In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
When I was in Taiwan (a long long time ago), I’d start speaking to a vendor, and they’d immediately say, “ABC”, nod, and go on with their answer to whatever my question was. It was a little odd that everyone wanted to clearly acknowledge and label me as an American Born Chinese. It was obvious from my accent, or long hair (school girls are not allowed to have hair past shoulder length), or being XXL by their standards (which is a size 2 in the US).
One of my go-to recipes is a Chicken & Cucumber Pasta Salad that I posted way-way back. I’ve tweaked it and played with it many times, and you can too, though the reason I thought to post it now, is because it’s a great way to use up left-over Thanksgiving Turkey. The Asian flavors make it so drastically different, you won’t even recognize that ceremonial bird.
I hope you made the Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce yesterday and have left-over sauce, because that wonderful peanut sauce is also used for this dish, Vegetarian Fish. It’s another perfect summer time food because it is served cold or at room temperature. The mung bean sprouts are crunchy and refreshing, held together by the light and thin bean curd sheets.
I’m not entirely sold on the name Vegetarian Fish but that’s just the literal translation from Chinese. Vegetarian Fish (and another one called Vegetarian Duck that I will post too) is basically a filling wrapped in bean curd sheets. It has nothing to do with fish at all and is truly vegetarian.
Having never cooked with bean curd sheets before (but eaten it countless times), I was shocked at how incredibly easy it us to use. I stood there with my mouth gaping open as my mom assembled this dish, 1, 2, 3…Why had I waited so long to use bean curd sheets? I love the way it tastes too. Imagine taking tofu, which I adore, and making it into the thinnest of crepes, with amazing elasticity, so that you can wrap anything inside. It’s a blessing!
Cold Noodles in Peanut Sauce is an extended family favorite. And by “extended family”, I mean all our cousins, second cousins, all the kids in the neighborhood I grew up with, and basically anyone who’s met my mother. Everyone just loves this dish. My mom has been making it for every barbecue as far back as I can remember, and for all the birthday parties that ever graced our backyard. I remember times when she had to keep on making more as the party was going because it kept getting devoured. But, it’s so easy that you can just whip it up in no time, while a screaming load of kids run around.
The LA based Kogi BBQ Truck, serving Korean Tacos, is so famous these days, we hear about it in New York. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like they’re hitting the big apple any time soon. But, I have received a message from a group of guys that are going to be launching their own Korean Taco Truck, The Krave, around Jersey City. More on that soon.
For now, feeling deprived of Korean Tacos, I whipped some up from my imagination. It’s a pretty simplistic take and perfect as an easy party solution.
Korean Tacos
~about 16 (5″) tacos
Red pepper sauce
Beef
Peppers and Onions
Assembly
Instructions –
1. Make red pepper sauce by stirring together paste, sugar, and sesame oil. Set aside.
2. Make beef by heating the oil in a medium sized ceramic pot on medium high heat. Stir in scallions and mix for about a minute. Crumble in beef and brown while breaking it up with a wooden spoon. When you don’t see any pink left, mix in 1/4 cup of the red pepper sauce. Stir around for another minute. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. To make vegetables, heat oil in a wok on high heat. Soften onions and garlic with a few pinches of salt. Add peppers and stir until softened but not mushy. Adjust seasoning. Set aside.
4. Spread a thin layer of red pepper sauce in the middle of each tortilla (optional). Scoop a generous amount of beef (2 to 3 tablespoons) onto each tortilla and top with peppers and onions. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
You can also just set out bowls of each component and allow guests to assemble themselves.
Notes:
You can buy corn tortillas or make them yourself. It’s pretty easy. We just bought instant corn masa flour and followed the directions on the bag.
You may have noticed the purple tinge on the peppers. Yup, it’s a purple bell pepper, which looses the darkness of the purple when you cook it but it still looks unique.
You can use any color pepper you want, even a spicy one if you want. They will have different tastes but I can’t imagine any one being bad.
This is not a traditional bibimbop, but I think of bibimbop as one of those “everything but the kitchen sink” recipes. I make it when I’ve got a bunch of random vegetables I want to use up and I want it all to amount to a one-bowl meal. Most commonly, bibimbop has bulgolgi, a Korean marinated beef. I didn’t have any beef so this one uses shrimp. I didn’t have any bean sprouts, but that’s ok. Traditionally, it’s an egg with runny yolk but Lon doesn’t like those so I chose to make a thin omelet and slice it up. See how flexible it is? I feel like every college kid should learn the jist of bibimbop because it’s an easy way to make a healthy meal. Where I use water convolous, you can use spinach or any greens. Instead of shrimp, try chicken, pork, or beef. If you prefer, use brown rice. You get the idea…All you need is the red pepper sauce (gochu chang) and it’ll be delicious!
Shrimp Bibimbop
~4 servings
Red Pepper Sauce
Toppings
Instructions –
1. Make the red pepper paste by stirring the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Throw carrots in boiling water for just a few seconds. Remove and rinse with cold water. Drain. Set aside.
3. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large flat pan on medium heat. Pour in egg mixture and swirl to coat the bottom. As soon as the bottom is solid, try to flip it over. It should finish in 2 seconds. Remove from heat immediately. When it cools enough to handle. Slice it in long strips. Set aside.
4. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok on high heat. Toss in zucchini with some salt and pepper. Toss around just until tender. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
5. Return wok to heat with 2 teaspoons of oil. Add the stems of the convolous with minced garlic and salt. Toss around until tender. Add the leaves with a little more salt. Toss around until leaves wilt. Remove from heat to a bowl and set aside.
6. Use that same wok again with just a light coating of oil. Add scallions and sliced garlic with kecap manis. Toss around just until the scallion has softened a bit but is not mushy. Remove from heat to a bowl and set aside.
7. Rinse the wok and return to the flame to dry it. Once it starts smoking, add 1 teaspoon oil. Swirl it around and add the shrimp. Add 1 tablespoon of the red pepper sauce and toss to coat the shrimp. Stir around until the shrimp curl up and there’s no more grey. (It’s a little bit hard to see in this dish with the red pepper sauce.) Remove from heat immediately. Set aside.
8. Divide rice into 4 bowls. Divide each topping into the 4 bowls, keeping each topping in a neat pile and put the shrimp in the center. Top with seaweed and sesame if you want. Serve with red pepper sauce on the side for each person to add as much as they want.
Usually the dish is served as pictured above, then the person eating it will add sauce and stir it all up.
Jessica picked up some of the fluffy fish balls with pork centers, as well as cuttlefish balls, during a recent trip to Flushing. She had the idea to eat them with a spicy sauce. I took it upon myself to fulfill that desire. Well, even though there’s a good amount of spice in this sauce, it came out more tangy because the vinegar and sugar really balanced the heat. It is delicious.
I’ve been getting some requests for vegetarian friendly recipes and I’ll try to accommodate.
This recipe is inspired by the eggplant we had at Aquagrill. We had never had anything like it and since it’s been so long, I can’t really remember it exactly. What was amazing though, was the unique texture. It’s so soft, yet each piece holds itself together, while being unbelievably juicy. My best guess to achieving this texture was to steam the Chinese/Japanese Eggplant, marinate it, then chill it. I think that’s the method because it tasted pretty darn close. Lon can’t remember the eggplant from Aquagrill, but he really liked this one.
This recipe has been swimming around in my head for a while, editing back and forth, with nothing written down. I finally let it materialize and I’m very happy with it. Even Mr. Soba-hater, Lon, gave me the thumbs up. It’s really refreshing and perfect for summer so make sure to try it before fall comes around.
