Dec 28, 2008
Meals, Day 11: Tom Kha Gai soup.
Had this at a party recently and it was soooooo delicious I had to try making it at home. I didn't realize, though, it had chicken in it, until today when I looked up recipes for it online! ... I don't think accidental ingestion of meat should count against me in my resolve. But now I know I like it, and I can vegetarianize it for my family pretty easily, too.
Here's the original recipe:
1 whole chicken breast
2 chicken thighs
1/2 pound of cleaned shrimp (optional)
4 stalks fresh lemongrass
4 1/2 cups coconut milk (NOT coconut cream)
1 1/2 cups basic chicken stock
20 quarter-sized slices fresh galanga (fresh ginger makes a fine substitute)
10 whole black peppercorns
12 fresh wild lime leaves (available at Asian markets; if unavailable, substitute the grated peel of 1 lime)
1 cup well-drained, whole canned straw mushrooms, halved lengthwise (sliced fresh button mushrooms work fine too)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Here's the recipe "nosurf-ized" (made simple, no chicken, and less expensive)
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1/2 tbs powdered fish broth
1 can coconut milk
1/2 onion, cut into long, thin strips and sauteed until soft
2 drops lemongrass essential oil (you're supposed to use real lemongrass stems, as you'll see in the recipe above... get those at an asian grocery or asian foods market)
I didn't have any of the other ingredients at hand and so I added some salt and soy sauce for a little bit of flavoring. If I had the option though, I think I'd use the lime juice and try to hunt down lime leaves during my weekly trip to the asian food market. I also would go ahead and put in the mushrooms, but I didn't have any fresh.
You serve it with white rice, adding a little bit to the soup when you serve yourself.
So, it turned out pretty good, mad crazy substitutions notwithstanding! Me: **** out of **** stars. Skywalker: still at church doing his calling, so the vote's still out on that one. Kids: *** and a half out of **** stars. :)
Seriously guys. It sounds weird but this soup is sooooo good.
Here's the original recipe:
1 whole chicken breast
2 chicken thighs
1/2 pound of cleaned shrimp (optional)
4 stalks fresh lemongrass
4 1/2 cups coconut milk (NOT coconut cream)
1 1/2 cups basic chicken stock
20 quarter-sized slices fresh galanga (fresh ginger makes a fine substitute)
10 whole black peppercorns
12 fresh wild lime leaves (available at Asian markets; if unavailable, substitute the grated peel of 1 lime)
1 cup well-drained, whole canned straw mushrooms, halved lengthwise (sliced fresh button mushrooms work fine too)
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Here's the recipe "nosurf-ized" (made simple, no chicken, and less expensive)
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1/2 tbs powdered fish broth
1 can coconut milk
1/2 onion, cut into long, thin strips and sauteed until soft
2 drops lemongrass essential oil (you're supposed to use real lemongrass stems, as you'll see in the recipe above... get those at an asian grocery or asian foods market)
I didn't have any of the other ingredients at hand and so I added some salt and soy sauce for a little bit of flavoring. If I had the option though, I think I'd use the lime juice and try to hunt down lime leaves during my weekly trip to the asian food market. I also would go ahead and put in the mushrooms, but I didn't have any fresh.
You serve it with white rice, adding a little bit to the soup when you serve yourself.
So, it turned out pretty good, mad crazy substitutions notwithstanding! Me: **** out of **** stars. Skywalker: still at church doing his calling, so the vote's still out on that one. Kids: *** and a half out of **** stars. :)
Seriously guys. It sounds weird but this soup is sooooo good.
resources for young moms, and new links
Heather has been a best friend for a long, long time. Her mother makes the best homemade bread I have ever ever had ever. She has a couple of blogs! Hooray for blogs connecting people! I'm going to link to her very interesting blog about cooking from food storage and healthful recipes... it's called Healthy Families, Warm Hearts. I think a lot of you will enjoy this blog and benefit from it.
Also, I'm adding Dallan's blog to my blogroll. She and I are blogging kindred spirits... when it comes to bedmaking, Barack Obama, and it seems, just about everything in between. She also has lots of blogs. I'm linking to her random randomness one, which I find entertaining.
Another friend has started a blog with all kinds of games, quiet activities, felt-board patterns and educational fun things for toddlers. This is an area where I am weak, in the parenting category... finding activities to do with my tiny kids! And this is such a great resource... I have always wondered where LDS parents go to get their file folder games, and there they are, right on her website. Fun times!
Also, Shannon from back home has been coming by... old friends. She has cute girls like me. I like having her around.
Go check them out!
Also, I'm adding Dallan's blog to my blogroll. She and I are blogging kindred spirits... when it comes to bedmaking, Barack Obama, and it seems, just about everything in between. She also has lots of blogs. I'm linking to her random randomness one, which I find entertaining.
Another friend has started a blog with all kinds of games, quiet activities, felt-board patterns and educational fun things for toddlers. This is an area where I am weak, in the parenting category... finding activities to do with my tiny kids! And this is such a great resource... I have always wondered where LDS parents go to get their file folder games, and there they are, right on her website. Fun times!
Also, Shannon from back home has been coming by... old friends. She has cute girls like me. I like having her around.
Go check them out!
Dec 27, 2008
Meals, day 10-- making sushi
I have been wanting to try sushi making for a long time. I loooooove sushi, but it's expensive. The reason why I've never tried before is I thought it was too tricky. But a friend recently reassured me; she said it wasn't hard at all and she frequently sends her husband to work with a sushi lunch. So I thought I'd try it! And I soon found she was right; Sushi is easy as making a sandwich. THe only time-intense part is making the rice, but mostly you're just letting that sit, and so it's at least not time-absorbing; you can do other things while you wait for the rice to be ready.
Ingredients:
short-grained white rice (3 cups)
Water (3 1/3 cups)
step 1: rinse the rice. put the rice in a bowl, fill it with water, and scrunch the rice together all over with your hands. Pour off the water, repeat 3-4 times until the water is fairly clear.
Step 2: Put water in the rice again (until rice is submerged)and set aside for 30 minutes or more.
Step 3: Pour off the water again. Add the 3 1/3 cups of water back in. Put on the stove, on low until simmering (or low boil); simmer for 12-15 minutes. Try not to take the lid off...if you have to peek to see if it's simmering, do it quickly and try to do it only once or twice.
Step 4: After rice has simmered 12-15 minutes, turn stove off. Leave top on,let the rice sit another 15 minutes.
While this is happening put these ingredients in a saucepan:
rice vinegar (1/2 cup)
salt (1 tbsp)
Sugar (1/4 cup)
you can also add 1/2 tb of powdered dashi (japanese fish broth)if you want.
Do not boil. Just heat until the salt and sugar are melted.
take the rice and put it in a plastic or wood bowl. Pour the vinegar in while you "stir" the rice, by taking a wooden or plastic spoon and making "slicing" motions into the rice. Don't stir, don't smush the rice,just use the edge of the wooden spoon to "slice stir" the vinegar into the rice and then keep stirring until it's room temperature.
While this is going on, the rice is supposed to be fanned. The recipe I read called for hand-fanning... instead, we use a small electric fan and aim it at the bowl.
once the rice is room temperature, you can stop fanning and start rolling!
For the sushi-making part (the funnest part, IMO)
you need bamboo sushi mats (can find at any aisian food store)
Nori (roasted seaweed sheets- can also find at any aisian food store, and also the grocery store, but it's more expensive there)
Sesame seeds (you can roast these in the oven to make them more delicious)
And whatever you want to put on the inside. For our first attemtps we did two different kinds. For one, we took tuna fish (in a can) and just mixed it with mayo like we'd do for any tuna sandwich. For the other we did avacado, fake crab meat, and cucumber. Slice any solid ingredients into long, thin, rods.
Rolling a sushi roll is fun. you take the nori and place it shiny-side down on the mat. You take the sushi rice and glop it onto the nori,then pat it and spread it until it's about 1/4" thick over the nori sheet, leaving about an inch free on the bottom edge. You take your ingredients and lay them across the top edge of the sheet of nori-with-rice, leaving about an inch of room at the top. And then you roll it up, using the bamboo mat as a shaper, and to squeeze it tight. The tighter the roll, the more it'll stay together after it's sliced.
The sesame seeds can be sprinkled over the rice before the ingredients are put on.
the whole thing will stay firmly stuck together after you're done rolling, you can take it out, layit on a cutting board,and slice it up!
And then you have yummy sushi!
Condiments: Pickled ginger, Wasabe, and soy sauce, of course! I also like tempura dipping sauce, adds a little extra kick.
Ingredients:
short-grained white rice (3 cups)
Water (3 1/3 cups)
step 1: rinse the rice. put the rice in a bowl, fill it with water, and scrunch the rice together all over with your hands. Pour off the water, repeat 3-4 times until the water is fairly clear.
Step 2: Put water in the rice again (until rice is submerged)and set aside for 30 minutes or more.
Step 3: Pour off the water again. Add the 3 1/3 cups of water back in. Put on the stove, on low until simmering (or low boil); simmer for 12-15 minutes. Try not to take the lid off...if you have to peek to see if it's simmering, do it quickly and try to do it only once or twice.
Step 4: After rice has simmered 12-15 minutes, turn stove off. Leave top on,let the rice sit another 15 minutes.
While this is happening put these ingredients in a saucepan:
rice vinegar (1/2 cup)
salt (1 tbsp)
Sugar (1/4 cup)
you can also add 1/2 tb of powdered dashi (japanese fish broth)if you want.
Do not boil. Just heat until the salt and sugar are melted.
take the rice and put it in a plastic or wood bowl. Pour the vinegar in while you "stir" the rice, by taking a wooden or plastic spoon and making "slicing" motions into the rice. Don't stir, don't smush the rice,just use the edge of the wooden spoon to "slice stir" the vinegar into the rice and then keep stirring until it's room temperature.
While this is going on, the rice is supposed to be fanned. The recipe I read called for hand-fanning... instead, we use a small electric fan and aim it at the bowl.
once the rice is room temperature, you can stop fanning and start rolling!
For the sushi-making part (the funnest part, IMO)
you need bamboo sushi mats (can find at any aisian food store)
Nori (roasted seaweed sheets- can also find at any aisian food store, and also the grocery store, but it's more expensive there)
Sesame seeds (you can roast these in the oven to make them more delicious)
And whatever you want to put on the inside. For our first attemtps we did two different kinds. For one, we took tuna fish (in a can) and just mixed it with mayo like we'd do for any tuna sandwich. For the other we did avacado, fake crab meat, and cucumber. Slice any solid ingredients into long, thin, rods.
Rolling a sushi roll is fun. you take the nori and place it shiny-side down on the mat. You take the sushi rice and glop it onto the nori,then pat it and spread it until it's about 1/4" thick over the nori sheet, leaving about an inch free on the bottom edge. You take your ingredients and lay them across the top edge of the sheet of nori-with-rice, leaving about an inch of room at the top. And then you roll it up, using the bamboo mat as a shaper, and to squeeze it tight. The tighter the roll, the more it'll stay together after it's sliced.
The sesame seeds can be sprinkled over the rice before the ingredients are put on.
the whole thing will stay firmly stuck together after you're done rolling, you can take it out, layit on a cutting board,and slice it up!
And then you have yummy sushi!
Condiments: Pickled ginger, Wasabe, and soy sauce, of course! I also like tempura dipping sauce, adds a little extra kick.
Dec 23, 2008
A bit of real Christmas Spirit
This story made me get all sniffly. I think that Janet might be one of my most favorite people ever.
Dec 22, 2008
Picture update
THese are on the old side (taken last February) but I just got around to rounding them up so we could send them to grandmas. So here they are. :) Merry Christmas, blogosphere. Hope everyone travels safely, and stays in good health, and has a wonderful time with family and friends.
**credit for these images goes to my sister in law, who is a really good photographer.
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