Somewhere between Pride and Gluttony

Posted on 14 September 2010 by christao408

I know pride is one of the seven mortal sins, so I’m going to try to write this entry in the least prideful way possible. Going through my photos of food I’ve cooked this year, I thought there were several pretty pictures so I posted them all as a Facebook album. When I was looking at the main page of the album, I was pretty satisfied with the way it looked.

Looks pretty professional, right? Of course, looks can be deceiving! But since they are all about food, I’m not sure if the sin I’m committing is more one of pride or one of gluttony.

Preserved Lemons

Posted on 14 September 2010 by christao408

Limes are a popular fruit in Thai cooking, are plentiful, and are generally inexpensive. Lemons, on the other hand, are none of these. In fact, there is no word in Thai for “lemon” – they just use the same word as lime and, when necessary, say “yellow lime” to distinguish. That’s one reason you are likely to order an iced lemon tea only to remark at how much it tastes like lime. But I recently found a reasonably good price on lemons, about half their regular cost, so bought a dozen in order to try preserving lemons.

Preserved lemons are a staple of Moroccan and other Middle Eastern cuisines and provide a certain unique flavor that fresh lemons cannot provide. One food writer said that if you couldn’t find preserved lemons, it was better to substitute capers rather than fresh lemons, so different are the tastes. Curious, I decided to try preserving my own lemons, something that several recipes promised is easy to do.

The ingredient are simple: lemons, salt (I used sea salt from Samut Songkhram province), and spices – coriander seed, cloves, bay leaf, pepper corns, and cinnamon were recommended and I decided to add some cardamom pods, too.

After purchasing a Fido pickling jar at Muji and washing and sterilizing it, I cut about 1/4 inch off from each end of the lemon, making them flat. Then I cut them into quarters, slicing down almost the entire way but leaving the quarters connected at the bottom. I then liberally salted the insides of the slices.

After lining the bottom of the jar with a few tablespoons of salt, I mushed lemons in, alternating each layer of lemons with a generous sprinkling of salt and spices. I kept layering until the jar was tightly packed and then added the juice of two additional lemons to fill up the remaining space. Close the lid, shake a few times to help the salt dissolve, and that’s it.

Now all I have to do is wait. I’m supposed to leave the jar on the counter at room temperature for a week or so, and then can transfer the jar to the refrigerator for at least another three weeks before using. I’ll keep an eye on these and once they are complete, will write a follow-up entry.

After finishing this process, Tawn told me that we can buy Chinese preserved lemons (used in some Cambodian dishes among other things, I understand) at local markets here. But where would be the fun in just buying them?

Making Xiao Long Bao with No Roadmap

Posted on 12 September 2010 by christao408

One of the training classes around career development I’ve written for my company lays out the premise that you can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are going and how you will get there. Having a clear destination and taking the time to plan your route are important of course, not just in career development but in cooking, too. So it was all but certain that my desire to make Xiao Long Bao (Shanghainese soup dumplings, hereafter abbreviated as XLB) was bound to fail as I had no clear road map for getting there.

I definitely had my destination in mind! XLB are my favorite Chinese dumpling and my favorite place to have them is at Din Tai Fung, a chain originating in Taipei. In fact, here’s a little video about Din Tai Fung’s XLB from my November trip to Taipei with Tawn to visit Andy and Sugi.

The destination was clear, but as I started reading the recipes and learning about the technique, I realized that this was going to be a lot more effort than I was ready to expend for some weeknight dumplings. Surely, I thought, I could just find my way through the wilderness without a map. Couldn’t I just, you know, feel my way to the XLB?

(Yeah, you know where this story is going, don’t you?)

I started with what I did know about XLB: the filling was a mixture of minced pork, ginger, garlic, green onions, soy sauce, rice wine, and white pepper. Easy enough. I gathered those together.

The “secret ingredient” of these soup dumplings is that you gelatinize broth and mix the cubes of the gelatine into the filling so that the broth melts as the dumplings steam, leaving a nice pool of juicy goodness to slurp up as you eat the XLB. So I used some broth and some gelatine and made broth jell-o. Easy enough.

When I mixed the cubes of broth into the pork mixture, though, the kitchen was too warm and they started melting. Before you knew it, I had no more cubes but instead had a watery filling mixture. Oh, no!

The next step was to fill the dumpling wrappers with that perfect twisted pleat, shown above in the handiwork of the Din Tai Fung cooks. I was using gyoza (potsticker) wrappers purchased premade at the store. Even before I started filling them, I had a suspicion that my lack of a road map was going to lead me down a dead-end street. Sure enough, I couldn’t get the gyoza wrappers to hold that pleated shape.

Getting hungry, I just went with a simple half-moon fold, trying to satisfy myself with being able to keep the runny filling (thanks to the no longer gelatinous broth) from leaking out.

The end result wasn’t pretty but actually tasted just fine. Nobody in their right mind would confuse this mess of a dumpling with XLB, but for a weeknight it was good enough. Sometimes, driving without a road map takes you somewhere other than you intended, but a place that is perfectly suitable nonetheless.

More Dining on Sukhumvit Soi 38

Posted on 11 September 2010 by christao408

More than a year ago I wrote about Sukhumvit Soi 38, a small alley near the Thong Lo BTS Skytrain station that is lined with food shops that are open only at night, at which time they spill out into the street. Soi 38 offers a lot of variety, freshness, and affordability, even if “fancy” isn’t on the menu. The other evening we went there for dinner and I thought I’d share a glimpse of the tasty dishes we enjoyed.

Guaytiaw kua gai – Stir fried wide rice noodles with scrambled egg and chicken.

Guaytiaw kua gung – Same as above but with shrimp.

Yam woon sen talay – Vermicili salad with seafood, dressed with a mixture of lime juice, fish sauce, and chili.

Bami giaw moo krob – Egg noodles with wontons and crispy pork

Noodles in Thailand always come with condiments – the final seasoning is up to the diner. The four most common condiments, usually served is a container with four glass or ceramic jars, are soy sauce (in this case, served in a Coke bottle!), sugar, crushed red chili flakes, and fresh chilies in vinegar. Also notice that the egg noodles, which I ordered “dry” (they could also come in a broth) are served with the broth on the side.

Sunday Date Brunch

Posted on 5 September 2010 by christao408

This is going to be the final word on dates for the time being. I invited two couples, Doug and Bee and Ken and Chai, over for Sunday brunch. Since I had been on such a roll this week with date-themed recipes, it became something like an Iron Chef challenge. This meal’s challenge ingredient: dates. In all humility, it turned out pretty darn good. Let me share the menu with you.

An amuse bouche of sedai dates stuffed with a little French chèvre (soft goat cheese) and a sliver of almond. What a tasty combination! The orange rind, which I should have salted, was more for presentation than flavor. Had it been salted, I think it would have been a nice contrast and would have really stimulated the appetite.

Two of our four guests – Doug and Bee. Doug is a fellow American who lives in our neighborhood. Credit goes to Tawn for the elegantly understated table setting.

Two types of flatbreads. Both were brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. The one of the left has freshly chopped rosemary. The one of the right has za’atar, a Middle Easter spice mixture that contains oregano, thyme, basil, savory, and sesame seeds.

Greek style salad with fresh romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, roasted red peppers, olives and Feta cheese. Served with a homemade lemon vinaigrette dressing. (The dressing recipe is here)

The main course was the Moroccan style braised chicken. This picture doesn’t quite flatter the dish, which I thought was the standout of the meal. Wednesday’s Moroccan Pork Chop dinner (my blog entry about it and the original recipe I followed) was the starting point. Based on what I learned from that recipe, I repurposed it for chicken. Zakiah suggested a recipe for tamarind-date sauce (thank you – what a great idea!) and I extrapolated from that and braised the chicken instead of just pan frying it.

The chicken was brined for four hours in a mixture of buttermilk, salt, and cayenne pepper. While it was brining, I created a tamarind-date sauce. This was a learning experience as I haven’t worked with tamarind paste before.

Tamarind paste comes from the flesh of the ripe fruit of the tropical Tamarind tree. The flesh is very sour with just a hint of sweetness. Mashing the paste in a little warm water, you can extract a thick liquid with which you cook. A little goes a long way! To make the sauce, I sauteed an onion with the same spices I used for the chicken. Once the onion was soft I blended it with chopped dates and the tamarind water. Then I thinned this mixture with broth and cooked it down for a few minutes.

While the sauce reduced, I rinsed, patted dry, and dredged the chicken pieces with a spice mixture, then pan fried them a few pieces at a time. Once all the pieces had formed a nice crust, I returned them to the pot and added the tamarind-date sauce, covered the pot and cooked for an hour at low heat until the chicken was tender and cooked through. The nice thing about this recipe was that it could be prepared the day before then reheated. Tender, flavorful, and convenient.

To accompany the chicken, I made another batch of the Moroccan style rice. (Recipe I started with but I modified it a lot as I don’t cook with a microwave.) I was out of apricots so used dates, raisins, and dried mango to accompany the rice. Interestingly, this batch turned out much softer and mushier than the one I made Wednesday. I used the same type of rice and proportion of rice to liquid as before, but the rice was from a new bag. All I can figure is that this bag of rice was younger and didn’t need as much liquid. Still, plenty tasty!

For dessert, we has two items. The first was a date nute bread (recipe) from Ina Garten of the Barefoot Contessa series of cookbooks. This is a quick bread similar to banana bread or zucchini bread. I think I overcooked it a little as it was dry. Tawn, however, likes his food drier than I do, so he thought it was perfect! Toasted, I think it would make no difference. On the side is a tub of butter whipped with a little honey and orange zest.

The final dish was a Greek Yoghurt Panna Cotta with dried apricots reconstituted in a white wine and honey sauce. (Recipe) This turned out very nice as the panna cotta is not overly sweet and has a nice tanginess from the yoghurt. Of course, by this point we were stuffed, and smaller servings would have been fine!

All in all, the brunch was a success. Pleasant company and conversation, most importantly, and the food turned out nicely, too!

Cooking with Dates – Moroccan Rice and Pork Chops

Posted on 1 September 2010 by christao408

Now that we had a nice box of dates as a gift from Tawn’s boss, the only question was, what to do with them? Okay, the premise is a bit misleading. I always have some dates on hand and add them to my oatmeal every morning. And I’m certainly not going to use the expensive, plump fresh dates for cooking – they’re perfect for snacking or stuffing with candied almonds or goat cheese. But the receipt of the dates did get me thinking about ways to incorporate dates into my cooking beyond the oatmeal, so I was inspired to try some Moroccan-themed recipes.

Before anyone accuses me of not being authentic, or of using pork in a recipe ostensibly from a Muslim country, let me acknowledge the disconnects. These recipes were more “loosely inspired by the cuisine of Morocco” than anything else.

I didn’t strictly follow a recipe – no surprise there – but used one as a guide. I prepared jasmine rice, since it was handy, in a rice cooker with a mixture of half water and half chicken broth, adding a cinnamon stick, some cardamom pods, and some cloves.

While it was cooking, I fried a small onion, finely diced, with cumin, tumeric, ground cinnamon, paprika, and chili powder until fragrant, then added chopped pine nuts, slivered almonds, chopped dried apricots, chopped dates (you were wondering when I’d get to that, weren’t you?) and the zest of half a lemon.

After the rice was finished, I pulled out the cardamom and cloves, then stirred in the onion, spice, and fruit mixture. I added a little salt and pepper to taste and garnished with some green onions. If I had had some coriander (cilantro) I would have added that, too.

The pork chops (you could use chicken, too) were marinated in a brine of 2 cups buttermilk, 1 tbsp of salt, and a generous dash of cayenne pepper. After two hours, I rinsed the buttermilk off, patted the meat dry with towels, and then coated it with a mixture of flour, brown sugar, ground coriander seed, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Fried the chops for a few minutes to get a crust, and then moved the pan to the oven until the internal temperature reached 160 F. While the pork chops rested on a plate, tented loosely with foil, I made a sauce from the drippings, using chicken stock, raisins, green onions, and a little corn starch as a thickener.

This was a tremendously tasty meal and I’ll have to experiment with it further and see what other things I can do with the basic idea. Chicken is next on my list, maybe for a brunch this Sunday.

Dates

Posted on 1 September 2010 by christao408

One of my favorite fruits is dates. There are many different types, of course, but in my mind there are few things that are more of a treat to eat than a date. Last week, Tawn’s boss was in Abu Dhabi for work. When she returned, she gave Tawn this beautiful gift box.

Opening the box, we found a kilogram of fresh dates. Fat, plump, sweet dates. What a thoughtful gift. These are segai dates, which often develop a light patch near the top of date and are grown in Saudi Arabia. In fact, there are more than two dozen varieties of dates sold by this company, Bateel.

My appreciation of dates started in childhood, when during one spring break we drove to Southern California on vacation, spending a day at the Indio Date Festival (now the Riverside County Fair and Date Festival) in Indio, California. Camel races, date shakes, date ice cream, displays on dates – it was a regular date-o-rama.

We also drove to Twenty-nine Palms, then down by the Salton Sea, and walked across the border into Tecate, Mexico during the afternoon siesta, then continued to San Diego later in the week. Not many things I remember from the trip, but I do remember the Date Festival!

Food in BKK: Le Normandie

Posted on 25 August 2010 by christao408

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, which traces its history to 1876 as the first hotel in the Kingdom of Siam, remains one of the finest hotels in Asia. Its legendary service and refined elegance leaves you half-expecting to find such famous visitors of years past as Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward sitting in the lobby or the colonial-style Authors’ Lounge.

Sitting atop the 10-story Garden Wing, which was home to Thailand’s first elevator (1958), is the most famous French restaurant in town: Le Normandie. It was there that we gathered for lunch Sunday afternoon to celebrate the marriage of one of Tawn’s university friends, Ko. She and her husband Per were married in a civil ceremony in Sweden a few weeks back. He will move here later this year and their Thai wedding celebration, certain to be much more lavish, will be held in December.

Photo courtesy of the Mandarin Oriental Group

Joining Ko, Tawn, and me was their other university friend, Bim. Both Bim and Ko are foodies, so this seemed as good a place as any to indulge and celebrate. Le Normandie, which is elegantly appointed in buttery yellow silks, mirrors, and fine chandeliers, has a view and a price tag to suit. What isn’t widely known is that each summer, which is low season here in Thailand, Le Normandie offers a summer prix fixe menu – this summer only 1100 baht ($35) for three courses.

In addition to the beautiful wall treatments and lighting fixtures, both sides of the room have floor-to-ceiling windows offering spectacular views of the city on one side and the Chao Phraya River on the other. The dining room is decorated with beautiful arrangements of fresh flowers, too.

Something that you are paying for at Le Normandie is the service, which is every bit as prompt and attentive as you would expect in a fine restaurant in Paris. The roast is carved tableside, plates are placed at the table simultaneously by the waiters, the proper utensils are discreetly placed on the table between courses, etc. Living in a city where most of the fine dining restaurants struggle to get the diners’ main courses to the table within ten minutes of each other, having the plates gently placed on the table at the same moment is a thrill!

Fresh breads of all sorts were brought before and throughout the meal, a variety of brioche, whole grain bread, sourdough, baguette, etc. that were freshly baked that morning and served warm. The butter was molded with a italicized “N” on top, served in a proper glass dish with silver lid.

After ordering, the chef sent an amuse bouche to tease our appetite. Sorry that the focus on the right isn’t sharp. The shot glass is a tomato jelly with avocado soup and a passion fruit foam. On the left is a slice of squash mousse with broccoli salad topped with a roll of chicken mousse wrapped in thinly sliced duck breast. Yummy!

Entrées

Tawn and I both ordered this beautiful dish: buisson d’asperges vertes, crème aux graines de pavot, œuf de poule prise en gelée, tartare de légumes safranés , which is a “buisson” or pile of green asparagus with poached egg, poppy seed cream, and saffron scented vegetable tartar.

Translating that further, that base was formed of asparagus spears set upright in an aspic, or gelatin, base. The poached egg, served cool but with a runny yolk, was inside the “crown” of asparagus and held into place with a little more aspic. The vegetables around the base were mostly tomatoes and pepper and had a nice saffron aroma. Once the plate was served, the waiter came over with a sauce dish of warm poppy seed cream and spooned it into the center of the crown.

When I cut into it, the cream and egg yolk came running out in what was both an amazing, and an amazingly beautiful, mess. The dish was really nicely prepared and what was especially pleasing about it was the amount of effort and technique that had gone into it. It was a good example of the elevation of food to art.

Ko ordered esquinade d’araignée, courgette et salicoque e la vapeur, émulsion au chorizo, which was a spider sea crab meat with poached prawn and zucchini, served with chorizo sausage sauce. I didn’t try it but she said it was very nice. Beautiful plating, too.

Bim ordered the vibrant green cuisses de grenouilles en fricassée, raviole Provençale, parmesan et sherry Tio-Pepe – a frog leg fricassee with Provençale ravioli, parmesan and Tio-Pepe sherry sauce. She really enjoyed this dish.

Between courses, here are the beautiful and intelligent Bim (left) and Ko (right). While there were many other friends who couldn’t make it, I can’t imagine anyone who would have been better to enjoy this meal with.

Plat Principal

The main courses were just as artful and tasty as the entrées. Bim and Ko both had the filet de Saint-Pierre confit, croustillant de lard Ibérique a l’abricot et jus a la vanille, which was a John Dory fillet with apricot wrapped in Iberico ham and a vanilla-berry essence.

Tawn had the cabillaud à la Boulangère, vin de Jura, cappuccino des sous-bois et sauce au café , which was cod fish Boulangere style with Jura wine, forest mushroom cappuccino and a coffee sauce. The fish was beautifully prepared, moist and flaky. The sauce was interesting as it had just the faintest hint of coffee to it.

I didn’t stray far from convention, enjoying a flavorful pièce de bœuf rôti, gratin de tomates cerise, échalote en chemise et sauce au poivre, or roasted beef with cherry tomato gratin, shallot and pepper corn sauce. It was very tasty.

Desserts

After the main course, the dessert cart was rolled over, featuring a half-dozen types of cakes and four stewed fruit compotes including fig and rhubarb. We could choose two selections and the waiter prepared each plate, saucing and decorating it differently. It took about five minutes per plate but the results, as you can see below, were beautiful.

A cappuccino cake that was calling to me from the dessert cart, although I settled on this one instead:

My marscapone cheese cake with vanilla sauce and rhubarb compote.

A raspberry mousse cake and a chocolate cake – Tawn’s selections.

While tea and coffee were served, two trays of beautiful and tasty macarons were served: chocolate-raspberry, caramel, chocolate-orange, and green tea.

While we didn’t partake of them, there was a cart loaded with fine after dinner drinks. I’m not a brandy drinker, but there is something about an after-dinner drink that seems very refined.

After an enjoyable, nearly three hour dining experience above the banks of the Chao Phraya River. What an elegant and pleasant way to celebrate a friend’s wedding. If only her new husband had been there to enjoy it, too!

Miso Glazed Fish Fillet and Apple Cobbler

Posted on 22 August 2010 by christao408

When trying to think of what to make for a meal, I often turn to cookbooks. Not so much for the recipes themselves – I have a habit of not following those very closely – but for an idea, an inspiration of something that sounds good and fits the constraints of time, money, and interest. So it was that Thursday afternoon I was flipping through Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home which Tawn had left out.

“Menu 8: Tofu and Scallions in Mushroom Broth; Miso-Glazed Fish Fillets; Seasame Brown Rice and Cabbage; and Caramelized Persimmons.”

Two words from that over-ambitious menu leapt off the page: Miso-Glazed.

The concept was simple enough: prepare a glaze made of just four ingredients: mirin (Japanese sweet rice cooking wine) or, not having that, sake; rice wine vinegar; miso paste; and sugar. I keep miso paste in the fridge because it lasts pretty much forever and is a handy flavor enhancer. Sake and rice wine vinegar are nice items to keep in the cupboard. And instead of sugar, some maple syrup would add a nice touch.

Salmon would have been a fantastic choice of fish, too, but Martha suggested black cod. I went with her suggestion, taking a single good sized fillet, placing it on a baking sheet. To make clean-up easy, I lined the baking sheet with some parchment paper and lightly oiled it so the fish wouldn’t stick. Brush a generous coating of miso glaze on the fish and then put it under the broiler for about 6-8 minute, or until the top is nicely browned and the fish is opaque throughout.

I served the fish on top of some mashed potatoes with a chopped salad on the side. I make my mashed potatoes with butter, an ingredient that some people like to demonize but I think a little butter will go a long way to making your potatoes nice. I also added some leftover sour cream and some chopped fresh rosemary to give it a tang and a nice piney aroma.

For dessert, an apple cobbler. I used pink lady apples, chopped small with the skin still on. Cooked them in a saucepan for a few minutes with a little bit of sugar, a little bit of water, a little bit of corn starch, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook until starting to soften and add a little more water if necessary in order to get a bit of a not-too-thick sauce with the apples.

Put the apples into an over-proof dish. I topped it with a homemade sweet biscuit dough, similar to what I use for shortcake. Flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and a little sugar. Cut in some vegetable shortning (Crisco) to the size of peas, and then add either buttermilk (or, if you don’t have that, milk) and stir just until combined. Put the dough on the top of the fruit leaving a few openings for steam to escape. I put a few slices of butter on top of that and sprinkled on some raw sugar for a nice visual. Bake in a 350 F oven for about 25 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and the crust is golden. Serve once cooled to room temperature with ice cream, whipped cream, or just a little pour of fresh cream. Key word here: cream.

Fish Tacos with Avocado-Cilantro Lime Cream Sauce

Posted on 21 August 2010 by christao408

First, off, this isn’t my recipe. It came from Michael, known variously as Arenadi on Xanga and chow on IReallyLikeFood.com. He’s been AWOL for the last several months, wrapped up working on a congressional campaign in Hawai’i. He took the time a week or two back to post this recipe on his Facebook account and it sounded so good I figured I should do my part to share it with Xangaland.

As is often the case, I managed to vary the recipe a bit. It still turned out quite nicely.

Fish Tacos with Avocado-Cilantro Lime Cream Sauce

You’ll need:

Yellow Corn Tortillas (the 4-5 inch kind)
Red Cabbage
Red Onion
Cilantro
Garlic
Avocado
Mayonnaise
Lime
Tabasco Sauce
Cream or Half-and-Half
Fish (firm white fish – snapper or cod are good)
Panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)
Egg

Prep work:

First thing you want to do is get your mise en place set up for dressing the tacos. This means chopping the red cabbage and mincing the red onion. Chop your cilantro roughly. Slice your avocado about 1/4″ thick and remove the skin.

Put a handful of cilantro, a clove of garlic, about 1/4 of the avocado, a liberal dousing of Tabasco sauce, the juice of 1/4 of a Lime, a small scoop of mayonnaise, and about 2 Tbsp of cream into a blender/ food processor, and combine until you have a nice creamy sauce. Add more or less cream depending on how “loose” you want the sauce. Not being one to follow instructions carefully, I put the entire avocado into the sauce, making it very avocado-y and leaving none left for the taco itself. That’s okay, though.

Optionally, make some salsa.

This wasn’t in Michael’s recipe, but it is easy to make. Chop some tomatoes, onion, chili peppers (to taste), and green pepper and pulse a few times in a blender or food processor. Add some cilantro and a few more chopped tomatoes and then season to taste. A squirt of lime juice is nice. Some salt will work, too.

Make the taco shells:

Note – if you like your tacos soft shell (the way I do) you can skip this step, opting instead just to warm up the tortillas in the microwave or in a skillet.

Heat your oil in a skillet at about 1 to 2 inches depth to about 320 F. Using tongs or chopsticks, hold half of the tortilla into the oil and let it cook for about 30 seconds. Release it, pick up the other side (that was in the oil), and hold the side that wasn’t in the oil down into the oil to cook. Repeat until the desired crispness is achieved.

Cook the fish:

Heat the oil (1 to 2 inches) in a skillet to about 340 F. Cut your fish into strips. Roll in some flour and then shake to remove excess. Then dip the fish into a beaten egg, and then roll it in the panko bread crumbs. Fry fish strips in the skillet for about 3 minutes and then turn over for another 2 minutes. Note that the timing will depend upon the thickness of the fish and could be much shorter. It is a good idea to try one piece first, remove it once browned and cut it open and see if it is cooked through. Increase or lower the heat as necessary to ensure that the fish isn’t browning on the outside before the inside is cooked the way you like it.

To assemble:

Place red cabbage (you’ll notice I used green, which tastes fine) and red onion on the tortillas. Lay avocado slices on top of that. (Whoops – none left thanks to my mistake with the sauce!) Lay the fish on top of that. Put a nice dollop of avocado-cilantro sauce on the fish. Add some salsa (optional), a squeeze of lime, a splash of Tabasco sauce, and you are ready to serve.

Serve with some black beans on the side. I made some homemade beans with some sofrito to flavor them – a combination of onions, red bell peppers, and various spices. Easy and very healthy.

The finished product. Very tasty. Extremely tasty. That avocado sauce is amazing. Deep-frying the fish was an extra step that might be more work than I’d always want to put into it, but I think I could have just pan fried the fish and it would have turned out equally nice.

Thanks to Michael for sharing this recipe with me and I hope he puts it on his Xanga site soon enough.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: food

Somewhere between Pride and Gluttony

Preserved Lemons

Making Xiao Long Bao with No Roadmap

More Dining on Sukhumvit Soi 38

Sunday Date Brunch

Cooking with Dates – Moroccan Rice and Pork Chops

Dates

Food in BKK: Le Normandie

Miso Glazed Fish Fillet and Apple Cobbler

Fish Tacos with Avocado-Cilantro Lime Cream Sauce