The ‘Chef’ in question happened to be hosting that night. She overheard the dinner guest and laughed to herself. Yes. Chiuho Duval cooks! When it comes to creating the weekly dinner special, she really cooks.

Chiuho gets her inspiration for weekly dinner specials from the seasonal produce she finds at local farmers markets and from local stores like City Market, where she recently got busted for dancing in front of the heirloom tomatoes. Hmm…You say. Dancing tomatoes does not sound like Chinese food. But you’d be wrong.

Tomatoes are indeed part of the palette. In fact there is a stir-fried egg and tomato dish that is the cultural equivalent of our grilled cheese sandwich. It is a comfort food that is often the first thing little kids learn to cook.

Dancing in the produce department is a little bit harder to explain. Chef Chiuho Duval gets her inspiration from many things, foremost on this list is the availability of fresh, local foods, like Heirloom tomatoes. She also gets inspiration from color and music. When the three come together, something magical is bound to happen, including dancing.

The song list below and the heirloom tomatoes above inspired a succulent scallop dish. She was going to reduce the tomatoes into a coulis, but their texture, taste and vibrant color inspired her to keep them fresh. The scallops were lightly battered and crisp; she combined the tomatoes with plum and seasoned them with basil, lemon, salt and pepper and poured them over the scallops.

Eblouie Par La Nuit by Zaz
Downpour by Brandi Carlile
Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard & Market Irglova
Beautiful Night by Josh Ritter
Splendor in The Grass by Pink Martini

You wont hear these songs at the restaurant, but you might taste their influence on your plate.

Ingredients:

7 oz Salmon Fillet

1 T Black Bean and Garlic Sauce

Pinch White Pepper

1 T Shaoxing Wine

1 T Chile Oil

1 T Vegetable Oil

1 T Ginger, minced

1 T Garlic, minced

2 Handfuls Spinach

Pinch each: Salt, White Pepper, Sichuan Peppercorn

Dash Shaoxing Wine

Dash White Vinegar

2 Scallion Tops, shredded

1 T Ginger, finely shredded

2 ½ oz Vegetable Oil

Black Sesame Seeds to garnish

Directions:

Smear the salmon with the black bean sauce, 1 T white pepper and 1 T of wine. Steam the filet for 6-8 minutes until cooked through.

In the wok, heat the Chile oil with 1 T vegetable oil. Add 1 T ginger and garlic and toss with the oils, add the spinach and toss, cooking quickly until just wilted. Add the pinches of salt, white pepper, and Sichuan peppercorn, and the dashes of wine and vinegar. Toss a few times, then set the spinach on a plate.

Lay the shredded ginger and garlic on top of the salmon. Heat the 2 ½ oz vegetable oil in the wok until smoking and pour over the fish. Garnish with the sesame seeds.

Take Mock Eel for example. It is not a fish (does an eel even qualify as a fish?). It tastes meaty, but it is not meat. This is starting to sounds like some kind of riddle from Game of Thrones. Red Zinfandels, Shiraz or Syrah wines go well with your classic grilled steak, but what compliments the exotic braised Shitake mushroom (this is the main ingredient in A Single Pebble’s mock eel)?

Here’s the general rule of thumb (from Wine Folly):
- Acidity in wine pairs well with fatty and sweet foods.
- Fatty foods need either an acidic or high alcohol wine, otherwise the wine will taste flabby.
- Bitter (aka Tannic) wine can be balanced with a sweet food.
- Salty shouldn’t compete with acidity in wine. Use sparingly as necessary to keep sharpness in the meal.
- Sweet food/wine benefits from a little acidity.
- Alcohol [content] can be used to cut through fatty foods or balance a sweet dish.

Wine pairing can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. For Chef Chiuho Duval, wine is what brought her to cooking in the first place. She even moved to the United Sates in order to study it. “For me, wine is super romantic,” she says. Sure she enjoys the flavor, but the attraction for her is in the story behind the wine. For her, the hard work, climate, people, lifestyles, and history behind each of the wines she selects for the wine list at A Single Pebble create a deeper connection than do the traditional rules of wine pairing.

That said, Pinot Noirs do pair well with Chinese food, they are lighter and have higher acidity. Champagne also pairs well with Chinese food (for some people, champagne pairs well with everything). Rieslings and Gewurztraminers are also very good with Chinese food. The flavor profile of these grapes is semi-sweet, high acidity, and a little bit on the fruity side. This helps them cut through the soy sauce and spicy flavors common to Chinese food.

But we still have not answered the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: What will you drink with your Mock Eel? Take a look at Chiuho’s wine list and let your heart decide. Or ask your server for a recommendation.

To your health.

Many Asian restaurants use sauces we already know like soy sauce and Hoisin. We are familiar with these flavors – they are staples in most home kitchens. But it’s the proprietary sauces that separate the cooks from the chefs. A Single Pebble has a boat load of these distinguishing sauces. Some are made daily, others take as long as two weeks or a month to mature. Chef Chiuho Duval’s White BBQ sauce, for example, has to marinate for at least two weeks; her Tang An sauce has to mature for at least a month before it can become part of your meal.

In a recent conversation, Chiuho revealed some (but certainly not all) of the secrets to her secret sauces.

Kung Po – The origin of this sauce is much debated in and most Chinese restaurants create their own unique version of this complex salty, sweet, sour, spicy sauce. Chiuho’s contains soy, vinegar, sugar, garlic, ginger, and chilis. The sauce is matured for one week prior to serving.

Tan Tan – A simple peanut sauce with a mild, nutty flavor, Tan Tan is often mixed with other sauces. Ingredients in this sauce often include peanuts, rice vinegar, soy, sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame.

White BBQ Sauce – Consisting of crushed ginger, scallion, salt, peanut oil and Five Flavor Powder, Chiuho’s White BBQ sauce must marinate for at least two weeks before it is served.

Copper Well – A versatile and spicy sauce, Copper Well consists of Sichuan peppercorn, cayenne, sesame seed, black vinegar, brown sugar, and sugar.

La Yu - La Yu is a sauce used for cold salads, noodles and dumplings. It contains: tahini, garlic, chili oil, sugar, Sichuan peppercorn, scallions, soy sauce, sesame, and black pepper.

Sesame Sauce – This sauce is also used for cold salads, noodles and dumplings, but has a nuttier flavor than La Yu. Ingredients: sesame seed, peanut, ginger, scallion, soy, vinegar, sugar, chili sauce, and tahini.

Tang An – This pungent sauce has to mature for at least a month before it makes its way to the table. Ingredients include: light soy, sugar, cider vinegar, rice wine, fermented hot bean sauce and patience.

With a little exploration, you’ll find that these sauces make Chinese food so much more than what you’ll find in a thousand-page cook book or in that little white take-out box.

Ingredients:

8             oz             Pork, cubed and marinated

Cornstarch, for dusting

2             oz             Each Water Chestnuts, Snow Peas, Straw Mushrooms,

Red Pepper, julienne

2            oz            Green Beans, cut into short strips

1             t              Ginger, minced

1            T              Light Soy Sauce

Handful        Cashews

6                           Scallion Green Tops

Dash           Sesame Oil

Pork Marinade:

½             T             Ginger Juice

½             T             Oyster Sauce

½             T             Cup Soy Sauce

Sprinkle         Sugar

Dash           Sichuan Pepper

Dash           Salt

1            t                Sesame Oil

Directions:

Marinate the pork overnight.

Dust the pork with cornstarch and wok-fry on low heat until almost cooked. Drain and set aside. Deep-fry the green beans until blistered, and set aside.

Wok-fry the ginger and add the pork, vegetables and green beans. Add the soy sauce. Add the cashews. Toss in the scallions and the sesame oil and remove from heat.

Serve with rice.

Though Chinese food honors six thousand years of culinary tradition, Chinese cooking is like a journey that never arrives. Modern Chinese cooking, like modern yoga, is an evolving practice that conveys the personality and style of each practitioner. Regional and international influences are hard at work here. Chiuho Duval’s cooking style, for example, is informed by her culinary work in Taipei and her French cuisine concentration at the New England Culinary Institute.

Your own cooking will reflect your familial and geographic influences, but for cooks at home and in the restaurant business, there are some constants. Fresh ingredients, individually prepared vegetables and pre-cooked meats are common to much Chinese cuisine, as are these universal cooking techniques: stir-fry, deep-fry, steaming, boiling, barbecuing, cold mixing, and poaching.

But something you won’t find in your home kitchen is Wok-Hay. Wok, of course, refers to the round-bottomed cooking pot we all know and love. Hay is better known in its Mandarin transliteration, qi or ch’i (life energy). Wok-Hay refers to the life energy of a dish. It is also referred to as the spirit of the wok, or the breath of the wok. It is an almost alchemical interaction between the metal of the pan, the seasoning of the wok and the flavors of the food under extreme high heat.

At A Single Pebble, Wok-Hay is achieved at 500,000 BTUs. The BTU (British thermal unit) is a traditional unit of energy. It is approximately the amount of energy needed to heat 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit (from 39 °F to 40 °F). The average home stove has about 7000 BTUs per burner.

Image credits, Chiuho Duval, www.thekitchn.com

This makes it difficult to spot a good Chinese restaurant. In New York and Montreal, Chinese foodies and gourmets look for a couple of tell-tale signs: none of the waiters speak English, the diners are all Asian, the menu is written in Chinese. In Vermont, we have to be better sleuths. We have to use our noses to suss out the delectable fragrance of local food.

The abundant and inventive use of local food is part of the reason why A Single Pebble in Burlington was named “The Best Restaurant in Vermont” by Vermont Magazine. For Chef-Owner Chiuho Duval, not only does each dish carry it’s own unique history and story, each ingredient does, too. From the dairy in locally made gelato she serves, to the hormone-free, grass-fed local beef in her Braised Sichuan Beef, Chiuho honors that local story. Take a look at her list of friends.

The use of local foods is not only better for you and the environment, it tastes better. And like the ripple created by a pebble cast into still water, the beneficial effects of eating local food radiate outwards to:

• Support the local economy – Money spent with local farmers stays close to home.
• Promote Variety – You can see this on our ever-changing Chef’s Choice Tasting Menu!
• Create Community – Knowing where your food is from connects you to the people who raise and grow it.

 Ingredients:

8 oz Firm Tofu, large cubes

2 oz Tree Ear Mushrooms, picked

2 oz Water Chestnuts, sliced

4 oz Ground Pork

Pinch each Garlic, minced

Ginger, minced

Scallion, minced

Sichuan Peppercorn, ground

2 ½ oz Soy Sauce

1 T Sugar

1 T Hot Bean Sauce

Dash Dark Soy Sauce

Dash Chile Oil

 Dash Salt

Dash Sichuan Peppercorn

Slurry, to thicken

6 Scallion tops

Dash Sesame Oil

Directions:

Poach the tofu and the vegetables and drain. In the wok, stir-fry the pork over medium heat, breaking it up. Add the pinches of garlic, ginger, minced scallion and peppercorn, and cook with the pork. When the pork is mostly cooked, add the soy sauces, sugar, hot bean sauce and Chile oil. Add the tofu and the vegetables, toss and reduce heat. Add salt and Sichuan pepper to taste. Thicken the sauce with the slurry. Add the scallion tops and toss. Finish with the sesame oil. Serve.

Ingredients

12            oz        Chicken Stock

12            oz        Coconut Milk

1            T            Vegetable Oil

1            T            Massaman Curry Paste

1            T            Javin Curry Powder

1            t             Cumin

½            C           Chicken, sliced & marinated

2            T             Fish Sauce

1            t              Sugar

Handful                Pho Rice noodles, cooked

6            oz           Lo Mein Noodles, deep-fried until crispy

Scallion Tops, shredded

Directions

Set the noodles in a large in a large soup crock and set aside. In the wok, fry the spices in the oil taking care not to burn them. Add the stock and coconut milk to the wok, and stir to break up the seasonings. Add the chicken and simmer until the chicken is cooked. Season with the fish sauce and the sugar and simmer one minute to combine flavors. Remove the soup from the heat and pour it over the noodles into the crock. Garnish with the crispy Lo Mein noodles and the scallion tops. Serve.

LaPlatte River Angus Farm, located in Shelburne and Milton, Vermont, is small enough that John delivers our order himself every week; large enough, though to be able to supply the beef for all of our menu dishes, the beef specials we feature every evening, and many other local businesses in the area.  LaPlatte River is home to the largest registered Black Angus herd in New England.

The farm began as a hobby for Jim Kleptz, eventually growing too large for Jim to handle on his own. Now the farm is owned and run by Jim, John, and John’s brother, Mark. The philosophy behind the farm is one based on sustainability and good, old-fashioned neighborliness of a typical Vermont fashion. Most of the fields on which the cattle graze and where they grow and cut hay are either leased or donated by their neighbors. The upkeep of the land that is offered in return, by crop rotation, rotational grazing practices, and fertilization, is invaluable.

When I was a girl, I lived near farms, and when a neighbor would butcher an animal, they would bring some of the meat around to share with the neighbors. I spent enough time at the neighboring farms that I knew exactly which animal had been butchered. I knew what its life had been like, and how it had been raised. I understood the care that was given to every aspect of raising and butchering each animal.

This relationship with my neighbors’ farms is similar to the relationship I have with John and LaPlatte River. I have spent time at the farm, getting to know the animals that provide the food for the restaurant, touring the processing plant, and watching the business as it grows. Sometimes I will pack him a lunch and go to watch him hay the fields. He even let this city girl take a turn at driving his tractor! John wants to know about the restaurant, too; about the new things we are doing, new recipes we’ve tried. And he tells us about his plans for the future – his dream to build their own butcher house, and be as self-sufficient as possible.

In the beginning, Jim and John would pack frozen beef into a suitcase and carry it door to door until they found someone to buy it – a great way to get to know your neighbors. Jim has passed the love for his trade and his care for his neighbors on to his sons. John’s favorite aspect of the business is the face-time he gets with each business. Because of this, John has become a friend, although, sometimes he still calls me ma’am.