Simply Ming

>> MING: Hey, Ming Tsai here from Simply Ming.

I have a very special treat for you today.

My buddy Andrew Zimmern is in the house.

TV personality, radio personality, author.

He's best known for eating the most ridiculous, bizarre foods around the world, but this guy can cook too.

He's got a restaurant called Lucky Cricket, and today he's going to make one of the most classic of all classic dishes, shrimp touffe.

>> What are you, allergic?

You're not going to try it?

>> MING: Well, I wanted to do civilized... you know, sit at a table, but you know what?

>> Oh, is that what we do?

>> MING: Not anymore, no.

>> Okay.

>> MING: I'm going to make kind of the Chinese version of a classic, salt-and-pepper shrimp.

>> Mmm, mmm, mmm.

>> MING: And that dish is basically done.

We are cooking two shrimp classics right here, right now, on Simply Ming.

>> MING: Andrew, always a pleasure, mi amigo.

>> MING: Good to have you here.

>> Great to see you.

>> MING: Thanks for being here.

>> Oh, come on.

>> MING: So we're going to make a couple of cocktails.

I'm going to make kind of my version of the classic mojito, which, of course, you know, has the five normal ingredients-- rum and mint and sugar and a little sparkling water, muddled, boom.

Here we have charred pineapple tequila.

100% pure agave.

This is plata, silver, which is clear.

We take charred pineapple, and we infuse it for one week.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: And it turns this color.

I mean, smell it-- it turns totally sweet from the pineapple.

>> It smells... it reeks of charred pineapple.

>> MING: And classic is two-one-one.

Two parts tequila, one part lime juice-- again, freshly squeezed.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: And then one part of whatever sweetener you may have.

And this is agave syrup.

Right?

>> Nice way to tie it all together.

>> MING: Shake, shake, shake.

>> Yep.

>> MING: Oh, yeah, you can pull me a little pineapple garnish.

>> The name of the show is Simply Ming, but that doesn't mean we have to always be simple.

>> MING: We don't have to be country men.

>> No, no.

>> MING: All right, here.

>> Gorgeous.

>> MING: But I have... >> Do you know something?

The smell of pineapple in the room is... >> MING: It's intoxicating.

>> Oh!

>> MING: To you, my friend.

>> And there is nothing better.

Thank you.

>> MING: Kampai.

>> BOTH: Cheers.

>> Ooh, yeah, baby.

>> MING: Ready for a little shrimp touffe?

>> Mmm.

>> MING: Let's go.

>> And salt-and-pepper shrimp.

>> MING: Let's go to New Orleans.

Let's go, down south.

Shrimp touffe, one of my faves.

>> It is.

And smothered is what touffe means, in reference to a saucy dish that goes over rice.

In this case, we're doing it with shrimp.

The whole thing starts off with a really good shrimp stock.

And so when you peel your shrimp... and I save mine in a plastic bag in the freezer... >> MING: Save your shells.

>> Save your shells, right?

It's absolutely miracle stuff.

So in a small pot... and, you know, you don't want to overcook... >> MING: Right >> ...shellfish shells.

So just a little bit of oil.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Just get that smiling, and a warm... Yeah, you can go in with those shells.

>> MING: Yeah, we have just bags and bags and bags of lobster heads and... >> Bags, yes, you have to.

A few tablespoons of tomato paste.

And you want to chop up just a quick little mirepoix?

It doesn't have to be anything fancy.

>> MING: Okay.

>> And all I'm going to do is, I'm just going to toast the shells and the tomato paste in here together.

Most people don't know that there's so much flavor in shrimp shells.

The head and the... >> MING: It's amazing how much flavor.

>> Oh, it's crazy.

That's really nice.

Hold on.

Hands coming in.

>> MING: Yep, understood, sir.

I'm just going to add a little bit of carrot and onion on that.

Give me a handful of celery in there.

>> MING: Oui.

>> And we're good.

And all we want to do, over high heat, is just caramelize that.

We don't want to burn it.

>> MING: Right.

>> Brown is the color of flavor.

>> MING: Right, not black.

>> Not black.

So once we've got the heat going in the pan, and I can see a little bit of browning around the edges there, I'm going to add three cups of chicken stock.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Now, what we do here is, we let this simmer for about 35 minutes.

Because you don't want to pull the iodine flavors out of the shells.

>> MING: Right.

>> And you want to start with good shrimp to begin with.

But that at least is a safety valve.

And then 35-, 40-minute steep.

>> MING: Steep.

>> Right?

>> MING: So you turn it off... >> So we cover this... >> MING: And let it simmer.

>> 35-minute simmer, and then... >> MING: And that's what you end up with.

>> That is what we end up with.

>> MING: Oh, look how beautiful.

It's nice and red, right?

>> Better, that smell.

Super-, super-sweet, super-, super-nice.

I'm going to move this over here.

>> MING: Strain this for you?

>> Do you want to... >> MING: On the board there.

>> Oh, yeah, go for it.

>> MING: All right, look at this color.

It's going to be beautiful red, oh, yeah.

Look at that.

>> And what we're looking for here... And, you know, again, the thing that nobody does that every recipe will tell you to do is just to gently push down.

Look at all of that liquid that comes out when you push it down.

There's going to be so much hidden liquid in there, you really want all that good stuff.

So push down on those solids.

>> MING: Smells so good.

>> So good.

>> MING: I mean, this is the base of your dish, you know it's going to be good.

>> And it is something that, even when I'm not making this dish, I'll always make stock.

Because if you're going to do a risotto or a pasta or, you know, any kind of natural sauce in the pan, to have this ingredient around in your kitchen is just absolutely unbelievable.

I mean, take a look.

>> MING: Thank you.

>> Yeah, of course.

>> MING: Wow.

>> I mean, that's just a nice... >> MING: I like being fed by you, Andrew.

That was very nice.

>> Well, there's nothing...

It's just beautiful and natural.

>> MING: So good!

It's so good.

>> Okay, so we have a pan.

>> MING: Okay.

>> We have it preheating-- butter.

Nice, big stick of butter.

Do you want to cut the... mince an onion for me.

Now, I like preheating pans.

I think most home cooks don't do enough of that.

And if your pan is nice and hot, you don't want your butter to burn, which I don't for this, you just pull it off the heat and melt the butter.

We're going to throw it back on there to get foamy when those onions go in there.

And if... did you notice, by the way, what I'm using?

>> MING: You're using a wok.

>> Right.

>> MING: So that's just to be nice to me, or this... >> No, not at all.

>> MING: You like woks?

>> Well, I love woks.

>> MING: Yep, me too.

>> And you and I have talked about this a lot before.

It's the most underutilized piece of equipment in most home cooks' kitchens, because they take it out when they want to stir-fry, but they don't realize you put a little insert in there, you can steam 20 pounds of asparagus in baskets going up to the ceiling.

It's deep, which I love.

>> MING: Onions for you.

>> Onions for me, all right.

So somewhere over there you should have bay leaves.

>> MING: I do, and garlic.

>> Celery seed.

We're going to put a couple of bay leaves in there.

>> MING: Oui.

>> Nice tablespoon of toasted celery seed.

>> MING: Minced garlic?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: Okay.

>> You know, smash-mince.

>> MING: How many cloves, five?

All these?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Because what we're... we're not going to burn them, we're not going to pull out any bitter flavors in there.

We're just going to get that nice sweet garlic going.

>> MING: Right.

Oh, smells so good already.

>> Well, celery seed, bay leaf, butter, I mean, you really can't go wrong.

>> MING: I think celery seed is not used that much, you know?

>> Well, it isn't.

>> MING: It should be.

I love celery seed.

>> So do I. I'll tell you what else I know you love, because we both like to cook the same kind of food, and that's celery.

>> MING: Yes.

>> When most people are in cooking school, and they learn, "Oh, you're going to make a mirepoix for a stock," carrot, onion, leek, they all have great flavor, but it's celery-- celery is the flavor that's the strongest, which is why it stands up to all of that Sichuan food.

>> MING: Yep.

>> Right?

>> MING: 100%.

>> Okay, so... >> MING: God, that smells so good.

>> We now know our onions are glassy.

We don't want to overcook our garlic, but you can start to smell it.

Once you smell the garlic, cup of tomato paste.

And this cup... because this is... yeah.

This is both our flavor and our thickener.

The nice thing is, there're so many good tomato pastes on the market now, you're not just reliant on only those tiny little cans.

>> MING: Right.

Since there's no roux, you have to have that-- that's your thickener.

>> That's exactly right.

>> MING: Got it.

>> And once... you can slowly see...

I'm not even working that hard to do it.

And I'm going to switch over to a nice wooden spat here.

That tomato paste is caramelizing in the fat that's in the butter.

We don't want to burn anything.

>> MING: Right.

>> But we want to make sure that we've really pulled all the flavors out of there.

So next thing that we want to do is add our stock, our celery, our thyme, and our scallion.

>> MING: So how do you want the celery prepped, Chef?

>> You can just thinly slice the celery.

And let's use the leaves.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Let's use as much of it as we can, because the leaf flavor is so fantastic.

The other thing that I'm going to do... >> MING: Super-thin?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: Okay.

>> The recipe calls for three tablespoons of thyme leaves.

And it's a really big player flavor-wise in here.

Pulling the thyme off of there is... >> MING: Yep.

>> Kind of a bit of a pain.

>> MING: Pain in the rear.

>> So all I do is I just make a little bouquet garni.

>> MING: And then you take the stems out.

And you've got your celery here, Chef.

>> And that is going to go in there.

You chop celery very quickly.

>> MING: Thank you.

>> You've done that before.

>> MING: More, good?

>> No, no, no, that looks great.

>> MING: Perfect?

>> And, you know, you raise a really good point.

This recipe, which is on your website, my website, is super-, super-tight.

But if you have a little more onion, a little less celery, a little... no big deal.

Now, we want all the scallion thinly sliced.

>> MING: Oui.

>> But we're only going to use three quarters of it now, and the rest will be part of our garnish.

>> MING: And green and white parts mixed... >> Every-- just not those little hairy root ends.

>> MING: Right, okay.

I love... you're just building flavor on flavor on flavor.

>> Well, you know, it's... it's so true.

The... if you dumped every ingredient in at the same time-- shrimp, everything-- and cooked it for ten minutes, it's not going to be bad, right?

It's going to taste good, because these ingredients all have an affinity for each other.

>> MING: Yep.

>> But by going in stages, bit by bit by bit by bit, we are building that symphonic flavor that's like an orchestral sort of thing.

>> MING: I mean, look how nice and thick that is already.

>> Yeah, it's gorgeous.

There we go.

>> MING: You want two-thirds in, you said?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: Okay.

>> And do you want to hand me the... the hot sauce?

The lemons we're going to need to juice.

>> MING: Got it.

>> Here, here's where things get, start to get interesting.

I want to add a lot of black pepper.

>> MING: Okay.

>> So, I mean, that's, like, a tablespoon and a half or something like that.

And, you know, ground-- ground black pepper.

>> MING: Freshly ground, which is so important.

>> So important.

>> MING: That much!

Wow, fantastic.

>> Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

Well, remember, that caramelized, sweet tomato paste... >> MING: Yep.

>> Has got a very, very sweet flavor.

Which is why the scallion, the lemon juice, the parsley, the Crystal hot sauce, which is extremely important...

I just want to be very careful.

Only add a couple of drops.

>> MING: Only a couple?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: After that much black pepper, you just wanted just a little bit?

>> Well, Crystal is mostly vinegar.

I think it's the...

I think it's the best flavored of all the hot sauces.

Can I say that?

I can say that.

>> MING: That's your opinion, absolutely.

>> I adore, I adore Crystal hot sauce.

So, like, two or three tablespoons of that.

>> MING: Okay.

>> And you see how thick this is.

We're, we're building that touffe, right, which means "to smother."

>> MING: Yes, you are.

I did some parsley-- I assumed you wanted that.

>> That's at the end.

>> MING: Okay.

>> That's at the end, along with the last of our scallion will go in.

And I'm guessing juice of two... are they soft?

>> MING: Yeah, pretty soft.

>> Yeah, two lemons.

>> MING: Two lemons, check.

>> You know, if they're hard, three lemons.

Now, this has all come together very nicely.

>> MING: Lemons at the end, too, right?

>> Lemons at the end.

>> MING: Okay.

>> So we got to start thinking about our shrimp.

>> MING: Yep.

>> Now, we have these gorgeous, big, wild-caught shrimp.

The nicer the shrimp, the better, right?

We have taken the veins out, we've washed and dried them.

But do you see these little tail fronds there?

>> MING: Yep.

>> Those are... they're meat.

They're, they're part of the shrimp itself.

>> MING: Right.

>> And I was cooking with Alzina Toups, the Julia Child of Cajun cookery.

>> MING: Yep.

>> She was... late 80s, early 90s.

And she said to me...

I mean, this is three or four years ago.

I'm in my mid-50s at that point.

And she says, she says, "What is it with you young cooks?

"You talk about sustainability, but you don't use every part of the animal."

And I...

I have... since that day she said that, I peewee every darn shrimp, I use every shell, because she's right.

And all you do is you just jiggle and jiggle, very slowly, just to loosen them around the collar.

And then when it slides off... >> MING: Oh, my God.

>> ...those fronds, those little tail feathers, stay there.

And they look beautiful in the dish.

I mean, look at that.

>> MING: I learned something today.

My day is complete-- thank you.

I mean, how many times have I peeled shrimp in my life?

Like, 1.9 million pieces of shrimp?

I've always, I've always taken off the tail.

>> But I was so embarrassed, I was so embarrassed sitting there in her kitchen, because she was 100% right.

>> MING: Yeah.

>> And she really lived a lifestyle that was all about using absolutely everything.

Now, I don't put salt in until the end, because obviously with all the shrimp in there, we've got a lot of that flavor.

>> MING: Right.

>> And when it comes down to this stage in the cooking... >> MING: Right.

>> I make sure that my heat is as low as possible, but it's still cooking.

And the reason is that shrimp need to be cooked as slow as possible so that they stay tender.

And here I just want to stir them around and let them just come to be cooked through.

>> MING: So good, oh, my God, that looks so good.

>> It is.

>> MING: It is so good.

>> It's so good.

I literally can't wait for you to... Well, it doesn't even have the lemon in there.

>> MING: So good already.

It tastes just like I thought it'd taste.

That is so depth, so deep in flavor.

>> And such a great technique, too-- no roux, no roux.

>> MING: I love the fact.

So how long are we going to let this go?

Probably... >> Three minutes, four minutes.

Well, it doesn't take long for the shrimp to cook and start to curl up.

This has to go over rice, because it's touffe.

>> MING: Has to be smothered.

>> It's got to smother something.

>> MING: Stay tuned-- we're going to smother you in three minutes.

>> All right, so that turns off.

These only cooked for, you know, five, six minutes.

>> MING: Five minutes total.

>> The one thing that you got to be careful is, you got to stir it a bunch.

Because the sauce is so thick... >> MING: Yeah.

>> It actually won't really cook very evenly, so you're always stirring this while it cooks for those five minutes.

You can see everything is perfectly cooked.

If you want to get into analysis paralysis, you can hunt down the bay leaves, or you just tell your guests, "Don't eat the bay leaves."

Or you do what I do, which is if you get a bay leaf, you do the dishes.

>> MING (laughs): I would throw it... >> Then, another dose of scallions.

So we have cooked scallion, and we have the raw scallion.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Parsley, that was beautifully chopped and not over-chopped, goes in.

>> MING: Okay.

>> Do you want to just taste the sauce for a little bit of seasoning?

>> MING: It would be my pleasure.

>> I think we're good.

We got a little salt in there.

>> MING: Oh, my God, perfect-- balanced... >> So next thing we do... >> MING: I love the butter... >> Well, that's the thing.

It's the butter and tomato paste.

Because remember when we emulsified those together?

>> MING: Yep.

>> Well, these are juicy.

I'm just going to use one and a half lemons.

You know, something in between an eighth and a quarter of a cup.

>> MING: So here I made you, I made you our house rice.

House rice is 50-50 brown and white.

>> Oh, yum.

>> MING: We just soak the brown rice for an hour first, and you cook them together.

Very simple.

>> And I like to just press down with my first spoonful, and, you know, three beautiful shrimp per, to start.

And then let everyone pass this around.

But the key to this is, you can see what the ratio is, right?

Everyone gets an extra spoonful of that because this is touffe, which means smothered.

>> MING: Smothered.

>> So I want you smothering that.

>> MING: That is beautiful.

>> And then, because we just love just another layer of that beautiful parsley flavor.

>> MING: So good.

>> And that's it.

I mean, super-, super-simple.

What are you, allergic?

You're not going to try it?

>> MING: Okay.

>> Yeah, I mean, this is... >> MING: Well, I wanted to do civilized, you know, sit at a table, but, you know what?

>> Oh, is that what we do?

>> MING: Not anymore, no.

>> Okay.

>> MING: This is good.

I'm so happy to eat this right now.

>> I'm... (laughing): I am, too.

I mean, that's good, right?

>> MING: That is so good.

And I don't miss the roux at all.

>> You don't.

>> MING: It's actually better.

The roux gets a little too heavy for me.

>> It's a different way of doing it, and different is fine.

We need to celebrate difference.

>> MING: You know, I don't have to cook my dish.

Why don't we just sit down?

>> Mmm.

>> MING: No, I should cook my dish.

All right, stick around-- cooking my dish real quick.

It'll be very fast-- three-minute salt-and-pepper shrimp.

Don't go away.

Dude, that was so good.

>> I'm glad you liked it.

>> MING: Best touffe ever.

It's not heavy, but the sweetness of the tomato, fantastic.

>> Sophisticated.

>> MING: Do I get to eat more, please?

>> No, no, there's tons of it left.

But I want to eat this.

Because this is my favorite.

>> MING: Head-on shrimp, salt and pepper.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: Pretty traditional, but I tweaked it a little bit.

So we have all these peppercorn.

This is Sichuan peppercorns, which is the "ma" of "mala."

Mala is the... dump it all.

Mala is... numb is ma, la means spicy.

So what happens, as you know, is, good Sichuan peppercorns numb your mouth and prepares you for more spice.

So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to get more spice.

Here is some egg white.

I'm going to just add a little bit of tap water, just to loosen it up.

This is going to kind of be the glue of the shrimp to stick our peppercorns on.

So what I'm going to do, here we have... >> This technique, by the way, great for any kind of seafood.

>> MING: Yeah, 100%.

Corn starch-- I love corn starch.

Crispy.

How you coming along?

This is some white peppercorn that we already had ground.

This is going to be pretty spicy, guys.

>> Well, you gave me a tiny little mortar and pestle.

>> MING: Well...

I'm not going to say anything.

All right, that's good.

>> Do you like that?

>> MING: Dump the whole thing in.

>> The whole thing in there.

>> MING: There we go.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Perfect.

Coarse salt, right?

Coarse sea salt.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: Like that.

Shrimp.

Yes, please.

Give me one inch-- perfect.

And all of those jalapeos thinly sliced, not too thin.

Shrimp into the egg white.

Right?

Like this.

Then into this, and we cover, right?

Like that.

Just cover all these.

Put these on the board, get them out of the way, make some more room.

I find that with the egg white, it really helps everything stick to it.

It's called velveting, right, when you velvet shrimp?

>> Beautiful-- yeah, yeah.

>> MING: Usually velveting, when you do that, the shrimp and walnut, the classic dish, it's not shell-on.

But I like the shell on, because it protects the shrimp.

We're going to quickly... >> Yes.

>> MING: ...flash-fry it and then wok-stir it with all those great things you have going on.

>> And they stay moister, and the flavor in the shell goes into the meat.

It's just delish.

>> MING: Yep.

And the best part of this dish, actually is the heads, right?

Okay, there we go.

>> Always.

>> MING: Here's all our shrimp.

All right, I'm going to go into this fryer.

Wash my hands.

That's a great technique.

>> I love it.

It just takes the ribs, it takes the base, I mean, it just... it works.

And I'm going to give you strips.

>> MING: Time to fry shrimp, all right?

Remember, egg wash-coated, right?

Get these in here.

Hot, hot, hot oil like that, guys, right?

Don't dump them all at once.

I don't want them to all stick together.

So I think we're not going to be getting all these in here.

But we're going to get about that many.

It's going to take probably three to four minutes, so we're going to take a quick break.

Your jalapeos are looking good?

>> Yep.

>> MING: The shrimp's going to come out, because it's fried, then we bring it together with the scallions, garlic, ginger, and the jalapeos-- stick around.

Salt-and-pepper shrimp.

All right, Andrew, look at these puppies.

About three minutes.

>> Yep.

>> MING: Nice and crispy.

>> Yep.

>> MING: All right, and this dish is almost done.

What we're going to do is take this oil.

>> Dump.

>> MING: This oil is kind of dead, meaning it had all of that flour and stuff.

>> Sure.

>> MING: So what we have to do is wipe it out.

But, of course, 'cause the wok is so hot, let's not switch woks-- that would be silly.

>> That would be silly.

Why would we do that?

>> MING: Then we're going to add a little bit of fresh canola, just a teaspoon.

All right, please dump.

>> Dump.

>> MING: Garlic, ginger.

>> Garlic, ginger.

>> MING: Excellent.

I'll take your scallions and jalapeos, too, please.

>> Scallions... God, those are so nicely... >> MING: They're perfectly cut.

>> Really nice.

>> MING: I've never seen scallions ever...

It's nice of you to actually cut on my show-- I appreciate that.

>> Yeah, no, absolutely.

Well, you never let anyone cut vegetables on your show.

>> MING: A little bit of salt and pepper.

And I'm going to add sambal.

>> Yep.

>> MING: Like that.

>> Yep.

You know, you talked before about the layers of flavor in the touffe.

With the Sichuan peppercorns and black pepper in the shrimp, and then the chili, you have so many different ways in which the hot-chili flavor is coming... >> MING: But that's spicy, right?

Ready?

>> Yes.

>> MING: Boom, like that.

(pan sizzling) >> Mmm, mmm, mmm.

>> MING: And that dish is basically done.

That's it.

>> And one of my favorite dishes to eat.

I'm just... the crunchy, the spicy, the... (gasps): With the scallion, fantastic.

That's gorgeous.

>> MING: There we go.

We get to eat now.

>> (gasps) >> MING: Yes!

All right, Andrew, a couple of kir royales for us.

>> You are so kind.

>> MING: To you.

>> Cheers to you, my friend.

>> MING: To you.

>> Mmm.

>> MING: Please.

Let's go in.

>> Now, I hope you don't mind that I'm just... because I'm like an otter.

>> MING: You do the whole thing?

Oh, he does the whole thing, I love that.

So I bite the heads and suck the brains out.

>> (mouth full): Oh, my God.

I just eat the whole...

I mean... >> MING: You eat the whole thing.

I take this, then I eat the legs...

Which then loosens up the meat inside.

Comes out-- what do you think?

>> Fantastic.

>> MING: Is it good?

>> Mmm.

All those flavors just go so well with shrimp.

And I love any... shrimp and scallion anything.

>> MING: That is just so, like... >> Mmm!

>> MING: We did pretty good here.

>> It's not too hot.

>> MING: It's not crazy-hot.

No, not crazy-hot.

All right, I got to have a little bit more touffe too while we're here.

>> Mmm.

>> MING: That's so good.

My friend... >> Mmm.

>> MING: No wonder you are the man.

No wonder you've won every award.

You deserve it.

>> Come on.

>> MING: That you are-- thank you.

And all you, thank you so much.

Make these dishes, go to Lucky Cricket.

As always, peace and good eating.

Cheers.