phood adventures

Listmania!

I published my first-ever Amazon Listmania! list today. It’s called “The Literate Foodie.” No, I didn’t call it “Phoodie.” I’m sorry, Roman. I was hoping it would be more searchable, not realizing at the time that I could just tag it to make it more searchable.

At any rate, it’s a list of 40 books, videos, audiobooks, journals and other works related to our phavorite topic!

I compiled this because I’m working with another instructor to create a food-themed College Composition II course and possible an anthology of food-related readings. I’m also on the lookout for a foodie-type book to propose for next year’s Community Book Connection (a campus-wide book club, if you will). I figure what can we all relate to better than food? It’s something that can be studied across disciplines: the science, the arts and humanities, the social sciences, mathematics, applied technology, and we can come together as a college community around a variety of food-based activities.

At any rate, take a look at my list when you have a moment. If you have annotations for any of the works on the list, please, comment below, and I’ll add them. I haven’t read most of what’s there, and I haven’t yet added comments for what I have read/seen/heard. Help is appreciated in this department.

Drunken Noodles

It’s no secret that I love exploring the worlds of Asian cooking, especially Thai and Vietnamese. One of my favorite Thai dishes to make is Drunken Noodles. I’ve ordered it many times at different restaurants, and always found that the sauce was too thick, heavy, and gravy like, and this took away from the whole dish in general. After searching through some Thai cooking websites I was inspired to try and make the dish at home, minus the icky thickness of the sauce. I’m a regular reader of The Jungle Prince’s Desert Modernism website (though he generally focuses on Korean cooking, he delves into other countries as well.) He makes gorgeous looking food, but after following a few of his recipes, even the one he has for Drunken Noodles, I find that he likes his food about a zillion times spicier than I can handle, and believe me, I can handle pretty spicy food. Below is HIS recipe, minus a whole lot of the hot peppers, and plus a few hints that I found usefull when making this dish.

Ok, on to the cooking. First thing you should know about me, is I rarely measure ingredients. Actually, I usually only measure when baking, because I consider baking more of a science, and cooking more of an experience. When I say a “few” of something, think 3 or 4, a pinch fits in the crook of the palm of your hand. A dash of a liquid is a two second quick pour. Also know that in a star rating, I consider this particular recipe about a 2.5 star in heat. Meaning, it won’t make steam come out of your ears but your lips will have a nice tingle to them after a few bites. Adjust accordingly to your taste by reducing both the fresh and dried chili. Ok. Here we go. Most of these ingredients will be found at any respectable Asian market. Ask for help if you need it – most proprietors will be very very happy to see you. You will need:

1/2 block of extra firm tofu, pressed dry (till it no longer wets a paper towel) and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

About 3/4 pound of shrimp (or cubed chicken if you don’t like shrimp. Or just stick with tofu. It’s not a hard and fast recipe.

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small white onion, minced
Rice vinegar
Fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Palm Sugar
Juice of one small lime
Small bunch of coriander/cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Small bunch of Thai basil leaves (no, you can not use Italian basil) roughly chopped
Small bunch of chopped green onion/scallions (green part only)
Ground pepper
Dried red chili flake
1 hot pepper (I like using the long hot orange/red ones) minced very very fine
One package of the wide rice stick noodles (1/2 inch across work best)

Step One: Prepare marinade:
In a bowl combine a few tablespoons of palm sugar, lime juice, two pinches of dried chili flake, a pinch of ground pepper, and about 1/4 cup each of fish sauce and rice vinegar.
Stir mixture together, and then add tofu.

Step Two: Start the noodles:

Put noodles (as they are out of the package, in a “block” do not separate) in big pot. Cover with cold water. Set aside for about 10-15 minutes, letting the noodles soak. Now is a good time to enjoy a cocktail and some appetizers. Really. You’ve got about 10 minutes or so. After your drink, and the noodle soak, put noodles on burner, and bring to a boil. Keep an eye on your noodles, tasting frequently. You want them very al dente, and not “done” or mushy. If you do not pay attention to your noodles, I guarantee that the mush will happen. When they are al dente, drain, and immediately rinse with cold water. Let them drain, sitting in the colander.

Step 3: Wok n Roll
Heat a small amount (barely coat the bottom) oil in a wok (I like chili oil, but feel free to use whatever light oil you like, if not chili, I’d probably go with safflower oil)

Start cooking the onion, garlic, and hot pepper. Do NOT let them brown.

Toss in shrimp, cooking until just starting to turn pink (should happen pretty quick)

Add tofu and marinade, as well as a few tablespoons of oyster sauce. Cook for just a minute or two, liquid will start to thicken a bit.

Add noodles, and carefully toss them about in the wok, coating them all. Now toss in your basil leaves and green onion. Remove from heat.

Serve with a generous amount of chopped coriander on top. I also top mine with some extra sliced hot pepper.

Voila. This recipe can be made kosher by removing the oyster sauce (add more fish sauce) and the shrimp. Enjoy!

insalata caprese, skull island style

it turns out that there’s a variety of tomato in our garden that produces HUGE tomatoes, on average weighing more than one pound each, sort of the size of tomatoes you’d expect to find on skull island, where king kong lived. amazingly enough, the tomatoes aren’t mushy like those big ones that are found at grocery stores!

a picture of the ingredients: the tomato from skull island, fresh basil from the herb garden, and fresh mozzarella from the store.

that’s the huge 1.5lb tomato that i called my dinner.

you can see the insides of the tomato, which weren’t mushy. i did make sure to use a bread knife, it cuts with more ease than regular knives.

a bed of fresh basil ontop of the tomato slices.

although it doesn’t show it, i included balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil on.

i thought it would be a good thing to put in the fridge to eat tomorrow, but i have a feeling that it wouldn’t have lasted. either i would have eaten it or the tomato would have gone to waste instead. i was originally intending to eat it as an appetizer, it turned out to be the main meal of the night… well worth it.

very yummy, even if i do get heartburn later!

spicy hummus

this isn’t exactly from the garden, but it does contain stuff from the garden… don’t get too technical. i used foodtv’s rachael ray’s recipe called spicy hummus: quick chickpea spread

tahini and the Goya™ chickpeas.

since the recipe was wussy in the garlick department, i added the equivalent of four cloves, instead of one.

instead of adding “ground pepper flakes” (which we didn’t have), i used some home-smoked peppers from the garden from last season’s crop. though only one of them was a “chipotle”, i used a few other varieties as well. can you blame me, i mean, i had to pimp it up a notch!

the spices. starting from the upper center clockwise is the kosher salt, the ground coriander seeds, the tahini, the chopped up “chipotle” peppers, and the ground cumin. you can’t see the lime juice.

the final product. the picture doesn’t do it justice… just an incentive for others to try it.

let me just say that my version of this recipe needs black box warning, like the ones the FDA on certain medications: use with caution, especially around vampires.

i highly recommend modifying this recipe to your liking!

blueberry pr0n..

...the edible kind, that is!

i spent this past weekend visiting some friends out in western massachusetts, about 20 miles from new york state. while we were there, chris made pies. the first night was fresh peach pie; regrettably, i forgot to document the pie making or the pie eating, but it was really good!

since the night before chris had made enough of a buttery dough for two pies, and only used one up, we decided to make another fresh fruit pie. we had seen a few Pick-your-own blueberry places lining the roads, so we decided to go look for one. we hit the jackpot!

picking our own berries was so much fun! if we accidently picked one that was a bit too green, just move on to the next one!

we picked about six pounds of them and the total was only $7.50!!

once we got home, chris got to work on the pie. first, he blind-baked the pie crust, making sure the edges wouldn’t burn:

the filling was next. a handful or so of the blueberries were washed and blended to make part of the filling:

then, added the crust texturing! i am sure there’s a better term for it, but i can’t think of it:

and, voilà, the finished blueberry pie

i should have taken more pictures, but when the vanilla ice cream was brought out of the freezer, the pie didn’t last. may it rest in peace, with the knowledge that it fullfilled our bellies!

Made with Music and Lurve

Wheat Tortillas! – Getting a nice circle is an art I haven’t quite mastered.

So we went to Pittsburg back in June, and still haven’t properly thanked Lori and Mary for having us. When we went up I took them some flour tortillas. Since they liked the flour tortillas, I figured I’d make some wheat tortillas to send to them with a thank you note.

I’ve done these before with 100% wheat flour and they were good, but a little too. . .much for my liking. So this time, I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose unbleached flour (2 cups each). Then 2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp shortening, 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, and enough warm water to make a good dough. I think it was somewhere around a cup and half. I generally use manteca in place of the shortening but Lori and Mary are vegetarians, so Crisco. . .

And I gotta say, my double comal fucking rocks. (I got that while we were in Pittsburgh at a Mexican market on the Strip.) Gets them done in 1/2 the time it usually takes me with the single comal. I reckon that goes without saying, but its waay past my bedtime.

I had an awesome time making them thanks to DJ Serena who was spinning that old school hip hop that I love on Juiced Radio, along with some hilarious raunchy stuff. The time went by quickly as I made the tortillas and danced/sang my way around the kitchen. Thems gonna be yummy tortillas indeed. Nothing like mixing in a little booty shaking. o/~ butterfly, uh oh, that’s old! let me see ya tootsie roll! o/~

Time for Scaling!

There are a few more pics to this adventure on my Flickr page.

calling all phoodwhores™!

just like MJ has said in her post it is time for summer recipes.

so all of the planting for the summer garden has been done, and some of the plants are starting to produce vegetables. the list includes:

• tomatoes (all different types and varieties)
• tomatillos
• peppers (all different times as well)
• eggplants
• summer squash (zucchini and patty pan, aka ufo squash)
• winter squash (butternut squash)
• cucumbers (both pickling and loofah)
• carrots
• sweet corn
• radishes
• bak choi
• broccoli
• various salad green mixes (including spinach, mustards, lettuces, etc)
• herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil, etc)

so here’s where the phoodwhores™ come in: i need recipes that i could try this summer using stuff from the garden. post them, put them in comments, however you want. heck, try them out yourself, comment, make suggestions, you name it!

besides it would be make great phoodadventures “reading” material for these hot days and warm nights of summer.

White Sangria

I made this recipe, but instead of the fruit listed, I used pineapple, red seedless grapes, and Granny Smith apples (peeled). The wine was Italian, not Spanish or French. It was quite good. The cinnamon-flavored simple sugar at the base makes for an interesting change from the usual red sangria.

I did it!

I made my first-ever batch of gazpacho last night, and guess what? IT’S AWESOME!!! I love it! I didn’t think I would, actually. Even Alexis loves it, and I REALLY didn’t think she would. I took two recipes and sort of combined them to make my own version. Here’s what I did:

4 cups of V8 juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 large onion
1/2 bell pepper, deseeded
1 cucumber, deseeded
1/2 baguette, crusts removed and cubed
1/4 tsp comino
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2 TB red wine vinegar
juice of one lime
black pepper and Tabasco to taste

Garnishes:
1 cucumber, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 baguette, cubed (or croutons)
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped

Toss all the ingredients (except the garnishes) into a food processor and blend until smooth. Place in a container in the fridge to chill for a few hours. Top with the garnishes and eat with zesty relish!

BTW, if you eat two large bowls of this, you WILL get a bellyache! It seemed like a good idea at the time because it tasted SO good, but….ergh…all those bread crumbs must have expanded in my belly.

Things I've been drinking lately

I’ve become a connoisseur of what I call “drinkie drinks.” These are alcohol-free beverages that have an aura of cocktail about them. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Seltzer+lime juice+a drop of rosewater served ice cold.

Pineapple juice+orange juice+coconut milk, blended and served over crushed ice (or blended with ice and served as a smoothie)

cranberry juice+seltzer+twist of lime served on the rocks

apple juice+seltzer (apparently this is a legitimate German favorite, and Lex can tell you the name for it—apfelsomethingorother)

orange+lime+grenadine+seltzer+drop of rosewater, served over crushed ice

Tampico (any flavor, but I like the pineapple/mango/cherry), plus seltzer, plus lime juice.

A virgin pina colada made with coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, crushed pineapple, and ice, all blended until smooth.

Frozen strawberries+coconut milk+sweetened condensed milk+drop of rum extract, all blended until smooth

Crazyladyade (not really a drinkie-drink): This is essentially double-strenth Kool-Aid lemonade (add two packets to a half gallon of water instead of one and double the sugar) and then dump in as much lemon juice (preferably fresh, but reconstituted will do in a pinch) as you can take. Serve on ice. Good hot for a sore throat, too. Warning: drinking too much of this will make you CRAZY! For you drinkers out there, this makes a great base for Russian lemonade. Throw in some vodka, and you’ve got a party.

Passion tea lemonade (again, not really a drinkie-drink): In a one-gallon container, brew eight bags of Tazo’s Passion Tea or Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea in a half gallon of boiling water. Add two packets of Kool Aid lemonade (or your favorite lemonade mix) and two cups of sugar while the water is still hot. Remove the tea bags after 10 minutes, squeezing them out to get all the lovely redness. Mix until all sugar is dissolved. Top off the rest of the container with cold water and ice cubes. Ready to serve immediately; EXTREMELY refreshing and addictive.

During the summer, I also love to drink other iced, sweetened herbal teas, especially mint tea and chamomile tea.

If you are a drinker who is planning a cocktail party, make sure to put out a nice display of mixers, juices, sparkling waters, sodas, and plenty of ice, too. Not only will your bar become more versatile (the drink possibilities open up a hundredfold), but your non-drinking friends will thank you! I usually end up taking my own drinks to parties and dinners, because most hosts do not consider the non-drinking guests, and provide only beer, wine, water (from the tap), and caffeinated beverages (cola, mostly), which I cannot drink. I anticipate this and bring my own drinkie-drink. Be a good host and think of ALL your guests’ drink needs.

Seltzer and juice are cheap, which is one of the reasons we have pretty much stopped drinking commercial sodas and have switched entirely to seltzer plus whatever we feel like tossing in. I can get a 12 pack of seltzer for half the cost of a 12 pack of soda, and when I add in the cost of a 64 oz bottle of juice, I’m still coming out cheaper than the 12 pack of soda, plus I’ve got twice as much to drink!