Greetings once again fellow fans of grub and its preparation!
Over the weekend the past weekend I finally got my stove top repaired... "What's this?" some of you may ask, its simple, last week I almost blew the house up. Permit me to explain. I was cleaning the stove, as all of us chef's do, getting ready for the next creations, and during that I removed all of the knobs from the stove top and placed them in the dishwasher as is regular custom. About 10:00 or so that night someone, I forgot who(because I would shift blame that direction) mentioned pancakes. I thought "Well that sounds tasty", so I reached into the washer and took one of the knobs out and whipped up some pancakes, which were fantastic in my opinion...but I digress. After the dish washer finished its cycle, but before it was done drying completely, I decided to remove the rest of the knobs and place them back on the cook top. (I can hear some of you now, "Uh-oh...") Around midnight I was reading and listening to podcast partner Big Ken's "Flavorfoundation Radio", http://podcast.theflavorfoundation.com/, when I heard the stove make a ticking sound that it does when a person turns on one of the burners, thinking that was weird I went into the kitchen thinking that I had accidentally bumped one into the "start" or "ignite" position. So I just made sure knobs were secured and went back to listening and reading... About 30 minutes pass and then my lights dim and there's this crackling electrical sound coming from the kitchen, I look in there and out of the cook top there is this good-sized billow of white smoke. Oops. That could be a problem. My reaction was to turn the gas off to the stove, so I reached under the cook-top to shut off the gas line. The oven is a wall mount unit so it wasn't in the way. As I reached under the cook-top, I knocked over some glasses that had been stored there, not by me....grrrr.... As they broke I cut a few fingers on my right hand, just great, but didn't reach the gas lever. At this point I remembered that I am not a professional in this field and that there could be fire that I don't see, so I called the Fire Department just to be sure. When I called I was certain to point out it wasn't an emergency but that I just wanted to sure, and they said they would send someone out. The Fire Dept. arrived at my house 4 minutes later! Wow! They came in and turned off the gas and unplugged the stove top, checked out my hand and said it was probably the igniter shorting out from the moisture of the still damp knobs....yep, it looks like I've done it again... But I was very grateful for their fast response, and as such there will be a field trip to the station with some goodies from the kitchen, I have always been a strong believer in taking care of the team, and these firefighters did their thing and made certain that Big Sexy is still in one piece, gotta show my appreciation and respect for what they do.
Since I was without my cook-top for a week, I was resorted to trying new things, so as I was rummaging through the freezer and lo and behold I found some Scallops that I had picked up a few days prior. I love scallops. I'm not kidding. I promised myself the first thing I was doing when I got the stove repaired was something with those scallops... Thus on Friday after Joe from Zajic Appliance Repair did his thing and got me back on track, I was ready to rock. But what shall it be? Scallops and Pappardelle? Been there already. I was having a Sushi fit, so I decided to do my own but with a twist, instead if doing rolls I would serve it up in small bowls, that way when those who claim to not like sushi, but have never tried anything other than California Rolls-you know who are, can try this not knowing its really sushi just prepared in another fashion. I can be a devil at times...
So as the Scallops defrosted I went out and gathered other ingredients needed, I already had some dried wasabi and soy sauce, I just needed some scallions, cucumber and and sriracha sauce for the heat. And believe this stuff is no joke, the heat is on! I also picked up some fresh Tuna just for a little contrast.
First I started my rice. To begin with rinse the rice a couple of times under some cold water to make sure its clean, when the water around it is clear then move on to the next step. Using equal parts rice and water, bring to a boil, reduce and let simmer covered the entire time and once all the water has evaporated, the rice is done. From there transfer to a big wide glass or wooden bowl, and spread it out so it covers the bowl, then using a spatula begin to cut grooves in to the rice and add some sushi vinegar, then fold the rice over and repeat until the sushi rice is done. I use 1/2 cup for this today for 3 3/4 cups of rice. From there let the rice cool, and to keep it at room temperature once it has cooled cover it with a damp cloth.
Now its on to the spicy scallops! Again, very simple, first prepare the sauce by taking some mayonnaise and the sriracha and mixing it 1 part of srirachawasabi just enough so that the Soy sauce is a little cloudy. Now its time to assemble the bowl. What I used were Ramekins that I usually use for baking but they work just as well for this application. First take a scoop of rice, enough to fill the ramekin about half full, then add the soy sauce mixture, to the top of that, then top it off with the spicy scallop mixture, and add a touch of the soy sauce on top of that and it is time to grub! I also tried this with fresh Tuna substituted for scallops and it was equally delicious. The key is not too much sriracha sauce because it can easily overpower the other flavors. And I used small bowls because I wanted to approximate the serving size of maybe half a roll, that way guests can try the scallop one then a tuna and experience other things as well.
Later on when I had prepared the Scallop and Tuna mixtures and had then in the refrigerator, Smurf came by for a visit and during her customary raid of my refrigerator she came across the Scallops and asked what it was, and after I told her I then prepared some for her and she inhaled it! It was like a wolverine! Again, I take that as the highest for m of compliment, it appears that she enjoyed her munchies!
Sushi in a bowl...magnificent!
Until next time,
Marc (Big Sexy)
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