Stir-Fried Chinese Water Morning Glory - Pad Pak Bung Fai Daeng (ผัดผักบุ้งไฟแดง)

Pak Bung* Fai Daeng (ผักบุ้งไฟแดง ) is one of a few Thai street foods that can be made at home very easily, quickly, and with great results. The ingredient list is short; so is the preparation time. Containing no meat and featuring only one main ingredient, the dish costs very little to make. You can't say this about most of the famous items you find on the streets. When friends who have never cooked Asian food their whole lives ask me to teach them an easy dish to make, I show them how to make Pak Bung Fai Daeng. It's that easy.

In fact, Pad Pak Bung Fai Daeng is so ordinary and so easy to make that brilliant marketing minds have figured out how to make it appear extraordinary and more complicated than it really is. How? They make the dish fly and give it a new moniker, "Flying Pak Bung" (ผักบุ้งลอยฟ้า).

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Apple Jelly by the Method of Christine Ferber: Step-by-Step Instructions

Not a food snob, I never raise my eyebrows or gasp audibly at the use of commercial pectin. I use commercial pectin myself 99% of the time. And even after I've learned to make apple pectin from scratch, I still like the convenience of commercial pectin. But since I've recently developed a habit of picking my own apples from a local orchard every fall, I thought I would experiment with Christine Ferber's method of making her "pectin stock jelly" -- her prescribed gelling agent.

With a peck of green Granny Smith apples on hand, I set out to find out what it's like to make jam in order to make jam.

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Thai-Style Fried Chicken - Gai Tod (ไก่ทอด)

Those who have experienced a mini bliss that involves a Thai-style fried chicken drumstick in one hand and a ball of warm sticky rice in the other don't need any further convincing that Thai street fried chicken is the stuff of wonders. Now, imagine that same type of fried chicken -- in all its glory -- done with the southern Thai twist; firm-yet-tender flesh, crispy skin and coating, perfumed with golden fried shallots. Certain types of Bangkok street food when done by members of the Muslim community both from the South and various spots in Bangkok, tend to be exceedingly better than the other versions out there. Fried chicken, in my opinion, is one of them.

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White Pumpkin Cream Soup with Sourdough Croutons

I had never heard of, let alone eaten, white pumpkin until my recent encounter with this white pumpkin-duck confit-bitter chocolate soup by Chef Curtis Duffy of Avenues, Chicago. Have you had white pumpkin? It's delicious. Its flavor is like a cross between potato and pumpkin; its low-moisture content makes for firm, meaty texture; its color is beautiful shade of ecru.

Being too close to potato in terms of texture and lacking the strong flavor of regular orange pumpkin, white pumpkin, in my opinion, wouldn't make a good variant ingredient for your usual pumpkin pie. However, for the exact same reasons, white pumpkin makes very, very good cream soup.

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Coconut-Cream Cheese Custard in Phyllo Cups

These are neither the Portuguese Pasteis de Nata nor their cousins, Chinese egg custards. These are what I make because: 1. I am horrible at making flaky egg custard tart dough, 2. I always have leftover coconut milk in small amounts, 3. after having discovered the joy of the light, fluffy pumpkin mascarpone cake -- a recipe that requires 4 ounces mascarpone or cream cheese -- I've always found half an 8-ounce package of either one in the fridge. These tarts, in other words, are born out of incompetence and practicality.

By the way, if you -- like me -- are not known for dexterity, do everything you can to convince people that the rustic looks of these tarts are intentional. You could make perfectly symmetrical tarts any time you want, of course; you just don't feel like it.

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Ma Haw (ม้าห้อหรือม้าฮ่อ) and the State of Thai Cuisine: An Interview with Suthon Sukphisit

Weighing down on my mind these past few weeks are questions regarding the state of Thai cuisine in the motherland. Another issue related to it involves the definition of authenticity. Does it involve a cuisine being frozen in form and canonized at some point then rote-produced thereafter? Or is cuisine, like language, a dynamic entity that changes and evolves along with the culture of which it is part? If that's the case, could it be that authenticity is irrelevant at best and meaningless at worst. What is the definitive Thai cuisine?

Clearly, I have more questions than answers. And I am frustrated to the core by the fact that no matter how motivated I am to search for answers, the scarcity of written records always sets me back. What is wanting in the area of verifiable information is compensated for with a plethora of opinions based on oral traditions and hearsay. This is one of those times when I wish opinions weren't a dime a dozen.

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Pumpkin Mascarpone Bourbon Cake - Soft, Light, and Fluffy

This is not your regular pumpkin cheesecake. Everyone who has tried it loves the mildly sweet, yet deeply autumnal, flavor and the moist, yet light and soft, texture of this cake. But neither they nor I could decide whether this moist and cheesy sponge cake qualifies as a cheesecake. Perhaps not. It's more like a cross between the soft, cottony Japanese-style cheesecake and sponge cake, albeit with more substance.

But if you would like another fall-ish dessert that:

Is easy to make.

Has a fairly narrow margin of error.

Has proven to be a hit at pretty much every party it has been taken to.

Features the creaminess and tang of cultured cheese without the heavy, dense texture.

Then this is a perfect cake to add to your repertoire.

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Recipe Remixes Vol. II

This is the second post in the Recipe Remix Series which many of you have told me to continue after having seen the debut post. A few dishes which I want to share with you but can't justify writing separate posts on them were made between the time the last post went up and now. These grilled lamb chops are among them.

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