I probably should have held off on this menu until that time in midsummer when even the idea of turning on the stove or the oven gives you the sweats. In my defense, I thought it up a few weeks ago, when my hometown was experiencing one of our many false starts, seasonal stutters, or whatever you want to call it when it’s 80 degrees in April. And then it snows two days later. Anyway, sometimes you don’t want to turn on the stove or the oven. You don’t want steam in the face, burnt fingers, or that thin layer of spatter than can sometimes make you feel like you’re wearing rather than eating a dish. And that’s fine. Sometimes the best way to cook something is to not cook it at all.
This week’s menu is mostly raw. Not “raw food” in the sense of the food movement, but dishes where the primary ingredients aren’t cooked in the traditional sense – they’re not changed by heating. Some of this week’s dishes are actually raw, in that the ingredients aren’t really changed much at all. In one we’ll use acid to “cook” a protein. Others have a cooked ingredient or garnish – but are still mostly raw. I know raw ingredients aren’t for everyone, and some folks have safety concerns. We’ve all seen the warning:
"Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness, especially if you have certain medical conditions.”
That warning is true (and applies to this menu), but safety inspections and modern food handling techniques mean that most uncooked foods are safe. The short version is, you’re not likely to poison yourself or your family with raw foods.
This week’s menu doesn’t include a couple of elements I’ve usually included. There isn’t a salad, and there’s no desert. Some of that was pure laziness on my part (a raw salad really wouldn’t have been a stretch), some of that was a technical difficulty (I don’t know how to make an uncooked cake and a bowl of fruit seems lazy). If you’re looking for something else to go along with these dishes – try a simple green salad with a miso or tahini dressing. And yeah – maybe that bowl of fruit.
As always, if you enjoy this newsletter, I hope you’ll share it with friends, family, random coworkers and even unusually anthropomorphic pets. Who knows, maybe your cat would love beef tartare? Really, anyone who might be interested. Thanks!
Scallop Crudo with Cucumber Ginger Aqua Chili
I’ve been making some version of this dish for about a decade – from right about the time I discovered that:
A) raw scallops are delicious, and
B) peeled and seeded jalapeno peppers have a wonderfully unexpected fruity flavor.
No, really. Peeled jalapeno isn’t particularly spicy (most of the heat is in the seeds, the skin, and the light-colored internal ribs), and the slightly bitter note that I think of as their signature flavor is apparently mostly in the skin. That fruitiness is great with pears and a light simple “aqua chili” – literally chili water – ties it all together with the almost buttery scallop slices. This is a really simple dish that can look and feel really fancy, and is simple to plate in a rush. Also it’s VERY green. Like really, really green.
Serves 4
4 large sea scallops
2 large jalapeno peppers
1 clove garlic
2 tsp kosher salt
1 Asian pear
1 tsp minced ginger
2 Persian cucumbers
1 cup tightly packed cilantro leaves and stems plus additional as garnish
¼ cup loosely packed mint leaves
Remove the stem from one jalapeno pepper.
Peel, and trim the garlic clove.
Add the stemmed jalapeno, ginger, garlic, 1 whole Persian cucumber, the cilantro leaves and stems, and the mint leaves to the container of a blender, along with ½ cup of crushed ice.
Process until smooth, then strain through a fine strainer – discarding any remaining solids.
Refrigerate until ready to serve – at least 1 hour and not more than 4 hours.
Thinly slice the remaining cucumber.
Cut thin slices from the Asian pear and use a cutter approximately the size of the cucumber rings to cut disks from the pear slices.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin from the remaining (second) jalapeno, then remove the stem and seeds and finely dice the flesh.
To serve, slice the scallops into disks, arrange the scallops, pear disks, and cucumber slices on a plate.
Season the prepared liquid with salt to taste (you’ll want it to be fairly salty as it also seasons the other ingredients), and pour over the scallops, cucumber, and pear. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve immediately.
Shrimp Ceviche
You’d be forgiven if you’re thinking “hey, that looks a lot like the criolla salad Drew sent us a few weeks ago.” They share similar roots. Ceviche is sort of both a dish and a technique. It’s a traditional preparation from Central and South America (and essentially the national dish of Peru) of seafood bathed in a spicy acidic mixture of citrus juice, garlic, onions, herbs, and chili peppers. It walks the tightrope between raw and cooked because the acid from lime juice “cooks” the seafood. Here, we’ll use shrimp – though you could substitute fin fish – and a very simple dressing of lime, serrano pepper, red onion and garlic. It comes together quickly, and it’s delicious and refreshing – just a bit spicy. You can serve ceviche alone, with chips (corn or potato) or really any way you want.
16 large raw shrimp
1 medium red onion
4 limes
1 serrano chili
1 tsp kosher salt
1 green onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro leaves
Peel the shrimp, including removing the tails.
Chop the shrimp into small pieces, ¼ inch or less.
Peel, trim and thinly slice the onion from end to end.
Peel, trim, and finely mince the garlic.
Remove the stem and very thinly slice the serrano.
Remove the root end, and thinly slice the green onion.
Juice the limes – you should have a little less than ½ cup fresh lime juice, you may need to add additional limes if they’re small or not particularly juicy.
Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
Daikon “Pad Thai”
When I lived in San Francisco, (you didn’t think I’d get through a newsletter without one of these stories, did you?) one of my favorite lunch spots was a Thai restaurant a few short alleyway blocks from my office. I probably ate there once a week, usually with a small group of coworkers. Over the course of a few years, I think I tried nearly every item on the menu, but I came back to two dishes over and over – a panang red curry with duck and pineapple, and Pad Thai – the traditional sweet, sour, and salty noodle dish. I ate a lot of Pad Thai. I mean a lot of Pad Thai: Chicken Pad Thai, Pork Pad Thai, Shrimp Pad Thai. Sour and salty and sweet and covered in crunch peanuts … It’s an easy dish to love.
This isn’t’ that Pad Thai. First of all, it’s not made with rice noodles. It’s made with shredded daikon radish – slightly sweet, slightly spicy, and very, very crunchy. Secondly, the sauce isn’t the traditional sauce of tamarind and fish sauce. It has ketchup in it. I know. That doesn’t sound good, but it disappears into the dish and gives it a sweet and sour that really is surprisingly similar to tamarind – and it’s a lot easier for most cooks to find. Finally – it’s not hot. It’s not cooked. Because this is a raw menu and also because this isn’t really Pad Thai. It’s just something that’s a lot like Pad Thai only completely and totally different and particularly good on a hot humid day.
1 medium daikon radish
2 large eggs
2 cloves garlic
2 green onions
½ cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1 red or green chili
¼ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 tsp minced or microplaned ginger or galangal
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic paste
1 tsp chili oil (see below) (opt)
Juice of one lime
Peel, and julienne cut the daikon – aiming for approximately 4 cups of shredded daikon. I use a julienne peeler for this.
Beat the eggs well and pour into a well-oiled or non-stick pan over medium heat. Reduce the heat and allow the eggs to cook undisturbed until set. Remove from the pan allow to cool and cut into thin ribbons.
Trim, and thinly slice the green onion.
Stem, and thinly slice the chili pepper.
Combine the ketchup, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger (or galangal), chili garlic paste, chili oil (if using), and lime juice and stir until combined and the sugar is fully dissolved.
Immediately before serving toss the sliced onion, sliced chili, shredded daikon, and egg with the sauce. Top with crushed peanuts, more sliced green onion, and a scattering of cilantro leaves.
Beef Tartare with Chili Oil
When I started planning this menu, it was mostly because I wanted an excise to make beef tartare and, when I started planning this menu, I had planned to make traditional French style beef tartare: finely diced meat accompanied by onions and capers, an egg yolk, etc. Of course, as I really dug into what I was going to cook this past week, that changed. That dish – while one of my favorites (beef tartare, a plate of fries, good bread, a small salad and some wine sitting on a Paris sidewalk is still one of the best lunches I’ve ever had) – didn’t fit in with evolution of the other dishes. So, I went in a different direction. The now closed Ambrose & Eve, a few blocks from our house in Columbus, served a simple dish of diced beef accompanied by spicy chili oil. I ordered it almost every time we ate there. This isn’t their dish, but it is sort of my homage to theirs, and to that really great combination of flavors.
A couple of notes: I considered adding diced cucumber to this dish for a little added crunch. I didn’t mainly because I already had cucumber as a major component of the scallop dish above – and because I’m probably mildly allergic to it and can only tolerate so much cucumber. That being said – it would still be a nice addition and you should add some if you want.
Choose good quality beef. Aged tenderloin will be the most tender and flavorful, and while you can use other cuts, avoid those that have a lot of sinew or tough fiber.
1 lb. beef tenderloin
8 rice paper spring roll wrappers
4 tbsp chili oil (see below)
1 tbsp fried shallots
1 tsp kosher salt
1 green onion, sliced
Trim the beef tenderloin, removing any sinew or extra fat. Cut the beef into a fine dice (1/8 inch or smaller) and refrigerate tightly covered until ready to serve.
Heat a pan of oil over medium high heat. Once the oil is very hot (375°F) drop the spring roll wrappers in one at a time. They will puff up. Remove them from the oil and set aside to cool and drain.
Season the beef with salt.
Arrange a disk of chopped seasoned meat on a plate. I use a ring mold to shape the meat. Do not pack it tightly.
Dress with chili oil.
Top with fried shallots and sliced green onion.
Serve with puffed rice crackers.
Fried Shallots
4 medium shallots
½ cup neutral oil
Peel, trim, and thinly slice the shallots (I use a Japanese style mandoline slicer).
Add the shallots to the oil (cold oil) in a pan.
Place the pan over medium heat and fry, stirring frequently, until the shallots are a light brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Allow to cool completely before use.
Chili Oil
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp red chili flake
2 tsp Sichuan flower pepper
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon stick, crushed
2 star anise pods
1 black cardamum pod
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Open all your windows. Add all ingredients except the sesame oil to a thick bottomed pan over medium heat. As soon as the vegetable oil begins to sizzle, reduce to the lowest heat and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before adding the sesame oil and straining through a fine strainer.