Khanom Jin Nomya

I think this recipe was intended to be mroe colorful, but I did use green Thai cillies instead of
dried chile de arbol, a decision I pass along for flavor, although red thai chillies might help the color out.

Don't be fooled, this neither tastes like a typical white sauce pasta, nor does it have the heaviness you may associate with alfredo.

Khanom Jin Nomya

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Coking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs catfish chunks (deboned)

1 anchovy, rinsed of oil

1 stalk lemongrass, with the outer layers removed and sliced into thirds

1/2 cup fingerroot, chopped

2 tsp galangal, grated

8 thai chillies, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup shallots, peeled

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

2 tbsp fish sauce

4 bundles somen noodles

4 sprigs thai basil

Substitutions:

fingerroot - ginger (will be somewhat less fragrant)

galangal - ginger (will be somewhat less fragrant)

shallots - small onions

fish sauce - worcestershire sauce

somen noodles - angel hair pasta

thai basil - sweet basil

lemongrass - lemon zest or lemon balm

Cooking:

Place catfish in a pan with 3 cups boiling water. Cook around 15 minutes, or until the fish is done. Remove the fish, but keep the liquid. Add the anchovy, lemongrass, and chilli peppers and boil for ten minutes. Add the shallots and garlic and boil for another five minutes.

Remove all ingredients from the liquid (reserving the liquid) and place them all, along with the catfish, in a fod processor and grind into a paste, adding just enough reserved cooking liquid to make the consistency right.

Prepare the noodles according tot he directions on their package.

In a smal pot, heat the paste to warm, and add the coconut milk and fish sauce.

Mix the noodles and paste, and serve garnish with the Thai basil sprigs.

Chapter 17 : Sindh (Pakistan)

The division between Indian and Pakistani cuisines is blurry, at best, due to the partition of India. Muslims and Hindus lived side by side in Sindh, where historically there had been no violence between the two groups. After the partition of India, however, the Sindhi Hindus found themselves increasingly the target of violence, relocating into India.

Sindhi cuisine is not vegetarian, although Muslim Sindhis observe Halal meat guidelines, so pork isn't common. Certainly, beef, lamb, fish, and chicken would be consumed, although in researching Sindhi cuisine we found a wealth of vegetarian recipes and eschewing meat seemed easier than not.

Curry, of course, had become well known worldwide, whether it be Indonesian Gulai, Japanese Curry Rice, Jamaican Curry Goat, or even German Curry Ketchup. But of course, it is originally from the subcontinent of India. Less well known is the Curry Leaf, which is commonly used to make curry in Southern India especially. This Sindhi recipes makes use of the enigmatic leaf.

This also uses Gram Flour, otherwise known as Besam/Besan. Gram flour is made from chick peas, and its unique flavor is used to make a sort of chickpea/butter ghee roux in this recipe. You might be able to replace it with white flour, although the flavor would certainly be very different.

Fenugreek can be found in most ethnic groceries, though not in mainstream groceries. It has a maple-like scent, and nothing else seems even vaguely like it.

Asafoetida is an allium that is found powdered, usually in Indian groceries.

Sindhi Curry

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time 1 1/2 hours

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

3 tbsp ghee

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

a pinch of asafoetida

4 tbsp gram flour

salt, to taste

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 green chillies, minced

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp red chilli powder

20 curry leaves

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1 tbsp mint, chopped

2 tbsp tamarind pulp

1 1/2 chopped vegetables (carrots, okra, and potatoes, though you may need to pre-boil the carrots and potatoes)

Produce a Roux:

Heat the ghee, then add the cumin seeds, fenugreek, and asafoetida. Fry until lightly borwn, and then sift in the gram flour, stirring constantly. When the gram flour becomes golden brown in color.

Cooking:

Slowly add 4 cups of warm water to the gram roux., stirring in a little at a time. Add salt, ginger, green chillies, turmeric, and red chilli powder. Add vegetables and curry leaves and bring to a simmer. When vegetables are nearly done, Add the mint, cilantro, and tamarind pulp.

Serve with aloo tuk.

Beef Rendang

Another one of Indonesia's more famous dishes is beef rendang, a spicy curry-like preparation of beef and coconut. Based on this recipe.

You may need to make some substitutions on this one- don't be afraid to. Tamarind pulp can be replaced by lemon juice mixed with brown sugar, kaffir lime leaves can be replaced with basil, and palm sugar can be replaced by white sugar, or preferably turbinado sugar. Galangal can be omitted if you can't find it. Toasted coconut can be made by dry roasting shredded coconut on a frying pan or wok.

Beef Rendang

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb beef, cubed

5 tbsp cooking oil

1 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

3 star anise

3 cardamom pods

1 lemon grass, sliced and pounded

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

2 tbsp taramind pulp

6 kaffir lime leaves

6 tbsp toasted coconut

1 tbsp palm sugar

Spice Paste:

5 shallots

1 inch galangal
3 lemongrass (white part only)

5 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger

10-12 chilli peppers

Preparation:

Chop the spice paste ingredients and use a food processor to turn them into a paste.

Cooking:

In a medium pot, heat the oil and then add the spice paste, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, snd cardamom pods, and stir fry until aromatic. Add the beef and lemongrass, and cook for one minute.

Add the coconut milk, tamarind juice, and water, and simmer on medium heat until the meat is almost cooked. Then add the kaffir lime leaves, toasted coconut, and palm sugar.

Simmer on low heat 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender and the liquid is mostly gone. Add salt to taste.

The Stir Fry Bok Choy of Li Shizhen

Somewhere in the back of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, tucked in between Century Death Eggs and Pork Dust (or Pork Fu, as the label calls it) we found Bok Choy, a version of cabbage that's leafy and more closely resembles spinach. Its delicate flavor and crunchy texture mix well with stir fry, and no doubt contains all of cabbage's health benefits and ability to scare small children. They contain glucosinolates, which prevent cancer in small doses and kill you in large, so never eat cabbage, or bok choy, raw. It also has tons of fiber, so you can poop!

We found a stir fry recipe and modified it a bit, but you probably can't go wrong by changing it a lot.

Stir Fry Bok Choy:
Serves: 4-5 with rice
Time: 15 minutes

Equipment:
large wok or large uncoated frying pan

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp minced ginger
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 bundles bok choy, chopped, separate leaf from white stem
2 scallions, sliced, separate leaf from white stem
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water
sesame oil

Step 1:
Heat cooking oil on the wok until hot, and then add the ginger and onions. Cook until soft (less than a minute).

Step 2:
Add the white of the bok choy and scallions. Cook for a minute.

Step 3:
Add the greens of the bok choy and scallions. Cook until wilted (2 minutes).

Step 4:
Add the dark and light soy sauces, and the water. Cook for a couple of minutes, until dish is soft and aromatic.Drizzle with sesame oil.

The dish was tasty and light, but with the rice made a reasonable meal. We drank unsweetened green tea alongside it, which matched well.

Next time: Sean and Katrina explore drinks made form hand lotion, and candy made from mashed rice. Be there!