Pumpkin Laksa

Recipe "A new pumpkin laksa for a cold night" from "Tender: A Cook and his Vegetable Patch" by Nigel Slater.

I have tried this recipe twice, and I suggest several changes.

First, if you use regular canned coconut milk, then there is way too much coconut milk in this recipe; I suggest eliminating the coconut milk entirely or only using a small dollop. Alternatively, as I did in attempt #2, you can dilute the coconut milk with more stock (I used 32 oz more then asked for in the recipe), but you'll need to increase the fish stock (about 1 Tbsp more), soy sauce (about 1 Tbsp more), and citrus juice (the juice from 1/2 - 1 more limes) accordingly; on the second day, the coconut milk mellowed out, and the soup was pretty enjoyable. I'm beginning to suspect that I might not like canned coconut milk in soups since it is too cloying and heavy. This soup is better if you make your own coconut milk from shredded coconut flesh. In my third attempt, I used 1 1/2 cups fresh coconut flesh, and two soakings with 1 1/2 cups hot water. This diluted the soup a little bit too much. Next time I would either only use the coconut milk from the first hot water soaking, or perhaps only use 1 cup of coconut with two soakings.

Second, Slater doesn't explain how to prepare the lemon grass. You are supposed to cut off about 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom and discard the hard outer layers and the dried out tops just before the lemongrass branches. Use the "main stalk", which should be yellow. You should use the bottom 3 to 4 inches of the remaining part of each stalk.

Third, my blender can't pulverize the lemon grass spice paste (which incidentally is very similar to a green curry paste, even though Slater doesn't mention this) finely enough, so after you have simmered the spice paste with stock and coconut milk (but before you add the pumpkin and noodles), I passed the soup through a chinoise (use a fine mesh strainer, or a regular strainer lined with cheese cloth if you don't have one), in order to remove any grit from the soup. Also since my ginger was a bit old, and had a fibrous hairy texture, I grated the ginger and only used the squeezed ginger juice in the recipe, though this ended up not mattering since I strained the soup anyways.

Fourth, you should use kabocha squash as the pumpkin in this recipe. It is okay to use meyer lemon juice instead of lime juice. I used Thai basil instead of cilantro, since I don't like cilantro.

Fifth, you can use mung bean noodles (bean threads / clear noodles), rice noodles (thick rice noodles are nice), or wheat based noodles. The soup also goes well with white rice--serve on the side and people can either pour soup over the rice, eat the rice plain to contrast with the soup, or they can put the rice into the soup. If you have leftovers, you can leave the pumpkin in the soup overnight; in fact this will actually help to get pumpkin flavor into the broth (the broth will turn from green to an appealing bright fiery orange). However, don't leave the noodles or rice in the soup overnight, since they will expand, become soggy, and soak up all the broth.

With that said, the spicy, salty, fishy, sour taste of this soup is addictive (it is inspired by southeastern asian cooking).

Canh Ga (Chicken Soup with Greens, from Vietnam)

Recipe for Canh Ga (Chicken Soup with Greens, from Vietnam) is from "Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

The recipe has the following advantages: it is relatively simple and quick to make, and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. The chicken is pouched in the chicken broth, so it will be very flavorful even if you use store bought broth because the chicken infuses the broth with flavor. I used skinless chicken drumsticks with the bone in, so that the bone would help to give more flavor. Before serving the meat is removed from the bones, and the bones discarded. The cooked chicken and the stock can be made a day ahead and stored (the chicken should be stored separately from the broth), so that it will be extremely quick to finish cooking.

I like this recipe because it is simple but fulfilling. The cellophane noodles were my favorite as a kid because they seem to disappear into the soup; we called them clear noodles. frequently bok choi gets stuck in my teeth because it has strings that are hard to break. In this recipe, I like how the bok choi is sliced into 1-inch thick pieces; this makes them much easier to eat. The chicken stays really moist in this recipe too.

The choice to customize your dish seems to be prevalent in southeastern Asian cooking. Many dishes are served a side plate of bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, lime, sliced fresh chili peppers, and a variety of side sauces in southeastern Asian cooking. So in this spirit, I also garnished my soup bowl with some sliced Serrano chili pepper (this isn't specified in the recipe), since I like spicy soups.

This makes a nice meal when it is served with fried rice, made simply with leftover white rice, scrambled eggs, white pepper, and (yes) olive oil. Olive oil is certainly not traditional, but my mother always uses olive oil to cook with, so that's what makes this dish taste "home style" to me. The fried rice should be white, so there shouldn't be any soy sauce or other flavoring in it that would color the rice.

Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is an intensely lemony spread. It is the same stuff that is inside of lemon bars and lemon meringue, except that you can spread it on anything you like, such as toast.

This lemon curd took two tries. I don't like egg-y lemon curd, so the first attempt was a failure because it had a strongly egg smell. From searching the internet, it looks like there are two possible causes. The first is that using the egg white might add the sulfur-like flavor (mentioned by Over the Hill & on a Roll, but credited to Cook's Illustrated). So using a recipe with only egg yolks might help to fix the problem (my first recipe used 2 egg yolks and 2 eggs).

A second possible cause is that overcooking the eggs might possibly lead to eggyness (mentioned in a chowhound topic, which also mentioned using fewer egg whites).

The first recipe advises to cook the curd until "mixture thickens and just begins to become jelly-like. It’s done when you lift the whisk and the mixture holds its shape when it falls back into the saucepan from the whisk." This instruction may be correct, but there is one important caveat--if you hold your whisk more then an inch or two above the curd, then the curd drops that fall off the whisk will just fall back into the curd due to the acceleration from gravity. So I think I overcooked it. A better way to tell if the curd is cooked, is "The most important step in our perfect lemon curd recipe is knowing when the curd is cooked. When the spatula leaves a clear trail (which quickly disappears) in the bottom of the saucepan, the curd is ready. If you leave it on the heat any longer, the spatula will leave a wide, clear trail as the curd becomes thick and pasty." (from Cook's Illustrated).

For the second try, I followed Martha Stewart's 1995 lemon curd recipe, which only uses egg yolks. Since I have meyer lemons, which are much more sweet then regular lemons, I reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup, which is the amount that was recommended in the first recipe for meyer lemons. This greatly reduced (though not entirely eliminated) the eggyness. Meyer lemons don't have much juice; 1/2 cup of juice requires at least 3 large meyer lemons (use more if your meyer lemons are small). Also, when you cook the curd, you should use a spoon or spatula to stir, otherwise the curd has a tendency to get frothy.

Nigiri Sushi

Recipe for "Nigiri Sushi" and "Sushi Rice" from "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" by Shizuo Tsuji. Super Mira Market" has tasty salmon.

To make the sushi rice, cook 1 servings size measure of your rice cooker's measuring cup. Make a dressing with 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp sea salt. Immediately when the rice is done, toss it with the dressing. Use a horizontal motion to toss the rice so that the grains don't get mushed. Toss until the rice has cooled to room temperature. Keep at room temperature with a damp towel covering if you won't using it for a while so that it doesn't dry out.

To make the nigiri sushi, with the knife slanted to the left, cut the fish at a steep angle towards the left. Make a "tezu" (hand-vinegar) out of 2 tsp rice vinegar and 6 Tbsp water which will be used to moisten your hands to keep the rice from sticking to you. Moisten your fingers with the hand-vinegar and rub your palms together so that they get moistened to.

Pick up about 1 1/2 Tbsp rice with your right hand, and lightly squeeze your fist around it. Rotate the rice so that all sides get evenly squeezed. Pick up the fish with your left hand, and use your right index finger to spread some wasabi on the underside of the fish (keep the rice in your fist). Place the fish on top of the rice and then set down. Serve immediately.

Preserved Lemons

Many years ago, before I ever started this blog, I made a batch of preserved lemons. Their taste is really vivid and unusual, and quite different from fresh lemons. They are extremely easy to make, however, I never got around to making them again in the oh-about-six years since then because they have to cure for one month before you use them.

Recently, my officemate ever so kindly gave me an extremely large amount of lemons from the tree in her backyard, since she has way more then she can use. So I was inspired by my fond memories of the taste of preserved lemons, combined with a new purchase! I bought Paula Wolfert's classic Moroccan cookbook, "Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco". She recently was nominated for a James Bead award for her latest book on Morocco, which is filled with beautiful pictures. I've heard that the text of the new book may largely be the same as her classic book from 1973. While I like beautiful pictures, I love cookbooks that offer insight into the foods and culture, informative prose, explanations of authentic cooking techniques, and vintage things. Since I was able to stop by a used book store this weekend, I decided to start with her tried and true classic, which many people seem to have commented was one of the first and best cookbooks ever written on Moroccan food, because her descriptions go into much more then just the food. The book also explains some of the culture and has meticulously researched recipes. The inspiration for the cookbook is be love; she loves good Moroccan food!

This recipe for preserved lemons is from Wolfert's classic cookbook. We'll see if in about a month's time Moroccan dishes start popping up on this blog. Here's to one month from now.

Tuscan White Bean Dip

I make a lot of hummus. And I love hummus, but I've had it in the back of my mind for quite a while, that I should try a different kind of bean dip, e.g. a cannellini bean dip with lots of Tuscan aromatics. When I made this, I pureed it to a smooth texture, since the skins seemed a bit distracting; next time I might consider removing the skins and leaving a coarser texture to the dip.

Recipe adapted from "White Bean Dip with Rosemary and Garlic" in "Joy of Cooking", 75th Anniversary edition by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker.

Ingredients:
Dried cannellini beans (enough to make about 3 cups cooked)
Some aromatics to use when the beans cook (e.g. I used a bay leaf and some dried thyme sprigs)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, skins removed and lightly smashed
a few sprigs of rosemary (dried is okay)

Cover dried beans in water and soak overnight. Strain the beans from the soaking water. Place the beans in a pot and cover with two to three times their volume in water. Add aromatics. Do not add salt yet (this will make the beans mushy). Bring to a boil, then partially cover and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer until the beans are tender--this can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and thirty minutes. Stir every once in a while. Taste several beans to check for doneness; since some beans can become softer before other beans. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add about 1 tsp salt (or to taste), so that the beans have time to absorb some salt. Optional: its perfectly fine to let the cooked beans cool, or to store them in the refridgerator overnight, and continue cooking them the next day.

Saute the garlic cloves and rosemary (remove the leaves from the hard stems and discard the stems) in the olive oil on low for about 5 minutes, or until the garlic cloves begin to brown but don't burn them.

Separate the beans from the cooking water; save the cooking water. Discard any aromatics that you don't want to be part of the dip (e.g. bay leave, thyme twigs; keeping the thyme leaves is okay). Put the beans, 1/4 cup cooking water, the oil, garlic, and rosemary into a blender. Blend until smooth. You can add more of the bean cooking liquid if it isn't moist enough; note that the bean cooking liquid has salt in it, so if the dip is getting too salty you should use water instead. Taste and adjust seasonings (salt, optionally you can add pepper or white pepper).

Mint Chutney

Mint Chutney from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan.

Note: This can be made in a blender. A spice grinder isn't needed.

Dosai

"Ordinary Dosai" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan, with Coconut Chutney.

Note: To cooking the dosai, I pour in a spiral motion from the inside in, and then lightly use the back of the spoon in a spiral motion (also inside out) to smooth out the excess batter on the crepe and make it thinner. Place the cooked dosai on a cooling rack, not a plate, because the trapped heat on the plate will become moist and make the dosai soggy.

Coconut Chutney

"Coconut Chutney 2" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan.

Sambar

"Ordinary Sambar" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan. Made using homemade sambar powder.

"Ordinary Sambar" with potatoes and okra


"Ordinary Sambar" with red pepper, baby potatoes cut in half, and 1 shallot cut into rings


Note: You should use the optional rice flour slurry to thicken the soup, because it helps to give the soup a fuller body.

Homemade Sambar Powder

"Sambar Powder 2" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan.

Ordinary Rasam

"Ordinary Rasam" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan. Made using homemade rasam powder.

Rasam Powder

Recipe for "Rasam Powder" from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan. Rasam powder is used to make rasam, a south indian spicy, tangy soup.

Food for William's Moving to San Francisco Party

• Millet Muffins
• Tostones with Avocado and mustard seed dip
• Meatballs
• Winter Salad with Fennel, Radicchio, Walnuts, and Parmesan
• Bread
• Cheese Puffs (Gougères)
• 3 types of ice cream: Milk Chocolate Guinness, Oolong Black Tea (the recipe is for "Black Current Tea Ice Cream" but I couldn't find black current tea), and Rum Raison from "The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz. The Oolong tea ice cream turned out to be the crowd favorite.

Bean Dal Poriyal (Beans Parupu Usili)

Recipe from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India" by Chandra Padmanabhan. I used chana dal instead of toor dal, since that's what I had. The recipe also needs a dash of additional salt mixed into the finished dish.

Bread!

Someone made me bread!