Gourmet Kitchen Tips: Liven up Home Cooking With TRB!

I have been on a colorful home cooking journey over the past few months. I have always enjoyed cooking, especially if it’s at a leisurely pace with a glass of wine in one hand. However daily cooking for the family can slowly turn into a chore, and the passion to produce dynamic and varies colorful plates of yumminess that you can be proud to show off to the family and Instagram can slowly dwindle into dreary, haphazard, and lackluster cooking.

It’s near impossible to produce gourmet-style dishes every day of the week, but its nice to get inspiration on how you can liven up everyday meals for you, your partner, and the kids, be it through an episode of MasterChef, The Great British Bake Off, a visit to your favorite date night restaurant, or a simple trip to your local market to pick up ingredients to experiment with.

I love getting my hands on simple but innovative tips that can help elevate everyday ingredients and recipes which have been tried and tested in the kitchens of many family homes. The kids may love burgers and fries, but there are so many simple adaptations you can make to lift a burger from humble, ketchup-smothered patties in a bun, to stacked, gourmet deliciousness.

In this issue’s Food For Thought, beijingkids have teamed up with TRB Hutong to give our readers home cooking inspiration! We all need a little oomph in our kitchens and we are using the dynamic menu at the flagship TRB restaurant to show families how to take a simple recipe and common ingredients and turn them into dining room table showstoppers. Set some time aside to fall back in love with cooking for the family, or to further ignite a passion you may already have, with this fab recipe.

Head Chef Zhang Cheng from Xi’an has been with TRB for three years, after a successful career in a number of culinary cities, including New York. His signature style is to present a twist on French cuisine, using Chinese inspired flavors prepared the French way. Chef Cheng particularly enjoys cooking with meats and fish, and prides himself on a personal ethos of executing balanced dishes with a focus on using seasonal ingredients, texture, temperatures, and flavors to create stunning dishes that appeal to both Western and Chinese palates.

Dill cured salmon

Dill Cured Salmon

Ingredients

1/2 cup coriander seeds
1/2 cup juniper
1/2 cup black peppercorn or Sichuan peppercorn
1/2 cup mustard seeds
1/2 cup rock salt
1/4 cup fine sugar
1 cup finely chopped dill
600g salmon fillet

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients and spread over the salmon fillet (use Sichuan peppercorns for a spicier cured salmon).
Put the salmon fillet in a bowl and over with tin foil. Allow the fillet to cure in the fridge for 12 hours.
Remove the salmon from the fridge, and discard the seasoning and excess water released from the fillet.
Place on chopping board and cover the top of the fillet with chopped dill; gently press in.
You can rest the salmon in the fridge covered or serve right away. Thinly slice the cured salmon and garnish with slices of pickled beetroot, carrots, shallots, chopped capers, sliced boiled egg, and horseradish. If using as a showpiece for dinner guests, you can serve the salmon fillet with warm crusty bread and a trio of seasoned butters. Season two tablespoons of butter with garlic and sea salt, another with crushed coriander seeds and sea salt, and the last with fennel seeds and sea salt. Other options for seasoning butter are pink and black peppercorns.
Enjoy, and make a statement with your presentation of the fillet!

Be In No Doubt – Don’t Buy Trout!
If you’re buying salmon for this recipe or to make sushi or sashimi, make sure that what you’re getting is salmon not trout! It’s actually legal to sell trout as salmon in China, but the cheaper river fish is prone to parasites and is not suitable to be eaten uncooked. Be certain it’s salmon!