NPR's interview with Harold McGee

To further pollute your minds with my obviously socialist/left wing agenda, here is a link to NPR's interview with Harold McGee. It's about how to make your food more liberal...Actually, it's about the science of cooking, and perceptions of flavor. Enjoy.

Link here:
"Keys to Good Cooking."

Listen here:

Quick + update = quipdate

There are so many recipes and pictures that I want to share with you, but a combination of laziness, a cold, and a need to enjoy the last few days of sunshine in Seattle have slowed me down a LOT. I'm sorry. Please, forgive me.

Being the snooty, Christian, liberal that I am, I was at npr.org today and found this:

Sweet potato fries!!! Photo by T. Susan Chang for NPR.

Tips and recipes for oven frying. I've done oven friend chicken before, and loved it. It means that I can eat all of my southern food favorites, without feeling like I'm going to diiiiieeeeeee.

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry (Ga Kho Cari Xa)

We all have our own images of what makes comfort food. In America, the taste of creamy mashed potatoes, oozing cheesy lasagna, or fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies may be accompanied by images of grandma/mom standing in the kitchen. For me, comfort food can be a variety of things. It is spiced with the flavors from my Vietnamese ethnic heritage, the Cuban/Mexican tastes of central Florida where I grew up, or it can taste as full and hearty as the good ole American southern culture.  When I think of comfort food, a warm, happy feeling settles in the pit of my stomach, and stretches outward to my entire body.

It was a late dinner night, so no sunshine for good photos. Sorry.

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry was one of my favorite dishes as I was growing up. I requested it at least once a week for dinner.

 

Braised chicken with lemongrass and curry (Ga kho cari xa)
Note: This is probably not the recipe for you if you don't like fish sauce!

Ingredients:
3 lbs boneless chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)
3 tbs vegetable oil (separate 1 tbs oil) 
4 tbs fish sauce (nuoc mam)
1 small onion, chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, trimmed, chopped finely
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbs chili garlic sauce (add more to taste)
2 tbs Madras curry powder (add more to taste)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in fish sauce for 20-30 min.
2. In a non-stick pot, heat 2 tbs oil over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken. Brown the meat, then remove chicken from the pot, and set aside.
3. Add 1tbs oil to the pot. Then, add the onion, lemongrass, and ginger. Stir frequently until onions are soft.
3. Dump in curry and chili garlic sauce. Stir.
4. Add in the browned chicken. Reduce heat to low, and cook covered for 20-30 min. 
*Once the chicken is cooked, I like to taste the sauce to see if the balance between the spices is right. I usually have to add more fish sauce/curry powder/chili sauce, depending on the spice brand that I used. It's all a matter of experimenting until you find the right flavor.

We like to eat it over steamed rice, with cool slices of cucumber to balance the heat of the spices. It's such a simple dish, but I really love how the flavors fight together without overpowering each other. Now, my sister requests that I make it at least once a month.

Halloween cupcakes

How cute are these cupcakes from Karen Tack and Alan Richardson?

I just finished reading the latest issue of "Taste of Home" magazine, and they have a really great article on how to make these yourself. (I've also included instructional links/videos from the magazine's website below, just in case your latest issue has not arrived yet.) I'm thinking about making these for the youth group at church. Anyone want to help me?

All photos: Taste of Home

Picture 1: "Orange You Spiky?"
Picture 2: "Purple People Eater"

Blackberry syrup

A few weeks ago, I set out to use up some of the blackberries harvested from our backyard. Since we already had full containers of both strawberry and blackberry jams, and because I was craving pancakes at 11pm, I made blackberry syrup.

Quaker Oats Oatmeal Pancakes, still working on my pancake technique

Here's the problem though, I don't have a recipe. I kind of just made it up, and didn't write down any measurements. It is similar to this recipe. I mashed the berries through a colander first to remove some of the seeds, boiled it with some water and lime juice, and added Splenda rather than sugar a bit at a time until it was sweet enough, but not overly sweet. Because of the reduced sugar amount, I also added in a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken it. It was nice!

Chocolate sculpture

Saw this post on dessert girl's blog today. While I agree that Paul Wayne Gregory is insanely talented, I have to admit that some of it creeps me the fig out. For example:

Do you eat it, or put it on your sister's pillow while she's sleeping?

blackberry jam

Picked some blackberries from our yard the other day.

When I was 11 years old, my mother and I moved from Tampa, Florida to Intercoastal City, Louisiana. Most Louisianans haven't even heard of Intercoastal, it's so small. It was situated right next to the Vermillion bay, and parts of it were so low that every time it rained, some of the roads would flood. We only lived there for 3 years, but when Hurricane Katrina came in 2006, I couldn't even let myself think about what remained of that little city.

When we first moved there, we lived with my uncle's family. One day, out of boredom, my cousin suggested that we go pick blackberries. There was a field close by that no one owned, and it was filled with low blackberry bushes. When I think about my summers in Louisiana, I think of the heat and sweat on our backs as we bent down, of the thorns scratching our legs, and the purple stain on our fingers, as we picked those berries. After picking, we would wash them, and stick them in the freezer. Once they were frozen, we would eat them like ice, or smash it with a bit of sugar for a poor man's fruit sorbet. Sometimes, the berries might go into cold glasses of Sprite, and the bubbles would pop, pop, pop around the fruit until we chugged down the fizziness to get to the tart berry at the bottom. I really miss those summers now, because they were also filled with crawfish boils, oyster bakes, and the best $1 boudins from the corner grocery. 

Great. Now I'm craving cajun/creole food, too.

Using this recipe from http://savorysweetlife.com, I used these Washington berries to make...

Blackberry jam

I reduced the sugar (of course) by only using half of the amount called for, subbed lime for lemon, and it still turned out delightful. I like the tartness with a hint of sweet...It goes great on english muffins, cinnamon bagels, vanilla ice cream, and 

with a pb sandwich.

"I don't mind the seeds too much" is what I keep telling myself since I don't have a medium sieve to strain out the seeds. Really. I don't mind the seeds too much.