Thread: What is fusion?

Few years (decade or so?) it was all the rage, Fusion Cuisine. Name in lights, fanfare, that kind of things. Fusion Cuisine. Let's face when we grab a bit of Eye-talian fare, or a Mexican meal with it's Mediterranean herbs, American chilis and maybe a corn or flour tortilla or two, we're eatin "Fusion." There is really very little under that sun that not has been "fused" to get where it is today.

So this ain't fusion, no fancy names I dunno where where it's roots lie, mainly it's a collection of things from my fridge a few fresh items from the local market and me just wanting to get it over with damn quick because it's so damn hot.

No group phot of the ingredients tonight cause I was kinda wingin' it and just thought I'd snap a couple photos after I was already into the mess. I found a couple nice, fat jalapenos in the back there, this thumb-sized hunk of ginger that somehow looked fresh, a carrot and about 300 grams of this cut of beef that kinda looks like a tri-tip (bottom sirloin). so I headed down to the market and picked up a couple small bell peppers and a couple hundred grams of straw mushrooms.
After cleaning the 'shrooms, coarsely chopping the veggies ans smashing and mincing the ginger (couple bulbs og garlic in there as well) I put the wok on a high flame and went after the beef, sliced length-wise then into thin bite-sized medallions then dredged in flour seasoned with fresh cracked pepper seemed ready for the pan.

THe wok was HOT! now the kitchen's warmed up a bit and you wanna get this done quick as possible cause it's all interactive. so keep the heat up through the whole process, work fast.

It was bout this time, though; I thought I'd play with my new camera a bit so I went upstairs to fetch it. The wok was gettin HOTTER. I tried to capture the smoke coming off it, unsuccessfully.

With the wok smokin hot I dropped in a nice large dose of yellow bean oil. This was instantly up to cooking temp so dropped in the beef medallions, they looked like this in less than a minute:


You've gotta keep the meat movin here so sliding it around a bit and toss/flip it for a about a minute add them shrooms:


These straw 'srhooms tend to suck up the oil at first, it's OK to add a bit to keep things sliding around nice an' slippery-like. Tos these together for about 2 - 3 minutes they should start to look like this:


This is when I add the jalapenos and ginger/garlic mash and toss them together:


Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the Curry Paste? This is the last of the paste a friend gave me before leaving for greener pastures. I usually buy sme fresh matsaman from the lady with the big arms at the market but she went home early today and luckily I had this tasty jarred stuff it's kinda mild but add enough it'll open yer eyes some.

I digress, keep tossing and moving stuff around wiht a pair of wooden chopsticks or some kinda wooden instrument until the paste is incorporated in the residual oils and coats the food fairly evenly; dump in you veggies. Keep tossing. It was hot this evening the rice cooker was a few inches away throwin steam in my face. This cookin stuff can work up a sweat try not and drip any n the food OK?

Beginning to look good enough to eat ain't it?


You oughta work pretty quick here. Toss the food until it is well distributed and reach for some liquid ingredients. I poured a large glug of oyster sauce - three tablespoons? (not sure just looked about right), dark soy and some rice vinegar I tossed these to mix and coat evenly and then added the remaining flour I used to coat the beef in. Stir/toss that until it looks like about and then I added some plain clear water. You can use less flour and maybe a few less flavorings and serve this dish drier than I do if you like, but I like extra sauce.


I added a little at a time letting get to a quick boil until I got the consistency I wanted; taste and seasoned You can add a touch of beef bullion if you like but this really didn;t need anything. So I ate it:


Ive done this with chicken and pork and even done it with Chicken wings. the chicken wings I let boil a little longer, but not much really they get done pretty quick the key to good flavors here is getting the meat well browned. This whole process took about 15 minutes, with the ol' lady washing the veggies while I prepared the ginger/garlic and such.

What the hell does this have to with "Fusion Cuisine?" Well the curry paste was English, the chilies are SouthWest American/Mexican and the Beef was Thai.

Anyway, every damn thing you eat is "Fusion Cooking." Well, except that Boiled English Food anyway..