My Favorite Food Items of 2011 from A to Z and Giveaways
>> Friday, December 30, 2011
The following is the list of my favorite food items of 2011 -- from A to Z. There are a few giveaways at the end of the post. Thank you for hanging out here with me this past year. Happy New Year, everyone!
Growing up in a place where apples are imported, heavily waxed, and irradiated, I've never for a moment taken for granted the superior apples that are available every autumn in my host country.
I've recently used apples in some classic Thai dishes that normally require tropical fruits. Apple fritters made in the style of street Thai fried bananas are a favorite this year. A simple green apple salad has been served atop various grilled and fried pieces of meat this year in lieu of green mango salad as it is getting more and more difficult to find fresh, firm green mangoes in my area. For the same reason, I even serve apples with the sticky, salty fruit dip, nam-pla wan.
This practice is clearly not traditional. But in the face of scarcity, you do what you can. Sometimes, a substitute can even outperform the original. Case in point: my kitchen hasn't seen fried crispy catfish (ยำปลาดุกฟู - Yam Pla-Duk Fu) served with the traditional green mango salad for several months; I've been too enamored with the same salad made with tart, crisp, refreshing, much-easier-to-find Granny Smith apples.
Those familiar with Mu Ma-nao (หมูมะนาว - steamed or poached pork with spicy lime-fish sauce dressing) know that the Thai dish is served accompanied with a plate of either Chinese broccoli (kai lan) tips or its stems, peeled and iced. Prepared this way, broccoli stems are superbly crunchy. If anything can take the edge off the tangy, spicy dressing and cool you down, it's this refreshing, ice-cold cruciferous stalks.
This year, for reasons I can't recall, I have taken to serving iced broccoli stalks to not just Mu Ma-nao but almost every spicy Thai meat salad. Laab Gai has been getting the broccoli stem treatment more often than others this year.
I had never made my own croque monsieur -- the cheesy, bubbly type complete with béchamel sauce -- until one day when I had a croque monsieur at a local restaurant that tasted just as repulsive as it looked. In fact, when the server placed it in front of me, I thought he had mixed up my order. That's all it took for me to get into a year-long phase of making this classic French dish as often as a couple of times a month. For a quick overview of the process and links to the recipe (the same used at Bar Boulud), you can watch my short YouTube video on how to make croque monsieur.
Living in a place where fresh durian isn't available, one has to make do with its frozen flesh which is nothing but a pathetic excuse for durian. Since I find frozen durian to be utterly unpleasant to eat straight up (due to its texture), I've been using it to make durian flan (คัสตาร์ดทุเรียน) and sweet sticky rice with durian coconut cream (ข้าวเหนียวทุเรียน). I like to use durian purée in desserts with custard-y texture reminiscent of durian pulp in its natural state.
But this year, I've found another way to use durian pulp: durian cheesecake. It's not a traditional cheesecake, but a hybrid of cheesecake and sponge cake with a texture very similar to my soft, light, and fluffy Pumpkin Mascarpone Bourbon Cake which many of you enjoy so much. The recipe will be posted here soon.
In the meantime, those who have never had durian may benefit from these tips (written by yours truly -- probably during an altered state of consciousness, in retrospect ...) on how to make your first experience with durian as painless as possible.
Oh, man. I can't tell you how many times I made and ate these ice cream sandwiches this year. And I'm not an ice cream sandwich person.
It all started when I talked to Adam Sobel, former executive chef at RM Seafood (he's now at Bourbon Steak in Washington D.C.), for a post. Sobel mentioned that one of his favorite things to make and eat at home was Eggo ice cream sandwiches, especially ones made with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Curious, I decided to make one for myself just to see what the big deal was. Got hooked on it ever since.
Maybe I'd been doing it wrong, but none of the pound cake recipes I had tried until I discovered this one ever yielded the result I'd hoped for which is a buttery cake with fine texture resembling that of a mass-produced pound cake but tastes homemade. Using superfine sugar helps a bit; so does the use of an emulsifier. But none of that is really needed if you follow this unusual method of making a pound cake by Payard. It does not involve the conventional creaming of butter and sugar in the initial stage; it begins with the beating of the eggs and sugar as if you're making a génoise. The necessary lipids come in the form of equal amounts of melted butter and heavy cream which are folded in toward the end.
The result is a fine-crumbed pound cake that is light without being spongy and buttery and dense without being heavy. This will be the only way I make pound cake from now on.
The recipe is from Payard's Simply Sensational Desserts (which is one of the most heavily used cookbooks in my library); a scaled down recipe can also be found on his website (I would double the recipe and bake it in a parchment-lined and well-buttered 8x4x3-inch (1.5 liter) loaf pan.)
I spent one whole year testing different formulae and cuts of pork for Thai grilled pork on skewers (Mu Ping). Looking back, to be completely honest with myself, I didn't need that many recipe testings. I just liked the stuff so much I continued to test the same formula after I'd decided it was good enough. Self-deception never tastes so good.
Well, please excuse my language, but there really isn't a more accurate way to render into English what the Thai call these Chinese preserved eggs: Khai Yiao Ma (ไข่เยี่ยวม้า). [I find this to be somewhat surprising, because we're a culture that likes to euphemize things. And we have euphemized a lot of common words for various reasons. How in the world "horse piss eggs" got left out along with bird's eye chilies -- literally "rat turd (and in using "turd," I'm being moderate in my word choice here) chilies" -- is perplexing. More on this later. I already got a post on this brewing for next year.]
Anyway, for some reason, century (also one-thousand-year) eggs have made more and more frequent appearances in my kitchen this year than they previously had. I find their mild, tea-like scent and creaminess such a great canvas for Thai flavors. Besides, I have a special place in my heart for aesthetically-challenged things.
Century egg pad ka-prao -- something I never saw growing up -- became a hit in the motherland in recent years; it's also slowly creeping into the menus of more and more Thai restaurants overseas (even those that, when asked what their specialties are, tell you to try their crab rangoons). Try them; they're friendlier taste-wise than they look.
Isan sausages as served at Tac Quick Thai Restaurant, Chicago
Also known as Sai Krok Isan, this fermented/soured pork sausage is, in my humble opinion, one of the best dishes with which the Northeast of Thailand has ever gifted us. When made well and grilled until the inside is thoroughly cooked and the outside is slightly charred, this sausage tastes so good it makes people wonder why they've ever let the word "fermented" scare them away from such a good eat.
Thai Northeastern sausage has always been my favorite thing to eat, but the reason I've included it on the list of my favorite food things this year is because this is the year I learned to make it myself from scratch without using the commercial fast curing powder (not that there's anything wrong with it). If you're interested in the formula which charcuterie expert Bob del Grosso and I came up with, please visit Bob's blog for the recipe.
For those still apprehensive, you can get a taste of this unique sausage at your local Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, only a few places offer this dish and even fewer make it well. Tac Quick Thai in Chicago grills their Isan sausages as opposed to deep-frying, resulting in the smoky fragrance that I associate with better Sai Krok Isan. So far, I have yet to find a better version of this sausage anywhere else in Chicago. If you live in or visit the area, try out the version served at Tac.
Jackfruits used to be so hard to find in my area. But things have changed. By the time I wrote the post on how to prepare jackfruit, the fruit in its fresh (i.e. neither frozen nor canned) manifestation had made much more frequent appearances at any well-stocked Asian grocery stores where I live.
Not only have I treated myself to lots and lots of fresh jackfruit this year, I have also enjoyed lots and lots of jackfruit seeds. Now, the former presents no problem; the latter, on the other hand ...
Consumption of jackfruit seeds causes your body to produce the kind of "rough winds" that "shake the darling buds of May" which is a Shakespearean way of saying you should have a bottle of Beano nearby.
They're good, though -- these boiled jackfruit seeds. And this year I've shaken the darling buds of not only May, but June, July, August, etc. And guess what -- more winds are predicted next year. With my mind set on finding out whether the chestnut-like jackfruit seeds can be candied like marrons glacés, there will be many kitchen experiments in the coming months.
Hopefully, by the end of 2012, I will have discovered a way to make good candied jackfruit seeds. I will be friendless, but -- let the heavens be my witness -- I will have been triumphant.
I don't talk about products a lot here on this site, and when I do it's always only because I like the products and want to recommend them to you. So here's another recommendation for which I receive absolutely no financial compensation from the proprietor: kaffir lime leaf essential oil.
Many of you have a hard time finding fresh kaffir limes and fresh kaffir lime leaves in your area, and I can completely sympathize with you. That has been my struggle also. Fortunately, kaffir lime leaves freeze extremely well, so whenever my favorite grocer has them, I buy a whole bunch and freeze them to use throughout the year. However, as many of you have written, the only thing you can find is dried kaffir lime leaves.
I hate dried kaffir lime leaves. I really do. They're useless as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather make my Tom Yam Kung or Tom Kha Gai with commercial Tom Yam or Tom Kha paste than try to make these dishes from scratch using dried kaffir lime leaves.
But now you have another option in the absence of fresh kaffir lime leaves. When added in small amounts towards the end of the cooking time, this concentrated kaffir lime leaf essential oil gives you that familiar fragrance that is so fresh and so natural that it will be as if you had used fresh kaffir lime leaves. This is very useful when it comes to a dish wherein the fragrance of kaffir lime is essential, e.g. panaeng curry, Thai fish cakes, Hor Mok.
Thai Food Essentials makes some high-quality kaffir lime leaf oils. Check them out.
(Scroll down to the bottom to find out how to win a kaffir lime leaf essential oil giveaway from Thai Food Essentials.)
Earlier this year, I made and fell in love with this sauce which, according to Bastianich, is from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Northern Italy. You can find the recipe for it in the book Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy or online here.
This sauce is great on spaghetti. Lots of freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is a must.
Lemon basil grew so lushly in my herb garden this year, and I have used it in so many dishes of which I'd previously been deprived. This year, I've also taken to incorporating a lot of lemon basil seeds into my diet.
I've drafted a post on how to prepare and the various ways in which to enjoy this wonderful albeit odd-looking food. It will be posted sometime in 2012. In the meantime, keep an eye out for basil seeds at your local Asian grocery store.
Having heard that I'd never before cooked with Nittaya curry pastes, a somewhat newcomer to the international scene, the kind folks at Temple of Thai have sent me a few samples to test-drive. And if I hadn't liked them, I would not have added Nittaya to my list of favorite things. I really do like this brand of curry pastes, especially their red curry and massaman curry.
Apropos of nothing, I also love the fact that they call kaeng kari, "kari cury" instead of "yellow curry" which is a confusing moniker that can get on people's nerves. But more on that later. For now, if you can find this particular brand, you may want to try it out. The pastes come in resealable plastic bags making it very easy to scoop out just what you need and store the rest without having it dry out on you in the fridge.
(Also, scroll down to the bottom to find out how to win a giveaway of Nittaya paste sampler pack.)
Who else stirs an egg into their oatmeal like I always do? Oatmeal with fruits and nuts is great, but without added protein, it always leaves me unsatisfied. In fact, it's the presence of the eggs in my (prepared steel-cut) oatmeal that got me thinking that if I'd just replace the regular white or brown sugar with palm sugar or unprocessed cane sugar (or a combination of both) and use coconut milk in lieu of cow's milk, I'd end up with hot oatmeal that reminds me of a Thai dessert.
It worked, and I've been making my morning oatmeal this way ever since. Don't forget to add a tiny pinch of salt for it makes a big difference. A little bit of pandan extract in this would take you even closer to Southeast Asia, but that's completely optional. You can leave out the eggs, but if should you choose to add them, do so towards the end. Whisk them in after you've taken the pot off the stove so they get cooked gently with the residual heat and yield creamy oatmeal instead of one speckled with tiny eggy bits.
A five-post series on a single dish might seem like an overkill. Heck, it may very well be an overkill. But as I've stated in the final post (which is where the complete Pad Thai recipe can be found), I've decided to err on the side of over-explaining so that 1.) as many (expensive and frustrating) mistakes as possible can hopefully be prevented, and 2.) you will know how to make Pad Thai and no longer need to depend on a recipe.
Besides, there's a point being made somewhere in there: Though not extremely difficult to make, Pad Thai is one of those dishes that the Thai people usually buy off the street instead of making at home. Too many ingredients. Too much preparation. Not economical. Those in Thailand who insist on making their own Pad Thai at home can do so (and more power to them); I'm part of the crowds that buy theirs.
I'm not a contrarian, and I have nothing against Pad Thai. Yet, the fact remains: I've never considered Pad Thai the quintessential representation of what Thai cuisine has to offer, and I still stand by the comment I'd made earlier in my post on Easy Thai Green Curry that Pad Thai doesn't even make the list of my 50 top favorite Thai dishes. I don't hate it; there are simply too many other Thai dishes that I like more.
But Pad Thai is on this list, because in the course of writing the Pad Thai series this year, I'd come to make (and eat) it more frequently and appreciate much more this internationally-adored dish. After all, when done right, it truly is a noodle dish like no other.
What you don't know (or care to know) is that after I'd shot that top photograph for my post on Pad Ka-prao, I dragged that fried chicken egg down from atop that mound of rice and replaced it with 3-4 fried quail eggs before proceeding to eat the whole plate. I've been eating more quail eggs this year than ever before after updating the post on my minimalist Thai spicy fried egg salad.
Have you tried fried quail eggs? With every bite you get not just part of a fried egg but a whole fried egg -- the crispy bits, the creamy bits, and everything else. Every bite.
I feel bad about promising a post on Thai-style roti, one of the beloved street foods (we're talking carb fried in ghee, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, and sprinkled with sugar), last year and never actually had a chance to finalize my recipe. I spent the latter part of 2011 refining the technique, though. And, as a result, I have been eating way too many rotis. I shouldn't have, but you know ...
Watch for the post in 2012. It's coming. I promise.
Photograph from pokpoksom.com
I'm late to the scene. Chef Andy Ricker of the famed Pok Pok Restaurant, has been making drinking vinegar (น้ำส้มสายชูผลไม้พร้อมดื่ม) called Som (ส้ม meaning "sour" in regional/archaic Thai which I've explained in more words than perhaps necessary in my post on Kaeng Som) since 2005, but I'd only discovered it just a few weeks ago when a friend schlepped a few bottles all the way from Portland for me. "You've got to try these," he said, and I gladly complied.
Has a love poem ever been written about vinegar? If not, perhaps one is in order. My favorite flavors are honey and tamarind; you may want to try them all out to see which flavors you like the most.
You can read about the story of Som Drinking Vinegar here, and order from their shop.
Since my favorite Thai grocer has started carrying fresh turmeric this year, I've been using it like they all could disappear tomorrow.
Whenever I can, I mash up a 2-inch piece of fresh turmeric into a paste in my granite mortar and use that in place of the ground turmeric in Grandma's very yellow chicken stew. I've also used it in the seasoning paste for my turmeric-roasted fish and Thai Southern-style grilled chicken.
I sometimes mix fresh turmeric paste with some yogurt and honey and make a facial out of it. It doesn't make me pretty; I doubt anything does. But it sure makes my facial skin feel nice. That makes up for the fact that I look slightly jaundiced for half a day after each treatment.
I don't know if I should like this. This would probably get some fusion-averse purists' kang keng nai in a twist. But I've taken to adding udon, especially homemade udon noodles (ones I knead with my own two feet), to my Tom Kha Gai this year, and I really like it.
If you're a fan of both food items, chances are you will like them together as much as I do.
Here's another dish that I've made much more frequently in 2011 than ever before. It could be my way of coping with the fact that it's been a while since I last visited Ukraine and Russia. I miss them. I miss the people. I miss the food.
Until I have a chance to set foot in that part of the world again, making the classic Ukrainian vareniki, or at least "lazy vareniki" (crisped in butter), will have to do.
A few months ago, I prepared some watermelon rinds so I could take the photograph above to use in my post on Thai sour curry (Kaeng Som แกงส้ม). These watermelon rinds didn't end up in a curry pot, however. I divided them into two parts: one part got turned into watermelon rind kimchi and the other was pickled overnight using the same method described in my post on how to make quick pickled radishes.
Watermelon rinds can be candied as well; I just haven't had a chance to get that recipe from one of Mom's old cookbooks out for a test drive. But all year long, my head has been full of ideas on what else to do with this crunchy, refreshing part of a watermelon.
Tamarind is a plant that gives and gives and gives; every part can be used. Also, what would be of Thai cuisine without this source of acidity?
I'm sure all Thai food enthusiasts are familiar with mature tamarinds that we use to make tamarind pulp, but young/green tamarinds (as well as young tamarind leaves) are also frequently used to provide tartness to different dishes.
Young tamarind pods are a rare sight in the United States and just exactly how my favorite Thai grocer has managed to get them regularly has been a source of wonder for me. Needless to say, I'm overjoyed. If you find them in your area, get them while you can and freeze them. We'll make a very tasty fried relish with them in 2012.
I grew zucchini in my garden this year. Growing right along with it was my appreciation for this vegetable.
Zucchini's unassuming taste makes it a versatile ingredient that can be used in dishes originating in places where zucchini is not native. Earlier this year, I made zucchini "fish" cakes in the style of Thai fish cakes (Tod Man Pla) and used zucchini in lieu of the more traditional angled gourd in Kaeng Liang (แกงเลียง), Thai mixed vegetable soup perfumed with lemon basil leaves and spiced with a pretty heavy dose of white pepper -- a favorite home dish that very rarely appears on the menus of Thai restaurants overseas.
I've also used zucchini as a dairy replacement. But more on that later.
I had never made my own croque monsieur -- the cheesy, bubbly type complete with béchamel sauce -- until one day when I had a croque monsieur at a local restaurant that tasted just as repulsive as it looked. In fact, when the server placed it in front of me, I thought he had mixed up my order. That's all it took for me to get into a year-long phase of making this classic French dish as often as a couple of times a month. For a quick overview of the process and links to the recipe (the same used at Bar Boulud), you can watch my short YouTube video on how to make croque monsieur.
Living in a place where fresh durian isn't available, one has to make do with its frozen flesh which is nothing but a pathetic excuse for durian. Since I find frozen durian to be utterly unpleasant to eat straight up (due to its texture), I've been using it to make durian flan (คัสตาร์ดทุเรียน) and sweet sticky rice with durian coconut cream (ข้าวเหนียวทุเรียน). I like to use durian purée in desserts with custard-y texture reminiscent of durian pulp in its natural state.
But this year, I've found another way to use durian pulp: durian cheesecake. It's not a traditional cheesecake, but a hybrid of cheesecake and sponge cake with a texture very similar to my soft, light, and fluffy Pumpkin Mascarpone Bourbon Cake which many of you enjoy so much. The recipe will be posted here soon.
In the meantime, those who have never had durian may benefit from these tips (written by yours truly -- probably during an altered state of consciousness, in retrospect ...) on how to make your first experience with durian as painless as possible.
Oh, man. I can't tell you how many times I made and ate these ice cream sandwiches this year. And I'm not an ice cream sandwich person.
It all started when I talked to Adam Sobel, former executive chef at RM Seafood (he's now at Bourbon Steak in Washington D.C.), for a post. Sobel mentioned that one of his favorite things to make and eat at home was Eggo ice cream sandwiches, especially ones made with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Curious, I decided to make one for myself just to see what the big deal was. Got hooked on it ever since.
Maybe I'd been doing it wrong, but none of the pound cake recipes I had tried until I discovered this one ever yielded the result I'd hoped for which is a buttery cake with fine texture resembling that of a mass-produced pound cake but tastes homemade. Using superfine sugar helps a bit; so does the use of an emulsifier. But none of that is really needed if you follow this unusual method of making a pound cake by Payard. It does not involve the conventional creaming of butter and sugar in the initial stage; it begins with the beating of the eggs and sugar as if you're making a génoise. The necessary lipids come in the form of equal amounts of melted butter and heavy cream which are folded in toward the end.
The result is a fine-crumbed pound cake that is light without being spongy and buttery and dense without being heavy. This will be the only way I make pound cake from now on.
The recipe is from Payard's Simply Sensational Desserts (which is one of the most heavily used cookbooks in my library); a scaled down recipe can also be found on his website (I would double the recipe and bake it in a parchment-lined and well-buttered 8x4x3-inch (1.5 liter) loaf pan.)
I spent one whole year testing different formulae and cuts of pork for Thai grilled pork on skewers (Mu Ping). Looking back, to be completely honest with myself, I didn't need that many recipe testings. I just liked the stuff so much I continued to test the same formula after I'd decided it was good enough. Self-deception never tastes so good.
Well, please excuse my language, but there really isn't a more accurate way to render into English what the Thai call these Chinese preserved eggs: Khai Yiao Ma (ไข่เยี่ยวม้า). [I find this to be somewhat surprising, because we're a culture that likes to euphemize things. And we have euphemized a lot of common words for various reasons. How in the world "horse piss eggs" got left out along with bird's eye chilies -- literally "rat turd (and in using "turd," I'm being moderate in my word choice here) chilies" -- is perplexing. More on this later. I already got a post on this brewing for next year.]
Anyway, for some reason, century (also one-thousand-year) eggs have made more and more frequent appearances in my kitchen this year than they previously had. I find their mild, tea-like scent and creaminess such a great canvas for Thai flavors. Besides, I have a special place in my heart for aesthetically-challenged things.
Century egg pad ka-prao -- something I never saw growing up -- became a hit in the motherland in recent years; it's also slowly creeping into the menus of more and more Thai restaurants overseas (even those that, when asked what their specialties are, tell you to try their crab rangoons). Try them; they're friendlier taste-wise than they look.
Also known as Sai Krok Isan, this fermented/soured pork sausage is, in my humble opinion, one of the best dishes with which the Northeast of Thailand has ever gifted us. When made well and grilled until the inside is thoroughly cooked and the outside is slightly charred, this sausage tastes so good it makes people wonder why they've ever let the word "fermented" scare them away from such a good eat.
Thai Northeastern sausage has always been my favorite thing to eat, but the reason I've included it on the list of my favorite food things this year is because this is the year I learned to make it myself from scratch without using the commercial fast curing powder (not that there's anything wrong with it). If you're interested in the formula which charcuterie expert Bob del Grosso and I came up with, please visit Bob's blog for the recipe.
For those still apprehensive, you can get a taste of this unique sausage at your local Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, only a few places offer this dish and even fewer make it well. Tac Quick Thai in Chicago grills their Isan sausages as opposed to deep-frying, resulting in the smoky fragrance that I associate with better Sai Krok Isan. So far, I have yet to find a better version of this sausage anywhere else in Chicago. If you live in or visit the area, try out the version served at Tac.
Jackfruits used to be so hard to find in my area. But things have changed. By the time I wrote the post on how to prepare jackfruit, the fruit in its fresh (i.e. neither frozen nor canned) manifestation had made much more frequent appearances at any well-stocked Asian grocery stores where I live.
Not only have I treated myself to lots and lots of fresh jackfruit this year, I have also enjoyed lots and lots of jackfruit seeds. Now, the former presents no problem; the latter, on the other hand ...
Consumption of jackfruit seeds causes your body to produce the kind of "rough winds" that "shake the darling buds of May" which is a Shakespearean way of saying you should have a bottle of Beano nearby.
They're good, though -- these boiled jackfruit seeds. And this year I've shaken the darling buds of not only May, but June, July, August, etc. And guess what -- more winds are predicted next year. With my mind set on finding out whether the chestnut-like jackfruit seeds can be candied like marrons glacés, there will be many kitchen experiments in the coming months.
Hopefully, by the end of 2012, I will have discovered a way to make good candied jackfruit seeds. I will be friendless, but -- let the heavens be my witness -- I will have been triumphant.
I don't talk about products a lot here on this site, and when I do it's always only because I like the products and want to recommend them to you. So here's another recommendation for which I receive absolutely no financial compensation from the proprietor: kaffir lime leaf essential oil.
Many of you have a hard time finding fresh kaffir limes and fresh kaffir lime leaves in your area, and I can completely sympathize with you. That has been my struggle also. Fortunately, kaffir lime leaves freeze extremely well, so whenever my favorite grocer has them, I buy a whole bunch and freeze them to use throughout the year. However, as many of you have written, the only thing you can find is dried kaffir lime leaves.
I hate dried kaffir lime leaves. I really do. They're useless as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather make my Tom Yam Kung or Tom Kha Gai with commercial Tom Yam or Tom Kha paste than try to make these dishes from scratch using dried kaffir lime leaves.
But now you have another option in the absence of fresh kaffir lime leaves. When added in small amounts towards the end of the cooking time, this concentrated kaffir lime leaf essential oil gives you that familiar fragrance that is so fresh and so natural that it will be as if you had used fresh kaffir lime leaves. This is very useful when it comes to a dish wherein the fragrance of kaffir lime is essential, e.g. panaeng curry, Thai fish cakes, Hor Mok.
Thai Food Essentials makes some high-quality kaffir lime leaf oils. Check them out.
(Scroll down to the bottom to find out how to win a kaffir lime leaf essential oil giveaway from Thai Food Essentials.)
Earlier this year, I made and fell in love with this sauce which, according to Bastianich, is from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Northern Italy. You can find the recipe for it in the book Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy or online here.
This sauce is great on spaghetti. Lots of freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is a must.
Lemon basil grew so lushly in my herb garden this year, and I have used it in so many dishes of which I'd previously been deprived. This year, I've also taken to incorporating a lot of lemon basil seeds into my diet.
I've drafted a post on how to prepare and the various ways in which to enjoy this wonderful albeit odd-looking food. It will be posted sometime in 2012. In the meantime, keep an eye out for basil seeds at your local Asian grocery store.
Having heard that I'd never before cooked with Nittaya curry pastes, a somewhat newcomer to the international scene, the kind folks at Temple of Thai have sent me a few samples to test-drive. And if I hadn't liked them, I would not have added Nittaya to my list of favorite things. I really do like this brand of curry pastes, especially their red curry and massaman curry.
Apropos of nothing, I also love the fact that they call kaeng kari, "kari cury" instead of "yellow curry" which is a confusing moniker that can get on people's nerves. But more on that later. For now, if you can find this particular brand, you may want to try it out. The pastes come in resealable plastic bags making it very easy to scoop out just what you need and store the rest without having it dry out on you in the fridge.
As a courtesy to my readers, Temple of Thai will include a free gift with every purchase of three Nittaya curry pastes. To take advantage of this offer, follow this link.
(Also, scroll down to the bottom to find out how to win a giveaway of Nittaya paste sampler pack.)
Who else stirs an egg into their oatmeal like I always do? Oatmeal with fruits and nuts is great, but without added protein, it always leaves me unsatisfied. In fact, it's the presence of the eggs in my (prepared steel-cut) oatmeal that got me thinking that if I'd just replace the regular white or brown sugar with palm sugar or unprocessed cane sugar (or a combination of both) and use coconut milk in lieu of cow's milk, I'd end up with hot oatmeal that reminds me of a Thai dessert.
It worked, and I've been making my morning oatmeal this way ever since. Don't forget to add a tiny pinch of salt for it makes a big difference. A little bit of pandan extract in this would take you even closer to Southeast Asia, but that's completely optional. You can leave out the eggs, but if should you choose to add them, do so towards the end. Whisk them in after you've taken the pot off the stove so they get cooked gently with the residual heat and yield creamy oatmeal instead of one speckled with tiny eggy bits.
A five-post series on a single dish might seem like an overkill. Heck, it may very well be an overkill. But as I've stated in the final post (which is where the complete Pad Thai recipe can be found), I've decided to err on the side of over-explaining so that 1.) as many (expensive and frustrating) mistakes as possible can hopefully be prevented, and 2.) you will know how to make Pad Thai and no longer need to depend on a recipe.
Besides, there's a point being made somewhere in there: Though not extremely difficult to make, Pad Thai is one of those dishes that the Thai people usually buy off the street instead of making at home. Too many ingredients. Too much preparation. Not economical. Those in Thailand who insist on making their own Pad Thai at home can do so (and more power to them); I'm part of the crowds that buy theirs.
I'm not a contrarian, and I have nothing against Pad Thai. Yet, the fact remains: I've never considered Pad Thai the quintessential representation of what Thai cuisine has to offer, and I still stand by the comment I'd made earlier in my post on Easy Thai Green Curry that Pad Thai doesn't even make the list of my 50 top favorite Thai dishes. I don't hate it; there are simply too many other Thai dishes that I like more.
But Pad Thai is on this list, because in the course of writing the Pad Thai series this year, I'd come to make (and eat) it more frequently and appreciate much more this internationally-adored dish. After all, when done right, it truly is a noodle dish like no other.
What you don't know (or care to know) is that after I'd shot that top photograph for my post on Pad Ka-prao, I dragged that fried chicken egg down from atop that mound of rice and replaced it with 3-4 fried quail eggs before proceeding to eat the whole plate. I've been eating more quail eggs this year than ever before after updating the post on my minimalist Thai spicy fried egg salad.
Have you tried fried quail eggs? With every bite you get not just part of a fried egg but a whole fried egg -- the crispy bits, the creamy bits, and everything else. Every bite.
I feel bad about promising a post on Thai-style roti, one of the beloved street foods (we're talking carb fried in ghee, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, and sprinkled with sugar), last year and never actually had a chance to finalize my recipe. I spent the latter part of 2011 refining the technique, though. And, as a result, I have been eating way too many rotis. I shouldn't have, but you know ...
Watch for the post in 2012. It's coming. I promise.
I'm late to the scene. Chef Andy Ricker of the famed Pok Pok Restaurant, has been making drinking vinegar (น้ำส้มสายชูผลไม้พร้อมดื่ม) called Som (ส้ม meaning "sour" in regional/archaic Thai which I've explained in more words than perhaps necessary in my post on Kaeng Som) since 2005, but I'd only discovered it just a few weeks ago when a friend schlepped a few bottles all the way from Portland for me. "You've got to try these," he said, and I gladly complied.
Has a love poem ever been written about vinegar? If not, perhaps one is in order. My favorite flavors are honey and tamarind; you may want to try them all out to see which flavors you like the most.
You can read about the story of Som Drinking Vinegar here, and order from their shop.
Since my favorite Thai grocer has started carrying fresh turmeric this year, I've been using it like they all could disappear tomorrow.
Whenever I can, I mash up a 2-inch piece of fresh turmeric into a paste in my granite mortar and use that in place of the ground turmeric in Grandma's very yellow chicken stew. I've also used it in the seasoning paste for my turmeric-roasted fish and Thai Southern-style grilled chicken.
I sometimes mix fresh turmeric paste with some yogurt and honey and make a facial out of it. It doesn't make me pretty; I doubt anything does. But it sure makes my facial skin feel nice. That makes up for the fact that I look slightly jaundiced for half a day after each treatment.
I don't know if I should like this. This would probably get some fusion-averse purists' kang keng nai in a twist. But I've taken to adding udon, especially homemade udon noodles (ones I knead with my own two feet), to my Tom Kha Gai this year, and I really like it.
If you're a fan of both food items, chances are you will like them together as much as I do.
Here's another dish that I've made much more frequently in 2011 than ever before. It could be my way of coping with the fact that it's been a while since I last visited Ukraine and Russia. I miss them. I miss the people. I miss the food.
Until I have a chance to set foot in that part of the world again, making the classic Ukrainian vareniki, or at least "lazy vareniki" (crisped in butter), will have to do.
A few months ago, I prepared some watermelon rinds so I could take the photograph above to use in my post on Thai sour curry (Kaeng Som แกงส้ม). These watermelon rinds didn't end up in a curry pot, however. I divided them into two parts: one part got turned into watermelon rind kimchi and the other was pickled overnight using the same method described in my post on how to make quick pickled radishes.
Watermelon rinds can be candied as well; I just haven't had a chance to get that recipe from one of Mom's old cookbooks out for a test drive. But all year long, my head has been full of ideas on what else to do with this crunchy, refreshing part of a watermelon.
Tamarind is a plant that gives and gives and gives; every part can be used. Also, what would be of Thai cuisine without this source of acidity?
I'm sure all Thai food enthusiasts are familiar with mature tamarinds that we use to make tamarind pulp, but young/green tamarinds (as well as young tamarind leaves) are also frequently used to provide tartness to different dishes.
Young tamarind pods are a rare sight in the United States and just exactly how my favorite Thai grocer has managed to get them regularly has been a source of wonder for me. Needless to say, I'm overjoyed. If you find them in your area, get them while you can and freeze them. We'll make a very tasty fried relish with them in 2012.
I grew zucchini in my garden this year. Growing right along with it was my appreciation for this vegetable.
Zucchini's unassuming taste makes it a versatile ingredient that can be used in dishes originating in places where zucchini is not native. Earlier this year, I made zucchini "fish" cakes in the style of Thai fish cakes (Tod Man Pla) and used zucchini in lieu of the more traditional angled gourd in Kaeng Liang (แกงเลียง), Thai mixed vegetable soup perfumed with lemon basil leaves and spiced with a pretty heavy dose of white pepper -- a favorite home dish that very rarely appears on the menus of Thai restaurants overseas.
I've also used zucchini as a dairy replacement. But more on that later.
Giveaway #1: The folks at Thai Food Essentials will send one 5-cc bottle of their 5% kaffir lime leaf oil to 5 people (residing anywhere in the world).
Giveaway #2: Chef Andy Ricker of Pok Pok Restaurant will have one bottle (any flavor) of Som drinking vinegar shipped to one lucky person. This giveaway is limited to those living in the United States.
Giveaway #3: Temple of Thai will ship one set of six different pastes to 3 winners who reside in the United States.
The set includes:
One 500-gram package of red curry paste
One 500-gram package of massaman curry paste
One 500-gram package of green curry paste
One 500-gram package of panang curry paste
One 500-gram package of kari curry paste
One 500-gram package of roasted chili paste in oil (Nam Prik Pao)
Rules: To enter in any of these giveaways, simply share this post with your Facebook followers and post on my Facebook wall saying you have done so or share this post on Twitter (don't forget to include @shesimmers, so I know). One Facebook update or tweet per giveaway. State in your Facebook update or tweet which giveaway you're vying for. You can enter all three. In fact, I would love for you to be greedy.
The deadline for all giveaways is 11:59 pm CDT on Sunday, January 8th, 2012. The winners for all giveaways will be randomly chosen and announced in the comment area beneath this post within 72 hours after the deadline.
Disclosure: SheSimmers.com has received no benefits of any kind, monetary or otherwise, from the businesses mentioned in this post or participating in the giveaways.
18 comments:
Looks like 2011 was a delicious year for you! Here's wishing you an equally tasty 2012! 8-)
I will just use the opportunity to say how much I love this blog, and I hope 2012 will be just as good, or even better, than 2011. :-)
Thanks!
Daniel
That Lime oil looks great. Ordered! If it tests out I won't buy the tree I was considering. Indoor citrus in pretty hopeless. They always get spider mites and die inside in the winter.
"I" Isaan sausage at Tac Quick in Chicago. I completely agree with you. It is fantastic and my good friend Andy is the chef and part owner of the restaurant. TAC Quick is one of the best and most authentic Thai restaurants in Chicago. Thanks for posting.
Leela, I'm interested in hearing more about your experience with the kaffir lime oil. Is it true as they say on the website that you don't need more than a few drops? This stuff is pricey! But if you think it's worth the money ...
Jeff
Jeff - I've found that, for my taste, I prefer to use more drops than recommended on the website. For example, to make about 2 cups' worth of Tom Kha Gai, I use about 2-3 drops of the 5% oil; for the same amount of panaeng curry, I use twice as much.
Could be a personal thing. I really like the scent of kaffir lime.
Also -- and thanks for asking this question because I should've said all this in the post -- I've found that it's best to add the oil to the dish *after* it has been cooked. This is not always possible; you can't do this with deep-fried dishes such as Tod Man Pla (Thai fish cakes). But when it comes to panaeng curry or infused soups such as Tom Yam or Tom Kha, this works extremely well.
I guess heat renders the oil less potent.
I tweeted because boy am I intrigued enthused excited to try the som vinegar. Fingers crossed! Also intrigued by the kaffir oil but would feel guilty winning it given that 3 limes just fell off my tree this weekend. ;)
That is a lot of tasty looking food! Happy New Year!
I love this post. A lot of things perked my interest and I have a lot of open tabs now. I believe that eggo ice cream sandwiches are best with mint chocolate chip ice cream too. ;)
You have a beautiful blog! This post on your 26 favorite food items is very interesting. Great job! My goal this year is to learn how to make pad thai from this blog. Wishing you the very best in 2012!
Whoa, that's a heck of a list, you've inspired me to branch out as I've been in a culinary rut lately. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.
Maybe you oughtta find bigger battles to fight than gripe about the precious people who object (for what reason?) to the phrase, "yellow curry".
Anon - The name "yellow curry" can be confusing.
Loved this post! I can't wait to try the kaffir lime leaf essential oil. I live in Alaska, 90 miles from the nearest Asian market; they do carry lime leaves, but the price has gone up from $3.00/half pound to $6 for 12 leaves! Yikes. So glad to hear there's an alternative, because my family loves Tom Yum Gai.
I just discovered your blog, and I am in love! I live in Atlanta, and have yet to find Kaffir lime leaves, even at some Asian markets... The idea of the essential oil is fantastic. Thanks for all of your hard work and inspiring me to branch out in the kitchen.
Happy New Year, Leela. Must make G and I immediately. Guess who got the new 17" Lodge pan for Christmas. Major daily hint dropping did work this time. Love your list.
Noosker
GIVEAWAY WINNERS:
I have listed all the entries here. Then I've asked @DwightTurner, the man behind Eating Thai Food to randomly choose the numbers (he had NO idea what the numbers were for).
His choices are as follows:
For Giveaway#1: @brberliner, @sundevilpeg, @JMWeishaar, @abredro, and Anthony Robinson from my Facebook page.
For Giveaway #2: John Weber from my Facebook page
For Giveaway #3: @katraena9, Joseph Spacone from my Facebook page, and @JBudd451
Thanks for participating, everyone!
That's a great year end recap... eying that grilled pork again...
Post a Comment