More of the Same, Two Ways

Posted on 30 August 2008 by christao408

The media offers us just a narrow perspective on particular stories based on the particular angles from which those stories are reported. This is compounded when the media covers a story far away in a another country, a country with a political system different from your own. As a comparison, look at the room you are sitting in through a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels and you’ll get an idea of how little you are seeing and how little that narrow view helps you understand what is going on.

These truths are always useful to keep in mind, but especially for those of you overseas, sitting there wondering what in the world is going on in Thailand right now.

Let’s be clear: there are clashes between protesters, groups of who number in the low thousands, and the police. These clashes have increased in intensity and there has been some violence, although the police and the Prime Minister have been remarkably restrained. Likewise, the army has declined to get directly involved.

Additionally, three airports in the country were shut down by protesters (Krabi, Phuket and Hat Yai), the trains have shut down because of strikes and unions at THAI Airways are being encouraged by the protesters to stage work stoppages in support of them.

Many sources, included some contacts we have who were “in the know” about the last coup, have warned us that things will come to a head this weekend. Either the Prime Minister will resign and dissolve parliament, leading to new elections, or he will take action to end the protests with force. It will probably get worse before it gets better.

That being said, the areas where these protests are happening are pretty limited. In Khrungthep (Bangkok) they are mostly at key locations in the old city, Ratanokosin Island. If you walk just a few blocks north from the Grand Palace and then make a right on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, you would run into police barricades and a few blocks later, the protesters.

For the rest of us, those of us living anywhere else, life continues as normal. For now. (Side note for those of you who are interested: The Nation newspaper has a very good brief history of modern Thai politics. It will give you a good rundown and help put this event in some context.)

Since life is continuing as normal, let me share some of it with you. You’ll find it quite mundane.

During dinner with Steve on Wednesday at Thon Krueng restaurant, I noticed that the pieces of carrot in the vegetable stir-fry looked like they had been intentionally carved to resemble animals. The one on the top looks (to me) like the profile of a cow’s head, looking to the right. Or maybe a moose? Those could be antlers. The lighter core of the carrot is right about where the eye would be. The bottom carrot looks like a crab.

What do you think?

Stopping by Paragon to meet Chris and Tehlin earlier in the week, I parked at the Siam Centre car park and then walked across the plaza between the two malls. The plaza was being set up for another event, this one for Levi’s 501 jeans. I took this shot from the backstage area. You can see the Siam BTS Skytrain station in the background. Their sound check was very loud. Everything here is, so I guess the sound was at the correct volume.

This week, I tried a new sourdough whole wheat bread recipe from the book I recently finished: Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and One Raucous Year of Eating Locally. The recipe I’ve used previously is too wet. I know that it is better for bread dough to be a little wet rather than too dry, but it is impossible to handle. It sticks to my hands and everything else, no matter how much flour is added.

This new recipe turned out a loaf that was just about perfect. The right size, the right shape, the right texture and – best of all – only a little sticky.

Don’t I look just like a proud father?

Here’s a look inside. Note the texture – it’s just about perfect for a general purpose slice-and-eat sandwich bread.

Finally, Friday night Stuart and I met at Roadhouse Barbecue on the corner of Surawongse and Rama IV for a Democrats Abroad Thailand event: watching (a tape delayed version of) Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. There were at least 150 people there and the owner let us have the run of the second floor.

This is about 1/3 of the total floor space and there was another TV to the far right of the room. In the middle area we had t-shirt sales featuring the new “Thailand for Obama” logo, left, and voter registration. That will be one of my areas of volunteer focus the next month: getting people registered.

Too many US citizens living or traveling abroad don’t know that they have the right to vote.

If you or someone you know would like more information – especially if you know any Americans who will be abroad during the November 4th election – please visit www.votefromabroad.org.

Here is a brief video just to give you a little feel of the event:

Not much, but you get the idea.

Lots of cooking today (Saturday) as I get ready for some brunch guests tomorrow. I’ll share more of those pictures later.

Artificially Induced Jet Lag

Posted on 24 August 2008 by christao408

If you had asked me on Wednesday or Thursday, I would have told you that I was finally over my jet lag. My sleeping hours were back to normal, I didn’t need an unusually long afternoon siesta, and my appetite had returned.

But then somewhere in the past thirty-six hours or so, I’ve managed to re-introduce jet lag into my life.

It started Friday night, when I had hour-long conference calls with the United States scheduled for 10:00 pm, 1:00 am and 3:00 am. I should say, I had the calls scheduled for me, as I wouldn’t have voluntarily scheduled such late calls on a Friday night.

The first one I stayed up for, trying to spend a low-key hour or two before the call so I was still alert. Then I went to sleep at 11:00 for about ninety minutes, waking up in time for the 1:00 call. Second call went well but by this point I was dragging. Finally, about 2:20 I chatted with my manager on MSN messenger and, upon hearing that I was planning on staying up for another call, insisted that it would be recorded and I could review it later.

So I finally went to sleep at about 2:40 Saturday morning.

Of course, I woke up by 8:00 because I’m just not made for sleeping in. Something about the muted glow of sunlight from the curtains just turns on my internal clock. Saturday was chock full of errands including a trip to the stone store to buy new marble tiles for the bathroom shower, which has to be redone. (More on that in the future.)

The jet lag would have worked itself out had it been a single night, but Tehlin – a university classmate – her husband Chris and their two children were scheduled to arrive from Hong Kong at midnight Saturday. Of course I wanted to be there to pick them up. Arriving in a strange city late at night is tough, especially when you have two young children with you.

Because of the category nine typhoon in Hong Kong, their flight was delayed. The first delay was to a 2:00 am arrival and the second was to 4:00. Tehlin messaged me each time to keep me informed. Between the messages, I slept in fits and spurts from 11:00 until 3:00.

Tawn was a good sport and accompanied me to the airport. The good news about 4:00 am arrivals is that there isn’t any line at immigration! Tehlin and Chris were out very shortly after landing, their two very sleepy children in tow. By the time we arrived at their hotel along the river, it was 5:00.

Since we were up and since we were in the heart of the old city, Tawn suggested we go to the flower market. This is the wholesale district for flowers, which are abundant and relatively inexpensive. The market stretches for about five blocks, trickles off down side streets and is interspersed with some fresh vegetable markets. (Never sure where they put the edible blossoms: flower market or vegetable market.)

We browsed several blocks before finding three large bunches of flowers including some orchids, some carnations, and something I’ve never seen before. Tawn doesn’t even know their name in Thai. We just call them “pretty”. The total cost was less than US$15 for all the flowers.

Some pictures. Below, Tawn waits for his first bunch of flowers to be wrapped. This is in the section of the market with stores that sell arrangements to hotels, embassies and the like.

Below, an elderly lady makes garlands, used at temples and spirit houses throughout the city to pay respects to whichever local deity, teacher, or other respected figure you choose to honor. One whole section of the market has stall after stall of these yellow flowers, which I think are marigolds. (Maybe? Tawn says they are an Indian flower but doesn’t know their English name. Dok dao duang in Thai, literally “shining star”.)

One of the ladies selling orchids just piles her flowers on tables, halfway burying a telephone line junction box. If your phone doesn’t work in this district, it may be due to moisture from the flowers. Bunches of these purple orchids are about US$1 each.

It was getting close to six and we decided to get something in our stomachs before returning home. You’d be amazed the number of small restaurants and street vendors who are selling food at this hour, but when you look at the number of people who work throughout the night here in the City of Angels, maybe you wouldn’t be so surprised after all.

Adjacent to Sam Yan Market, near Chulalongkorn University on Phayathai Road just around the corner from Rama IV Road, is a forty year-old institution that serves just one thing: jok.

Also known as congee, jok (pronounced “joke”) is rice that is boiled in stock until it is thick and creamy. Some farang compare it distastefully with oatmeal, but I like oatmeal so it is no surprise that I find jok to be something of a comfort food.

Jok Sam Yan, as the restaurant is known, is popular with taxi drivers, university students, police officers, and all the other types who keep odd hours.

The open air restaurant was full and we ordered two bowls of jok muu sai kai – jok with pork and egg. The secret to their jok is the pork, which is marinated in sweet soy sauce and mixed with ground toasted rice. It is so good that you can buy it in bulk by the kilogram to take home and use in your own soups, stir fries, and dishes of spaghetti and meatballs.

Garnished with some fresh spring onion, shreds of ginger and – if you want – fried Chinese croutons, the jok is filling, warm, soothing and very tasty. A great way to end the night or start the morning, depending on how you are living your life.

In my case, I was a bit unsure which I was doing.

In other news…

So I managed to get an entry featured on Xanga’s front page. After watching Kari, Zakiah, Steve and Sandelion’s front page fame, I was enjoying life in obscurity. It is really weird to be receiving “friend” requests from totally unknown people. I’ll visit their sites first just to see what they write about and a bit about who they are.

It is also funny because I notice that of the several thousand people who have read that one entry, very few took the time to look at any of the adjacent entries. When you read a featured entry, do you ever ready anything else the author writes? Maybe I’m just strange that way, but if the entry is any good at all, I read other entries on the author’s blog because I’m curious if that entry is representative of the type of things he or she normally writes.

Anyhow, welcome to those of you who are new readers and thanks to the longer term readers for recommending the entry in the first place.

There is a Chiang Mai based coffee chain called Wawee Coffee. It is a small chain, locally owned and it serves really tasty coffee, much better and a bit more reasonably priced than the big green mermaid. Their shops are also really beautiful.

They just opened their first Khrungthep branch near the Ari BTS station, literally a sixty-second walk from the station exit, in a beautifully restored 1950s-era house.

This is going to be my new place to bring my laptop and work. Isn’t it cute?

Progress was made on using up the rest of the chicken stock. With two extra zucchini hanging around from the risotto, I decided to make zucchini and potato soup for lunch.

First I cooked the sliced zucchini in a pan with onions, shallots and garlic. Spices included tumeric, curry powder, cardamom and cumin, lending a bit of an Indian flavor.

Then I boiled the diced potatoes in the chicken stock until tender. I added the zucchini and heated them through, then brought out the Kitchen Aid immersion blender and made quick work of the soup. Two minutes later, I had a smooth soup. I added about a half-cup of buttermilk to give it a tangy edge and a little bit of creamy richness and then corrected for the flavor.

Let me just tell you, I love my immersion blender. What a quick and easy way to make a healthful meal.

Okay, just received the word from Tehlin that they are up. It is about 11:30 am Sunday morning, so they were able to get five hours or so of sleep. I’ll go get them in a bit and we’ll see some palaces and temples.

Something Healthy to Eat

Posted on 21 August 2008 by christao408

Since returning from our respective trips abroad, Tawn and I have been taking a lot of our meals at home, making them ourselves. I’m not sure if this is just in response to being away for so long, or whether it is in response to a pair of books I’ve recently finished reading: Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.

Both of these books talk about our relationship with food and both discuss the virtues of eating whole foods that are produced locally and in sustainable ways. Interestingly, neither book is preachy. Rather, they simply explore the issues and let readers draw their own conclusions.

This is something I’ll probably write more about in the future as it is something I’ve thought a lot about and continue to think a lot about, especially here in Thailand where concepts such as “organic”, “local” and “sustainable” are very different and often less well-developed. Also, the novelty of processed foods is high as this is a newer phenomenon in Thailand than in, say, the United States or Canada. That’s why I’m seeing more and more young Thais – secondary school students, for example – who are big, really big.

Anyhow, I’m not going to get into that now. Let me instead share with you the dinner we made Wednesday night. Hot on the heels of his two weeks in Italy, Tawn has been craving Italian food. (This seems to be the case with his parents, too. Speaking with Khun Nui – Tawn’s mother – last night, she told me that Khun Sudha has been preparing spaghetti nearly every night since they returned!)

To address this craving, I cracked open the risotto cookbook to see what sounded appetising. The zucchini and ricotta risotto sounded lovely, fresh and seasonal with hints of mint to brighten the dish.

The recipe is actually quite easy. You dice and fry zucchini in the skillet then set it aside with some mint and parsley to cool. Wanting to add a bit of meat to the dinner, I also marinated and pan-friend some chicken breasts.

Then you cook the risotto, a process that consumes a bit of time (30 minutes) and all of your attention (you have to keep stirring, stirring, stirring) but is not complicated:

Sweat some onions, garlic and shallots in olive oil and butter over medium heat until translucent. Add the risotto rice and stir for a few minutes until very lightly toasted and glistening with the oil.

Add a bit of dry white wine and stir until the liquid evaporates. Then start adding hot stock (I used homemade chicken stock, but vegetable stock works, too) one ladleful at a time, stirring continuously until the liquid is evaporated.

Once the liquid is evaporated, add another ladleful of stock and continue the process for the next twenty minutes or so, until the mixture is thick, creamy, and the rice is done al dente.

At that point you add the ricotta cheese, the zucchini mixture, and shave in some Parmesan. Stir for a few minutes until the cheese melts and, if necessary, add a little more stock to fix the texture. Season to taste then serve.

Sadly, the brand of ricotta at our local market is one I don’t like. The texture is too dry, like feta, and it never really melts. Instead, it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. As such, the risotto didn’t have as much creamy cheesiness as I was looking for.

Nonetheless, it was a tasty risotto.

I also had the time to pull together a bottomless apple pie, although I cheated and used prepared pastry dough. In a hot kitchen in a hot country, making pie dough from scratch is quite difficult. It simply gets too warm. Maybe if I get a marble pastry board that fits in the refrigerator I will have more luck.

Nonetheless, a pretty decent Wednesday night meal.

On other notes, thanks to all of you who commented on and recommended the previous post about lessons I wish I had known when I started working. Somehow the word got out and the blog received a spike in traffic. Lots of new people walking through this corner of the internet. Welcome to all of you!

Immersing and Blending

Posted on 18 August 2008 by christao408

Now that I’m all caught up on my blog entries, you’ll be disappointed because there isn’t any fabulous jet setting about which I can write. Just normal, everyday entries. Prepare yourself for the mundane!

After discovering that the NY-style pizza place was closed, I decided to walk across the street and try Mes Amis Cafe, the “down market” location of the nearby upscale Mes Amis French restaurant. To call the cafe “down market” is a bit of a stretch: white tablecloths, attentive waiters, high prices – it is still relatively upscale.

The food was good, though. Pretty authentic (for Khrungthep) French cafe food. I had roast chicken with a side of vegetables and mashed potatoes. Looks beautiful, no?

One of the waiters seemed quite intrigued by my ability to speak Thai and he kept engaging me in conversation. Or, more accurately, he would keep thinking of additional questions to ask me, which resulted in an uncomfortable (for me) desire to be able to read my book and eat my lunch in peace. Finally, dessert arrived so I had an excuse to stop answering questions.

On my trip back to the United States, I bought a Kitchen Aid immersion blender. This is an addition to my stash of kitchen appliances that I have been considering for two years, so it wasn’t an impulse buy by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve found that using a traditional blender is not very effective for things like pesto and hummus, and is downright messy and even dangerous for blending soups.

Additionally, I’ve previously owned a food processor and found that I rarely used it because of the amount of clean-up necessary. Unless I’m chopping and slicing for a dinner for dozens of people, it is faster to do the prep work with a knife.

But I have been reading how an immersion blender makes quick work of soups, pestos, hummus, and sauces – as well as how it can be used in the pot or container the ingredients are already in. Talking with several people who use them, I realized that the immersion blender would be a very handy addition to my kitchen. As for which model, I settled on Kitchen Aid because of the very high review it was given by Cook’s Illustrated magazine, who rated it their best value.

Thankfully, Macy’s had them on sale for $20 off the regular price, so only $49.99. Oddly, they only had red and black in stock although Kitchen Aid does make a white body as well. Sadly, no yellow to match my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Inspired by T. Susan Chang’s NPR story about chilled summer soups, I made some chicken stock and then prepared this roasted tomato and pepper soup. It was very easy to make, although I had to substitute the broiler for a grill as we don’t have a grill. This led to a less smoky flavor, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Before and after pictures, below:

Tawn isn’t a big soup person to begin with and there was a bit of cognitive dissonance as the expectation (soup=warm) and the temperature (cold) did not match. Still, he liked the flavor. I thought I could dial back the peppers a bit and find some more flavorful tomatoes. Tomatoes in Thailand aren’t as tasty as summertime tomatoes in the United States. Maybe I can enrich the soup with a little tomato paste.

Worth reading: Sonny shares a funny, true story about his trip to a Starbucks to get one of their mango-banana blended drinks, where he had to contribute the banana because the store was out of them. Link here.

Another breadmaking attempt goes awry

Posted on 16 June 2008 by christao408

For those of your with broadband, you can watch the whole thing in this three-minute video. For the low-bandwidth version, see below.

You know that I enjoy baking. You know that I’m still on a quest to create a really good loaf of whole wheat bread, a loaf like the ones I bought at Whole Foods back when I lived in the US. And I hope you know that these continual mishaps and disappointments are real, not just staged for your entertainment.

After my last attempt, I felt I had at least arrived at a recipe that had good flavor and good self-rising capabilities thanks to the sourdough starter I’ve been nuturing. The problem was, the loaf wasn’t big enough to fill the pan.

This time I increased the recipe by 50%, approximately how much more bread I needed in the pan to get a loaf big enough for sandwiches.

Somewhere after the first rise I got distracted and decided to bake the bread in my French loaf pan. I don’t know why I didn’t stick with my normal rectangular loaf pan. Changing pans meant that I wouldn’t be able to compare the volume of the new loaf to the old one. But some whim captured my fancy and the French loaf pan seemed like a brilliant idea.

At first, it seemed like a success. After the second rise, I had a beautifully shaped loaf that looked a lot like a real French batard. I was even able to score the surface without any tearing or deflating.

I popped the pan into the oven, added hot water to the cast-iron skillet in the bottom of the oven in order to create steam. (Now you know why there are rust stains in it.)

Fifteen minutes later the aroma of fresh-baked bread began to fill the house. Oh, I just knew I was on the path to success!

When it came time to pull the loaf out of the oven, it was a little dark on the outside – note to self: lower temperature next time – but the internal temperature indicated that it was cooked through.

The problem came when I tried to remove the loaf from the pan. The pan, which has a thousand or so tiny perforations to allow the crust to crisp on all sides, was supposedly non-stick. In fact, a previous loaf I baked in it had pulled away with no problem.

But this time the dough had risen into hundreds of those holes, expanding as the loaf baked and essentially gripping the pan like hundreds of little fingers. I couldn’t remove the loaf!

I tried using a silicone spatula to slip between the crust and the pan. No success. Ultimately, 80% of the loaf came away while 20% stayed with the pan.

The upshot was that despite its hideous exterior, like Victor Hugo’s Hunchback, the loaf contained a complex, delicate, and rich interior that was worth knowing. Especially with butter and preserves.

The downside was that I had to “stew” the pan for several hours over low heat, basting it with water, in order to loosen the lower crust. Even then, I still had to take a toothpick and clean out each of those hundreds of holes, one by one. Next time, despite the claims of non-stickiness, I’m using parchment paper.

The starter is back out of the refrigerator, though, so I’ll try another loaf this week. Stay tuned…

Beignet Attempt

Posted on 1 April 2008 by christao408

It has been a quest… a dream of sorts, really… to create my own beignets. It stretches back even further than our trip to San Francisco in March 2007 where we had a divine Sunday brunch at Boulette’s Larder at the Ferry Building featuring Garam Masala beignets. It stretches all the way back to a previous visit when they had Chinese Five Spice beignets. Crispy, hot, yeasty, without a drop of oil on the napkins lining the serving dish. In short – deep-fried perfection.

Let’s take a closer look at those:

They just look amazing, don’t they?

Ever since I tasted them, I decided that I wanted to try making beignets, too. Key acquisitions in order to do this: a stove with good heat control and an oil thermometer.

Every recipe I found for beignets online seemed to be a copy of the exact same recipe. Either everyone in the world makes beignets the exact same way or there’s some serious plagiarism going on. To top it off, all these recipes called for seven cups of flour. Seven cups!? I’m not feeding an army here. If two cups of flour will give me buttermilk biscuits for four, I certainly don’t need seven cups for my beignets.

Still, never having made beignets before I didn’t want to start experimenting yet. Caving in, I measured out my seven cups of flour.

It also contains yeast, water, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt, and evaporated milk. Theses were summarily mixed together.

Then placed in an oiled bowl and allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. Even at the cold temperatures, the yeast was prodigious and I was getting a little afraid that I would be woken up by the beeping alarm of my refrigerator door once it had been burst open by the overproductive dough.

With Stuart’s help taking pictures, I rolled out the dough. Here is a point where the recipes diverged ever so slightly. Some said “roll to 1/8 inch” while others said “roll to 1/4 inch”.

When it comes to dough, doubling the height is a big different. I started out with 1/8 on the first third of the dough and opted to cut out rounds rather than squares, just for the heck of it.

I then heated the oil to 180 C. Even with an induction stove it is really tricky to keep the oil at a steady temperature as once it heats up, it takes a while to cool down even if it is off the burner.

Finally, the temperature was right and I started adding beignets. The first few bobbed immediately to the surface, when it was my understanding they should stay submerged for at least a little while before coming up for air. We cooked several batches, testing as we went. The 1/8 inch beignets seemed to cook too quickly so we tried some at 1/4 inch. These were a little better.

After several tries, the cooking seemed to come out a little better. I think that the oil needed to actually be just a little cooler so they didn’t cook too fast. There were also some experiments with folding the dough several times to create layers but all that seemed to do was create tough beignets.

Here they are, served in the style of Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, a trio under a dusting of powdered sugar.

My conclusion is that the dough itself lacked flavor and complexity. I think if I had made a starter and let it ferment for a few hours, the beignets might have had more flavor. Also, a bit more salt would have helped.

Ultimately, though, I’m not sure I’m cut out for deep frying. Even with the air purifier running all night and the kitchen exhaust fans running the next day, the house has had the lingering odor of donuts. Maybe I can get an outdoor stove and cook on the balcony?

P.S. Just a note on the Xanga spell check: why are words like “thermometer”, “gay”, and “I’d” not in there?

Martha Does Peanut Butter

Posted on 11 March 2008 by christao408

Thanks to all of you who commented about yesterday’s entry regarding Tawn and I getting married. I certainly appreciate the support, although more practically the opportunity to do this in Thailand will probably not come around anytime in the next few decades as there isn’t any real friction here to drive social change. We keep having coups, after all, so gay rights is somewhere further down the list.

When I moved here, our friend Kobfa advised me that my relationship with my in-laws would likely not change and that the way it is now is the way it is likely to remain. Considering how many people I know whose partners have to be totally closeted with their parents, I appreciate that Tawn can be honest with his parents even if I’m not welcomed into the family fold by my father-in-law. It could be worse.

Anyhow, changing topics for a moment…

Monday I made a recipe for a peanut butter tart that Tawn had printed from Martha Stewart’s website. This was originally meant to be his project, but somehow it didn’t get made so before the ingredients went to waste I went ahead and made it. Things like this happen sometimes…

First, I made a graham cracker crumb crust. Let me tell you, the familiar graham crackers of my childhood are not stocked at even the best international markets here. An online search showed that it is pretty easy to make your own graham crackers so I’ll do that next time. Eventually, I finally found “70% organic” graham crackers from Health Valley at Villa market and used them, even though they didn’t look or feel like the graham crackers I have known.

These different crackers posed a small chalenge. The measurements in Martha’s recipe were absurd: Ten 4 3/4-by-2 1/2 inch crackers, which must be the official, universal graham cracker size. These grapham crackers were different dimensions and were thicker than normal graham crackers, so the cracker crumb-to-butter ratio was off. Couldn’t the recipe editors just come up with a volume? Two cups of cracker crumbs, for example.

After dealing with the graham cracker crust debacle, I made a chocolate ganache. This is shaved or chopped good quality milk chocolate into which boiled cream is poured. After the chocolate melts, it is whisked together to combine, then whisked over an ice bath until it thickens but is still spreadable. The ganache is then spread into the crumb crust, forming a chocoalte base. Refrigerate to set.

The next step is to make the peanut butter filling. This is peanut butter, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk, whipped together. The recipe used a food processor but mine is in the US still so the trusty Kitchen Aid mixer was enlisted.

Next, 3/4 cup of cream is whipped to soft peaks.

Then the whipped cream is folded into the peanut butter mixture to make it lighter and fluffier.

Finally, the peanut butter-whipped cream mixture is spread over the chocolate base and the tart is allowed to set in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Meanwhile, I prepared dinner for Tawn. Dischi volanti pasta with homemade pesto; steamed salt-and-pepper Tasmanian salmon for him, roast beef for me; steamed asparagus with butter and sea salt; a medley of corn, peppers, and peas; and a green salad. Feeling like we hadn’t had enough of a weekend, I opened a bottle of prosecco. Why not enjoy some sparkling wine on a Monday?

And, finally, the dessert:

There was supposed to be another dallop of whipped cream on top but I didn’t want to go to the trouble of whipping cream just for two servings. All in all, the crumb crust wasn’t holding together sufficiently – not enough butter, I think. The flavor was good and the texture light enough. I’m a big peanut butter fan but even so, I found the tart to be pretty one-dimensional. Maybe if the chocolate was a darker chocolate instead of milk chocolate? Or maybe if a little cardamon or chili pepper was added?

Pumpkin Pie Part Deux

Posted on 22 January 2008 by christao408

The rest of the weekend baking project – kind of my own personal Iron Chef challenge – was around pumpkin. Pumpkin is an interesting ingredient for me because as a child, I disliked both pumpkin and squash, to the extent that the flavor would literally make me gag. I’m not sure why. Maybe the flavor is kind of strong? The one squash dish I did like was the squash rolls – a dinner roll made with some squash puree – so maybe that validates my theory, since the rolls didn’t have a very strong squash flavor.

I also didn’t like sweet potatoes, yams, and tofu as a child – all things that I just love now. Another theory why I didn’t like them then was that I didn’t like them until I had them particularly well prepared.

(I’ll tread carefully with the next part of this entry because I know my mother reads this blog…)

My mother went through a big tofu phase sometime in the late 70s. We lived in Northern California, meat was expensive, and tofu was all the rage as a healthy, inexpensive meat substitute. My mother got hold of two cookbooks by Gary Landgrebe – Tofu Goes West and Tofu at Center Stage. On the cover of the first cookbook was an illustration of a covered wagon being driven by a block of tofu. On the second was a picture of a stage with a block of tofu tap dancing in the center of it. No kidding. I was able to find the books online still, but no cover pictures.

Anyhow, Landgrebe’s take on tofu was basically to substitute it anywhere a recipe might call for ground beef.

It wasn’t until junior high school, when I started hanging around with several first generation Chinese-American friends, that I finally learned to appreciate tofu. The same probably goes for squash and pumpkin. More exposure to the vegetables prepared in a greater variety of ways, has led me to really enjoy them even more.

Roasted root vegetables, with squash and sweet potatoes, for example. Mixed with some olive oil and rosemary… mmm, yummy!

So it was with pumpkin pie. Roka challenged me to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. My first attempt was a few weeks ago. It turned out okay so I bought a whole mess of pumpkins and decided to make several pies and, while at it, a recipe of pumpkin biscotti. Tawn’s mother really likes biscotti and I haven’t made her any in a while.

The pie worked out quite well. It isn’t that much extra work and the flavor is really lovely. The pie crust is still an issue, though. What the heck is going on with it? I’m going to Cooks Illustrated to find out why I’m having so much trouble with it. It tasted fine but the texture was all wrong. After rolling it out, I couldn’t lift it up. It just disintegrated!

Roka came over Monday night to try the pie. Since I had two (and we didn’t want to scarf them down by ourselves although we certainly would have considered doing just that) I invited other people over. Markus, his visiting mother and niece and nephew came over for what was, for them, a pre-dinner dessert. I also served them some biscotti and baguette washed down with tea.

Roka really liked the pie. Markus and family did, too, but it is Roka’s opinion I’m most interested in because she was the one who first challenged me to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. She was sad, though, because she thought that since I had made a successful pumpkin pie that I would move on to other things and she wouldn’t get another one. She drew this conclusion since she tried chocolate souffle for her first time two months ago, liked it, and I haven’t made it for her since!

The whipped cream looks a little funny on that pie, doesn’t it? Markus picked up some whipping cream on his way over to try the pie and when I whipped it with my electric mixer, it never did really come together. Not sure why. Any theories or suggestions for me?

As for the biscotti, they turned out tasty but uninspiring. I think they need some pecans or cranberries or white chocolate chips – or maybe a little bit of all three? – to give them some additional umph.

What’s next for the Iron Chef Thailand? Nah, just kidding… I’m a noncompetitive cook. My sister once suggested that we should have my cousin Patrick and I do an Iron Chef at a family reunion. I’d rather we just plan a big meal together and prepare it. This world is competitive enough without bringing it into the family kitchen.

Summer Bounty – Bacon Lettuce and Tomatoes

Posted on 21 August 2005 by christao408

The best part about living back in Kansas City is that I can get really good summer produce. Every Saturday I go to the Farmers Market in Overland Park and buy some yummy veggies and fruits. Right now is peak season for peaches and tomatoes – corn is pretty good, too. A few weeks ago it was all about the blackberries, but that’s over.

The Farmers Market is especially important because, due to heat and drought, my tomato plants never really bore much fruit. I am not ready to become a full-time farmer.

This afternoon I fixed my favorite summer meal – one that I’ve been eating almost daily for the past two weeks – a Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwich! Once I move to Bangkok, I suppose that I’ll trade this in for a BBT – Bacon, Basil, and Tomato. There is a recipe in this month’s issue of Sunset magazine.

Artfully arranged, don’t you think?

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Tag Archives: cooking