam

1 lb shredded green (unripe) papaya (I used a mandolin to shred it)
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 Thai bird’s eye chili pepper
8 fresh green beans, cut into 2 inch lengths
1 large clove fresh garlic
Juice of 4 limes or more
½ tsp sugar
4 heirloom tomatoes cut into wedges
Japanese cucumber slices

In Thailand, it is fun to watch green papaya salad being prepared by street vendors. They pound garlic, sugar, tomato and green beans in a large mortar and pestle right in front of you. Then they add the papaya, lime juice and pound it again to bruise everything to release flavors. It is like a cooking demonstration on the side of the road. I don’t have a mortar so I improvised a bit. I placed the green beans between 2 layers of saran wrap and flattened them with the rolling pin. I squeezed the tomatoes a bit with my hands. I grated the garlic and chili pepper with a micro-plane grater. Then everything was mixed together and let macerate for about 20 minutes before going to the table. The delicious Japanese cucumber slices helped cool down the heat of the salad. Serve on a few leaves of lettuce with some cucumbers on the side.

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Thai tomato, coconut and Dungeness crab soup

by Heguiberto on September 5, 2011

Thai tomato, coconut and Dungeness crab soup

Thai tomato, coconut and Dungeness crab soup

I had this tomato soup at a dinner party recently. My boss, Elliot, hosted at his place. It was a fun evening filled with good chat, many delectable savory dishes and lovely wine! Thank you Elliot for being such a good cook and host! I wanted to ask for the recipe but didn’t get the chance as I had to leave a bit early to take care of our bully Clarence.

A few days later while browsing one of the latest issues of Bon Appétit magazine I found the recipe. Yoo-hoo! But then I misplaced it. Turns out they posted it online.

This past weekend we had our friends Jasmine and Prof. T over for dinner. I wanted to awe not only them but Steven too with this flavorful Thai inspired soup. Jasmine said “this is gourmet eating,” which is exactly what I said when I dined at Elliot’s, and it is. This soup really entices your palate with fragrant sweet and sour flavors and silky, creamy textures without being heavy or dense. This is definitely something that I will make again. And since tomatoes are in season now, I am already thinking of experimenting with different heirlooms to change the color: yellow, chocolate, green zebra varieties? If you can’t find crab, I am sure shrimp, or even lobster would do.

Thai tomato, coconut and Dungeness crab soup

3 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch scallions–approx 6– chopped fine, white and dark green parts included
2 stalks of fresh lemon grass, tough outer layer removed, sliced thinly
1 Serrano pepper, seeds partially removed, minced
2½ lb ripe tomatoes
½ cup light unsweetened coconut milk
1½ tbsp fish sauce
Juice of one lime or more, depending on how sour you like it, plus some lime wedges for garnish
Juice of one orange
½ lb fresh Dungeness crab meat
Kosher salt
½ cup pea shoots
1 clove garlic smashed

Bring a saucepan full of water to a boil. Meanwhile using a paring knife make a cross incision at bottom of each tomato, and cut the woody top off. Place them in boiling water until skin begins to curl. Drain, let cool a bit, remove skins and cube them. Set aside.

Place 2tbsp olive oil, scallions and lemon grass in a sauce pan. Sauté until scallions wilt. Add tomatoes and cook for about 8 minutes, long enough to bring it to a boil. Add coconut, orange juice, fish sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool down for few minutes.

Add remaining olive oil to a skillet, followed by garlic. Sauté until aromatic. Add fresh crab. Turn heat off and cook for a minute. Sprinkle with salt, discard garlic clove. Set aside

Using a stick blender, wiz soup until puréed and smooth. Stir in lime juice. Add salt and more lime juice, if needed. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with Dungeness crab meat and pea shots. Have lime wedges on the side for the table.

Michele from the blog That’s so Michelle made the same recipe. Check it out here.

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long bean tofu stir fry, Southeast Asian style

by Heguiberto on December 30, 2009

I’ve adapted this recipe from an original, Dau Dua Xao Tom, that calls for shrimp instead of tofu. It’s a stir fry which I think works better on a gas stove. We live in earthquake prone San Francisco so have a glass top electric one. It doesn’t caramelize like I want but still the dish turned out well. And clean up is a lot simpler.

long bean tofu stir fry, Southeast Asian style

Long Bean Tofu Stir Fry, Southeast Asian Style

1 pound tofu, cut into 1 inch thick cubes
1 tbs fish sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
¾ tsp sugar
4tbs vegetable oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion cut into thin half moon slices
1½ lbs. long beans, cut into 5 inch lengths
¼ cup soy sauce
½ tbs kosher salt (optional)
4 scallions, chopped

How to:

Mix together half the minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, ¼ tbsp sugar and black pepper. Add tofu cubes, toss and let them marinate for approximately 30 minutes.

Steam long beans for about 5 minutes or until tender but still retaining a slight crunch.

Heat two table spoons of oil in a large skillet on high. Fry tofu with marinade for about 8 minutes turning every now and then. Transfer to a bowl. Cover to keep warm. Using the same pan add remaining oil then fry onion till golden brown. Add long beans. Toss. Add soy sauce and salt if needed. Cover pan and cook on high for a few more minutes. Return tofu to pan. Add scallions. Gently fold beans and tofu. Cook for a few minutes more then plate over rice and serve.

fresh long beans

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Vietnamese dipping sauce

by Heguiberto on December 16, 2009

This dipping sauce is very common in Vietnamese cooking where it’s used to flavor noodles, meat, spring rolls, rice or as a condiment at table. This time I used it to complement scallion pancakes. It’s sweet, sour, tart, salty, pungent and spicy. I love it to the point I can just drink it right out of the bowl!

Vietnamese dipping sauce

Vietnamese dipping sauce

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:
3 fresh garlic cloves
2 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeds and ribs removed then minced (preferably red)
3 tbsp sugar
Juice of 3 limes or lemons
½ cup rice vinegar
½ cup fish sauce
2 medium carrots, shredded
4 red radishes, shredded

Soak shredded carrots and radish in salt water for twenty minutes.

Place garlic, sugar, and jalapeño pepper into a mortar and pound it until it turns into a paste. Transfer to a bowl. Add rice vinegar, fish sauce and stir, assuring all the sugar is dissolved. Add lime juice. Rinse carrots and radish then add to sauce.

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poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup

by Heguiberto on October 7, 2009

this poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup is so good, we forgot to take a picture!

this poached king salmon spicy Thai tom yum soup is so good, we forgot to take a picture!

For our recent Thai-themed night, I made this fabulous tom yum soup to go with my almost vegetarian pad Thai. This soup has wonderfully fresh, spicy, sour, herbal and earthy flavors; and it’s incredibly easy to make. I learned the recipe in the 1990’s while living in UK. There I worked for a few months in the kitchen of The Blue Elephant, a popular Thai restaurant in Fulham – South West London. There I assisted with pretty much everything except for the actual cooking. When I was not super busy doing stuff, I loved watching Madam Too prepare dishes like fried rice with fresh crab meat, pad Thai, various soups and vegetable dishes like snow peas, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage with oyster sauce among many, many other dishes. It was exciting because most of the ingredients they used were unknown to me at that time. Brazilian cuisine focuses more on salt and less on herbs and spices. To me, this Thai place was at first dreadful, because the flavors seemed so alien, but gradually, as my senses were awakened, it offered me a doorway into a new, thrilling eating world!

I bought all the ingredients for this soup in the Sunset district. There is an Asian supermarket a few blocks west of Irving and 22nd Market that carries most of the products that I needed. That store is a cultural food experience! Besides a lot of canned, jarred and dried ingredients, they have an exciting selection of sushi grade fish and other Japanese delicacies. That’s where I got this appetizing king salmon.

some key ingredients: galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves

some key ingredients: galangal, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves

Unfortunately, my guests, Steven and I were so excited by this soup that we gobbled it down completely before taking a picture. Besides being completely delicious, it was quite photogenic, too. Oh well. So admire my artistic rendering of empty bowls while you enjoy your own…

Poached King Salmon Spicy Thai Tom Yum Soup

5 & 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
1 inch of galangal root, cut into a few pieces
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 stalks lemon grass, cut into approximately 5 inch sticks and flattened with a cleaver

I use Squid Brand Fish Sauce

I use Squid Brand Fish Sauce

2 dried chili, cut roughly and crushed
¼ tsp of garlic chili paste or chili oil
5 tbsp of fish sauce (or more)
½ tsp sugar
¼ lb button mushrooms, thickly sliced
¾ lb king salmon, cut into 4 pieces
Leaves from 2 sprigs of mint
Leaves from 2 sprigs of Thai basil
1/3 cup cilantro leaves

How to:
Bring water or vegetable broth to boiling. Add kaffir lime leaves, galangal root and lemon grass. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add fish sauce, sugar and mushrooms. Stir then taste to adjust flavors. Add salmon and poach it for about 3 minutes. Add fresh herbs. Transfer to individual bowls and serve at once. It really is good!

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almost vegetarian Pad Thai without the wok

October 6, 2009

Cooking Thai food without a wok or a high octane burner can be tricky! After we moved from NYC to San Francisco we sort of stopped using our wok for cooking Asian dishes. It had a round bottom and did not sit well first on the coils of our ancient electrical stove in our Eureka [...]

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