/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>16549698
Now this isn't a complicated dish but there's lots of multitasking so plan things ahead a bit and if you plan on taking photos maybe get someone to help you ':[

First get some water boiling while you do your initial prep

>>16549703
While that's heating slice your green onions, grate your carrot, and mince your garlic

>>16549707
ramen in

>>16549709
Now for this dish the noodre are to be served cold, so once cooked give them a cold rinse, stops them getting mushy and gets all that sticky starch off so they don't clump while you push ahead cooking the rest

>>16549712
Get them in a bowl and toss with sesame oil right away, otherwise you're gonna have a solid ball of noodre and nobody wants that shit

>>16549714
You can do this later but wth I'm going to toss the green onions and carrot in now. I like to tidy things up as I cook.

>>16549721
Get some fresh water boiling or get your steamer on. Get those snow peas in there tossed with about half the garlic. I want the garlic to taste as fresh as possible in this but can't be sharp and bitey, steaming them with the pods is the perfect solution.

>>16549725
Get em steamy. Nice and low, you don't want them losing their colour or texture it's fucking gross.

>>16549728
While those are sweating it out with the garlic get a good couple tablespoons of chili oil heating in a small skillet.

Use what you like, but I personally don't use Lao Gan Ma. I won't write a whole blogpost on why but it's way over-seasoned. Doesn't give you any room or flexibility, and the peanuts are bitter anyway. I use the Lee Kum Kee brand, lightly salted but basically it's just chrispy chili and oil and you can add the rest.

>>16549729
Gotta get a big skillet heating on high too, with a good drizzle of sesame oil.

>>16549731
Add a few slices of your orange and a tablespoon or two of the sweet juice to the chili oil

>>16549734
And the steamy greenies are ready, get em off the steam but keep them warm.

We're more than halfway through, your cold storm front is ready and now the warm one is too. Now we just have to get the hot one going

>>16549737
Add the rest of your garlic and a dash of the regular soy sauce to the mix (if using Lao Gan Ma you probably don't need any more salt)

>>16549741
Main skillet is hot! You can tell because the oil starts to look like T-1000 when he's about to slurp himself back together again. It's okay if it smokes slightly at this stage, once the shellfish go in it won't continue to burn

>>16549746
Scallops and prawns in. They should sizzle loudly! Give them a quick toss in the oil and then let them sit and get a nice golden sear.

>>16549748
Forgot to mention, this is when I like to add a good shake of ginger. No other seasoning, the sauce will do that, but getting a ginger crust on the scallops is like crack.

>>16549750
The chili sauce is definitely beginning to thunder! You want this cooked down quite a bit so most of the oranges and juice are concentrated and it isn't thin and runny

>>16549751
Now this is what I'm looking for.

Every hairy dick and tom has a different opinion on when shellfish, especially scallops, are cooked. I go with the rule that once the scallop develops a deep split it's done. In this case I want a tiny hairline split because they're going to continue cooking in the sauce for a couple minutes. Overcooked scallops are shit.

>>16549754
Take a deep breath and get ready for the plunge

>>16549759
Not gonna lie I've been looking forward to this part all week

>>16549761
Keep the sauce on a healthy sizzle. They prawns and scallops are going to release more water and you want to cook that off as it comes

Yum though amirite

>>16549765
Now what about the parts of this dish? They have a sauce too - much simpler. Rice vinegar and dark soy (very important you use dark soy for that part)

I've plated up my cold noodre and warm peas.

>>16549767
Now I don't have a photo of this because it's too hard but the rice vinegar goes into the noodre and the dark soy your slowly pour over the garlic pea pods. The light and dark sauces will meet on the plate and linger with one another... this is kind of the whole idea of the dish starting to come together

>>16549774
No again, no real photo of the process but sizzlin hot chili scallop/prawn goes on the plate next.

If I wasn't such a bleating fat fuck and actually portioned this reasonably, you would be able to see and appreciate the three sauces (storm fronts) lingering with one another in the center of the plate. If I was serving this up at a restaurant that would be a critical detail of the plating.

But anyway here ya go.

Hot, sweet and spicy, salty seafood, warm crunchy pea pods with steamy fresh garlic, and cold sesame oily and acidic vinegary noodre.

No overlap in flavours or textures, no possible combination on the fork or spoon will overwhelm you, all these tastes compliment each other any way you want to eat them!

>>16549786
This would be served fairly well with rice (you could blot it in the centre of the plate to join all the sauces together), fried wontons would be good, but for me today I'm using some crispy noodre because nothing in the dish is crispy and those things sop up all the goodness

>>16549789
Wala

this looks really good anon where's the rest

>>16549792
Looks yum

>>16549857
thank anon but what do you mean

>>16549866
Happy to report it came out just as I'd hoped, it was very nice

ßump

>>16549789
Looks tasty! Saved recipe for future

>>16549698
Why not steam the carrots with the snow peas and then mix the noodles, snow peas and shellfish together at the end and finish with some fresh green onion. Having the three parts separate seems a bit odd to me. The whole dish looks good and I might even give this a try but I’ll sub shellfish for chicken thigh and I’ll tweak it into a lo mein which I think makes more sense.

>>16550216
Good points, I guess the concept was to have three standalone portions that would mingle well together without overlapping. A cold storm, a warm storm, and a hot storm, all with appropriate flavours to compliment. The cold noodles ought to have some fresh vedge for texture and crunch, and with the sesame oil and vinegar they have a strong and pungent taste which I didn't want to taste bad when mixed with the warm pea pods and garlic; so those were just kept clean with steamed garlic, and then the heavy hot/sweet portion spills the plate with all the salt and heat you need to wrap it all together.

I feel like if I plated it better the concept would make more sense

>>16549698
i was gonna talk shit but i saw that you linked to big trouble in little china so now im thinking based

>>16550248
w-what were gonna talk shit about though

This seems like it would be good as a picnic lunch with everything cold. I have fresh peas from a local farmer to use up.

I think I might make something similar.

You did a good job with these photos.

I guess the point is to have temperature contrast, but I am looking for cold dishes to take with me for lunch for hiking day trips.

All I might do differently is use fresh oranges.

>>16550286
fresh oranges would be best. also shellfish can travel, but not far

>>16549789
Looks tasty

>>16550293
I have a big coleman cooler (and a little one too). We fill it with ice. I was envisioning carrying it in there. I do day trips to hike and sightsee a lot and am always trying tp plan nice easy (but slightly gourmet) dishes to make to bring with.

I keep the cooler in the rear seat of the suv and can grab and go water and food as needed.

>>16550243
Actually kinda feel like the dish is being created around the name. What I mean by that is the entire thing exists only to satisfy the name of the dish and I think it should be the other way around. The food should take the priority and then find a name that suits the food. This kinda seems a bit like an Asian mcDLT where the ingredients come separate and you assemble them. I think it makes more sense to mix this together into a lo mein.

>>16550317
Nah, the name was the last part that came to me. It was a concept of flavours and temperatures first. I almost called it "three seasons" but because I love Big Trouble so much the new name dawned on me eventually

https://youtu.be/b2ycXY_4XRM

>>16549698
I feel like mixing the rice vinegar/soy with some scallion oil would elevate the noodles a bit. You could always add some msg too.
It's a bit hard to judge from the images, but I would probably have been tempted to add some starch slurry to the seafood sauce to make it more viscous and coat the prawns and scallops better, but maybe the reducing was enough. Also obviously homemade chili oil would make this even better, but unless you use that regularly it's not worth the effort.
Apart from those suggestions great job OP, looks good.

bump for interest, good thread OP

>>16549792
Voila, the best thread on /ck/

>>16549698
this looks dank, thanks for the recipe OP

>>16550792
Ah but the vinegar is mixed with sesame oil anon

>>16552425
Yes. And I would imagine that a mix of sesame and scallion oil might give it more depth of flavor compared to just sesame oil. Might have to give it a try and see how it pans out.

Looks good OP, I'd happily try this. Thanks for taking the time to give us the play by play.

>>16553828
Thanks anon, making the occasional cooking thread lets me practice two hobbies at home

>>16549789
thanks for posting this anon, I really want to try the sauce with some rice

Looks great OP. I’d have a little soy and vinegar on the noodles and use fresh oranges or tangerines, but great thread. Would eat gladly/10

>>16554836
I'd have a little soy and vinegar right outta yer mams fat puss u absolute fucking retard