The ebony-blue, bursty blackberry fruit was just too pretty to pass up at the market the other day, so I picked up 2 pints, one for breakfast (plain yogurt with a generous drizzle of honey and then topped with the berries) and the other pint to experiment with. I was thinking: Sauce. Brandy. Salmon.

But that night, disaster. Three times I had failed to concoct a stellar sauce. First, too candy sweet, then too annoyingly seedy and the last attempt, I had accidentally added brandy in twice, way too boozy. With no more blackberries to play with, what’s a defeated cook to do, but collapse in a pathetic, wilted heap on the kitchen floor and slam shots of the last tragedy. I gave up.

“Ay ya…young grasshoppa, learn from your mistakes, you will.” Okay, so sure, that voice sounded more Yoda than Confucious, but I really did stop and think about what is that one thing that makes someone a great cook. Because it’s not culinary education (Me ain’t got none), experience in a restaurant (never worked at one before), nor is it the ability to follow recipes to the “T” (can barely color inside the lines, much less follow instructions.)

And then it came to me after trickling down the last bit of blackberry sauce. The element that I was missing was that sour tang, a bright note to cut the sweetness in the sauce and tame the saltiness of the fish. “Ah-ha, grasshoppa! Balance flavors, you must.” The reason why Thai and Vietnamese food is so appealing is that every single dish is a harmonious balance of sweet, salty, sour and spicy, or as it’s known and easy to remember, the “four S’s”

I grabbed the kids and took off to the market to buy more blackberries, returned home and tried again. Pachinko! Sauce, splendidly harmonized in my Salmon with Blackberry Brandy Sauce.

Salmon with Blackberry Brandy Sauce

I like to stir in the fresh blackberries last, to prevent the delicate but seedy fruit from breaking up in the Blackberry Brandy Sauce. This is also a great sauce for pork chops, or if you’re vegetarian, try this over thick slices of cauliflower “steak.” Slice a head of cauliflower into 3/4 inch thick slices, so that they resemble big, thick, roundish slabs. 1 slab per person. Season and pan fry each side for 2 minutes (you might have to use 2 frying pans) in a bit of olive oil until golden brown. Bake at 250F for 10 minutes until the center can be pierced easily with a fork. Remove, tent and continue on with recipe below to make the Blackberry Brandy Sauce.

Salmon with Blackberry Brandy Sauce

4 salmon fillets, about 1 inch thick and 6 ounces each
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons seedless blackberry preserves
3 tablespoons brandy
1 pint fresh blackberries
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Lightly season the salmon with a pinch of salt and pepper on each side. In a frying pan over high heat, add the cooking oil. When the oil is very hot, add the salmon fillets, not touching. Fry for 2 minutes, flip the salmon, turn the heat to medium, cover and let cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until the salmon is just slightly rare in the middle. Cook an additional minute if you like your salmon cooked all the way through. Remember the residual heat will continue to cook the salmon further after you remove from heat. With a spatula, remove the salmon to a plate and tent loosely with tin foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.

Return the same frying pan on medium heat (you should have some juicy bits and oil still clinging to the pan) whisk together the mustard, chili powder, water, vinegar and blackberry preserves. When the sauce is bubbling nicely, pour in the brandy and whisk. Simmer for 3 minutes until the sauce thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the blackberries and the butter. Stir to melt and incorporate the butter. Taste the sauce, you may want to season with the 1/2 teaspoon of salt if you are using unsalted butter. You can also an additional 1/2 teaspoon blackberry preserves if the blackberries are puckery tart. Too sweet? Add another 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Pour over the salmon and serve.

Serves 4

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.

***

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!!!

***

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.

***

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

If you are curious to see what happens behind the scenes when I’m cooking live on television - as part of the morning news broadcast - here it is. I brought along my super cool point-and-shoot camcorder, the

Flip Video Ultra and gave you a quick tour in the studio and the studio kitchenette. It’s a long video - about 10 minutes - but you’ll see the entire filming while sitting propped up on top of 2 boxes and a plate on the kitchen counter. Yeah - so part of my head is cut off!

Behind the scenes at the TV studio: Mussels in Lemongrass Curry Broth from Jaden Hair on Vimeo.

And now broadcast…

And then, if you’re interested in seeing what people saw on television, come over to ABC7’s website and click on “featured video” - the recipe is on their site.

To improve

1. GET MORE SLEEP! Waking at 4:15am just doesn’t fly for my body. Esp if I go to bed at 1am!
2. Gotta watch those ‘um’s’ - since it’s live, there’s no DO-OVERS. I find that if I rehearse what I’m going to do in my head beforehand, I flow much more smoothly and I’m not thinking about “ok, what do I need to talk about next?” What I normally do is on the drive over to the studio at 5am, I go over my main points, but not necessarily rehearsing sentences. I just don’t want to sound like the Kelseybot. BUT that being said, my delivery is not smooth. Props to Kelsey though - she’s great when she’s just Kelsey - actually I really like her in the last episode. I’m not scared of the camera, and I do talk from my heart. The “um” is just a superduper bad habit that’s hard to get rid of!
3. Engage more with the camera - I’m doing much better looking directly at the camera, but it does feel sorta unnatural having someone next to me, talking with me and then responding to both her and the camera. Will have to work out balance.
4. My timing sucked on this one - I ran out of time because I didn’t cook and talk at the same time! I should have started the curry paste way earlier, in fact I should have started it the moment that I first picked up the can! The past times that I’ve been on, I’ve been really good on timing, just this time I was off. But gotta remember to cook and talk!
5. But I’m still really happy with everything - I’m learning bit by bit and I love that I have a chance to practice my TV skills each month!

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Thank you Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food!

Deb Puchalla, editor of Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, just added Steamy Kitchen in their “Sites We Like.” Go check out their site- they’ve got some wonderful, easy recipes!