Local Chinese Evolution

When Anthony Bourdain came to Hawaii, one of the most authentically local things that was served to him, was a Chinese style onaga (local red snapper) stuffed with lup cheong (Chinese sausage).  When I saw Lanai & Kaleo serve it to him, I was really excited because it's one of my favorite fish preparations and it is totally local.   You really wouldn't really find this preparation in any other Chinese community in the world (especially not in China).  But it reflects evolution of Chinese cuisine local to the Chinese in Hawaii.

Honey Walnut Shrimp at Golden Duck Restaurant

Mayonnaise is not, after all, a typically Chinese condoment.   But you will typically find it at dim sum accompanying the deep fried shrimp dumplings.   It is also the key to one of the most beloved Chinese dishes in Hawaii, honey walnut shrimp.   The sweetness of the honey glaze and the creaminess of the mayonnaise works so well with the salty shrimp flavor.  Of course what brings that dish alive are the little candied walnuts with their sweet, roasted crunch.  It doesn't seem very Chinese at all, yet when you taste it, it still tastes very Chinese.  The lup cheong and oyster sauce mayonnaise preparation that Bourdain tried, and which I made for New Year's Dinner, has a similar impact.  But unlike the honey walnut shrimp, it's difficult to find in the restaurants.  So here is my interpretation of the classic dish, so that you can try this at home kids.

So here's what you need:

 Ingredients for My Lup Cheong & Oyster Sauce Mayonnaise Stuffed Salmon

• A fish.  In my case I used a big side of salmon, because I think this peparation works best with strong buttery flavor of salmon.
• About half a bag of lup cheong (Chinese sausage)
• Some doong gu (black shiitake mushrooms)
• About half an onion
• Some Mayonnaise
• Some hau yau (oyster sauce)

So here's what you do:

Whenever working with doong gu or shiitake, the first thing you have to do is soak it to rehydrate them.   I used about a big handful of dried mushrooms.  You just have to eyeball how much will fit in your fish.

Slice your onion in half, and then slice up the half pretty thinnly.   I would recommend about a 1-2 mm thickness.  The reason for the thinness is because unlike sauteeing the onions, baking in them in the fish won't really cook them too much.  It'll be just enough to take the sharpness of the onion sting out and convey the onion flavor to the rest of the stuffing, but they will still retain most of the their crunch.  So a thin slice will better.  I sliced up a whole onion, but I realized afterwards that only about half would fit in my fish.

Slice up your lup cheong. Unlike the big chunks I used in my lup cheong stuffing, I would again recommend using a thinner (slanted) slice.  Like the onions, the thinner slices will both fit better in the fish and cook better in the relatively short cooking time.  Also like the onions, as the lup cheong cooks the lup cheong flavor should be infused into the whole dish.

In a bowl mix up some mayonnaise and some oyster sauce.   Notice the amounts I'm giving you?   That's because this is where your personal interpretation and artistry should come in.  I threw in about 3 spoons of mayo and a couple big dollops of oyster sauce.   Keep tasting and mixing until you find the right balance for yourself.  Remember oyster sauce can be very salty, but the creaminess of the mayo also cuts it.  You've just got to figure out the right ratio.

Now you want to make a few incisions into the side of the fish.  You do NOT want to cut all the way through, but only about half way through the fish.  The cuts should be down the spine of the fish and outwards from the spine.   The reason for this, is partly so the fish will absorb more flavor, but mainly so the fish can stretch more (ie. it will be easier to fold the filet in half).

Flip the fish over and lay it in the pan.  The cut part will be on the outside of the fish, and the cut part will be on the inside (as you pick up the fish it will make more sense to you by how much easier it will be to fold thanks to those cuts).  Layer in the lup cheong, the onions, and the mushrooms (be sure to drain off the water from the mushrooms first). 

Now you can start slathering on that oyster sauce mayonnaise.   Don't be afraid to use your hands to make sure everything fits in the fish and is evenly distributed (just be sure to wash them first).  

Finally flip fold the top half over and wrap it around your stuffing (again don't be afraid to get your hands dirty).   If you've got any of that oyster sauce mayonnaise leftover, you can brush it along the top of the fish to give it a nice glazing.

Pop your fish into the oven, and bake it for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Sounds pretty short doesn't it?   But many fishes, especially salmon, taste better when they're more on the rare side.  That's why sashimi and seared preparations are so popular.  If you overcook a salmon, it will get very dry and tougher.  It's better to err on the rare side than the overcooked side.  Additionally, if you have any leftovers, this gives the fish a little more room for reheating.

It's pretty simple isn't it?   The total time is only about 30 minutes (most of which is simply the baking time).  Cooking doesn't necessarily have to be a long and arduous process.  Often the tastiest dishes can be simple and fun to prepare. 

Dreaming up simple and fun dishes is essential to keep my son interested in creating something in the kitchen.  I remember how my Po Po used to make pie crust dough for my sister and I to play with, rather than playdough.   Remembering the fun of having that soft squishy, cold dough in my hands, I figured my son would really enjoy rolling up his sardines in Pillsbury crescent dough to make his sardines en croute.   My Po Po while letting us play, was secretly training us to have some skill in the kitchen.

When I called my son over from the TV to wash the rice for his other dish, my wife commented that when I said to "wash the rice", she said I sounded a lot like Mr. Miyagi.   That somehow, if he does something simple as wash the rice, I was secretly training him in kung fu or giving him some magical powers that would just appear one day.   Little does she know how right she really is, as dedication, passion, and perserverance are the heart of true kung fu.

Stuffed to the Gills

As my Christmas gift to you, I thought I'd throw up my "recipe" for the Chinese style lup cheong stuffing that I concocted.  Technically, this is a dressing and not a stuffing, because it never actually gets "stuffed" inside of the turkey.   However, if you call it a "dressing", people immediately think of salad dressing, and thanks to Stove Top the word "stuffing" has become standard nomenclature.   It's a pretty simple recipe, which was good, seeing as how my Christmas day was busy enough, and I needed something easy enough to put together between opening presents and visiting relatives.  

Stuffed Duck from Golden Duck Restaurant

The classic approach to Chinese stuffing is seen in Cantonese stuffed duck.   The stuffing consists of barley, minced mushrooms, ginkgo nuts, and occasionally some water chestnut.   It's a very earthy mixture.   The only thing is that I don't really care for barley.  I adore the duck that surrounds the stuffing, it is perhaps the most tender duck preparation of them all.  And the skin.  The skin is just melt in your mouth to die for.  The most buttery, outrageously soft skin anywhere.  But I just don't care for the stuffing inside of that duck, mainly because I just don't like the texture of barley.   So I came up with my own recipe for Chinese stuffing based on an entirely different Chinese flavor set, lup cheong (or Chinese smoked sausage) and hau yau choi sum (oyster sauce choi sum). 

So here is what you'll need:

Ingredients for my Chinese Style Lup Cheong Stuffing
• 1 package of lup cheong (or Chinese smoked sausage) - Don't buy the brand from Costco, it tastes funny
• 2 bundles of fresh choi sum - It may seem a lot, but remember vegetables shrink a lot when you cook them
• 1 bag of unseasoned bread crumbs or stuffing mix
• 1 can of sliced ma tai (or water chestnuts)
• some doong gu (black shiitake mushrooms)
• some ha mai (the little dried shrimp)
• some hau yau (oyster sauce)
• some shoyu
• and 1 can of chicken broth

Here's the prep:

Soak the dried doong gu in water.    You pretty much always have to do this when cooking with doong gu, in order to rehydrate them.   The water itself is pretty useful too, as it will contain all the flavor of the mushrooms.

Slice up the lup cheong into little 1/2 finger digit pieces.   If you want your stuffing chunkier you can make them a little larger.

Slice up the choi sum in the same lengths as the lup cheong.  

Here's what you do:

First fry up the lup cheong.   Ideally, you want to use a non-stick pot, because then you can just toss them in without any additional oil.   The oil from the lup cheong itself will come out, and you can use that to saute the rest of your ingredients.  You don't need to use really high heat either, around 75% heat will do.  Now, you really want to pay attention here.   Because it was Christmas and I was so rushed, and I wanted to take pictures to put up here, I wasn't watching the pot like I should have been.   You need to keep stirring this dish, otherwise things start to burn.  So my lup cheong got a little charred.   It wasn't so much that you could taste the burn, but it was more black than I wanted it to be   You really just want a nice dark red color, just as it begins to char.

When the lup cheong is ready.  Turn the heat down to about 50%.   You can throw in your ha mai and your waterchestnuts.  Drain off most of the water, and you can throw in your mushrooms as well.   Pour in the shoyu and oyster sauce to taste.   Be careful when putting in that oyster sauce.   It's very strong stuff, and if you put too much of it in, your stuffing will come out pretty salty.  Stir this around for a few moments to let it saute together.

After a few moments of cohesion, toss in all of your choi sum.   The 2 bundles is going to seem like an awful lot, and will probably fill the pot to the brim.    But keep in mind that vegetables seriously shrink when you cook them.   So just stir everything around for a while, and very soon your vegetables will be on par with everything else.

Now turn down the heat again to about 30% and cover the mixture with your chicken broth.   1 can ought to be enough to just cover all of the ingredients.   If it isn't you can add more, but remember, if you add too much your stuffing will be too soggy.  

Finally, add about half the bag of stuffing mix.   That should be just about the right ratio of breadding to stuff.   If it seems too salty for you, you can always add more bread, but if it seems to bland, there really isn't any way to take the extra breadding out.   So add it in small increments until the ratio looks right.  Keep mixing until you've got a nice stuffing consistency.   Then turn the heat down to about 10%, and cover and let it simmer for a few moments.   This makes everything meld together into a cohesive mixture.

Congratulations, you've just made Chinese Lup Cheong Stuffing!

Cooking is fun isn't it?   My mom said told me she is often surprised that in Chinese families, it is the men who are the better cooks.   That's because Chinese men really like to eat, so they have a passion for cooking and creating something that tastes good.  It is a passion that I want to instill into my boys.   That's pretty much how it panned out at Christmas, when I helped my first son make his first tuna macaroni salad.  He entusiastically gobbled down his own creation with pride and joy.

Much Mahalos: Part III - Smothered with Love

As a Thanksgiving Treat, I thought I would share my recipe for the seafood etouffe, I made on Thanksgiving.   I say share my recipe, but that's not entirely accurate, because I never cook with a recipe.   To me, cooking is all about expression, like painting or playing the piano.  Every time I cook something, I add things dependant upon how I feel that days, and the flavors that I want to try to coax out the food.   So I hate following recipes, which to me, rob the creative aspect of cooking.   But if you want to follow what I did, I'll be happy to share.    

Etouffee is a French / Creole dish that I learned in New Orleans.   It literally means to "smother", so basically it is a seafood dish where the seafood is smothered with a rich buttery gravy.   You can use any type of seafood really, although the classic preparation uses Mississippi mud bugs, otherwise known as crawfish.  Since crawfish is actually somewhat difficult to come by here in the islands (I've only ever seen frozen crawfish tails at Daiei), I've substituted some other mixed seafood.

Here's what you'll need (notice the precise measuring system I use):

Ingredients for Seafood Etouffee

Some Seafood - In this case the seafood mix at Daiei (now Don Quixote).  
Some Garlic (minced or whole is fine)
Some butter
Some flour
Some plain tomato sauce (not spaghetti sauce or tomato paste)
Some cajun seasonings, in this cause I've used Big Kevin's Bayou Blend, but your favorite blend will work


So here's what you do:

Melt a stick of butter in a saucepan on LOW heat (I'd say around 30% heat works fine).  I know, I know.  An entire stick of butter sounds really unhealthy for you.   Yes, you can substitute something like Country Crock, I've done it before.   But seeing as how this was Thanksgiving, I didn't feel like holding anything back, so I opted for the real thing, for the real full bodied taste.    At least I didn't go completely old school and use pure lard.

As in all classic French of Cajun cooking, you start with the phrase, "make a roux".  If you don't know what a roux is, it's basically the basis for all gravy in the world.  You start with the melted butter.  Then, very slowly you sprinkle in a little bit of flour, all the while stirring very vigorously.   I can't stress this enough, you have to stir like a mad scientist on speed.  If you're not meticulous in your stirring, your roux will have chewy little lumps in it, not at all what you want.   Keep sprinkling in flour and stirring like crazy until you get the consistency of pudding (or better yet, 1 finger poi). 

Next you can sprinkle in some minced garlic.  If you like garlic like me and my wife, you want to add a lot.  Unfortunately, my uncle doesn't like garlic, so I limited myself to 2 butter knife bladefuls.  But feel free to add more.  You want to brown the garlic in your roux.  But all the while, you want to keep stirring (although you can stir a little more slowly now).  Never let a roux sit still or it will burn.  You must keep stirring even if it feels like your arm will fall off.   When your roux is the color of a shiny new penny, then you're done.

When your roux is ready, you can add in your seafood.   I used 3 mixed seafood trays from Holiday Mart (I mean Don Quixote).  These trays have a nice assortment of squid, little clams, some shirmp and other goodies.  The best thing is that they're remarkably cheap.   Each tray is only around $3.  You can't beat that for seafood!   Of course if you can, get langostinos or crawfish tails, for the real authentic dish.

After dumping in your seafood, add in your cajun seasonings.   Most cajun seasonings are primarily paprika, but there are many different blends.   The one I use, Big Kevins, I actually get shipped in from my cooking school in New Orleans, so you know that the taste is authentic.   One thing that they taught us in class, is to be liberal when adding seasonings.   I think I dumped in roughly a quarter cup or so.   Again, this is where personal expression and taste comes in to play.

Stir your seafood around for just a minute or two.   Just long enough to cook it "rare".   Then you can cover the whole thing with your tomato sauce.  I used about 2 cans.

Stir it all together.  Then, put the lid on and let is simmer for a while on low heat (I'd say around 10% heat).

The whole recipe is pretty simple (once you get the hang of making a good roux).   And it's pretty fast to cook too.   Total time is only about 20 minutes.   I would say before you start making this, start cooking your pot of rice.   When the rice is done, your etouffee can stop simmering, and you're ready to serve it over the rice.

Of course cooking is a big thing in my family, as everyone (except my dad) cooks at least 1 dish for Thanksgiving (and all major holidays for that matter).  For better or worse, I learned to cook the same way that my mom does.  She never follows a recipe either, and every time she cooks something there is always some slight variation to it.   When she cooks something that comes out really well, she always makes the claim that she's not sure she can ever recreate it, but we know that while it may never be exactly the same, it will still taste great.   I really wanted to pass on this passion for cooking to my children, who already love playing with miniature pans and plastic food.  So this Thanksgiving I encouraged my son to cook his first pot of rice, to go along with my etouffee.   I can't wait for the day, when I can use him as a sous chef to prep everything for me and wash up afterwards.

The seafood etouffee is a spicy, savory, buttery melange that you just can't get easily here in the islands.  Sometimes, when you want something truly special, you just have to make it with your own hands.