Thai Cantaloupe Salad from How to Eat Supper

We finally had a chance to do some cooking around here this weekend. Thank goodness, because I am really anxious to write about a new cookbook. I’ve reading through it like a novel because I don’t want to miss any of the insights, humor or pearls of wisdom included on practically every page. The book is The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

I will preface this by explaining that I’m a huge of fan The Splendid Table, the weekly show on public radio hosted by Kasper and produced by Swift. I download the podcast every week to be entertained and learn something new about the world of food. So, I expected a book connected with the show to be well done. Furthermore, Lynne Rossetto Kasper is an award-winning cookbook author and food historian who wrote the book on Italian food of the Emilia-Romagna region.

But still, I was skeptical. I already know my way around the kitchen, so I like cookbooks that demystify a new cuisine or offer something new or unique. This book sounds like its goal is to bring infrequent or inexperienced cooks into the kitchen more often. That is in fact one of its aims—there is a short but informative section on outfitting your kitchen with equipment, and the recipes are intended for weeknight meals when time and patience might be in short supply. And as Kasper says in her introduction,

“the recipes in this book are hand-holders, built on the idea that if you’ve never seen the dish before, you need to know the details of how to cook it.”

Crazy idea, right, but it just might work. The recipes are unfailingly clear, suggesting substitutions, specifying prep and cook times and telling you how long the food will keep and how to reheat it. But this is not “how to eat supper for dummies.” Kasper and Swift may include a recipe for “dumbed-down rice” (just boil it like pasta so you don’t have to worry about a burnt layer at the bottom of the pan), but the flavors, philosophy and finished dishes are anything but dumbed-down.

Chapters include Salad, Soups, Eggs and Small Plates, Vegetable Main Events, Pasta, Main Dishes, Sides and Sweets. The authors’ love of Indian, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian flavors influences some dishes, like the Thai Cantaloupe Salad I made this weekend. I chose to make it because it reminded me of the green mango with hot ground chiles, salt and sugar sold as a street snack in Thailand. Plus, cantaloupes (which I love) are in season, and it was incredibly easy, yet something I haven’t seen before. To paraphrase Mike's comment, it was simple enough to show off the individual flavors while giving you something new and really tasty.

Other recipes that caught my eye were Curried Cauliflower Cream Soup; Green Apple, Cheese, and Chard Oven Omelet; Hollow Pasta with Greek Cinnamon-Tomato Sauce; North Shore Shrimp Scampi; and Almond-Turmeric Potatoes (as seen in the intriguing cover photo).

But more than just recipes to look forward to, this cookbook is outright foodie entertainment. Alongside the informative introductions, variations and tips that come with the recipes are funny or thought-provoking quotations, interesting vignettes (see “Sally’s New Year’s Resolution), opinionated commentaries (see “How to Orchestrate Summer Tomatoes”), and “Building the Library” sidebars recommending a diverse bunch of cookbooks the authors deem excellent.

After spending time with this book, I could see that “how to eat supper” is not just a set of instructions but an abundantly realistic philosophy about nourishing yourself. On nights when you want to cook a main course and two sides, this book will help you do that. It also invites you to make supper out of the less than obvious. Alongside a recipe for a no-cook, dead simple Belgian Beer Bar Tartine is a commentary on how to make a meal around a slice of bread. Sounds like an incredible supper to me.


Thai Cantaloupe Salad with Chile
Adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift

I forgot to buy basil, so I used cilantro leaves instead with good results. The original recipe recommends just a couple drops of fish sauce, but I found a liberal sprinkling of this pungent sauce suited our tastes.

Serves 8

1 large ripe, fragrant cantaloupe, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 diced jalapeno or (for more heat) Thai red chile, seeded or not
1/3 cup thinly sliced basil leaves
3 to 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon fish sauce, or to taste
Generous pinch sugar
Course salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large serving bowl, gently combine all the ingredients. Taste and add more lime juice, fish sauce, sugar or seasoning to taste. You can serve this with long bamboo skewers so people can spear chunks of cantaloupe from the bowl.

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher, Clarkson Potter.

Thai Cashew Chicken

When we finally landed in San Francisco after over three weeks in Asia, we only had one thing on our minds—hamburgers. Of course we also had to figure out where to get a hotel and how to get back to Fort Lauderdale with our stand-by tickets, but the immediate concern was a good American meal.

The funny thing is, we weren’t sick of noodles and seafood. We ate beef in Japan more than once, but the point is that we had been eating Asian food for a month, and couldn’t resist the siren call of American comfort food. We wandered the streets of downtown San Francisco passing Asian, Thai, Vietnamese and even Indonesian restaurants that we would ordinarily have been thrilled to see. We wanted to avoid chain restaurants, but in the end we ended up at the Cheese Cake Factory…mmm, sliders.

The next day, we wandered around the Ferry Plaza for hours, and I ended the day, yet again, with a juicy hamburger and sweet potato fries. It was fun to crave this food that I normally feel less than excited about. When we finally did get home, we cooked healthy American recipes, like our staple black bean burritos. The luscious roasted vegetable linguini from my last post was a re-introduction to Italian cuisine. After about 3 weeks without Asian food and craving the exotic once again, we tossed together shrimp, chicken, vegetables and rice vermicelli with a tangy Vietnamese dressing. A few days later, we revisited the dishes we learned at the fantastic cooking school we attended in Thailand and made this recipe.

This is the photo of the cashew chicken as we made it in Thailand. Our home version lived up to the delicious taste memory.

Thai Cashew Chicken (Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang)
Adapted from Bai Pai Cooking School
Mike slices the chicken as thinly as possible so it cooks quickly. Use a very sharp knife and cut at an angle as if you are slicing a flank steak. Dried Thai chiles would be ideal, but the medium-hot chiles de arbol I had on hand worked really well. If you don't have dried chiles, sprinkle in some hot red pepper flakes, since you really should have at least a little heat in this dish. The Thai chili paste is irreplaceable as far as I know. Luckily, you can get it online here and probably in well-stocked markets.

Serves 4

3 tbs. canola oil, divided
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 1/2 tbs. Thai chili paste (Mae Pranom brand)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tbs. sugar
6 dried red chiles (such as chiles de arbol)
Generous 1/2 cup raw cashews, toasted (or substitute dry roasted, unsalted cashews)
5 scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
Steamed Thai jasmine rice, for serving

Heat 1 tbs. oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken, season with salt and pepper and stir fry until cooked through. Put the chicken in a bowl and set aside. Repeat with 1 tbs. of the oil and the rest of the chicken.

Add the remaining oil to the empty skillet and heat. Add the chili paste, stirring constantly to break it up for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, red bell pepper, onion, oyster sauce and sugar. Stir well and simmer for 3 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, return the chicken to the skillet and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened and the vegetables are tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the chiles, cashews and scallions, stir to combine and serve immediately over rice.



Technorati Tags: recipes, Thai, chicken, Main Course

Thailand Do's and Don't's

Do:
1) Learn local customs- Take a cue from Ronny and Mike, and wai people in greeting instead of shaking hands.

2) Cook your own food- We spent one morning at the wonderful Baipai cooking school in Bangkok. It was a relaxing break from the chaos of the city and a nice opportunity to talk with other English-speaking tourists. The lovely instructors took us to their local market, then guided us through four Thai dishes. This was the best food we ate in Thailand! Take a look:

Chicken Satay cooked over hot coals with peanut sauce and sweet and sour relish.


Mango with pandan leaf-scented coconut sticky rice.

3) See the Big Buddha- If you think you'll go to Thailand and see all the temples, you're in for a VERY long trip. There are dozens of noteworthy temples in Bangkok alone, so we spent the better part of a day in the care of a tuk-tuk driver who chauffeured us around to the four most impressive ones. The Wat Benchama Bophit is an incredible structure fashioned out of Carrera marble from Italy, but our favorite was Wat Inthara Wihan, referred to by locals as the "Big Buddha."

As we walked into the courtyard that is home to the massive standing Buddha, a man handed me a little wooden cage with three tiny, energetic birds inside and told me to release them for good luck. Mike wanted to know if I asked how much they cost, and naturally I replied, "Who cares, this is sooo cool!" My lucky birds cost about two dollars, and the rest of our trip was lucky, indeed.

The Buddha is so huge, you can only see his feet in this shot.


The Marble Temple.

4) Hang out at the food court- Singapore had hawker centers, and Thailand has food courts. They are kind of like what we have in American malls, but the food is actually good. First you have to learn the drill: go to a desk near the entrance and buy vouchers in small increments of money. Then exchange them for food at any of the stalls. If you have vouchers left over, you go to a different desk to trade them for cash. The food court at the awesome MBK Center mall in Siam Square was our favorite haunt, and the place we had our first meal in Thailand-- pad thai (click here more my recipe), of course!


5) Make friends who use protection- Whether or not you plan to patronize Bangkok's legendary sex industry, be sure to eat a meal at Cabbages and Condoms. This beautiful (and very romantic) restaurant is owned by a former government official who made it his mission to promote sex education in Thailand. Profits are donated to STD prevention programs. I had the BEST green curry at the restaurant, and I got to snap this shot:

In case it's not clear in the photo, that's a sari made of the Pill and a dress made of unwrapped condoms that Mike is standing beside.

6) Eat anything wrapped in a lotus leaf- Thais love to wrap tasty things in lotus leaves. Some of the most popular treats are custardy, sugary confections. You may not be able to identify it, but if it's wrapped in a leaf, it's bound to be good.


Don’t:
1) Ask for the sommelier- Nobody drinks wine in Thailand! Seriously. It was a trying week for me. I like beer. I even love beer. But with a good meal, I need wine! Okay, it is possible to get wine in some restaurants, but the selection is nil, and there's nothing by the glass. I'm guessing the bars and restaurants in the major hotels serve wine, but we didn't go to Thailand to eat at the Hilton. One place where we could get wine by the glass was the 5th Flr. food court at the MBK center in Siam Square. Once, the bartender tried to pour my cabernet into a frosty, chilled glass... hey, you take what you can get.

2) Channel Leonardo DiCaprio (I mean Alex Garland) on Khao San Road- If you've read Garland's novel, The Beach (and I definitely recommend you do), you might be tempted to stay in one of the backpacker rat traps where the book opens. A lot of guidebooks will tell you that's the place for a cheap room and an occasional American breakfast to remind you of home. Don't do it! Khao San is dirty and jammed with people all the time. Not only that, but the neighborhood is isolated from most of the city. It's a good place to stay if you want to be near the shrines and buddhas, but you'll get nicer (still cheap) rooms, more accessibility and a much less touristy atmosphere elsewhere. We stayed at the Bed & Breakfast Inn right off Siam Square. The Wendy House right next door is also great.

Crazy Khao San Rd. It's a fun place to visit, but you wouldn't want to get a room there.

3) Assume a ping-pong show has anything to do with sports- You'll inevitably grow curious and venture out of your hotel after 9pm. This is a good idea. Thais seem to never sleep. There are night markets, and the city comes alive in contrast to the scorching, languid afternoons. What you do in Bangkok at night is your business, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't warn 'ya!

4) Order a salad unless you’re up for serious heat- Asian salads are spicy! See this innocent little number we made at cooking school? It's got one little Thai chile in the mix, and it will definitely put a thin layer of dew on your brow--Thais would consider this level of heat very mild. If you're not up for it, ask for the wimpy western version when you order food in a restaurant. The fresh, unique salads are some of the best, healthiest choices on a Thai menu, but take precautions.

Savory Prawn Salad with lemongrass and spicy Thai chiles.

5) Go anywhere without your own “tissues”- Bangkok is a modern city, but their "facilities" can be anything but. Always bring your own tissues and be prepared to squat.

Bangkok is an amazing place where sleek, modern shopping centers stand next to quaint neighborhood shrines. And it's hot. I mean really hot. Once we learned to nap away the afternoon, we were much better off. We had fabulous food, but there is also a lot of bad food in Bangkok. Stay out of tourist traps and try the food courts. They can be hit or miss, but if it's a miss (nothing was really awful, but we did get the occasional plate of greasy noodles), you can throw away a dish that cost you two dollars and go back for something else. Like I said above, our favorite food experience was Baipai cooking school where we got to taste homestyle thai flavor and learn about local ingredients.

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Real Pad Thai from Your Kitchen

If you have been lucky enough to find a very good Thai restaurant, then you have probably already fallen hard for pad thai, the light rice noodle dish that plays on your tastebuds with sweet and umami flavors until you have eaten greater quantities of it than you thought possible. If you have wished you could reproduce the exotic flavors of this deceptively simple dish at home, read on because I have a very manageable recipe for you. If, instead, you're wondering what all the fuss is about, you've probably had the misfortune of tasting, a gooey, sticky-sweet americanized version made with a thick pre-packaged, corn-starch laden "pad thai sauce." In that case, read on and discover an authentic dish that is completely different than what you're used to.

I love pad thai because for years I lived in the delivery radius of the best thai restaurant I have ever found. I could call them at 7:00pm on a Friday night and have a made-to-order steaming hot dish of pad thai in front of me in under 15 minutes. That goes to show how efficient these folks were, but also how quickly this meal comes together once your ingredients are prepped.

I was spoiled rotten with this pad thai. When I moved away from Boston, I tried other thai restaurants, and have never had anything that comes close. I'm sure there are other respectable chefs turning out authentic pad thai, but in my experience, they are a rarity.

It takes a little practice to get the technique just right for this recipe. What you make will still be tasty, but the timing really is everything, and you'll learn just how you like to do it after a couple attempts. Nothing may hold up to Bangkok Bistro in my estimation, but this satisfies me and captures those flavors that made me crazy for this dish from the first bite.


Pad Thai
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Savoring Southeast Asia by Joyce Jue

The most important thing you can do is have all your ingredients prepped and ready to add to the skillet in quick succession. I have tried to lay out the steps below. Once you begin to cook the shallots, you will have a finished dish in under 7 minutes.
Serves 3-4

3 tbs. vegetable or peanut oil, divided
salt and pepper
¾ lb. chicken breast meat, pounded very thin and cut into 1-inch pieces
12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
10 oz. flat rice noodles
2 ½ tsp. tamarind concentrate plus 3 tbs. water (or the equivalent of another tamarind product)
2 tbs. sugar
3 tbs. fish sauce
2 tbs. lime juice (about 1 lime)
¼ to ½ tsp. dried red chile flakes
2 tbs. chopped shallot
1 ½ tbs. chopped garlic
3 large eggs, beaten with 1 tblsp. water
2 c. fresh bean sprouts, divided
6 green onions, white and light green parts, chopped
½ c. roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
¼ c. cilantro, chopped
lime wedges, for serving

Heat 1 tbs. of the oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and stir-fry until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Remove to a bowl. Lower the heat to medium and add 1 tbs. of oil to the skillet. Add the shrimp, season and cook until opaque, about 1 minute. Add to the bowl of chicken and set aside.

Meanwhile cook the noodles according to package directions. In a bowl or large glass liquid measuring cup, whisk together the tamarind and water, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and chile flakes. Set aside.

Assemble everything you need to put together the pad thai: shallots and garlic, beaten eggs, chicken and shrimp, green onions, noodles, tamarind mixture, bean sprouts and peanuts.

Heat the last tbs. of oil over medium-low heat, add the shallot and cook for 1 minute, then add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add the beaten eggs, swirling the pan to coat the entire surface. Let the eggs set for a few seconds, then move them around the pan with a spatula, breaking them up. Immediately add the chicken and shrimp and toss quickly with the eggs. Add the noodles and toss them with the egg mixture for a minute or so, until you have cooked pieces of egg throughout. Pour the tamarind mixture all over the noodles in the skillet and toss to coat thoroughly. Immediately add the green onions, half of the bean sprouts and half of the peanuts and toss to combine. Remove from heat. Serve the pad thai with the remaining bean sprouts and peanuts; the cilantro; and the lime wedges.


Technorati Tags: recipes, thai, Main Course