Yum!

Hello dear friends,

I've been a bad blogger lately. I know I rarely talk about my personal life but for those who don't know me personally, I'm completing a graduate program this week and I've been rather busy—well--doing that. But I've missed you, as I hope you've missed me. Now that you can call me Faux Gourmet, Esquire, I'm back with a vengeance . . . until prepping for the bar sends me back into a cave for a few weeks in July. But before & after that I'm all yours, so please resume your habit of checking What's in the Pot? blog regularly!

Thanks for your patience while I took a needed hiatus. I look forward to celebrating the joy of eating & exploring good food on the cheap once again.

The Faux Gourmet

“I ordered the Yum Neuah but yours was better.”

Taste & See:  In honor of my dear friend, D, who is soon to move away from our great city back to the barren wilderness from whence he came, I present for you one of his favorite recipes—that is, one of his favorite things to have me cook: Yum Neuah (new-ah). I know. With a name like “yum!” how can you go wrong? Yum Neuah is a Thai beef salad, kind of like a deconstructed beef burrito, sans carbs & replacing Mexican spices with Thai spices. Ok, maybe it's not that similar to a beef burrito. Maybe, simple, fresh & healthy recipe that it is, Yum Neuah is far superior.

D sometimes tells me when he's had Thai food, “I ordered the Yum Neuah but yours was better.” That may be a bit of nostalgia speaking more than, say, an bite-to-bite taste test analysis, but I'll take it. I did learn from the best, after all. My most memorable Yum Neuah experience involved a Hmong wedding in the north of Thailand where almost every last part of an entire cow (and two pigs) were slaughtered, butchered and transformed into myriad beefy recipe. The women sat at long picnic tables, peeling bags of garlic, chopping lemongrass and green onions, and pounding chilies for an hour. The most magical concoction of all was an enormous vat of glistening chunks of beef into which a potpourri of spices and sauces were churned. A bit of time on the grill and the Yum Neuah meat fairly danced in the mouth, popping with complex notes of flavor, as Thai food is wont to do.

You don't have to kill your own cow to make good Yum Neuah, however. D, if you should desire to impress your new friends, just follow along. Before you know it, they'll be sending you texts about how much better your Yum Neuah is.

Do it Yourself

Yum Neauh involves three steps, each of which is fairly easy. The hardest part is figuring out proportions that create a flavor that works for you. The trick in Thai food is balance- a harmonious blend of salty, sweet, sour and spicy. I give you estimates (for a 4 person meal) so the rule-bound cooks among us don't get too worried, but it is really best if you experiment. Don't be afraid to pour and shake using your eye instead of measuring cup, and when it comes to chopping veggies, go with however much of each you want to eat. There is no formula. Just take heart that with these ingredients as your raw materials, it is hard to make the food taste bad, and if you do, they're cheap enough you can try, try again.

Ingredients

Meat: About one pound rump or sirloin steak

Meat marinade:
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 square inch ginger, chopped
1 bunch cilantro (coriander) roots, washed and chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground black pepper

Dressing:
4 Tbsp fish sauce (like salt in baking, fish sauce doesn't give a fishy or salty flavor but simply helps to enhance other flavors)
4 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chili flakes (more if you like it hot; also consider chopping up 1-2 fresh bird chilies per person), 1Tbsp palm sugar (substitute brown sugar if you can't find it)

Vegetable base:
2 red onions, diced, generously sized
1 bunch green onions, chopped (use both the green and the white parts)
1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 bunch mint (sprinkle on chopped leaves as you like)
1 bunch cilantro (sprinkle on chopped leaves as you like; I can't stand cilantro so I omit)
1 bag pre-mixed greens
1 ½ cup cherry tomatoes

Directions

Let the meat marinate while you prepare the dressing in another bowl.

Grill the meat—and by “grill” I mean, fire up the back burner, let a pan dowsed in olive oil get good and hot, and give the steak a good few minutes on each side, just enough to char the outside and leave the middle nice and juicy. Of course, if bloody isn't your thing, by all means, keep it on a bit longer. Once the top and bottom are both seared, however, you might want to turn down the heat a bit and add a lid to avoid burning the outside while the middle gets done.

Slice the meat into long strips and let it marinate in the dressing.

Start a batch of rice.

While the meat soaks in the flavor, chop the vegetables for the vegetable base and arrange them in a separate bowl.

Spoon meat and dressing over a pile of greens and a side of rice; enjoy with a cold beer.

Note: Yum Neuah makes great leftovers, but don't pour the juicy meat over the whole bowl greens or they'll get mushy; instead, serve individual portions from separate serving bowls. When you eat Yum Neuah right as its cooked, the meat will be hot but it is also delicious cold, straight from the fridge.

You can also make a vegetarian option by simply serving as a vegetable salad; there is a vegetarian version of “fish” sauce. But honestly, you're missing out.

Quick Tip: Good food at PDX

Should you find yourself traveling in the great Pacific Northwest, I highly recommend Pizzicato in the Portland International Airport (PDX). It manages to make an airport pit stop feel like a neighborhood bar. The staff is superfriendly, demanding I have a sample of beer before I chose my drink. And best of all, I got a shockingly big arugula, candied pecan, pear & gorgonzola salad for $4.50:

Better Together

Some foods were meant to be soulmates.

Taste & See: I thought of about five different titles for this post about delectable food pairings, but I seem to keep entitling my posts after songs so I figured might as well continue the trend. (See also: Exhibit A, Exhibit B.) But really, that's the crux of the matter: some food pairings are as enduring as one night stands; others are meant to be food soulmates, each flavor bringing out the full beauty and potential of its other half.

Caramel & fleur de sel is one such delectable pairing. Sweet, gooey caramel punctuated by coarse, grainy bits of salt is an unbeatable combination. (Gourmet mag, home of food photos glorious enough to frame, has a wonderful recipe. Oh Ruth Reichl, what must I do to make you want me?)

Fleur de sel is a sea salt obtained by harvesting the crystals from the top of the pond, literally. It smells oceany and has a higher mineral content than table salts- and tends to come in coarser grains. (Read about it compared to other salts for different foodie needs here. Salted caramels are conspicuously absent, to my dismay.) It is expensive, about $20/lb. But you can use kosher(ing) salt or any other big grainy salt for a close second in a pinch. No pun intended.

The prospects of the joyous combination tempted me to undertake the foolhardy feat of making caramels without a candy thermometer. The result was disastrous. Trying to "eyeball" when melted sugar and butter would, once cooled, become neither liquid nor hardened but a gooey, chewy cube of perfect caramel resulted in caramels with the consistency of peanut butter.

This is what they should look like, as made by my Auntie Rachel for a recent party celebrating my brother's wedding:


Auntie Rachel clearly has a candy thermometer.

You can't really see the grains on the caramels above; they were smaller and faded into the melty caramel. On this truffle, however, they stand out beautifully:


This is from Juliette et Chocolat, a gorgeous little chocolaterie in Montreal, (could be straight from the movie) with thick chocolate drinks and heavenly desserts.

Another lovely format for the sweet-salty combination, also from Juliette et Chocolat:


This is a single-serving molten chocolate cake with caramel sauce, sprinkled with fleur de sel. Joy! I copied this by adding a caramel in the center, which melted as the individual cakes (made in cupcake pans) baked. Super easy. (I won't reprint it here, but the recipe I used is available on allrecipes.com.)

I've been loving balsamic vinegar reduction & strawberries, which I've written about before, as well, often with a bit of chevre, a creamy goat cheese.

This is a strawberry daiquiri (limeaid + frozen strawberries + rum + blender) with a modified version of "Beggars Purses," something I had at a great tapas restaurant in Brooklyn called Cafe Tapeo. (Great date restaurant. Lovely ambiance, not too pricey, and inventive culinary creations, all of which hit the mark. I wanted to steal their entire menu, and have been trying to recreate parts of my meal ever since my visit.)


They stuffed wonton wrappers with goat cheese and crisped them up, topping them with a rosemary syrup. My local grocery store had only phyllo dough, and I mixed goat cheese with plain yogurt because I didn't have enough cheese. I also added honey, rosemary and chopped almonds for a sweet crunch.

First couple tries with the phyllo were a mess. My stuffing was far too liquidy to hold up to the paper thin phyllo. I had to put my 'wonton' in a ramekin to keep it from imploding.


My 'egg roll' attempt just bled stuffing all over the baking pan.


Finally, I tried laying whole stacked sheets of phyllo dough on the baking sheet, topping with spoonfuls of filling in a grid, and pressing a few more layers on top with butter as glue- like ravioli. I gently slid a knife along to cut the big squares into single-serving pieces, baked about 10 minutes, and drizzled with rosemary balsamic reduction.

Served with a bright strawberry daiquiri, tangy and sweet like the vinegar reduction itself- another winning pair.
When making balsamic reduction try adding a sprig or two of rosemary, letting the woodsy flavor seep in. The sweet reduced syrup with a hint of a forest atop a pile of fresh strawberries incredible. It also works as a summer salad, with sliced strawberries atop mache or spinach, and pecorino or chevre. Or, again, with chevre with a spoonful of honey mixed in, as a play on strawberry shortcake. I ate mine atop polenta; you could also try a toasted whole wheat muffin if you're not the kind of chef who makes fresh biscuits on a daily basis.


PS: I've always loved chocolate & chile as well. It is always great in mole, in winter as a hot drinking chocolate, or in the summer as gelato. Sadly I have no good photos in my repertoire and haven't cooked anything in this vein in a while.

Summer Love

Nothing says summer
like strawberries and tomatoes.

Kids may still be in school, and the sky may yet be teasing us with overcast days and highs of 70s, but when you find yourself using adjectives like plump and bursting, and dreaming of red juices drizzling down your chin, you know summer's finally here.

The intense bright red of both fruits is the perfect foil for other summertime delights, from vibrant fresh pesto and salad greens to creamy cheeses.



And, as it turns out, both add just the right dot of flavor to liven up an inadvertently large batch of plain polenta I would up with recently. With a little creativity, however, the entire pan of bland, rubbery polenta was transformed into a crispy base ideal for highlighting the stand-out flavors piled on top.

Do It Yourself:

Polenta: You can make polenta, a form of corn meal, fairly easily from scratch by following the directions on the box, or these simple instructions. This is a case of do as I say, not as I do: I added only olive oil and a bit too much water; next time I'll sprinkle some salt in the polenta to give it a bit more flavor and use a little less water than called for to keep it from being so dense.

Alternately, you can buy it pre-made, ready to slice into rounds for toasting up as you need them.

For each of the recipes below, I grilled my polenta in a saucepan for 2-3 minutes on each side as I prepared the remaining ingredients. I tried the oven, but didn't get the crispy crust for which I was aiming. I also tried to grill it dry on a hot pan, but ended up filling my apartment with smoke for several hours. The best method ended up being using a moderate amount of oil, either olive oil or leftover fat from cooking meat in the same pan, and pressing down a bit on each side with a flat metal flipper.

Polenta keeps in the fridge for about a week. In addition to the recipes below, try:

Grilled Polenta with Blood Orange & Basil Relish
Fried Polenta with Fresh Tomato Sauce
Quick & Easy Polenta

Faux Strawberry Shortcake:

- Strawberries, approx 3 per person
- Chevre (goat cheese); I used a honey chevre
- Balsamic vinegar (or Rosemary Balsamic Reduction, see below)
- Polenta, cut into triangles

1. While polenta is frying, slice a few strawberries.
2. Remove polenta from pan and place on plates.
3. Spread chevre over polenta and add strawberries.
4. Drizzle with balsamic.


Rosemary Balsamic Reduction: For a more intense sweet flavor with less of a jarring sour note, use this instead any time you'd use plain balsamic vinegar.

1. Pour balsamic (approx 3 times the amount of sauce you hope to make) into a sauce pan on low heat.
2. Add several rosemary wands and approx 2 tbsp sugar per 1/2 cup balsamic.
3. Stir occasionally as vinegar evaporates into a sticky, sweet syrup.
4. Promptly remove from heat when it becomes about the consistency of maple syrup or you'll end up with a batch of sweet tar.
5. Store in fridge and use as needed for a lovely jolt of flavor on almost anything.

Polenta Open Faced Sandwich
- Salami or sausage rounds; I used chorizo
- Cheese; I used brie
- Cherry or grape tomatoes
- Pesto
- Polenta squares

1. As polenta is toasting in pan, add several slices of salami and a handful of tomatoes. The heat brings out a rich warmth to the meat and provides some additional flavor to the polenta as it cooks in the oil. The tomatoes stay intact, but pop in beautiful bursts in your mouth.


2. After turning polenta over once, spread pesto over toasted side and top with slices of cheese.
3. Cover and continue to cook in pan while bottom side toasts.
4. Place polenta on plate and top with salami rounds and tomatoes.


Serve with a sweet white wine (I am partial to Gewürztraminer) and a simple salad of mache or spinach leaves topped with, what else, sliced strawberries, slivered almonds, honey chevre or pecorino, and perhaps another little drizzle of balsamic (though mache has a nice peppery flavor that needs no dressing).

Finish with Faux Strawberry Shortcake for dessert, and perhaps a digestivo of a single sweet, perfect strawberry.

Garden Gallery, Part II: Hidden Gems

free stuff

I love it when restaurants throw in a little something 'free' with the actual dish or beverage. I can think of a few Bangkok places off the top of my head that do: the riverside cafe at the Oriental Hotel, [with its own free ferry from the public boat stop; at Sapan Taksin stop on BTS ] tosses in a bowl of fried nuts popular in the North when you order cocktails; it is surprising to see such up-country pub food at the Oriental, but when I was there last my friend and I devoured the bowl and secretly wished for more. Crepes & Co., on Sukhumvit Soi 12, gives a little bite-sized cookie with their coffee and teas, as does the cafe in the Erawan Hotel lobby [by the big Erawan shrine].

But these places are all a bit chi chi; you more than make up for the cost of your token free food with the oversized bill. Instead of feeling grateful, I just find myself wishing the free cookie was bigger than a one baht coin.

Garden Gallery on the other hand, while still edging towards Western prices, keeps it considerably more 'real.' When I ate there, the 'free' food was less afterthought, more serious contribution to the meal. One: the aforementioned latte [60 B; a fairly big mug] came with a chocolate-swirl cookie that actually took several bites to consume. Two, the roasted red pepper & tomato soup [50 or 95 B] comes with two bite-sized grilled-cheese sandwich squares. Tasty and oh-so cute. Three, a soup & sandwich set [145 B] comes with a big scoop of potato salad.

Tomato soup brings fond memories, not just of childhood [who can resist dunking a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of steaming red soup?] but of another hidden gem. In Xela, the city in Guatemala where I studied Spanish at a Communist language school for a month in 2003, there was a sort of artsy-hippy-garden cafe/bar in the city centre with cute hippie waiters and big bowls of very creamy tomato soup swirled with basil leaves. After one long weekend tromping through the rainy jungle in search of ancient temples and crawling on my stomach in the mud to set up perfect photographs, I remember sitting down to a hot bowl of tomato soup back in Xela- perfect.

get yo'self back to Texas

I came to Garden Gallery with a Texan, and she was thrilled to have her Coke brought to her with a tall glass you can wrap your hand around [and pour an entire can of Coke into] and a wedge of lime, "just like we do back home." Glasses in Thailand tend to be round, about as thick as a paper towel tube and about 5 inches tall so this particular Coke was refreshing on so many levels.

Also on the menu, "Steak Chili (no beans) [70 or 135 B]: First place "CASI Mid-West Regional Cook Off 1993. "Chili Appreciation Society International." I'm not questioning the veracity of this label, but who wants to bet they did NOT make up the recipe, enter the contest, and get the award? The Internet is a beautiful thing. You could, if you so desired, order your chili with a Beef Brisket Sandwich "Texas Style" Hickory Smoked for 12 Hours in Our Texas Smoker, Served with Cole Slaw & Pickle [265 B] or the Greens, Goat Cheese, Roasted Pepper [our peppers were raw, not roasted] Pecans, Fig & Balsamic Vinaigrette [235 B]. The cheese was a goat brie- I was expecting Chevre [based my trademark salad, recipe below] but this was TA-sty. If only they had some corn-on-the-cob and a square dance going on, I think my Texan friend & I would have been in heaven.

Bonus #1: the cafe has whole wheat bread & banana bread. You don't appreciate this if you are living in a bread-eating country. Picture eating nothing but Wonder-Bread for months, and suddenly coming upon a thick, hearty slice of wheat-berry whole-grain bread [even better if smothered in peanut butter & honey or humus & tomatoes] and you may begin to understand.

Bonus #2: the adjoining library with wooden floors and a cool, subdued atmosphere, has an enormous selection of [up-to-date] English language books [including currents like Harry Potter & The Omnivore's Dilemma]; you can sit and read for 50 B, or become a member and check out books.

do-it-yourself

JR's trademark salad ['trademark' as in, I make it every night until I run out of my package of figs from Trader Joes; it is better with real figs, but those can be hard to find.]

-either chop a handful of dried figs into bite-sized pieces or slice real figs into lovely, vibrant quarter-wedges
-melt some sugar & a dash of water in a saucepan; add a handful of pecans; let sugar coat them & take off heat to harden
-mix for dressing: a few tblsp nice balsamic, a dash of olive oil to help it coat the leaves, a good heaping spoonful of honey, some freshly ground black pepper
-toss in bowl: figs, romaine or spinach leaves, & if you like, slices of red pepper or rings of red onions
-spoon out bits of chevre [a soft, creamy goat cheese, nothing like feta] on top; add pecans & dressing to salad
-enjoy

Garden Gallery

June 23, 2007 * Garden Gallery Cafe

Taste & See: The Garden Gallery & Cafe by Roadhouse BBQ; Bangkok, 195 Surawongse Road at the Neilson Hays Library [itself a nice gem to the side of the cafe; unfortunately, there is a membership fee for use]

For once, a homey cafe with comforts of home [read: Western food] beyond the conventional pastel-chalkboard "pizza, steak, salad."

Beyond Good Taste: We begin not with street food, but with something many ex-pats long for in noisy, stinky Bangkok: an oasis. This cute cafe tucked behind a gate and some greenery provides just that, plus a decent cappuccino and southern bbq. There are a few tables outside and an air-conditioned sparse concrete and glass block with paintings on the wall; you're welcome to plug in your laptop but there is no wifi. The cafe itself feels a little like a greenhouse with its spare, open design and the plain concrete floor. Definitely not for cuddling up with a person or a book. But the simple aesthetic and quite space make a great oasis to work, think or just breathe.

Highlights: A beautiful latte with at least 2 inches of foam. Coke in a tall glass, served with lime, Texas style [see Garden Gallery Part II: Hidden Gems] Goat brie. Balsamic vinaigrette in a corked mini-bottle. Too cute!