Lemongrass

It took me a couple tries, but I finally figured out how to make a paste from lemongrass. The secret is that you must mince the lemongrass with a knife super finely, before putting it into a blender or mortar. If you don't mince it, then a blender with turn large pieces into a hairy pulp--which is a horrible texture on the tongue.

I haven't tried it yet, but this site also suggests using a microplane.

Hummus

Another batch of Melissa Clark's Stupendous Hummus, with Za'atar and olive oil on top. This was made using 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (picture 1) that was soaked overnight in water (picture 2). Then I drained and covered the chickpeas by 2 inches in fresh water in a pot, and boiled them for about 1.5 hours. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, I added 1 tsp salt. Since this was only a small batch, I removed all of the chickpea skins. The only modifications that I made to the recipe is that I left out the garlic, since I don't like the aftertaste, and I used the salted chickpea cooking water, instead of dissolving fresh salt into the dip. There was only a small amount of cooking water, since much of evaporated or clung to the discarded chickpea skins.

This was the right amount of hummus for my lunch (I worked from home today since I'm getting over a cold) and for an appetizer for William and me at dinner. Just like last time I made this recipe, I noticed that the spread got more flavorful after it was in the fridge for a few hours.

Nearly all hummus recipes use exactly the same ingredients (chickpeas, lemon juice, water or bean cooking liquid, tahini, salt, garlic, and spices (paprika, cayenne pepper, or cumin)). However, hummus can vastly differ in taste and how creamy it turns out; the difference is primarily technique, not ingredients. The techniques for better hummus that I know about are:

• Remove all (or as many as you have attention or time) skins from the chickpeas
• Dissolve all spices and salt in the lemon juice or water/bean cooking liquid first. This makes sure that the spices will mix evenly into the dip, and that the salt is dissolved. If you have to add more salt or spices later, mix it with a little bit of water or lemon juice before adding it to the dip.
• Mix the tahini with the liquids (water/bean cooking liquid and lemon juice) BEFORE you add the chickpeas. Tahini is very thick. If you don't mix it with the liquids first, then the tahini won't integrate into the dip.
• Optionally cook your own dried chickpeas instead of using canned chickpeas

Thus, the order that you should make your hummus is: Remove skins from chickpeas, save cooking water. Put water, lemon juice, spices, and salt in a blender. Blend. Add tahini. Blend. Add chickpeas. Blend. Yes, it is really necessary to do the blending in multiple steps.

Crepes!

Recipe for buckwheat crepes from David Lebovitz. Just like last time, I left out the sugar and used 1 tsp salt since this batter was used mostly for savory crepes. This time I filled them with:

• mushrooms, Gruyere cheese, ham
• mushrooms, Gruyere cheese, ham, sunny side up egg
• preserves and ice cream: Mandarin orange marmalade and malted milk ice cream
• lemon juice and powdered sugar

Last time I used my 12" cast iron pan and a crepe tool to spread the crepes thin.  Last time, I was able to get crispy edges more often; I'm not sure if this is due to the cast iron pan, or if there was some difference in how the batter came out. However, I found the crepe pan easier to use, since the crepes don't stick to it, and swirling the pan is easier then spreading the batter, since you have to be very careful to not tear the crepes when you use the tool.

This time I used my crepe pan and tilted the pan to spread the batter thin. I found that I got slightly crispier results if I used the technique that is recommended in Indian dosa recipes, which is to pour the batter in a spiral motion (instead of in one big puddle in the middle of the pan), and then tilt the pan.

Another technique for getting the edges crispy is to make sure that you cook them on the first side until you see the edges start to brown, and to make sure that you cook them long enough for the second side.  In retrospect, this sounds obvious, but many of my first ones weren't cooked long enough because I was worried about drying them out; however this didn't end up being a problem since none of the crepes (even the ones I cooked for longer) that I made were too dry.

Finally getting the right batter consistency (the batter should be the consistency of cream) and getting the crepe pan the right temperature matters in getting the crepes crispy. The crepes should start to solidify almost instantly when you pour the batter on the hot pan; sometimes if you swirl the batter fast enough, the batter may develop small holes that you can see the pan through (this is good).

Previously, I served the crepes as soon as I made them, since they taste best immediately out of the pan. However, this was hectic for me, since I never really got to sit down and enjoy my crepe, and I didn't get to eat with William since I was always standing at the stove. This time, I made 4 crepes all at once, and then we sat down and ate them together; this was much more relaxing and enjoyable! I prefer this experience better!

Fried Forbidden Rice

This is a version of fried rice made using Thai black forbidden rice, scrambled eggs, minced fresh Thai chili, Sichuan pepper, white pepper, salt, and olive oil. The minced Thai chili was sautéed in oil just before the rice was added to the pan, in order to perfume the oil. The rest is made following my mother's recipe.

Malted Milk Ice Cream

Recipe: "Malted Milk Ice Cream" from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop"
Rating: William's favorite David Lebovitz ice cream so far
Status: William made once, and my sister and David made once

Someone made me "Malted Milk Ice Cream" from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop"! The ice cream has malt powder and crushed malted milk candy (Whoppers).

There are two types of very similar sounding powders: malt powder (sometimes called barley malt powder) and malted milk powder.  Malted milk powder is malt powder that has been mixed with evaporated milk.  As clarified on the author's blog, he used Horlick’s Powdered Malt or Carnation Malted Milk powder (the companies sometimes slightly change the name of this product), which are both malted milk powders (that is malt powder that has been mixed with evaporated milk).  We used malted milk powder for this ice cream.  I think it might be possible to use malt powder, as long as you reduce the amount you use to be the same proportion that malt powder has in malted milk powder (you'll have to look up this proportion since I don't know what it is), though we haven't tried this yet.

This is William's favorite ice cream by far.  One warning is that this ice cream is very very sweet.  We like the milk chocolate malted milk candy best, but I recommend being conservative with the amount of crushed malted milk candy since this candy make the ice cream even sweeter.  Since malt powder is a sweetener  possibly you could consider reducing some of the regular sugar in this recipe.  One advantage of the sweetness is that the sweetness prevents this ice cream from freezing into a solid ice block.  It will come out of your ice cream maker with a very drippy semi-liquid consistency, and it needs to be frozen in the freezer for at least 12 hours to get a solid ice cream texture.  The final consistency of the ice cream will be creamy, airy, and scoop-able one the ice cream has been out of the freezer for five minutes.

Hot Chocolate

Will made hot chocolate using David Lebovitz's "Belgian Hot Chocolate" recipe as a reference.

Davoid Lebovitz also has a recipe for "Parisian Hot Chocolate" which might be nice to try next time because it looks like it would be less sweet.

Pomelo Salad (nyoom kroit t'long, Cambodia)

Recipe from "Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I used little gem lettuce instead of the bibb lettuce recommended in the recipe.

Thai Black (Forbidden) Cargo Rice

This cooks up as distinct slightly crunchy grains when you use the sushi setting.  It makes a softer rice on the normal setting.

Thai Sticky Rice

Recipe: Modified from a variety of sources, though my original source for the recipe was "Basic Sticky Rice" in "Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. See also Kasma Loha-unchit's recipe for Thai sticky rice.
Rating: Great. Extremely easy and nearly perfect every time.
Status: Made many times

Thai sticky rice is regularly eaten plain along side main dishes in northern Thailand and used all over Thailand in desserts (e.g. Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango). When eaten with a meal, some bites of this rice are often grabbed with the fingers and combined with a small piece of a non-saucy main dish (e.g. larb), fresh crisp side vegetables (cucumber, lettuce, etc), or chili relish--though you can use utensils if you want. It should be eaten with dishes that are solid and not very saucy; it shouldn't be used to soak up sauces (so for example, it does not go with curry). Kasma Loha-unchit has more information on this type of rice here.

This type of rice is called sticky rice, glutenous rice, or sweet rice. There are numerous cultivars of glutinous rice (including japonica, indica, and tropical japonica strains, see wikipedia) and the other types of sticky rice cannot be used as a replacement (e.g. Chinese glutenous / sweet rice is something different) so in order to ensure that you are buying the correct type of rice, make sure your sticky rice was grown in Thailand or Laos. If your package has Thai on it, you can also look for the Thai for word for this type of sticky rice, ข้าวเหนียว (SheSimmers.com has more information on sticky rice and lists how sticky rice is spelled in a few different languages). Currently, I use the Three Ladies brand (pictured to the right) because it is easy to find in my area; Kasma Loha-unchit also recommends this brand (see her recommendations for brands). Unlike non-glutinous rice which is slightly translucent when raw and opaque when cooked, milled glutinous rice is white and fully opaque when raw and slightly translucent when cooked. Purple glutinous rice is also available; it is unmilled and its bran has a purple or black color; it is a different strain than white glutinous rice so it is not simply unmilled white glutinous rice.

Making Thai sticky rice is extremely easy once you learn the technique. It is always soaked in water (preferably overnight, so it requires preplanning), and then steamed on top of water, never in water. Unlike Chinese and Japanese rice which is both boiled and steamed, Thai sticky rice is never cooked with direct contact to water since this will make it mushy. You will need a steamer to make this rice. Traditionally, special Thai baskets and pots are used however many other types of steamers will also work for small amounts of rice (e.g. steamer insert, large metal sieve which fits in a large pot, or a Chinese bamboo steamer). You cannot use a Japanese/Chinese style rice cooker because it boils and then steams the rice (unless it has a steamer insert which allows the rice to be steamed on top of the water). I use a steamer with a metal basket (shown to the right; see here for an example of rice being steamed in my steamer). SheSimmers.com also has an interesting alternative steaming method which uses a frying splatter guard.

The especially nice part about cooking this type of rice is that you don't need to measure a specific quantity of water or rice so once you learn how to make it, you won't need a recipe. You can make how ever much rice you need (within reason) as long as it will fit in your steamer and the layer of rice isn't deeper than a few inches. The cooked rice will be a little bit more than double the size of the uncooked rice. I generally make 1 to 1 1/2 cups raw rice for two people for dinner; I'll use the smaller amount if there are lots of filling dishes and the larger amount if the dishes are small. If I'm making rice for dinner and coconut milk Thai sticky rice with mango, I will usually make about 1 1/2 to 2 cups raw rice for 2 people and serve slightly less rice at dinner and use the rest in the dessert. There is some flexibility with the steaming time, though it will get softer the longer you steam it; it is done when you think it tastes done.

You can also make Thai sticky purple rice, which is made by soaking and then steaming a mixture of Thai white sticky rice and Thai black sticky rice (my preferred ratio is 2/3 white sticky rice and 1/3 purple sticky rice).

If you have left over cooked Thai sticky rice you can make Rice Cracker Snacks.

Plan 12 to 24 hours in advance so that you have time to soak the rice.
Ingredients:
Thai sticky rice
water
(optional) pandan leaves*

Specialized equipment:
Steamer
(optional but not recommended) cheesecloth **

Rinse as much rice as you want in several changes of water, until the water is mostly but not necessarily completely clear. Drain. Put it in a container that can hold at least 2 times the volume of the rice (I usually use the same container to wash the rice, but you can also use a colander to wash the rice). Cover with 2 to 3 inches of room temperature or cold water. Let soak for 6 to 24 hours at room temperature. If you forgot to soak the rice the night before and are in a rush, you can soak the rice in warm water (100 F) for 2 hours, however the longer soaking is much better since it gives the rice a more tender and even texture.

Set up a steamer with lots of water in the bottom; make sure that you add enough water so that it won't fully evaporate while steaming for 30 to 45 minutes. Heat the steamer until the water is boiling. Optionally you can partially line the steamer with pandan leaves, or fully line it with cheesecloth (use one or the other; it probably isn't necessary to use both, see footnotes).

Drain the rice. Place the rice in a thin even layer in the steamer. The rice shouldn't touch the water because water will make the rice mushy. The steam should be forced up through the rice.

The steam should be as hot as possible, though it doesn't necessarily have to be full blast--just high enough so that the top is nearly clanking but not actually clanking or spewing out water is fine.***

Try not to open the steamer very often since that will release the pressure, however if you do uncover it, wipe the condensation off the steamer's lid before replacing it, in order to make sure that the condensed water doesn't drip on the rice and make it soggy.

Steam white sticky rice for about 25 minutes.**** Purple sticky rice needs to be steamed for 45 minutes because it is unmilled and thus takes longer to cook through. Taste the rice and cook a little bit more if it isn't soft enough (be sure to wipe the condensation on the lid before replacing it). The rice should be soft but chewy, and the grains should be slightly translucent (if you are making white rice).

When the rice is done, immediately put it in a dry basket or large bowl.***** Remove and discard pandan leaves or cheesecloth, if using. Use a large flat rice paddle or spoon to turn the rice over on itself to lightly break up any clumps. Shape the rice into an even round clump. To prevent the rice from drying out, keep it covered with a clean slightly damp cloth that has been completely squeezed out so that it won't drip water on the rice or keep it in a covered basket. Serve immediately.

Similar to many types of rice, soaking will help loosen bits of rice that are stuck to your steamer so that it is easy to scrub.

* Pandan leaves are sold either fresh or frozen, and they can be stored long term in your freezer. The frozen leaves that I have bought were lower quality than fresh leaves, since the frozen ones weren't as long and had many breakages. If you can find them, it is best to buy fresh pandan leaves and freeze them yourself.

** I find that the rice doesn't stick too much to my steamer and doesn't fall through my steamer's holes, however if needed, you can use pandan leaves or cheesecloth. I recommend using pandan leaves to partially line the bottom of the steamer (don't fully cover it so that there is space for the steam to go through). Some people say that the pandan leaves will subtly flavor the rice and will often use them when the rice is being made for a dessert, but I find that they don't add any noticeable flavor. However, I still often use pandan leaves since I think they are fun, they aren't expensive, and I usually have some in my freezer. Lining the steamer with cheesecloth is usually unnecessary and I recommend avoiding it, since in my experience, threads from the cheesecloth tend to get stuck in the rice and the rice also tends to stick to the cheesecloth, though you can pull it off and pick out the threads. If you do choose to use a cheesecloth, rinse it with cold water (no need to squeeze it; you want it to be wet) before using it to line the steamer. The cheesecloth has a tendency to dry out during steaming and this makes the rice stick to it, so wetting it first helps mitigate this problem.

*** If the top of your pot clanks when steam is released or splatters water, then you can wrap a dish towel or piece of cheesecloth around the edge of the pot or you can drape the cheesecloth that you used to line the steamer around the outer edges of the pot if it is large enough (Paula Wolfert recommends this technique of using a large enough piece of cheesecloth to line and drape around the pot in "Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco" for steaming couscous). This will make sure that the top of the pot stays tight. I often don't this, but on occasion when I'm cooking other things that are being affected by the splattering or if the clanking annoys me, I will use a dish towel.

**** If you are steaming a lot of rice, some recipes advise that you can turn the rice over about 20 minutes after you start steaming, so that the top layer is on the bottom and vice versa in order to ensure that it steams evenly. With the quantity of rice that I steam, I find turning isn't necessary and it is messy, awkward, and difficult, so I don't turn my rice.

***** The only time this rice didn't come out well was I left the rice in the steaming container after it was done cooking to try to keep it warm. Some water either condensed on it or fell on it from the cover and made it mushy. So don't leave the rice in the container after it finishes cooking--immediately move it to a separate dry container, and keep it covered with a clean slightly moist dish towel so it doesn't dry out and stays warm.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken (gaeng ped gai)

"Quick Red Chicken Curry" made with small rounded eggplants, and a mixture of chicken breasts and thighs, made with homemade "Red Curry Paste" from "Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. I left out the coriander roots from the red curry paste because I couldn't find any. Served with Thai Jasmine rice.

If you add eggplants to curry, then I suggest cutting off the stems. They look cute on the eggplants, but once the eggplant cooks and gets mushy, the stems will fall off, and into the curry. It also is easier to eat this dish, if you don't have to cut off the stems from the eggplants.

Bruschetta

William made tomato bruschetta. Recipe from "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" by Alice Waters.

My Favorite! Pesto Pasta!

Recipe: "Pesto" and "Pasta al Pesto" (with the green bean variation) from "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" by Alice Waters
Rating: Great! We love this recipe.
Status: We have made 2 large batches of the pesto, first on 5/7/2012 and then on 2/18/2013.  Our second batch was quadruple sized (i.e. made from 4 cups of basil, which William ground by hand using a mortar and pestle), since we freeze the extra pesto in ice cube trays so that we can defrost the perfect amount and have pesto at any time.  We have made pesto pasta with green beans many times since the first time on 5/7/2012.

William made walnut pesto with green beans from "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" by Alice Waters. Before eating this recipe, I would have guessed that green beans would be just okay with pesto. However, it turns out that the green beans are perfect with pasta in pesto! It is simple, unexpected, and their refreshing crunch goes amazingly well with the al dente pasta.  Genoa is where pesto sauce was invented; Marcella Hazan says in "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" that the full Genovese pesto pasta includes green beans and new potatoes.  Brilliant!


Additional Notes: Pasta with ridges or wavy crevices that the sauce can cling to go well with this sauce.  The penne shaped pasta in the first picture goes well with the cut green beans since they are the same size, but preferably the pasta should have more ridges than this.  William thinks that fresh pasta might go better with this sauce than dried pasta.

The green beans are blanched before they are tossed with the pasta and pesto.  The green beans should be very crunchy and only lightly cooked; mine only needed 45 seconds of blanching and then I stopped the cooking with cold water.  To get the pesto to stick to the green beans, I reheated them by adding the green beans into the pot with the boiling pasta just a second before I drained the pasta and green beans.

The pesto must be tossed with the pasta and green beans when they are hot because this helps the sauce to stick, and to melt the cheese in the pesto to make the sauce creamy.  Alice Waters stresses that it is also important to loosen the pesto sauce by adding a little bit of the pasta cooking water to the pasta and pesto.

Korean Chestnut Sweet Potatoes

These Korean sweet potatoes are called chestnut sweet potatoes because they taste like chestnuts. They are a special type of sweet potatoes that can only be found in Korean or Asian markets.  They are nice roasted in the oven, eaten with just a little salt.

Today, I also made them into tempura. I was inspired by this recipe for "Korean Sweet Potato TwiGim" by Aeri's Kitchen, but I didn't have any Korean frying mix and I couldn't find much information on how to make a similar frying mix at home. Instead, I sliced the sweet potatoes and fried them as Japanese tempura (the tempura recipe is from "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" by Shizou Tsuji).

Sautéed Bay Scallops with Rosemary, Capers, and Israeli Couscous

Recipe for "Sautéed Bay Scallops with Rosemary, Capers, and Israeli Couscous" from "Cooke This Now: 120 Easy and Delectable Dishes You Can't Wait to Make" by Melissa Clark.

The one thing that surprised me about this recipe is that Melissa Clark advised boiling the Israeli couscous for only 3 minutes, and she doesn't explain why. I tasted it at 3 minutes and it was still hard, so I cooked it for 5 minutes total until it was just cooked.  However, now that I've made the recipe, I think it would be better to take the couscous out of the boiling water when they are still a bit hard, because they will be cooked further in the sauce. Next time I will try removing the couscous from the boiling water before it is done; if you boil the couscous until it is done, as I did, then it loses its al dente-ness when it is cooked further in the sauce.

I used tricolor Israeli couscous--it makes the dish pretty!

I liked this dish because the combination of rosemary, capers, and bay scallops is unusual and tasty, however I prefer the standard combination of butter, garlic, red pepper with Israeli couscous (see here and here).