By popular demand, the Bourbon Slushies from meeting 11.Bourbon Slushes
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Final step: cook paella! A yummy mixture of saffron rice, meats of all varieties and a few tomatoes, paella is not too difficult to make once you chop and clean everything. It's sort of like a more complicated version of risotto. One nice surprise is that as the chorizo heats up it oozes the most wonderful smelling fat into the mixture.
We served (Mexican) chorizo-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon as an appetizer while the paella was still cooking. Then we had Guinness floats and Guinness cake (made by the lovely Sophia & Ali) after dinner. It was St. Patrick's Day after all.\\
garXiv:0811.0001
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:00 CDT
Title: A taste of Thai
Authors: Chris & Sarah, w/ a big assist from Keren
Categories: gastro-ph
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The last meeting for 2008 was scheduled cunningly while sarah would be back in town (she came back just for us!!). Curry was to be the order of the day. We went for an all-vegetarian menu (prawns don't count!) since it was winter, and a change from heavy meaty things would be nice.
While I simmered away in the kitchen, sarah & keren rolled vietnamese-style summer rolls. These are pretty simple to make, but it takes a bit to get the hang of it. With carrot, capsicum, rice noodles, basil and spring-onion they were super-delicious. Combined with a fantastic cocounut-milk slice thing (originally planned for desert), and prawns fried with lime, chili, garlic and lemongrass, appetizers would have been enough.
But the main menu was still simmering away: Thai green curry. This is really incredibly simple to
make. The key is simply good curry paste and timing. Start by cutting vegetables. Remember there are 7 things to get: red capsicum, carrot, broccoli, baby corn, mushrooms, zucchini and snow peas. Cut them into chunks or 1-inch strips, so they're all ready to go. Now fry 3 tablespoons of Mae Ploy curry paste (see picture) in a little oil for a minute or two in a large wok or pot (I sometime use a pressure cooker - any big pot will do). Add 2 or 3 cans of coconut milk, slowly stirring to mix. How much coconut milk depends on how much vegetable you add. Now comes the vegetables:
First in is the broccoli. Stove should be on a low-medium heat. You don't want it to boil! You want it just below the simmer...nice and hot. When you add the broccoli, add 1-2 desert spoons of palm sugar (or brown sugar if you have it. NOT! raw or white sugar!!). It shouldn't be sweet, but just balanced. At the same time at 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce. About 5mins add the carrot. Give it another 5mins or so. When the carrot and broccoli is just starting to soften a little, add the capsicum, baby corn, snow peas and zucchini. Give it another 5 or 10mins...right at the end, add the mushroom. Serve with rice. The aim is to get all the vegetables cooked, but still a little crisp, and certainly not limp!
A final point. If you don't like hot curries, you will be tempted to cut the amount of curry paste you use. This is a mistake!! Really...I've tried to do that to please people before, but you're essentially removing all the flavour! Try adding a little extra coconut milk if it's too hot.
Desert for the evening was courtesy of keren. Panna cotta, and it was delicious; plate-licking good, even, as the photos show :)
my grandmother calls it "Marak Cholim", which means in hebrew, "soup for the ill". i swear it's got healing power :)
ingredients for one big pot:
* chicken cut into parts
roots:
* parsley root
* celery root
* 1-2 medium carrot
* potato (for boiling)
* onion
* zucchini
* bunch of parsley
* 2 tbs chicken bouillon ("powdered soup"?) -- i use Knorr.
basic instructions:
peel roots; cut the roots and zucchini into cubes. put everything in a pot and cover with water. boil and cook on low heat (let simmer) for a couple of hours. after an hour or so add the bouillon, and adjust flavors (more bouillon / salt / pepper).
before serving, skim the oil off the top with a large spoon and discard. it's easier to take it out after the soup cooled, if you don't plan to have it right away. alternatively, there are kitchen gadgets for separating oil from liquids... i just use a spoon.
notes:
* if you don't want to use a full chicken, that's fine. use some chicken parts. but don't just use breasts -- the skin, and especially the bones, add a lot to the flavor (that's the secret!). i throw out about half of the skin before cooking, so that there's less oil to handle. but don't remove all of it. when i use a whole chicken, i don't use the giblets, but i do use the throat. that too adds a lot of flavor.
* parsley: option 1 -- tie the bunch with a string, cook with the soup and remove before serving. option 2 -- the same, but chop some
of it and add to the soup.
* roots -- celery and parsley root -- i like them, but if you don't plan on eating them you can cut them into 1/4s and remove before serving, or just leave them in the pot.
* you can possibly use broth instead of powder, i never tried.
* the soup usually tastes better the next day. but the healing power is already effective when the smell spreads around the house :)
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garXiv:0827.0001
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:00 CDT
Title: Japanese salute to Obama and the Democratic National Convention
Authors: Keren (Sushiman), Sarah(gyozer), Ben(busboy)
Categories: gastro-ph
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Sushi, sushi, sushi and more sushi!
We had several combinations of maki -- like salmon/cucumber/scallion, tuna/pepper/sauteed-carrots, asparagus/cucumber/scallions/pepper, smoked salmon, "alaska", and "spicy tuna".
Some of the tuna and salmon was devoured as sashimi.
Sarah stuffed a huge pile of gyoza dumplings -- which were incredible!
Nathan and Stephanie brought salad (thanks for the no-garlic option!), and for dessert, Sophia baked us a delicious chocolate pie, served with raspberries. i think the neighbors could hear our "YUMMMMM!!" moans all the way to the 20th floor!
for entertainment we had a baseball game (that Chris insisted on), the democratic convention, and of course, Gray Scrooge in a great demonstration of his laser-pointer-dot-stalking and acrobatic abilities.
(too bad my battery died as i was taking a picture of the last piece of pie!)
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Gyoza recipe:
