Pho Sure

Pho (pronounced fur) is a Vietnamese meat and noodle soup. I have such wonderful memories of the deliciously light pho served at Vie Ha Long at Piyarom Plaza in Bangkok's Sukhumvit Soi 101/1. I found this recipe on the internet and re-fashioned it to what I remember.

First, put the meat in the freezer. You want the meat to be slightly frozen so that it will cut into paper-thin slices. While it is freezing, make the soup stock. 

Soup Stock
6 cups water
1 chicken leg
1/2 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons fish sauce

Put water, chicken leg, and bouillon in a saucepan on the stove. Bring to a boil, then simmer 45 minutes.

While the soup stock is simmering, prepare the garnishes and the meat and noodles.

Garnishes
1 lime sliced into 4 wedges
1/2 medium onion sliced very thinly
4 sprigs cilantro, chopped
2 scallions sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 cup bean sprouts (soak sprouts in hot water for 30-60 seconds, if desired)
1 cup chopped spinach
2-3 chopped chilies (optional)
fish sauce and pepper to taste

Meat and noodles
1 cup pork fillet or boneless skinless chicken breast
1 1/2 cups fresh shrimp with the tail on (about 2 large shrimp per person)
7 oz. of dry rice noodles
1 teaspoon fish suce
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Soak the noodles in warm water until they become limp. Drain.  Put 6 cups of water on to boil. After half an hour, take the meat out of the freezer and slice it thinly. Place meat in a bowl and season with fish sauce and pepper. Set aside. [Cook's note: I recommend adding the seasoning because the meat was bland.] If the shrimp are frozen, put them in a bowl of cool water to thaw. Drain and set aside. When the 6 cups of water is boiling, turn off the heat. Add the noodles and cover until they are al dente or until the noodles lose their transparency and become opaque. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again and set aside.

By now the stock is ready. It's time to flavor the soup stock. In a saucepan, heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil. Add the ginger and garlic and fry until fragrant. Add the fish sauce then pour into the soup. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

To the simmering soup stock, add the (thawed) shrimp. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until shrimp become a delicate pink all over. Add the meat a  piece at a time until heated through and no longer pink, about one minute. Remove the soup from the heat. Return noodles to the pot to loosen and heat up. Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and, to each bowl, add a handful of spinach, some slivered onion, scallion, and cilantro. To adjust seasonings to taste, serve with lime wedges, fish sauce, and if using, chopped chilies. [Cook's note: Don't discard the chicken leg. Strip the skin and meat off the bone and eat it with left over soup or rice.]

Pho Sure!

It was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture until I was halfway through eating it!

Foodie Outing

Eying the produce

Flowers

Kitty corner from Lincoln Center between 66th and 67th Streets, is a little triangle across from the #1 subway station to the west and Barnes and Noble to the north. On Saturday there was a Farmers Market selling organic produce and other local products like honey and home-made jams. Pricey. But hey, if it salves your conscience and makes a buck at the same time, then it's the American Way.

Peppers

We are drawn to Chinatown, its smells and sights. For lunch, we tried the menu at the Pho Viet Huong restaurant on Mulberry Street.  I ordered this pork and steamed egg dish. At $5.50 it's reasonable as New York goes. It was a little too sweet for my taste. And it was cold. Looks pretty, though!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Portobellos are so mellow!

 Susan gave me these portobello mushrooms. However, since I'd never cooked those giants before (that's a dinner plate in the picture.),  I searched on the internet for a recipe.  On the Food Network website I found this one by Emeril Lagasse. It was for six mushrooms but I only had two. Oh well. No problem. So I adapted it. Here.

2 large portobello mushrooms
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more more drizzling
1 sweet Italian sausage (or use hot)
1/4 cup onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup sweet bell pepper, chopped finely (for color use yellow, red or orange)
1/4 cup celery, chopped finely
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves, minced (optional)
1 teaspoon dried herbs, e.g. basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme
1 egg lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Slit the sausage casing and scrape out the meat into a small bowl. Set aside. Discard casing. In a medium bowl, combine onion, bell pepper, and celery. Set aside. Lightly rub mushrooms with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Put on prepared baking tray and set aside.

In a medium skillet with the heat turned to medium high, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil, until, as they say on America's Test Kitchen, the oil begins to shimmer. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Cook the sausage meat until no longer pink, breaking up the chunks with a wooden spoon. Add the onion mixture and cook until vegetables are tender. Add the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add cheese, parsley (if using), herbs, and egg. Mix thoroughly.  [I used 3 egg yolks left over from baking a sponge cake.]

Spoon filling generously into each mushroom cap, making the top rounded. If desired, drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar on filled mushrooms. Bake 15-18 minutes until the tops are golden brown and the mushrooms are tender. Serve at once. Eat. All gone.

What's for Supper?

Most of the meals I make now are one-pot meals. They look like a lot of fuss but are incredibly easy to make, like this Skillet Lasagna.  AJ and I invited Richard and John to dinner, our first guests! Also on the menu, Spinach Salad and Chocolate Sponge Cake with Strawberries. I adapted the Skillet Lasagna recipe from an America's Test Kitchen recipe, changing the diced tomatoes to seasoned, using ground turkey, and increasing the red pepper flakes to 1/4 teaspoon.

Skillet Lasagna

1 (28 ounce) can diced seasoned tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion minced
1 teaspoon salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
8 ounces (10) curly-edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2 inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 ounce (1/2 cup) Parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste
8 ounces (1 cup) whole milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh basil for garnish

Pour tomatoes and juice into a quart measuring cup. Add enough water to equal 4 cups. This means to add the equivalent of 1/2 cup water. 

Heat the oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet until shimmering. Add the onions and salt and cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add ground meat and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, to break up the large chunks. Cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the noodle pieces evenly over the top of the cooked meat. Pour on top of the noodles the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Cover and bring to a simmer. Occasionally push the wooden spoon on the bottom to loosen the meat and noodles. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the noodles are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should look watery after 15 minutes of cooking. If it doesn't, add 1/4 cup more water.

Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dot heaping tablespoons of ricotta all over the noodles. Cover and let stand off the heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and serve, passing the extra Parmesan cheese.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

We ate the lasagna with a side of strawberry spinach salad tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. This recipe is from my sister Ardis, a kindred foodie!

1 bowl of washed baby spinach leaves
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 cup almond slivers
3/4 cup cranberry raisins
Balsamic vinaigrette

Combine ingredients except balsamic vinaigrette. Just before serving, add the vinaigrette.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

This recipe comes from the South Beach Diet cookbook so we didn't have to guilt ourselves out too much! It turned out a tad overmixed and the chocolate ribbons were sort of splotchy,  but it tasted fine nevertheless.

7 egg whites
1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm temperature

Sauce
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Have ready a two-piece tube cake pan.

In a large bowl, whip the egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until soft peaks form.

In another large bowl, combine egg yolks and vanilla. Use a slotted skimmer to gently combine the two mixtures. First, fold in 1/3 of the meringue mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the remaining meringue all at once.  Do not over mix. Sift the cup of flour on top of the batter and gently fold in. Gently fold in the cooled butter. Spoon into the tube cake pan. Smooth the top and bake, 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Cool in the pan upside down, about 40 minutes. My pan has little legs to rest on the counter-top. If your pan doesn't have them, stick the center tube over the neck of a thin bottle to elevate it off the counter top. When it is cooled, run a thin knife blade around the edges and the center tube to loosen the cake. Remove the center column by inserting a knife between the bottom and the cake.

Melt chocolate and shortening in a double boiler over hot but not boiling water. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Drizzle over cooled cake in a zig zag pattern.

Variation
2 cups strawberries, washed and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar

Toss strawberries and sugar together in a bowl. Let sit about 30 minutes to macerate. The strawberries will start to release their juices. Serve with slices of warm chocolate sponge cake.

What's in a Meal?

Like everyone else, I depend on the offerings at the local supermarkets and I have to take it on faith that the food is hygienic and safe. Which brings up the salmonella scare. The purity of the food I cook and serve has become a concern. So I wrestled with my choices: of buying food at Big Organic, Michael Pollan's term in the Omnivore's Dilemma for chains like Whole Foods, or buying food at chain supermarkets like Associated. But is it tasty? Is food safer at Big Organic? Moreover, since moving to New York earlier this month I am still reeling from the shock of food prices here, of how easy it is to put down $90.00 for groceries that don't even last a week.

And then there's the fact I don't eat beef. Because the relative scarcity and expense of beef in Thailand, I got out of the habit of eating it. Pork and poultry are relatively less expensive because they are more popular. Here, pork is harder to find. If I want meat that has no antibiotics and is "humanely raised"(e.g. free range chickens) then I have choices. Either I pay $3.99 a pound for ground meat or $6.99 a pound for ground turkey breast. The qualms about my pocketbook outweighed my preferences, so in the end, I gave in and bought ground beef at Whole Foods at $3.99 per pound. I'll have to admit it wasn't bad. But was it safer to eat? That's something I'll probably never know!

 ***

The kitchen

This is not the tiniest kitchen in which I've ever cooked a meal. The kitchen at Bancroft Hall, Teachers College, was smaller than most walk-in closets. Although it looks well-equipped, I'm still setting up this kitchen. For cooking I need proper knives and I needed Asian sauces and spices. I went to Chinatown yesterday and bought the spices and sauces that you now see arranged in a row above the stove top. For baking, I scoured two thrift shops and found cookie sheets, a tube pan, and a square cake pan, all like new. So watch this blog for more baking and cooking!

Ants in Trees

This sounds like the beginning of a great Anansi story but it is actually a recipe my mother-in-law taught me when Malika was born. In one Chinese cookbook it is given the fanciful name "Ants Climbing a Tree" presumably because when it is cooked, tiny balls of ground meat (ants) stick to each bean thread (the tree). This dish is a family favorite and I have made it in every city we have lived in: Milwaukee, Chicago, Bangkok, and now, New York. I haven't quite set up the kitchen the way I like so there's some improvisation!

The ingredients: note the steak knife used to chop vegetables!

1 pound ground meat
2 bundles of bean threads
2 eggs,  lightly beaten
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks scallion, sliced
2 tablespoons oil
Soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste
Scallion and cilantro for garnish, if desired

Soak the bean threads in warm water until the bundles loosen and begin to feel limp. Drain well.

Over high heat, heat the oil. Add the garlic and scallion and fry until fragrant. Add the ground meat and cook until no longer pink. Season to taste with soy sauce, salt, and pepper.

Soaked bean threads added to meat mixture

Add the bean threads and toss to coat thoroughly. Pour the egg all over and toss  to coat until the eggs are thoroughly cooked and no longer shiny. Adjust seasoning if desired.

Beaten eggs added to the meat-bean thread mixture

 Serve over steamed rice. Garnish with scallion and cilantro if desired.

Result: one pot meal

Oven-Fried Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu: breaded pork cutlets and vegetables over steamed rice

I was in the mood for something light and crispy. I made this tonkatsu recipe earlier this summer with chicken cutlets instead of pork. The thing I didn't like was it was fried in a skillet and it was oily. And as leftovers, they were stiff. Such a disappointment, because I like leftovers. So I wanted to make a low-calorie option that didn't require pan-frying. Here is my recipe for Oven-fried Tonkatsu. But...you have to make the sauce first!

Tonkatsu Sauce
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup sake or Japanese rice wine (substitute rice vinegar)
2 tablespoons ginger, minced (or 2 inches of fresh ginger root, sliced)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced (or 3-4 large cloves garlic)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup mirin

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer 25-30 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, start the pork medallions.

Tonkatsu
4 pork tenderloin medallions,  trimmed of fat and silver, pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 egg beaten
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup safflower oil

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Have a baking tray ready. It doesn't need to be greased.

Combine salt, pepper, and flour in a shallow dish. Combine egg and water. Dip each medallion in the egg mixture, then the flour mixture, next dip in the oil, and finally coat with the breadcrumbs. Place each medallion on the baking tray. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes, turning once, half-way through cooking. Cut each medallion into slivers. Drizzle with tonkatsu sauce and serve on a bed of rice with steamed vegetables. It's so not oily, and it's crunchy and delicious! My only regret is that there were no leftovers.