Ekiben

Ekiben has been on the lips and Instagram accounts of Baltimoreans ever since it opened its doors in Fells Point last March. Before the brick and mortar shop opened, owners Nikhil Yesupriya, Ephrem Abebe, and Steve Chu sold their pan-Asian wares at the Fells Point Farmers' Market. I love the fact that the three partners are from completely different ethnic backgrounds (South Indian, Ethiopian, Taiwanese), and that they met at UMBC. That's what college is for, right? Not only to get an education, but also to branch out from one's potentially insular upbringing and see the world. In the case of Yesupriya, Abebe, and Chu, it was the world of food. While the dishes they serve at Ekiben (itself a Japanese word referring to a specific style of bento box served at railway stations) have a strong Taiwanese bent, the partners season their dishes with flavors from each of their heritages.

The must-try dish is the tempura fried broccoli, topped with shallots and fresh herbs and seasoned with rice vinegar. For $2 more, non-vegetarians can get thinly sliced Chinese sausage, too.

Back when Harborplace first opened, there was a stall selling deep-fried, batter-coated vegetables. I tried to avoid the broccoli, because invariably the florets were soggy with uncooked batter. That is not the case at Ekiben, where every bite is encased in a thin and crisp coating. The combination of flavors and textures in this dish is terrific.

We also did two of the buns that are available every day - the Neighborhood Bird and the Tofu Brah. The former includes a Taiwanese curry fried chicken thigh of vast proportions topped with spicy sambal mayo, pickles, and fresh herbs. The latter is tofu in spicy peanut sauce, topped with seasonal slaw, and fresh herbs. All their sandwiches are mammoth, served on steamed buns that are positively cloud-like in appearance and texture. They are well-suited for a sturdy filling like the chicken thigh, but not substantial enough for the sloppy tofu and its mountain of toppings. Make sure to equip yourself with lots of napkins if you're going to tackle the tofu sandwich, and lean over your plate (cardboard takeout container) so if you do have a spill, you won't waste it on the floor.

Though a tad difficult to eat, the tofu sandwich was delicious. Next time, we'll try it over rice. Also next time, we'll get the Original bun, which features Thai chicken meatballs in a coconut black peppercorn sauce. We hear the catfish is tasty, too, as is everything else on the menu.

Why couldn't Ekiben have been around when I lived in Fells Point, just three blocks away?

Ekiben
1622 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-558-1914
ekibenbaltimore.com



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Fried Rice a la Leftovers

Don't let a little bit of this and a little bit of that ever go to waste - give dregs purpose with a dish like fried rice.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on July 14, 2010.
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Fried Rice a la Leftovers

Looking in the fridge for dinner inspiration, I found a lone bulb of fennel and a ton of carrots and celery. In the freezer, we had about a third pound of shrimp and tiny amounts of peas and green beans. Additionally, there was a whole pack of Chinese sausages, which gave me the idea to make fried rice. There were also a couple of packets of soy sauce and duck sauce from the last time we ordered Chinese food. I combined them with the dregs of a jar of XO sauce and a lot of garlic to make a sauce for the rice. The only thing I needed was the rice itself, so I whipped up a batch in the rice cooker and set it in the fridge to cool for several hours.

Leftovers Fried Rice

Sauce
About 2 tablespoons soy sauce
About 1 tablespoon duck sauce
1 tablespoon XO sauce or Chinese hot bean paste, or to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Rice
3 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), one chopped into small pieces, two halved lengthwise and then cut into 3/4" chunks
1 small onion, diced
salt
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced on the bias
The celery-like parts from a bulb of fennel, peeled, sliced in half, and chopped
3 whole scallions, thinly sliced, both white and green
Approx 1 cup leftover vegetables (cooked or frozen peas, green beans, corn, broccoli, etc.)
Leftover meat (shrimp, cooked chicken, roast beef, etc.)
4 cups cold cooked rice, grains separated
salt and pepper

Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When hot, add the sausage and onions and a nice pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to brown and the smaller pieces of sausage start to crisp up. (The sausage should provide enough fat to cook the onions. If it seems dry, add a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil to the pan.) Add most of the scallions, the carrots, celery, and fennel, and stir-fry until the carrots start to lose some of their crispness.

Add the leftover vegetables and meats and stir to combine. Turn the heat up to high and add the rice to the pan, making sure to break up any clumps. Pour the sauce over and mix well until most of the rice is coated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the remaining scallion and cilantro, if you have it. Serves 4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Chinese Cassoulet?

A while back, we tasted a seafood cassoulet made by B&O American Brasserie's new chef, Mike Ransom. While it had multiple proteins and white beans, I suggested that it could do with a bit of sausage, perhaps Spanish chorizo. Of course Spanish chorizo wouldn't be typically used in cassoulet, which is a French dish, but I am no traditionalist. (Neither is the chef, it seems.) That got me to thinking about what other sausages would work with beans. As I was nibbling on leftover dim sum, Chinese sausages came to mind. Cold weather was afoot; why not warm up the house with a cassoulet-style dish of duck and beans and...Chinese sausage?

I've decided that it's a fine idea to keep a package of duck legs in the freezer. We get them at Great Wall, a Chinese grocery store in Catonsville, but you can pick them up at most Asian grocers or a fancy supermarket. They're not cheap, but they take up far less room in the freezer than a whole duck, with the added benefit that they thaw more quickly and are less hassle to roast. Roasting duck really makes the house smell great. Great, that is, to a carnivore. Not sure how vegetarians would feel about the fatty aromas that emanated from my oven not too long ago, but I was a happy camper.

I had originally wanted to try the type of Chinese sausage we normally buy, the long, slender, and wrinkled type that are cured, dried, and lightly smoked, but we were out. Mr Minx popped over to Asia Foods on York Road but could only find stubby, fat, uncured sausages. Fortunately, they turned out to be absolutely perfect for this dish.

While the duck got a head start on roasting, I opened up a couple cans of cannelini beans and added a bit of flavoring. I didn't want to overdo it, so started with equal parts doubanjian (a spicy Chinese bean paste), soy sauce, and black vinegar. If you've never used black vinegar, you're missing out on some amazing caramelized goodness. One tablespoon of each was perfect - the beans were spicy, salty, and tangy, with that lovely molasses-y flavor of the black vinegar. Then I added a bit of sugar to round everything out. Mixed with sauteed onions and scallions, the beans, studded with chunks of Chinese pork sausage, made a tasty bed for the duck legs as they finished roasting to a brown crispness.

Cassoulet with Asian Flavors

2 duck legs
1/2 cup duck or bacon fat
Kosher salt
1/2 pound Chinese pork sausages, preferably xiang chang--small, fat, uncured sausages
1 medium onion, chopped
6 scallions, chopped
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chicken stock
2-15 1/2 ounce cans of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 tablespoons doubanjian
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
Pinch sugar
Cilantro

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Pour the duck or bacon fat into the bottom of an 8" or 9" baking pan. Put the legs on top, rolling them around in the fat to get them coated. Sprinkle with salt, cover the pan with foil, and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil from the pan. Pour out a tablespoon of fat and reserve; prick the duck skin all over with the point of a knife to help render out more fat. Add the Chinese sausages to the pan. Turn oven temperature up to 350° and put duck and sausages into the oven. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the onion and scallions in the reserved tablespoon of duck fat. When they are translucent, stir in the garlic. Add the stock, beans, doubanjian, soy, vinegar, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat.

After the duck has been in the oven for the additional 15 minutes, remove sausages and duck from the pan. Pour out the fat and discard (or, reserve for a later use). Cut sausages into thick diagonal slices and stir into the bean mixture. Pour the bean mixture into the pan, then top with the duck legs. Put pan back into the oven and cook for an additional 45 minutes or so. The duck will get crispy and brown, as will the exposed areas of beans. If you want a saucier cassoulet, you can add more chicken stock. Personally, I like the beans on the dry side.

Serve 1 leg per person, with some of the beans. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves 2, with extra beans for lunch.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Roast Chicken with Fried Dirty Rice

A couple weekends ago, even though we had just eaten roast turkey, I decided to roast a chicken. (When I told this to my dad, he asked if I was in a "fowl mood.") Not that I had a hankering for poultry, mind you, I was just annoyed by the 7-lb behemoth that was taking up precious space in my freezer. Space that could be better used to accommodate half gallons of ice cream and leftover pizza.

Some weeks ago, I had planned to make Judy Rogers' roast chicken recipe from the Zuni Café cookbook, but didn't remember to prep the chicken until it was too late. Plus I could only find humongous oven-stuffer roasters at Safeway, and the chicken I purchased was nearly twice as large as the recipe called for. So I put it in the freezer for a future use.

Or until it annoyed me.

That day came the day after Thanksgiving, when I took the beast out to thaw. It was still frozen on Sunday morning, so I gave it a few minutes in the microwave on "defrost" and then a few more in an ice bath in the sink. I wanted a non-traditional roast chicken flavoring, despite having both fresh thyme and tarragon at hand, so I mixed up some spicy Sriracha-flavored butter. Seemed like a good idea to inject the bird with this mixture, but the injector that I have has a hole so far up the shaft (that sounds dirty, doesn't it?) it's nearly impossible to draw liquids into it from a shallow container. After a few futile attempts, I used my fingers to separate the skin from the breast and tucked spoonfuls of the spicy goop between the two.

Worked like a charm. The skin was nice and spicy, and the breast was moist. I gotta tell you - it was delicious. I served it with some fried rice that I whipped up using the bird's innards. Kinda like dirty rice, but Chinese-esque.

Roast Sriracha Chicken

1 whole chicken, patted dry, giblets removed and reserved for another use
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon Sriracha
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir together butter, Sriracha, ginger, and salt and allow to cool. Loosen skin on chicken breast and stuff mixture under skin. Refrigerate chicken, uncovered, until ready to cook.

Preheat oven to 450F. Roast chicken for 30 minutes, uncovered, then lower temperature to 350F and cover the breast with foil. Cook for 1 hour for a 4 lb chicken and about 8 minutes per pound over 4 lbs, or until thigh temperature reaches 175F. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes, then carve and enjoy.

Fried Dirty Rice

Neck and giblets from one chicken
8 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
salt
2 Chinese sausages, sliced into coins
10 radishes, cut into quarters if small, sixths or eighths if larger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 tablespoon honey (optional, but it brings out the sweetness in the sausage and works well with the five spice)
2 cups cooled, cooked rice
salt to taste
peanuts for garnish

In a large sauté pan, place neck and giblets and 3/4 cup water. Cover and cook about 20 minutes, removing the liver after 8 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Remove giblets and neck, let cool. Chop giblets and shred meat from neck; discard skin.

Place about 3/4 of the scallions and onion into the same sauté pan, which should have some fat in it from the cooked giblets. Add a dribble of olive oil if it doesn't seem like enough to cook the onions, and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown. Turn heat down to medium and add sausage, radishes, and reserved giblet and neck meat. Season with garlic, five spice, and honey (if using). Cook for about 10 minutes, until radishes are tender. Add rice, breaking up any clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir well to combine rice and other ingredients. Rice should look a bit "dirty" at the end.

Heat through, taste for seasoning, and add more salt, if needed. Serve garnished with peanuts.

I served the chicken and rice with some lightly marinated cucumbers (splash of rice wine vinegar, pinches of salt and sugar) and steamed haricot verts (frozen - Trader Joe's sells some nice ones). I didn't serve a sauce, because the meat was moist and didn't need one, but I did reserve the juices left in the roasting pan for a later use. However, if you want a sauce, just skim off the fat and use the jus as is - it's plenty flavorful, needing maybe only a pinch of salt.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Swordfish, Fried Rice, Peppered Tamarind Gastrique

After all of my fancy eating in NY a couple weeks ago, I was in the mood for...more fancy stuff. Yeah, moderation? What is that? I stopped short of suggesting to Mr Minx that we go out for dinner on Sunday because, honestly, I had already spent enough money on food for the week, plus I was feeling a teensy bit guilty for dining out without my hubby at my side. So I attempted to make up for it by creating a restaurant-quality dinner at home.

That started out with a quick rummage through the freezer. There I re-discovered a package of Chinese sausage that I knew was in there but hadn't seen recently, and a ton of fish recently procured on a trip to Trader Joe's. Given the choice between salmon, mahi mahi, and swordfish, Mr Minx chose the latter. I decided to make a dish with Asian flavors (naturally - my usual M.O.) - fried rice, marinated swordfish, and some simply-buttered green beans. After more consideration, I thought a sauce might be nice and did a riff on the black pepper gastrique I had at The Modern the day before.

The fish was meaty and buttery, the rice had lots of interesting textures from the snappy mushrooms and the sausage bits, and the sauce added much-needed acid tartness. The sauce was rather rich and while it was fine with the meaty fish, it would probably work even better with red meat.

Swordfish, Fried Rice, Peppered Tamarind Gastrique

Swordfish
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
couple glugs fish sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 swordfish steaks, about 3/4" thick

Fried Rice
1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 cup sliced onion
2 Chinese sausage (lop cheong), roughly chopped into about 1/2" pieces
2 ounces dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked for one hour, rinsed, drained, & roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups cold cooked rice
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup frozen edamame, prepared according to package directions
1 tablespoon chopped scallions

Peppered Tamarind Gastrique
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fig vinegar
2 teaspoons tamarind concentrate
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Swordfish:
Place first five ingredients in a non-reactive container. Add fish. Marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

When ready to cook, remove fish from marinade and pat dry. Preheat oven to 400F. Heat an oven-proof skillet over high heat and add a drizzle of canola oil. Add swordfish and cook about 2-3 minutes, until bottoms are browned. Turn fish and place in preheated oven. Bake 8-9 minutes, until cooked through.

Fried Rice:
In a large saute pan, heat canola oil over medium-high heat and add onions. Cook until wilted, 3-4 minutes. Stir in sausage; cook until onions brown and sausage begins to get crisp, about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook an additional minute. Add rice, breaking up any clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in mushrooms, five spice powder and soy sauce. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is no longer white and is beginning to crisp up a bit, about 6 minutes. Stir in edamame and scallions and cook until vegetables are warmed through.

Gastrique:
Place sugar in medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar begins to melt. Stir until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Pour in vinegar, which will cause sugar to harden. Continue stirring until sugar remelts. Add tamarind concentrate and water and turn heat to high, stirring constantly to dissolve tamarind. Bring to a boil and when liquid begins to thicken, add broth. Continue boiling until gastrique is thick enough to coat a spoon and is reduced to about half a cup. Stir in pepper.

To Serve:
Place a mound of rice on a plate. Top with swordfish steak. Drizzle with gastrique. Top with cooked and lightly buttered green beans, asparagus spears, or a handful of arugula or watercress dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Serves 2, with leftover rice and gastrique

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Fried Rice a la Leftovers

Looking in the fridge for dinner inspiration, I found a lone bulb of fennel and a ton of carrots and celery. In the freezer, we had about a third pound of shrimp and tiny amounts of peas and green beans. Additionally, there was a whole pack of Chinese sausages, which gave me the idea to make fried rice. There were also a couple of packets of soy sauce and duck sauce from the last time we ordered Chinese food. I combined them with the dregs of a jar of XO sauce and a lot of garlic to make a sauce for the rice. The only thing I needed was the rice itself, so I whipped up a batch in the rice cooker and set it in the fridge to cool for several hours.

Leftovers Fried Rice

Sauce
About 2 tablespoons soy sauce
About 1 tablespoon duck sauce
1 tablespoon XO sauce or Chinese hot bean paste, or to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Rice
3 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), one chopped into small pieces, two halved lengthwise and then cut into 3/4" chunks
1 small onion, diced
salt
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced on the bias
The celery-like parts from a bulb of fennel, peeled, sliced in half, and chopped
3 whole scallions, thinly sliced, both white and green
Approx 1 cup leftover vegetables (cooked or frozen peas, green beans, corn, broccoli, etc.)
Leftover meat (shrimp, cooked chicken, roast beef, etc.)
4 cups cold cooked rice, grains separated
salt and pepper

Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When hot, add the sausage and onions and a nice pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to brown and the smaller pieces of sausage start to crisp up. (The sausage should provide enough fat to cook the onions. If it seems dry, add a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil to the pan.) Add most of the scallions, the carrots, celery, and fennel, and stir-fry until the carrots start to lose some of their crispness.

Add the leftover vegetables and meats and stir to combine. Turn the heat up to high and add the rice to the pan, making sure to break up any clumps. Pour the sauce over and mix well until most of the rice is coated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the remaining scallion and cilantro, if you have it. Serves 4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side.