Simply Ming

MING TSAI: This week on Simply Ming, I'm joined by son Henry, going to be making some family favorites.

First, a kir-- a fresh orange ginger kir using sauvignon blanc and then a non-alcoholic version, just fresh O.J.

and some sparkling water.

Then one of my favorites, miso salmon on sushi rice with a sesame cucumber salad, followed by a vegan version of it, a broiled eggplant with the same miso marinade.

It's coming up right now on Simply Ming.

(sizzling) Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at SubaruofNewEngland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.

MING: I'm gonna do this a little out of order, only because I need to get the eggplant and the cucumbers salted.

So we're gonna get those first, then we're gonna go to a cocktail.

I know I always do cocktail first, but I want this salt process to work.

So, Henry, first I'm gonna give you this cucumber.

I want you to do slices, basically like that thin, okay?

About half a cucumber.

And guys, I'm gonna work on the eggplant because I have this Italian eggplant, I'm gonna make big steaks, like, about that big, all right?

We'll do nice... four steaks of eggplant.

Yeah, that looks good, Henry.

Thank you.

MING: I want to show you how we want to score eggplant, so just take a sharp knife and you just want to get, like, three slices that way, and then three slices this way, all right?

That just gets it so that the eggplant can cook evenly-- called scoring, all right.

Just like that.

And we just need to do four pieces.

And what I'm gonna do is now get some kosher salt, and we're gonna liberally salt 'em.

I didn't score the backside because the front was scored pretty deep.

All right, so a good amount of salt-- we're gonna rinse that off, so don't worry.

Then we're gonna put those salted eggplant... and what it does is it actually helps to leach out the bitterness of the eggplant.

All right, Henry has cucumbers.

Same thing, we're gonna put the cucumbers in, and we're also going to salt them liberally, toss them around.

All right, guys?

So if you're cooking along, get your cucumbers cut, eggplant salted, and now we're just-- this we're just gonna let sit for ten minutes.

And that salt, again, it's going to take that bitterness out of the eggplant and help take some of the water out of the cucumbers.

And by doing that, it makes actually for a crisper cucumber.

Okay, Henry, cocktail time.

So we're doing kind of my version of a... like a kir.

So, a kir and a kir royale-- you know the difference?

No, I'm guessing one involves champagne?

MING: Wow, pretty good there, son.

Kir royale involves champagne, and kir is just regular white wine.

So we're doing more of a kir, but we're doing an orange ginger kir.

So, Henry, give me a couple of flags, please, of some orange.

And what I'm gonna do-- I have a little bit of peeled ginger here, guys, right.

I'm gonna make a couple slices, and I'm gonna take two... two slices that are peeled, all right?

I'm gonna put them in the bottom of a cup.

I'm gonna take one of these flags like that, and this other one is for my garnish.

You can actually go ahead and then cut that in half.

Actually, do two more flags on that one, Henry.

Will do.

MING: This is my garnish flag, and then we're gonna add some orange juice, right.

Fresh orange juice, in with the ginger, in with one of the orange flags.

Then... ma... kind of get the ginger and just really break it down.

So this is a classic technique for a mojito, right?

Your favorite drink, Henry, even though you don't drink.

Of course not.

MING: That's mint and sugar, and you kind of muddle it.

Well here, we're muddling the ginger with the orange, with fresh orange juice.

So this is gonna be a great base, right?

All I'm gonna do is just shake this, just a little bit, because there's really not that much liquid in here.

And then-- we're going to then pour it into a glass, and then top it with some wine.

All right, so there's not much liquid here, right?

But I just want to get it nice and cold, because you can't have anything warm added to wine, right?

All right, so here we have a wine glass here.

And then, Henry, what you're gonna do, is fill this wine glass up with ice, please.

All right, will do.

MING: So again, guys, this is ginger, fresh orange juice, and one peel.

And then I'm gonna take just a really good drinking sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, whatever you may want.

And Henry's correct, if this was champagne, this would be a kir royale.

All right, like that.

Where'd the word "kir" come from?

MING: You know, it's a great question, Henry.

Cassis is the liquor usually used for a kir or kir royale, which is from, uh, different types of berries.

Uh, cassis is, itself, is its own berry.

Oh, gotcha.

MING: And it was a way of actually-- I'm guessing, extrapolating-- but there is not always great wine in France, so there's less expensive wine, so add a little bit of kir, took the off flavors off of it, right?

So, guys, for my drink, because my wine was cold and my-- my muddling was cold, I don't need to add ice.

Henry, however, we're gonna juice-- lose that for me.

We're gonna go ahead and juice this and then you're gonna top... go ahead and juice this fresh O.J.

into there.

And we have a little bit of just sparkling water.

So for me, I top a little bit, just to lighten up my kir.

And then Henry is just going to get a fresh orange soda.

Again, we'll rub the rim.

Wow.

MING: Dump that in.

So booze or no booze, you can always make yourself a great cocktail.

Henry, to you.

To you.

MING: And to you, Mom.

Love you, Mom.

MING: What we're gonna do now is make the miso kind of glaze.

So we're gonna use the same miso glaze for both the salmon and the eggplant.

Let's go ahead and work on our miso.

So here we have some shiro miso.

And we're gonna add a little bit of soy sauce... like that.

I'm going to add to this minced ginger, about a tablespoon, and then honey.

So it's going to add a nice sweetness to this glaze.

In case you're wondering, would this work for chicken?

Absolutely, it would work for almost anything.

Then here-- we're going to take a whisk here.

And, Henry, if you don't mind, while you're hanging out, go ahead and slice some scallions.

Can do-- whites and greens?

MING: Keep the whites and greens separated for me.

Nice and thin.

All right, so now, here I have the miso, the honey, the soy sauce, okay?

We're gonna add a little bit of citrus here.

So I have a lemon, I'm gonna zest it first.

I'm very big on using the zest and the juice at the same time because if you're gonna use a lemon, why not?

So I'm gonna first zest the lemon.

Just take all the great aroma off the lemon... All right, just only go to the white.

You don't want the white part, right?

So get all the yellow part off.

How's it going there, Hen?

So far, so good.

I haven't nicked my fingers off, so... MING: (laughs) That's good.

I go by that.

MING: So here's my zest, then here I have my lemon, which I like to roll.

That helps it get more juicy.

So just-- juice of half a lemon, half is going to go in the cucumber salad, and the other half is gonna go in here.

I have a couple seeds.

I like to use a zester, actually, because you can squeeze your juice in the zester, then the seeds won't go through.

See that?

Catch your seeds.

Technique 101, Henry.

It's like an impromptu strainer.

MING: It is.

So impromptu, I just created it.

(laughter) Made up that technique on the spot.

MING: Just made it up on the spot.

I love to do this all the time.

MING: You see how that kind of thins it out?

So now I have a little grapeseed oil, and I'm gonna whisk in some oil-- why?

Because miso and soy are salty, right?

So I want to spread this awesome flavor with the lemon juice.

And so by emulsifying with a little bit of oil, you can spread the flavor out, right?

But you guys-- and miso's a great emulsifier, so, as you can tell, it doesn't break.

And that's what the lemon juice is... perfect.

All right, let's give this a quick try.

So... Oh, chicken breast, miso marinade-- delicious.

All right, Henry, grab the salmon for me that's in the whatchamacallit.

So check out these cucumbers and check out this eggplant.

You can see all that water already coming off, and you see you see the water coming out of the eggplant.

That's what you're doing.

So, first and foremost, guys, look at this beautiful piece of salmon.

This is what we call center cut.

Meaning, if you have the salmon, you have the head and the tail.

It should be more this way-- head and the tail, this is the center.

And the reason I always request center cut from the fishmonger, is the meat towards the tail, well that's the muscle that propels the fish.

This is gonna be tougher meat.

Closer to the head is going to be beautiful, striated, fat meat, which is deliciousness.

So center cut's the best.

This is a huge piece, guys, right?

This is definitely for two to four people.

You know, this is about a pound of salmon, right?

So we're just going to get this in a cast iron pan, then glaze it with the glaze-- look, really light seasoning, guys-- why?

'Cause, you know, I have this miso marinade coming up.

So a little pepper, a little salt...

Right, do it, again, very light.

Just a little bit.

Ooh.. and a little pepper.

All right.

I really want to wait, um... and honestly, I should've had this preheated, but maybe a lot of you didn't have it preheated either.

So you really want it-- because when you add the salmon, you want to hear a sizzle.

I'm going to coat it with such a little bit of oil, just a touch, because there's so much natural oil in the fish.

But I'm going to wait, right?

I want that sear.

So let's come back here and finish the rest of our prep.

Scallions are all prepped.

MING: Scallions are good?

Awesome.

So, let's talk about sushi rice.

The request was to go ahead and cook your short grain rice, right?

So just have plain sushi rice.

One trick is just put in a glass bowl, not with plastic wrap or a plastic top, right, but a lid, and nuke it, right?

It's a great way to pick up rice and get it nice and hot.

Just one minute will get your rice hot.

So we're gonna go ahead and get this ready.

And this is just plain sushi rice.

We're going to take this-- the other half portion of sushi rice that we did, and then we're gonna make what's called a su, right?

You wanna grab me a small pot there, Henry?

Can do.

MING: So a su is the secret of sushi rice.

So when people say sushi rice-- thank you.

What we're talking about is just short grain rice, right, to make sushi-- but when you then make the rice that has the vinegar, the mirin, and the sugar, that then becomes sushi rice to make maki sushi and nigiris, right?

So the short grain rice-- so we have cooked short grain rice, but once you add the su, you have sushi rice.

So what goes in a su?

Very simple.

Rice vinegar, sugar, and a product called mirin.

Mirin is a sweet sake.

Henry, on the flame, please-- low flame.

So all you do is bring it to a... Low.

MING: Bring it to a very slow simmer, just so the sugar melts.

This is... this is how little grapeseed oil, guys, just barely coating it, guys, right?

I'm just going for a really light coat, because-- you know what, I'm gonna use a little grapeseed here.

I just want enough that coats it, but I don't need excess 'cause so much is going to come.

You want to hear this sear, guys.

(sizzling) Okay, that's what you need to hear, right?

If you add the salmon and it doesn't have that sound, there's a high chance your salmon is gonna stick.

True for a cast iron, a non-stick, or just a regular standard steel saut, right?

So you really want to see that, and you can already see the sides already cooking a little bit.

So the rookie move is to take a spatula, see if it's stuck or not.

Don't do that, guys.

Let it cook.

Let it unstick itself, because the salmon develops-- you know this-- it develops a crust.

So once it develops a crust, it will unstick itself.

Then we can flip it, and into the oven and give it a nice glaze.

All right, so I'm gonna let this go for probably about three or four minutes-- all right, see that?

You can already see it's getting nice color there, but I can also tell this isn't gonna stick at all, right?

I can just feel it, 'cause it's salmon, but we're not even gonna test it.

We're gonna let it sit there.

You know what, Henry, let's go ahead, since we can, I'm gonna go ahead and nuke this one-- this rice here, and we're gonna make our sushi rice for the eggplant.

And we still need to wait... just a touch, right?

Probably about... three or four more minutes.

You see how the-- all that water has come out?

That's exactly what we're doing.

And you can see even on this side of the eggplant, right?

You can still see some of the salt crystals, but you can see all this water coming up.

That's just taking out the bitterness.

It's a great technique.

Salt is our friend.

Salt is really-- it's probably one of the most important products for cooking.

Okay, let's check out the salmon-- come on.

Yeah, look at this salmon.

Okay-- oh, yeah, baby, here we go.

Look at that.

Oh... oh, wow.

MING: Right?

So now we have our marinade.

So now I'm gonna take some of our glaze, all right?

So get that nice color on it, guys, and then just glaze it.

And the reason we don't put it on first is-- because of the honey, would actually burn it.

All right, so now, into the oven.

This oven should be at 400 degrees.

Right in.

There we go.

All right.

I like my salmon medium rare, so we'll check it with a thermometer.

You go to, like 130, 135, I think it's perfect.

All right, come with me to the sink here.

So now we have... look at a-- that's the liquid that just came off the eggplant and the cucumbers, right.

So what I'm gonna do here is now just rinse the cukes... and the eggplant.

And now I just want to make sure they're not too wet, right?

Ditto for the cucumbers-- so use a clean towel.

You could use a salad spinner too, if you want, guys, right.

But we had a really nice clean towel, so... easy peasy, right?

All right, we can go to the cutting board now.

So now I'm just going to pat dry this.

Henry, grab me a small glass bowl there, we'll make a cucumber salad in it.

All right, then, into a salad bowl like that.

Then we're going to make such a simple vinaigrette.

Which is... just a little bit of lemon juice-- lemon zest-- we still have half a lemon and the zest.

So with our new patented process of using... (laughter) The Tsai technique.

MING: The Tsai technique, using the zester; I love this technique, Catches all the seeds.

You always have an acid in any salad, right, guys?

So in ours, we have half this lemon.

We have this lemon zest from that same lemon, right?

Henry, give me a little sesame oil there.

Toasted sesame seeds, right, 'cause I'm not going to cook this.

Just-- yeah... and perfect.

Toasted sesame seeds, I'll save a little more toast for garnish, and then we just mix this up.

Henry, give me a little pinch of salt, please.

Yes, chef.

MING: A little pepper, as well.

Very nice.

So simple, guys.

Sesame oil, sesame seeds, lemon juice, vinegar.

That's it.

Okay, let's get these eggplant going.

You can go ahead and get in the oven, and if you can put it on broil, you can finish it on broil, right.

But what we're gonna do is get these in the oven.

We can actually just-- a little bit of oil.

It could be spray, it could be whatever you want.

So just a little bit of oil, guys, because you want to make sure the eggplant doesn't stick.

Like that.

All right, Henry, go ahead and slather that on top of each piece, please.

Can do.

MING: Yeah, perfect, that's it.

Right in there.

MING: Awesome.

All right.

MING: Okay, this I'm just gonna throw, just like this-- just go throw that in the oven, okay?

Oh, I can hear my salmon.

Boom.

Now we have time for our rice.

When I first took this off the stove, I got a nice whiff of the vinegar in my lungs.

MING: So here we're gonna use a wooden spoon.

Traditionally, you would have, actually, a wooden bowl made out of Japanese pine-- you've seen me use those.

And the reason is the hot rice condensates, it goes into the pine.

Here, you can see it's condensating and actually getting on... getting on the bowl, so that's why wooden bowl is better, but it will still work.

Right, this su...

I'm gonna just nuke it again.

I want to get it to the same temperature of the rice.

This is the secret of making good sushi rice to roll maki sushi and nigiri.

The vinegar mirin sugar mixture is the same temp as your hot rice, so that when you combine them together, it doesn't make the rice kind of glutinous and get kind of sticky, right?

Sorry, you want it to get sticky, you don't want to get it all sloppy, right?

You don't want-- if you put cold vinegar and hot rice, you're gonna have a mess.

If the vinegar is too hot, you end up evaporating the flavor of it, right?

So you just want to get it to simmering and then mix the two together.

That's key.

All right, so this-- and you just have to... all right, that's good.

So now, here we go.

See, it's steaming.

I like to pour it on the spoon a little bit first to disperse it.

My famous distribution.

Get half of it on the cutting board.

MING: You don't mix sushi rice like this, right?

No, you're lifting it up and over, okay, like that.

I'm guessing if you mix it normally, it'll break the rice and... MING: Right, the whole idea is not make a mushy sushi rice, right.

You want to just-- you're flavoring the rice.

And the whole idea of this technique is everything tastes better with acid, right?

So you put lemon juice on something, it tastes sweeter.

Like you can put it on a fruit, for example.

Here, this slightly sweetened vinegar rice makes fish taste a little sweeter, it accentuates the great flavor of your seafood that you're making, all right.

And, like always, it's about taste, taste, taste.

I can see this is, um... could use a little bit more.

I'm looking for shiny, right, I want to get this shiny.

And that's why there's sugar in here.

Okay, so now, guys, here's a clean cloth.

I'm gonna moisten it just a little bit with water, and, uh, I will put it on top of the rice.

So, here's a trick.

I don't want this soaked, right, just a little moist.

You have to bring the rice altogether, right?

You don't want a lone piece-- So my sushi master trained me that if there's a piece like that, this piece of rice will grow lonely and die.

Well, that's actually true.

But, for food-wise, if there's a piece of rice all by itself, it will get hard and crunchy, which is no good.

So I'm gonna get my towel a little bit wetter.

And then I'm gonna let this rice just sit for five minutes before we make our sushi rice cakes.

Okay, like that.

Put it this way.

Just for five minutes, all right?

You and I can go plate up our salmon, Henry, first and foremost.

Oh, yeah, look at this beauty, guys.

That's what we're talking about, right?

And the eggplant-- just keep the eggplant going a little bit longer.

Look how good that looks, guys, right?

Nice caramelization, right?

You can see-- look how much fat has come out of it.

I added, like, a teaspoon of oil.

Now there's about two tablespoons of oil, right?

That's just the nature of salmon.

Let's go ahead and nuke our second rice, Henry.

Get that in.

We can start plating this up.

So here we have our plate.

So I'm just gonna lay out these cucumbers, kind of like just on the bottom, you know, just layer.

No, it just-- we're going to then cover these cold cucumbers, which I love.

For those that see me on Simply Ming or eat my food, I love hot and cold.

So here we have cold cucumbers spread out everywhere, okay?

And the fact that they're on the bottom should probably help keep them colder, right?

As opposed to being on the top.

MING: That is correct, because heat rises.

Okay, so here we have-- this is just plain sushi rice, right, nice and hot, this does not have the su.

Okay, so we're going to take some hot rice and just lay it on top like this.

Just a little pile.

Salmon is-- you saw the size of this.

A little rice-- a little rice will protrude out.

Henry, please garnish this rice with those sesame seeds.

Yes, chef.

Normal distribution?

MING: Yeah, go high.

Yeah, I'm coming in very hot.

All right, and then look at that.

Wow.

MING: Oh, yeah, baby.

Oh, that's amazing.

MING: So that is our first dish.

That could feed a couple of people.

Scallions?

MING: Scallions, a little scallion greens, that's right.

Actually, Henry-- yeah, go.

I honestly forgot to put the scallion greens in the cucumber salad, so... I was about to ask, what are these for?

MING: Yes.

There we go, there we go, Henry.

Wow.

MING: Beautiful.

All right, so there's our first, Henry, throw it there in front, please.

Okay.

MING: So now we have the rested sushi rice, right?

This is the sushi rice.

I don't think you've done this before with me, Henry.

Wet your hands.

You grab about a ball of this, and you don't have to make it like this, guys, you can just put a ball down.

You make a triangle shape, see that?

And I flip it once and I make it again and I flip it a third time.

Then I turn it around, and I turn it around, and I turn it around.

I'm having some trouble here.

MING: I've done these thousands of times, Henry, so... I'll forgive myself.

MING: Yeah, absolutely.

What you want to make sure you do is-- hands have to be wet, so nothing sticks to it.

And again, you kinda make a triangle and you flip it.

And that's how you get, kind of, these, like sushi rice cakes-- we just need three.

Not bad.

Oh, it's a little... MING: It's a little tiny-- we have Mom, and we then we have Dad, and we've got Henry.

You know what, that's not so bad.

You know what?

I'm gonna make one more.

I feel like David is going to be left out-- MING: David's would be huge, he would make a gargantuan one, right?

David's is the bowl.

MING: Grab that eggplant, Henry.

Let's see what that looks like.

All right, there we go.

Oh, the eggplant looks lovely.

MING: Okay.

Oh, yeah, throw those right there for now, Henry.

So for the sushi rice cake, guys, I'm just gonna take I'll just take two for now, because I have more eggplant to go with, right?

Again, we're going to...

I love my sesame.

Get some of those scallions, as well, Henry.

Okay.

MING: Okay.

Just straight on top?

MING: Yep.

I have... Oh, yeah.

Look at that eggplant.

Oh, that looks so tender.

And so I'm guessing the scoring also helps with, like, cooking it in the center.

MING: Yeah, absolutely.

You can see how the eggplant's got cooked all in the center.

A little more scallions.

You know, I'm-- I've already paid for the sesame seeds, you might as well use it.

And there we have it, Henry.

So there's your vegetarian version-- vegan as well-- sushi rice cake with eggplant.

A miso soy glaze on top.

And here's our salmon.

Henry, you did good today, sir.

Thank you very much, you, too.

MING: There you go, I appreciate that.

You needed to hear that.

MING: You guys, I hope you enjoyed.

I hope you cook-- I hope you love salmon and eggplant.

Thanks for joining.

And as always, you know we say, peace and good eating.

That one.

MING: That one.

Peace and good eating.

MING: Cheers.

For more information on Simply Ming, including upcoming guests and more, visit us online at ming.com/simplyming Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at SubaruofNewEngland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.