some recent creations

last night i cooked my first official dinner party of my new life up here. here's the menu:


asian cravings already!

scallop and scallion pan fried dumplings with a radish and english cucumber sunomono (pickling)

a crispy brown rice cake w/ pickled ginger and scallion topped with baby carrots and snap peas in an orange honey glaze and a salmon payard with a miso and white wine reduction and fresh scallion tops

this was the first time i had made any of these items and all ingredients came from local sources!!

recipes:

scallop scallion dumplings: (makes 15 dumplings)
1/2 lb of scallops
1 egg whites
1/8 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp groun black pepper
1/4 c. sliced scallions (green part only)
waton wrappers
water

(copyright june 21, 2007)

place scallops in a food processor (cuisinart) with egg white, five spice powder, salt and pepper and pulse until a paste forms.
scrape into bowl and fold in scallions.
chill mixture in fridge for 1 hour to allow it to firm up.
place 1 tsp of filling into the center of the wanton skin. fold wanton however you want. just note that in order to seal the filling inside the wrapper the edges must be sealed with water. just to moisten the surface, do not make it too wet or the wrapper will tear.
these dumplings can be stored in a single layer of a pan or dish with rice flour or corn starch to prevent stickng (they will stick so do not leave more than an hour)
the dumplings can be cooked using a variety of methods including deep frying, pan frying, steaming and boiling. i pan friend them (heat 2 T oil in non stick skillet over med heat place dumplings in oil once desired browness is reached slow pour 1/4c of water into pan standing away as oil will splatter. cover pan immeadiately and allow dumplings to steam 2 min, remove top and allow extra liquid to evaporate and bottoms to recrisp.
boil in salted water until they float to surface and are cooked thru (2-3 minutes)
steam in steamer over med heat 3 minutes, until just firm to touch in center.

radish and english cucumber sunomono

sunomono just means a pickling.

slice vegetables however you want, i sliced the cucumbers very thinly andthe radishes into smaller wedges. placed them into an airtight container and added rice wine vinegar, tamari, the juice from the pickled ginger jar, sliced ginger, white balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. i let it pickle for 4 hours. i served this atop the dumplings with some of the pickling liquid as a sauce