José Andrés Snapper Ceviche “Veracruz”

January 21, 2019 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

José Andrés Snapper Ceviche “Veracruz” Image Used Under Creative Commons License From patijinich.com

Citizens, today I am honored to share a recipe from a man who is currently and deservedly in contention for the Nobel Peace Prize – Chef José Andrés! When Puerto Rico was virtually wrecked by hurricane Maria last year, Chef Andrés was on the scene feeding hundreds of thousands who would otherwise have gone hungry!

Today, in the midst of the longest government shutdown in history, he is now feeding thousands of furloughed federal workers at no charge who haven’t received a paycheck in a month!

Now, allow me with great reverence and respect to share one of his magnificent recipes, one based on a classic dish of Veracruz state in Mexico.

The cuisine of Veracruz is the regional cooking centered on the Mexican state that stretches over most of the country’s coast on the Gulf of Mexico. Its cooking is characterized by three main influences, indigenous, Spanish and Afro-Cuban, due to its history, which included the arrival of the Spanish and that of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean.

These influences have contributed many ingredients to the cooking including native vanilla, corn and seafood, along with rice, spices and tubers.

How much the three mix depending on the area of the state, with some areas more heavily favoring one or another. The state has worked to promote its cuisine both in Mexico and abroad as part of its tourism industry.

Veracruz cooking has three main influences: indigenous, Spanish and Afro-Cuban. The most important native influence is the state’s long coastline, meaning most areas have a wide array of seafood.

The indigenous cooking of the state, historically characterized by that of the Olmecs, the Huastecas and the Totonacs, has included ingredients such as vanilla, native to the Papantla area, and acuyo, also known as hoja santa.

Like other areas of Mexico, the staple foods were corn, beans and squash, supplemented by a variety of tropical fruits, along with chili peppers, tomatoes and avocados.

Popular tropical fruits today are papaya, mamey sapote and sapote, often found in milkshakes called licuados and ice cream. The Spanish introduced parsley, thyme, marjoram, bay laurel, cilantro, saffron, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, rice, almonds, olives, olive oil, garlic and capers, as well as pineapples and sugar cane from the Caribbean.

Spanish Mediterranean influence is best seen in the use of olives, olive oil and capers. The Afro-Cuban influence is due to the importation of slaves into Mexico from Africa and the Caribbean during the colonial period.

How much each of these influences affects local cooking varies. Zongolica is considered to have the purest indigenous cuisine. Tlacotalpan is considered to have the cuisine which is most Spanish in style.

One division of Veracruz is the cooking of the coast versus that of the mountains. The cooking of the coast shows the most foreign influence and the most fish, with dishes such as arroz a la tumbada, similar to paella. The cooking of the mountains contains a wide variety of mushrooms, greens, various flowers and corn dishes.

Typical dishes of the mountain city of Xalapa include stuffed jalapeño chili peppers, stuffed chipotle peppers, a stew made with the izote flower (from the yucca plant) as well as an adobo, red rice, pambazos, caldo blanco, tortas de gasparitos, chileatole, cooked poblano chili pepper strips and turnovers filled with squash flowers.

The state is also divided into seven regions, based on natural geography, ethnic composition and interactions with other parts of Mexico.

The Totonacs of the north of the state have had their food influenced by the French who immigrated to the area in the 19th century. Cooking in the south of the state shows influence from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec as the Zapotecs migrated as far as here and traded goods with the Nahua peoples of the Gulf coast.

The most famous Veracruz dish is Huachinango a la Veracruzana (Snapper Veracruz style). It is a baked whole fish covered in a tomato-based sauce flavored with mostly European ingredients such as olives, garlic, capers and more.

Chef Andrés has adapted this specific recipe to combine the flavors of the dish with the cooking style of Veracruz ceviche, where uncooked fish is “cooked” by citrus juice. The combination is stunningly good and I hope you see fit to try this fantastic recipe from an even better man!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

José Andrés Snapper Ceviche “Veracruz”

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Ingredients

1 cup kosher salt divided, plus more for seasoning
¾ pound red snapper filet
4 white pearl onions peeled into petals
2 Roma or plum tomatoes
⅔ cup Spanish manzanilla olives
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 3 large limes)
***
To garnish:
4 Spanish manzanilla olives sliced into very thin round slivers
28 Pickled Red Onion Slices
28 fresh capers
1 jalapeño or serrano chile sliced very thinly (optional)
20 cilantro leaves
12 nasturtium leaves
12 sorrel leaves
12 watercress leaves
Pinch edible flowers such as nasturtium blossom, mustard blossom, marigold petals
Pinch ground chile pequín
Extra-virgin olive oil and Maldon sea salt to finish

Instructions

Cover the bottom of a small rectangular pan with half of the salt. Place fish on top of the salt layer and cover with the remaining salt. Cover pan with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for one hour.
To a pot of heavily-salted boiling water, add the onion petals and cook for 20 seconds. Using a wire skimmer or spider, remove the onions, season with salt and submerge them in a bowl of ice water to halt the cooking process and set aside for garnish.
Using a sharp knife, slice off the top and bottom of each plum tomato. Locate the fleshy dividing wall of one segment inside the tomato. Slice alongside the dividing wall and open up the flesh of the tomato to expose the seeds.
Remove the seeds and their pulp by slicing around the core of the tomato. Keep the seeds and their surrounding gel intact to create tomato seed “hearts” and set the "hearts" aside for garnish. Roughly chop the remaining outer tomato flesh.
Drain the ⅔ cup olives and remove pits. Add the chopped outer tomato flesh, the pitted olives, and lime juice to a blender and puree until smooth. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, then set aside.
Remove the fish from the refrigerator and rinse away the excess salt with water. Pat the fish dry with a paper towel. Holding a sharp knife at a 45-degree angle, cut the fish into thin slices.
Spoon the olive tomato puree onto serving dishes. With tongs, place snapper slices on top of the dressing. Add olive slivers, pickled onion slices, onion petals, capers, tomato hearts, and (if desired) jalapeño slices.
Drizzle on more puree, then garnish with cilantro, nasturtium, sorrel, watercress, and edible blossoms. Finish with ground chile pequín, olive oil, and sea salt. Serve immediately.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/jose-andres-snapper-ceviche-veracruz/

The Hirshon Jewish-Finnish Meat And Fish Pâté – Vorschmack

December 29, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Vorschmack Image Used Under Creative Commons License From flickr.com

Citizens, it is a decided fact that Finland is a place I consider a second home, as is true for most of the Nordic regions. This dish in many ways reflects the veritable essence of TFD, as it is a fusion of German Jewish, Russian and Finnish recipes and a synthesis of humble and gourmet elements – the very definition of myself in all ways! 😀

Vorschmack or forshmak (Yiddish: פֿאָרשמאַק‎, from archaic German Vorschmack, “foretaste” or “appetizer”) is an originally East European dish made of salty minced fish and/or meat. Different variants of this dish are especially common in Ashkenazi Jewish and Finnish cuisine. Some varieties are also known in Russian and Polish cuisine.

In Jewish cuisine,, according to legendary food historian Gil Marks, the German name points to the possible Germanic origin of this dish. William Pokhlyobkin describes it as an originally East Prussian hot appetizer which was made of fried herring. The dish was adopted and brought eastwards by Ashkenazi Jews which transformed it into a cold appetizer, a pâté made of chopped brined herring. While the name forshmak became common in Ukraine, Polish and Lithuanian Jews usually called it gehakte herring (“chopped herring”).

Traditional recipes include chopped hard-boiled egg, onion and grated fresh apple. Sometimes potatoes are also added. The appetizer is usually served as a salad or as a spread on bread, crackers or kichlach (cookies). It may also be eaten for breakfast or as a main course, usually with boiled potatoes.

Although nowadays vorschmack is mainly associated with Jewish cuisine in Russia, historically different versions of this dish (Russian: форшмак) were known there. These were usually hot zakuski (appetizers) or breakfast dishes. A Gift to Young Housewives, a classical Russian cookbook by Elena Molokhovets, provides three recipes of hot vorschmack in its first edition (1861) and further variants were added in subsequent editions.

In one recipe, meat (veal or beef), herring, white bread and onions are minced, mixed with smetana (sour cream) or cream and baked. Other recipes include only herring (without meat), as well as other ingredients, such as potatoes, eggs and apples. Even more elaborate recipes with further details on cooking techniques are given in another classical Russian cookery textbook,

In Finnish cuisine, vorschmack is usually prepared out of ground meat, anchovies or herring and onions. The dish is usually garnished with potatoes, pickles and smetana (sour cream). Snaps is usually served in combination with eating vorschmack. Some recipes include cognac.

There are several stories regarding the origin of the dish, but it has become a traditional Finnish dish as it was one of the favorite appetizers of the Finnish statesman, war hero and gourmand Marshall Gustaf Mannerheim. Some sources say Mannerheim brought the dish to Finland from Poland or Russia, but there have not been any definite sources for these claims.

It was taken to Finland after 1917 by Marshal Mannerheim, who had served at Russian court as officer of the last Czarina’s Chevalier Guard. The story says that Mannerheim took the recipe first to the Kämp hotel. However, the chef at the Kämp was not interested in vorschmack, and therefore Mannerheim brought the recipe across the Esplanade Park to the Savoy restaurant.

The restaurant Savoy at the top floor of one of the buildings around the Esplanadi in central Helsinki is now famous for its vorschmack. The restaurant used to be frequented by Mannerheim and Mannerheim’s table at the Savoy was always reserved and, out of respect, no one would ever consider demanding to be seated there. Savoy still today keeps a similar style decor and menu as in the days of Mannerheim. TFD himself first sampled vorschmack at this very restaurant and was seated next to Mannerheim’s table, in fact!

My version of this recipe combines elements from the original Jewish recipe with its use of grated sour apple, but is otherwise served in the Finnish style and seasoned to my specific tastes. I recognize this is an unusual recipe with ingredients Americans would normally not think to put together. Trust me, it’s delicious – just think of it as a hybrid between pâté and steak tartare, with an element of umami from the salty fish.

You can buy the Swedish-style anchovies (actually sprats) here and excellent Jewish-style herring fillets here.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Jewish-Finnish Meat And Fish Pâté – Vorschmack

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Ingredients

1 ¾ lbs. boned leg of beef
½ lb. boned lamb
2 Jewish-style herring fillets
1 ounce Ortiz brand anchovy
1 ounce Abba brand Swedish anchovy (if unavailable, use regular Ortiz brand anchovies, but try and find the real deal)
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
2 medium onions
2 shallots
⅛ cup tomato paste
3 whole garlic cloves
3 garlic cloves, pressed
White pepper, freshly-ground
Black pepper, freshly-ground
3 allspice berries, freshly-ground
Salt to taste (be very light with the salt)
Beef stock
Cognac
***
For garnish:
Pickled beet, cubed
Sour pickled, cubed
Smetana (preferred) or Daisy brand sour cream
Baked or mashed potatoes

Instructions

Take off all the fat from the beef and lamb and cut into medium-sized pieces. Peel the onions and shallots and cut them into 4 pieces each.
Put a little vegetable oil on a baking sheet, put the meat, 3 of the garlic cloves, shallots and onions on the pan. Sprinkle with oil.
Bake in a 375 degree F oven until slightly brown, turn over once so that the browning is equal on all sides. When ready, take the pan from the oven and let cool.
In a food processor, place some pieces of baked meat, garlic and onions and spoon in some beef stock. Process well and when smooth, empty the bowl into a heavy cast iron Dutch oven. Process the rest of the meat, garlic and onions.
Then, add herring fillets, anchovies, sour apples, tomato paste and fresh garlic to the food processor. Moisten with more stock; so the food processor can work well. Process in the same way as the meats until smooth. Combine the fish mixture thoroughly with the meat and onion mixture in the Dutch oven.
Moisten the combined blend in the iron kettle with a little bit of cognac and some more stock. Heat the kettle slowly and turn often with a wooden spoon.
Add the white and black pepper as well as the ground allspice and check the salt (it must not become too salty).
Now, turn often with wooden spoon and let simmer slowly for 5 – 6 hours. Add more stock as the liquid evaporates. The blend must be thick like heavy cream, but not too dry.
Control the flavor to your preference with additional cognac, stock, seasoning and fish. Be careful with salt as it concentrates while the dish is cooking. Turn often with a wooden spoon, so that is does not burn on the bottom.
If you do not have time to wait those 5-6 hours in one batch, cook half on one day for half the time, let cool and continue with the remaining the day after.
Let the vorschmack cool, then put it in glass jars and refrigerate.
Serve cold as an appetizer like a “pâté” on Russian and Finnish-style sour rye bread, with champagne and vodka along with all the prescribed sides.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-jewish-finnish-meat-and-fish-pate-vorschmack/

The Hirshon Hokkaido Smoked Salmon and Sake Lees Soup – サケ酒のスープ

December 8, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Japanese Salmon Soup Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com

My Citizens, few things please the Imperial palate of the Citizen Prime – YOUR TFD! – more than the subtleties of Japanese cuisine! As you all know, I am also extremely fond of the cold, wintry weather of the frozen North – and that includes the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido!

Hokkaido (北海道 Hokkaidō, literally “Northern Sea Circuit”), formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is the second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu.

The two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo (yes, the home of the beer!), which is also its only ordinance-designated city. About 43 km north of Hokkaido lies Sakhalin Island, Russia. To its east and north-east are the disputed Kuril Islands.

Hokkaido is one of the places in Japan that’s known for their food. Often times, when people think of food in Hokkaido, fresh seafood (especially salmon!) and dairy products come to mind. Salmon grow fat and delicious in the icy-cold river waters of Hokkaido, as you can see in this video:

One of the special treats of Northern Japan is its special winter soup, Kasu Jiru. In its most simple form, Daikon radish is cut into quarter-rounds and simmered in soup mixed with sake lees, and then salted salmon is added for the rich taste. As the pronunciation of ‘kasu’ also means ‘to lend’ in Japanese, Kasu Jiru is considered to be a dish to bring good fortune, as people hope to be fortune enough to lend, rather than having to borrow.

The harmonious flavors of aromatic sake lees and rich salmon make this soup a perfect dish to warm your body from inside out on cold winter days. What is sake “lees” you ask? Read on, dear reader!

Sake kasu (酒粕) are the rice-base left over from sake production. It can be used as a pickling agent or the main ingredient of amazake, a cooking paste to add flavor to food and as a marinade.

As noted on en.sake-times.com:

Sake Kasu is Japanese for the left-over lees which are separated from the liquid during the pressing stage after fermentation. The sake mash is made up of roughly 25% sake kasu; the remaining 75% becomes the sake in the glass that we all used to drinking. Sake kasu contains about 8% alcohol and is highly nutritious, making it a popular cooking ingredient that gets sold to the local people and visitors to the brewery at the end of the brewing season.

Left-over lees might not sounds like the most appealing thing in the world, but Sake Kasu is not without value — nutritional value that is. It is jam-packed with nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, organic acids and minerals. All of which have very worthwhile health benefits that help people suffering from ailments like Diabetes, high blood pressure — not to mention the fact that it makes your skin beautiful. This is one by-product of sake that shouldn’t be taken lightly!

Store it in a cool and dark space such as the refrigerator. If you notice a white powder appearing on the surface, it is just crystallized tyrosine, an amino acid. This is not a problem. For large quantities of sakekasu, it’s a good idea to freeze it in small portions soon after purchase.

Citizens, I love this recipe for many reasons, not the least of which is that this soup calls for several techniques and ingredients that are fundamental to real Japanese cuisine – master them, and you will be amazed what new dishes you can offer! Is there an initial investment to making Japanese stews and soups? Yes, as you need a special implement – a Japanese pot called a Donabe. It will get much use, I promise – you can buy an exceptional handmade one here.

Dashi, the fundamental broth of Japanese cuisine, is not hard to make as it only has two ingredients. That said, you REALLY want them to be the best quality – a fantastic recipe for Dashi may be found here. The proper konbu seaweed and dried bonito shavings – katsuo bushi – may be found here and here.

Sake kasu is obviously an integral ingredient in this dish – it can be hard to find unless you live in the SF Bay Area, where you can get free sake lees from Sequoia Sake in San Francisco or very inexpensive sake lees from Takara Sake in Berkeley. Failing that, if you have an Asian supermarket (or a Japanese market like Mitsuwa), they will usually carry it. Rakuten also carries it for shipping straight from Japan!

Another ingredient that can be a bit difficult to find is Konnyaku, a gelatinous ingredient made from the starch of a Japanese yam – it can be found in those “zero calorie noodles” in many supermarkets, but you really want to use it cake form for this recipe for its unique texture. You can buy it here.

My version of this recipe – of course – gilds the lily and elevates it from humble peasant fare to worthy of the palate of the Shōgun himself and looks/tastes almost French! My tweaks are all optional, of course – starting first with a hint of heavy cream as it is a staple of Hokkaido and adds to the velvety texture of the soup. I choose to garnish my version with both ikura (salmon roe) and wasabi-flavored tobiko (flying fish roe) for flavor, color and texture. You can get top-quality ikura here and wasabi tobiko here.

I choose to decoratively cut my daikon and carrot into geometric shapes for visual appeal and of course, the salmon is at the heart of the dish! It is imperative you choose only the freshest, WILD salmon – either Chinook/King on the West Coast and Atlantic on the East Coast. I have – heretically – added smoked salmon as well, as I find it really ups the flavor quotient! My favorite brand of wild, not farmed smoked salmon is this one.

Sansho, the Japanese “pepper” is actually far more closely related to the Sichuan peppercorn and has a similar numbing effect on the tongue. I use only top-quality sansho from here.

Lastly, I have also added an optional garnish of beautiful blue borage flowers, with their delicate cucumber taste that beautifully complements this recipe, as well as julienned shiso leaves, with their combined flavor of basil and mint. You can buy fresh borage flowers here. If you can’t find shiso leaves, either leave them out altogether or julienne a few mint and basil leaves instead.

This gorgeous and delicious soup/stew will blow you away, my Citizens – a perfect Winter dish that while pricey to make properly, is one of the best things you will ever try, I promise! 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Hokkaido Smoked Salmon and Sake Lees Soup – サケ酒のスープ

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Ingredients

5 cups dashi stock
½ cup sake lees
2 tbsp. heavy cream, preferably organic and from a Jersey cow (optional)
3 Tbsp white miso
Several thin slices of top-quality smoked salmon, cut into strips
Chives
¼ pound skinless top-quality Chinook or Atlantic salmon fillet, cut into thin batons
¾ cup daikon radish, cut in decorative shapes
¼ cup peeled carrot, cut in decorative shapes
⅓ slice of konnyaku (devil’s tongue jelly), cut in decorative shapes
Thinly-sliced naga negi (preferred) or scallions
Sansho pepper, ground
Shiso leaves, julienned (optional)
Salmon roe for garnish (optional)
Wasabi tobiko for garnish (optional)
Borage flowers for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Roll salmon slices up into cigar shapes, cut into smaller pieces. Tie each cut roll of salmon with a chive so it doesn't come undone.
Place dashi stock and vegetables in a soup pot, boil until they become soft, skimming occasionally.
Remove the pot from the heat. Add the sake lees and optional heavy cream to a soup pot or donabi.
After the sake lees melts in the soup pot, add white miso in it and simmer for a few minutes, then turn off the heat.
Transfer to soup bowls, add smoked salmon rolls. Place the salmon roe on the decorative daikon slices as a soup garnish. Place the wasabi caviar on the carrot slices as a soup garnish.
Add julienned shiso leaves and scallions at the last moment for aroma and sprinkle on ground sansho and optional borage flowers.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-hokkaido-smoked-salmon-and-sake-lees-soup-%e3%82%b5%e3%82%b1%e9%85%92%e3%81%ae%e3%82%b9%e3%83%bc%e3%83%97/