Making Fusion Food – Recipes, Festival, Interviews
Victoria sponge, a very popular tea-time cake in the UK is usually two layers of sponge sandwiching jam and buttercream. I decided to use whipped mascarpone and LOTS of fresh raspberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds instead of jam and buttercream as I prefer something lighter, juicier and not too sweet. Some toasted flaked almonds were scattered on top for a bit of crunch. A note to myself for the next time I make it would be to up the mascarpone filling- more cream is always welcomed!
I’ve been obsessing over my blueberry plant ever since it started to ripen, very beautifully I might add. Blue begins to marble the skin and within a day or two the entire fruit turns from green to a dusty blue, then whole bunches turn blue then the whole tree.. it’s quite exciting watching it happening! My plant was heavy with ripe fruit a few days ago so I decided it was time to pick them and bake something. There wasn’t enough for pie or a crumble so a pound cake it was. There’s also some sliced rhubarb in it, since I had two stalks that needed to be used. Rhubarb and almond go hand-in-hand so in went some marzipan into the batter, and also some cream cheese.. I replaced a bit of the flour with ground almonds and this resulted in the cake falling after it was removed from the oven, but that’s ok- it was still delicious.
For a “regular” sized loaf pan:
170g sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
90g blueberries
1 stalk rhubarb, cut into 0.5-1cm chunks
170g self raising flour
20g ground almonds
160g butter
160g cream cheese
40g marzipan (I used Anthon Berg 60% Almond Marzipan)
50ml milk
2 eggs
1. Grease and line a loaf tin, preheat oven to 160°.
2. Cream butter, sugar and marzipan until light and fluffy. Add egg one at a time, then add the cream cheese, vanilla and milk.
3. Fold in the flour and ground almonds.
4. Fill the tin 1/2 full and scatter the blueberries and rhubarb chunks (save some for the top), then top with the rest of the batter and place some blueberries and rhubarb on top.
5. Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven.
This victoria sponge recipe is adapted from a Martha Stewart strawberry shortcake recipe, but since I spread some jam between the layers I thought a Victoria Sponge was a more befitting name. It’s no ordinary victoria sponge- instead of light and fluffy sponge or chiffon cakes for the cake layers, this one is a marzipan-cornmeal pound cake. It isn’t very heavy and dense though, it’s still pretty fluffy and the almond flavour is so addictive and pairs very well with the jam . Atop the slick of jam on the cake is a generous layer of mascarpone cream, a cool and neutral flavour to tame down the sweetness of the cake. I topped the cakes with the tiniest and cutest English strawberries- instant kitschy cute. Almost unbearably cute..
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Leading up to Asian Feastival, we’ll not only give you a sneak peek at some of our participating restaurants, but a chance to get to know some of our panelists as well. Say hello to Bruce Cost. One of the trailblazers of Asian cuisine in America, Bruce is an established restaurateur, lecturer, cookbook author, and most recently, the founder of Real Ginger, Ginger Ale. Not only will he be on the Asian Fusion Confusion panel with Ed Schoenfeld and Jamie Tiampo, but he’ll be bringing his ginger ale to pair with our smorgasbord of tastings.
Asian Feastival: You have long been one of the nation’s leading authorities on Asian food. How did you first get interested in Asian food?
Bruce Cost: Long time ago when I started working right out of college (1966), I had friend from Shanghai who cooked me a steamed fish with ginger. Also around the same time, my wife bought me a wok for my birthday. I was interested in China because there wasn’t much news about it then. I studied in New York City for years with the late Virginia Lee before continuing to learn on my own.
AF: You seem to have found the secret ingredient in how to make Asian food appealing to the mainstream American. What provided you with such insights?
BC: What I do I’d like to think is traditional, but tastes good to anyone in any culture. I am not a fan of most fusion cooking. I do use the best possible ingredients, which is more the case in Asia than U.S. Often Chinese restaurants in America cut corners, particularly with oils and stocks. Also, the interior of my restaurants is modern without many Asian touches, probably more highly designed and comfortable than many Chinese restaurants.
AF: Ginger has recently been named the number one Asian flavor in Asian cuisine when polling food service professionals nationwide recently. Why do you think Americans are growing so fond of ginger these days?
BC: I believe, more than any herbal ingredient, mankind has an affinity for ginger which people began using hundreds of years ago in South and East Asia, it makes food taste better, it makes people feel better and, many don’t realize, it’s a mild stimulant — it warms you up. Ginger is taking its rightful place as a mainstream ingredient because it’s for sale everywhere and American chefs now consider it a staple no matter what kind of cooking they do.
AF: What inspired you to come up with the idea of bottling natural, unfiltered ginger ale?
BC: I sold it for almost 20 years in my restaurants, starting in California; but we made it on-site and added carbonated water and a squeeze of lime to order; Because it was always the top selling beverage in all the restaurants, outselling even Coke, I’ve been meaning to bottle it for years and finally did with my partners at TMI Trading. Some think the bottled beverage is even better. There are currently 3 flavors – regular, pomegranate and green tea.
AF: How did you come up with these flavors?
BC: The pomegranate is the second most popular flavor in my restaurants. The jasmine tea was an experiment that worked.
AF: Are you working on new flavors to be introduced?
BC: Probably introduce a new flavor next spring.
AF: I know friends visiting from Asia also asked where they can get some. This product seems to have struck the perfect chord, attracting both Asian and non-Asian. Where are some of the places people can find your ginger ale these days?
BC: Mostly in NY area right now: Whole Foods, Dean & Deluca, Gourmet Garage, Zabars, and many small gourmet grocery stores. Restaurants such as Porchetta, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Barbutto. Many distinguished small Asian restaurants in Lower East Side, East Village, Brooklyn….FreshDirect is delivering it. There’s some in Chicago and Minnesota. It’ll soon be in California and also Park N Shop in Hong Kong.
AF: What is your favorite kind of food or cuisine?
BC: Chinese food is essentially my career. It is the oldest, most fascinating (they employ every known cooking technique and an infinite variety of ingredients) and most influential (a case can be made that for all surrounding Asian countries, Chinese is the mother cuisine). In Southern China, everyone has been fanatical about fresh, local ingredients for centuries. I love a whole, fresh steamed fish, preferably one that I caught. I also love pork belly, a staple of China forever that Americans are just discovering.
So you think you know what Chinese food is? Have you tried Qingdao style cuisine? M&T Restaurant in Flushing serves up this northeast Chinese coastal city’s fine cuisine. Being that it’s a coastal city, most of what they eat comes from the sea. Although Qingdao is commonly known for its namesake beer, Tsingtao, they have to be eating something to accompany the beer that they drink.
It is not a fancy place, and you could easily mistake it for just another Chinese restaurant in Flushing, but what a wonderful surprise. I think the best food always comes out of small, hole-in-the-wall type of places, and this is definitely one of the best.
Opened by Ms. Mei and Mr. Tang, the food served in this quaint restaurant serves what the couple considers comfort food, as a reminder of their hometown Qingdao. We asked Donna for recommendations on what to order. The menu is very simple and straightforward with no real descriptions to tantalize your palate, but everything that we ordered was definitely special, different, and very delicious.
“Qingdao Cold Noodles,” described as “cold pasta with special sauce,” is one of the most popular signature dishes. Made from seaweed imported directly from Qingdao, the noodles are a result of extracting the gelatin from the seaweed after hours of stewing. Served chilled, the cold pasta isn’t even technically a noodle, but rather consists of rectangular cubes of jelly with a buoyant bite. It’s a really refreshing dish served with shredded carrots and cilantro sitting in a vinegar sauce with lots of garlic.
The shrimp and cabbage dish was sautéed in it’s own roe, which gave it a lot of flavor.
We also ordered eggs sautéed with clams and scallions. The eggs were scrambled to perfection and the clam juice that came out of the clams being sautéed with the eggs made this dish extra tasty!
The squid with garlic shoots and chili was juicy. The squid was soft and tender, and the garlic shoots complemented the sautéed squid so well, and the chili gave it a nice little kick of flavor. And, like all of the seafood we were having, it tasted as if everything was caught that day — fresh and delicious.
In addition to what we ordered, Donna gave us a few extra dishes to try including pickled lotus roots, fish that was flash fried, which was a bit sweet and a little salty, and sweet pumpkin pancake fritters.
With the warm weather, it’s nice to eat a meal that tastes fresh, light, and unexpected.