>> MING TSAI: This week on Simply Ming, we're cooking at home.

Hence, Simply Ming at Home.

We're doing a smoked salmon okonomiyaki.

Oh, yeah, it's so good, it has fennel and the classic Worcestershire on top.

And then a vegan version of it.

It's rice flour base, gluten free as well, with shiitakes, and we're starting it off with a cucumber saké-tini.

And we're also doing a non-alcoholic cucumber mint spritzer.

And I have a very special sous chef cooking with me, the one and only Henry Tsai.

It's all coming up next on Simply Ming.

♪ ♪ (sizzling) ♪ ♪ >> Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at subaruofnewengland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.

>> MING: Cucumber saké-tini, all right?

Henry, so I'm gonna do the regular one.

Then you can do the opposite.

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: Please fill this with ice for me.

Actually, no, I'm sorry, don't do that-- my bad.

Pick me five mint leaves, please.

So I'm gonna put cucumber and mint in a shaker.

We're gonna muddle it.

So it's kind of a saké martini, if you would.

Although I'm gonna put it in a tall wine glass.

We have some wine glasses here that are chilling.

Right, we wanted to get the glassware cold.

All right, five mint leaves in, cucumber slices in, all right, Henry, do the muddling, man.

So he's gonna muddle that, what that's-- that's taking the oil out of the mint.

And it's getting nice juice out of the cucumber.

So obviously the martini is not gonna be clear, right?

Because the cucumber juice has some color to it.

How's it going?

>> It's going pretty good, very meditative, I gotta say, (laughter) >> MING: All right, some fantastic saké.

And you can take that out, if you don't mind.

Just make sure it's delicious drinking saké, obviously.

And then the highest quality vodka you can find.

A little bit of that.

All right, Henry, now I'll take a scoop, please, of ice.

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: And then we're just gonna shake... shake the dickens out of this, so to speak.

One more.

>> One more?

>> MING: Okay.

All right, Henry, dump out my-- my glass there.

You can get them both out-- yup, you can dump them both out.

Thanks for tuning in, guys.

So it's really nice and cold, you guys, nice and frosty like that.

Okay, open it up.

Awesome.

I'm gonna take my strainer... and we go like this.

Oh, yeah.

One more mint leaf, Henry, please, as a garnish.

>> Yes, chef.

All right, that is the real drink.

But I'm going to do a toast with Henry.

Henry, we're going to repeat.

>> All right.

I'm gonna dump this out, if you don't mind, same thing, actually, ten mint leaves for you, please.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Because that's gonna be what you're gonna want, and to give you... two extra slices of cucumber.

>> Wow.

>> MING: Yeah.

>> We're really, really going HAM today, huh?

(laughs) >> MING: Dude, you're VIP, you're VIP.

>> This is just the true Ming Tsai hospitality treatment.

>> MING: We're gonna add a little bit of brown sugar, all right, to muddle this, so I will do the muddling options here.

Like this.

All right.

In this case, Henry, we're gonna shake it again.

>> Want me to put the ice in here?

>> MING: Yeah, give me some ice in here.

Thank you.

All right, a little bit, just a little bit more.

Want to get it nice and cold.

Now, here, I'm going to add some sparkling water.

Just a little bit to shake, to get the flavors out.

Because obviously you know what happens when you shake sparkling water.

>> It de-carbonates.

>> MING: It gets flat.

>> Yeah.

>> MING: Right?

But I just wanted to give a good shake like that.

It's got a nice color to it.

And then on top of that, we put more sparkling.

Voila, Henry.

Cheers to you.

>> Wow, amazing.

>> MING: Yours is bigger.

>> Yeah, you know.

>> MING: Mine is stronger.

Cheers to you.

Mmm, ooh.

>> Oh, that's good.

>> MING: You like?

>> I like that a lot, yeah.

>> MING: You do?

>> It's really refreshing.

>> MING: Thank you-- this is delicious.

♪ ♪ The base of the okonomiyaki is the most important thing.

Bring all this over for me, Henry.

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: We have two cups of all-purpose flour here.

We're gonna add smoked salmon to it.

Traditional okonomiyaki has shrimp, lobster.

We're using smoked salmon.

So to the all-purpose flour, baking powder.

Have to have that-- why?

>> So it, you know, rises, adds more air.

Something like that?

>> MING: Exactly.

Uh, two eggs in here, four all day.

All right?

Like this... Trash can over here again, Hen.

Not bad, you could almost work in McDonalds.

>> Almost.

>> MING: You got it?

>> I got it.

>> MING: All right.

We're gonna mix this up.

And, Henry, I'm gonna have you start slicing and dicing, all right?

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: Because you add veg to an okonomiyaki, right?

So, Henry, I want you to... let me cut this in half.

I want super-- the core's there-- as thin as you can go shredded, please.

>> Thinner than that.

>> MING: Oh, you can go thinner than me, yeah?

>> I think so.

>> MING: Wise guy.

>> At least some of them.

>> MING: All right, so we have shredded carrots, we're gonna add-- we're gonna add scallions, we're gonna add cabbage, and we're gonna add fennel.

So it's a fennel smoked salmon okonomiyaki.

So I'm just mixing the eggs in with the flour.

Don't worry that this gets chunky, guys, 'cause we're gonna add liquid to this, right?

So we're using vegetable broth, so we're gonna add some vegetable broth.

And what you want do-- I'm gonna grab a whisk because you want to mix this nice and smooth like it's a pancake batter, all right?

So let me switch this out with a whisk.

>> Chef, do you want me to do this other half?

>> MING: Um, yeah, we'll need it for the second okonomiyaki.

Sure.

All right.

So, again, this is still a little thick, I can tell, you see that?

So we're gonna go a little bit thicker like that.

All right, there we go.

That looks pretty darn good, all right.

So, to this, we're gonna add... what?

We're going to add half of this cabbage here.

It's gonna-- this bowl's gonna get really full, which I love.

So half that cabbage goes in.

Carrots go in.

Very nice, Henry.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: I also want you to knock out some scallions for me.

>> Can do.

>> MING: Whoa, this is thin, Henry?

>> Okay, that one was a fluke, that-- no, no, no, no.

Don't show that, that's okay.

>> MING: It's okay, no one's watching.

(laughs) >> It's not like this is being broadcast or anything.

Okay, I'm working on it, I'm working on it.

>> MING: It's all good, here, do these scallions for me.

>> All right, just regular slices?

>> MING: Thin.

>> Thin-- whites and greens?

>> MING: Whites and greens is fine.

All right, so guys, look, I'm mixing in the cabbage, the carrots.

We're going to have the scallions, and then once you get it on the griddle, I'm lucky enough to have a griddle behind me that's heating up.

You can use a cast iron pan, you can use a nonstick pan.

All of those would work, all right?

So the veg is going to exude a lot of water when it cooks, right, so you just need to coat it.

And this kind of pancake batter just brings it together, right?

You see how it's nice and kind of, like, homogeneous?

That's all you need, I don't want a lot of batter, right?

I'd rather eat more veg.

All right, give me some scallions in there, please, Henry.

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: There we go.

Very nice.

Cool, get a little, a little bit more.

>> A little bit more.

All right, so now, just as always, a little salt, little pepper.

Okay.

All right, and you keep mixing that up.

So now I'm gonna come over here.

Nice hot griddle here, guys, see this?

Just gonna put oil.

And we're gonna take a good bunch of this.

Oh, yeah, like that.

(sizzling) Oh yeah, I'm gonna make one big one for us, Henry.

All right, so that's cooking up.

What we're gonna add to that is some smoked salmon, right?

So here we have some smoked salmon.

I'm just going to kind of... just kind of break it up.

Lay it in like that, and you know what, Henry?

I forgot to add the fennel, because there's fennel and salmon.

So I'm just gonna break this fennel down real quickly.

This is the joy of live cooking, Henry.

Right?

>> If you screw up, you will constantly be judged.

>> MING: Okay, like that.

So it adds some life, some fennel, just a little bit.

And I'm gonna make sure it gets into the batter.

Okay... And that's gonna cook down, because this, of course, is going to be flipped.

So let's make the sauce, Henry.

>> Yes, chef.

>> MING: Traditional okonomiyaki sauce is a mayonnaise-based sauce.

It's actually Worcester... Worcestershire, right?

>> "Work-ester-sheer"?

>> MING: "Work-ester-sheer".

>> "Wor-shure-shure"... >> MING: So that's all it is.

Mayonnaise-- grab me a spoon there, mister.

Please.

All right, put that in.

Give me a little salt and pepper, please, Henry.

>> All right, >> MING: All right.

If you have some scallions, perfect.

Fantastic.

Perfect.

A little bit more.

All right, let's give this a try.

Oh, yeah.

Perfect.

Check this out.

All right.

Ichi ni san, ooh, it's a big one.

Let me grab a second.

Ichi ni san.

Whoop-- oh, yeah.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Oh, my God-- I'm gonna push it down because there was that raw fennel, you guys remember, because I forgot to add it.

I'm sorry-- Henry forgot to add it.

>> Uh, excuse me, is this my recipe?

>> MING: Uh, this is my show?

Ooh, mm-hmm.

It's not Simply Henry.

>> (sighs) >> MING: I forgot it, Henry.

So I'm pushing it down to get the fennel caramelized.

Another five minutes, that's gonna be good to go.

Fantastic, Henry, you're doing good there.

>> Ah... >> MING: You know, Henry, sure is hard cooking at home with you, you know?

>> (laughing) >> It's sure hard living with you, I guess!

(both laughing) >> MING: All right, this is gonna be five minutes.

So I'm going to get a couple of-- couple of plates for us, Henry.

And we're going... we're gonna go and throw it back on the... We will start the second dish.

Which, very similar technique, but gluten-free and vegan, okay?

Do me a little bit more scallions.

>> Just a little?

>> MING: Yup, nice and thin for me, please.

>> Okay.

>> MING: So here's our Worcestershire or the mayonnaise, right?

Store bought mayonnaise.

That's okay, that's not cheating.

That's smart.

Real mayonnaise-- make sure it's real mayonnaise.

And how do you know it's real mayonnaise?

It'll say it has egg, oil, and maybe spices-- that's it.

That's real mayonnaise.

All right, so I'm gonna go ahead and start prepping some shiitake mushrooms.

Probably my favorite.

Would you-- would you say that, Henry?

>> Yeah, probably.

>> MING: I probably eat shiitakes more than any other mushroom.

>> Yeah, shiitakes, maitakes.

>> MING: Maitakes I love.

You guys we're just twisting off the, uh, just twisting off the stem.

You can save the stems absolutely, for if you're making stock.

They're just a little chewy, if it's-- if you're cooking it.

So what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna cook up a little bit the shiitakes-- these I can't add raw.

Like I did, like, the smoked salmon or shrimp.

Because those will cook.

Shiitakes take a little bit more heat and a little bit longer because they get-- they're a little chewy raw, right?

>> Yeah.

>> MING: So we're going to flavor them, too.

They have a great umami, deep flavor.

However, it definitely needs some garlic and ginger.

So we're gonna cut some of that up, too, and then we're gonna sauté these shiitakes up.

Check my okonomiyaki real quickly, will you?

>> Will do.

>> MING: So here, guys, we're just cutting up the shiitakes nice and thin.

All right, let me move that spoon.

That would probably be a little better.

You want nice and thin shiitakes.

You can stack them, right?

When you do a shiitake, you can do, like, two at a time.

I think that's fine.

How's that looking?

>> This looks like it's ready to be flipped.

>> MING: Flipped again or ready to go?

>> Flipped again.

>> MING: Is it darker than the other side?

>> It is darker than the other side, yes.

>> MING: This is ready to go.

Oh, yeah.

>> Oh, there we go.

>> MING: Look at that.

Smoked salmon cooked through, fennel.

I love that-- see how the fennel got all caramelized?

That is awesome.

That is good to go, Henry.

Plate this up.

I love how the smoked salmon got cooked through.

I love how the fennel got all caramelized.

Look at that.

I think that's looking really good.

All right, so that's that.

Come on.

Okay, we're gonna garnish this up here, Henry.

I'm gonna show you how we do this.

This is easy now.

This is the part I love with okonomiyaki.

Just take a spoon... take this and kind of do lines across like this.

All right.

A little bit more like this.

Oh, yeah.

More scallions on top.

That's what we got.

Smoked salmon fennel okonomiyaki.

That looks good, dude.

Round two.

So I'm gonna mince some ginger, guys.

So, guys, with ginger, all you do is make thin slices, right, julienne and then mince it.

Okay?

And then with garlic, you going to smash it, Henry?

>> Uh, I mean, I can, yeah.

>> MING: It's just thin mince.

>> Just a mince?

Yeah, will do.

>> MING: So this is for the shiitakes, guys.

All right, we're gonna sauté garlic and ginger, and then we're gonna add shiitakes.

And then that's going to go inside of our vegan, gluten-free okonomiyaki.

And you're probably asking, what about the mayonnaise?

That's a great question.

We have fake mayonnaise.

Which-- sorry, I'm so low.

Fake mayonnaise, which exists, and that's... how we're going to make kind of a spicy mayonnaise.

And we can have... they have these fake liquid eggs now, made from bean... mung bean.

>> Yeah, mung bean.

>> MING: Which is really good.

All right.

Okay, come on.

>> Just going for a rough, rough mince here anyway.

>> MING: Yep.

Perfect.

Put in here.

Awesome.

>> Ding.

>> MING: Lots of ginger.

I'm plying this with ginger.

This is about 1.5 tablespoons.

I want it extra gingery.

So, since it's not a super hot flame, I'm using olive oil.

If I was wok stirring it, I would need uh, my favorite oil, grapeseed oil, right.

So just get that in there, get that sautéing a little bit, just to sweat it down.

All right, get a little salt and pepper.

Again, guys, this is instead of the smoked salmon, we're doing this with shiitakes to build some umami, right?

Mushrooms have so much great umami.

I'll grab these mushrooms now.

Boom!

There we go.

All right, guys, so here I added a little bit of tamari.

You can see how tamari makes it almost look meaty in flavor, right?

So we just gotta cook this down a little bit.

Let this go.

I am gonna use the same spatula.

So if this is for a celiac, of course, you'd have to change your spatula, right?

So I'm gonna just do half the amount.

Just so we can make one batch.

So, liquid eggs.

That's like one, two.

So, again, I'm going to see if it comes together.

I might add one more.

Um, it's a little bit of a guessing game with liquid eggs.

I actually like... when you use... when you use them for scramble, they actually taste almost like real eggs.

It's unbelievable.

Same thing, so I have my baking powder here.

I'm going to use half of it, right?

I think this baking powder is so key.

It really helps make the okonomiyaki super light.

Okay, mix that in.

Then veg broth, right?

Store-bought, guys.

It's fine.

It's fine to buy store-bought.

If you are gonna make your own veg broth, even better.

Dried mushrooms is awesome.

Just boil mushrooms, the dry shiitakes.

And then all you do is then let it sit overnight in the mushrooms, and that's how you can make mushroom broth.

All right, let me grab a whisk real quick.

Okay.

So, same thing, right?

Pancake batter consistency.

Going to add cabbage like before.

We're gonna add scallions.

We're gonna add carrots.

And we're gonna add shiitakes.

Oh, yeah, that's about half.

Oh, we'll add 'em all, Henry.

Why not?

>> Why not?

>> MING: Why you love mushrooms.

This, this is... this is the recipe for double.

I'm just making a double shiitake portion because we can, right?

So now here, again, mix this all in.

You just need that batter to kind of glue this all together.

Same technique you just saw.

I love this, guys.

I love okonomiyaki because either batter you make, gluten or no gluten, you can add anything to it.

Any raw veg-- watercress, spinach, celery, right?

Just know that some some will exude more liquid when you cook it, so just keep that in mind.

Cabbage is great.

It's the classic.

But then the proteins-- lobster, shrimp, all types of fish, fresh clams, probably out of the shell, oysters, ground beef, ground sausage.

Why not?

All right, Hen, let's go cook.

So now here we have version two.

I have not seasoned it.

So I put a little salt, put a little pepper.

Okay.

Loving this.

So now oil.

Oh, yeah.

Here we go, Henry.

We'll do... we'll do one.

(sizzling) Even though this is a half... eh, let's do the whole thing.

Come on.

All right, let's push that down.

Look at that.

This is going to be even bigger than the first one we made, Henry.

Can't make it too big, because then the el flippo will be tough.

>> Ah yes, the bulldozer as I prefer to call it.

>> MING: The bulldozer?

(laughs) I like that.

>> The snow plow.

Oh, God.

>> MING: Cheers again.

So...

So, let's talk about oil, Henry, a little bit, right?

Here, because, um, we're searing but not a wok stirred super hot, super hot, the oil, I always use is grapeseed oil.

Why?

Why?

>> Because it's got a great nutty flavor and also high heat.

>> MING: High smoking point.

>> High smoke point.

>> MING: High smoking point.

If you add extra virgin olive oil in a hot wok, it will smoke.

And then that causes it to taste bitter.

So that's no bueno.

Grapeseed has that great nutty flavor without nuts, and has a super high smoking... safflower oil has a great smoking temperatures, high smoking.

So does peanut oil.

But nowadays, with all these allergies, including your brother David, who's had a ton of them, we've basically eliminated peanut oil.

I think almost every Chinese restaurant in America has eliminated peanut oil because it's just... it's too hard.

Once you... wok season with peanut oil, it's everywhere.

But grapeseed is my go-to.

I use a ton of extra virgin olive oil for vinaigrettes, for finishing, you know, on top of carpaccio, putting it on top of meat that's been cooked.

And I do cook with it, but just not super high temp.

All right, how about the el flippo?

Okay, let's see how we do here.

This may be okay.

Okay.

This is... this may be a little bit hard to flip.

>> Moment of truth.

>> MING: One, two, three.

All right.

Not bad.

>> Not bad, honestly.

All considering.

>> MING: Okay, look at that, GB and D. Looks just as good as the smoked salmon, to be perfectly honest.

And I like it because you can see all those shiitakes coming through.

Henry, let's make a sauce.

Also based on mayonnaise.

But it's a vegan mayonnaise, right?

Pretty good.

They have flavored ones.

They have aiolis.

This one actually has a little garlic in it, but we're gonna add some hot sauce.

So, you know, I love my Asian hot sauces, right?

Sambal and sriracha and all that.

So this one's a sriracha.

A little bit of scallions, please, Henry.

>> Chef.

>> MING: Look at that.

It gets nice and red.

There we go.

Grab some salt and pepper.

>> Bit of that.

Oh, my God.

>> MING: All right.

>> Just some good old vegan sriracha mayo.

>> MING: Yeah.

>> Practically.

>> MING: It's amazing that actually tastes really good.

And again, store bought, right?

The idea of cooking at home, we don't... (sighs) Let's be honest, do I make veal broth and chicken stock from scratch and fish fumet?

>> I wish.

>> MING: No.

I don't.

Although when I roast chickens and roast turkeys, I will absolutely use those broths... those bones to make broth.

Oh, Henry, get a spoon, see what you think.

Oh, I think I like that.

I like that one more than the original.

>> Hmm, really?

>> MING: You tell me.

>> Oh, that's good.

>> MING: Right?

>> I like that.

Yeah, honestly.

I mean, you can't go wrong with sriracha mayo.

It really is... >> MING: Probably not.

Probably not.

All right, Hen, let's plate this one up.

And we're gonna be out of here.

>> All right.

>> MING: I'm going to... just bring this on the plate.

Oh, that's perfect.

Repeat.

Okay, look at this.

All right, Hen, you do it.

Let me see how garnish it up.

>> Oh, God, man.

>> MING: No, just do it.

There's no right or wrong.

No, no, not that, too hot, no, too fast, too slow.

Go ahead, take your time.

What?

Sorry.

(Henry sighs) My kids put up with a lot.

>> Every day of my life.

>> MING: Yeah, and... >> It tastes great, I gotta say.

(laughter) Eat pretty good, it's worth it.

>> MING: I think you did a pretty good job there, Henry.

That looks awesome.

Are you gonna go transcontinental too?

No, try to keep it separate.

You know, pure, it's... >> MING: All right.

>> Parallel.

>> MING: Let's go, see how we did.

Why don't we try... let's try the vegan one first.

>> All right.

>> MING: All right.

Mmm.

Oh, I like that.

>> Oh, my God.

>> MING: I like the mushrooms.

I love the garlic ginger, right?

It really comes through.

>> It really just punches right through there, oh, my God.

>> MING: Wow, pretty good.

>> But when I say punches through, it's like a kind way.

A nice punch, a gentle punch.

>> MING: A nice punch-- oh, a gentle punch.

Like a caress.

>> Yes.

>> MING: All right, so this is, again, this is a smoked salmon okonomiyaki.

Mmm.

Wow.

>> Whoa.

>> MING: You know I like about that, Henry?

Besides the smoke salmon?

The fennel.

>> The fennel, yeah.

>> MING: That cooked... so always forget to add your fennel and then put it on top to caramelize.

We learned something.

>> Nice slightly raw flavor.

>> MING: Dude, great job.

Thank you.

And thank you all.

We will see you next week.

And, as always... >> Peace and good eating.

>> MING: Good eating.

Try that again?

>> Okay, okay, three, two... >> MING: Peace... >> Pea... (laughter) Okay, on one.

Three, two... >> BOTH: Peace and good eating.

(exhales) That was so easy.

>> Oh, God.

>> MING: Bye!

For more information on Simply Ming, including upcoming guests and more, visit us online at ming.com/simplyming.

>> Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at SubaruOfNewEngland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪