February 11, 2015 New Recipe   Taramasalata   Lunch with Peter Eller   Dinner  Stir Fried Pork with Shanghai Baby Bok Choy

I invited Peter Eller for lunch.  I wanted to make a Middle Eastern lunch so I found this taramasalata recipe on the internet.

Taramasalata recipe (Greek Fish Roe dip or Taramosalata)

Posted by Eli K. Giannopoulos in 40 minutes or less, Appetizer & Meze, Beginner, Mainland Greece, Our hand picked recipes, Traditional Greek dips, Traditional Greek Easter Lent recipes, Vegetarian

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Creamy, smooth and absolutely delicious! A traditional Taramasalata recipe (or Taramosalata) made from fish roe, olive oil, lemon juice, grated onions and bread. Simply delicious! Usually served as part of a meze platter with lots of pita breads or bread, taramasalata is a very popular Greek dip throughout the year, but especially on Shrove Monday, the first day of the Easter lent.

Taramasalata – Homemade vs. Store-bought?

This intense flavored homemade taramasalata recipe can’t compare with the store-bought. Mass-produced taramasalata is more often than not of poor quality and has a very bright pink hue due to the addition of food coloring along with lots of unnecessary thickeners. Fresh taramasalata is really easy to make at home, as the tarama and bread mixture is emulsified with olive oil, giving it a natural thickness, smoothness and exquisite taste. Depending on the type of roe used in each taramasalata recipe, its colour can vary from light beige to pale pink. So if you find yourself dipping your fluffy pita bread into a bright pink taramasalata dip, be sure that it has been saturated with food coloring.

So spare yourself from all the unnecessary conservatives, thickeners and food colouring! Give this traditional taramasalata recipe a try and enjoy your own fresh homemade taramasalata in less than 15 minutes.

Ingredients

• 100g white tarama (fish roe) (3.5 oz.)
• 300g white stale bread (crust removed), soaked in water and squeezed (10 oz.)
• 170-180 ml olive oil (3/4 of a cup)
• juice 2 lemons
• 1 medium red onion, grated

Instructions

1.      To prepare this delicious taramasalata recipe, start by soaking the bread (crust removed) in water and squeeze well to remove the excess water.

2.      In a food processor add the bread, grated onion and the tarama. Blend until the ingredients are mashed (like a pulp). Add half lemon juice and blend a little more. Pour in the olive oil gradually (just a little bit at a time) whilst blending, like making mayonnaise. Blend until the oil is incorporated and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Taste the taramasalata add some more lemon juice, according to preference and blend again.

I did not measure my ingredients for the taramasalata, but I am sure I used about 3 oz. of taramasalata, 2 slices of stale baguette (200 grams), 2 Tbsp. of olive oil and juice of ½ lemon; which produced a really nice fish eggy flavor.

Then I opened a can of cracked spicy green olives seasoned with chili flakes and garlic and sliced a Roma tomato and peeled and sliced 1/3 of a cucumber into slices.  When Peter came I toasted a freshly baked pita bread for each of us and cut them in halves and we made stuffed pita sandwiches with taramasalata, cucumbers and tomatoes and ate olives while we engaged in one of our long ranging conversations.

I took two boneless pork sirloin chops from the freezer after lunch and thawed them.

Stir Fried Pork with Baby Bok Choy

At about 6:00 I started chopping ingredients for a stir fry dish.  I chopped into bite sized chunks 4 Shanghai baby bock choy, separating the white stalk from the green leaves.  Then I chopped the 2 pork steaks into ½ inch cubes, 4 Tbsp. of onion, 1 1/2 Tbsp. of ginger root, 4 cloves of garlic and five shitake mushrooms.  I then decided to add some color and chopped ½ red bell pepper. 

I arranged the ingredients into separate bowls depending upon their cooking times: 

            the first bowl held the onion, bell pepper, ginger and garlic,

            the second bowl, the chopped pork,

            the third bowl, the white stalks of bok choy, and

            the fourth bowl, the green bok choy leaves and mushrooms.  

I got out our bottles of Chinese Cooking wine, Mushroom dark Soy, sesame oil, chili oil, garlic and chili paste, and oyster sauce and made 1/3 cup of chicken stock with hot water and Knorr dehydrated chicken stock.

1.         I heated 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil, a dash of sesame oil and a dash of chili oil in my wok and when hot added the first bowl and 1 tsp. of chili paste and cooked until tender (about five minutes).  I cooked this dish at medium high heat, so it would cook quickly.

2.         Then I added the pork and stirred and cooked until the pork changed color from red to gray (about five minutes).

3.         I added bowl 3 and stirred in the bock choy stalks plus 1/3 cup of chicken stock and covered and steamed another four or five minutes.

            While the mixture was steaming I made a thickening sauce with 3 heaping Tsp. of cornstarch, 1 Tbsp. of mushroom soy, 1 Tbsp. of oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp. of Chinese Cooking and a dash of sesame oil and about ¼ cup of water. These measurements are all variable depending upon the amount of liquid in the dish and volume ingredients.  You must learn how much thickening sauce to use based upon your experience. 

4.         Then I added bowl 4 and stirred it in to get the ingredients covered by the cooking liquid and covered the wok again to steam and cook for another three minutes.

5.         When it looked like the mushrooms had absorbed enough cooking liquid to soften and darken in color a bit, I added the thickening sauce and stirred it in.  The dish immediately thickened and parts of it turned dark and sticky so I added more water until the sauce became thinner and developed a sheen on its surface.  The dish was ready to eat.

6.        Suzette heated a bowl of PPI basmati rice in the microwave and then Suzette piled two plates with rice and we each piled on ladles full of the stir fried pork.

Tip:  If you have still have some of the food left in the wok and intend to save the dish as a PPI, add a bit of water to the wok because the dish will keep cooking and will turn into glue if you do not dilute the sauce with water.

I made a cup of green tea to drink with my dinner and Suzette drank water.

This evening's meal is a good example of how you can play with the colors and cuts of ingredients to develop a dish that is both pleasing to the eye and the palate.  Notice that the sauce has maintained the sheen that indicates it has the proper texture.

When I was in my 20’s living single as a young lawyer this is the kind of stir fried dinner I prepared almost every night.  Although the chopping is somewhat time consuming, after you get the basis ingredients and sauces, it is an easy dish to prepare from a technical standpoint and clean-up is a breeze, just rinse out the wok and plate and wipe them dry.

We watched John Stewart announce his departure from his show after 17 years.

After dinner I ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh blueberries and a dash of Framboise (raspberry liquor) that Suzette bought this week.

 Bon Appétit