Sunday, November 21, 2004

Get thee behind me, scallops

I had dinner all set and ready to go last night. I’d done my prep work with BBC World News on in the background; now, Colameco’s Food Show was up next. I figured I’d just cook with that on in the background. Alas, it was not to be. First he was on a scallop boat out of Cape May. Then he was cooking with scallops so incredibly fresh that I was almost drooling, never mind that I was watching on my tiny ancient tv. So my pork fried rice had to wait a half-hour before it was cooked.

The ridiculous thing is that I can’t even eat scallops. I’ve only eaten them a couple of times. Each time they tasted wonderful but before long, I got very sick. It only took a few incidents like this to realize that I must be allergic to them or something. So now I avoid scallops like the plague. I can eat other shellfish without a problem; it seems to be a scallop thing.

Once I finally got to it, the pork fried rice was delicious. I used Ken Hom’s recipe for “Tasty Pork Fried Rice” from his book Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese-American Childhood. In the interest of using up leftovers, I substituted bamboo shoots and water chestnuts for the bean sprouts. I also didn’t use as much rice as the recipe called for, but the extra amount of the veggies made up for that. I substituted pork loin meat for the pork shoulder in the recipe, because pork loin was cheaper, and used napa cabbage rather than lettuce because I had it on hand. When I was stir-frying, it smelled wonderful. I’d overlooked this recipe while I was cooking my way through Easy Family Recipes earlier this year; no danger of that in the future. The egg and chopped scallions gave the dish an almost spring-like taste; fitting for dinner on a day largely devoted to garden planning.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here are some links you may be interested in with regards to various soy sauces....

I had seen several glowing reviews for Yuasa "Ohara Hisakichi Shoyu" from Japan (available here: http://www.yuasashoyu.com/eshop/item/100090.html ) for 1050 Japanese Yen (or around $9 US)

and here domestically http://mgrsti5395q.seamlesstech.biz/Templates/frmTemplateM.asp?CatalogID=440&Zoom=Yes&SubFolderId=0137
or here -- http://www.gratefulpalate.com/index.php?p=RSOYXX0010&parent=Page_47
Unfortunately, they are offering it for $32.95, due to import costs.

Here are some reviews for it: http://www.forkandbottle.com/pantry/index.htm (near the bottom)

http://www.geezergourmet.com/spices_art9.html (this individual compares it to Kikkoman)

Luckily, I have a few friends in Japan and they were able to bring me a small bottle of it this past weekend. I'm still out on whether it's worth spending a small fortune to get it domestically, though my taste buds may not be trained enough to notice the subtleties between various soy sauces.

Here is another type by Yuasa that is highly recommended, but again, expensive domestically....

http://www.earthy.com/Yuasa_Mukashi_Shoyu_-_Dark_Soy_P813.cfm (720ml for $45!)

or http://www.earthy.com/Yuasa_Mukashi_Shoyu_-_Dark_Soy_P496.cfm (200ml for $25!)

Also available through this web site:
http://www.goodsfromjapan.com/product/product-list.php?cID=176&cName=Soy%20Sauce&pID=0&pName=Product-list

If you're interested, here is a history of soy sauce, shoyu and tamari.

http://www.thesoydailyclub.com/SFC/F soyfoods421.asp

and an article on soy sauce in Yuasa, Japan

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=993&pName=soy-sauce

and if you're really interested in a quite unique soy sauce (though not edible) try this....

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/27/soy_sauce_made_from_.html

Incidentally, here is Cooks Illustrated previous review of soy sauces from January/February 2000:

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tasting.asp?tastingid=28&bdc=336&ce=1

or PDF version http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/tasting/jf2000soy3.pdf

I was able to get the Eden Selected Shoyu Soy Sauce, but found it a bit salty. I hope to get the Lee Kee Kum and Ohsawa Nama Shoyu the next time I get to an Asian grocery.

I've been using Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce for cooking (esp. Fuchsia Dunlop's wonderful Kung Pao Chicken (Gong Bao Ji Ding) -- http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/kung_pao.html) The Pearl River Bridge Dark Soy Sauce is so thick it coats the bottle and is pitch black (Not exactly the best tasting out of the bottle) and enjoy San-J Reduced Sodium Tamari Soy Sauce.

Hopefully, one of the web links will be of interest to you.