Dennis Chan's Hip Asian Comfort Food

Chef Dennis Chan, the culinary creator of Blue Bamboo restaurant in Jacksonville, FL., and the book, Hip Asian Comfort Food, rarely does the expected.

Chef Dennis Chan whisks up some cotton candy for cocktails.

So when he invited a group of food writers and bloggers by for a tasting, Chef Dennis began with a new drink, his classic Cucumber-Lime Saktail with a twist, vodka instead of sake and cotton candy (!) instead of simple syrup. This Kicked-Up martini was surprising and surprisingly good.

We soak, fill and fold.

Little did we know we'd be preparing some of our meal, beginning with Fresh Unfried Spring Rolls with Vietnamese Peanut-Hoisin Dipping Sauce that could make shoe leather edible. Fill and fold was simple enough and the next course, Seoulful Edamame, was already put together. Good thing because we were soon too busy eating to even think about cooking.

Here are the recipes for the Kicked-Up Martini and Seoulful Edamame.

Kicked-Up Martini

1 serving

1 lime wedge
1 cucumber wedge
1/4 oz. simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar by volume boiled until syrup forms)
2 oz. vodka or sake
Begin by filling a glass with cotton candy.
Muddle lime and cucumber in bottom of a shaker. Add ice, vodka and syrup and shake well. Pour over cotton candy in a chilled glass and garnish with a lime wedge.

Stir. Cotton candy will dissolve.

Seoulful Edamame

Water for boiling
1 lb. frozen edamame, shell on.
Salt for seasoning
Seasame seeeds for garnishing

Korean Seoul BBQ Sauce
2TBS. Korean fermented hot pepper paste
 3 TBS. sugar
2 TBS. soy sauce
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tsp. sesame oil

Whisk all ingredients for BBQ sauce. It comes out spicy so you might want to add the hot pepper paste a tablespoon at a time. Can be made a few days ahead and stored covered in the refrigerator.

Boil edamame until tender. Toss in salt then sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve while warm.