Sunday, July 11, 2010

Gumbo

A while back I saw Alton Brown make gumbo on an episode of Good Eats and decided to put it on my to-do list of things to try since I was in a food rut and wanted to try some new flavors. Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of visiting the area of the country around New Orleans, and none of the local restaurants in my part of the country has decent gumbo. I'm not quite sure what gumbo is supposed to taste like, but all specimens I've had have been flavorless and boring. I believe California's "let's try to make everything more healthful" mentality is a contributing factor. So other than buying a plain ticket to New Orleans, my other option was to try making it myself.

My boyfriend had spent many Mardi Gras's in New Orleans in his youth and has more experience in eating gumbo than I or anyone I knew, and I wanted his help. Unfortunately, all the help he gave me was that I should find a good recipe and follow that. For soups and stews, I usually don't like following recipes and can't judge a good one just from reading it anyway, so I decided to wing it. The goal was for the gumbo to taste "good," and I think it came out pretty good. When my boyfriend tried it, he was quite annoyed that I had nailed the flavor without knowing what gumbo is supposed to taste like nor following a recipe so that was a bonus because I wasn't really aiming for authenticity of flavor.

 In any case, here is a rough description of what I did:

Ingredients:
1 pound of thick cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into small pieces
About 1 pound of shell-on shrimp, peeled and de-veined.
About a haf cup of all-purpose flour
Two chicken breasts cubed (I happened to have these on hand)
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion diced
2 garlic cloves
Some okra
Sassafras
Toasted garlic and toasted garlic oil
Fish Sauce
Bay leaf
Salt

1. Crisp the bacon in a dutch oven and remove it. Leave the drippings in the dutch oven and mix in the all purpose flour. Yes, you need ALL those drippings; don't remove ANY of it. The mixture of fat and oil is called a roux. I also added in a couple cloves of garlic to infuse into the roux. I removed it when it started to turn golden brown. I mashed the garlic cloves and set them aside.


2. Cook the roux over low heat until it changes color. According to Alton Brown, it's supposed to be brick red and gives gumbo its characteristic flavor. I had never done this before, and chickened out when it got pretty dark brown. Next time I'll be more brave in letting it go darker.

3. While the roux is darkening, make a broth with the shrimp shells. Heat about a quart of water in a saucepan until boiling and add the shrimp shells. For those of you who don't know me, I'm fanatical about "clean" broths and stocks so I skimmed off all the scum, foam and other smelly things that float to the top. I let this simmer for about 20 minutes, skimming off the scrum the whole time to make sure that it doesn't redesolve back into the broth and make it cloudy and smelly. Don't forget to stir and watch the roux. When the shrimp broth is done, drain out the shells and return the broth back to the saucepan. Heat it to a boil, add a pinch of salt and fish sauce and add the shrimp a bit at a time to cook. Cooking the shrimp in the shrimp broth will make both items more flavorful. Don't overcook the shrimp -- remove them and set aside as they finish cooking. Remember to remove all scum that forms in the broth while the shrimp are cooking.


4. After all the shrimp are cooked, add the cubed chicken to the broth to cook a bit at a time in the shrimp broth. Again, take out all the scum that floats to the top of the broth as the chicken cooks since it will release its own protein impurities. Cooking the chicken in the shrimp broth will make the chicken flavorful and the broth more flavorful as well. Remove the chicken cubes as they finish cooking and set aside.

5. When the roux is finished, add the chopped bell peppers and onions, cook for a bit over med/high heat and then add the shrimp/chicken broth. When heated through, add the bacon, mashed garlic, shrimp, chicken, crispy fried shallots, and toasted garlic and garlic oil and let simmer for a few minutes.

6. To serve, ladle into bowls and top with toasted garlic oil and sassafras to taste.




Crispy bacon:



Bacon drippings:







Bacon drippings and flour




Roux starting to develop color



More color




Hotel Chocolate. The Purist. Milke 52% With Vanilla and Cocoa Nibs. Menevava Plantation. Madagascar




After months and months of not eating any chocolate (I was getting an allergic reaction) I had my first taste of it again a few days ago. I picked a good one to start the habit again -- Hotel Chocolate's "The Purist" a 52% milk with cocoa from the Menavava Plantation in Madagascar.

This is a milk chocolate bar that I absolutely love, which quite surprised me since I have tried many milk chocolate bars only to hate them. Until I tried this bar,  the only other milk chocolate bar I liked was the Amedei milk. I think I may like this more than the Amedei milk. This chocolate smells like cocoa butter and vanilla which perfectly foiled with the darker scent of cocoa solids. The flavor was amazing. It was quite rich, creamy with delightfully bitter cocoa nibs that acted as the perfect foil to sweet milk chocolate.

 Am I just over-excited because it's been more than 6 months since I've eaten chocolate? Perhaps . . . . But I've heard the feedback from people whose taste I trust that this is, indeed, a very delightful bar.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Nocino 2010

It's that time of year again when green walnuts are in season. I am making nocino again this year. Here is this year's recipe:


1 liter Sobieski Vodka
20 green walnuts cut in half
1 orange peel, most of the pith removed
3 cinnamon sticks


Freshly picked, beautiful green walnuts washed and ready to go:



 Everything just mixed:


Here is the mixture on day 2. It's starting to turn green. By day 4 it looks completely black and there's little point in taking a picture. It smells divine, though.

Canh Chua

One of my favorite soups is canh chua -- a delicious soup that's flavored with tamarind (me in Vietnamese). My uncle Chu Nghia is a fantastic cook and I have him to thank for the keys to a deliciously aromatic canh chua:

Tamarind fruit is a delicious sour/sweet fruit common in southeast Asian cooking. You may recognize its flavor from certain Asian candies and pad thai.

For canh chua, I suggest you buy a block of seedless tamarind pulp. Despite its name, seedless tamarind pulp is not seedless and often has bits of tamarind shell. To prepare it, mix the tamarind pulp with about a cup of boiling water. Stir it around, break up the pieces, and let it sit for at least an hour.




 Then strain out the seeds, shells, and any large pieces of fiber. You'll want to press through the strainer with a spoon to get as much liquid and pulp extracted as possible.

You'll be left with real seedless tamarind pulp. 




Ingredients in the soup:
Fresh chicken broth (nuoc ga tui)
Tamarind Pulp (bot me)
Tomatoes (ca chua)
Chayote (trai su su)
Bean sprouts (gia)
Catfish
 Toasted garlic -- very important!
Optional -- bamboo, greens, etc.








Bamboo and Tofu

My mom made this dish when we had dinner with my uncle's vegetarian girlfriend. Bamboo is one of my favorite vegetables -- it has a fantastic texture and a slightly bitter/neutral flavor which I love. This is by far one of my favorite vegetarian dishes.

Start with shallots and oil:

Once the shallots are aromatic, add shredded bamboo:
Once the bamboo are heated through, add julienne deep fried tofu (see my post on bi chay for the technique), some chopped garlic, soy sauce, and sliced red onion and turn off the heat once everything is heated through.


Finally, fold in some bean sprouts which will slightly cook from the residual heat.

Bi Chay

Bi chay is the vegetarian version of a Vietnamese mixture of shredded pork, pork skin, and toasted powdered rice. I am not a fan of the meat version, but I do love the vegetarian version which I first tried when my Aunt Bac Chi made vegetarian spring rolls in honor of my uncle's new girlfriend, a Buddhist vegetarian. Toasted rice powder gives this its distinctive flavor. I use bi chay as a filling for spring rolls and sandwiches.

 Take firm tofu, slice it thinly and microwave it for about a minute or so until it's hot. Then deep fry it until golden brown and delicious. Microwaving the tofu first is a trick that my Aunt Bac Lan taught my mom -- it makes the tofu puff up beautifully when being deep fried so that the texture doesn't get all heavy and greasy. After the tofu is fried, drain it and cut into long thin strips. Add in some shredded jicama and toss while the tofu is still warm and add toasted rice powder to taste.