Fishinnards

Here is an old article about cooking stocks in pressure cookers vs. the conventional method. To summerize, in a blind taste test between the methods, the pressure cooker lost. However, the pressure cooker used was the type with the old steam valve regulator. In a re-test with a newer pressure cooker (in this case a Kuhn Rikon) that uses the new fancy spring valve regulator, the pressure cooker won. The newer spring valve regulator pressure cookers don't allow virtually any steam to escape, resulting in almost no reduction in cooking liquid, but also a superior finished product.

I found this wonderful blog post about the Muslim cooking of Southern Thailand, including an interesting recipe for a (Asian water) buffalo curry. Unlike most Thai cooking, this cooking uses an abundance of dried spices with a much more pronounced Indian influence. It seems in East Asia, a marker for Muslim cooking is the use of cumin. Many Chinese dishes of Muslim origin use cumin as a major flavor. The (central) Thai word for cumin is yee-ra, but in the Southern Thai dialect it is call Sa (สา maybe, I'm not completely sure of the spelling). A spice mix that includes cumin (and fennel, with is called Sa Yai or big cumin) is called Krueng Sa (เครื่องสา?) and it is also sometimes used as a componant of red curry paste. It is mostly used for meat dishes (mostly buffalo and goat) as the cumin is thought to help tame the gamey smell of the meat. The best thing about this recipe, though, is that it's really easy. The Krueng Sa spice mix consists of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black pepper, turmeric, and Thai red chillies. I love cumin and fennel together. You find this combination used in Malaysian curries frequently. The blog recipe omits the black pepper, though she discusses it and shows it in the picture, so I used it. The woman she gets the recipe from recommended 20-30 Thai red chillies, but the author recommends 10 for obvious reasons. They like really hot food in the South of Thailand, just as hot, if not hotter, than the Isaan (Northeast) region. I used 13 and it was plenty hot. I would enjoy using more, but I have others to consider. Everything except the turmeric is toasted and then ground together.

I used lamb instead of buffalo or beef becuase I love lamb. The curry is just sliced shallots and sliced garlic fried in oil. Next the spice mix is added and it smells amazing, and then thinly sliced meat is added (only 3/4 lb.) and fried briefly and then it is braised in a little coconut milk for 8 to 10 minutes. It is seasoned with salt, fish sauce and palm sugar and then it's done. It was very good and I will make this again. I also stir fried some spinach ผัดผัà¸à¸›à¸§à¸¢à¹€à¸¥à¹‰à¸‡, made an Asian pear salad ยำสาลี่, and a Thai omlete ไข่เจียว with Siracha (Shark brand), along with vegetables and jasmine rice.

What kind of pickle?

Hot mango pickle

Rice and dal night. Masoor dal boiled with water and some turmeric, with a tadka of whole kalonji, fennel and cumin seeds, garlic, onions, green chillies, ginger and ghee. Also added tomato (canned from last summer), fresh spinach and salt. Also made ghobi aloo; cauliflower and potatoes, cumin seeds, ginger, dried chillies, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, salt, and peanut oil. Eaten with pickle, papads and Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin'.

Unfortunately, significant levels of arsenic are being found in most conventionally (paddy) grown rice, and the concentrations are higher in brown rice. So much for being health conscious...

The highest concentrations of (inorganic) arsenic in rice is found in rice grown in the U.S., mostly in the Southern states.

""Until this all gets sorted out, consumers shouldn't be overly concerned," Duxbury says. Nevertheless, rice fanciers might note that both Duxbury and Meharg found basmati rice imported from India and Pakistan and jasmine rice from Thailand to contain the least arsenic." This from an article published in 2007 though, so it's findings could be out of date. As a side note, brown jasmine rice grown in the U.S. is terrible. I wasn't happy with any brown rice I tried till I found some brown jasmine rice from Thailand. Red rice from Thailand is good as well.

Last two days we had Kukul Mas (Sri Lankan chicken curry) made with homemade roasted curry powder, onions, garlic and ginger, lemongrass, curry leaves, whole cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, chillies, tomatoes, peanut oil, salt and coconut milk. With this we had Acar Rempai (Malaysian quick mixed pickle) a true fusion dish made with cauliflower, carrots and cucumber, shallots, garlic and ginger, curry powder (Malaysian Parrot brand), turmeric, black mustard seeds, chillies, peanut oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, and toasted sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds. Dishes were fiery and dynamic. The heat was tempered by consuming lots of jasmine rice (brown jasmine rice, like health conscious hippies). Also had Piraat ale (one of my favorites, Arrrrh) and roasted some red chilli papads.

FYI Cheestique (in Del Ray) now carries LeoNora baguettes.

Aloo Gosht (meat and potatoes) with lamb; cauliflower cooked in mustard oil with Bengali 5 spice; moong dal with a tadka of hing, kalonji, bay leaf and dried chilli; cucumbers, onion, and tomatoes with lime juice and salt; lime and raw chillies; pickle and Basmanti rice (not pictured).

"Jin Hoom Neua" slow cooked herbal beef stew from the new Pok Pok cookbook. Smells a lot like Yukgaejang right now (spicy Korean beef and vegetable stew). Probably because of the beef, soy sauce and massive quantities of garlic and dried chillies.

One of the reasons I have never eaten at the Bangkok 54 restaurant is that Thai Square was so close and was so good. I ate at Thai Square a lot in the olden days, but have not been recently. Nowadays, if I want to eat Thai food in a restaurant, Bangkok Golden is my choice hands down.

I went by there yesterday to see what was up. The grocery is closed, but the restaurant was open and the parking lot was full (this was around noon). I use this grocery at least 3 times a week, so this is upsetting. I hope they are able to reopen soon. I have never eaten at the restaurant, but the grocery has a take-out section of prepared dishes, sweets, and snacks. They have a large variety of nam prik (chilli sauces for raw and cooked vegetables), curries (esp. Southern Thai curries that are not usually on Thai restaurant menus here, e.g. Gaeng Tai Pla, fish innards curry), Southern Thai stir fries like Kua Kling. They have a hot food section that has "street food", including a very good Pad Thai, Khao Mun Gai (the Thai version of Hainanese Chicken rice), Ba Mee Mu Dang ("dry" roast pork garlic noodles), pork jerky with sticky rice, grilled chicken, deep fried whole fish, fish cakes, Isaan sausage with sticky rice and vegetables. On the weekends they sometimes have specials like Kao Soi (northern Thai chicken curry with egg noodles), Khao Mok Gai (Southern Thai version of chicken Biryani), Palo (stewed pork leg in five spice). The cooking has always been solid and I assume they share the kitchen with the restaurant.

BTW any place with stir fried stink beans on the menu (pad sataw) can't be too Americanized. 

The lemongrass soup was also very good. Kind of reminded me of the Thai tom kha soup but without the chicken. My only issue with this soup was that the aromatics (lemongrass, bay leaves, chunks of ginger) were not removed from the soup prior to serving which made it a little awkward when someone ended up with a bay leaf in their mouth and had to discreetly remove it.

FYI Tom Yum and Tom Kha "soups" should always have floating chunks lemongrass, galangal (never ginger) and kaffir lime leaves (not bay leaves). For some reason, they are never removed prior to serving, probably because they continue to flavor the broth as it sits. Thai people know to eat around them. Others learn the hard way after trying to eat whole lemongrass or galangal. BTW The Thai word for galangal is Kha. Tom Kha literally means boiled galangal.

Thanks for the review. One day I will actually make it to this place. Glad to hear it's still good.

I have a Kuhn-Rikon. It's great.

Alas, I received merely a pound (14) of very good quality kaffir limes. They will join their friends in the freezer.

Yes, it is Thai. The child is making Som Tam (green papaya salad). Very cute.

Can someone look at this adorable November 29th photo and verify that this language being spoken is indeed Thai? I hear some French in there, so Thai would be my naive guess - it's quite possible his wife is Thai and they're teaching their (also adorable) child Thai, so I don't think any conclusions can be drawn from this. And even if he *is* Thai, so what? There's no reason that a Thai chef can't make kick-ass sushi. Well, there's the years of apprenticeship and all that, but if you discount that, there's no reason.

^^ I bought through Amazon.com.

Thanks! I just ordered some. Maybe I'll get a crate too!

Posting again to say that I wrote the vendor about the mix-up and heard nothing back, so it may be that this is the amount of limes one received for $23.50. 

Just curious, when I was playing around on the website, it would not allow me to check out unless my order was over $10 (before shipping), and I think the limes were less than $10 a pound. I had to put 2 Lbs in my cart to see what the shipping would be. How were you able to make an order for just 1 lb. and then check out?

FYI Bangkok 54 has fresh kaffir limes today! A pack of 3 is $3.50. I bought 3 packs, so there is only one or two packs left, but they may get more.

A pound of gorgeous, organic, kaffir limes is winging it's way to me from California, so I need some equally excellent lemongrass to make some curry pastes.  Has anyone seen any that was really fresh?  And for the really long shot, how about cilantro root? 

Great Wall sells cilantro with and without roots (at both locations). Lately they have been trimming off the long parts of the roots, but they leave enough root to use, and the roots are big. They need to be washed well. The lemongrass at Bangkok 54 varies in freshness, but is usually fresher than other places with less turnover e.g. Shoppers Food etc. Though I haven't been in a while, I suspect Eden Center grocery may be a good source for lemongrass, due to high turnover.

I've taken to growing cilantro for the roots, as well. I also grow lemongrass, but it's all gone now. The freshness of just harvested lemongrass is hard to beat.

BTW where did you order your limes from? I need to do that.

That works for me with a +1 as well.

I am interested. I work in the evenings, but after the first week of December I could be free for dinner. Lunch would work for me most days. This place is right in my neighborhood. I could walk here.

I am no expert, but I remember once (about 20 years ago) when I'd cooked an Indian dinner for some friends, including one who was half Indian.  He praised me for not using food coloring like his mother did.  I don't recall the dish but I do remember that the recipe called for food coloring and I just left it out.  A quick google search seems to support this -I think food coloring is traditional in some Indian dishes.

Yes, the bright orange/red color in traditional tandoori chicken is food coloring.

Pickled Water Beetle (Pre-packaged from Thailand, I think) - Wat Thai DC (Songkran Festival aka New Years) / Silver Spring, MD

Glad you like this. In Thai it's called maeng da. You can find them in the freezer section of any Thai grocery. I have seen them at Bangkok 54 (in Arlington) and Duangrat's (in Falls Church). You can also buy jars of prepared Nam Prik Maeng Da (water beetle chili sauce) or you can make it yourself. Here is a video. The video is in Thai but the procedure is pretty straight forward. The ingredients are water beetle, garlic, shallots, cooked shrimp, Thai chillies and fermented shrimp paste (kapi). This sauce is eaten with raw and blanched vegetables. I actually enjoy the flavor of these bugs. The Vietnamese harvest the essence from the females to put in nuoc cham (fish sauce and lime juice dipping sauce) and some Vietnamese markets sell fish sauce with the bug essence already in it. They have also synthesized the maeng da essence and sell small bottles of the artificial flavor. Thais just eat the whole bug (mostly in the Issan region).

Incidentally, Maeng Da Talay, which means Meang Da of the sea, is horseshoe crab. Thais eat the row. This I have not yet tried.

do you ever use tahini in Asian peanut-sesame sauce, or just toasted sesame oil? sometimes I use both.

Also, Chinese groceries sell toasted sesame paste (like tahini but made with roasted sesame seeds). It's usually labeled something confusing like "salad dressing". I always keep a jar in the fridge for Dan Dan noodles and other stuff. I wouldn't substitute with tahini.

Spicy food needed tonight. Green papaya salad, no long beans or green beans but extra cherry tomatoes (goodbye tomato season ) and lime, tamarind, peanuts, palm sugar, chillies, salt, and fish sauce.

Fried chicken (Ayrshire farms chicken), Jarret Wrisley recipe from a Bangkok street vendor. The best recipe so far. As always, pepper, garlic, coriander root, (fish sauce, salt) but made into a batter/marinade with chicken stock and rice flour. Super! I also fried some pieces of chicken skin...

ส้มตำ ไà¸à¹ˆà¸—อด Som Tam, Gai Tord with homemade Chicken Sauce  น้ำจิ้มไà¸à¹ˆ (Nam Jim Gai) and Siracha sauce (Shark Brand) with raw vegetables and copious quantities of rice.