It's a Thai...

dish or two.

We made the fabulous lemon grass soup again, garnished with some lovely cilantro. We also made a Citrus Pumpkin Curry. Both were quite tasty. Here's the photographic results of our labors.


The curry was made from pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potato, bell peppers, garbanzos, grape tomatoes, and carrots in a home-made citrus curry sauce. It's quite lovely, and with a little bit of tweaking it is even fasting-appropriate. We garnished it with fresh basil from the garden and roasted pumpkin seeds and served with a fresh gala apple.

Variations on a theme

I was eating some dolmades from a jar earlier this week and got to talking with some friends online about the origin of the stuffed grape-leaf concoction and the variations that have sprung up as foods like this one have traveled home to other lands and taken on new life. I discovered during that chat and my subsequent online research that there is a Swedish version of dolmades known as Kåldolmar, using cabbage instead of grape leaves as a geographical concession. I then trolled the internet for a recipe and started with one I found in the food blog of a young woman from Stockholm. She was gracious enough to provide a recipe in English, though I daresay it was a bit of an adventure determining how much of the various ingredients to use without the benefit of precise measurement translations and a kitchen scale. So, while what resulted from my labors was quite tasty, I am not at all sure I used her recipe in the end!

I have since found a few other recipes and will probably modify the stuffing to include some allspice and grated onion next time. The basic ingredients for this go-around were ground beef and pork, rice (I used brown), white pepper, salt and milk. The filling is wrapped up in softened cabbage leaves (which were carefully removed from the head one-by-one when they were just soft enough to work with), topped with pats of butter and drizzled with golden syrup (something we happily have in the pantry due to our adventures in England). The whole thing is baked for about 40 minutes at about 375, and then a nice gravy is made from the drippings, water, bouillion and (since I was out of cornstarch) flour. I served the cabbage rolls with boiled potatoes, the drippings gravy and strawberries.

Footnote to IKEA: it's about time you show up in the Raleigh area. We've waited long enough. Not only do I miss your housewares, I have a hankering for lingonberries!

Recap

I don't have pictures of food for this installment, largely because we were so eager to eat the food that I didn't sacrifice any time before we dug in. A few days ago Dan and I made a delicious Thai Lemongrass Soup. It was made pretty traditionally (except that we didn't know to find Kaffir lime leaves in the freezer section of the local Asian market and substituted lime zest), right down to the fish sauce and fresh lemongrass from the farmer's market. Lemongrass soup is probably one of my favorite foods, but I have it seldom and had never really thought to make it myself... probably because I assumed that it would call for ingredients that I wouldn't know how to find. Daniel did the shopping (bless him) and reported that not only does the market have everything we needed, it also carries such delicacies as goat penis if we should ever care to branch out a bit in our culinary experiments. No, thank you. No.

I also baked a Swedish dessert called Fransk äppelkaka - French apple cake. It has a rather strange texture because the almond/egg mixture that gives the dish its non-apple flavor is essentially a meringue incorporating almonds and sugar. It's interesting, indeed, to see a Swedish take on a French recipe that is apparently enough a part of Swedish culture that it is one of a smattering of recipes in an old book on Scandinavian cooking.

Last night I fell back on one of my favorite quick-cooking recipes: Tilapia with salsa. I basically just toss the fish in flour, salt and pepper, sauté it in a bit of olive oil, and then throw some salsa in the pan with it as the fish finished cooking through. I served it over brown rice and, looking for ways to use up other food, threw some broccoli with a bacon-mozzarella white sauce onto the plates. Not that this represented brilliant flavor combination... it just used up food and catered to my hankering for salty/fatty flavor.

Tonight will be my typical crock pot kosher-salt-rubbed beef roast with port wine, parsnips, turnips, carrots and whatever else we have in the house. I like this particular dish because it takes very little time to prep and I can make it in the morning and have it ready to go whenever... even tomorrow, if I want to stretch it. This is an ideal choice for tonight, since we essentially have to truck over to the State Farm office as soon as Dan gets home. This way, we can grab some food before we run off, and it matters little exactly when he gets home. It makes for good left-overs, too. With a little barbecue sauce, the meat makes for nice sandwiches.

Food for the hubby

I haven't posted anything here in a while... in part because we've been busy, I've been on deadline and I haven't had the time or motivation to do a whole lot of scratch cooking, let alone write about it. This weekend marks a return to a more involved way of eating and a bit more time to write about what I have done.

Yesterday's dinner was made in homage to Daniel's distant Swedish heritage. He's biologically 1/2 Swede, so I figure maybe his body will appreciate some Swedish-inspired cuisine. I made split pea soup with a traditional recipe and some coaching, and even though it was not quite right due to the limitations of the ingredients I had on hand, it was quite tasty. When coupled with Swedish pancakes and jam, it was a decent attempt at Thursday food in Sweden. Yes, it was Sunday here, but we called it a sort of spiritual Thursday and ate up anyway.

Today's lunch, well, Daniel's lunch anyway, was the result of a bit of internet research on sore throat recipes. He's ill and we have an audition tonight. Bad combination. So, between naps with the kitties, he's eating miso soup and drinking hot, fresh honey lemonade. The honey lemonade is a regular sore throat remedy around here, but I threw in the miso for good measure. Daniel is probably glad I decided against bringing him hot dill pickle brine. Next time, maybe. :D

Protein Power

Dan and I have observed that it is difficult for me to get enough protein following traditional Orthodox fasting rules, and I usually end up becoming somewhat sickly when fasting properly. Lunch, which I don't share with Dan, helps me make up for the largely lower-protein foods I have been making for dinner that more closely approximate fasting-appropriate choices. Today is no exception. Lunch features a chicken Caesar salad with fresh croûtons (making the bread portion of the lunch) and a sprinkling of freshly-grated Parmesan atop a bed of romaine hearts. Instead of my now-traditional soup, I opted for a small serving of Cuban-style beans garnished with a small fresh tomato. I chose the beans both because I then need to be eaten before they spoil and because of the nice protein content.

Dinner? Well... we're going out!

Hey... that looks familiar!

While I really enjoy making fresh things, I have to be realistic about food spoilage. So, today and for a few days I am likely to have variations on a very familiar theme. Lunch is chilled Parsley soup - refreshing since it is 100 degrees out - a whole wheat bread muffin and a green salad with cucumber, tomato and homemade light blue cheese dressing.

Dinner is a bit more adventurous. I aimed to stay mostly within fasting limitations for Dan, so I made baked sweet potato with a sprinkle of olive oil, sugar and cinnamon; marinated cucumbers from the local farmer's market; fresh organic broccoli with a bit of olive oil for flavor; and one of our meat- and dairy-less staples, mushrooms (oyster, shitake and baby "bellas") sauteed with garlic and onion in olive oil and then simmered in white wine. This dish has the advantage of giving someone accustomed to eating meat the feeling of a meatier, heavier food (not to mention a bit of protein) when meat is not a dietary option. I garnished the plate with strawberries for that finishing touch.

Chilled Soup and Rustic Pasta

For lunch is a chilled parsley soup made from ingredients we purchased from the farmer's market in town and from a recipe from the beautiful book 12 Months of Monastery Soups. The book is simple and lovely and focuses on using fresh, affordable seasonal foods. The recipes seem to take one back to the earth. We actually made the parsley soup for a weekend gathering with people from our local OCA parish. It was very well received. We served it hot for the potluck, but I have been eating it chilled since. I seem to require a fair amount of protein in my diet, and since I am attempting to make more or less fasting-appropriate foods for Daniel in the evening, I have been eating more protein at lunch time. So, the chilled parsley soup was paired with a salad of spinach, red onion, ham, hard-cooked eggs, grape tomatoes and light ranch dressing. To that was added one of the muffins I made last week.

Dinner was fasting-friendly with the exception of olive oil. I made a pasta dish inspired loosely by one of Dan's favorites at a restaurant near our first apartment in Tustin. I lightly browned in oil some red onion, shallots and fresh garlic. I then added bits of eggplant and sweet red Italian pepper. I added to that fresh varietal tomatoes, kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. Finally, just before serving, I added fresh minced rosemary, basil and Italian parsley from our garden. The sauteed vegetables were added to a small portion of whole wheat pasta, and olive oil was added to coat the pasta so it wouldn't become sticky. I served this with a rosemary bread from Trader Joe's and fresh dipping oil and vinegar with reserved fresh herbs.