Spice Up Your Meals: Asian Cuisine’s Hot & Spicy Magic (6/7)

Susanna reinterprets Chinese classical dishes with French techniques. She creates sauces made from reduced stocks of roasted bones, braised onion, tomato, and carrots, a major deviation from traditional Chinese cooking. In her sauces and other dishes, Susanna uses herbs and spices from all over the world, including lemon grass, tarragon, basil, sun-dried tomato, Mexican ancho chili, star anise, and go-shi, a Chinese herbal medicine. The end result is a lighter, brighter, more velvety, more flavorful, and more colorful version of classical Chinese sauces. Susanna loves to use fresh produce. She incorporates non-Chinese greens like endive, radicchio, arugula, and mache into her cooking and creates new dishes with traditional Chinese vegetables and fruits like fresh waterchestnuts, baby chrysanthemum, fresh shiitake mushrooms, and Asian pears. Cooking has always been a family affair for Susanna. She learned Hunan style cooking from her mother-in-law, Wan-Chow Foo, and Chinese Northern-style pasta from her cousin, Chao Su. Susanna met her mentor and teacher, the late Jacob Rosenthal, founder of the Culinary Institute of America, while she was at Hu-Nan and learned French cooking from him. Rosenthal admired Susanna's unique cooking style and encouraged her to take a course at the CIA. In 1987, Susanna and E-Hsin opened their own restaurant, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, and made their dream and philosophy of cooking a reality. A Philadelphia Tradition Last October marked an important milestone as Susanna and E-Hsin celebrated their twentieth anniversary in Philadelphia. As Susanna tells her friends and guests, "We are proud to be Philadelphians." Susanna Foo combines many non- traditional ingredients to raise degree of spiciness in her cooking. Here are two examples where the addition of jalepeno adds just the right hot flavor. Jalape?o Peppers with Pork Stuffing Yield: 20 peppers Ingredients: 1 pound large jalape?o peppers 1/2 pound ground lean pork 1 tablespoon brandy 2 tablespoons water (more if needed) 1/2 cup minced scallions 1 teaspoon peeled, grated gingerroot 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil 2 tablespoons corn oil for sautéing Directions 1. Remove the stem from each pepper. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise on one side, cutting almost to the tip; leave the peppers joined at both ends. With the tip of a vegetable peeler, remove the seeds; set aside. 2. Place the pork in a small bowl and add the brandy. Stir in the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the meat mixture is soft. Mix well. 3. Add the scallions, gingerroot, thyme, soy sauce and sesame oil; mix until thoroughly combined. Open each pepper carefully and stuff it with some of the meat mixture, pressing it in firmly and keeping the pepper whole. 4. Coat a large nonstick skillet with the corn oil and heat. Without crowding the pan, add the stuffed peppers to the skillet. (Depending on the size of your skillet and the number of peppers, you may have to fry them in batches) 5. Cover the peppers and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Turn and continue cooking until the peppers are tender and the meat is thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes. Serve at room temperature. Sautéed Shrimp with Corn in Spicy Wine Sauce Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as part of a multi-course dinner Ingredients: 1 pound large shrimp (peeled, deveined and cleaned, shells reserved) 2 tablespoons vodka 1 large egg white, lightly beaten 3 tablespoons corn oil 5 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon minced, soaked dried shrimp (optional) 1/4 cup sake 3 large plum tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped 1 1/2 cups chicken or shrimp stock 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper 1 teaspoon cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels, preferably white 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper 1 large jalape?o