Fall Back
Here comes my time of year! Oooohhhh man, the abundance. Everywhere you look. This season has to be the absolute best. Hands down! All you have to do is look around. Simply Intoxicating. The colors… trees put on their Sunday best before they shed to welcome winter’s cold. Humans, on the other hand, don’t shed, we add warm sweaters that make us look gooood (and hide that spare tire), long pants and winter boots. The cooler weather just pumps us up. Energy levels rise in anticipation of the coming Holiday season. The only way that I know how to describe it is to say that we become “frisky.” I see the bounce in the step of not only everyone on the farm, but every animal.
Food… Where do I start? There is so much to choose from. Food inventories rise because, well, there is so much to choose from, the abundant harvest affects store purchasers who are human and they get frisky too. Sales. The inventory must be moved so “let’s have a sale” sales are inevitable as everyone fights for your business this time of year.
Pumpkins are not just for Charlie Brown and Halloween. They can hold their own in a variety of recipes (http://www.organicchefmagazine.com/) and these orange beauties kick off the winter’s first big food sale. Pumpkins, because when fright night is over so is the demand, are almost always overlooked. I’m not talking about the candy, but the pumpkin itself. Now is the time for soups, stews, meat pies, squash of all sizes and shapes and so much more. My word, I sound like a food infomercial!
Glass Noodle Stir-fry with Crab
This is a dish that reminds me that less can be more. With a few ingredients and some light chopping, you’ll have a simple and elegant dish that allows the delicious flavor of crab to shine. Known in Vietnamese as Miến Xào Cua, I enjoy having this for lunch or as part of a dinner meal. You can purchase good-quality lump crab meat or steam a fresh crab as I did, and pick apart the meat.
I used baby leeks instead of shallots or green onions this time as I love the color and subtle onion flavor they lend to the dish.
INGREDIENTS: (2-4 servings)
- 2 bundles of miến (glass noodles), soaked in lukewarm water for about 20 minutes
- 1 cup of black “wood-ear” mushrooms, soaked in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes, thinly sliced
- 1 cup of baby leeks, thoroughly cleaned and thinly sliced on the bias (discard the tough green tops, or save it for use in making stock)
- 1 cup of chopped red bell pepper
- meat from 1 whole, steamed crab (approx. 1 cup)
- crab tomalley
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbl. fish sauce + more to taste
- fresh ground pepper
- oil, for cooking
STEPS:
- In a colander or sieve, drain the glass noodles, set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the egg, tomalley and fish sauce, set aside.
- In a wok or deep skillet heated to med-high, add about 1-2 Tbl. of oil.
- Stir in the leeks and cook until slightly translucent, approx.2-3 minutes
- Next, add the red bell pepper and mushrooms and stir-fry for about 1-2 minutes
- Now, add the glass noodles and stir-fry 1-2 minutes. The noodles should be translucent.
- Pour the egg + tomalley mixture over the noodles and quickly stir fry until the eggs are cooked, between 2-4 minutes.
- Gently fold the crab meat into the noodles and combine. Sprinkle fresh cracked pepper and serve warm.
Homemade Chili Garlic Sauce
Many of you are probably familiar with the ubiquitous green-lidded bottle of chili-garlic sauce that is sold at most Asian grocery stores. With its trademark rooster image stamped on the front, it’s a common sight in many Viet (and non-Viet) homes. Our family always had a jar of this sitting in our refrigerator door, right next to the ketchup and mustard bottles.
Combined with lime, sugar and fish sauce, it made for an easy nước chắm (Viet dipping sauce) or a quick topping to stir-fried noodles and soups whenever fresh chilies were out. Up until recently, I had not considered making my own. The stuff in the bottle was not quite as good as fresh chilis, but it was convenient and handy to have around.
I came across a method for a raw version and a cooked version on Andrea Nguyen’s blog and it seemed easy enough. Also, I had recently purchased a 3lb crate of fresh cayenne at the farmer’s market.
With that ample supply, I decided to make both versions. It was actually pretty easy and quick to put together. Most of the work was cutting up the chilis and peeling the garlic. From there, adding the rest of the ingredients into the food processor took little time.
I’m very pleased with the results. They, of course, have a fresh taste that is far better than the store-bought jar. Both sauces have a heady aroma and a heck of a kick to them. I thought that the cooked version would be slightly tamer, but I find the chili flavor to be even sharper and the garlic a bit more pronounced in that one. The raw chili sauce, however, has an earthy quality and less of a sweet edge than the cooked sauce (it had less sugar added).
I’m sure this is something I’ll be able to do from now on. So, adieu, little rooster!
TƯƠNG ỚT TỎI - VIETNAMESE CHILI-GARLIC SAUCE
adapted from VietWorldKitchen
INGREDIENTS: (raw version)
- 1 1/2 lbs. red, hot chilis (cayenne, thai, serrano, jalapeño, etc.), roughly chopped with stems removed & discarded
- 12 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbl. sugar
- 6 Tbl. white vinegar
STEPS:
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until thoroughly blended but still coarse in texture.
- Taste the sauce and add salt/sugar if needed.
- Transfer to an airtight jar and refrigerate.
- Makes approx. 2 cups.
INGREDIENTS: (cooked version)
- 1 1/2 lbs. red, hot chilis (cayenne, thai, serrano, jalapeño, etc.), roughly chopped with stems removed & discarded
- 15 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tsp. salt
- 6 Tbl. sugar
- 6 Tbl. white vinegar
STEPS:
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until thoroughly blended but still coarse in texture.
- Transfer the mixture to a sauce pan on med. heat and bring to a rolling boil. Then, adjust the heat to low and simmer for approximately 5 minutes - or until the sauce loses its raw smell. Taste the sauce and add salt/sugar if needed.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
- Transfer to an airtight jar and refrigerate.
- Makes approx. 2 cups.
Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese
I decided last month that our family should make a better effort to eat more seafood and less crap like deep fried nuggets of chicken fat. Not that I wasn’t trying to be healthy or anything, because that would be called a D-I-E-T, which is against my religion, culture, gender and overall cellular structure.
Looking for inspiration, I browsed some of my favorite food blogs and drooled over a dish that took a humble comfort food and paired it with lobster. So, my kids and I headed off to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for the dish.
The rugrats had fun poking at the lazy crustaceans in the tank, trying to guess which one the seafood monger would clumsily capture with his primitive wooden rake. A feisty three pounder was stuffed a plastic bag, weighed, priced and dropped in our cart. Off we went to pay, stopping briefly to pick up a hunk of nice cheese and a box of pasta.
Now, I have nothing against the teenage workforce manning the checkout line, but I feel very strongly that I simply must write these 3 letters.
Local or Local?
Real Deal or Organic Opportunist? Watch What You Buy On The Road!
With all the talk about local foods, slow food movement, carbon footprint, what do you believe? Here is the real deal when it comes to learning the lingo.
And What’s a Carbon Footprint Doing on My Food?
Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) is a principle of sustainability relying on consumption of food products that are locally grown, especially those with regional historic and/or cultural significance. It is part of the concept of local purchasing, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat local food sometimes call themselves “localvores” or “locavores.” The concept is often related to the slogan Think globally, act locally, common in green politics.
If local food is full of pesticides however, what good is it really?
Sometimes an organic or pesticide-free from 300 miles away beats a
chemically laden locally grown food product. The best idea? Know your food source and farmer.
A carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service. Those who buy local are working to reduce their carbon footprint and, therefore,
global warming and other eco-concerns.
Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.
For example, if the Earth’s food resources are one big bank account, spending interest only without dipping into savings is sustainable food. Examples of non-sustainable foods are those that reduce the population of a species or product or those that use the Earth’s resources to produce without replacing them.
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