What Eye 8

Cool Summery Asian Noodle Salad on a Hot Day

2009-07-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

Too hot to have something heavy and bready to cook or to eat. Too. Hot. Can't. Think.Ugh.

What to make for a summer lunch? How about cold Asian noodle salad? Cold noodles may not sound fabulous, but they are cooling--and if you use rice noodles, are not too filling. The perfect complement for light summery veggies. Now mix this one up and enjoy al fresco in the shade. Ahhh. Don't you feel better?

Gather the Goodies

1/2 package pad Thai rice noodle fettuccini. You can substitute other kinds of noodles/pasta. Prepare according to package directions, and then immediately run noodles in cold tap water until the water is cold. This will stop noodles from growing and keep them cool.

Sliced deli ham, shrimp, tofu, chicken--etc. whatever you have on hand Slice into thin strips to match the noodles

Sliced vegetables, such as carrots, summer squash, cucumber, etc. Again, whatever you have on hand. I enjoyed it with carrots and cucumbers.

Japanese ginger pickles, such as kizami--the spicy, dark pink kind. You could substitute other pickles as well--just slice into thin strips as well.

Lettuce, rinsed, drained, and cut into strips

Asian Salad Dressing

3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons chicken stock (or water and salt to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (iri goma) You can substitute other chopped nuts, such as peanuts, cashews, or walnuts

Assembling the Salad

Line each salad plate with a base layer of lettuce strips. In a large bowl, mix the drained cold noodles with the other salad ingredients. Whisk the salad dressing in another bowl and pour on the noodle-veggie mixture, tossing to mix. Mound the noodle veggie salad in the center of the plate, distributing the ingredients evenly for a nice presentation.

Pan-World Cuisine: or, The Garden Made Me Cook It

2009-07-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Not sure what the kind of cooking I do is called--Pan-World Cuisine? Lots of Asian and Indian, but really, all rolled around what's growing in the garden now. The garden TELLS me what to cook. Lately, that's a lot of squash!

Earlier this week, I catered a reception for the Architecture Foundation of Santa Barbara. Small and somewhat swank--with a live band (playing quietly--many neighbors), and a vineyard sponsoring. Here's what I made:

Indonesian satay chicken skewers with satay dipping sauce
Salmon dip with organic carrots and patty-pan squash
Italian deli ham-wrapped melon sticks
Cheese bread twists
Fruit kabobs
Watermelon basket loaded with red grapes and decorated with flowers and lemon slices
Dark chocolate coconut-rum-laced truffles rolled in unsweetened coconut
Shrimp cocktail platters--one with a homemade soy-sesame dip and one with a tomato-based wasabi and smoked paprika dip

I stayed for the first part of the event--just to make sure everyone liked the food. My hubby closed the party down, though, and reported every spare morsel was devoured--all but the watermelon basket itself (contents were eaten). Success! Too bad it was a donation, but I'm not at the pro level.

Cold Savory Soups for Hot Days

2009-07-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

What to Serve Your Loved Ones When It's Hot Outside

Hot days got you in a daze? Feel like going into the kitchen and firing up the oven? Naaah. Want something refreshing, simple, yet pallet-satisfying for a summer supper? How about a cold soup with a simple garden salad and a loaf of fresh artisanal bread (the chewier, the better)?

You may be imagining cold soups are frou-frou dishes served only in uppity restaurants. Would you even like a cold soup? Wouldn't it be, well, icky? Once you get over the idea of a cold liquid as an entrée, I think you'll find yourself enjoying it.

The loveliest way to serve cold soup is in two concentrically sized bowls: the smaller bowl holds the soup. The larger bowl holds ice, and the smaller soup bowl nestles atop this bed of ice. But you don't have to be that fancy.

I almost forgot to mention—all these soups can be vegetarian (if you substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock). None contain any meat. You do not have to serve meat to have a satiated and happy feeling after eating. But don't mention this lack of meat to your resident carnivores and probably no one will notice.

Here are my favorite savory cold soup suggestions. Have any other favorites? Let me know—I'd love to add to the list.

Gazpacho

Gazpacho is one of the most-loved and best-known of the cold soups. If you serve gazpacho, which is rich in veggies, you may want to skip the salad and simply serve with a delightful chewy bread, like sourdough. Ahhh. How yummy is that? I like recipes for gazpacho that do not involve the cheat of adding tomato juice. Nothing beats whole, fresh tomatoes as the basis for gazpacho—if you have them. If not, use canned tomatoes along with the juice they are packed in. You are basically making a salsa. Feel free to be flexible about adding other garden ingredients as you like.

Six fresh medium-sized tomatoes or two cans tomatoes and their juice
One or two cloves of crushed garlic. (Go easy on the fresh garlic so as not to overwhelm the other flavors. If you have the roasted garlic that comes in little jars, that would be ideal--it's much milder and you can use it more lavishly.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped coarsely (or half of a large one)
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Pulse lightly, only until ingredients are slightly melded but not pulverized (coarse texture is good). Taste and adjust the seasonings, as desired. Add a few drops of hot sauce, if you like.

Vichyssoise (Potato Leek Soup)

Vichyssoise is another soup that's been around forever--for a good reason. Once you taste it, you will understand why. Potato flavor, rich and delightful, with leeks adding to the inscrutability, with butter and other ingredients all playing roles in this operetta of a soup. For any guests--or children--who might be afraid of the fancy name of this soup, you could always call it "Potato leek soup." My grandfather was a Francophobe, so whenever I made him quiche, I always told him it was "egg pie." If I mentioned it was quiche, he wouldn't eat it. Egg pie disappeared from his plate. Go figure. Bon appetite, er, enjoy!

2 leeks, chopped, using all of the white part and a couple of inches of the green par
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups coarsely chopped, peeled potatoes
2 cups chicken stock (I especially love the chicken stock paste that comes in little jars--the brand name is Better-than-Bouillon, and you can get it at Trader Joe's or other high-end grocers. If you use the paste, reconstitute one teaspoon of paste for each cup of water)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half (or whole milk)

Basically, you add everything except the half and half to a pot. Cook until the potatoes and leeks are very tender. Remove from heat. Then, either pour the soup into a blender or food processor and blend, or, if you have a hand-held blender (I do--it's a marvelously handy gadget), blend the soup in the pot. Puree until the ingredients are uniform. The soup will be a beautiful creamy, light green color. Add in the half and half and allow to chill in a refrigerator for about an hour. Serve cool, not cold, however. Top with chopped chives, if you have them. In the winter, vichyssoise is superb hot (I serve it with Thanksgiving dinner).

Cold Cauliflower Curry Soup

Don't let the name fool you--cauliflower curry soup is righteous! I invented this recipe, and I am proud to say, it is one of my favorite soups—it's surprising, luscious, and no one can tell what's IN it. When you serve this cold soup, you will see many empty soup bowls and contented smiles.

One head cauliflower, coarsely chopped, with most of stem removed
1/2 white onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons curry powder (preferably the fresh kind that you make yourself, see Homemade Curry Powder)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half (or whole milk)
Cornstarch to thicken

Like vichyssoise, add everything to the pot except for half and half and cornstarch. Cook until the cauliflower and onion are tender and falling apart. Add in the half and half, and blend, as for the vichyssoise, with a blender, food processor, or hand-held blender, until the soup is pureed and of uniformly creamy texture. Mix a tablespoon or so cornstarch with enough water to make a loose paste. Stir this into the soup as you are heating it to thicken it to a lovely consistency (vichyssoise doesn't need it because the potatoes do the thickening). Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator before serving.

How Lentils Could Save the Earth, Part II

2009-06-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

In the first installment of "How Lentils Could Save the Earth," I introduced the almighty, super-studly, protein-rich lentil, and explored where it came from, how it's used, and why it's a fabulous, inexpensive and should be an important part of our diets. Now, I'd like to share a nifty recipe that has the power to change your mind about lentils forever--if you didn't love them already, you will after one bite of this.

Coconut Lentil Curry, with Garden Vegetables

1 medium onion
2 tablespoons ghee or butter
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
10 cloves minced or crushed garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
6 cups water
1 12 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup lentils (the standard size--not the small ones), rinsed and sorted
2 medium or 1 large zucchini, cut into chunks or half discs, as you prefer
1 can chopped tomatoes, or 2 fresh tomatoes, diced
2 large or 3 medium carrots, cut into half discs
3 cups fresh greens (spinach is particularly wonderful, as it melts right in. If using Swiss chard, remove the spines and use just the leaves, chopped)
Salt to taste, but add only after lentils are cooked

Saute the onions in the butter or ghee until tender and translucent.
Add all the ingredients except the greens and the salt to a pot. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are well-cooked (no more than 30 minutes). Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I recommend using either Vege-sal vegetable salt blend (it's tasty and works like vegetable stock), or Himalayan pink sea salt, which has fantastic health properties. Anyway, be sure not to add salt until after the beans are cooked (this is true of all beans, as salt hinders bean water absorption). If using Swiss chard, add now and cook until tender (five minutes). If adding spinach, add and cook only for one minute, until wilted.
Serve over basmati rice, or basmati rice pilaf. Also include minced, fresh chili peppers, for your guests to add in as they like. This dish is also wonderful when sprinkled with cayenne powder and/or smoked paprika.

Bubblicious Comes to Your Home with SodaStream Soda Fountain

2009-06-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Bubblicious

Do you love bubbles? I LUUUUURRVE bubbles. All kinds of bubbles. Bubbles in cappuccino. Bubbles in champagne. Bubbles in a bath or hot tub. Bubbles in soda. But, wait a second—I rarely drink soda, even though I adore those tickly, fizzy bubbles popping lightly in my mouth. Why? Because commercial sodas are, simply put, too sweet. Kiddy sweet. Treacly. Show me a real foodie, and I will show you someone who wouldn’t be caught dead quaffing a standard-issue sickeningly sweet soda pop. But that would all change—when I got my hands on a SodaStream home soda fountain.

Soda came. It sweetened. It conquered.

Back in the 1800s, soda pop first was mass produced and then popularized by English inventor, John Matthews, who then immigrated to the U.S. Around the late 1800s, the right combination of bottles and cork-topped caps made distribution possible. Vending machines dispensing the new soda pop came along in the 1920s. Coca-cola, Pepsi-cola, and Dr. Pepper were among the earliest commercial soda brands, followed soon thereafter by 7-Up, and a bazillion others.

Somewhere between then and now, soda pop became overly commercialized, subverted, and warped. For some reason, the soda-makers decided to make their beverages super-sweet. Coca-Cola, for instance, has 39 grams of sugar—or the equivalent of 10 packets of sugar—in one 12 oz. can of soda. Who would take a cup and a half of tea and add 10 packets of sugar to it? That kind of sweetness level is insane.

Sure, lots of people opt for diet sodas, to skip sugar altogether. But diet sodas contain aspartame—which converts to wood alcohol in the blood, or sucralose—which is akin to chlorine. When you design your own sodas, you can still go the artificial sweetener route—SodaStream makes a line of diet soda flavorings (sweetened with sucralose), but a better way to go might be to mix your own sodas and simply use a smaller amount of sweetener—say, a teaspoon or two per serving.

Dissatisfied foodies have gone on to create more sophisticated sodas, and you can find delectable—and soberly sweetened—bubbly treats, such as Reed’s Ginger Brew and Boylan’s. These soda micro-brewers make their soda the old-fashioned way—soda fountain style—without artificial anything. And now you can, too. The bottom line is that SodaStream empowers you to make your soda the way you like it. You become the mixmaster. The demi-god of the fizz. And with an urge to explore and have fun, well, mixing your own soda fits right in.

Cue Journey’s “Any Way You Want It”

SodaStream has been around for a while, but is enjoying resurgence in popularity lately, with a redesigned website and some snazzy marketing. Once you have a home soda fountain, it’s easy to understand why: the carbonation units are highly portable: light-weight, cordless, and just easy. The unit I have, the red Fountain Jet, works like a dream and feels like a party. We drink “frizzy” water (the Italians call it frizzante) every night at supper. Sorry, Pellegrino. You’ve gotten our money for many years, but no more. Saving carbon is an environmentally caring choice. No more bottles to recycle, no more lugging back and forth. We now go local. As local as our own kitchen and our own little SodaStream, which is cute, too, by the way, and doesn’t take up much counter space.

How to Be a Soda Mixmaster

The secret is gourmet flavoring syrups. You know, the kind you can get at Cost Plus World Market or in Starbucks. Simply make the sparkling water with your SodaStream, and add in the desired amount of flavoring syrup. Voila! Artisanal soda at your fingertips.

Look for gourmet flavoring syrups that:

· Use pure cane sugar, not artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup

· Do not use artificial colors (some have no colorings, others do—check the ingredients list before buying)

· Use predominantly natural flavorings (some use artificial flavors, such as chocolate or cinnamon, but I am willing to forgive this as long as the other two conditions are satisfied)

Gourmet Flavoring Syrup Makers

Monin Gourmet Flavorings

Dolce Flavored Syrups

Torani—sold at CostPlus World Market

Stirling Gourmet Flavors

Nature’s Flavors Organic Flavor Concentrate—costs more, but nothing artificial ever

Exotic Sodas You Can Make

· Banana

· Pumpkin soda

· Passion fruit

· Peppermint

· Chocolate mint

· Apple

· Asian rose

· White chocolate

· Irish cream

· Marshmallow

· Chipotle pineapple

· Habañero lime soda

· Pistachio

Funky, Original Sodas You Can Create

· Green tea soda

· Peach white tea soda

· Gingerbread (mix cinnamon and ginger)

· Piña colada soda (mix pineapple and coconut)

Now, compound that wild list of potential soda flavors with what you could do in terms of “grown-up drinks,” (this is what we tell our five-year-old to distinguish from the drinks she can taste). Chocolate raspberry martini, anyone?

And oh, yeah, don’t forget soda drinks with a splash of heavy cream. You can make kiddy fountain drinks with a creamy pleasure to them. Think of the fun you can have at your next child’s birthday party? No need to cop out with a giant punch bowl—now you can make custom-tailored kiddy mocktails. And don’t forget about ice cream floats. What joy!

Carolyn’s Ginger Lemon Soda

As a bonus, here’s my original recipe for Ginger Lemon Soda. This will actually make you feel better if you are suffering from the flu. Somehow restorative and at the very least, super-yummy. A truly grown-up refresher that is slightly spicy, although my five-year-old loves it, too.

One liter of bubblicious SodaStream sparkling water
Agave nectar or maple syrup to taste (three tablespoons tastes about right to me, but adjust to your desired sweetness level)
Two teaspoons ginger root juice (grate peeled ginger root and squeeze to get the juice, add more to increase spiciness)
One tablespoon lemon juice

Add the three flavorings to the liter of sparkling water, being careful because the soda will bubble up when you add the sweetener. When bubbling has slowed, close the top, and gently rock from side to side to disperse the syrup. Serve over ice with a twist of lemon.

Wow 'Em Summer Supper of Love: Pineapple Fried Rice

2009-05-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

Summer. Hot. What. To. Make. For. Supper. Ugh.

How about something refreshing and Islandish. Maybe it's Thai--who knows?

Use my Basic Asian Fried Rice recipe, only throw in three cloves of garlic, and use vegetable oil instead of sesame oil. Skip the ginger, and add in crushed cashews, golden raisins, and chopped pineapple. Serve in the hollowed out pineapple shells. Guaranteed to wow dinner guests, and leave them sated in a light way.

For the Love of Pho: Beef Noodle Soup to Free Your Soul

2009-05-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

There are a few truly great soups in the world: Japanese miso shiru, Thai tom yam or tom ka, French onion soup, American New England clam chowder, Spanish gazpacho, Chinese hot and sour soup, and lastly, Vietnamese pho soup. Pho, pronounced fuh, is a beef broth soup made from cooking bony, fatty pieces of beef--the undesirable bits--in water with roasted ginger, onions, and star anise. The broth becomes aromatic and rich, while the odd slices of beef the soup may be served with are more of an afterthought than the main event.

Part of the fun of eating pho is that you get a plate of garnishes, so that you can add to your soup bowl as your taste dictates, composing your own soup experience. I'm a sucker for the make-your-own at the table art of cuisine. Somehow food tastes better because you chose the combo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making the Broth

1 large yellow or white onion
3 inch piece unpeeled ginger root
2 to 3 pounds beef soup bones (leg, knuckle bones, oxtails--any bony, soup cuts of beef)
1/2 pound flank steak or sirloin (optional)
5 star anise
3 whole cloves
1-inch cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 gallon water

Peel and cut the onion in half. Place it in a nonstick frying pan, along with the ginger root, unpeeled and sliced in half lengthwise. Char these for a few minutes to soften. Add these as is to the pot of water, along with the beef. Heat to boiling, and when impurities float to the top, skin them off repeatedly and discard.

Add in the star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, salt, fish sauce, steak (if you used it), and sugar. Simmer about one and a half hours.

When cooking is complete, strain the broth through a cheesecloth in a colander to remove any impurities. Discard bones (here's where your family dog gets lucky). If you used steak, set it aside for slicing. Then, either skim off the layer of fat on top of the broth, or refrigerate and then scoop off the fat. You want a clear, delicate—not heavy—broth.

Garnishes a Go-Go

Assemble the following on a large plate, feeling free to substitute, as needed:

· Chopped cilantro

· Green onions, sliced into small rings (optional--we don't like raw onions in my family)

· 1 cup fresh bean mung bean sprouts

· 2 Limes cut into wedges

· 1 bunch mint leaves

· 1 bunch Thai basil or Italian basil

· 2 chili peppers, thinly sliced (although Thai hot peppers are preferred, we use jalapenos, as they are less intense, but still pack some heat), with seeds removed

· Watercress or other greens, if you have them (saw-tooth herb is authentic, but not easily found)

· Sriracha hot chili sauce and hoisin sauce

Noodle-icious

Prepare 12 ounces of rice noodles as directed on the package, rinse in cold water, and set aside.

Creating the Pho Bowls

If you used steak, slice it against the grain in very thin slices. Heat the broth to boiling over medium heat Prepare the rice noodles as directed. Blanch the bean sprouts until wilted but still crisp. Fill each bowl approximately 1/4 full with noodles, place slices of steak (if used) on top of the noodles. Garnish this with sliced green onions (if used). Ladle the hot broth into each bowl. Serve the garnishes plate along with the pho soup.

How Lentils Could Save Planet Earth, Part I

2009-05-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Lentils. Daal (or dal or dahl). Sambar (or sambhar). Lentil soup. Lentil curry. Lentils and veggies. Over rice. Nice.

Lentils are seeds, of course, like all good pulses, and are shaped like little lenses. In fact, their genus is lens. Lens culinaris. Culinary lenses. Probably the earliest plant actually to be planted for cultivation purposes—the dawn of human agriculture—lentils make a huge contribution to the human diet with their 26% protein content (bested only by soybeans for sheer plant-protein-fortitude).

Lentils come in an eye-catching array of colors: green, orange, yellow, black, brown, red, white. And sizes—from teeny lenses to pea-sized lenses.

What I notice when I work with lentils is how fast they cook, compared to other beans (20 to 30 minutes for smaller lentils, more for larger ones). So, if you are serving rice and lentils, start them both at the same time, and you will be eating sooner than if you went out and bought Chinese take-out. Vegetarians love lentils—and with good reason—if you serve lentils along with a grain dish, between the two, you'll be getting complete protein, with all essential amino acids. Wow.

Some folks, like my husband (who has a tendency to explosive digestive issues), express concern about the inherent, um, fart-causing aspect of lentils and other beans. Well, it turns out there is a trick: soak lentils in water prior to cooking, and then discard the water. You will be pouring a good percentage of the fart-factor down the drain—and your whole household will be happier for it (unless that sort of thing amuses you—but probably best to reserve explosive digestive displays for say, camping trips, where the air is fresh).

Oh, yeah. Did I mention vitamins, minerals, and fiber? Lentils pack heaping doses of these too. It's even thought that regularly eating lentils can lower your risk of heart disease, and help balance your blood sugar. And don't forget—lentils are inexpensive. If you are a starving student, buy rice, lentils, and veggies and you will stretch your dollars to the maximum, while still eating well (and saving on doctor bills that your well-fed compatriots will later have from being part of the fast-food nation).

Drought-tolerant and grown simply everywhere, lentils are adept at feeding the world. Lentils could save the Earth and the people inhabiting same. Need any more reasons to start adding lentils to your family's diet? Nah—just some cooking ideas, please!

Here's a great list from Indian Foods Co. of spices and seasonings to use with lentils:

Cumin Seeds	Red Chillies	Mustard seeds
Ghee or oil for base of seasonings	Ginger Paste a must in most dals	Garlic Paste is sometimes used in dals
Coconut shreds (optional)	Tamarind or lime juice or fresh tomatoes or amchur powder to flavor the dal sour	Jaggery, maple syrup, brown sugar or palm sugar to flavor the dal sweet (optional)
Sambhar Powder to make the popular southIndian dal called sambhar	Garbanzo spice package to make the popular North Indian beans called Channa

A good rule of thumb is to use four cups of water for every cup of lentils and to cook for somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes (again, cook longer for larger lentils). Do not add salt until AFTER the lentils are already cooked. This is also true of all dried beans. Salt impedes the absorption of water during cooking. Save salt and salty seasonings until the end. (Sambar seasoning usually does not contain salt, so you can add that whenever you like).

You can buy a nice sambar powder at any Asian or Indian grocery store, with a recipe on the back. Sambar is a tangy, piquant, and irresistible lentil stew—but you will need tamarind paste to make it correctly (while cooking, just scoop off the white bubble layer that appears on top). You can always treat lentils like curry, and start with sauteing onions in butter or olive oil, adding garlic and grated ginger root, cooking the lentils in enough water (lentils are thirsty!), and then adding the usual suspects of turmeric, cumin, and coriander to flavor it "curry."

But honestly, you could also keep it simple: saute chopped onions in olive oil or butter, cook lentils in enough water, and then add a couple of cups of chopped veggies: eggplant, carrots, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, etc. Add salt to taste, and serve. If you want to play around, throw in some Cajun spice or Tabasco. It goes without saying to use your imagination and play around. Lentils are forgiving. Even if they are cooked to death, they merely resemble pea soup, and are still good to eat. And good to save your health and the planet.

Please send in your favorite lentil discoveries to me (Tumerica).

An incredibly scrumptious curried lentil dish

Tom Ka With Tofu (Or Tom Yam) Soup

2009-04-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

When I went to Thailand and had this soup for the first time I think my whole world just flipped right over on me all at once--it was the most remarkable taste experience ever. The flavors just blew me away--piquant, sour, spicy, rich, amazing! You have to try it. And you can easily make either Tom Yam or Tom Ka with a simple substitution. This soup is simple to make, but what's tricky is having the ingredients on hand. Because I love this so much, I stockpile fish sauce, coconut milk and dried shiitake mushrooms (although the original calls for straw mushrooms). My hubby grows lemongrass in the garden year-round, and we have a lime tree that contributes a leaf here and there. You can make this without lime leaf and lemongrass, but add some lime zest to substitute. I think you are going to love this special and wonderful soup--one of the great wonders of the culinary world!

Tom Ka Gung with Variations

4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 (12 ounce) can coconut milk (Not the reduced fat kind. Fat makes it taste DELICIOUS!)
2 cups chicken stock (I use the chicken stock paste that comes in little jars, Better Than Bouillon brand. It has no MSG and is all-natural. Plus, stored in the fridge, it lasts a LONG time.)
2 cups water
2 sprigs lemongrass, root (two inch sprigs, chopped into tiny slices)
1 kaffir lime leaf (or other lime leaf, tossed in whole) (optional)
1 lime, juice of
4 garlic cloves (or more depending on your preference)
1 (19 ounce) package silken tofu, drained and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup shrimp (optional)
1 cup mushrooms (Any kind, such as white, shiitake, portobello, straw, white, etc. I mostly use shiitake because I keep a giant container on hand, but the most authentic is straw mushrooms, which you can find canned in the Asian section of grocery stores.)
1 teaspoon red chili paste (I like Sriracha brand. Add more to taste. If serving to kids--my five-year-old likes this soup--then add ketchup instead. A small amount of ketchup tastes good--trust me!)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root

Garnishes

Chopped cilantro
Thai basil, for garnish
Hot chili sauce, such as Sriracha
Diced hot chili peppers

1. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, and water to a heavy put, and begin to simmer while adding the other ingredients (except for garnishes and shrimp or other fish).
2. After the spices have "relaxed," add either the shrimp or chunks of salmon and stir only until cooked (two or three minutes).
3. Garnish and serve.

Variations

Vegetarian Soup Instead

* To make this soup vegetarian, substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock, and leave off the prawns. You've already got tofu, so that's a great protein source. Lastly, if fish sauce is a no-no, then substitute Bragg's Amino Acids (like soy sauce).

Tom Yam Instead

* To make Tom Yam instead of Tom Ka, do everything the same, except subsitute more chicken stock to replace the coconut milk.

Grilled Curried Lamb Shish Kebobs—Savory, Summery, Ecstasy

2009-04-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

Nothing says Spring/Summer savory fun like kebabs. And the secret of fabulous kebabs is marinating in advance. When the meat and veggies soak in a piquant marinade, they evolve into something different altogether, something irresistible when grilled. Now, you have to be generous with salt—marinating is not a good time to ration salt. Salt brings out the gorgeous flavor of meats. And lamb, ahhhhh, the king of all meats, for serious omnivores. Get as fresh a lamb leg as possible and as local as possible (not always an option—stores around here carry mostly New Zealand or Ozzie lamb, which is a bummer—why aren’t there more U.S. lamb ranches?). My little girl’s fifth birthday party is next Saturday, June 14, and we are serving this dish—among a cornucopia of other dishes. We always make some vegetable-only kebabs, too, for our vegetarian friends (marinate the vegetable separately to keep it all copacetic). Don’t be afraid of kebabs. Just take it in two steps: marinate the pieces the first day and load the kebabs and grill the second day.

Meat Preparation:

1 boneless Leg of Lamb

1 tablespoon Ground Cumin Seeds

1 tablespoon Ground Coriander Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Turmeric

½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Fennel Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Black Peppercorns

1 teaspoon Salt

1 tablespoon Grated Ginger Root

1 tablespoon Crushed Garlic

¼ cup Red Wine—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency

3 tablespoons Olive Oil—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency

Vegetable Preparation:

4 to 5 cups Assorted Vegetables [Cut in 1 to ½ inch chunks]

Use summer squash, zucchini, patty pan, Vidalia or other sweet onions, green onions, mushrooms, asparagus, green, red, or orange peppers, etc. Veggies that don’t work well are both hard veggies (such as potatoes, parsnips, and carrots—because they won’t cook through in the same amount of time as the rest of the items on the kebobs) or soft veggies (because they’ll fall apart—don’t use tomatoes or white mushrooms, though portabellas would be good).

1 tablespoon Ground Cumin Seeds

1 tablespoon Ground Coriander Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Turmeric

½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Fennel Seeds

½ teaspoon Ground Black Peppercorns

1 teaspoon Salt

1 tablespoon Grated Ginger Root

1 tablespoon Crushed Garlic

¼ cup of White Wine or Sake—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency

3 tablespoons Olive Oil—or more to get slightly sloshy consistency

Putting It All Together

Make this recipe one day in advance to knock your guests out with ecstasy. If you are short on time, at least prepare it in the AM and grill it in the PM—but no less time than that, as the spices won’t get into the meat and veggies otherwise.

You can mix up all the spices and the ginger and garlic in one batch (because they are the same for the veggies and the meats) and then put red wine in the lamb Zip-lock bag and the white wine in the veggie one.

Marinate the lamb chunks, the spices, and the wine and oil (listed under Meat Preparation) in one large Zip-lock freezer bag. Keep refrigerated for one to two days, turning the bag each time you open the refrigerator to distribute the marinade. If the marinade is not sufficient to coat all the pieces luxuriously (if lamb leg is too big), then double the marinade quantities.

In the same way, marinate the veggies in the spices and wine and oil (listed under Vegetable Preparation) in a large freezer bad and turn every time you open the refrigerator door.

When you are ready to grill, use wooden skewers and alternately skewer meat chunk, veggie chunk, meat chunk, veggie chunk, etc., leaving at least an inch at the bottom and the top of the skewer.

Grill, turning occasionally, until you see some charring on the edges of the onions and the meat looks cooked through.

Enjoy with rice and a salad for a terrific and simple summer meal.

Japanese Country-Style Eggplant: Nasu no Inaka Ni

2009-04-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Stewed eggplant doesn't sound exciting to you? Think that eggplant is only for vegetarians? Or just plain have no idea what to do with eggplant other than Eggplant Parmesan? Well, this delightful and simple Japanese eggplant dish will change your mind—and your palate-about eggplant. No one I have ever served this to has ever said anything but, “Delicious” or “Amazing” or “How on earth did you make this? I love it!” Asian eggplants are more tender and delicately flavored than the standard variety—but you can use either kind with excellent results. Katsuo-bushi—dried bonito flakes—are a common condiment in Japanese cooking. They come in packages of five packets. Next time you are at an Asian grocers, pick up a package. You can use katsuo-bushi in miso soup, and, together with grated ginger root and soy sauce, as a lovely topping for cold tofu (this is way yummier than it sounds).

Ingredients

· 8 Japanese eggplants (or one large eggplant)

· 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

· 1/4 teaspoon chili pepper flakes, to taste

· 1 packet dried bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi, found in Asian grocery stores)

· 3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

· 3 tablespoons mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine, or substitute vermouth with added sugar to taste)

· 1 cup water

Directions

1. Score Asian eggplants lengthwise every half inch. (If using regular eggplant, cut off ends and then cut remainder into 1" cubes, but do no peel.).

2. Put all ingredients in a sturdy pot and stir to coat.

3. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so that eggplant cooks thoroughly (until it becomes tender).

4. Serve hot or cold.

Any Way You Like It Beef Stew

2009-03-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

My five-year-old started a new school recently, with a fresh crop of kids and a fresh crop of kid's parents. Word got out that I was a professional writer and a foodie with a food blog, and I've been fielding questions--which I love. One that made sense and I never really thought about before is this, "How do you make beef stew?" Beef stew is so essential, so basic to cooking. It's like chicken soup. A sandwich. Hard to imagine using a recipe for these things. They just are, is all. You throw a bunch of stuff you like in and voila--comfort food.

But the truth is, at some time in the ancient recesses of my past, I must have watched Mom make her simple yet wonderful beef stew and figured out the beef stew meme. Over the decades, as my palate has evolved, so has my beef stew meme. Now it's up to a foodie writer to look with fresh eyes at this and break it out into steps. It's not a recipe, but more like a way of creating the gestalt of beef stew from the sum of its parts.

Searing the Beef
Use good quality beef for good quality, tender stew. We love sirloin for stew in my house. If you want to go crazy, filet will definitely reward you. But sirloin (or tri-tip, which is a portion of the sirloin) is perfect. Do not use chuck if you can avoid it, but if that's what you have on hand, by all means, go for it.

Cut two or more pounds of beef into 1" cubes, roughly, and dredge in flour, salt, and pepper. Sear these dredged cubes in some olive oil in a sturdy pot, preferably a Le Creuset or iron dutch oven, turning and cooking lightly, until they are light brown on the outside (beef should be raw inside). Remove from the pot and set aside.

Onions and Garlic, Oh My!
Sauté sweet onions (at least one large or two medium onions) cut roughly (large triangles) in more olive oil until they are slightly translucent (but not caramelized). Add in many cloves of fresh, crushed garlic (half a bulb--maybe 10 cloves). Do not sauté for long, to avoid turning the garlic bitter. Add in sliced organic carrots, roma tomatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes--your favorite veggies--in as large a quantity as you like. (See Embellish and Enjoy below for more add-in ideas.)

Wine and Then Dine
Add back in the beef to the pot and pour in at least half a bottle of dry red table wine. One bottle will reward you, but then again, who has an entire bottle of wine lying around just for cooking? I recommend Trader Joe's Two-buck Chuck (Charles Shaw) for this purpose, but any inexpensive and not sweet red wine will do.

An Herb and a Spice Are Oh-so-nice
Season with Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Bay leaves, culinary lavender, fresh rosemary, sage--these are all optional, depending on what you have handy. Fresh herbs are always better than dried.

Simmer Until It Smells Great
Simmer this intoxicating mixture--light bubbles, not heavy ones--until the beef is cooked through, the flavors are melded, and the veggies are cooked. You probably will not need to add flour to thicken the sauce as the flour from dredging the beef--plus the potatoes--will thicken the stew.

Total cooking time will likely be at least an hour.

Serve over jasmine rice or with bread.

Embellish and Enjoy

Add in what you love and what you have on hand:

White or portobello mushrooms, cut in bite-sized pieces, and added 10 minutes before serving time
Swiss chard, cut into strips, without the stem portion—again, added toward the end of cooking time
Fresh fennel, in bite-sized pieces
French green beans (haricot verts), in bite-sized pieces
Fresh peas, added a few minutes before serving
Sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips--whatever root veggies are handy. These need to cook longer, so add them at the beginning.
You can make the same stew using lamb leg meat instead of beef. Shanks work well, too, although before serving you may--or may not--wish to cut the bones out. Lamb is incredibly delicious, but the disadvantage is that as leftovers, it doesn't last as long. (We enjoy eating our stew the next day as lunch.)

More Protein than a Pancake, More Substantial than a Crêpe—It's a Crêpecake!

2009-03-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Granted, I love crêpes—light, airy, eggy wisps filled with yummies and topped with yummies, but tricky to make well. And I love pancakes, too—who doesn't?—although pancakes do not love me (uggghhh—all that starch!). So what's a hungry foodie to do? Take the best of both worlds and you get, voila, a crêpecake. A freshly made light-fluffy-tender-moist cake—lighter and richer than a pancake, chock full of eggs like a crêpe. Crêpecakes. You'll never go back to plain pancakes again. And your family will get more protein and a better breakfast or brunch meal out of the deal. No need to serve eggs on the side, because crêpecake already have the egg base covered.

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup unbleached white flour
Dash salt
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons butter, melted,
Extra butter and non-stick spray (like Pam) for the frying pan

Optional: 1 cup whole, fresh blueberries or chopped strawberries to add at the last minute to the batter

Serve with little bowls of:

Warmed maple syrup
Melted butter

How to Make Crêpecakes

Here's the secret: use your mixer to whip up the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Set aside while you make the rest of the crêpecake batter.
Mix the egg yolks into the milk until well-blended.
Stir the dry ingredients together, and then stir in the egg yolk-milk mixture a little at a time. Stopping as soon as blended (it will be lumpy—don't fret!).
Stir in the melted butter s-l-o-w-l-y, so as not to over-work the batter.
Fold in the fluffy egg whites a little at a time.
If you are adding fruit, add it now.
Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, testing to see if a drop of water dances on the surface. Add a small amount of butter, and spray the pan with nonstick spray.
Pour about a heaping tablespoon of batter for each crêpecake. Cook on one side until bubbly on top and toasted a bit on the sides (one to two minutes). Flip and finish cooking for 30 seconds to a minute. Crêpecakes should be light brown on each side.
Continue in this way, adding a small amount of butter and/or nonstick spray for each batch. Remove each batch to a covered Dutch oven kept in the oven on the lowest heat, until all are ready to serve.

· Drizzle with melted butter and maple syrup and enjoy the accolades.

· Crêpecakes freeze beautifully—just store in a plastic freezer bag and reheat in a microwave or toaster over for a quickie breakfast treat.

Pizza Hut—of All Places—Now Has a Fantastic Pizza, The Natural (Rustica)

2009-03-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

I, Tumerica, am not a food purist. If I am making Eggs Benedict, I may use a Belgian waffle instead of an English muffin. I may use—gasp!—Black Forest ham instead of Canadian bacon. Sure, I embrace gourmet. And my food quest on Planet Earth is to demystify those scary, crazy dishes that mere mortals are afraid to tackle. But I don't go the other direction either. I'm no food whore. I pledge allegiance to no food manufacturer or brand name, so help me Food Goddess.

So I come from somewhere, while maybe not in the middle, at least at neither extreme of the food spectrum. Fast food, as an American, is definitely part of our food spectrum, for worse or better. Can't dismiss all fast food, unless you live in a quieter, simpler place than I do. But we do keep fast food to a minimum in our household. Once or twice a month max. I don't expect much either. About the best you can do at McDonald's is to get their Asian Chicken Salad and send your kid into the kiddie play area. I do have a soft spot in my heart for one chain of fast food restaurants, and that is, drumroll, please—Bojangles. We call it "Bo-stanky" out of tenderness, not derision. Bo-stanky's serves the most delicious spicy Cajun friend chicken. And what's not to love about authentic, tender, greasy buttermilk biscuits or dirty rice and pinto beans? (Any restaurant that serves rice and beans gets a vote from me without reservation.)

Being a semi-judgmental foodie, though, makes me think twice. I can make something simple in the way of gourmet and do far better than most of the fast food fare available today. But every once in a while, something new and great catches my culinary eye. And here's one I have just discovered: Pizza Hut's new "Rustica" pizza, also known as "The Natural." The formula is for whole-grain crust, all-natural mozzarella, all-natural tomato sauce, etc.—everything all-natural. I thought it was worth a try, so I ordered a Rustica with jalapenos, all-natural pepperoni, and marinated tomatoes. Guess what? A delicious, perfect pizza was what I got. I still can't get over it. Yes, everything was yummy—the right amount of wholesome—not too much. The right amount of gourmet. A delicious sauce. Terrific, really. Better than my homemade. Yup. Better than that. Pizza is one of the most challenging simple foods to make from scratch. I hit it right about one time in three—not a great batting average. But now that Pizza Hut has the Rustica, I may (do not tell my fans—both of them) skip homemade every now and then and order in. What's the world coming to, huh?

Here's what Pizza Hut has to say about its Rustica, also known as, "The Natural":

Pizza Hut's migration toward real ingredients began in 2008 when it introduced The Natural(TM), a pizza with all-natural ingredients, for a limited time in select markets. The test of The Natural was so successful that the company decided to extend The Natural's premise across its entire pizza line. The Natural features a flavorful multi-grain crust with eight grams of whole grains per slice, and is topped with an all-natural sauce made from vine-ripened tomatoes and all-natural mozzarella cheese.

The Natural will be available nationwide beginning December 28. The pizza's new natural toppings include sliced Rustica Sausage, pepperoni, marinated sliced Roma tomatoes, and fire-roasted red peppers. You also can get your pizza topped with a number of traditional toppings that are already natural, such as green peppers, red onions, sliced mushrooms and pineapple.

The Natural pizza has earned the seal of approval from the Whole Grains Council. The multigrain crust of The Natural has 8g of whole grain per slice, making each two-slice serving an excellent source of whole grains. According to research recently published by the NPD Group, 64% of Americans want more whole grains in their diet. A one-topping medium The Natural pizza is $9.99. The Natural Rustica recipe, which includes sliced all-natural Rustica sausage, fire roasted red peppers and marinated Roma tomatoes is $11.99.

Veggie Burger, Grain Burger, Falafel—Oh My!

2009-02-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

The Original Meat-free Burger: Falafel

Hungry for a veggie burger? Don't buy those expensive ready-made ones in the frozen foods section—just make your own. It's easy and utterly delicious. One way to make a veggie burger is to make, yes, falafel. Instead of a round ball, form the batter into a small patty. Then, you don't have to deep-fry it—which uses a lot of oil. You can pan-fry in a small amount of oil—just like any other patty or croquette. No need to buy those falafel mixes, either (they're way too salty)—try making falafels once and you will be hooked! Feel free to experiment with adding other ingredients—mint, fresh oregano, peppers, onions, etc.—are all game. Yummy! And your kids will likely forget the meal is vegetarian.

Pan-fried Falafel Patties
3 cups cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans (or two cans, drained)
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame butter)
1/3 cup minced flat leaf parsley or mint (optional)
4 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs (you can use Progresso bread crumbs) or flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 eggs
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Olive oil to deep fry or pan fry
½ cup sesame seeds to roll falafel-burgers in (optional)

Serves four

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and put them, along with all the other ingredients, in a blender or food processor. (The paste needs to be thick enough to hold up as a patty, so if you have to use more bread crumbs to thicken, that’s okay.) Pulse, scraping down the side of the bowl, to form a coarse paste. Scrape the paste into a bowl.
In a non-stick frying pan, heat the oil. Scoop a couple of tablespoons of the falafel mixture into your hands and smooth down to form a small patty (larger patties can be too crumbly—small is better). Roll in sesame seeds (optional).
Place a few patties in the pan and fry in small batches, turning halfway through cooking, until browned and crisp and cooked through (about three minutes per side, depending on how thick they are).
Drain on paper towels and serve with lemon-tahini dressing (tahini, garlic, salt, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, water). Also delicious cold in a pita sandwich with cucumbers and tomatoes.

Easy Gourmet: Homemade Ice Cream—How About "Lavender White Chocolate" Tonight?

2009-02-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ice cream? You betcha! I love ice cream, just like everybody else. I love homemade, just like everybody else. I love saving money, just like everybody else. Well, I finally decided to put my passions where my mouth is. For Christmas, Santa (aka, me) brought our family an ice cream maker. I've wanted one for a long time. Now, ice cream makers come in three types: the kind where you add ice and salt; the kind where you store the container in the freezer and then plug it in; or the kind where you just plug it in. I found that the ice-and-salt kind makes ice cream that's a bit too soft. The plug-it-in kind works great but costs a fortune. So I chose the container-in-the-freezer option and bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker for about $50 (you can get them for about $35 now).

Ice cream is so ridiculously easy to make yourself; really, the only barrier is you. Plus, when you make it yourself, you don't add icky ingredients like guar bean gum and carrageenan, do you? Artificial flavors and colors? Didn't think so. You get pure-as-grandma's-sheets-hanging-out-to-dry ice cream. And surprisingly, homemade ice cream is a good bit cheaper to boot. So why not make it? Are you scared? Don't be—it's no big deal and the kudos-to-effort factor is huge (you get gigantic rewards in the way of oohs and ahhs with little energy in the making).

And probably the most fun thing I have found about having an ice cream maker is the chance to experiment. No reason to feel stuck to the same ol' vanilla, chocolate, strawberry routine, or the other extreme of rocky-road-über-chunk-cookie-dough-kitchen-sink flavor. You are the master of your flavors and with a few simple rules of thumb, you will be creating your own ice creams with exotic names like "Cherimoya Custard," "Blueberry with Blueberry Maple Syrup," "Lychee Sorbet," "Cranberry Candied Pecan" and collecting all the praise that you so rightly deserve.

So let's get started. The instructions below are for the Cuisinart ice cream maker. If you have a different size, adjust accordingly. The idea is that you are creating from rules of thumb and not cast-in-stone recipes. Dare to show flare! Invite some perpetual kids over and have fun!

Homemade Ice Cream Rules-of-Thumb

Use a total of about four cups of dairy. The more heavy whipping cream you use, the richer your ice cream. The more whole milk you use, the lighter your ice cream. If you use all whole or skim milk, you do run the risk of having a crystallized effect (crunchy ice cream). Better ice creams are velvety smooth. I recommend using either some proportion of whole milk to heavy whipping cream or all heavy whipping cream. This is ice cream, after all. It's not a diet food—it's a food of love and joy and summertime and smiles. If dieting is a challenge, enjoy a smaller amount and feed the rest to your loved ones (this stuff is rich—you will not want to gorge on it). When you make small batches like this Cuisinart ice cream maker makes, there's not a lot left over anyway. So four cups total: I usually do three cups heavy whipping cream and one cup whole milk. You can also make half a batch, and then, eat only super-fresh ice cream
Where you can cut back, diet-wise, is on the amount of sugar you use. Most ice cream recipes call for a humongous amount of sugar (1 cup or more for this amount of ice cream!). I recommend half that, or about 1/2 cup sugar for four cups of dairy. You could also substitute maple syrup, honey, stevia extract, and more, but use less if it's more sweet, e.g., honey is extremely sweet so you'd need less than 1/2 cup of honey. (Honey is surprisingly delightful in ice cream.)
If you are using sugar, I recommend raw or turbinado sugar because it's the most nutritious and because it tastes heavenly! With sugar, though, you cannot simply throw it into the ice cream maker. You will have to "melt" the sugar before adding it (to create simple syrup). That way you do not get crunchy sugar granules to ruin the texture of your confection. To make simple syrup, put the granulated sugar in the microwave with a small amount of liquid (milk or fruit juice) and heat it until the sugar dissolves.
If you are using chocolate and want the ice cream smooth, then melt it before stirring it in. When you stir the melted chocolate into the other ingredients, do so outside of the ice cream maker. If you take an ice-cold ice cream maker container and pour melted chocolate into it, your chocolate will immediately harden, and you’ll get crunchy ice cream (if that’s what you like, go for it!). But mix the chocolate with the dairy and then pour it into the ice cream maker for smooth, blended ice cream.
Use about 1 tablespoon of either vanilla extract (which is basically booze and vanilla) or some other kind of liquor. Good ones are Grand Marnier, Limoncello, Rum, banana liquor, Frangelica, etc. Don't use too much liquor or your ice cream will get overwhelmed (unless that's the effect you desire!).
Other ingredients are optional, such as fruit or fruit mixtures, dark chocolate, white chocolate, nuts, etc. But the important thing to remember is that if you are adding fruit, make sure the fruit is cut into small enough bits that if you bite on a frozen fruit bit you aren't going to lose a tooth. Smaller bits really are better. If you throw big chunks of fruit in, you'll regret it! The ice cream maker will not chop them up for you unless the fruit is very soft (like raspberries). I did this once with big peach slices and found it nearly impossible to eat—big fruit chunks in ice cream are rock-hard!
If you like a custardy ice cream, then cook your beaten egg yolks along with a small amount of the liquid, stirring over low heat frequently until the egg mixture is smooth. Then add the egg mixture to the rest of the liquid—while still outside of the ice cream maker. Once everything is mixed thoroughly, add it to the ice cream maker. Mark Bittman, of “How to Cook Everything” fame—whom I admire and adore—believes no ice cream is real ice cream unless it has egg in it. He’s a purist. For me, custard ice cream (French style) is one category, and regular ice cream is another. I prefer regular, but, as they say in Japan, “Juu-nin, tou-iro.” Or “Ten people, ten colors.” In other words, to each his own.
Feel free to dip a spoon in while the ice cream is cranking to taste if you need to adjust the recipe.
After making your ice cream, freeze it for a while in the freezer before serving. Why? Because homemade is somewhat softer than store-bought ice cream. You may get a good consistency or you may not. But if you run the ice cream in the machine until it is finished—about 20 to 30 minutes, then freeze for an hour or so, you ice cream will be the perfect consistency—scoop-ready!

That's basically it! So here's my freebie to you—my own invention, I am proud to say—and so delicious it could win you admirers or even paramours. Certainly the neighborhood kids will follow you around expectantly after one taste of this! Enjoy.

Lavender White Chocolate Honey Ice Cream
Three cups heavy whipping cream
One cup whole milk
1 tablespoon culinary lavender seeds (you can get this online or at gourmet markets—lavender is great to have around for other savory foods and for lavender martinis—don’t tell the kids I said that)
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of white chocolate (not "white baking chips," but REAL white chocolate, that is, cocoa butter and flavorings)
1 tablespoon of vanilla

1) Make a tea of a couple of tablespoons of hot milk with the lavender seeds. Let the seeds steep for a few minutes and then strain the seeds off (the seeds are too bitter to make a yummy ice cream addition, but the flavor they add is close to ecstasy!) and reserve the “tea” you created.

2) Melt the white chocolate along with about 1/4 cup of the milk and the honey on a burner at low heat, stirring constantly and removing when the chocolate is melted.

3) Add the chocolate mixture to the lavender tea and the rest of the cream, milk, and vanilla. Stir everything together and pour into the pre-frozen ice cream container.

4) Cover the ice cream maker and turn it on, letting it run for 20 to 30 minutes. After the ice cream is made, remove it to a freezable plastic covered container (Tupperware makes a great one—the Rock 'n Serve, medium deep) and freeze for an hour or so before serving.

Tri-tip into Bulgogi: From Blah into Bravo JUSTLIKETHAT

2009-02-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

Chances are, if you have dined in a Korean restaurant, or are lucky enough to have Korean friends or family, you probably have already tasted bulgogi, a thinly sliced marinated sesame beef barbecue that is indescribably delicious. And, if you live in California, you have probably been served tri-tip barbecue so many times it's a ho-hum deal. Growing up on the east coast, I had never heard of tri-tip. But when I moved out west, it took only a week or two to encounter my first tri-tip.

Tri-tip goes by other names: sirloin or knuckle roast. Tri-tip is the corner piece that is cut off when slicing sirloin steaks. Usually not as tender as the rest of the sirloin, it is just as flavorful and takes well to marinating and grilling. Santa Maria barbecue is just that, marinated and grilled tri-tip. Not much to it, just sugar, garlic, pepper, and salt and the technique of slow-grilling. Why then the avid following of a simple barbecue style?

In the same way as tri-tip barbecue, bulgogi is the most common barbecue of Korea. Ho-hum to those who grew up there and ate it often, but lavishly exciting and exotic to the rest of us.

Tri-tip, bulgogi . . . what's the connection? Bulgogi recipes call for sirloin roast. And tri-tip is sirloin, only less expensive than sirloin steaks. If you have access to tri-tip from your local grocery or warehouse store, then why not, instead of serving the usual tri-tip barbecue, take a tip from Korea, where some of Earth's best barbecue comes from--and add a few more simple ingredients and slices, and voila! You've got irresistible bulgogi--to wow your friends and loved ones, with no more effort than any other barbecue. With bulgogi, you get a lot of wow factor for your effort.

2 pounds sirloin tri-tip, sliced thinly across the grain on the diagonal bias
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon raw sugar
3 scallions, chopped (optional--if you substitute chopped white onion, the chances are good that the beef will be cooked before the onions are--raw onion is not yummy to most folks, so I’d either use scallions or skip onions altogether)

Serve with:

Chili paste, like Sriracha brand
Toasted sesame seeds
Green leaf lettuce leaves
Steamed jasmine rice

Arrange the raw tri-tip on the cutting board, and with a very sharp knife, slice across the grain in thin slices (1.8 inch or so). In a resealable large plastic bag, add the sliced tri-tip to the remaining ingredients. Let marinate, refrigerated, for at least 1 hour, or longer, if you have time.

Cook the beef in one layer in a nonstick pan, along with the marinade. Alternately, you could cut each piece of meat thicker--in 1/2 inch slices to make little steaks. Then you could grill those 1/2 inch bulgogi steaks on the grill--this is how we chose to cook it, but authentically, bulgogi is sliced thinly.

Serve with steamed rice and allow diners to wrap each piece of bulgogi (if sliced thinly) in a lettuce leaf roll. If sliced thickly, then serve as is, with a salad.

Pick-up Food for a Small, Casual Foodie Party

2009-01-31T16:03:00.000-08:00

Jiggelos

First of all, I'm making gelatin shooters, "jiggelos," that are NOT made using Jell-o brand. (Who uses that stuff anymore? Ick--we are not kids, nor hospital patients. Artificial what goes in there??) Knox unflavored gelatin, and fruit juice and alcohol. The alcohol proportion is one part for three parts of liquid. Add gelatin to the hot liquid, stir to dissolve, and then when the mixture is cool, add the alcohol. Instead of pouring into cups--so Plebian!--pour into a large mold and cut individual shapes out of the collective. I used twice as much unflavored gelatin as in regular gelatine--thus making, "Knox Blox." The resulting jiggelos stand up well for ages, and need no refrigeration. I made Margarita jiggelos, using Grand Marnier, Sauza Tres Generaciones tequila, and homemade limeade (the limes came from a friend's yard). Also, pina colada jiggelos using coconut rum, coconut milk (unsweetened), pineapple juice, and simple syrup. Decorated with unsweetened shreaded coconut. YUM!

Curried Meatballs in Curry Gravy

I'll be mixing ground turkey and beef together, along with ground ginger, and other curry spices (cumin. coriander, turmeric), and eggs, to form the meatballs. Then, I make a white sauce, and add in curry spices. I've made this many times for my family--with this original recipe, I am making a variation of Swedish meatballs with a curry flare, instead of making authentic curry--which I often do, that starts from a roux and has an onion base--to take this dish into comfort food category

Homemade Crab Egg Rolls

The secret to making egg rolls is that anything you stir fry can also go into an egg roll. The difference is, the stir-fry bits must be small. After you make the stir-fry, add some cornstarch to thicken--a loose sauce will spoil the egg roll wrappers. Deep fry in peanut oil until golden. I serve with an apricot ginger dipping sauce (to apricot preserves, add water to thin a bit and grated, fresh ginger root--stir thoroughly).

Greek Tomato-Cucumber Salad
Any salad at a Superbowl party has to be able to stand up--hour after hour--and not wilt. So no lettuce need apply. I'm making a Greek salad of chunks of tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and Greek salad dressing (olive oil, wine vinegar, Greek oregano, salt, and pepper).

Raspberry Ice Cream

Abuelita, My Favorite Granny

2009-01-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

Until I moved to California, where there are a lot of Mexican foods available in the grocery stores, I had never heard of "Abuelita" brand chocolate. And even still, I saw it but didn't know what it was, other than knowing that the word "abuelita" means "granny." I ran across a number of mole recipes that called for Abuelita and still, I didn't go through the effort of finding some and trying it--until last week. I Googled "Mexican grocery store" in my neighborhood, and schlepped over there to get some Abuelita's. The proprietor of the store, an adorable mother-figure, kept calling me "mi hija," or "my daughter," which I found to be delightful (me? her daughter? She was probably only 10 years older than me).

So I bought two packs of Abuelita's and used some for the first time in my chicken mole for the dinner party. Truly, it was a revelation. What suprised me was that it made the mole sweet. Not too sweet, mind you, but pleasantly sweet. And the flavor was gloriously complex.

Just yesterday, I tried Abuelita's for the first time in hot chocolate. Instead of being in powder form, Abuelita's comes in chunks of solid chocolate. The chocolate is premixed with just the right amount of sugar (not too sweet, like most American hot chocolate) and cinnamon. You drop a chunk in your milk, microwave it, and then froth it with a cappuccino machine (or a special milk frothing device, which I don't have). You get the most fabulous hot chocolate on this Earth, with no exaggeration.

Comfort Food with a Twist: My Dinner Party for Six Food and Wine-a-philiacs

2009-01-04T05:41:00.000-08:00

Duck paté and artisinal hand-crafted cheese plate with cornichons
Fresh crab cakes fried in olive oil, served with soy-sesame-mayo and bread-and-butter pickle sauce
Sweet free-range chicken mole poblano served over steamed Jasmine rice, with five optional condiments (it took me five hours to make the mole--grinding the many peppers and spices, deboning the chicken. I used Abuelita's Mexican chocolate this time, which adds sweetness.)
Mixed greens garden salad with pear-parmesan dressing
Homemade cheese bread with butter
Haricot verts stir-fry with Black Forest ham bits and Bragg Liquid Aminos
Blueberry tart with butter crust
Mixed dark and white chocolate pomegranate (I used the pomegranate compote I made as Christmas presents--it worked beautifully) ice cream
Decaf cappuccino, made from Second Chance coffee
Sparkling water
Cocktails (Hendrick's cucumber martinis and lemondrop martinis)
Clendenen Family Vineyards, 2004 Pinot Noir

Wish I had photos from our event, but you would see mis-matched plates, a furry white dog, and lots of sappy grins (the wine was superb!). Also, our five-year-old was bebopping around, like the human jester she is. We had leftover mole for supper the next day--methinks it was even better.

For New Year's? Black-eyed Peas, If You Please

2009-01-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

How Much Do You Know About the Humble Black-eyed Pea?

Thought to symbolize good luck since references to eating black-eyed peas in the Talmud (where it is called "rubiya"). Took on good luck status in the US after Union soldiers stripped southern fields of all edible crops except for "field peas" and corn.
Also known as "cowpeas" or "crowder peas"
A common food in the US South
Native to Africa, but popular throughout Asia as well
Often served with either ham hocks or ham in the South
Also known as "Texas Caviar" when made into a salsa
A great source of calcium, protein, and fiber
Like other legumes, adds nitrogen--thus improving--the soil in which it grows

I've got a nice pot of black-eyed peas in the crock pot now. The trick with beans is not to add any salt--or anything salty--until after the beans are cooked. Then, it's on to Hoppin' John. Here's Emeril Lagasse's Hoppin' John. Since I don't have a ham hock, I'll be using Black Forest ham and ham stock instead of chicken stock. Very hammy, very nice.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large ham hock
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 pound black-eyed peas, soaked overnight and rinsed
1 quart chicken stock
Bay leaf
1 teaspoon dry thyme leaves
Salt, black pepper, and cayenne
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
3 cups steamed white rice

Directions

Heat oil in a large soup pot, add the ham hock and sear on all sides for 4 minutes. Add the onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic, cook for 4 minutes. Add the black-eyed peas, stock, bay leaves, thyme, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the peas are creamy and tender, stir occasionally. If the liquid evaporates, add more water or stock. Adjust seasonings, and garnish with green onions. Serve over rice.

Happy, Homemade Christmas Gifts

2008-12-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Every year, we mix up a batch of homemade Christmas gifts and put them in some sort of fancy container to give out as gifts to family and friends (for kids and each other, we actually buy presents). Here's what we (OK, what I) made this year, with links to some of the recipes or sites for buying ingredients.

Gingerbread Surfer Babes & Dudes (I use the Mark Bittman Gingerbread Men recipe--it calls for lots of butter and molasses. Too yummy! Then, for icing, I use organic powdered cane sugar and other organic ingredients. Then, top it all off with granulated candy sugar with lots of beautiful artificial colors to make everything festive. One can be too good, you know.)

Belgian Tripel Homebrew (The Home Brewery is a great site. And the folks there are super-nice.)

Chocolate Coconut Truffles (Trader Joe's for the bulk Belgian chocolate [only $4 a pound!] and white chocolate [the real kind, not "white chips."]), made from my own recipe.

Layered Peppermint Bark (Again, Trader Joe's for the chocolates. I doubled the quantity of white chocolate in this recipe to make each white layer thick. Heavenly and to-die-for do not begin to do this justice! Add extra peppermint extract for a taste explosion.)

Rosemary Almonds (Also from my own recipe, only this one is on eHow.com. You could not find an easier, nor more satisfying gift to give and to receive. The nuts will be gone in a flash!)

Pomegranate Fruit Compote (Sure, this project started out as "Pomegranate Jelly" and ended up as "Compote" when it didn't set. Oh, well. It's a nice presentation in a festive jelly jar, and it can be yummy on ice cream instead of on toast. Why not? The compote was easy to make, even though it didn't gel as much as promised.)

Homemade Soaps in Yin-Ylang and Yang-Mint (So easy to make "Melt-and-Pour" soaps. Just melt chunks of the block of solid soap base, add in color, fragrance, and botanical doodads. Voila! Recipients rave and oooh. Don't tell them the real truth. This year, I used spearmint leaves and peppermint oil to make a "yang" soap, and ylang-ylang, sage, and tangerine oils, along with sage flowers to make a "yin" soap. Wrap in plastic wrap first, then in a strip of homemade paper, then a ribbon around the strip. Fab!)

Homemade Chocolate Truffles for That Special (but Reasonably Priced) Holiday Gift

2008-12-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Sure, there are chocolate bon-bons—those chocolate candies with mystery ingredients inside. But hard-core chocolate aficionados prefer truffles. Chocolate inside, chocolate outside—all the more chocolate to enjoy. But don't settle for the standard-issue truffles—go for the gusto by making your own—and then wrapping your delectable creations in food-safe tissue paper, placing in and an elegant box, and tying all with a festive ribbon. You have a perfect and elegant hostess gift or gift for a loved one that says, "Enjoy and be happy" with both heart and pleasure in the mix.

Homemade Truffles

Homemade truffles will not look as glamorous as ones you might find at a chocolatier, but they will be made with love—by you, and are therefore far more wonderful. Again, dress your creations up in elegant wrapping (Try Can Creations online and Cost Plus World Market [to check store locations] for wrappings for homemade food gifts) and deliver with pride.

Here's a quick and simple recipe—the results will astound both you and the object of your affections. Plus, there will be plenty left over to take to work and amaze everyone there. Enjoy! Recipe makes about five dozen 1" truffles.

1 pound bar of artisanal bittersweet baking chocolate. (Do not use chocolate chips—your truffles will not taste authentic. Search for gourmet bulk baking chocolate, like Ghirardelli or Callebout or Scharffenberger or Valrhona. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, definitely use their 72% cacao Belgian Pound Plus bar. Why Trader Joe’s? Because their gourmet bulk chocolate is only $4 per pound! And the taste is fabulous.)
1/2 pound white baking chocolate (the bittersweet chocolate is softened and rounded by the addition of white chocolate—my four-year-old calls this “making zebra chocolate”)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 of a stick)
2 cups heavy whipping cream (16 oz)
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) fine liquor, such as Chambord, Limoncello, or my all-time favorite, Grand Marnier. (You can also substitute vanilla, but rest assured, even with liquor, your truffles will not taste alcoholy—the liquor blends in perfectly and acts just like vanilla, only with a twist. Your truffles will be safe for children to consume.)
Shredded unsweetened coconut or chopped, unsalted nuts to roll truffles in. I recommend pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts. Our family favorite is unsweetened coconut, which you can find at Indian stores or in gourmet or health food stores such as Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. If you use nuts, make sure to get unsalted.)

Boil a few cups of water in a pot. Place a bowl (or another pot) over the boiling water (thus creating a double-boiler, if you don't have one). Melt the chocolates in the upper bowl, stirring to mix the dark and light chocolates (taste, if desired). When the chocolates are melted and mixed, add in the butter, water, liquor (or vanilla) and mix thoroughly. Add in a dollop of heavy cream, stirring it in well before adding another dollop. When the cream is well–mixed, remove the chocolate, cover the bowl, and refrigerate it for severl hours or until the mixture is firm enough to hold its shape (you may need to refrigerate overnight).

Spread out a sheet of parchment paper on the counter (or plastic wrap). Scoop up about a tablespoon of the chocolate and roll into a 1" ball, rolling between your hands to make a nice rounded shape (like making meatballs). Roll the truffle in a plate with the coconut or chopped nuts to coat the outside evenly. Place the coated truffle on the parchment paper. Continue in this way until all the chocolate is gone (be sure to sneak a few for taste-testing and quality assurance).

These simple truffles get such rave reviews, I’ve actually been offered money for them (I charged $2 each, but it’s up to you). The secrets are using the high-cacao content chocolate, and then adding in the white chocolate to mellow and sweeten the mixture slightly (but not too much—mildly sweet is most irresistible). That and the fancy liquor make these truffles a to-die-for gift.

French Sweet Onion Soup with or without Extras: Posh Warm Comfort for a Cold Day

2008-12-02T10:12:00.000-08:00

I can't explain the comfort of a French onion soup on a cold day—it's one of those taste-blasts, a hearty, buttery, savory treat you must experience yourself. This delightful soup—with the twists of sweet onions and perhaps some extra veggies you have on hand—is a winner with everyone (yes, you can make it vegetarian with a vegetable soup stock as the base).

4 medium sweet onions (such as walla-walla, Maui sweets, vidalia, etc.), sliced
1/2 stick of butter
5 cups good beef broth (I use "Better than Bouillon" from Superior Touch, reconstituted with water. For vegetarian, use a veggie broth)
2 tablespoons cognac
Herbes de Provence, to taste (or thyme, lavender, sage, etc.)
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
3/4 cup grated hard cheese, such as Parmesan
4 slices bread, toasted and cut into cubes (to make croutons)

Sauté the onions in the butter in a nonstick frying pan for about 15 minutes. They should be soft and sweetly caramelized. Add the herbes de Provence, beef broth and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a slow boil then reduce the heat to low and let simmer at least 15 minutes. After cooking remove from heat and splash in the cognac.

Meanwhile, toast the bread and chop it into cubes to make croûtons. Set aside. Grate the hard cheese and set aside. Take four ramekins or other oven-proof bowls and ladle 1/4 of the soup in each. Sprinkle 1/4 of the croûtons on each soup bowl and then, 1/4 of the cheese on top of that. Lastly, place the ramekins on a baking sheet and broil until the cheese melts and is bubbly, around five minutes.

Note: You can jazz this up by adding chopped veggies to the soup while it is boiling: carrots and celery are natural additions, but what about fresh spinach, Swiss chard, or even fennel? Asparagus in one-inch chunks, and ooh--mushrooms!

Also, to beef it up, add in cooked, chopped beef, such as leftover steak or roast. If you really want to knock some socks off, prepare one filet mignon by sauteeing it and then cubing it. So tender and tasty in this soup! Another idea--meatballs--wow!

A vegetarian treat? Try sauteed cubed tofu or tempeh (and vegetable soup stock, as noted above).

Don't You Dare Buy Ready-made Stuffing for Thanksgiving!

2008-11-21T11:15:00.000-08:00

Homemade Stuffing for the Holidays

If You Can Sing "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme," You Can Make Stuffing from Scratch. Stuffing. Ahhhh. Maybe my favorite part of my favorite holiday. Growing up with four siblings, stuffing disappeared the fastest and was the most worth fighting over when it came to leftovers (if there were any). Who doesn't love stuffing? When I lived in Japan, where no one had a big enough oven to roast a turkey, even if they knew what one was or could afford to procure one—what I missed the most about American food was, not surprisingly, turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Simple, yes, if you live in the states. Exotic and impossible if you life overseas. Now that I am back home, I serve my family a turkey-stuffing-cranberry meal about once a month—I cannot get enough of it.

Growing up in a large household, my parents wisely took some shortcuts when it came to cooking. And stuffing was one of them. I never had honest-to-goodness homemade stuffing until I was all grown up and discovered how to make it myself. What a thrill to realize how easy it is. And the rewards are GREAT—when you serve it, be sure to mention you made it from scratch. You will hear oohs and ahhs. No store-bought stuffing mix can compare in any dimension. You too can do this—have confidence. Stuffing is so simple to prepare, you will wonder why you never thought of doing it yourself before now.

One last note: I dined at a friend's house for a holiday party recenlty. He was so excited to have made stuffing from scratch, but it was the most gosh-awful stuff you ever tasted. He had just tossed in the celery and tossed in the other ingredients--with NO sautéeing, no herbs, no butter, and no chicken stock. The stuff he called stuffing was dreadful, pasty bread bits with hard chunks of celery. Don't let this happen to you.

Basically, stuffing is comprised of two steps: “Creating the Croutons” and “Sautéing the Savories.” And you hardly need a recipe. Once you know how to do it, you can whip stuffing up easily with no props. Are you ready? YOU CAN DO THIS!

Creating the Croutons
Take a loaf of bread that you find delicious—ones loaded with nuts and whole grains are wonderful for stuffing. Sourdough works great too. Anything but white bread (too fluffy—needs to be a bit sturdier). I'm a fanatic—I make loaves of "stuffing" bread to use (chock full of fresh herbs). But pick a bread you already like. Day-old bread is fine too. You will need about eight cups worth of croutons. If the loaf of bread is large, you may not need the whole loaf.

Cut sliced bread into strips and then again crosswise into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes. Place the croutons on a baking sheet without overlapping, if possible. Toast lightly in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Scoop all the croutons into a large bowl.

Sautéing the Savories
Chop up one large onion (sweet ones like Walla-walla or Vidalia are especially yummy for this) and about 6~8 stalks of celery (slice each stalk lengthwise first and then crosswise to make smaller pieces). Sauté the onions and celery in 6~8 tablespoons butter (use butter unabashedly, but start with the lesser amount and see if it needs more later, depending on the quantity of croutons you have), along with the following herbs (fresh if you can get them, and chopped coarsely): Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Does that sound familiar? It's part of the refrain from a Simon and Garfunkle song, Scarborough Fair. Yup. It's the herbal code for stuffing (and poultry seasoning). If you have a choice of parsley, use Italian flat leaf instead of the curly kind—but fresh is always preferable to dried. How much of each herb to use? Fresh, maybe 3 tablespoons each. Dried, maybe 1 tablespoon each. It's important to sauté the herbs so that the fragrance and flavor get infused. Add in about 1/2 cup of dried cranberries if you have them (makes it irresistible—sautéing plumps them). Once the onions are slightly translucent and no longer crunchy, remove from the stove.

Stir this sautéed herb mixture into the croutons. Add about 1 cup of chicken broth—slowly—so that you can gauge when to stop adding. (Keep jars of all-natural chicken stock concentrate in the fridge for uses such as these. I recommend “Better Than Bouillon” brand, by Superior Touch. You can get it at Trader Joe’s or other high-end grocers. Cubed bouillon is too salty and has too much artificial stuff, along with MSG. Chicken stock that comes in cans and cartons is good but too pricey.) This is the trickiest part—if you add too much broth, the stuffing becomes mushy. Too little and it's chokingly dry. Just right is slightly moist, with mouth “give.” Just right is not too crumbly and holds up on the plate. Add salt to taste (I especially recommend Vege-sal vegetable salt). And more melted butter, if needed. Toss lightly and serve as is or use about half to stuff bird. Keeps well for several days.

Notes:

— You can add variations for fun: toasted chopped nuts (pine nuts are fabulous, macadamias are decadent, chestnuts if you can get them, almonds if they are slivered thinly), chopped dried fruit such as apricots (go easy on the fruit and cut it small), other herbs such as marjoram or tarragon, etc.

— Some folks love cornbread stuffing. To make it, add chopped pork sausage to the sauté and use crumbled homemade cornbread (not that sweet kind like they serve at Boston Market—eyuck!) instead of wheat bread.

— Be sure not to use Pyrex when toasting your croutons in the oven. Like a doofus, I used a Pyrex pan as an overflow and voila! It exploded. I'm not the first person to have this experience, lest you laugh at me. I did a quick search and found an entire page on ConsumerAffairs.com dedicated to people who've had exploding Pyrex experiences. Just use a standard baking pan and you will be fine.