Authors: Michael Ruhlman
Ruhlman's Twenty (38 page)
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/Whisk to emulsify.
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/Currents in the oil will tell you your pan is properly heated.
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/Add the scallops to the hot oil.
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/After the scallops are seared, flip them to finish cooking. Cook the scallops to medium-rare to keep them tender, a couple of minutes per side.
/SERVES
4
AS A SIDE DISH OR MAIN-DISH COMPONENT
Unless you have access to a variety of wild mushrooms, which can have great texture and flavor no matter how you cook them, the mushrooms available to you will need to be properly cooked in order to wrest flavor from them. White and brown button mushrooms, portobellos, shiitakes, and even oyster mushrooms benefit from being seared, which triples their flavor. For this, you need a very hot pan. Making your work more difficult is the fact that mushrooms contain abundant water. If the mushrooms begin releasing the water before they are properly seared, you are doomed to serving steamed mushrooms.
To sauté mushrooms properly, you need a large pan and a generous film of oil just at the smoking point. Add only enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan without crowding them. And they should be left alone, not moved in the pan, until they are seared.
Mushrooms cooked this way are delicious on their own, served as a side dish. You can also add them to stews, sauces, soups, risottos, and pastas. To enhance their flavor, always use a generous amount of salt after they’ve seared (salting too early can encourage them to release water) and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Minced shallot never hurt mushrooms. You can deglaze with some white wine for even more complexity. If you don’t add wine, use a few drops of lemon juice to bring out their flavor. A pinch of curry powder has a wonderful flavor impact, too. I cut the mushrooms in large pieces for stews and stand-alone side dishes, and into slices for sauces and garnish. The seared mushrooms can be transferred to a plate to cool and used a day later. To finish the mushrooms, reheat them gently in a bit of butter and adjust the seasoning.
Mushrooms add depth of flavor and enhance the savoriness of countless dishes. To make a great steak sauce, combine them with an equal amount of caramelized onion and a little butter or cream, and something acidic such as wine or cognac. To make an easy, excellent soup, reheat the mushrooms in cream and purée them, and season with lemon or curry. Or add them at the end of cooking coq au vin or beef similarly simmered in wine. And they make a juicy stuffing for meats and pastas. Duxelles, mushrooms that are finely chopped or diced and then sautéed, can be used in innumerable ways, including a
versatile sauce
.
SIMPLE SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS
Canola oil (about ¼ cup/60 milliliters for a 12-inch/30.5-centimeter sauté pan)
1 pound/455 grams white mushrooms, quartered or cut into slices ¼ inch/6 millimeters thick
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
ENHANCED SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS
Canola oil for sautéing (you’ll need about ¼ cup for a 12-inch/30.5-centimeter sauté pan)
1 pound white mushrooms, quartered or cut into slices ¼ inch/6 millimeters thick
2 tablespoons minced shallot
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon curry powder
½ cup/120 milliliters white wine
MAKE THE SIMPLE SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS:
Heat a sauté pan on high heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add enough oil to completely coat the bottom. Allow the oil to get up to smoking temperature. Add enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan in one loose layer. You’ll probably need cook them in two batches. Sear the mushrooms for 1 minute. You can press down on them with a spatula to intensify the sear. Turn or toss the mushrooms to sear them on the other sides. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Transfer to a plate or bowl. Wipe the pan clean and repeat with the second batch if necessary.
MAKE ENHANCED SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS:
Heat the sauté pan on high heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add enough oil to completely coat the bottom. Allow the oil to get up to smoking temperature. Add enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan in one loose layer. You’ll probably need to cook them in two batches. Sear the mushrooms for 1 minute. You can press down on them with a spatula to intensify the sear. Turn or toss the mushrooms to sear them on the other sides.
Add the shallot and stir to combine with the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and half of the curry powder if cooking the mushrooms in two batches. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring to distribute the shallot and seasonings. Add ¼ cup/ 60 milliliters of the wine (add all the wine if cooking the mushrooms in one batch). Transfer to a plate or bowl. Wipe the pan clean and repeat with the second batch if necessary.
Stir-frying, a variation on sautéing rather than on frying, involves high heat, a small amount of oil, and tender ingredients rapidly cooked. True stir-frying requires mortifyingly high heat, a surface so hot that the food shouldn’t stand still or it will burn. Rather, the food is danced over the surface. This intense heat and speed account for much of the distinctive flavor of great stir-fries. That same flavor is difficult to replicate because no home kitchen has the kind of BTUs required to maintain this much heat in a pan after the food is added to it.
But there are several techniques you can use to elevate the level of your stir-fries and strengthen all your cooking muscles in the process. First, be sure to use a heavy-duty steel surface, whether a wok or sauté pan. Second, have all your ingredients cut and ready by the stove. Third, put your pan on the heat and keep it there until it’s so hot that a teaspoon of water will form a mercury-like ball and race on the hot surface. Fourth, add your meat first. It should be patted dry if it’s moist; the drier it is, the better—moisture will drop the temperature fast. Fifth, spread the meat over the surface so that as much of the meat is touching the surface as possible. Sixth, don’t touch the meat for 20 seconds or so. Then carry on with the rest of the ingredients, adding fragrant aromatic vegetables and seasonings next (scallions, ginger, garlic, in most cases).
For those who insist on attaining the heat required for authentic stir-frying, my chef instructor, Michael Pardus, recommends buying a turkey deep-fry kit and rigging a wok over the propane flame. Short of that, the above techniques work fine and result in excellent stir-fries, such as the one here.
/SERVES
4 TO 6
I make this stir-fry weekly for my daughter, who also loves it cold the next day. A basic all-purpose stir-fry, it works well with sliced skinless, boneless chicken thighs or thinly cut pork shoulder. If you like very spicy dishes, I highly recommend using the whole dried chiles; they have a nutty flavor when cooked this way, but they’re very hot. The cooking chiles give off strong smoke, so it’s best to have an exhaust fan running full speed. The chiles can be cooked hours or days in advance and added later along with the bell peppers/capsicums. There should be plenty of sauce; I like to thicken it at the end with a slurry, a mixture of cornstarch/cornflour and water, so that the sauce coats the ingredients.
SAUCE
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon black bean sauce
1 tablespoon chili sauce with garlic
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ cup/120 milliliters water
2 pounds/910 grams beef flank, cut across the grain into thin strips
Kosher salt
1 bunch scallions, ratty ends removed and white and green parts thinly sliced on a bias
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
One 1-inch/2.5-centimeter piece fresh ginger, grated and roughly chopped
¼ cup/60 milliliters canola oil
5 to 10 whole dried red chiles (optional, depending how hot you want the stir-fry)
3 bell peppers/capsicums, preferably green, red, and yellow, seeded and cut into thin strips
¾ cup/110 grams peanuts
2 teaspoons cornstarch/cornflour mixed into 1 tablespoon of water
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil (optional)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (optional)
MAKE THE SAUCE:
In a bowl, combine all the ingredients.
Place the beef in a medium bowl and season with two three-finger pinches of salt. Add the scallions, garlic, and ginger. This can be done up to a day ahead of cooking.
Heat a wok or large, heavy-bottomed sauté pan over high heat for 5 minutes. Add the oil and then the chiles (if using). Cook, stirring, until the chiles are black, 30 to 60 seconds. Add the beef mixture and spread it as evenly as possible across the surface of the pan. If your pan isn’t big enough to spread the meat in one layer, cook the beef in two batches. Let it cook for 1 minute or so without stirring it, then toss and stir for about 1 minute to cook the meat evenly.
Make a well in the center of the beef mixture and pour the sauce into it. Stir the sauce well to make sure the peanut butter melts into the sauce. When the sauce has started to simmer, add the bell peppers/capsicums and return the liquid to a simmer. If you wish, you can cover the pan for 1 minute until the liquid comes back up to heat. Add the peanuts and cook for about 2 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the cornstarch/cornflour mixture. Remove from the heat. Season with the sesame oil and garnish with the sesame seeds, if desired, and serve.
