Bringing Thai Street Food Home

A couple weeks ago Julius bought me this most gorgeous coffee table book - Thai Street Food by David Thompson.  As I was flipping through it, the beautiful pictures were enough to make me drool.  Thankfully there were recipes as well.  For the size of it, this book certainly belongs to a coffee table. I do imagine it will  soon be covered with splatters as I attempted the various recipes.

Ramen Soup with Crab Meat Dumplings and Barbecue Pork

The soup is a pork bone soup which has very simple ingredients: pork bones, daikon, coriander roots, spring onion ends, star anise, soya sauce, salt and pepper.  It took a few hours to reduce the stock from 3 litres to 2 litres.  I was tasting it along the way because of the aroma in the kitchen was just too tempting.

The crab dumplings were made from crab meat, minced pork, coriander and chopped chives buds (my addition).  I learned a lesson about dumpling wrappers: I was using leftover ones which I defrosted from the freezer and they turned out to be a mess.  Parts were dry and chipping while parts were soggy.  Never freeze leftover wrappers again.

Disclosure: we bought BBQ pork from T&T but one day I will try to make that myself.

The ramen was dried organic brown rice ramen that I found at Sobey's and I added some Shanghai Choy Sum.

It was simply srumptious!

Stir Fried Geoduck with Black Bean and Chilli Sauce

That morning I woke up thinking about razor clams, sadly they were not in season and I had to substitute with frozen geoduck.  Geoduck is also a clam, in fact one of the largest clam that are very popular in Asian cuisine, it is in fact best eaten raw when fresh.

Like I explained to our guests John and Nick, it is very typical for Asians to eat a bowl of noodle soup with a dish of stir fried seafood in any street food stalls for a simple meal.

As I was shopping for dinner, I also picked up some chives buds.  They are one of my favourite Asian vegetables for its texture and taste, and they have these cutest little buds at the end.  

The frozen geoduck turned out much better than I anticipated but it took a few extra minutes to cook on our cooktop.

This was a perfect compliment to the ramen soup and we cleared our bowls and plates!

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/201153/thai-street-food-by-david-thompson

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/2941/stirfried-razor-clams-with-black-bean-and-chilli-sauce

Ramen Soup 9/10

Geoduck 8/10

Duck Pastrami

When I think of pastrami, I picture beef slices in a sandwich with some coleslaw.  This recipe took it to another place.  A delicious place.

Duck Pastrami with Rapini

I made new friends with juniper berries but do they like to play hard to get.  I wandered in the grocery store a few times and just about to give up on this recipe when I finally spotted dried ones in the spice aisle.

Fun fact: gin is made from juniper berries.

The only challenge with this recipe was that I had to wait 48 hours for brining.  It was definitely worth the wait.  The flavour was rich and the meat was tender.  I would have preferred the meat to be slightly more rare, mine was in the oven for about 14 minutes.

A side dish of sauteed rapini with garlic was served as suggested by Chef Froggett.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/recipes/keith-froggetts-duck-pastrami/article4632449/

Duck 9/10
Rapini 7.5/10

Sherman's Got His Swooth Back

What is "Swooth"? That is my new word for sweet tooth.

The title is a little misleading because I never lost my sweet tooth because I have always said that I did not have one and I often skipped desserts.  And that is why it took this long for me to give desserts a try.

It only took one stunning picture of a soufflé to change my mind.

Grand Marnier Soufflés

When I first opened up the cookbook from Royal Caribbean Cruise, I could not stop going back to the picture of this dessert. It just seemed heavenly. So one day I set up to pick up some ramekins and decided it was time to venture into desserts.

I was simply amazed how a little eggwhite can be whipped into these cloud-like peaks.  We did not have a machine but between Julius and I and some elbow grease, it was like magic!

And the anticipation while they were in the oven was really the best part, watching these babies grow.  I was also reminded to clean the oven because it was getting hard to see through the window...

Twenty minutes later and out come these cute little puffs. A dusting of powdered sugar and here they are:

After enjoying my first dessert, which had great flavours but a bit stiff inside, I looked over a few more soufflé recipes and realized there might have been too much flour in the recipe I used.  They were in no way perfect, but like a first born, they will always have a special place in my heart.

Lemon Custard Cake

Now I have these ramekins, I decided to use them often.  I found this recipe online after a search for "desserts in ramekins".

I had never have custard cakes before and really did not know what to expect, and so I told my guests.  Who would know they would be such a hit!

The steps were so simple and I could prepare ahead of time to let them chill in the fridge.  They did shrink a bit as seen in the photo but that did not ruin the flavours at all.  

It was a cake. No, it was a custard. No, it was both!  It was a layer of cake with custard underneath.  Most importantly, not too sweet but simply heavenly!

In fact, I made these again the following week and served them with some fresh whipped cream on top with the mint, it was perfecto.

http://www.food.com/recipe/lemon-cake-custard-329390

Soufflé 6/10

Custard Cake 9/10

Il Semplice (The Uncomplicated)

A few weeks ago, I bought 2 cookbooks.  Well, they were of course on sale.

One was Guy Mirabella's Eat Ate, I was attracted by the gorgeous cover and the absolutely beautiful layout within.  Priced at $12.99.

I also picked up Friday Night Dinners by Bonnie Stern.  I have been a fan of her recipes in the National Post and thought it was time for a copy of her book, for $9.99.

Then one night I took the liberty and matched up one recipe from each book and made a lovely meal.

Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic

Linguini with Zucchini, Spinach, Lemon and Pine Nuts

I am always weary of grilled chicken in fear of a dry and tasteless piece of meat.  I did not get that with this recipe.  It was so flavourable because there were also red pepper flakes, lemon peel and salt and pepper in the marinade.

I grilled them on an iron skillet and they turned out perfectly.  The leftovers were great on a salad as well!

Chef Mirabella mentioned in his book that this is the most popular pasta in his café and I absolutely understand. It looked and tasted uncomplicated and down to earth. I could picture us enjoying this alfresco somewhere in Italy with some lovely wine, watching life goes by....

http://www.bonniestern.com/bonnies-cookbooks/friday-night-dinners/

http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/recipes/recipe-linguine-with-zucchini-spinach-lemon-and-pine-nuts/a/29164

Chicken 9/10
Pasta 9/10

Soup, Soup and more Soup!

Summer is definitely over, how sad it is since I have never been a fan of the colder seasons.  The only upside to the chillier climate is none other than soup, soup and more soup!

Julia Child's French Onion Soup

I still remember my first time having French onion soup: I was a child in Hong Kong and we ate at this really really dark restaurant in Causeway Bay.  It was nothing like I have ever had before because it was a broth yet it was also thick and mushy.  That was when I began my love affair with French onion soup.  I never thought I would ever make such a fancy soup on my own.

The last few years I have been stopping by M&M frozen foods market to stock up on one item: you guessed it, French onion soup.  It may sound odd but their version is actually quite spectacular, and it only takes 8 minutes in a microwave.

My attempt took just a bit more than 8 minutes to make but it was well worth it. To be exact it took about 40 minutes to soften the onions at medium-low heat. I learnt that patience is the key - that applies to everything in life doesn't it? 

Add the home made croutons and Gruyère and voilà!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2009/08/12/julia-child-french-onion-soup-1.html

Nigella's Soup made with Garlic and Love

My friends were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make a soup. I looked in the cabinet and there was garlic, and I have lots of love, so why not?

I know it seems that I say that all the time but sometimes the simplest food is the most delicious.  Who knew lots of garlic would make a lovely soup?  It can be made ahead of time and it is a perfect leftover the next day!

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1328573

New England Clam Chowder

If soups are lovers, then I am very promiscuous.  I love chowders too. Clam, shrimp, lobster -  I love them all!

It was a miserable day when it had been raining for over 48 hours straight. A heart warming soup was definitely called for.  Afterwards I realized the key to a great chowder is bacon bits and a little bit of flour to thicken the clam juice.  I did find the potatoes took twice as long  to tenderize as the recipe's suggestions, about 20 minutes of simmering. A pinch of paprika just before serving was the key to this almost perfect soup.  My one mistake was that I scraped the saucepan too much and there were some slightly burnt pieces of onions and bacon that I had to pick out at the end.

A great thankyou to my mother's friend who gave me this inspiring cookbook from the Royal Caribbean Cruise.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0979728215/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Onion Soup 8/10

Garlic Soup 8/10

Clam Chowder 9/10

A Break from Turkey

Over Thanksgiving weekend we had two wonderful Turkey meals. I enjoyed them a lot but I was happy to find a recipe to take a break from the bird.

We have had Andrea Nguyen's "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" for a while and what better time to test one of her recipes?

This is meant to be an appertizer but for a weekend of heavy meals, this turned out to be a perfect light dinner.  I served them with a creamy broccoli  salad with sunflower seeds. 

My mistake was that I roasted them in the oven instead of using a barbecue or a iron skillet, they were cooked but missing some smoky flavours.

They also reminded me of spare ribs at dim sum, which are usually steamed. 

Notes to self: more lemongrass and some serious grilling.  Can't wait!

Riblets: 7/10

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/04/vietnamese-restaurantstyle-grilled-lemongrass-pork-thit-heo-nuong-xa.html

Piggyback

I love bacon.  What I did not know was what place it has other than for breakfast.

I heard of this recipe from Michael Smith's show "Chef At Home" on the Food Network. Bacon, pork tenderloin, mustard and spices: sounded simple enough.

It was actually a lot of fun preparing the roast, almost like wrapping a present. A present for us!

Thirty minutes later and we had one delicious main course.

As you can see from that lovely juice which seeped out once I sliced the roast.  I can still taste it as I am writing this.
Between two of us, we ate the entire 2 pound pork tenderloin!  Piggybacking never tasted this good!

Pork 9/10

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/print.html?dishid=12886#