Mystery Ingredient: Moonfish

There are a few peculiar things I like to do when I visit an asian grocery store. Number one is always have a shopping list. This tells you what the pantry is out of and keeps you on track. Because I had been paying more attention to what I bought, I added two new rules to shopping this year. The first is, if the shopping list has been adhered to, a luxury good is allowed. Today's luxury good were persimmons, the crunchy-when-ripe kind. The second is, if feeling adventurous, then choose a mystery ingredient to make a new dish out of. The mystery is the discovery and creativity of how to cook an unknown. This is a great skill in case you were traveling with Jules Verne in 20,000 leagues under the sea or to the center of the earth and had to cook up a dinosaur. It could happen...

I've cooked a few types of fish and they are all the "normal" ones you can get at a regular supermarket: salmon, trout, tilapia, cod, mahi mahi, Chilean sea bass, etc. I saw shad in the freezer aisle at Fubonn today, but if the fishing gods would shine upon my pole one day, I could fish a shad out of the Columbia River. I've never had shad or shad roe, but seeing how it is plentiful in the Pacific NW, I passed this by. Also, for a mystery ingredient, because it is a trial 'n' error process, it's an ingredient that is also inexpensive to procure.

I settled upon something called Moonfish. It is quite small and much smaller than a blue gill. This is definitely not of the Hawaiian variety, and is probably more like some freakish thing a fisherman would haul up in the net with other fish and didn't want to throw it away. And for a mere $2 for 1 lb, there are two of these in the package:

Roasted Duck Wings

When I go to a city park and see ducks quacking happily by a pond or being fed stale bread by little kids, the first thought that comes to mind is not how cute the scene is, but rather how tasty those ducks would be roasted, braised, baked, or as the main ingredient in a soup. Suffice to say I have only hunted ducks at a supermarket's freezer aisle.

This is the third time I've made this particular appetizer. The ingredient ratio is decently palatable and not too salty. After the wings have baked, they can be served warm or chilled. Compared to the rest of the duck parts available at Fubonn, wings are inexpensive and if you hack them at the joints, each wing can be split into 3 sections.

A duck wing, separated

The marinade

4 tsp cooking mirin
3 slices fresh peeled ginger, minced
3 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp five spice powder

1 package of duck wings, about 2 lbs

Duck wings marinating in a ziploc bag

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Separate each wing into three parts by slicing through the tendon and skin at the joints.

2. Place wing parts in a large bowl (or large ziploc bag) and let sit in marinade for at least an hour.

3. Spread wings onto a glass (or ceramic) 9x13 baking pan. I have found that baking these wings on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil doesn't include easy removal of the wings from the foil. Spread the marinade on top of the wings.

4. Add some water to the baking pan, otherwise the thinnest part of the wings will burn and dry out.

5. Bake for 30 minutes, allow for about 15 minutes on each side. Yes, this means you should probably flip the wings mid-way through.

6. Remove from oven and eat.

Finished duck wings ready to eat

Crockpot Apple Butter

This is one of the many recipes that I wanted to try since moving to the Pacific Northwest. The bounty of autumn produce includes apples, pears, grapes, chestnuts, etc., and are really inexpensive to get a hold of. Apples keep for a long time in the refrigerator if they are stored properly. I keep mine in plastic bags, the kind that you get from the grocery store, not the kind you take groceries home in from the grocery store. There is a tiny difference and that is the ability to keep air and moisture out of the bag.

I picked up a varity of apples and pears earlier in the month from Portland Nursery's apple tasting event. Depending on where you shop, apples can be as cheap as $0.30/lb if buying directly from an apple farm in WA or OR state, about $0.70/lb from a retail grocer that is able to move large quantities of local produce, like Gateway Produce, or up to $1.49/lb if buying off-season.

For this recipe I used a 6-quart programmable crockpot and let the apples cook overnight on the 10-hours low setting. The next day, it had the consistency of applesauce so cooked it on the 4-hours high setting to simmer off the excess liquid.

Depending on the sweetness of the apples, you'll need to vary the amount of sugar in the recipe. This batch used red winesap apples that aren't terribly palatable as an eating apple. Winesap apples are very firm when ripe and are typically used to make cider. They're also tart and slightly sour when not quite ripe. Any sweet or mildly sweet apple of mixed or single variety can be used.

Ingredients

8 small-to-medium red winesap apples
1 c. granulated unbleached sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom (or allspice)
1/2 tsp cloves
dash of salt
3/4 c. water

This spice ratio accommodates up to 3 lbs of apples. I just used the apples I had on hand.

Directions

1. Wash, peel, and core all apples, then dice into chunks.

2. Add prepared apples, water, and spices to crockpot. Mix until the apples are all coated with spice.

3. Set crockpot on low and cook until apples are soft. Use a potato masher or immersion blender to remove chunks of apple so that it has an applesauce consistency.

This can keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Canning instructions

Pack into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. This batch made three 8 oz jars + one 12 oz jar.

Kitchen notes:
2010: used Red winesap apples, made 3 pints
2011: used Virginia winesap apples, made 3.5 pints (7 half-pint jars)
2012: used organic winesap apples, unknown variety from Tonnemaker Farms; batch #1 used 8 apples and made 2 pints (4 half-pint jars); batch #2 used 10 apples and made 2.5 pints (5 half-pint jars) with about a 1/2 c. leftover. Also, batch #2 had a half cup less granulated sugar. Total so far is 9 half-pint jars.
2014: used Red Rome apples; made 3.5 pints (7 half-pint jars) of apple butter and 2 pints (4 half-pint jars) of apple sauce
2014 (Oct): finally got a hold of Red winesap apples.. yay! Batch1 6 half pints (from 5 lbs), Batch2 2 pints + 6 half pints (from 6 lbs)
2015 (Oct): 8 pints from 13 lbs of Red winesap apples
2016: 6.5 pints from 10 lbs Red winesap apples
2017 (Nov): __ pints from 8 lbs Red winesap apples

Kitchen Note: dried fruit rehydration

Years ago I bought a small bag of unsweetened, dried blueberries from Trader Joes and they aren't very good to eat, probably because they're all really dried out now. I had been experimenting with mirin (rice wine for cooking, slightly sweeter than sake, much less sweet than Chinese xiaoxing red cooking wine) this summer since procuring a bottle of it from Uwajimaya's Seattle store.

I wondered if using mirin to rehydrate dried blueberries would impart its flavor to the blueberries when used in another recipe. Well, I can't tell the difference. Perhaps in part because the blueberries were used to make blueberry pancakes. This batch turned out to be pretty tasty.

Method? I heated the dried blueberries with mirin in a small saucepan for a few minutes, then scooped out just the blueberries and put them into the pancake batter.

Asiago Cheese Crackers

In my attempt to make flat bread crackers, I added grated asiago cheese to the dough and used some on top of the cracker. However, seeing how today is a 100% humidity day (raining), these crackers came out really tough to chew and not crunchy at all. The crackers with cheese on top taste significantly better than the plain ones. I had hoped to use these in place of the multi-seed flatbread crackers I get from Trader Joe's, but alas, this recipe still needs tweaking.

Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 c. warm water
1/4 c. grated asiago cheese
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar

Seed topping (on a plate, combine):

grated asiago cheese
black sesame seeds
white sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


1. In a cup, add butter to warm water until butter has melted.

2. Sift the flour, salt, sugar together.

3. Gradually add the butter/water to the flour mixture and knead until smooth.

4. Place in a clean lidded container and let dough rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator.

5. Take dough out and roll it into a 12" log. Slice in half, and slice the halves in half until there are 30+ pieces.

6. With each piece, flatten dough using the bottom of a 4 oz ramekin or other sturdy flat-bottomed container. It should come to be about a circle, though, it doesn't have to be uniform.

7. Moisten one side of the circle with water and dip into seed topping. Set onto parchment-lined baking tray.

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until bottoms and edges are lightly browned.

9. Let cool on a rack. If the crackers are still soft, place all the crackers on the baking tray and let cool in the oven after the heat has been shut off.