Asian-American Shrimp Salad



We made this quick Asian-American shrimp salad with some cold shrimps left from the night before. It's a great appetizer for a weekend brunch.

The Ingredients:

For the salad:

1 cup boiled, peeled and cooled medium size shrimp

1/2  cup coarsely chopped corriander

1/2 cup chopped green onions

3-4 tbs chopped dates. 

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

For the dressing:

2 tbs olive oil

1 tsp dijon mustard (or any very good quality mustard)

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper.

The recipe:

Simply mix the ingredients with the dressing and serve cold or at room temperature.



Egyptain Cauliflower Salad

This is a simple cauliflower salad adapted from My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy.
The Ingredients
1 small cauliflower
1 tbs. olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs chopped parsley

The Recipe
Separate the cauliflower into medium sized pieces and steam in a steamer (if you don't have a steamer you can boil the cauliflower whole in water and then cut it into pieces). Place in a bowl. Mix the olive oil, cumin, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Pour over the cauliflower and mix. Garnish with parsley.

Pasteles de Carne, Salonika Meat-Filled Pies

The recipe for these meat pies comes from the traditions of the Sefaradi Jewish community in Salonika, Greece. Our job last weekend required us to plan a Shabbat meal for 16 teenagers and we were sure these pies would be a success. Like many other recipes we've been trying lately this one was adapted from the excellent Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. The recipe requires some work, but is well worth the effort.

Ingredients (makes 15-18 pieces):

(for the dough)

125ml sunflower oil

125ml warm water

1/2 tsp salt

about 350 gr flour

(for the filling)

1 medium onion, chopped

3 tbs sunflower oil

250 gr minced beef

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

salt and pepper

1 hard boil egg, chopped

1 egg lightly beaten

4 tbs finely chopped parsley

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)

The Recipe

The dough 

To make the dough mix the oil, water and salt with a fork in a large bowl. Gradually add the flour, first mixing with a fork and then continuing with your hands. Continue to add flour until the dough feels soft and springy, like the lobe of your ear. Leave aside covered in saran-wrap at room temperature (do not refridgerate).

The filling

To make the filling fry the onion in oil until golden. Add the beef, salt and plenty of pepper. Stir occasionally until the meat changes color. Mix in the sugar, cumin and cinnamon. Also add the pine nuts if you choose to use them. Add about 4 tbs water and cook for 5 minutes more. Let it cool, then add the rest of the ingredients.

To make the pies

Take lumps of dough the size of a small egg and shape into a ball. Hollow them out with your fingers and shape into little pots with straight sides. Make the walls as thin as possible. Fill with the mixture. Cover each pie with a flat lid made by flattening a tiny ball of dough. Pinch the edges together all around to seal the pies.

Arrange on trays and brush the top with a beaten egg. Bake in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes or until golden. 

Tortilla Espanola, Potato Omelette

A Spanish omelette, Tortilla Espanola, is a very tasty and comforting dish. The simple mix of eggs onions and potatoes becomes a thick savory-sweet treat. The recipe is a bit tricky though, as it calls for some acrobatic abilities involving a flipping of the dish. All you need really is a large frying pan, a lid and a little practice.

We adapted the recipe from "Party Food"  by The Joy of Cooking cookbook series.

The Ingredients:

500 gr red-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into 3mm thick slices

1 large onion, sliced into 3mm thick slices

6 eggs, lightly beaten

olive oil

salt

ground black pepper

The recipe:

First fry the onion with 2 tbs olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When soft (about 15 minutes) remove to a large bowl.
In the same frying pan over high heat fry the potatoes with 1/5 cup olive oil. Cook until they become golden brown, and make sure to toss them while they cook. This is to prevent them from sticking together as much as possible. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels but keep the pan and oil for later use.

Now mix together the eggs, fried onion, 1/2 tsp salt and some black pepper. Add the potatoes and mix well.

Back to the frying pan, re-heat the oil. Pour the mixture into the pan and immediately reduce the heat to low. DO NOT Touch the omelet. Let it comfortably cook until it is 3/4 ready, only shaking the pan from time to time to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.

Now comes the tricky part. Slide a metal spatula under the omelet, making sure to free it completely from the pan. Place a lightly oiled plate or a lid on top of the pan, big enough to cover all of it. Now, with both hands, quickly flip the pan so that the omelet transfers to the lid part. Put the pan back on the stove and slide the omelet in. Cook for another few minutes until ready. (You are now a flipping master)

Serve hot or at room temperature.

New Year's Gefilte Fish

Here's a recipe we adapted for new year's eve from another excellent and famous cookbook we sometimes use: "The Book of Jewish Food" by Claudia Roden. Roden has traveled far to collect traditional recipes from Jewish homes around the globe. The result is a historical masterpiece on Jewish cuisine with an abundance of successful recipes.

Gefilte Fish was traditionally served as stuffed fish skin with chopped fish inside. Today only the stuffing is prepared by poaching fish balls in fish stock and serving them with stock jelly and carrot. It's not difficult work, but it takes a while as these balls need to go through several procedures.

The Ingredients:

(for the stock)

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, sliced

2 fish heads

2 tsp salt

3 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp white pepper

(for the fish balls)

1 medium onion

2 eggs

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

white pepper

75 gr matzo meal

1 kg fresh water fish fillets, skinned. Try to get carp for this. We used a mix of cod and halibut, but the balls didn't turn out firm enough.

The Recipe:

Put the stock ingredients in a saucepan, add 2.5 liters water  to cover the fish. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

For the fish balls put the onion, eggs, salt, sugar and pepper in a food processor and blend to a cream. Pour into a bowl and stir in the matzo meal. Next, cut the fish into pieces and mix in the food processor, making sure it is finely chopped but not paste. Add the fish to the eggs and matzo meal, mix well and keep covered in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

Shape the mixture into fist size balls with your hands wet, lower to the fish stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Cool, then take the balls out and arrange in a serving dish in one layer. Reduce the fish stock and strain it over the fish. Finally decorate with the carrot slices.

Leave to cool overnight in the refrigerator to let the jelly to form.

Georgian Spreads

Georgian cuisine has recently become one of our favorites (it is also especially excellent when you share a meal with a happy Georgian crowd and a few shots of homemade vodka). A basic dish served almost every meal is Mkhali, a garlicky walnut spread with herbs and always mixed with some sort of vegetable. Lucky for us we have a recipe in "The Geogian Feast" cookbook by Darra Goldstein, which we own, and that turns out so good it makes us go "wow" each time we taste it.
This recipe uses beets for the vegetable part, but regarding which vegetable you use, the options are endless. We tend to adapt it with something new every time.


Ingredients:

500 gr beets (on different occasions we also used spinach, celery and cauliflower)
1/2 cup shelled walnuts
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped coriander
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dried summer savory (if you can't find it - use dried sage)
1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp red wine vinegar



The recipe:

First prepare the beets. The best way is to bake them in the oven until they get soft (1-2 hours). You can also boil them but then the beets lose a great deal of their taste. We usually steam them in a steamer which also works well for other vegetables. This makes the process quick and the fresh taste of the vegetable is preserved.
While the beets are cooking, grind the walnuts, garlic and salt finely. Then, add the fresh herbs and continue grinding to make a fine and smooth paste (very important). Transfer to a bowl.

When the beets are soft, peel and grate them in a food processor. Mix the beets with the walnut paste and stir in the remaining ingredients. Taste. The Mkhali should be slightly tart and you might want to add a bit more vinegar.
Keep in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving, but serve at room temperature.

Wow.

Deep Fried Bananas

An all time favorite snack, deep fried bananas are easy, fun and de-licious!

To make the batter you'll need 1/2 cup shredded fresh coconut, 1/2 cup white flour, 1 cup rice flour, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar and 1 cup water.
First mix the flours with the egg. Then add salt and sugar and mix again. Finally add the shredded coconut and knead into a dough (Shredded fresh coconut may be difficult to come by outside of South East Asia. Instead, You can soak dried coconut in a few tablespoons of coconut cream to retrieve the moisture to the dried flakes).
Transfer the dough to a large shallow container. Pour water and mix with your hands until the dough is completely incorporated into the batter. For extra crunchiness you may add 3 tbsp soda water. Finally, add about 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds and mix well.


Heat oil in a wok, slice the bananas lengthwise, 1/2 cm thick, and immediately dip in the batter. Throw the slices into the oil and fry for several minutes until golden on each side. Be sure to use low heat so the bananas won't burn.
Frying the bananas takes a bit of practice so don't feel discouraged if you don't get it right the first few times.

Not only bananas work with this recipe. The batter goes well with many vegetables like sweet potato, taro or squash. experiment!

Khao Kiab Pak Moh

After we tried Khao Kiab Pak Moh at the market in Sukhothai we craved it for weeks. The steamed dumplings filled with savory-sweet peanut mix became a culinary mystery. Lucky for us Lee knew the recipe and even though it took some time to figure out (folding the steamed batter was not easy) it turned out exactly as we remembered it. Try this at home at your own risk though, this is not an easy one.

The filling is made from a paste of shallots and coriander root crushed in a mortar and pestle and sauteed with palm sugar and finely chopped pickled radish (you can use Japanese pickled daikon). It is then mixed with crushed roasted peanuts.


The batter, made of rice flour, tapioca flour and water, is applied like a crepe on a tightly stretched cheese cloth which covers a special pot with boiling water. The steam, coming through the cloth, cooks the liquid batter into an opaque thin dough which is then folded around the filling.

Fried cloves of garlic are poured over the dumplings as garnish.

Absolutely delicious.

Cooking Again, Bangkok

Our last day in Thailand was well spend with a final cooking class conducted privately by Lee at "Cafe The Flow". We collected a list of our favorite street food dishes and presented it to her a few days before. Lee showed no hesitation. She immediately jumped into her research, asking endless family members and "hawkers" (food stall owners) and came up with a fantastic one day workshop of Thailand's best: Fish ball soup, Satay sauce, Khao Mun Kai (Chinese chicken), Khao Kiab Pak Moh (steamed dumplings), sticky rice with mango and fried bananas. Yum, yum and yum.

Rice Paper, Cambodia

Another small family factory we encountered was making rice paper for spring rolls. An easy task when the whole family helps out.

Batter, made from rice flour and water, is spread on a white cloth over steaming water.

It quickly (about 20 seconds) becomes solid and is placed on tubes to be transferred to bamboo drying racks. They dry in the sun and are packaged for the market.

Sticky Rice in Bamboo, Cambodia

Our first day in Cambodia included lots and lots of tastings by the side of the road. We hired two friendly moto-bike drivers/in-the-know guides to show us the many makeshift family businesses in the villages of Battambang. Most villagers grow rice, but the profit is meager and not enough to support their families. So, many add some income by producing hand-made food products.

One of the more common products is sticky rice in bamboo. This fun snack is picked by the side of the road and has a dense and glutinous texture of sticky rice with a delicate tase of coconut. It is made from rice, coconut cream, salt and black beans all roasted in a bamboo shell. The process is long and difficult:

First the bamboo is cut into 30cm pieces (using a manual saw)


The pieces are cleaned and filled with the sticky rice mixture.


The tops are sealed with crumpled banana leaf and then placed to roast on a grill for half an hour.


When they're ready, the burned shell of the bamboo is removed with an axe.

The final product is peeled like a banana, and you eat it with your hands.

Loi Krathong Street Snacks, Chiang Mai

We happen to be in town during the Loi Krathong festival. While the sky was lit with drifting lanterns and floating candles crowded the river, stalls took over the streets, selling local specialities. Unfortunately we could not taste them all (nor completely identify them). Sit-down dinner was gladly replaced by an all night snacking frenzy. This just might turn into a habit...

Grilled omelet in a folded banana leaf mixed with a choice of mushrooms, crab or shrimp.


Take away sticky rice in different ways: sweet, savory, with coconut or chillies and folded in pretty banana leaf packaging. Hard to resist.

Pumpkin fritters smothered in batter.

The Cooking Class

Chiang Mai offers many cooking classes. We randomly picked one and had a go. The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School is one of the more popular establishments for vacationing Brits and Aussies searching for a way to impress their mothers back home. The course was well run (considering the large number of participants, we were 30!) and consisted of demonstrations and individual practice. We cooked and enjoyed 6 dishes in 6 hours and went home satisfied.

Fellow chefs at lunchtime.


Tom Yam Goong.
This famous fresh Thai soup is so easy and quick to prepare. All you need to do is chop garlic, shallots, lemon grass and galangal root and add them to a chicken/fish/veg broth. Wait till it boils then add cubed straw mushrooms and tomatoes. After a couple of minutes add chopped chillies, fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves and cook on low heat for 2 minutes. Finally, throw in some fresh prawns (clean an headless) or chunks of white fish (but don't over cook). Remove from heat, squeeze in lime juice and top with coriander.

Ingredients clockwise: tomato, straw mushroom, lemon grass, lime, purple shallot, galagal root (the pinkish chunk) and kaffir lime leaf.


Tom Yam soup, ready.


Tord Man Plaa, a deep fried fish patty is made out of ground white fish, red curry paste, fish sauce, tapioca flour, baking powder, palm sugar, shredded kaffir lime leaves and thinly sliced green beans. Just mix the ingredients and deep fry in a wok until brown.


Laap Gai is a spicy chicken salad served with cold cucumber. To make this one you need to toss minced chicken breast, sliced shallots, finely chopped galagal, fish sauce, lime juice and chili powder together in a wok. When the chicken is cooked, remove from heat and mix in chopped fresh spring onion, coriander and mint.

A Snack Stall in Sukhothai

As we returned from our long day at the Sukhothai Historical Park, a stall with a queue caught our attention at the market. Like all stalls in Thailand which usually specialize in one or two dishes, this one does only two snacks, found in Central Thailand.

Khao Yum Nam Kuk is a crunchy cold spicy salad. The base of this salad is deep fried rice balls made from white rice, egg, garlic, pepper, soy sauce, coriander root, fried bread crumbs (panko) and coconut flakes. To make the actual salad you have to mash these with your fingers adding ground pork (may substitute with chicken or tofu), chili pepper, shallots, sugar and fish sauce. Vinegar, dried shrimp and more fried bread crumbs can be added to taste. Top with fried peanuts and eat wrapped in a green mustard leaf.


Khao Kiab Pak Moh is a savory and sweet Thai dumpling steamed over a pot covered in thin white cloth. The batter is a mixture of rice flour, corn starch and water and the filling is a combination of salted preserved daikon raddish, fish sauce, palm sugar and peanuts all ground together.
The batter is treated like a crepe on the cloth, when the color becomes opaque it is divided, filled and swirled into a dumpling.


The finished product is served with coconut cream and flakes, with a side order of coriander.