Recipes on Harlan D. Harris

Stovetop Smoked Chinese Fish

harlan@harris.name (Harlan Harris) — Sun, 13 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I've been cooking a recipe recently of my own creation that I really like, and there isn't much similar on the internet, so I'm sharing the recipe here. It's a combination of two great things -- hot-smoking fish with wood chips in a stovetop smoker, and the fermented flavors of Hunanese cuisine.

Smoked fish and duck are common flavors in Chinese cooking. Tea-smoked duck is common on Chinese menus in America, and Chinese cookbooks have recipes like Steamed Smoked Fish with Black Beans and Chiles. But those recipes typically suggest purchasing a smoked trout or similar, and adding additional ingredients. I've had great luck starting with raw fish. There are a few examples of similar techniques, but not that many.

How I Rewrite Recipes

harlan@harris.name (Harlan Harris) — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A thing that I do when I cook is to re-write the recipes I’m using (whether they’re from a cookbook or my own invention) onto a piece of paper in a very specific way. I think the approach I use is handy, so I’m describing it here in case you’d like to use it. (Or in case you need more evidence about how weird I am.)

There are 4 ideas that I think are important:

Pretzel Whoopie Pies with Vanilla Stout Filling

harlan@harris.name (Harlan Harris) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My newish cooking club had a dinner yesterday with the theme American Beer. I was tasked with dessert, and came up with this recipe for Pretzel Whoopie Pies. They turned out extremely well, so I thought I’d share the recipe here.

Sources:

About.com Southern Food (basic whoopie pie recipe)
Southern Living (Stout buttercream)
Ideas In Food (flavor combo)
Bakewise (cookie recipe tweaks)

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks
1/2 c minus 1 T sugar
1 T light corn syrup
1/2 c finely ground unsalted mini pretzels
1/2 c cake flour
1 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
4 T butter, softened
1/3 c milk
kosher salt
1 c stout beer (Breckenridge Vanilla Porter is excellent)
4 T butter, softened
8 oz powdered sugar

Recipe:

Savory and sweet, pears and beets

harlan@harris.name (Harlan Harris) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Hah, it rhymes! The fall haul (hah!) from the CSA inevitably means two things, root vegetables and ungodly numbers of pears. I love root vegetables, but tend to find pears to be pale imitations of apples. But when poached in red wine, or cooked with butter and sugar, pears can have some redeeming value. Recently, for the cooking club, I teamed up to make a dessert with the theme “Fall Harvest.” We were inspired by a recent recipe from the late, lamented Gourmet magazine, Beet and Pear Napoleons with Ginger Juice Vinaigrette. Roasted beets layered with pears, with flavors of ginger, citrus, tarragon, and poppy. In fact, we were so inspired by the dish, that we made it too, and started the dinner with an amuse of the original recipe: