Text 27238, 123 rader
Skriven 2009-08-08 22:36:04 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
  Kommentar till text 27124 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: taste issues 003
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 ML> (hence the hot shaker - I disagree with Dale regarding the late
 ML> addition of spice; the dish should have plenty of flavor already,
 ML> and with a nicely smoked or roasted chile powder, that raw just
 ML> plain heaty taste that cayenne offers is avoided).
 DS> Your example implies that you do not understand the thrust of what I
 DS> was saying.  To put some chile powder onto a dish that was meant to be
 DS> hot and spicy is simply adjusting it to your own tastes, but not
 DS> changing the character of the dish.

I appreciate the thrust of what you're saying, but I dispute its
universality. And you chose a somewhat inopportune example: cashew
chicken often - even in Canton - has a small amount of hot spice
in it; not enough to mask the cashews, of course, because then you
might as well be using peanuts and going toward the kung pao end of
things, as you pointed out. One thing about the cashew chicken at
the banquet was that it was devoid of this; if anyone was watching
me carefully at the table, one might have noticed that I took a tiny
dose of it and after tasting and finding it flabby, ate it with a touch
of the hot stuff that was so kindly provided for the appetizers.

   I do maintain that it would be
 DS> better to have put the chile powder (or whatever) into the dish as it
 DS> was cooking so that the flavor could meld with the dish

Again, I wouldn't make such a blanket statement. It all depends on
whether you like your pepper raw, cooked, dry, wet, extracted with oil,
mellow, sharp, or whatever. And of course the nature of the dish might
call for one or another kind of augmentation - each kind of heating up
has its place.

 DS> What I was arguing against was the addition of hot sauce to dishes
 DS> that never intended to be hot and spicy.  A decent example might be if
 DS> you took a bowl of Dave Sacerdote's clam chowder and added a few
 DS> tablespoons of Sriracha (or other hot sauce of your liking) to it. 

I'd be careful about adding that kind of flavor to a mild dish, more
because of the vinegar than the heat. Hot sauces are most intrusive, I
agree with you there; but instead of doing nothing, I would tend to use
chile powder instead - in fact, many recipes for chowders and cream
sauces suggest the addition of same. I think the usual formula is "a
few grains of cayenne." Some like the punch added to mild creamy things
by vinegary hot sauces, but most of the time I'm not among them. By the
way, if you were going the purist route regarding such dishes, what do
you say about black pepper? Its highly aromatic, almost varnishy flavor
is more likely to unbalance a dish than that of hot pepper.

 DS> While you may enjoy that combination, it is no longer anything like
 DS> what it was intended to be.

Putting Sriracha into virtually anything other than Southeast Asian
dishes makes it no longer anything like what it was intended to be.
Hot pepper flakes or powder doesn't have the same effect.

 -=> Dale Shipp said to Dave Sacerdote <=-

 DSac> slipped my mind.  And then, of course, I got to feeling pretty
 DSac> gorky, which I now think was a Woodman's raw bar clam BTW.
 DS> When you are eating raw oysters or clams, how do you tell if one has
 DS> gone bad?  For that matter, how about when they are steamed?

In general, if they taste like sewage smells, don't swallow and wash
your mouth out with strong alcohol. But occasionally, as Dave
hypothesizes, there can be the "stealth" bad clam, and there's nothing
to be done about that. Steaming neutralizes the bad bacteria, but as
you read in the books, if the steamed shellfish refuse to open (and
thus 1. are dead and 2. protect any microbes from the heat), you
are supposed to discard them.

Cream of Oyster Rockerfeller Soup
cat: soup, confused
servings: 6 to 8

20 oz fresh oysters
1/2 c + 1 Tb all-purpose flour
8 Tb butter (1 stick)
1 c chopped onions
2 qt homemade chicken stock
2 c chopped spinach *
1 ts anise seeds
6 oz heavy cream
salt, pepper, Tabasco to taste

*Fresh spinach must be sauteed to produce 2 c. Frozen
must be blanched to produce 2 c well drained. Drain
spinach by pressing between your hands.

First, drain the oysters but reserve the oyster liquor, then
coarsely chop the oysters in a food processor reserving all
the juice and oyster pieces, use more oysters if you like.
Refrigerate the oysters.

Second, make the roux. The roux consisting of the flour and
butter must cook over a moderate heat with bubbling present
3 to 4 minutes, otherwise, there will be an uncooked flour
taste in the sauce or soup.

The roux should be watched and stirred so that it does not turn
brown and remains the color of butter for the use in the soup.

Third, into the roux add the onions and allow to cook 2 to 3
minutes.

Fourth, while stirring slowly add all the stock to the roux mixture
and bring to simmer 10 minutes or until the onions are tender.

Fifth, add the spinach, oysters, and anise seeds and allow to
simmer 5 minutes. Then add the cream and allow to simmer
another 3 minutes.

Lastly, add salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste. Serves 6 to 8.

[M's notes: 1. Remember, there must be bubbling present!
2. I'd use 1-2 T of Pernod or Ricard or Herbsaint or the
like instead of the anise seeds; anisette in a pinch; or
at least grind the anise seeds. 3. I'd use a cup of cream
and boil it down by 1/3 or so and put it into the soup at
the last moment before serving. 4. The title is as it is.]

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