Another week comes to an end, this one ending with what Buddhists consider their most holy day.  Of course it is a holiday in this predominately Buddhist nation, so Tawn is at home while I still have to work.  Nonetheless, I’ll take a few minutes to keep this blog up to date.

There was a really interesting series of comments left on my last post about the book “Free Range Kids“.  I enjoy when an entry generates a healthy discussion.  It makes me feel like Xanga is some kind of a town barber shop, where we can sit around sipping lemonade, playing checkers and chatting about the concerns of the day.  And, I suppose, it is some kind of “third place”, albeit a virtual and global one. 

(See this interesting website for the Project to Public Spaces to learn more about the importance of third places in our communities.)

Speaking of Free Range Kids, I’ve been scanning old photos when visiting my maternal grandparents, trying to organize these and eventually create some photo albums in which to capture family memories.  Along the way, I’ve come across a whole bunch of photos of an original free range kid.

Me at age 4 with my maternal grandmother.

My question is, what happened to all that hair?

Recently, I’ve been trying to cook at home a bit more often.  Earlier in the week it was a dish of chili-mac (chili combined with macaroni, which results in something like a southwestern flavored goulash).  Later in the week I tried a white bean and spinach ravioli but which, in some pics and video I’ll share later, turned out to be a cannelloni.  Long story.

The chili-mac recipe started with a recipe but then took an improvisational turn when I started adding carrots and corn. 

After adding some whole wheat penne and topping it with some mozzarella cheese, it turned out to be a fine meal, quite healthy and very satisfying to eat.

Since it is hot season (which equals mango season) we had to partake of some khao niaw mamuang – sticky rice with mango!

Busy weekend coming up with several things that should make for fun blog entries.  Hope you have a great weekend!

I like food blogs.  I like writing one and I certainly love reading other people’s food blogs.  One of my favorite is “Bitten“, written by Mark Bittman of the New York Times.  He’s kind of a no-nonsense cook, doesn’t worry about incredibly fancy preparation but instead focuses on health and flavor.

Here are three recipes I found in his blog recently and prepared at home.  Click on pictures for a larger version.

The first was for a Curried Cauliflower Flatbread.  Quite easy to make, this unleavened bread cooks in a skillet (perfect chance to test out that recently restored and reseasoned cast iron skillet!) and makes a very tasty appetizer.  It does look a little plain when finished – some roasted peppers, hummus, a sauce or something would perk up the color – but it is tasty!

The second dish was an unusual pairing of lentils and rhubarb in an Indian Spiced Lentil and Rhubarb Stew.  Yes, rhubarb in a savory dish.  Sadly, I may have overcooked this as the lentils were a mushy mess.  My bad as I was on a conference call while finishing it.  And I think using chicken stock instead of water would have made the flavor more robust.  Interesting concept, but I’m not sold on it yet.

Finally, for dessert I made a Chocolate Semolina Pudding from a recipe in Bittman’s new book, “Food Matters”.  Ostensibly somewhere between a pudding and a cake, my version turned out kind of dry, maybe because the whole milk yogurt here in Thailand has a different consistency from that in the US.  The texture was good, though: semolina flour gives it a little “toothier” consistency.  Will have to play around with this and see what I can make of it.

Happy May Day to everyone!

Sometimes I think I suffer from cooking ADHD.  I try out a new thing for a while, then decide that I’ve done that and move on to something else.  A few months ago it was pan-seared duck breasts.  Last year I was doing the whole wheat sourdough starter (which I would still be doing if I hadn’t killed it).

Maybe I just like the challenge of exploring a new type of food, a new ingredient, or a new cooking technique.  Once I have tried it and understand it, I feel like it is successfully in my repertoire and so I search out something new.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about pita bread.  We have a good-sized population of expats from various Mediterranean countries and enjoy a few restaurants that cater to them.  My favorite is Beirut, but there are others.  Locally-made fresh pitas are available in two types – softer/more doughy and drier – at my local Villa market.  Even the drier type is a far cry from the tough-as-shoe leather pitas I remember from my childhood.

But I wanted to make my own pita bread.  So I did.  Turns out it is pretty easy.  The biggest challenge is making the individual breads evenly round and the same size.

First step: Mix whole wheat and white flours, water and a small amount of yeast.  Combine until it forms a very wet sponge then let it sit for several hours.

Second step: After the sponge has a foamy surface, add more flour and combine into a dough.  My dough turned out really sticky, almost to the point of not being able to handle it.  Am not sure what it should look like, but next time I’m going to cut back on the liquid a bit.

Third step: let the dough rise for another hour or two, until doubled in volume.  The dough can be refrigerated and used over the next several days.  The flavor will improve over time due to fermentation.

Fourth step: Form the dough into individual breads, rolling it about 0.25 in / 0.75 cm thick.  As you can see, my dough was so hydrated I had to use a lot of flour.  Also, I didn’t manage to get consistently sized and consistently round breads.  I like to say that they are “rustic” or “artisinal”.

Fifth step: Baking.  Heat a baking stone, some unglazed quarry tiles, or a cast iron skillet in a very hot oven – 450 F / 220 C.  Then cook the breads, a few at a time, on the stone.  They only take about three minutes to cook and there is no need to turn them over.  Sometimes they puff up, but according to the recipe, sometimes they don’t. 

Set them aside on a rack to cool a bit.  They can be stored in a tea towel to keep them fresh and warm.  They can also be reheated before use.  Even though they have that rustic look, the flavor and texture was spot-on.

I prepared Indian spice pork chops, marinated in a rub for a few hours so the flavor really soaked in.  Served along with homemade hummus, a red cabbage cole slaw, and salted cucumbers with plain yogurt.  Quite a tasty dinner.

San Francisco in April – Interested in subletting a fully-furnished apartment in San Francisco for a few weeks in April?  It you or someone you know is interested, please send me a message and I’ll connect you with my friend.

A continuation of the tale of Valentine’s Day 2009.

After brunch, the lot of us headed up to Muangthai Ratchadalai Theatre on Ratchadapisek Road to watch “Chicago”.  I mean, after that huge front-page “article” in The Nation, how could I not? 

In all seriousness, though, I actually purchased tickets months ago, long before any newspapers put their integrity for sale.

The show was a lot of fun.  Chicago is, in my opinion, a great example of the American musical genre.  The staging is simple and there is a good balance of choreography and song.  And it is quite sexy.  The audience, mostly Thai, ate it up.

On the way home we stopped at the market to buy some ingredients for dinner.  Instead of fighting the crowds at a restaurant (and since we had already eaten out once today), we opted to cook at home.  Below, Tawn dresses up for dinner.

The centerpiece of the meal was a very nice bottle of Pommery Champagne gifted to us by Boon, a visiting Chicagoan whom we met last November.  Here’s a short video we shot to thank him.

The menu was simple: mixed field greens with Italian sausage (sautéed in some leftover duck fat from last week’s duck breast dinner), Jacques Pépin’s mother’s recipe for easy cheese soufflé, a baguette with truffle oil and balsamic vinegar, and chocolate soufflé with raspberry coulis.

This soufflé recipe is great.  It is from his very interesting book The Apprentice, in which he shares the stories and recipes tracing his path from childhood to career.  He explains that when his mother married his father at age seventeen, she did not know how to cook, except for a few simple dishes.  Pépin’s father liked cheese soufflé, which she had never cooked before.  A friend had told her that it consisted of a béchamel sauce, grated cheese and eggs.  So easy!

No one ever told her that the eggs should be separated – the yolks added to the base and the whites whipped and folded in.  As he writes, “Ignorance is bliss, and in this case it was indeed: the soufflé rose to a golden height and became a family favorite.”

It really is an easy recipe and if you’ve been hesitant to try a soufflé, this would be the one to start with.  The ingredients are simple: 6 tablespoons of butter and 6 tablespoons of flour.  Melt the butter in a saucepan, whisk in the flour, and brown for ten or fifteen seconds.

To that, add 2 cups of cold whole milk, whisking constantly at a medium-high heat until it thickens, about five minutes.  What results is a basic white sauce (same thing you use for making macaroni and cheese). 

Season with 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.  If you want, make it interesting and add a dash of cayenne pepper.  Set it aside to cool for about ten minutes, stirring every so often so it doesn’t form a skin.

Meanwhile, beat together six extra-large eggs in a bowl.  Grate about 6 ounces of swiss, ementhal and gruyere cheese.  For interest I substituted about 2 ounces of soft chevre (goat’s cheese).  You can also add a few tablespoons of chopped chives or spring onions, if you like.  Another interesting addition would be some crumbled, crispy bacon.

Combine it well and then put it in a gratin or soufflé dish and then bake it in a 400° F oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the souffle is fluffy and browned.  That’s it.

The nice thing about this soufflé is that you can prepare it in advance and wait to cook it without any difficulty.  It is a little denser than the average soufflé (since the egg whites weren’t whipped) but it is still super-easy and really tasty.

What goes well with a soufflé?  Salad.  We did mixed greens with a Japanese-style soy sauce dressing, topped with some Italian sausages.

Regular readers will recognize that I really like salads with some meat on top.  Truly, it can be a meal unto itself.  Add a few pine nuts for texture and you’re set.  And, as you can see below, we were.

While we ate and drank, I put two chocolate soufflés into the oven from the freezer, remainders from last week when Brian and Geng were over.  Cook’s Illustrated Best Make-Ahead Recipes cookbook?  Love it!  Everyone should keep a few soufflés in the freezer.

I hope your Valentine’s Day was every bit as special as ours.

Friday night we had Brian and Geng over for dinner, an intimate dinner for four that lasted until about 12:30 in the morning.  As mentioned before, I think that 4-6 people is the right size for meals at our place, that way everyone can fit around the same table and my kitchen is not overtaxed.

Above, Tawn, Brian and Geng toasting in the new lunar year.

I also continue to improve my skills at planning meals that can be prepared largely in advance and aren’t overly complicated to prepare.  The menu, which I assure you sounds much fancier that it was, was as follows:

Taiwanese pumpkin and ginger soup

Winter greens with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette

Maple syrup glazed magret du canard (duck breast) with cherry sauce

Pan-fried sundried tomato polenta wedges

Roasted cherry tomato and pepper compote

Individual chocolate souffles

Brian and Geng arrived shortly before eight, one of the drawbacks of starting dinner after work.  They brought a huge basket of fruit for Chinese New Year and also two bottles of very nice wine.  We worked our way through the first one over cheese, crackers and some salami (from SF) and olives.

After about an hour we decided to actually start eating the food, lest we fill up on cheese and crackers.

The soup started out with the butternut squash and ginger soup recipe I like.  It has coconut milk and curry powder in it, and I add some tumeric and bay leaf as well.

Ran into some difficulty as the market had no butternut squash in stock – remind me again why I bother to go to the market at Emporium? – so I settled for some Taiwanese pumpkin.  Also, I followed the recipe more closely this time and used water instead of chicken stock.  In my opinion, while the soup was good, it tasted a little flat and watery.  The missing ingredient was the chicken stock.

Left to right: slicing the pumpkin; sautee the aromatics while the pumpkin bakes; pumpkin flesh and the secret ingredient Aroy-D coconut milk; the soup before blending.  Below: the soup, served up after an overnight rest to let the flavors mingle, garnished with a dollop of sour cream and a grating of fresh nutmeg.

All in all, still a pretty tasty and satisfying soup.

For the salad, which was mixed greens including escarole and endive, I wanted to do a raspberry vinaigrette.  I was a bit shocked that when you use real raspberries to make a vinaigrette, you get an extremely vivid and thick dressing, below.

The sundried tomato polenta was another make in advance item.  I prepared it on Thursday evening and then let it set in a cake pan overnight.  On Friday I sliced and pan fried it, reheating it in the oven before dinner.  Nice and crispy, especially with a little melted mozzarella cheese on top.

My earlier attempt with duck this week was a trial run for Friday’s dinner.  I learned some lessons and Curry’s W provided a few suggestions.  Among other things, I air-dried the duck breasts in the refrigerator for 24 hours before cooking them.  Also, I used only the lightest film of olive oil before cooking and spooned off the duck fat as it collected in the pan.  This way the breasts came out with a nice exterior and a lot of the fat rendered.  I also added just a little bit of Chinese five-spice, salt and pepper for seasoning.  After pan-frying I drizzled some maple syrup on top and placed the pan in the oven for a few more minutes.

That’s actually when I managed to burn my left palm.  After removing the pan from the oven and taking the breasts out, I grabbed the handle with my bare hand, completely forgetting that I had just taken the pan out of the oven.  Thankfully it wasn’t too hot and I was able to put my hand under cool water and ice it, so by this morning the swelling was down and there isn’t much pain.  Clearly, I need to pay more attention when I’m in the kitchen.

To accompany the polenta and duck I roasted cherry tomatoes and bell peppers in the onion with olive oil and rosemary.  That makes a very nice compote and intensifies the flavors.

I was able to prepare all these components in advance and keep them covered n a low oven, so very little last minute fussing was necessary.  Below, the final plating of the duck.  I kept empty space on the plate for salad, forgetting that there were salad plates on the table already, leaving this plate looking a little lonely.

I have to say, the duck turned out much nicer than earlier this week.  Moist, not too fatty, beautifully pink but fully cooked.  I might not give up on duck quite yet.

Dinner conversation was really great and we had a fun time.  For dessert, I baked some souffles.  Cooks Illustrated has a recipe (and I think you can do this with any of the souffle recipes) where you fill the ramekins then freeze them.  They can then go straight from the freezer to the oven and puff up beautifully.

The tops of these souffles were a little dark by the time the interiors finished; maybe the heat was a bit high.  I have to remember that with a convection oven, you need to turn down the temperature a few degrees.

Still, they were very tasty and I think a souffle never fails to impress!