Thai Curry

 

  Thai Curry      Adapted from: The Guardian, Nigel Slater

1 tsp white peppercorns 1-2 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp cumin seed 1 tsp turmeric shallots or onion oil for cooking courgettes (zucchini) summer squash tomatoes small aubergines (eggplants) 1 can coconut milk  chili peppers (to taste) garlic cloves (to taste) Fresh ginger root (to taste) 1 tsp salt lemon grass (the thick stems)	lime juice (to taste) 1tbsp Thai fish sauce (can skip) coriander leaves (cilantro) Thai basil (to taste)

This recipe may look hard because it has so many ingredients, but it is really super-easy. The work is all in the preparation. (Hint: Employ your partner as a sous-chef to do all the chopping.)

1. Make a spice powder with the dry whole spices (peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin, turmeric), using a coffee grinder.

2. Chop or grate the chili peppers, garlic, and ginger. Chop all the vegetable in bit size.

3. Use generous amount of oil and fry onion and dry spice powder in medium heat, don’t let it get too hot. keep stirring until the flavor of the spices come out.

4. Add all the chopped vegetable in and stir fry for a bit. Add the rest of ingradiens. Cover and cook until done.  (High heat until boil. Than turn to low heat!) The only complication is if you want it to taste really good and fresh, only add the lime juice and cilantro right at the end. As any professional chef would tell you: “don’t forget to taste, taste, taste,” and adjust the salt and lime as necessary while it is cooking.

A few tips: 

a) If you only have one coffee grinder, grade a piece of bread in it before and after you grind the spices. Unless you wish to spice up your coffee.

b)If you want the flavor of the chili with less spice, remove the seeds and chop up the outer skin only. 

c) I find it better to grate the ginger with the micro-grater rather than chopping it.

Lemon Delight

You know the saying? No, it's misquoted. When life gives you lemons, make lemon delight! So, living in Miami, there is a glut of citrus as various times of the year. What can one do with all those lemons and limes? Make the best dessert in the world with them. Lemon delight is also called "lemon pudding" and "lemon pudding cake" and it is, I think, a quintessentially British dish (although I may be wrong about that). My recipe comes from my mother and it took me years of internet searches to convert the measures (such obscure volumes as a "breakfast cup", I mean, wtf?) into usable units.

Step 1: Cream 1 tablespoon of butter with a SCANT 1/2 (american) cup of sugar in a stand mixer. Don't have the stand mixer? Soften the butter in the microwave and cream in a bowl with a hand mixer.

Step 2: Separate 2 eggs. Keep the whites in a separate bowl. Add the yolks to the sugar/butter mixture to emulsify.

Step 3: Add 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour to the mixture and mix in.

Step 4: Add juice and zest of 1 lemon (I think a large lime, or two small limes would work just as well) and 180 ml of milk to the mixture. (180 ml is exactly 3/4 of an american cup.) Note: Zest lemon first with a micro-grater, then juice it. Mix the whole mixture well. Add a very small pinch of salt. There is a tricky interaction here. Too much salt and the dessert will taste nasty, but no salt at all and it tastes just a little one-dimensional. So you have to experiment with this. For some reason, salt and sour can conflict in taste, but you do need a touch of salt in this recipe.

Step 5: Whip the egg whites, and fold them into the mixture.

Step 6: Here's the tricky part. You need to make a water bath for the container in which you are going to bake the dessert. I use a smaller and larger square corningware dish, but whatever. Improvise. Bake in the oven at around 400F (200C) and turn down to 350F (180C) after about 1/2 an hour. Full baking time should be a little under 1 hour.

Step 7: Eat. For some reason the Poms think that you should only eat very small helpings of lemon delight. My mother's recipe says "serves 4." Are you kidding me? The proportions I just gave you serves 2 at most. And most of the time Yuhfen is vociferously complaining that she didn't get enough. (Trust me, this dessert is that good.)

Dressing your salad--adding fruits to your salad

Salad is the best way to enjoy fresh greens. Especially if you can pick them directly from the garden or if you have a nice farmer's market near by. Salad is also one of the easiest dish to make. I know, some people might say that salad is boring as well. Trust me, I would get bored of salad very quick if I don't come up with new way to "dress it up". Here, I am going to try to show you how you can turn the boring green into exciting gourmet.

First, the basic. Here is how you can make a very simple dressing. Yes! Stop getting those pre-bottle dressing. Not only there are tons of un-pronounceable ingredients in it, it is not tasty. At the same time, it is so easy to make salad dressing. The only tool you need is a jar. Yes, you see it right. All you need is a clean jar, like the jar you saved after you finish a bottle of jam. How about the ingredients? You will need oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. A basic vinaigrette is just 3 part oil with 1 part vinegar with a pinch of salt and some grounded pepper. Put everything into the jar, shake it up. Yes, it is that simple. Now, let's make it really tasty.

It is obvious, to have good tasty vinaigrette, you will need to get some good ingredients to make it. A nice bottle of cold press olive oil would add some nice flavor to the salad. If you are trying to watch your weight, you can change the proportion to 1 to 1. By using good flavor oil, you can use less for more taste at the same time. For vinegar, forget the distill vinegar. It's pure vinegar, it means no flavor at all. If money is issue, get a bottle of apple cider vinegar. Or use lemon/lime juice instead. All of these will add some nice fruity flavor to your salad. And the cost will be roughly the same as paying for a bottle of vinaigrette. You can also make a bit more at once. Leave whatever left in the jar you used to make it and store it in the fridge. It would be good for more than a week.

Are you interested in making it even more tasty? How about adding some fruit in your salad? Imagine having the greens and dessert at the same time with no guilt. And you get to have as much as you want because this is also very good for you. You can put any fruit you like into the salad. Some sliced strawberries not only add some flavor, it also add some color to the boring greens. In reality, we don't only taste food with our tongue, we enjoy food with our eyes, sense of smell, and good companies. Adding a splashy of color and aromatic make the same dish has much more dimension instantly. Here is what I would do if I add strawberries into salad, I would use lemon juice for the vinaigrette. I would also add a little bit of honey into it. Use a little bit more salt than you normally do. The saltiness of the vinaigrette accompany the sweetness of the strawberries and make them taste even more sweet. Then by adding some mint into the salad. Now you have a salad good enough to serve in a restaurant. Before you juice the lemon, grate some lemon zest and add that to the salad. Then you will have a salad that high-end restaurant would serve.

What other fruits are good for salad? I think any fruit is good for salad. And you can be creative with it. Citrus is always good in the salad, both in the form of juice and the actual pieces. Berries are also good addition to the salad. You can also use fruit in the dressing. I love make raspberry dressing. Regular apple cider vinegar with olive oil plus raspberry. Blend everything together and add a little bit of honey. Then you will have a salad dressing even kids would like.

Here in Miami, the weather is too hot to have good production of raspberry, blueberry or blackberry. Several of my friends has mulberry trees. Mulberries can be a good addition to the salad too. Last time at the market, I made a mulberry dressing that everyone love. Here is the recipe for it.

Mulberry vinaigrette

Apple cider vinegar 3 tbsp
Oliver oil 3 tbsp
Honey 1 tsp
Mulberries(fresh or frozen) 1/8 cup
Fresh dill(chopped) 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Crush mulberries with a spoon. Put crush mulberries and juice, vinegar, oil, and honey in a jar. Shake well. Season with salt and pepper. Add dill
You can also use a blender to make this dressing. (Stick blender for small portion or regular blender for big amount.) Just put all the ingredients in and blend until everything mix well.
Only add vinaigrette to salad when you are ready to serve.