PORTLAND, Ore. — Have you ever wanted to take an in-home cooking tutorial with one of Portland’s most celebrated chefs?
This week, you have two.
Two Portland chefs with three James Beard Awards between them will offer live cooking tutorials on Instagram Live this week, starting with Gabriel Rucker, the chef behind two of Portland’s best-loved restaurants, Le Pigeon and Canard.
In between wrangling his three children, Rucker will show you how to make (relatively) simple miso cod rice bowls, a family favorite, starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 25 (tonight). Expect helpful home cooking tips -- Rucker sometimes adds Hidden Valley Ranch mix to make “dad rice;" wife Hana’s “mom rice” has miso soup mix -- and a fun vibe, like an online version of what you might find at the Le Pigeon counter when Rucker is working the line.
Rucker, who closed his two Portland restaurants on Monday, March 16, plans to offer three cooking demos a week during the coronavirus pandemic. Take a look at the first episode’s miso cod rice bowl recipe below, and click here to watch.
Next up, Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place, Imperial, Headwaters and Rosa Rosa, a James Beard Award winner himself and erstwhile mentor to Rucker, will debut his own Instagram Live show on Friday, March 27 around happy hour time. Details are still TBD, but the show is called AVA (Ask Vitaly Anything), with fan interaction encouraged.
(And last but not least, James Beard Award winning cookbook author Ken Forkish of Portland’s Ken’s Artisan Bakery and Ken’s Artisan Pizza will do an AMA next month on r/breadit, Reddit’s baking forum. Get those questions in now.)
Could this be the Portland-based cooking equivalent of those DJ D-Nice sets we all tuned into last weekend? Let’s hope so.
Chef Gabriel Rucker’s Miso Cod Rice Bowls
(Serves 4)
2 cups rice
2 1/12 cup water
1 package miso soup mix
1 lb cod, I like Black Cod
1 lb peeled shrimp
½ cup sweet miso
½ cup sake (use cheap sake and drink the nice stuff)
¼ cup cup brown sugar
½ cup mirin
Optional Toppings
1 avocado
1 cup green onions
1 mango
1 cup diced cucumber
Sesame seed
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 lemon
½ cup cilantro
Chili mayo, I use homemade but store bought Sriracha will do
2 hard boiled eggs
Store bought furikake
I have developed a super secret way of cooking rice in my home called “Dad Rice” simply put I mix Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix into water I make my rice with. My wife Hana on our first night in quarantine made “Mom Rice” with a package of miso soup mix from the cupboard. You could say I was more than impressed and the kids went crazy for it.
I happen to be lucky because my kids love fish, and no they are not some super adventurous eaters just because dad is a chef. We mostly eat like any typical American family at home. During these scary times I think it is important that we use first what we have on hand and don’t rush out to buy buy buy. That is why I came up with this meal for my first live video. We had cod and shrimp in the freezer, we always had a giant bag of rice and I took my absolute favorite thing home from the Canard when we were shutting down. The CHILI MAYO!!!!!!!! Recipe soon.
As I cook at home please ask questions about anything you like, enjoy the sweet sounds of life with three small children and bear with me. Its real life and I will do my best to stick to this recipe
Step 1, cod, shrimp marination
Combine sake, miso, mirin and sugar, bring to a simmer and cook for about five minutes gently. Cool and pour over cod and shrimp, refrigerate for a minimum 4 hours, up to 24.
Step 2 rice, get a rice cooker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Combine water, rice, and miso soup mix in a rice cooker, swirl around and press cook, it's that easy. If you don’t have a rice cooker then go stove top using the soup mix.
Step 3 cooking seafood
Remove fish from marinade and pat dry, preheat oven to 400.
Get an oven safe pan hot with a thin film of oil, place the cod skin side up in the oil and sear for a minute or two, just to lightly brown/blacken. Flip and place in the oven to finish cooking, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and use a spatula to transfer the cod to a plate. Add shrimp to the pan and cook on the stove top.
Step 4 cucumber salad
Mix diced cucumber, sesame oil, lemon, green onion and cilantro together, season with a touch of salt and if ya like things spicy a little serano.
That’s that folks, put your rice in the bowl and top with all your fun stuff. If you’re having a dinner party - which you’re not!!! - you can put all the toppings out on the table and just give people rice and fish in a bowl, then everyone gets to build their own dinner. Have fun see you at six today for an Instagram Live demonstration!
This article was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving heath issue.
