I love smoking: tea-smoked salmon and a dessert borscht fit for a foot massage

July 11, 2004

In 6 steps from upper left;
1. Line a wok with aluminium foil and place a handful of any sort of rice on the bottom.
2. Place a goodly amount of delicious loose tea on top of the rice. Earl Grey is the best choice. You are about to create a smoker in which the rice and the tea are the smoldering fuel.
3. Place some granulated sugar on top of the tea.
4. Set a slab of salmon in a bamboo steamer over the rice, tea and sugar heap (other fatty fish work well too). Dust the fish with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, lime zest and sprinkle with lime juice. Cover with the top part of the steamer.

5. Wrap the entire contraption in alu foil so that the smoke from the soon-to-be-smoldering rice and tea can only go through the bottom of the bamboo steamer and delicately smoke the fish.
6. Place the wok+steamer on a large flame and blast the hell out of it for a good *2-3 minutes. Turn the flame down almost as low as possible and wait until you smell the heady burning tea escaping from the smoker. Every now and again place your hand on top of the bamboo steamer – it should be hot hot hot. After 15-20 minutes open up the smoker and poke your finger through the fattest part of the flesh. It should be cooked or almost cooked.
Serve immediately.
*(Be careful not to smolder the tea too vigourously or you will get a bitter smokey flavour. Instead, just relax.)

Guest and composer Daniel Carney has come all the way from Baltimore and said that this tea-smoked salmon is the best thing he’s ever eaten ‘ceptin the last dinner you made me’. (Better count the silverware.) His t-shirt says, ‘I love the Korean alphabet!’ The dessert borscht (actually just hangop, lime zest, lime juice and a wee bit of the ‘ol white death – baroquely drizzled with beet caramel) is inspired by the chilled Polish summer fruit soups and as well the Polish summer borscht. One bite of borscht and Daniel exclaims, ‘Dang, I do believe this is the weirdest dessert ever to have crossed my lips!’

Orly is ecstatic with the dessert borscht and asks, ‘What, you want a foot massage?’

(not pictured, Orly’s husband and Waimes piano restorer, Gijs Wilderom)

debra at 16:14 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us

Taiwanese Bean Beverage

July 1, 2004

Yesterday Dan said that Latvians are lucky.
But today is another day and for breakfast I decided to serve up this Taiwanese Bean Beverage to my Latvian guest *Emils. Just a little good morning experiment. Emils remained cheerful throughout the tasting although shortly after fulfilling his task as guinea pig he dashed out of the house supposedly to buy a shirt – but I think he hauled off and got a bagel.

Discorea Mixed Congee ingredients: water, sugar, adlay(?), discorea rhizome (?), chickpeas, glutinous rice, red beans, kidney beans, millet, oatmeal, oats.

* Emils Rode is a Latvian artist currently participating in the show BREAKTHROUGH in Den Haag. This exhibition in the Grote Kerk spotlights artists from the new European member states. http://www.grotekerkdenhaag.nl

debra at 14:41 | Comments (3) | post to del.icio.us

Smart Taiwanese Packaging (because you never know when you’re going to want to tuck into that Discorea Mixed Congee snack that you’ve been stowing away in your purse for special occasions)

The spoons that come with the Taiwanese bean beverages that I bought yesterday snapped neatly into the lid. Unfold and click and you’re ready to suck up all the goodness.

debra at 14:04 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us