I’m currently in Mexico at the beautiful ClubMed Ixtapa resort with my good friend, Diane of WhiteOnRiceCouple and my brother. It would be silly to call this a “work trip,” since we’ve done more relaxing, napping, eating and drinking than actually working, but I guess that’s the whole point of ClubMed, right? They’re hosting us for a wonderful Food and Wine festival and I’ll be posting more when I return. In the meantime, enjoy this recipe for Grilled Fish Tacos with Roasted Corn and Pepitas.

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All my friends from “not-Florida” and are gushing about their cozy Fall dishes, how it’s time to break out the dutch oven and that finally, they can start wearing boots without looking like a summer fashion faux-pas. And I’m just here loungin’ in my swimsuit, sipping iced tea, toes dangling a $3 flip-flop and beaming from ear to ear, gently shaking my head.

Don’t get me wrong, I love long braises and warming stews, but Fall is just starting to breeze in and it’s still too damn hot to turn my kitchen into a sauna. Fall is finally grilling time. Oh, sure, we grill plenty during the summer, but pity the poor person with grilling duty outside in the middle of the sweltering, suffocating summer heat, which usually is my husband. It’s worse especially when we have a dinner party and I have to hand him his sunglasses, hat, sunscreen and a mountainous platter of foods to be grilled.

I get the glare. He heads outside.

And then we air-conditioned folks feel all guilty for leaving the lone man outside (but not guilty enough to join him), huddle right in front of the patio sliding glass door and give him the occasional smile-nod and thumbs up to make him feel like he’s still part of the party.

Fall is time when that dinner party heads outside, guests hover around the smoking grill, husbands gets the congratulatory slaps on the back, beers are passed around and all is well and dandy. That is…until I am forced back inside the very lonely kitchen to finish off a dish on the stovetop that couldn’t be grilled and to assemble that salad last minute so it can be served chilled.

My husband strolls towards the glass door, entourage behind him, raises his drink towards me and smirks.

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Grilled Fish Tacos with Roasted Corn and Pepitas Recipe

Buy firm fleshed fish at leat 3/4″ thick, otherwise the fish will come apart on the grill. If using thinner fillets, cook the fish in a frying pan. You can still stay outdoors - just use your frying pan directly on the grill grates. To prevent the fish from sticking to the grill grates, make sure your grates get a good scrubbing. You can also pour a little oil on a wad of paper towels and wipe on the grates. The fish will be coated in some olive oil to also prevent sticking. This recipe was inspired by Jim of The Lucky Pelican in Lakewood Ranch, where I had the best fish tacos outside of San Diego. Recyclable plates made of pressed fallen leaves from Verterra.

1 1/2 pounds firm fleshed fish fillet, 3/4 inch thick (I like grouper or mahi-mahi)
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 ear corn, shucked
1 large tomato, 1/4″ dice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
8 corn tortillas
1/2 cabbage, shredded
2 limes, cut into wedges
1/4 cup pepitas or roasted pumpkin seeds

For the sauce (stir together)
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon ancho chili powder (substitute with regular chili powder)

Preheat your outdoor grill. Cut the fish into 8 thick strips, about 1″ wide x 4″. You’ll be using 1 fish fillet per taco, 2 tacos per person. On a plate or bowl, toss the fish with the garlic salt, paprika and olive oil. Brush a bit of the oil onto the corn on the cob. Grill the corn on the grill over direct heat, rotating a few times.

Three minutes after starting the corn, it’s time to grill the fish for 2-4 minutes each side, depending on thickness of the fish. During the last 2 minutes of grilling, throw the corn tortillas on the grill, flipping halfway. The corn, fish and tortillas should be ready around the same time.

Use a serrated knife to cut the kernals off the cob. Toss with the tomato, salt and cilantro. Assemble tacos with cabbage, a piece of fish, a spoonful of sauce, grilled corn/tomato, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of pepitas.

Serves 4

(click on photo for shot-by-shot food styling and photography analysis of some of the photos that led up to the “money shot”)

Chinese restaurants in China don’t really have Chinese Chicken Salad on their menus, it’s a creation of Chinese-American restaurants! According to Cecilia Chiang, author of The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco(one of my all time favorite Chinese American cookbooks), lettuce was rare and imported in China, and “salads” referred to pickled items. But, I still love a good Chinese Chicken Salad, especially if it’s got a tangy, sweet sauce and crunchy bits of fried wonton strips.

But please, Applebee’s restaurant, can we rename your “Oriental Chicken Salad” to something more hip? Asian Chicken Salad or Chinese Chicken Salad would be much better. Oriental is such a dated word…so..19th century!*

Recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad is below.

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Food Styling and Photography

Many of you requested that I continue posting my shot-by-shot analysis of all the failed photos that led up to this one that I like…my “money shot.” I also show you my photo setup - which really doesn’t change too much during the “NOT-winter” season. I use natural light as much as I can, and when dreary winter comes along, I switch to using my Lowel EGO lights.

Vegan Yum Yum just posted a fabulous write up on food photography - make sure you check it out.

In the meantime, here’s my shot-by-shot analysis of the Chinese Chicken Salad photos!

For more food photography posts, I have a whole category called “Food Photography/Blog Tips.”

Updated Steamy Kitchen Web Design

Do you like the new look? Cleaner, brighter and much faster. I’m still working on it, but I think this is a lighter design that fits my personality more.

Guess what? Now I have a print functionality!!! If you want to print out a recipe without the sidebars and ads and stuff, there is a little print icon right next to each post’s header text. Click on that and you’ll get a nice, clean version that you can print out.

Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe

This Chinese Chicken Salad recipe makes a really quick light meal if you use store-bought roasted chicken and pre-fried crispy noodles (found in a bag or canister in the Asian section of supermarket.) I like to get a whole rotisserie chicken, use the breasts for the salad and the remaining meat for paninis the next day. The bones? I throw them in a pot, add water carrots, celery and make a very flavorful soup. Don’t waste the bones of a roasted chicken!

You can also throw in a handful of almonds too. The dressing for this Chinese Chicken Salad is one of my husband’s favorites - a copycat version of Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad dressing which is a tangy and sweet.

serves 4-6

15 wonton skins, cut into strips (or if you don’t want to fry: 1 cup fried crispy chow mein noodles)
oil for frying
1 head lettuce, leaves shredded or torn
2 cooked chicken breasts, meat shredded with your fingers
1 cucumber, sliced
handful snow peas, sliced on diagonal
11 ounce can mandarin oranges, drained

For the dressing
a la Applebee’s Oriental Chicken Salad Dressing

makes 1 cup (use half for the salad and store the rest in refrigerator)

3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

To make the salad dressing, whisk together the honey, mayonnaise, mustard until very smooth. Then whisk in the oil and vinegar.

To fry the wonton skin strips, heat 1 inch of oil until 375F. If you don’t have a thermometer, just slide one wonton strip into the oil - it should sizzle immediately and turn light golden brown in about 30 seconds. Fry the wonton strips in several batches and drain on a rack or layers of paper towels. Each batch should take about 30 seconds to 1 minute to fry.

Assemble Chinese Chicken Salad with lettuce, chicken, cucumber, snow peas, mandarin oranges. Drizzle on salad dressing and sprinkle with wonton strips.

How to poach chicken breasts

If you have uncooked chicken breasts, you can poach the chicken breasts. In a medium pot, add the chicken breasts and fill with water or broth 1 inch above the chicken. Add 1 teaspoon of kosher or sea salt to the water. Bring the pot to a boil and immediately turn the heat to low, simmering for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and cover. Let sit for 20 minutes. Save the poaching liquid for cooking or for soup. There you go…perfectly poached chicken breasts!

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Classy Is My Middle Name

The winner of the cookbook, Dave’s Dinners signed by Dave Lieberman is Lynn, the Half Asian. Part of the fun was to have each of you guess what my pickup line to Dave Lieberman was, when I first met him. Though your answers had nothing to do with winning - it was just for shits and giggles.

Here’s what Lynn thought I said:

“I don’t have to show my husband the film…”

Funny! Even though that’s not what I said, Lynn is the random winner that  was chosen by the Psychic Science random number generator. Congrats! Email me at jaden@steamykitchen.com with your address.

So, what was my pickup line to Dave Lieberman?

“Ohmygod. I have lens envy!”

Clearly, his was big.

imabigdork. Yes, that’s exactly what I said to him the moment I saw Dave Lieberman. And he was sooo sweet, offering me use of his big lens. But after further inspection of his big lens, we discovered his big lens didn’t fit into my camera.** Just wasn’t a good fit, which was just too bad. We tried, but it didn’t work out.***

Sigh.

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*The word “Oriental” is not offensive at all to me (very few things actually offend annoying people like me) It’s like the word “Chinaman” - not offensive, it’s just a dated word that people don’t use anymore. Funky seeing the word “Oriental” on a big chain’s menu!

**My camera is very capable of handling big lenses, just not Dave’s big lens. Seems like wrong type. (ahem)

***But if you must know, his big lens fits his Canon Rebel XT but isn’t compatible with my Canon 40D.

I’m the newest guest author at my friend Elise’s blog at Simply Recipes!

My first recipe is Chinese Shrimp Fried Rice.

Come on over and read the secrets to light, fluffy and flavorful Chinese Shrimp Fried Rice — secrets that my Mom taught me.

New friend, Deb Puchalla, who is Editor in Chief of Martha Stewart Living Magazine, is hosting a Zukes and Cukes party and this is what I’m bringing!

Instead of just stirring in basil leaves at the end like I normally do, this time I deep fried the basil leaves to create airy-light, brittle-crisp basil that elevates this dish to another level.

Describing Perfectly Cooked Shrimp

Previously, I asked you guys to describe the TEXTURE of perfectly cooked shrimp. In Cantonese, my Mom uses the phrase that’s pronounced “song chuy,” Japanese “puri-puri,” Singaporeans “QQ.”

There’s no English equivalent. Bummer.

The texture of perfectly cooked pasta is “al dente,” and we need to come up with a concise way to describe the texture/mouthfeel of perfectly cooked shrimp.

Here are my favorite entries:

Jules: “I always describe the best prawns - esp in eg a CKT [sorry, Char Kway Teow] - as “bursty”. As in, they just burst in your mouth with luscious crunchy sweetness of juices.”

Amanda: “I always thing of shrimp as “bursty” with a crisp exterior - a texture similar to grapefruit, but with a crisp edge.”

Ed: “I was thinking that perfectly cooked shrimp are “bubble-crunchy”, like if one were to bite into a firm-enough orange. In Japanese, the word that best fits this texture is ‘puri-puri’”

Mia: “It sounds pretty unappetizing, but the word I thought of was “turgid,” which describes something that is swollen or distended. The shrimp should be cooked such that the outside feels like it is pulled taut over the juicy, delicious, inner flesh…but, um, succulent seems to be the more appealing descriptor.”

Spencer: “I believe the Chinese saying Jaden is referring to roughly translates to “Playfully Dances in the mouth” or something to that effect. There is no equivalent in English which made this rather challenging.I was going to suggest succulent as well, but Betty beat me to the punch so my alternate suggestion is “voluptuously supple”, but from a layman’s perspective, most would relate better with “crunchy and juicy texture.”

Maple: “Perfectly cooked shrimp have a bouncy bite.”

JustNancy: “It would be: “tsuay” (all-one-syllable) with a downward accent and it means all those adjectives all in one - crispy, bouncy, firm…”

Macsarcule: “I’m goin’ for buoyantly crisp, or tenderly springy.”

Keropokman: “for the word, i dunno if it’s a word, it’s a letter that I would use. “Q”. or sometimes use it in double “QQ”. hehe… we use that at home.”

And the winner of the $25 Amazon gift card is Maple’s “Perfectly cooked shrimp have a bouncy bite” and I’ll add the word “bursty” to that:

Perfectly cooked shrimp should have a bursty, bouncy bite.

What do you guys think? Any more ideas to describe the texture of perfectly cooked shrimp?

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How to prepare shrimp for that bursty, bouncy bite

My Mom has always taught me to brine the shrimp to get that perfect texture.

Brine the peeled shrimp in 1 tsp kosher salt, 3 cups water and 1 cup ice	Drain, pat very dry on paper towels
Marinate shrimp in pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil	Get your wok or pan super-hot. You want the shrimp to instantly sizzle upon contact. Keep shrimp in one layer, let fry untouched 1 minute to get nice sear and carmelization. Don’t touch it! Leave it alone.
	To read other stir-fry secrets, see my post on Chinese Stirfry Shrimp, Peas and Eggs.
Flip and let the other side fry for an additional 1 minute. Remove shrimp, keeping as much oil in wok as possible and continue with stirfry. You’ll add the shrimp back in later.

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How to deep fry basil

Start with about 1 loosely packed cup of basil leaves. After washing your basil, run them through your salad spinner to fling some of the surface water off. Then blot them on layers of paper towels to further dry the leaves. This is an important step, as water droplets + hot oil will make the oil splatter.

In a wok, deep fryer, or whatever cooking vessel you use (the smaller diameter of pot you use, the less oil you’ll need but then you can only do a few leaves at a time) heat about 2 inches of cooking oil (peanut/canola/veg) to 375F.

Have a splatter screen, tongs and a rack for draining ready. Fair warning - the oil will splatter, so please be careful! Using tongs, carefully add a few basil leaves to the oil. They should crisp up in about 10 seconds. Sccop ‘em up and let drain.

The leftover oil is now beautifully infused with basil! Strain any basil bits out, let cool and store. You can use this oil for cooking.

Shrimp and Zucchini Stirfry with Crispy Basil

For the shrimp:
1/2 pound peeled, deveined shrimp (tail on or off, up to you)
1 cup ice
3 cups cold water
1 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons cooking oil
fresh chili pepper, sliced
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic
2 large zucchini, sliced
handful of deep fried basil leaves (see above)

For the light sauce: (combine in bowl)
1 1/2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Fill a medium bowl with 1teaspoon of salt, ice and water. Add the peeled shrimp and let soak for 15 minutes. Drain and pat very dry on paper towels. Empty the bowl, wipe the bowl dry and return the shrimp, the remaining 1/8 teaspoon of salt, sesame oil and cornstarch. Stir to coat the shrimp.

Heat a wok or large saute pan over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the cooking oil, swirling to coat the wok. Add the shrimp and immediately give each shrimp its own space on the wok, so that they aren’t touching. Let fry, untouched for 1 minute. Flip shrimp and let fry for an additional minute, or just cooked through. Remove from wok, leaving as much oil in wok as possible.

You should still have 1 tablespoon of cooking oil in the wok. If not, add more cooking oil. Return the heat to medium-high and let the oil heat up. Add in the chili pepper and garlic and fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add in the zucchini slices and stirfry for 1 minute, tossing every 15 seconds, until zucchini is just barely soft in the middle but still firm on the outer edge.

Pour in the soy/sugar/oil mixture. Toss to coat zucchini. Now add in the cooked shrimp. Toss vigorously until all ingredients and flavors are dancing and jivin’ together.

Cooking Chinese for the Olympics! This is the 2nd recipe in the series…see the end for links

Oh…and there’s a contest in the middle of this post!!!

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Last fall, my parents treated Scott and I to a 10 day group tour around China. Our first stop was Beijing, and first thing I noticed was how clean the city was. I literally could eat off the streets, as there was an entire team of sanitation engineers whose sole job was to scrape gum off the streets and sidewalk. I’m so not kidding - they wore white gloves and could scrape even crusty, 2 week old Bubbalicious in one quick motion.

You could see the entire city was gearing for its big Olympic moment: sleek buildings, sporting stadiums and even beautiful parks were being quickly erected and created almost overnight. There was hardly any traffic for a city of over 17 million and in addition to the gum scrapers, workers were polishing the guard rails that lined the interstate.

But no tricking this smart rat! I knew our tour’s itinerary, including restaurants, shopping, sightseeing and even driving path was carefully planned and regulated by the government. I was half afraid to turn my head around and look out the back window of the tour bus, for fear that the set façade would be replaced by the daily regular.

Well, no matter…I mean, how can I blame Beijing? For if you come to my house for dinner, you’d find last night’s crumbs swept under my rug and mounds of dirty laundry shoved into closets too.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing many of my favorite Chinese dishes, so that you’re not stuck just ordering take out from your local Chinese restaurant. But today, I want to teach you the secrets of a light, flavorful Chinese stir fry.

Ancient Chinese Stir Fry Secrets (at home)

Restaurant kitchens have extremely high powered stoves, flames that jump so high that your eyebrows will singe just standing in the doorway. At home, especially with electric stovetops, we just can’t get that kind of heat. To compensate, you’ve got take the time to let your wok or pan get super hot and the best way to judge whether it’s hot enough is to hold your hand 6 inches over your wok. The moment you start feeling some serious heat, it’s ready. Seriously, though, don’t try to be all macho and stuff, if it’s hot enough for you to say, “hot!” just pull away.

The second trick is to sear your meat or seafood first, remove from the wok, then cook the vegetables, and then returning the meat or seafood back to the wok towards the end of the stir fry. If you don’t, you’ll end up steaming your meat in the vegetable juices instead of frying it. You want each individual ingredient of a stir fry to sing on its own, instead of becoming a soggy, heavy, mish-mash.

The last trick is a tough one. I know it’s a gut reaction to constantly keep poking, prodding and stirring during a stir fry (which is essential in a massively hot restaurant wok), but resist the urge when you’re frying meat or seafood. When you first put your meat in the wok, spread it out so that the pieces are not touching and use all available surface area. Now, step away! Let the meat have a chance to sear. If you keep messing with it, the protein never has a chance to develop that wonderful carmelization and you’ll end up with mushy meat.

In this Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas dish, you’ll practice all three of these secrets. You’ll let the oil heat up before adding the shrimp, spread out the shrimp so that they don’t touch and just let it sear. Once cooked, you’ll remove the shrimp and add it back in when the eggs are almost set. This will give you a light/firm/crisp/crunch/springy shrimp - a sure sign that you’ve cooked the shrimp properly.

STOP! I need a word or two that elegantly describes the texture of perfectly cooked, fresh shrimp. It’s the feeling in your mouth when you bite into the shrimp - “light/firm/crisp/crunch/springy” just doesn’t capture it quite right. There is a Chinese word for it (to not give Chinese speaking advantage on this contest, I’m not going to tell what that word is) - but I can’t find the right English words to match. The first person to come up with the best word or phrase wins a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com!!

Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas

I always have a bag of frozen peas/carrots (and in this case just peas), some frozen shrimp and eggs on hand. When I’m cooking Chinese food and need just one more dish to make the meal complete, this is one of my go-to dishes.

In this recipe for Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas, I’ve chosen to fry the chilies and garlic separate from the eggs and shrimp, using it as a topping. This is because my kids are eating this dish too - and they can pick the parts where the chilies are not touching.

I know you’ve been taught not to burn garlic, as it can be bitter and ruin the entire dish. But in this case, the garlic is fried to a crisp - it provides a wonderful texture. Since it’s a TOPPING - and not the base of the dish (i.e. I’m not cooking the garlic first and layering ingredients/flavors on top of the garlic) - the very slight bitterness is a welcome, especially nestled against the chili pepper’s sweet heat.

1/2 pound raw shrimp, shelled and deveined and patted very, very dry
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 large mild chili (anaheim, Hungarian wax), thinly sliced
1/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
cooking oil

in a bowl, combine shrimp, salt, pepper, cornstarch and sesame oil, let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to marinate.

In a wok or large saute pan over high heat, add 1 tablespoon cooking oil, swirling to coat the wok. When the oil is very hot (hold your hand 6″ above the wok surface), add the shrimp (the shrimp should sizzle loudly upon contact) and spread out around the cooking surface. Let fry, untouched for 1 minute.

Flip shrimp and fry for an additional minute, or until cooked through. Remove the shrimp from wok to a plate, leaving as much cooking oil in the wok as possible.

Keep the heat on high, add the garlic and sliced chilies and fry until fragrant and the garlic is crispy, about 30 seconds. Remove from wok to a small dish and wipe the wok clean with paper towels. Return the wok to high heat and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. When the oil is hot (a drop of egg should sizzle immediately), pour in the eggs and gently stir for 1 minute, until almost set but still a little runny in the middle. Season the egg with salt and add the shrimp and the peas to the wok and stir to mix well until the eggs are completely cooked through. Dish to serving plate and top with the fried garlic and chilies.

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Other great Chinese dishes

Sesame Shrimp with Honey Mustard Sauce
Shrimp and Mango Firecrackers

Ground Beef with Beijing Sauce Over Noodles

Pan Fried Shrimp and Pork Potstickers

Xiao Long Bao - Steamed Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Wonton Noodle Soup