Journey Through Food and Wine: Culinary School #20-Asian Food

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Friday, August 2, 2013

Culinary School #20-Asian Food

It is hard to believe that I only have 3 more classes left in culinary school. What will I write about? What will I do with all of my free time? Will I be board to tears? I remember feeling this way when I graduated from college, however I somehow managed to fill up all of my free time with other random activities, so I am sure this experience will be similar. I have already thought about pulling my ballet slippers out of retirement and trying my hand at dancing again...oy.

Anyway I digress. Culinary school this week was all about Asian cuisine, which completely took me out of my comfort zone. I love the food, the spices and the flavors, but I really knew very little about cooking it so this was a great class for me.

I also knew this was going to be a good class since my culinary school buddy started the class looking like this:

The cooking term I used this week was velveting. It is coating, usually meat or chicken, with egg whites and cornstarch. This technique is used when making Kung Pao Chicken.

Kung Pao Chicken

Now for some random cooking knowledge:

Mushrooms should not be stored in an airtight container or bag as they need air, so to increase shelf life keep them in a type of packaging that allows them to breath. You also don't want to eat them if they are slimy.
Did you also know that mushrooms are cultivated in the dark?
Lychees should not be white on the outside. That is a sign that they are going bad

Rambutan (in the lychee family)

When purchasing whole coconuts you want them to be heavy and when you shake them you want to be able to hear the liquid

We had the pleasure of trying some ingredients in this class that were out of the ordinary. I have always loved canned water chestnuts, but we had fresh ones. They look like this and the brown skin is peeled away, leaving the chestnut. The fresh water chestnuts have the same texture as canned, but their flavor is sweeter and more pungent. Yum!

We also learned how to make sushi, which was honestly the highlight of my night. I had taken a class a million years ago, however I had not practiced the art so the demo and hands on experience was a lot of fun. I also learned a few things about sushi:

Sushi rice needs to be rinsed and it should be rinsed until the water runs clear, usually around 6 times.
When making sushi rice use the measuring cup that comes with the rice cooker as it is 4/5 of an American measuring cup and you don't want the ratio of water and rice to be off.
Sushi rice has seasoned rice wine vinegar added to it, which is seasoned with salt and sugar, however it is in the perfect proportion so you don't need to worry about measuring.
Some people add Mirin to their sushi rice, which is a Japanese rice wine
Sushi rice should be glossy, which is an indicator that the starch has converted to protein, which is the goal

Sushi rice should be sticky but not gummy. It becomes gummy when you over handle it.
Rice is sacred in Japan.

This is a Hangiri, which is a wood sushi bowl made of Cypress wood. It absorbs the excess moisture.

Tuna is obviously one of the most popular sushi fish. If you purchase tuna make sure you cut the blood line out of the fish as quickly as possible as it will create a bitter taste. Also when you are looking to purchase tuna you do not want the flesh to be separating, that is an indication that it has been previously frozen.

When you cut salmon you cut against the grain at a bias to hold it together. Did you also know that salmon is usually lightly salted before it is frozen?

I also learned a little history lesson about sushi. Sushi started in Japan in the late 1800's. It started as a way to preserve fish and was street food. Sushi became popular in the US in the 1970s. Back in the day they had to fly the fish in daily in order to get fresh products. However, they have started a process called flash freezing, which is a quick freezing process that uses small ice crystals, allowing the fish to maintain it's quality even if it frozen, since the crystals do not break down the fish composition.

Now for a few sushi making tips and tricks:

Everything should be damp when you make sushi-hands, fingers, rice with a damp towel, knife, etc
If you wear gloves when you make sushi you can spread mayo on the gloves and the rice will not stick to them.
The sushi mats are made of bamboo and often times wrapped in plastic wrap to decrease the rice sticking to the mat.

If you are making a traditional sushi roll the seaweed should be shiny side down on the bamboo mat. If you are making an inside out roll it doesn't matter which side of the seaweed you use.
Rice should be spread on the seaweed (nori), leaving 1" at the top to seal
The filling should go 1" off the bottom

When you are rolling your sushi roll, your thumbs should be at the back and your fingers should be used to hold the filling in place.

Once the roll has been completed, cover it in plastic wrap, prior to cutting to help it hold it's shape. And wipe your knife after every cut.

I also learned that it is rude to add soy sauce and wasabi to sushi...which I do all the time...because the sushi chef has chosen the level of heat/wasabi based on the flavor profile of the fish...oopsie. I also learned that if you have to dip the fish into soy sauce you should flip it over and dip it with the rice side up so the rice doesn't fall apart...don't know why I didn't think of that...duh, right?

Here are some sushi show and tell photos: