Noodles! Noodles! Noodles!

I was wondering what the difference is between noodles and pasta so I looked both words up in a variety of dictionaries.  In almost every case, a noodle was described as a strip of unleavened egg dough and pasta was described as a flour and egg dough made from semolina.  Really?  Can they be serious?  I find these definitions ridiculously limiting in their scope!  What about noodles made from rice, or mung beans, or cassava?  What about gluten-free pasta or pasta made from soybeans? 

What about all these noodles............

..........package after package of noodles, and almost half of them don't have any regular flour or semolina!

The other day I was in the mood for pasta, today I wanted noodles.  I'm still not sure what the difference is, but here's how I sort of think of it:  I think of pasta as being used in European dishes and noodles as being used in Asian dishes.  And I particularly love rice noodles.  They're slurpy and delicious and can be gummy or slightly chewy.

Last week I was flipping through t.v. channels and I stumbled across Martha Stewart.  I've never watched her show since I've always thought I don't like her.  "How can you not like her when you've never seen her show?" you ask.....  I don't know.  I guess I don't like her image as portrayed in the media.  She seems a bit stuffy to me.  But anyway... this was In the Kitchen With Martha Stewart, or something like that, and she had a guest on who authored one of my favorite cookbooks, Hot Sour Salty Sweet.  If you don't already own this cookbook, you need to stop reading right here and run out directly to buy it.  Or, better yet, open a second browser window and order it from amazon.com.

This guy, Jeffrey Alford, and his wife, Naomi Duguid, spent a couple of years traveling around southeast Asia eating great food and collecting recipes.  Actually, browsing through this book is sort of a love/hate thing for me.  The cookbook is amazing, but it's impossible for me to browse through the book and not feel that little green monster climbing up my back.  I wish I had been the one to eat my way through Asia and write about it!

Anyway, this book is filled with gorgeous pictures from their travels, fascinating information about the evolution of food traditions, interesting anecdotes, and wonderful recipes.  The recipe Jeffrey was showing Martha how to make was one out of his cookbook that I had already tried.  Today, it sounded like just what I was in the mood for so off I went to buy the ingredients missing from my kitchen.  I actually had all the pantry ingredients but had to buy the baby bok choy and the pork butt.

Here's my somewhat modified version of the recipe for Noodles with Greens and Gravy

1 lb wide dried rice noodles
peanut oil
1/4 c. minced garlic
1 lb thinly sliced pork butt or shoulder
2 t sugar plus a pinch
1 1/2 to 2 lb baby bok choy
2 T fermented soybean paste (mashed, if needed)
2 T soy sauce
3 T fish sauce
3 T rice vinegar
1 t pure chili powder (or to taste.  I use Indian chili powder)
2 1/2 c. chicken broth
2 T cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 c. water
chopped peanuts


Soften the rice noodles in hot water and then quickly pan fry them in a T of peanut oil.  Do this in two batches so you can press them against the wok as they cook.  Remove the noodles and set aside.

Mix together the soybean paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, 2 t sugar and chili powder.

Next fry the garlic in another T of peanut oil until it starts to brown (usually, cookbooks tell you not to let garlic brown as it will turn bitter, but Alford claims that golden brown garlic is a Thai tradition and actually, it has a great flavor!) then throw in the thinly sliced pork and add a pinch of sugar.  Cook until it starts to lose it's pink color and then toss in the bok choy.  Press the bok choy against the wok and cook until it starts to wilt.

Dump in the sauce ingredients.  Stir and mix.  Add the chicken broth and bring to a quick boil.  Cover the wok and let everything steam for a minute or so.  Remove the cover and add the cornstarch slurpy.  Stir and let simmer until the sauce thickens.

To serve, place some noodles on a plate or in a large bowl and ladle the sauce over top.  Sprinkle with fresh cracked pepper and peanuts and dig in.  This dish is so good.....really!  And once you have all the ingredients assembled, it goes together quickly!

My favorite breakfast

I ate a lot of interesting and wonderful food the year I lived in Hyderabad, India.  One of my favorites was a simple breakfast of chapatis with banana cream.   In the 30 plus years since my India experience, I've tried many times to make chapatis.  They always turn out o.k. but nowhere near as flaky and delicious as the ones I used to eat in India. 

Fortunately, there are many frozen products available that to my taste are every bit as good as the breads I used to eat in India.  These products can be found in Indian and Asian grocery stores (and even George's on Broadway).  My favorite is the roti made by Kawan and can be found in the freezer section at Saigon on Calhoun Street.

These cook up quickly and effortlessly!  They are so thin and inconsequential looking when you first take them out of the bag, you may think they aren't going to be very good.  But they cook up thick and flaky and absolutely delicious! 

To cook, you just throw a frozen disc into a pre-heated pan and cook until golden and puffed.

To make the banana cream, mash a rip banana onto a plate, sprinkle with a little sugar and drizzle a little cream or half and half.  Mash and mix.

That's it!  This is eaten without silverware.  To eat it, you tear off a piece of bread and use it to scoop up some banana cream.  Try it, and unless you have an aversion to bananas, you are going to LOVE it!

Pasta for supper....

I've been thinking about pasta all day so as supper time rolled around, I decided to make a big pot for supper.  I didn't have a particular recipe I was following but I had an idea in my head of what sounded good.  I started by oven roasting a bunch of vegetables; red onions, zucchini, baby portobellos, sugar snap peas, and red peppers.  I tossed them with olive oil, a handful of fresh sage, and some s&p and roasted them at 400 until they caramelized.

While that was going on, I mixed up some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, crushed garlic, Indian chili powder and salt and marinated about a pound of chicken tenders.

When the vegetables were done, I heated up a T or so of olive oil and pan fried the chicken.  I did this over high heat because I wanted the chicken to caramelize a bit and take on a rich, deep golden brown.  After removing the chicken, I deglazed the pan with some dry sherry and then stirred in some chicken broth and heavy cream.

I sliced the veggies and chicken and added them to the pan.  Finally, I stirred in a handful of fresh basil.

To serve, I ladled the sauce over farfalle pasta, topped it with a couple dollops of goat cheese and sprinkled it with toasted pine nuts.  It turned out great!

It's now going on 7:00 and I'm still the only one home.  I wonder if that means I can finish off all the pasta myself?

Coconut Crème Brûlée

Talking about coconuty Filipino doughnuts the other day, brought to mind one of my all-time favorite desserts.  Anybody I have ever served this creme brulee to, has moaned in delight at the first bite.  I even had a vegan dinner guest suck one down and finger-lick the little custard cup after listening to everyone else around her moaning in pleasure. 

The custard is made with egg yolks, coconut milk, heavy cream, and coconut rum.  After the custards are baked and cooled, sugar is sprinkled on the tops and they are passed under the broiler.  The result is a delightfully crunchy crust which you break through to scoop out the silky, creamy custard.

I decided to make a batch of these for the family tonight.  One of the great things about this recipe is that it fills eight custard cups and there are only four in our family.  You do the math!  I had to think long and hard about sharing the recipe because I like be the only one who knows how to make these, but here goes....

1 c. sweetened flaked coconut (divided)
3/4 c. sugar plus 8 T
7 large egg yolks
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1 1/3 c. heavy cream
2 T coconut rum (such as Malibu)
1/2 t salt

Toast 1/2 cup of the coconut in a 350 oven.  (10 - 12 minutes stirring frequently)

Mix together 3/4 c. sugar and the egg yolks.

Bring the heavy cream, coconut milk, and coconut (both the toasted and untoasted) to a gentle simmer.

Gradually whisk the cream mixture into the egg mixture.  Stir in the rum and the salt.  Pour the mixture through a fine-meshed strainer. 

Fill eight custard cups and bake in a hot water bath at 350 until set (45 to 50 minutes).

Let cool.  (can do this a day ahead and hold in the refrigerator overnight).

Sprinkle a T sugar on top of each custard and place under broiler until sugar is melted and caramelized.

Refrigerate several hours before serving.

The only part I don't like in this recipe is straining out the coconut.  I hate throwing it away, so if anybody has a suggestion as to what I can to with it, let me know!

Cascaron

Today I was listening to the Splendid Table on NPR and they had a call-in guest who lives in Seattle.  She was talking about all the different international doughnuts available in Seattle and particularly, she mentioned a Filipino doughnut called cascaron that is deep fried and served on a skewer.  It apparently has a chewy, coconuty inside and a crispy shell.  This sounds so yummy!  I love almost everything Asian and everything coconuty.  So, I'm thinking it would be really cool if our man on the ground in Seattle should find himself near a place that sells these, if he could try one and let me know if it's worth the effort of finding out how to make?  She didn't go into detail about any other of the international doughnuts available in the city, but I'm curious......  What other kinds of doughnuts are there?

How to Caramelize Onions

If you are a true cooking curmudgeon, you already know how to caramelize onions.  You can just skip this post!  I'm posting my method for caramelizing onions in case some blog- hopper has landed on my blog and really wants to know!  The secret to meltingly sweet caramelized onions is to let them cook for a long time over a medium low heat without too much disturbance.  You need to stir them often enough so that they don't burn, but you need to let them alone enough so that they begin to stick to the pan and caramelize!

Start by slicing as many onions as you want.  Actually, slice MORE than you want because they will lose much of their volume as they cook.  I like to slice my onions somewhere between medium and thick so that they don't melt completely away!

Next, heat some olive oil or butter in a large, flat pan (a couple of tablespoons for 3 to 4 large onions).  The more surface space the better.  Once the oil is shimmering, add the onions and stir until they are all glistening with oil.

Now, you have to let them cook, stirring every now and then as they start to brown.  Try to leave them alone as much as possible, stirring only when they begin to stick to the pan and start browning.  Then, mix them all up and let them start all over.  It can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours for them to reach a deep caramel color.  Before removing them from the heat, I like to stir in a tablespoon (more or less) of good, balsamic vinegar.  This helps deepen the color as well as add a tangy sweetness.

I started with three large onions and ended up with just a little over a cup of caramelized onions.  They will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks (if you haven't gobbled them all up long before then!)

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

My sister likes to make fun of me for planning meals days in advance.  But sometimes that's what you've got to do if the ingredients are not already sitting in your cupboard.  I have this wonderful cookbook given to me by a dear friend titled The Whole Foods Market Cookbook.  Amost eveything I have tried making from it has been a delicious success.  This book is filled with mouth-watering recipes and has a section on burgers, patties, and griddlecakes that makes me giddy with anticipation when I think about trying them.  The burgers and patties are made with such wonderful things as quinoa, barley, dried beans, couscous, and spicy smashed potatoes.  Tonight I tried out the portobello mushroom burgers with caramelized onions and goat cheese, and they turned out fantastic!

The burgers were quite fragile so I was glad the recipe called for baking them in the oven as opposed to pan frying them or (the horror) grilling them.  But with a little careful attention, they were easily removed from the baking pan and placed on the bun.  The burgers had a great big taste with a deliciously chewy texture and bits of crunch.  The meltingly sweet caramelized onions were perfectly off-set by the tangy goat cheese.

The reason I had to plan a day in advance is because the grocery list required a quick trip to our food co-op as some of the ingredients are not available in my regular grocery store, ie white miso and raw cashews.

If you'd like to try these burgers yourself, here is my modified version of the recipe:

2 large portobello mushroom caps

2 cups button mushrooms

1 T olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, grated

2 cloves garlic, mashed

1 c. raw cashews

1/3 c. sunflower seeds (I used roasted, salted)

2 T white miso

2 t lemon juice

1 T sherry

1/2 t freshly ground pepper

1 c cooked brown rice (I used a brown/wild rice mix)

1 c dried bread crumbs

Finely chop the mushrooms (this can be done in a food processor).  Heat the olive oil and saute the mushrooms, onion, carrot and garlic until wilted (2 to 3 minutes). 

Process the cashews, sunflower seeds, miso, lemon juice, sherry and ground pepper in the food processor until a light paste is formed. 

Blend all the ingredients together.

(At this point, you can bake the burgers, but it is best if you can let them sit for at least 6 hours in the fridge.)

Lightly oil a baking sheet and place mounds of the mixture on the pan, pressing into the size and shape of a regular burger.  Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve on a bun with caramelized onions and goat cheese.  YUM!