Scallop biryani

It’s the second biryani for the Daring Cook Challenge.

The key ingredient : baby scallop. I got them already steamed.

The gravy with sweet spices (wuxi, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, paprika…), shimeji mushrooms and goji berries.

Thai jasmine rice soaked in a mix of thick coconut milk and water, then cooked.

At the layering stage, I’ve added a few edamame beans. More shimeji mushrooms ans saffron threads on top.

It’s ready. Toppings : dry coconut, gojis and minced coriander leaves. Goya (bitter squash) to decorate the plate.

Fingerlicking yummy… Biryani is eaten with the hand. Well, I do that after taking the photos.

The extras standing behind the star, on the first photo. They are greenhouse mikan that just arrive on the markets now.

source daring cook
Fish Biryani:

Servings: 4

Ingredients

3 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
4 green chillies
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
3 tablespoon (60 ml) (2 oz) (60 gm) ghee
2 cups (500 ml) (370 gm) (13 oz) basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
3 cups (750 ml) coconut milk
1 lb (½ kg) white fish fillets, cut into 1 inch (2½ cm) pieces
Salt
Directions:

1. Blend the tomatoes, turmeric, cumin, chillies, garlic, and half of the onion to a smooth paste.
2. Thinly slice the remaining onion and fry it in the ghee over medium high heat until lightly browned. Stir in the rice and fry for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and enough water to bring the liquid about 1 inch (2½ cm) above the rice. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes until the rice is half cooked.
3. Add the paste, fish, and salt. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes or until the rice is dry.

Ume by Botticelli. Rain plums in a shell.

This shellfish looks beautiful and make beautiful dishes. Hotate (scallops) from Hokkaido. I’ve associated them with ume, the sour green plums of rainy season

Well, they were very full. I discard the black part, clean well and keep the strings and bits for a soup.
I just cut the “nut” , painted with olive oil and grilled.

Served with ume pesto :

Paste a raw ume plum, fresh oregano, roast sesame seed, a little salt. Add olive oil and cane sugar.

Then enjoy a sip of broth. Mmmmm…

Kaibashira gohan. Scallops and rice.

Another simple Japanese rice. A delicate seafood like scallop shines in this kind of dish. If you want others see this (click on text):

5 recipes for scallops

I had scallops a bit… aged, their juice was getting out. In the rice cooker, I have added to the rice the juice from the scallops to the rice, a little mirin, soy sauce, a red chili, a few bits of leek. I have added the scallops 10 minutes before the end.

Chervil for the green touch.

About yuzu, tofu, Hokkaido hotate (scallop sashimi) and tender green

A fresh light lunch full of subtile flavors.

That’s the meal, presented the Japanese way, all the dishes on the table. But you don’t un-French yourself ever, so there is an order to eat this.

The first dish is the tofu. It’s not ordinary tofu, but yuzu tofu. It is flavored with juice of yuzu citrus. That’s fresh, and light. The texture is different, a little on the side of jello, but not much. It is served with soy sauce.

I added shichimi togarashi, the Japanese 7 spice mix.

Then the sashimi of scallops, with wasabi and soy sauce. It’s the main dish.

The salad : Shredded cabbage and red sweet pepper. The dressing is
ponzu and you get ponzu by mixing soy sauce and the juice of the citrus of your choice. I used the juice that escaped when I cut the fruit below and the leftover of my soy sauce.

The dessert. It’s not a yuzu , it’s not a no-yuzu. Well, they created this type of edible yuzu. The original yuzu is full of seeds, so its juice and rind are used as flavoring but you cannot it the flesh. Then it’s quite sour. This one is sweet, and it has a yuzu flavor. There are a few seeds. They call it natsu-muki ( in direction of Summer). Yeah, let’s go…

Fragrances and flavors sealed in the shell

Another scallop appetizer, very simple and tasty. That’s the 5th and last for that day and that set.

The rest of the series of scallops in their shell :

Japanese sashimi (otsukuri)

fruity Korean sashimi

Creamy miso (brasero)

bataa-shoyu yaki (brasero)

An old anecdote… That was at work and we were “dispatched” in a company that also owned a (pretentious ?) little restaurant. Probably they were good cooks, I can’t tell. Mr. Boss was really huge with all the health problems that come with over-weight. At that time, he was on a strict. Surprisingly, he invited us for lunch. That could have been nice, but he had chosen the menu and everybody was served the same as himself. The main dish was a sealed shell like this, served on a pile of 3 huge precious plates, on superb table cloth, with silver cutlery, in a dining-room where you can’t help thinking “Oh my, what happens if I let anything fall on that white carpet that seem to be made of silk. Our lunch was just that. Oh, 3 leaves of cute bonsai salads that came before. No bread on the table (too much temptation for the dietomane). Carbonated water, and flat water, in heavy crystal glasses. 3 glasses for water. Isn’t that chic ? The third to make a cocktail of the 2 liquids, I guess.
There was a dessert, to make it totally cynical : a plate of fruits with half a lichee, a slice of grapefruit and a cherry. The meal was lasting eternally. You know, that was as grand-ma said : take your time, eat slowly, enjoy conversation, don’t stuff your face. We ate every leaf of parsley, every crumb of the sealing dough, the stalk of the cherry and the rind of grapefruit -they said it was organic. That was not that bad as we had a chunk of sugar and a Creap (faux cream) with coffee.
And after that, no more time to eat our bento lunch boxes, we were good for 8 hours of hunger, well of work, plus 20 looong minutes of greetings… and then as soon I was in the street I sprinted to the nearest takoyaki booth and devored dozens.

The scallop and a set of veggies.
Yellow paprika, parsley, peel of yuzu citrus, a few bits of raw ginger.

Nanohana, it’s rape green blossoms.

Wet that with awamori, the sticky rice alcohol popular in Okinawa. It’s sweet and fruity. If you are adventurous, there is this : a condiment made of the same alcohol and small Okinawan (fierce) small chilis.

Seal with dough. I just mixed flour and water and I don’t eat it, but you can use pastry dough and then it can be eaten.
Then bake 10 to 15 minutes in a very hot oven. At 10, it’s rare and the dough is under-cooked (not eatable). At 15, it’s well done and the dough is good to be eaten. I prefer my shellfish rare, which is why I don’t try to eat the dough. If you use frozen shellfish, you can put them frozen and get them rare at the time the dough is OK.

Then you open… and it’s full of fragrances.
Just add salt and a few drops of argan oil (fragrant sesame oil otherwise).
Serve with a glass of chilled San Pellegr… I’m kidding. You should have some awamori left.
It’s really fine… to start a meal.