Showing posts with label Susur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Susur. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Chef Susur Lee is in E-town from March 14th to 18th!

There is high excitement in the culinary community as Chef Lee, one of the most acclaimed chefs in North America, begins a five-day intensive teaching program at NAIT, where the master chef and restaurateur will be teaching students in the culinary arts program.

The program is part of the Hokanson Chef In Residence program, which kicked off in 2009 with Vancouver chef Rob Feenie, and then again in 2010 with Toronto chef David Adjey.

Chef Lee's resume is exhaustive, beginning at the age of 16 when he was an apprentice at Hong Kong's  renowned Peninsula Hotel. He later moved to Toronto, opening his first restaurant, Lotus, in 1987. Since then, Chef Lee has been an international culinary consultant, and is at the helm of several restaurants in Toronto,  Washington, New York and Singapore.

The restaurant and travel guide, Zagat, has dubbed Lee a "culinary genius." Food and Wine magazine, which calls Lee one of the Ten Chefs of the Millennium, alongside other food artists such as Ferran Adira of Spain's Bulli restaurant.

I have the great good fortune to be observing Chef Lee this afternoon as he instructs students at NAIT. Then I get to interview him! If you've got questions for him, tell me right now and I'll try to slip them into the conversation. Check the Journal website Tuesday for my story, along with a photo gallery from this afternoon's demo.

The picture at right is from the cover of Lee's cookbook, co-written with Jacob Richler.

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Here's a classic Susur Lee Recipe - watch for more!

This recipe is found in Lee's cookbook, Susur:  A Culinary Life (10 Speed Press, 2005). It has been adapted by StarChefs and yields four servings. In Wednesday's Journal, we'll have something a little less ambitious for those among us who quiver at the thought of making our own squid ink dough.

Lee is in Edmonton at NAIT until Friday, teaching students in the culinary arts department. Wednesday, the school hosts a lunch with Lee, and, yes, I'm going. Yay! I'll be tweeting about it, and posting some photos with those tweets. Can't wait.

Lobster-Filled Squid Ink Ravioli in Lobster Consomme
Ingredients:
Lobster Ravioli Filling:
2 sheets gelatin
1 cup (250 mL) lobster consommé
4 shiitake mushrooms, finely diced
1 (1 ½ pound) boiled lobster, tail meat diced
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon (2 mL) cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper

Squid Ink Dough:
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons (50 mL) hot water
3 tablespoons (50 mL) squid ink
3 large eggs

Additional:
1 egg white
1 cup (250 mL) lobster consommé
2 tablespoons (30 mL) shao hsing wine
Pinch sea salt
Pinch ground white pepper
Onion oil
4 ounces lobster claw meat, for garnish
4 lobster tentacles, for garnish
4 chives, for garnish
1/4 cup (50 mL) cooked lobster roe, for garnish
Spirulina powder

Method:
For Lobster Ravioli Filling:
Soak gelatin leaves in water. Remove leaves and squeeze out excess water. Place in stainless-steel bowl over pot of simmering water and melt. Add cold lobster consommé and mix well. Transfer bowl to refrigerator and chill for 1 hour to set. When set, remove and dice. Toss with mushrooms and lobster tail meat. Season with salt and peppers and return to refrigerator until ready to use.

For Squid Ink Dough:
Using a stand mixer with dough hook, combine the flour and water and mix until dough forms. Continue mixing while adding squid ink. Add eggs, one at a time, until dough is smooth and almost black. Transfer dough to a work surface dusted with flour and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Divide dough into 2 balls and roll out each to make a rope. Flatten each rope into a strip and, using a pasta machine, run each strip through decreasing settings until setting 4 is reached. Let noodle sheets dry for at least 45 minutes before cutting (if sheets are sticky, dust with flour).

Once dried, lay each sheet out on flour-dusted countertop. With a 4-inch (2.4 centimetre) cookie cutter, cut out 4 ravioli tops. With 3 ½-inch (2 centimetre) cookie cutter, cut out 4 ravioli bottoms. Dust with flour to prevent sticking. On baking sheet, arrange bottom ravioli rounds. Spoon 1/4 cup (50 mL) of ravioli filling in center of each. Brush egg white around edges of ravioli and place each top over filling. Enclose filling in ravioli circles, making sure there are no air pockets, and pinch to seal.

In medium pot, bring lobster consommé to a boil with wine. Season with salt and pepper. Place each lobster ravioli in soup bowl oiled very lightly with onion oil. Pout hot consommé, about ¼ cup each, over ravioli. Transfer bowls to steamer and steam ravioli in consommé for 15 minutes, or until cooked through.

To Serve:
Slice lobster claws into 4 portions. Use lobster tentacles to skewer lobster claw slices. Insert ends of tentacles into chives. Garnish each bowl of ravioli and consommé with lobster roe, skewered claw slice, and sprinkling of spirulina.

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