kfeng
Assistant Cook
I cook mainly cantonese style food. In the past few years I have been playing around with the western and Eastern cultures to come up with new food excitement. Anyone know of a good combo that I can tried? 
Asian Fusion
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LadyCook61
Master Chef
I don't know of any combos but want to welcome you to DC. I lived in NJ until
1989 .
1989 .
kfeng
Assistant Cook
Thanks
Hope to pick some brains and spark new ideas.
Hope to pick some brains and spark new ideas.
Callisto in NC
Washing Up
It would help if you gave just a little more explanation as to what you are looking for.
kfeng
Assistant Cook
My Quest here
Already feeling the friendliness of the site. I think I am already enjoying my stay here.
Well...cantonese cooking consisted of 4 primary ingredients, Soy sauce, Oyster sauce, Sugar, and Cooking wine. What can I combined with these ingredients from a western (not too familiar, studying it) to created another flavor. Does this make sense?
Already feeling the friendliness of the site. I think I am already enjoying my stay here.
Well...cantonese cooking consisted of 4 primary ingredients, Soy sauce, Oyster sauce, Sugar, and Cooking wine. What can I combined with these ingredients from a western (not too familiar, studying it) to created another flavor. Does this make sense?
babetoo
Chef Extraordinaire
i don't know either. just wanted to say howdy.
babe
babe
Callisto in NC
Washing Up
By Western do you mean US cooking? US cooking, at least to me, is a healthy blend of other countries. Worchestshire Sauce and Soy Sauce combine nicely for a beef marinade. Add some cracked black pepper and some garlic salt, marinate for a couple hours to overnight and you have a great steak or piece of beef.
Is that what you are looking for?
Is that what you are looking for?
ironchef
Executive Chef
One of the easiest way to incorporate Asian fusion flavors is in a beurre blanc. Because most Asian cuisines don't use butter in sauce making, combining flavors with a beurre blanc gives it a different richness and depth. A recipe for a basic beurre blanc is here:
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f76/basic-beurre-blanc-12698.html
Once you get the base, you can pretty much go in whatever route you want. Some beurre blancs that I've done include:
Black Bean-Ginger
Ponzu
Koo Chu Jang
Thai Curry and Coconut
Soy-Mustard
Soy-Wasabi
Kaffir Lime
Kalbi
Sweet Chili
Madras Curry
Soy-Ginger
Miso Lime
Pickled Ginger
There's a lot more but I can't remember them all. Vinaigrettes are another way to fuse flavors together. Use the traditional egg yolk based style, and you can pretty much use most of the flavors that would work in a beurre blanc.
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f76/basic-beurre-blanc-12698.html
Once you get the base, you can pretty much go in whatever route you want. Some beurre blancs that I've done include:
Black Bean-Ginger
Ponzu
Koo Chu Jang
Thai Curry and Coconut
Soy-Mustard
Soy-Wasabi
Kaffir Lime
Kalbi
Sweet Chili
Madras Curry
Soy-Ginger
Miso Lime
Pickled Ginger
There's a lot more but I can't remember them all. Vinaigrettes are another way to fuse flavors together. Use the traditional egg yolk based style, and you can pretty much use most of the flavors that would work in a beurre blanc.
college_cook
Head Chef
Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to familiarize myself very much with traditional Asian flavors, and honestly the closest I've probably ever gotten to fusion is a homemade BBQ i made once that used a good amount of soy and fish sauce.
What IC mentioned about the buerre blanc is good though, and I've *sort of* done fusion of east/west flavor/technique. I've never done a buerre blanc with Asian flavors, though I don't doubt that it would be superb, but things I have done are braises, pastas and risottos that use different global flavors. Also, the only Asian technique that I really know anything about, stir fry, I change up by getting some good carmelization on my protein first, removing it, and then adding my vegetables and a little chicken glace to get the fond, and you get a really nice rich meat/chicken flavored base for sauce, to combine with your more Asian ingredients.
What IC mentioned about the buerre blanc is good though, and I've *sort of* done fusion of east/west flavor/technique. I've never done a buerre blanc with Asian flavors, though I don't doubt that it would be superb, but things I have done are braises, pastas and risottos that use different global flavors. Also, the only Asian technique that I really know anything about, stir fry, I change up by getting some good carmelization on my protein first, removing it, and then adding my vegetables and a little chicken glace to get the fond, and you get a really nice rich meat/chicken flavored base for sauce, to combine with your more Asian ingredients.
kitchenelf
Chef Extraordinaire
To add to IC's list - we used to reduce soy sauce (quite a bit) and add it to our beurre blanc - it was quite tasty!
college_cook
Head Chef
Thanks for jogging my memory!
I used to make a scallop appy, sautee'd baby Bok choy, cripsy pancetta, topped with a soy-orange reduction. Probably the most popular appy at the restaurant I used to work at.
I happen to have a picture of it, actually:
Attachments
kitchenelf
Chef Extraordinaire
college cook - that looks awesome and quite edible!
We also added shredded and thoroughly drained and dried cucumber. Gave it a nice brightness.
We also added shredded and thoroughly drained and dried cucumber. Gave it a nice brightness.
kfeng
Assistant Cook
Callisto, Ironchef, College_cook. Thanks for the idea. There is a lot of good mix to go with. I was thinking about this one most of my day at work, should be working though. Let me run it through you guys. Generally we associated Curry with Chicken. What do think of marinating curry (powder) with steak and a touch of Michu (cooking wine), a little soy, sugar, salt and pepper. I'll definitely give all the suggestion a tried. From the words of the Terminator: I'll be BACK!
kfeng
Assistant Cook
College_cook..don't want to be rude. Judging from the picture, looks a bit dried. I think a little bit more sauce would make it nicer. Perhaps it's just the picture. Aside from the cucumber, I'll probably add a bundle of carrot strings to brighten it up. Certainly looks pleasing thus far.
college_cook
Head Chef
No worries
You can't see it so much here- but the scallops are actually surrounded by a few rings of sauce. Since you're not familiar with Western cuisine, this may be a different take on preparation/presentation for you. There's plenty of moisture in the dish- sauce, scallop (cooked MR - M, not well) and in the bok choy also. You may find that with some western dishes, like this one, not much sauce is needed because the flavor is very very concentrated.
Again, not knowing much of Asian cuisine at large, I think there are quite a few cases where you'll find western dishes that are much more dry looking. However, I'm not sure if it's still customary to cook all proteins to well done in the eastern hemisphere. We have pretty strict health and cleanliness standards over here now, so it makes it ok to eat pretty much anything rare- beef, duck, pork (though I won't do below medium pork, the texture isn't so great), and fish.
You can't see it so much here- but the scallops are actually surrounded by a few rings of sauce. Since you're not familiar with Western cuisine, this may be a different take on preparation/presentation for you. There's plenty of moisture in the dish- sauce, scallop (cooked MR - M, not well) and in the bok choy also. You may find that with some western dishes, like this one, not much sauce is needed because the flavor is very very concentrated.
Again, not knowing much of Asian cuisine at large, I think there are quite a few cases where you'll find western dishes that are much more dry looking. However, I'm not sure if it's still customary to cook all proteins to well done in the eastern hemisphere. We have pretty strict health and cleanliness standards over here now, so it makes it ok to eat pretty much anything rare- beef, duck, pork (though I won't do below medium pork, the texture isn't so great), and fish.
ironchef
Executive Chef
That sounds fine, but there's nothing fusion about it.
Ok - I'll admit it - I'm lost here!
As I understand it ... Fusion food can be either food from one cuisine being cooked in the style of another (humm ... Asian stir fry cooked in the style of a French Sauté) - or substituting ingredients from one cuisine in another (adding slices of avacado to a sushi roll to make a California Roll out of a Nori Sushi Roll).
If you are looking for condiments that are also used as ingredients in Western cooking:
Prepared yellow, brown or Creole mustards, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauces (tomato or mustard based), various vinegars, tabasco pepper sauces ...
Again ... not sure what you are asking or where this is headed.
As I understand it ... Fusion food can be either food from one cuisine being cooked in the style of another (humm ... Asian stir fry cooked in the style of a French Sauté) - or substituting ingredients from one cuisine in another (adding slices of avacado to a sushi roll to make a California Roll out of a Nori Sushi Roll).
If you are looking for condiments that are also used as ingredients in Western cooking:
Prepared yellow, brown or Creole mustards, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauces (tomato or mustard based), various vinegars, tabasco pepper sauces ...
Again ... not sure what you are asking or where this is headed.
black chef
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2006
- Messages
- 383
well, for the last 3 months or so, i've been experimenting with vietnamese food and "mildly" incorporating the south louisiana trinity of 2:1:1 onion, bell pepper and celery.
the results so far have been "eeeh..." nothing to cheer about.
however, when i reversed the fusion and used the asian trinity of garlic + ginger + scallion (or shallot) my asian chicken fricasee came out spectacular!!!
my kitchen is slowly turning into a laboratory.
the results so far have been "eeeh..." nothing to cheer about.
however, when i reversed the fusion and used the asian trinity of garlic + ginger + scallion (or shallot) my asian chicken fricasee came out spectacular!!!
my kitchen is slowly turning into a laboratory.
Claire
Master Chef
By their very nature, many Vietnamese (because of the French influence) and almost all Hawaiian recipes are what is now called "fusion". You might start there.
