Can anyone help my bud out here? I snipped his e-mail address and nym to protect him from the spam bots, so if you have an answer, ping me offlist! Thanks!
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The following is my attempt to imitate a Japanese recipe that I once had at a sushi restaurant. I forget the name of it (the recipe, not the restaurant, although I think the place may now be closed). Anyway.
I admit up front that this is a pale imitation. I am not sure if *any* of the ingredients are correct, but it uses similar techniques, has roughly the same visual appeal, and it does taste good. My dinner guests generally approve of it, and maybe you're looking for something a little fancy to cook for Valentine's day, having forgotten to make a dinner reservation in time.
If anybody recognizes this dish (I suspect it is a traditional thing, and not unique to the chef in question), please let me know, because I can't even think of how to google for it properly, not knowing for sure anything about the name or the ingredients.
Alternatively, if you are in Chicago (I am not, or I would do this myself), check for a small sushi bar on the street between the Park West and Clark (sort of at the foot of 2020 Lincoln Park West). I think this is on the menu there, if it is still open.
First person to furnish me with a bona fide recipe for this delicacy will receive some sort of interesting Foofus prize.
--Foofus.
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Spinach Twirlies
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1 large bunch of raw spinach (baby spinach is best)
[the spinach wilts down to a surprisingly small
fraction of its original size; you'll need a
lot... like 1 lb. for 2 biggish servings] 3 tbsp "panang" spicy peanut sauce 1 tbsp molasses 1 tsp soy sauce (Kikkoman! Kikkoman!) 1 dash chili oil (optional) 1 pinch sugar 1 tsp sweet cooking rice wine (aji mirin) 1 handful roasted unsalted peanuts
Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Place the spinach in a strainer and lower it into the water, stirring it with a wooden spoon until it blanches (for spinach, this means "turns deep green and limp"). If you have a lot of spinach, or a small strainer, you may have to do this in shifts. Anyway, once you have the spinach turning soft, remove it from the water and set it on a cutting board.
Hold the cutting board at an angle over a sink. With a spatula, press down on the spinach so that the residual water drains out. Repeat this process several times, turning the spinach this way and that, until there's less water (or you get bored and can't stand it any more).
Set out a flat rectangle of clear plastic wrap. Arrange the spinach in a log across the middle of the wrap, and parallel to the edges. Short fat logs are better than long thin logs, since we're going to roll up the plastic wrap. Fold the plastic lengthwise around the spinach, leaving the ends open, and endeavoring to trap in as little air as possible.
Now roll up the plastic wrap (see? I told you!), so that it becomes sort of a plastic sausage casing. Roll and roll, holding onto the ends, so they get all twisty and tight. Place the spinach-sausage in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (you can accelerate the process by using a freezer, but be careful not to actually freeze the spinach).
Combine the molasses, soy sauce (and, optionally, the chili oil) and a pinch of sugar in a little dish and whisk together.
With a mortar and pestle crush up the peanuts coarsely.
Get some plates. With a soup spoon, distribute the peanut sauce between them, and spread it around with a circular motion until it becomes a flat disc. With a teaspoon, and the same circular gesture, drizzle the molasses-soy mixture in little drops around the disc, so that you get nice patterns. You don't need to use all of it-- just enough to make it pretty.
With a sharp knife, cut one end off of the spinach sausage. Then cut the sausage in half (or thirds, or however many you need), remove the plastic edges, and gently place these spinach-pucks in the center of the peanut-molasses disks.
Spoon a drop or two of the rice cooking wine onto the top of the spinach and watch it soak in.
Garnish with crushed peanuts around the edges.
FOR THE PEANUT-AVERSE: you can substitute tahini + sesame
oil for the peanut sauce, and toasted sesame seeds for
the crushed peanuts.