Wicked Good - Smoked Tuna Roe Shrimp Alfredo

Holy hell. Iron Chef Hawaii just threw down tonight. Tsu has been working on the components for this dish the last few days and oh my lord, the magic that he put before me tonight for dinner was so wicked-good, it blew my wicked mind.

Fruit Ninja dropped by earlier this week, Monday, I think. Although, this time, Fruit Ninja didn’t come bearing fruit.

This time, she brought something kinda rare, even though that is very much her game. Normally she is bringing special fruit or an abundance of seasonal fruit or on occasion, a Japanese dish she has made herself and wants to introduce to us.

But this time... she brings a hefty 2 lb hunk of beautiful, dark red tuna and the entire roe sack from the same fish, fresh caught that morning from the neighbor next door to her, two doors down the street. 

The stack of empty organic egg cartons she leaves behind tells the story of what I can return for the bounty she just shared with me. My gorgeous free range eggs makes a perfect barter even though she shares with me so frequently, I could never repay her kindness with eggs alone. But I sure do like the fact that I can provide something in return that she will enjoy, too.  I package up a dozen for Tsunami to take to her right away. 

After tonight’s meal, I package up another dozen for good measure.

Now, I know you may not have access to this type of thing so I won’t act like you do. I mean, I don’t. This was a gift. And up until now, I honestly never gave a thought to tuna roe. I’ve had salmon roe on sushi, even a Russian or Bulgarian caviar, but tuna roe? Nope. This was one of those things that just falls into your... um, smoker?

Well, that is just what Tsu did with it, being the mastermind he is. He smoked that package of yum. But he brined it first.

Yep this star of this particular food-gasm had 3 preparations before being blended into the smoked silkiness that would become THE BEST ALFREDO I’VE EVER EATEN. Yes, I know... All caps! Hands down this is drop the mic out of this world something you must try. You must.

So pretense, be damned. You may not get your hands on it, but IF YOU DO, you may come back looking for this here recipe, y’all. Mark my aloha.

In case you are lucky enough to purvey such a delicacy and want to try or are just plain curious, here is what Tsu did:

Prep the roe for the Alfredo “base” sauce:

1. Brine the roe For 24 hours in 2 tbsp sugar, enough water to completely cover roe, dash of salt.
2. Smoke the roe on low smoke hour and a half, mesquite chips.
3. Remove the roe from the sack. You can scrape it out with a spoon or just remove it like a casing on a sausage.
4. Sim simma the roe in garlic, butter, on low heat, whisking to break up roe so it doesn’t form lumps like you’d expect with ground beef. 
5. Gradually and gently whisk in half n half or heavy cream.
6. Purée this in a blender when the sauce has cooled. Blending hot liquids can be a disaster so I caution you to let this sufficiently cool before you do so or it will end up all over you and your kitchen ceiling.

Prep your Alfredo fixings (optional):
Tsu and I both love mushrooms so our Alfredo sauce adds sautéed mushrooms in white wine and butter, probably garlic and fresh thyme. This is entirely up to you but it is how we eat or Alfredo normally and I think the richness of flavor is important.

Serve:
When ready to serve, Tsu warmed up the smoked roe “base”, added roughly a cup of store bought Alfredo sauce to loosen the sauce and then gently added the sautéed mushrooms.

We served it over penne pasta which was cooked al dente, then warmed and finished in the pan with the sauce. You could use virtually any pasta you desire but penne was a good choice because it can grab the sauce, which trust me, you will love.

Garnish with sliced scallions, fresh parsley and fresh black pepper. Oh, and copious amounts of fresh grated parmesan cheese, naturally.

Suggestions:
We served ours with local peeled, deveined shrimp that were dusted with Cajun seasonings then lightly seared for a minute on each side but not cooked through. The shrimp finish their cook in the sauce, along with the penne, just before serving so they warm through but don’t end up over-cooked.

The next night we served it with gorgeous seared scallops.

The last night, I made zoodles with my spiralizer and a summer zucchini which I served with the remaining sauce. I’m obsessed with zoodles because I love zucchini and summer squash. It’s keto-friendly, too if you are avoiding or watching carbs. And by night 3, if you are so lucky, zoodles might be the way to go!

Sadly, there was no night 4... ;)

How to Hoisin like a Rockstar

So we are stuck at home waiting out an afternoon rain shower in order to go out and harvest the massive amount of collard greens sitting in the garden.  In the meantime, we feel the need to finish making these beautiful spare ribs that have been smoking and creating a hunger in the neighborhood since the wee hours of the morning.

Tsunami needs to make his ginger teryaki glaze to finish them off on the grill, which was also his marinade for the ribs that are currently in the smoker. We've used this awesome ginger-infused sauce in our Hibachi recipes numerous times even in the last couple of weeks. It's that good... So much so that what would seem like an impossible feat, we are actually out of his stand-by sauce that he literally made a gallon of just a week or so ago. Seems we are also out of hoisin sauce, which is not surprising given that it's a main ingredient in our go-to-Teriyaki-Bachi sauce. 

I will definitely post that recipe as well but, as usual, I got inspired. Partially, I wanted to see if I could avoid going into Honoka'a just for hoisin. It's not that far, but jeez, what's in hoisin anyway, Alexa? 

Turns out hoisin is comprised of many good yummy things I knew I already had on hand. I didn't have any peanut butter so my recipe calls for cashew butter, although many recipes I saw used peanut butter. Again, remember my mission: make a hoisin substitute without going to the store. lol! And it was just freaking delicious. So much so I don't know that I'll ever use peanut butter when I make this but you can decide that for yourself.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce.
• 2 tablespoons smooth cashew butter (just a handful of cashews pulsed in my bullet)
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar.
• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar.
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced.
• 2 teaspoons sesame seed oil.
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (more or less to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper.

So, as I mentioned, I didn't have peanut butter or cashew butter, for that matter. But I did have roasted and lightly salted cashews. Given that I've made cashew butter before many times, I just decided that I'd make the cashew butter by adding a handful of cashews and everything else in the recipe to a Ninja bullet processor. It worked like a charm and was delicious!

And I was quite proud of myself when I handed it to Tsunami to complete the mission. He sorta rolls his eyes suspiciously like, wtf is this? But then I just do a sweet stare down, smiling expectantly. It took about 15 seconds longer than it should have but eventually,  he obeys the voodoo I just put on him and tastes it. Oh yea... that's what I thought, Freakshow. Lick it up.

He doesn't say a word but takes the package from my hands and skedaddles off to the kitchen to finish the go-to-Teriyaki-Bachi sauce that will become my next post. If I don't get sidetracked. Fingers crossed. 

In the time it took to Google and whip out the Ninja, the rain has somehow turned into a bit of an extended downpour. It's only been a few minutes but now, I'm really inspired to get the greens going. Ah, screw it. I put on my Wellies and head out to the garden to harvest about 5 lbs of collard greens. In the misty, warm rain. How sucky. lol! Hardly. Totally fun in a big kid way and well worth the pretend sacrifice I am making in the effort to go out right now. I could wait. But I don't. Collard greens are a perfect foil for our very-Teriyaki ribfest we have in the works and it just couldn't wait a minute more.

But check it... now we know how to hoisin and hopefully, so do you! Even if you don't go through quite as much hoisin as we do, it's still kinda cool to know that it's pretty easy to make and it's more than likely that you have most of these ingredients on hand as well.

Next stop on this Hoisin train: Go-To-Teriyaki-Bachi Sauce