Weeknight Dinner

Posted on 23 February 2012 by christao408

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and rosemary, ready to go into the oven and roast for forty-five minutes.

Some pork sundried tomato sausage I made earlier this month and froze. Boiled it for a few minutes in beer before putting it on top of the half-cooked vegetables to finish in the oven.

Prepared a healthy salad of red leaf lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes with some feta cheese, dried cranberries, and pecans. Served with a Japanese style sesame dressing.

The roasted vegetables and sausages come out of the oven, ready to eat!

Finger Food at Tawn’s Label Debut

Posted on 18 February 2012 by christao408

Saturday evening, Tawn officially launched his Tawn C label of women’s clothing. About two dozen friends and former fashion school classmates came to our house to view and try on his collection, see the website, and click “like” on his label’s facebook page.

All that was asked of me was to prepare the food and drink for the guests. Tawn wanted only easy-to-eat finger food and appetizers, so I scoured my recipes and cookbooks and spent the day making several dishes. There are two or three more I would have made had time not run out. Here’s a closer look at them:

Pastry puff strips baked two ways: with Italian cheeses or za’atar, the Middle Eastern spice made with sesame seeds and various herbs.

Toasted baguette rounds with smoked ham, whole grain mustard, Spanish olives, and cherry tomatoes.

Toasted baguette rounds topped with a roasted beet and green apple salsa, improvised from a Martha Stewart recipe.

Toasted baguette rounds (I toasted a lot of those!) topped with wasabi cream cheese spread, smoked Norwegian salmon, avocado, and capers. I had purchased shiso leaves that I was going to include on this but forgot them!

Repeat of my watermelon, cherry tomato, feta cheese, and mint salad from a few weeks ago, except this time I used a yellow watermelon which made it so much more colorful.

Sunday Brunch

Posted on 12 February 2012 by christao408

Sunday morning we hosted brunch for a group of friends, all of whom work (or used to work) in the aviation industry. Needless to say, the topic of conversation frequently turned back to shared work experiences. Despite this, we still had time to enjoy a relaxed meal of salad, sandwiches, and dessert.

A ripe, juicy watermelon from a roadside stall in Korat province provided the inspiration for a cool, refreshing summer salad. Trying to scoop melon balls while avoiding seeds was a challenge, though!

Based loosely on a recipe by the New York Times’ Mark Bittman, this salad features just four ingredients: watermelon, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and fresh mint. I didn’t dress the salad with a red wine vinaigrette as Mr. Bittman suggests, because when I tasted the combination I found the flavors already beautifully balanced.

To make the main course, I first baked a batch of focaccia bread, the light, airy, rosemary infused Italian style bread. This batch was based on a recipe in the Los Angeles Times by La Brea Bakery owner Nancy Silverton. The problem is, the recipe is missing the last step: how long to cook the bread and at what temperature! Critical information, methinks. Referencing another recipe, 450 F for 15-20 minutes was sufficient.

Despite the absence of time and temperature information, the loaf turned out nicely and when paired with some herb smoked ham from Soulfood Mahanakorn, provolone cheese, and a roasted red bell pepper and onion relish I made, we had some beautiful paninis.

For dessert, I made one of Tawn’s favorites: banoffee pie. This British import features a layer of rich toffee on a cookie crumb crust, covered with freshly sliced bananas, whipped cream, a drizzle of coffee flavored syrup, and chocolate shavings. Instead of making a cheat version of the toffee, I made it the old fashioned way: boiling tins of sweetened condensed milk in a water bath for three hours until the contents caramelize. Care must be taken to keep the tins fully submerged, otherwise they will explode and spray your kitchen with boiling hot caramel.

The end result – my first ever attempt at this dish – had its ups and downs. The crust hadn’t been made with enough butter so it didn’t hold up well, collapsing under the weight of the filling. The toffee, which was insanely tasty, was too much – one can would have been plenty. I didn’t whip the cream quite enough so it didn’t hold its shape and instead spilled through the collapsing crust.

But, despite all that, it was really tasty. I’ll try again one of these days and refine the recipe.

Big Bite Breakfast

Posted on 7 February 2012 by christao408

The morning after attending Big Bite Bangkok, I decided to make myself breakfast using some of the ingredients I had purchased.

Bagel sandwich with scrambled eggs, Provelone cheese, a slice of ham from Soulfood Mahanakorn that had been cured in a dry rub for four days then smoked of Thai herb cuttings, and some salsa made from Adams Organic tomatoes. Add to that a latte and it was a pleasant start to the day.

Speaking of Adams Organic, I was invited to visit their farm in Korat so yesterday made the drive up there with Chow and Ken. Lots of footage to share so I need to take several days to digest the information, write the entry, and fact-check. Stay tuned!

Big Bite Bangkok

Posted on 4 February 2012 by christao408

Last Sunday I attended a small fundraiser-slash-food market called Big Bite Bangkok. Originally scheduled for World Food Day last October, it was twice postponed due to the flooding. While the scale was small – ten vendors and perhaps 150 attendees – it was a good turnout for the first occurrence of this event and many members of the Bangkok foodie scene from chefs to bloggers were present.

Bit Bite Bangkok was organized by In Search of Sanuk, a small organization that is trying to help those in and around Bangkok who fall through the cracks of other, larger NGO and charity organizations, especially at-risk families.

Set up in the parking lot of the stylish Ma Du Zi boutique hotel on Asoke Road, Big Bite Bangkok included vendors such as Adams Organic. I’ll be visiting their farm in Korat on Monday, so stay tuned for the behind-the-scenes story about how this American couple and their Thai relatives are pushing the gospel of organic produce.

Other vendors included Roast Coffee & Eatery, serving their own roast of coffee, and BKK Bagel Bakery – the only source of authentic New York-style bagels in the Big Mango.

One of the vendors was a Sri Lankan family, selling homemade treats from their kitchen. The balls on the left (the ones the woman is scooping into a banana leaf tray) are a fish and potato croquette. The ones on the right are desserts. Sadly, I did not capture the name.

Birds in a Row, the catering arm of the tiny Seven Spoons restaurant (which I’ve twice visited but have yet to write about) featured some tasty Mediterranean inspired foods such as these lentil-stuffed bell peppers, left, and an eggplant casserole.

I spent most of my morning (and early afternoon) hanging out by Chow’s table, where she was selling homemade Sai Oua, a Northern Thai style pork sausage. Since I had helped stuff all the sausage (my, that sausage stuffer attachment for the KitchenAid mixer has sure paid off!), I felt some responsibility to provide moral support to its seller.

Look at that lovely sausage!

Served almost Vietnamese style in a French roll with homemade roasted tomato ketchup, coriander sauce, pickled carrots and daikon radish, and some fresh coriander. Tasty!

This event was a lot of work to prepare so I’m not sure if it will happen very often, perhaps quarterly. Next time, though, I’ll bake something to sell and do more to contribute to the cause.

Baked Donuts

Posted on 25 January 2012 by christao408

A few weeks ago a couple of friends came down from Chiang Mai and so I invited them over for brunch. Since they don’t have an opportunity to enjoy good old fashioned American breakfasts that often, I decided to make something special for them: baked donuts. (Recipe here at 101cookbooks.com)

Left: the dough about half-rised; Right: freshly-cut donuts starting the second rise.

Baked donuts start out very similar to their more common, Krispy Kremed cousins. They are a basic yeast dough that is allowed to rise, is rolled and cut out, and then allowed to rise a second time before cooking. But instead of going through the hassle of deep frying (and having your house smell for days afterwards), you put them into the oven. While you can glaze them, I opted for a brush of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar. The end result is fluffy and delectable – different from deep-fried donuts but still very enjoyable – and with the cinnamon-sugar, it has a classic element.

We couldn’t be bothered with a tripod so as to fit all three of us into a single picture.

For dessert, I thought it would be nice to do something refreshing and relatively healthy. It was a bit of a splurge to buy raspberries and blueberries, both of which are imported, but they were really sweet and juicy. Paired with a bit of natural yogurt and homemade granola, the berries made for a very celebratory parfait and a tasty concusion to a special brunch.

Baking Pecan Tarts

Posted on 20 January 2012 by christao408

Every time I visit the US, I make a trip to Costco and buy several pounds of pecans and walnuts. Nuts (with the exception of cashews, peanuts, and macadamias, all of which are grown locally) are very expensive here in Thailand and I enjoy adding nuts to salads, pestos, and of course desserts. Recently, I perfected a pecan pie recipe that makes wonderful two-bite-sized tarts.

The recipe started out from one contributed by an unknown source on the Food Network’s site. As such, they warned that the recipe had not been tested. Certainly not, as I found out after an initial mishap. Let’s put it this way: adding beaten eggs directly into boiling sugar syrup makes for sweet scrambled eggs – not a proper pecan pie filling!

Instead, I rewrote the directions and, after testing two batches, made some adjustments to the ingredients to reduce the sweetness and richness of the filling while adding some depth of flavor thanks to the use of maple syrup.

Pecan Pie or Tarts
1 stick butter (4 oz or 115 g)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup¹
1/2 cup maple syrup²
2 eggs plus 3 egg whites, beaten well
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (or 1 cup plus whole pecans to layer the top of the pie)
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell, or 12 small tart pans lined with pastry dough³
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). In a saucepan, melt the butter but don’t let it brown. Mix in the sugar, corn syrup, and maple syrup and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Temper the eggs by slowly pouring the sugar mixture into them while whisking continuously. Stir in the pecans then pour the mixture into the pie or tart shells. If you want to decorate the top(s) with whole pecans, you can do so.
Bake 1 hour or until firm when shaken. Let cool before serving. If you are making the tarts in a muffin tin, you should carefully remove them to a wire rack after ten minutes of cooling, so they do not stick.
¹ Note that the corn syrup you buy in the store (like Karo brand) is not high-fructose corn syrup.
² I think the Grade B maple syrup, which has a richer flavor, is nice to use. If you have only regular maple syrup, that is fine, too. You can also substitute corn syrup if you do not have maple syrup.
³ Instead of tart pans, you can also use a muffin tin.

Pecan pies and tarts freeze beautifully after they are cooked. They can be warmed up in the oven for about 15 minutes before serving and they’ll be just as nice as if they were freshly-baked.

Food in Bangkok: Samosa

Posted on 15 January 2012 by christao408

Normally I write about entire meals but there is one street vendor in one corner of Bangkok that sells a single item that is so good, that my mouth waters as I write this. The vendor, Raspal Singh, makes samosas, the deep fried Indian pastry filled with a potato mixture and served with a complementary sweet and sour sauce.

Mr. Singh’s stall is nothing more than a single cart parked alongside a wall in a small soi (alley) immediately to the south of India Emporium, a small shopping center in Pahurat (Little India) on Chakrapet Road. This is not far from Bangkok’s Chinatown and the Old Siam shopping center.

All day long he prepares batch after batch of the samosas (they also prepare tikki – which is the filling fried up without the pasty wrapper) and you can only get them to go. They’re so tasty, though, that eating them by the side of the road is perfectly acceptable. Why would you want to wait and let them get cold?

The filling is made of potatoes mixed with loads of spices. It is a great example of vegetarian food that has rich, satisfying flavors.

The secret to any successful fried food is that the oil has to be fresh and at the proper temperature. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks. Too cold and the whole thing becomes greasy. Mr. Singh is the master of the boiling oil-filled wok, turning out an endless stream of perfectly cooked, crispy but not greasy samosas.

If you find yourself in the heart of old Bangkok, craving a snack that will satisfy but leave you eager to return, you should head down to Little India and seek out Mr. Singh’s samosas.

Many thanks to Chawadee Nualkhair (www.bangkokglutton.com), author of Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls, for leading me to this gem.

Dining in Bangkok: Krua Apsorn

Posted on 10 January 2012 by christao408

A few weeks ago, I accompanied my friend Chow for lunch at Krua Apsorn. Chow, who is the author of Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls, was researching restaurants for an article in an Australian airline’s inflight magazine and needed an extra mouth to help her evaluate the food. Who am I to shirk my duty as a friend?

Krua Apsorn is a Central Thai style restaurant that has garnered much attention in recent years. With a homey charm, decent food, and a slightly obscure location, it is the type of place that makes foreigners feel like they’ve stumbled into a secret cave of culinary treasures. While it is worth a visit, I wouldn’t necessarily put it on my list of “must-visit” restaurants.

The original location of Krua Apsorn (there are now three) is on Samsen Road, which runs north from the Khao San backpacker district towards the Dusit Palace. Located a little ways past the National Library, the restaurant is off the beaten path for most visitors but not terribly difficult to reach. The chef used to cook for the King’s now-deceased mother and older sister and when this restaurant opened, Princess Galayani was known to visit it. Six years ago, the Bangkok Post named it one of Bangkok’s best restaurants and you can now find it listed in nearly every guide book.

Lunch reservations are recommended as this location is popular with large groups of office workers. The interior is modest and the emphasis is on the food rather than the decor. The staff is friendly although rushed and it took a while for us to get their attention to order and then again to get the bill at the end of lunch.

To ensure we gave the restaurant a fair sampling, we brought tremendous appetites, ordering and (for the most part) finishing more dishes than you would think two people could eat. We started with a classic Central Thai appetizer: miang kana. These make-it-yourself appetizers feature a variety of sweet, sour, spicy, savory, and salty tidbits that you wrap in a kailan (or Chinese broccoli) leaf with a splash of tamarind sauce.

Can you spot the following items? Shallot, lime, white ginger, peanut, dried shrimp, and fried pork rind. Combined with the tamarind sauce, this appetizer exemplifies the typical flavor profile that Thai dishes aspire to, a balance of different flavors that leave you very satisfied.

While I’m leery of ordering mussels thanks to a bad experience years ago in Seattle, we couldn’t pass up this dish that sat on nearly every other table. Called hoi malang puu pad chaa, these super fresh mussels were stir-fried in basil, fish sauce, and chilies. At first they didn’t seem too spicy but trying to avoid the chilies was a challenge and eventually you just had to give in and enjoy them.

Another dish was gaeng kiaow waan luuk chin plaa, green curry with fish balls. Green curry is one of the more accessible types of curry for foreigners’ tongues. This one was passable but the taste was watered down.

The rice arrived molded into the shape of a heart. Na rak maak! (Very cute!)

A dish for which the restaurant is famous is neua puu pad prik lueang – crabmeat stir fried with yellow chilies and long beans. The portion of lump crabmeat is generous, fresh, and sweet. The sauce itself is also a little sweet, almost tasting as if it had ghee added to it, although I doubt it does. The long beans were a little undercooked for my taste – reminding me of how when I brought my now-deceased paternal grandmother to eat Thai food once, she commented on a dish of stir fried vegetables, “My, they certainly like their vegetables crunchy.” All in all, this was a well-made dish, though, and one I would order again.

A dish of pad yot pak maew – chayote stems fried with garlic – provided a simple and refreshing contrast to some of the other, more strongly flavored dishes.

Another highlight from Krua Apsorn’s menu is kai fuu puu – crabmeat omelet. Their version, however, is so unlike the omelets you see elsewhere that it really makes you take notice. Cooked in a narrow dish rather than a broad skillet, the omelet gains a lot of volume, looking more like a souffle than a traditional Thai omelet.

Cross section of the kai fuu puu – standing very tall. That said, the amount of crabmeat in the omelet seemed skimpy when compared with, say, the amount of crabmeat in the stir fry with the yellow chilies. Still, this was one of the best dishes.

The final dish we ordered, this one from the daily specials menu, was puu lon pak sot or salted crab and coconut cream stew with fresh vegetables. This is a dish that is less common for foreigners to try and one that I haven’t run across too many times. It is made of salted crab, minced pork, coconut cream, and a variety of herbs and spices, boiled until thick.

The dish is actually more of a dip than a stew, as it is served with a selection of fresh vegetables – two types of eggplants (including the white ones), tumeric root, cabbage, and cucumbers – with which you eat the puu lon. I found the taste of the dish to be interesting, both complex and unusual. It is a bit sour, a bit salty, and very herbal. Chow didn’t care much for it because it has sort of a milky aftertaste but it wasn’t a problem to me.

For dessert, we tried some of the homemade fresh coconut sorbet (which was refreshing but didn’t photograph well) as well as this saku biak tua dam – miniature tapioca with black beans, served in sweetened coconut milk. This is one of my favorite Thai desserts because it is not overwhelmingly sweet and has a bit of saltiness as well as the heartiness of the beans.

What to think of the restaurant overall? You have to start out by understanding that this type of restaurant serves aahan juut, literally “bland food”. It is the type of food that appeals to your grandparents, comfort food that isn’t too assertive. That’s not a knock on the restaurant itself, because the food is well prepared with a lot of attention to the quality of ingredients and the methods of preparation. The flavors are relatively bland because that’s characteristic of Central Thai cuisine when compared with Northern, Northeastern, or Southern Thai.

With all that in mind, Krua Apsorn delivers a good dining experience and value for the money. Is it worth seeking out? If you are already near the restaurant, it is worth stopping by. If you have to trek all the way across the city, there are probably other aahan juut restaurants closer by that will satisfy you just as well and, if you are visiting from outside Thailand, there are other restaurants I would recommend you try before you get to Krua Apsorn.

Christmas Dinner

Posted on 8 January 2012 by christao408

Yes, I am a few weeks late with this entry, but our friend Nat hosted such an extraordinary feast on Christmas day that it would be a shame not to share some photos with you. Nat and his twenty-some guests supped on a dozen dishes and three desserts. The meal was several days in the making, aided by his half-dozen staff members, some of whom formerly worked as hotel sous chefs.

Our menu:

Salmon Wellington	Sous-Vide Turkey
Garlic Honey Roast Turkey	Cornbread Chestnut Stuffing
Mushroom Garlic Stuffing	Carrot Puree
Brussels Sprouts	Grilled Broccoli Rabe
Steamed Corn	Potatoes Savoyarde
Yorkshire Pudding	Chinese Rice Wine Gravy
Cranberry Chutney	White Chocolate Bombe
Coconut Christmas Cake	Strawberry Caramel Angel Food Cake
Vanilla Poppy Seed Ice Cream	Pistachio Ice Cream
Dark Chocolate Ice Cream	Homemade dessert sauces

I arrived mid-afternoon to find the production already well under-way. In fact, Nat and his staff were working from a five-page itinerary that had every step of the multi-day preparation scheduled!

First off, let’s talk about the Salmon Wellington. You may be more familiar with the version served with a beef loin inside, called Beef Wellington. In this version, two whole salmon fillets are topped with a ground mushroom mixture and then baked inside puff pastry dough. Not only is it a tasty way to eat salmon, but it is quite the show-stopper!

Left: Nat takes his frustration out on the puff pasty dough, which he made himself. Puff pasty is one of those pain in the neck sort of things that most people are perfectly happy to just buy from the freezer section of their local grocery store. Right: The salmon is covered with the mushrooms and additional dollops of butter before the top layer of the pastry dough is added and the edges are sealed.

Left: I used some leftover pastry dough to cut out decorative shapes that seemed appropriate for a seafood dish: a squid, a shark, a starfish, and some goldfish. Instead of slits to release the steam, I used a knife steel to make “bubbles”. Clever, huh?

Next item, the Garlic and Honey Roast Turkey. This is Martha Stewart’s recipe and it produces a reliably moist and tender bird. The trouble is that you have to remember to baste it every thirty minutes. If you have a staff, you can assign someone that responsibility. (Oh, if only I had a kitchen staff! Ha ha!)

The turkey, mid-carving. The skin gets very dark and crispy but fear not! Because you have remembered to baste it throughout the cooking, the meat remains moist and flavorful.

Our third main course was another type of turkey, this one prepared sous-vide. Sous-vide is French for “under vacuum” and the style involves cooking the food inside vacuum-sealed plastic bags which are then placed in a water bath for a long, low-temperature spa session. For example, the water bath for the turkey was something like 168 F. This way, the meat cannot get dry and tough, although more delicate cuts can turn mealy if you overcook them.

P1190406

First step, turkey parts are sealed in bags with loads of butter and other seasonings. Next, the bags are placed in the sous-vide machine, which regulates the water temperature. It took about three hours to cook the whole turkey. Afterwards, the bags are taken out and put in a bath of ice water to immediately stop the cooking.

Once cool, you remove the turkey parts, pat them dry, and then immerse them in boiling oil for a minute or so. This allows the exterior to quickly crisp, forming a wonderful skin and an appealing color. On the right, you can hopefully see just how moist the turkey was after the combination of cooking methods. While the roast turkey had been moist, you had to add the qualifier, “for a roast turkey” afterwards. For the sous-vide turkey, the meat was very moist by any standard.

Other selected side dishes:

Left: Cornbread and chestnut stuffing. Right: Brussels sprouts with pine nuts.

Left: Yorkshire puddings (which are kind of like popovers). Center: Grilled broccoli rabe. Right: Cranberry chutney.

Just after 8:00, the guests had all arrived and the food was ready to serve. Dishes were lined up all along the edge of the kitchen counter, a buffet for which no plate had room enough!

I tried to get a little bit of everything on my plate but, alas, a dish or two may have been missed! I did try all of the main dishes and was in agreement with the other guests, all of whom preferred the sous-vide turkey to the traditional roast turkey. The Salmon Wellington was moist and perfectly cooked through but such a shame to have to cut the pastry in order to serve it!

Of course, the most memorable dinners are made not by the food – no matter how elaborate – but by the quality of the company. Tawn and I had the opportunity to dine with wonderful companions, some of them familiar faces and others new acquaintances. All of them, though, made our Christmas dinner an especially enjoyable one.

You may find this hard to believe, but some of us had enough room for dessert. Nat had prepared a trio of cakes. From the left: Strawberry and caramel angel food cake; coconut Christmas cake; and milk chocolate bombe. He also prepared homemade sauces – strawberry, coconut cream, and creamy caramel – to match the cakes. Since no cake is complete without ice cream, he made three flavors: dark chocolate, vanilla poppy seed, and pistachio.

I indulged in a slice of the strawberry caramel food cake but topped it with some coconut sauce, which had plenty of fresh coconut meat in it, and a scoop each of pistachio and vanilla poppy seed ice creams. What a spectacular end to the meal. Many thanks to our friend Nat for hosting this memorable Christmas dinner!

christao408

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

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