Susur

Beef / Chef / Susur / Winterlicious — View Comments
10
Feb 10

Winterlicious Recipe: Susur’s Braised Beef with Pappardelle

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This Braised Beef Recipe from Susur’s newest Toronto restaurant, Madeline’s, incorporates many interesting flavours but is surprisingly simple to make. In light of the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, I would highly recommend you try this one out. The flavours are very Asian, with a bit of a twist. You can pair this with some rice for a more traditional Chinese dish.

Summary

Preparation Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 6 hrs 30 min
Servings: 2 servings
Meal type: Main
Grocery Cost: $11.75 (or $5.88 per person)

Recipe Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Ingredients

    For the braised beef:

  • 1 lb beef cheeks ~ $3.00
  • flour for dredging
  • 1 1/2 L dark/beef stock ~ $2.00
  • 1/2 L canned tomato (pureed) ~ $1.00
  • 200 g chili bean paste ~ $0.75
  • 1/2 cup oyster sauce ~ $0.50
  • 2 bunches fresh coriander (roots left on) ~ $0.75
  • 300 ml Chinese cooking wine ~ $1.00
  • 3 pieces each of:
  • dried licorice ~ $0.50
  • star anise ~ $0.50
  • cinnamon sticks ~ $0.50
  • Chinese coriander seeds ~ $0.25
    For the pasta:

  • pappardelle or preferred pasta
  • A handful of button mushrooms ~ $1.00
  • oil

Instructions

1. Trim excess fat from beef cheeks but do not remove the membrane (silver skin).
2. Dredge in flour and pat to remove excess.
3. Brown the beef cheeks on all sides in 1/4” of oil.
4. Combine remaining ingredients for the beef and braise the beef by baking it in the oven in a covered oven-proof pan at 250 F for 6 hours or until fork tender.
5. Remove the beef and strain your braising liquid.
6. Cook pappardelle until al dente.

7. Saute button mushrooms with 1tbsp oil, add pappardelle and coriander and saute some more.

8. Plate your pasta, and pour the braising liquid over it. Serve with braised beef.

Learn how Susur does it in this video:

Variations

During Winterlicious, Susur served this dish with pappardelle pasta. You can really use any starch that you enjoy. I recently had a great Beef Bourguignon at Biff’s Bistro in Toronto and they served it with semoule (also known as semolina).
You can also serve this on a potato puree. The sauce will just melt into it… Yum!

Results

Having been braised slowly and for such a long time, the beef is now extremely tender and the flavours have melded into each other perfectly. This is perfect for making in the winter, when you’re spending the day snuggled in at home. Just prepare it and let your oven do all the work. 6 hours later, you have a beautifully gourmet meal!

If you had this at Madeline’s, please comment and tell us how you liked it! Also remember to vote for it on our Winterlicous app if you liked this dish!

Happy Chinese New Year from YouCook!!

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Chef / Main / Recipe / Restaurant / Seafood / Susur / Winterlicious — View Comments
9
Feb 10

Valentines Day Recipe: Susur’s Roasted Crusted Salmon with Mussels

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So it’s that time of year again, when you rack your brain for what to get that special someone for Valentines Day. Also equally taxing is finding a restaurant where it’s not grossly overpriced and packed for the special V-day meal. So how about this year, change it up and give a gift from the heart and cook at home instead? Two problems solved – gift and dinner in one! It doesn’t have to be stressful – YouCook, with Susur’s help, will show you this simple but impressive Roasted Crusted Salmon with Mussels meal that looks as good as it tastes, without having to slave for hours! This is a recipe from Madeline’s winterlicious menu. I was pleasantly surprised at how simple this recipe was (after all, I was cooking with Susur!), and was even more surprised at the secret to the crispy skin – which isn’t salmon skin at all! See the recipe below for his secret ingredient! Thanks Susur for showing us the secret behind your roasted crusted salmon and providing an elegant recipe perfect for the upcoming special occasion!

Summary

Preparation Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Servings: 1 serving
Meal type: Main
Grocery Cost: $9.37

Recipe Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Ingredients

For the salmon:

  • 1 piece of white bread
  • 1 salmon fillet, about ½ lb ~ $3.50
  • salt
  • white pepper
  • 1 egg

For the mussels:

  • 6-8 mussels ~ $2.00
  • 1 cup white wine ~ $1.60
  • 1 cup chicken stock ~ $0.50
  • 1 cup cream ~ $1.79
  • chives for garnish

Instructions

For the salmon:
1. Prepare egg wash by beating an egg in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Roll a slice of white bread until it’s very thin. You can use a rolling pin or pasta roller.
3. If the salmon fillet has skin on it, cut it off using a sharp knife. Season the skin-less salmon fillet with salt and white pepper.
4. Brush the egg wash over the piece of salmon, on the side where the skin is.
5. Lay the salmon fillet with the egg wash side down over the flat piece of bread. Then simply cut around the bread to align with the salmon. This becomes the “crispy” skin.



6. Heat oil in a heavy cast iron pan that you can put in the oven. Fry the salmon with the “skin” side down for a few minutes.
7. Take the entire pan and put it in the oven to bake until done, about 20 minutes.

Learn how Susur does it in this video:

For the mussels:
8. Mix the white wine, chicken stock and cream in a saucepan.

9. Bring to a boil and reduce until you have about half a cup of sauce
10. Toss the mussels in the sauce until the mussels have opened.

11. Once the salmon is done, serve it with mussels, with a pureed vegetable or mashed potatoes on the side. Pour the sauce from the mussels over top, and garnish with chives.

Quick Notes

This recipe yields one serving, which is what Susur showed us, but you can easily multiply the ingredients to make multiple servings.

If you want a sauce that is less rich, you can use half a cup of cream instead of the full cup, and replace the half cup with milk or chicken broth.

Variations

You can use the rolled white bread to make a crispy skin with any other fish fillet, such as sea bass, haddock – feel free to use this on your favourite dish for a crispy touch.

Susur serves this dish with a pureed vegetable. You can puree many different types of vegetables, such as potato, squash, celery to serve as a side. I personally love pureed butternut squash. See our recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash soup, which I think you can adapt by adding less chicken stock so it’s thicker to use as a pureed vegetable side. I love the taste of roasted butternut squash with ginger. For that special Valentines Day touch, you can shape this into a heart shape!

Results

The result is a crispy skinned, tender salmon with a rich sauce and mussels on the side. I never knew that you could use simple white bread to make crispy salmon skin. If you had this at Madeline’s, please comment and tell us how you liked it! Also remember to vote for it on our Winterlicous app if you liked this dish! Happy Valentines Day – let us know how it turned out for you!

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Chef / Susur — View Comments
20
Jan 10

YouCook sits down with Susur Lee

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The Setting

Date: January 8, 2010
When & Where: 5:30 pm, just before dinner service at Madeline`s
Atmosphere: European chic with Baroque flair

Before we sat down at the bar at Madeline’s for an impromptu interview, we were able to witness Susur’s amazing chemistry with everyone in his kitchen as he was preparing some of his Winterlicious dishes for us. It is incredible how he can multi-task: cooking, joking around with staff, and commandeering his kitchen all at the same time! Despite the cramped quarters and so many people running around, it was incredibly organized and everyone in the kitchen had a job. Watching them in the kitchen is like watching a well-oiled machine.

Another thing we could not help but notice was how international and diverse his staff was. The bringing together of so many races makes for some truly authentic fusion cuisine.

As you read through our interview with Susur, you may notice some recurring themes… Susur is extremely passionate about his heritage and culture, which really shines through in all of his creations. He is also deeply inspired by his family, his travels and by those around him. But most importantly, Susur has never strayed very far from his roots and his beliefs. Having had the privilege of sitting down with him, I can really feel the genuine love he has for what he does.

The Origin of Inspiration

YouCook: Where do you get your inspiration?

Susur: I’ve been cooking for so many years… It’s not the fear… It’s that feeling when you wake up every morning and you go to work; that feeling like you’re unmotivated or uninspired because you do this every day. The creative process is always there: places you travel to, people you meet, things you see or taste (especially for me). So I always have to get inspired by doing these things. Sometimes I have to go back to my old notes – because some things are so old they become new again.

YouCook: You have so many restaurants now… How do you build your menus? Are they theme-based?

Susur: Both Shang and Zentan are very Chinese-based because I am Chinese, and I love Asian food. There are so many ingredients that we have not yet been exposed to as Westerners. Sometimes you have your own ideas, but you must be able to share them in order to produce it, especially in a kitchen. It is very inspirational when the dish comes out and I say: “Yes! That’s my idea!” And then the staff, in turn, gets inspired. That’s why I always ask my staff “What do you think?”, “Think about this…”. You have to inspire them and share that passion. Because if you love the same thing, it’s easy to learn. If they’re not interested, no matter how much you teach them, it’s just structure. So I always say loving something always makes it very easy to teach.

For me, to get inspired about dishes, I always think about culture. Every part of the world has some very amazing dishes, techniques, and beliefs. Food related to family; food related to the individual; food related to modernization… So, in order to get inspired for new dishes, you need to be open-minded to all of these things. A lot of dishes can be very new, very cool, and kind of weird – but still tastes good. Those are the things I always get very excited about.

The strength that I have in fusion food is because I’ve been trained so many years in Asia. I was working in a Chinese restaurant, 北京樓 (Peking Restaurant) in Tsim Sha Tsui (Hong Kong). So I’m always inspired by those things. Especially because I didn’t get the chance to learn about Chinese culture or history since Hong Kong was a British colony and they were very against China. So we didn’t know anything about China. So now, if you look at Imperial cuisine: cuisine from the country, cuisine from the city, cuisine from different regions of China. It’s just amazing.
And then you start learning about how the emperor used to eat. The world has so much for us to learn, and we know so little.

The Evolution of Food

YouCook: As a leading chef in Toronto, do you see a trend for restaurants?

Susur: Trends have to come from within; it does not mean following what others do. Trends have to be inspired by something – by how you feel. People ask “how do you come up with these dishes” – It just comes naturally.

YouCook: Do you feel that Canadian chefs have a presence in the world of International Cuisine?

Susur: I think what it is is that Canadians have always been very reserved about our identity and what our comfort zone is. We live very comfortably, and we have health care. So a lot of chefs can enjoy having farms, growing their own produce, and it’s very much a way of living. If you look at the bigger cities in the United States, you still have chefs who do that, but Canada is way more understated. That’s one of those treasures of Canadian chefs because we do know a lot about what good quality is. If you look at the East Coast and West Coast, we have seafood and all kinds of produce. Just amazing.

Have you ever been to this place called “Canadian Herbs” on Ossington? This place has everything you’d see in Asia: Vietnam, Thailand… All the freshest herbs. You can’t even get it in the States – not even New York City. We have better Pho than in Vietnam because we have better beef, which makes a better stock. And we have all the herbs.

So, if you look at all those kinds of flavours, Canadians are way more exposed to them. People even grow them in their gardens. Whereas in the States, you’ll have a hard time finding fresh kaffir lime or fresh curry leaf. Those are the treasures of our culinary scene.

YouCook: Can you tell us a little more about your new restaurant in Singapore, Chinois by Susur Lee?

Susur: It is in an IR, an Integrated Resort. [It is located in Hotel Michael in Resort World Sentosa.] They have quite a few restaurants: Robuchon, Scott Webster from Australia, a Japanese chef… It’s Chinese cuisine, but the room is very Japanese zen, but Euro… You know, the latino red, the black, the stone, the wood…

And finally…
YouCook: Can we grab a photo with you?

Susur: Sure!!

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Appetizer / Chef / Recipe / Restaurant / Susur / Winterlicious — View Comments
13
Jan 10

Winterlicious Feature on Madeline’s: Recipe for Goat Cheese & Roasted Beet Tart

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Photos in this blog entry by Christina Chan

As many of you already know from our previous post, the girls of YouCook had the great honour of being invited into the kitchen of Susur Lee’s newest addition to the Toronto Restaurant Scene – Madeline’s. Named after his mother, the restaurant certainly embodies Susur’s love of family, and certainly does not lack in character. The minute you step into the dining room, you are greeted with European-inspired decor – but with an exotic twist. And that sense of intrigue continues as you peruse the VERY extensive menu.
You can enjoy the restaurant’s unique ambiance and interesting flavour combinations in the specially tailored Winterlicious prix fixe menu. It is an excellent opportunity for any foodie to experience the breadth of flavours utilized in Susur’s kitchen.

You can find the Susur’s Winterlicious menu here. The girls at YouCook will be using this site to record what we like to eat during Winterlicious! So if you find it it useful, let us know!

Susur has also generously provided us with several recipes from his Winterlicious menu, including the Goat Cheese and Roasted Beet Tart, Roasted Crusted Salmon, and Slow Braised Spiced Beef with black pepper butter pappardelle. It just boggles the mind how quickly Susur works!! He managed to prepare all three dishes within the hour, right before our eyes!

So stay tuned for future posts on our visit with Susur. ..

Summary

Preparation Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Servings: 1
Meal type: Appetizer

Recipe Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Ingredients

  • Puff pastry
    At Madeline’s, the puff pastry is made in-house. For the home cook, you can purchase this in sheets from the frozen section of your local grocery store. You can adjust how much puff pastry you require depending on your guest count. The puff pastry needs to be cut to size, approximately 3”x5”.
  • Red beets, approximately 1
    You can purchase ready-roasted beets in vacuum-sealed bags in your local grocery store. You can also either roast them yourself or boil them. I like to roast my beets in aluminum foil packets at 375F for 30 min, or until tender.
  • Swiss cheese, approximately half cup, grated
  • Caraway seeds
    With his experienced hand, Susur put a dash of Caraway seeds in the mix. I would probably estimate between 1 to 2 tsp of seeds. However, you should adjust the flavour as you like.
  • Salt, to taste
  • Honey
    This will be heated up and brushed onto the tart near the end of the preparation.
  • Ground Roasted Hazelnuts, for garnish
  • 2 tbsp Soft Goat Cheese, for garnish
  • Fresh Basil, for garnish

Instructions

1. If you are not using ready-roasted beets, you will need to cook them either by roasting or boiling.
2. Preheat your oven to 440F.
3. Take your thawed sheets of puff pastry and cut into a rectangle 3” wide by 5” long. Place the puff pastry onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Poke holes into the puff pastry so that it does not rise too much while baking.

4. Cut a beet in half so that there is a flat surface for grating. Using a cheese grater, grate the cooked beets and swiss cheese. The ratio of beets to cheese should be 60% beets and 40% swiss cheese.

5. In a small mixing bowl, combine the grated beets, grated cheese, and caraway seeds. Mix together with a dash of salt.

6. Spread the beet mixture evenly over the puff pastry.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the puff pastry is golden.
8. While your tart is baking, slice the remainder of the beets into thin slices for topping on the tart.
9. Once the tart is finished baking, let it cool a little bit, then prepare to finish the tart with garnishes.
10. Layer the thin slices of beets evenly on top of your tart.

11. Warm the honey for a few seconds in the microwave. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the layer of beets with honey.

12. Top with 2 small scoops of soft goat cheese, and a sprinkling of roasted nuts and rock salt. Susur mentions the combination of salty and sweet in this dish is what highlights the flavours.

13. Garnish with some fresh basil.

Quick Notes

Although Susur prefers using hazelnuts, he mentions that you can replace this with any type of roasted nut (i.e. pistachios).
I would also like to recommend a variation on this tart… You may want to try using golden beets. It has a slightly milder flavour and I`m curious to know how that would turn out. Post your comments if you have other suggestions.

Result

The result is a beautiful tart, not only in aroma, but the colour as well. The red of the beets will brighten up any dinner party. This tart is also a very generous serving, so you can always share this or serve it as a main course for brunch, alongside a light greens salad.


Photos in this blog post courtesy of Christina Chan.
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