Thai Scallop Tostadas

Back in 2010, the food truck trend was in full swing here in Austin, and it hasn’t stopped. That’s the year The Peached Tortilla truck appeared on the scene. I believe the first time I visited it was at a craft beer festival, and I remember the Asian flavors meet American and Tex-Mex street food vibe. Since then, some food trucks have transitioned into restaurants, others continue as trucks, and several have come and gone. The Peached Tortilla has evolved to include a restaurant right in my neighborhood as well as a location at the airport, a catering business, and an event space. And now, there’s a cookbook of which I received a review copy. The book includes classic and current dishes from the business as well as some of author and founder Eric Silverstein’s childhood favorites and some dishes inspired by his mother’s cooking. Silverstein had the unique experience of being born in Tokyo to his Chinese-American mother and Jewish-American father before the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was 11. There’s a lot of varied inspiration for the recipes here. I’m always drawn to Laksa recipes, and the one here looks delicious with the homemade paste of chiles, herbs, and spices and the mix of shrimp stock, coconut milk, and fish sauce. Another favorite of mine is shrimp toast, and I’ll be turning back to the page with Mom’s Shrimp Toast served with Thai Chili Dipping Sauce. There are burgers with sauces and toppings, a hot dog, and even a tempura fish burger. But, the Asian Street Tacos chapter really grabbed my attention. The Banh Mi Taco and Pad Thai Taco make appearances as well as the Kimchi Queso and Roasted Cauliflower Taco. But, it was the Thai Shrimp Tostadas that called out to me first. 

Although in the book it is shrimp tostadas, the day I planned to make them scallops happened to be on sale and I couldn’t resist. I’ve made kimchi tacos before, but I hadn’t extended Asian flavors into tostada making. And, I love making tostadas. This one is built on a base of Thai slaw made with purple and green cabbage, julienned carrots, green onions, cilantro, and Thai Peanut Dressing. The scallops were tossed with more of the Thai Peanut Dressing before being sauteed, and I cut them into pieces after they were cooked. My preferred method for crisping tortillas for tostadas is to toast them under the broiler with just a brushing of oil and flipping them once browned on top. It’s quicker, easier, and uses a lot less oil than frying. The tostadas were built with a layer of slaw topped with chunks of scallops and garnished with cilantro leaves, chopped peanuts, and Sriracha. 

This immediately became my summer tostada of choice. Sometimes I make vegan tostadas with refried beans, avocado, chiles, and lettuce, and other times I top them with shrimp or fish. This was a delightfully different approach. It was light and lively with the slaw and all those delicious flavors in the peanut sauce. And, any shellfish, fish, chicken, or tofu would be great here. This just guarantees I’ll be bringing home even more tortillas than usual. 

Thai Shrimp (or Scallop) Tostadas 
Reprinted with permission from The Peached Tortilla: Modern Asian Comfort Food from Tokyo to Texas © 2019 Eric Silverstein. Published by Sterling Epicure. Photography © Carli Rene/InkedFingers.  

Serves 4 

FOR THE THAI SLAW 
2 cups purple cabbage, shredded thinly on a mandoline 
1⁄2 cup green cabbage, shredded thinly on a mandoline 
3⁄4 cup carrots, peeled and julienned 
1⁄4 cup green onions, sliced on a 1⁄4-inch-wide bias 
1⁄4 cup fresh cilantro leaves 
3 tablespoons Thai Peanut Dressing (recipe to follow) 
Kosher salt 
Freshly ground black pepper 

TO MAKE THE THAI SLAW In a medium-size mixing bowl, toss together the purple and green cabbage, carrots, green onions, cilantro, and Thai Peanut Dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set the mixture aside. 

ASSEMBLY 
2 quarts + 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
8 (5-inch) corn tortillas 
1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt 
1 cup (approximately 1 1⁄4 pounds) shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped into 1⁄2-inch pieces 
1⁄4 cup Thai Peanut Dressing 
Asian Slaw 
1⁄4 cup cilantro, chopped 
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts 
1⁄4 cup Sriracha Sauce 
1⁄2 lime, cut into wedges 

1. Place the 2 quarts of oil in a Dutch oven or deep cast iron pan. Bring the oil to 350°F. 
2. When the oil is at temperature, fry the tortillas for 2–3 minutes or until they are a light golden brown. Remove the tortillas from the hot oil with a pair of tongs and set them to dry on a plate covered with a paper towel. Immediately season the tortillas with the kosher salt. 
3. In a medium-size bowl, mix the chopped shrimp with the Thai Peanut Dressing. 
4. Place the 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium-size skillet over medium heat. Once the oil starts to shimmer, add the shrimp to the skillet and cook for 3–4 minutes. Since the shrimp is already chopped, it should cook relatively quickly. 
5. Layer two fried tortillas on a plate, so that one covers a third of the other. Spread a portion of the Thai Slaw on top of the tortilla, then layer 1⁄4 cup of the cooked shrimp on top of the Thai Slaw, making sure to cover it evenly. 
6. Garnish the Thai Shrimp Tostada with the Thai Peanut Dressing, cilantro, roasted peanuts, and a little bit of Sriracha. Serve the tostadas with a lime wedge. 

Thai Peanut Dressing 
Makes about 2 cups 
1 cup plus 1 1⁄2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
2 cloves garlic, peeled 
2 Thai Chilies 
1⁄2 cup peanuts, roasted 
2 tablespoons Shrimp Paste 
1⁄4 cup lime juice 
2 1⁄2 tablespoons Fish Sauce 
3 tablespoons sugar 

TO MAKE THE THAI PEANUT DRESSING 
1. Place a small skillet over low heat and add 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of the oil. Sauté the garlic for 2–3 minutes until it starts to brown and become aromatic. Add the Thai chilies and sauté them for another 45 seconds to 1 minute. 
2. Place the garlic and Thai chilies into a blender and add the peanuts, shrimp paste, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. Blend all the ingredients together. Add the remaining oil slowly and continue to puree the mixture. Be patient when adding the oil; otherwise the dressing will separate.

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Tostadas and Cooking Beans in a Wonderbag

Have you heard about the Wonderbag? I’m fascinated with its ability to slow-cook food with no power source. It was invented by Sarah Collins to reduce the need for wood fire cooking, free up time spent tending to meals, and lessen smoke inhalation from indoor live cooking fires. There is a one-for-one program, and for every Wonderbag purchased in the US, one is donated to a family in need in Africa. I received one as a sample for review. I’d like to quote a few interesting facts: “Smoke inhalation from wood fire cooking is the leading cause of death globally. More than 50% of premature deaths in children under five are related to household air pollution. Each Wonderbag saves 1.7 trees, 1,000 liters of water, and 1,248 hours of time not spent collecting firewood.” This is a genius tool for families that use wood fire for cooking, and it’s also incredibly useful and eco-friendly for families who cook with gas or electric stoves. It operates much like any slow cooker in that you can leave a dish for hours, but the dish needs to be heated to a boil first. The bag is made of washable fabric that’s filled with repurposed foam chips, and a drawstring pulls it tightly closed. It’s perfect for cooking things that would usually spend a long time on top of the stove or in the oven. Grains, beans, stews, and soups are all great examples of things to cook in a Wonderbag. And, a small recipe book comes with it to help get you started. A couple of things to keep in mind are pot shape and pot size. First, you’ll want to use a heavy pot with short handles that also has a lid. A long-handled pot won’t fit into the bag. Also, you’ll want to choose the right size pot for the volume of what you’re cooking. If the pot is too large and there is air space above the surface of the contents, the temperature will drop too quickly. My first use of the Wonderbag was to cook black beans, and it worked perfectly. 

I soaked the beans overnight. The next day, I drained them and cooked them in fresh water in a Dutch oven. The water was brought to a boil and allowed to boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I skimmed the foam from the top. After 15 minutes, the lid was placed on the pot, and the pot went into the Wonderbag. You do need to place a trivet or a folded towel in the bottom of the Wonderbag so the pot doesn’t burn the fabric. There’s an insulated lid that fits over the pot, and the drawstring pulls the edges of the bag up and around the fabric-covered lid. I left the beans to slow-cook for about four hours. When I opened the bag, the pot was still very warm and I had beans that had cooked through completely without a stove or any energy source. I love stocking my freezer with two-cup portions of cooked black beans to use for tacos or to serve with quinoa. And, I used some of the black beans to make refritos. I always follow the recipe from Hugo Ortega’s Street Food of Mexico for refried beans. The cooked beans are pureed in a food processor and then stirred into minced onion that’s been cooking in olive oil. I used some of the refritos for Super Bowl nachos, and the rest were layered onto crispy tostadas. To make tostadas, I fry corn tortillas in a little canola oil and drain them on paper towels. And, then the toppings can go in all kinds of directions. The version shown here included refried black beans, sauteed red kale, and shredded Monterrey jack cheese. After those three toppings were in place, I broiled the tostadas to melt the cheese. Then, sliced fresh jalapeno, chopped lettuce, sour cream, salsa, avocado, and pickled jalapeno were added. For a different take, a fried egg would not be out of place at all positioned somewhere between the melted cheese and the avocado. In that version, I skip the lettuce and sour cream. 

I definitely have a new way of cooking beans, and I look forward to trying other things in the Wonderbag too. Another recipe in the booklet is for homemade yogurt. I need a small enough pot with short handles to make that work, but I can’t wait to do it. I was thrilled with my experience cooking with it, and that pales in comparison to what it offers for families who cook with wood fires. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.

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Smoked Salmon-Black Bean Tostaditas

I had been thinking about black beans for weeks. I wanted to cook a big pot of them and then use them in a couple of different dishes. Mostly, I was thinking about making black bean soup. In the process of searching here and there to compare and contrast different soup recipes, I discovered this gem of a starter in Rick Bayless’ Mexico One Plate at a Time. Crisp, slender-cut tostadas smeared with pureed black beans and topped with a fresh mix of smoked salmon, tomato, green onion, serranos, and cilantro grabbed my attention, and I went right off to collect the ingredients.

To make the black bean puree, avocado leaf is suggested as an optional ingredient. If you’re lucky enough to have some, you are to crumble a leaf and add it to the food processor with the beans. I read a recent blog post on Oyster Food and Culture about avocado leaves and hoped I’d be able to locate some for this recipe. In fact, I left the house feeling sure I’d find avocado leaves. I was wrong. Once again, a hunt for a specific ingredient was unsuccessful. One day, I’m going to open my own little specialty shop for all of these ingredients that I never seem to find. At any rate, the avocado leaf was optional, so I proceeded without it. Onion and garlic were sauteed and then added to the food processor bowl with the black beans. It was processed until smooth and then returned to a saute pan. Bean cooking liquid was stirred into the puree a little at a time until a a soft consistency was achieved. That was kept warm while the salmon mixture was made and the tortillas were cut into long triangles. The instructions suggest frying the tortillas, but I brushed them with oil and baked them instead. Then, the tostaditas were assembled and topped with some crema.

The smoked salmon mixture was ceviche-ish although there was no lime. The smoky saltiness of the salmon with the crunchy green onions and chiles contrasted nicely with the smooth bean puree. These tostaditas would be great for a party as a small amount of smoked salmon was stretched to serve several portions. Also, by cutting the tortillas yourself, whether you fry or bake them, you can decide the size and shape for ease of serving. This was another winner of a dish from Bayless, and I haven’t encountered a disappointment from this book yet.


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Tuna Tostadas and Beer Tasting

Every once in a rare while, Kurt will make a suggestion as to a type of food or a particular dish that I should attempt. Once, it was a request for potato leek soup. Another time, it was something Argentinean. Often, it’s mac and cheese. Last week, perhaps inspired by Tony’s visit to Colombia given that it came up while watching that episode, he issued a Latin American cooking challenge. There were no specifics; the meal was not required to be Colombian. This was just a general hankering for Latin American or Mexican flavors. I, of course, was delighted to comply.

In an effort to further complicate the meal, we also conducted a beer tasting during the hors d'oeurves course. To explain, we have become enamored with wheat beers (or weisse, wit, white, hefeweissen, etc.). We taste, take notes, compare, and contrast, and we have our favorites. This week, the tasting included Allagash White and Schneider Weisse. The Allagash White was light and refreshing although low on carbonation. The mild flavor was mostly of yeast, and it was the better pairing with the tostadas. The Schneider Weisse was on the darker end of the wheat beer spectrum but also mildly flavored. Both were good but neither changed the top three slots on our scorecard. Our current top three continue to be:

1. Mothership Wit by New Belgium
Nothing touches it. This is hands down our favorite wheat beer with its crispness and slight citrus flavor.
2. White Rascal by Avery Brewing Co.
An excellent summer beer with a unique but subtle acidity.
3. Dog in Heat Hefeweissen by Flying Dog
This is also darker than most wheat beers and therefore more full-flavored and pleasantly so.

I should note that Live Oak HefeWeizen is a favorite of ours, but it is not sold bottled. We’re always pleased when we find it on tap.

Now, back to the food. I noticed these tostadas on Epicurious and thought they would be perfect for an antojito/beer tasting. I wasn’t able to purchase fresh corn tortillas on Saturday, so I used fresh whole wheat tortillas. Other than that, and skipping the scant amount of sugar listed, I followed the recipe exactly. And, wow, these were good. They were exciting to eat because they were so right. When a bit of chipotle was noticed while chewing, it was a happy moment. More chipotle would be welcome. However, the pumpkin seeds left us a little ambivalent. They were fine but didn’t really bring anything noteworthy to the mix. Definitely skippable. Everything else about these tostadas was excellent. Get the best tuna you can find, compose these quick little bites, and enjoy them as much as we did.

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