Golden Scallion Crepes and Dipping Sauce

I love talking about good food. The details, minutia, and subtleties of what makes particular ingredients so good is the talk I enjoy. As we all know, when you start with the best ingredients, you’ll end up with the best meals. This is exactly the path taken in the recipes in David Tanis Market Cooking: Recipes and Revelations, Ingredient by Ingredient, and I received a review copy. Whether he’s writing about heirloom beans, the fleeting season for perfect tomatoes, or the “vast and remarkable difference between the taste of conventional factory chicken eggs and that of those purchased at a farmers’ market,” it’s the details about the ingredients that matter here. Once you’ve gathered the best you can find, the rest is easy. The recipes aren’t difficult, but they are all devoted to made-from-scratch cooking with instructions for homemade mayonnaise and yogurt to name two. In the recipe for Cucumbers in Yogurt, he explains that commercial Greek yogurt available today is too creamy and bland with a lack of acidity. By making your own, you can control the flavor by letting it ferment longer. The recipes are presented one starring ingredient at a time with varied flavor influences. Among the cauliflower dishes, there’s Seared Cauliflower with Anchovy, Lemon, and Capers and Indian Panfried Cauliflower. For winter squash, there’s Hubbard Squash with Parmesan and Brown Butter and Sake-Steamed Kabocha with Miso. I’ve made the Glazed Shitake Mushrooms with Bok Choy and Sesame, and it’s a nice mix of spicy and well-seasoned shitakes over simply steamed greens. My favorite part of the book is near the end with The Art of Seasoning. There’s a section about chiles that has inspired me to grab as many from our local farms as I can now that the season is at an end and roast and freeze them. I also have my eye on the recipe for Taqueria Pickles with carrots, jalapenos, onion, and garlic. Next time I have a bunch of fresh, lovely carrots, I’ll be deciding between North African Carrot Salad with Preserved Lemon and Roasted Coconut Carrots with cilantro and mint. To start cooking, I flipped to the beginning for the Alliums United chapter. I had some green onions from the farmers’ market, and Golden Scallion Crepes sounded like a great way to use them. 

The crepes themselves are actually vegan with no eggs or dairy. The dipping sauce does contain fish sauce though. For the crepes, the batter was made with rice flour, and I used brown rice flour, ground turmeric, salt, and water. It was whisked together and left to sit for one hour. I cooked the crepes in coconut oil in a small skillet. The batter needs to be stirred well before ladling about one half cup into the hot pan. It does spatter a bit in the oil. The batter needs a couple of minutes to cook and set, and sliced scallions were added on top while cooking. Now, I had a little difficulty with flipping the crepes. They wanted to stick to the pan despite the oil. I loosened all around the edges with a spatula and carefully moved the spatula to the center of the crepe to completely loosen and flip. Still, a couple of crepes ended up broken. The dipping sauce was a mix of thinly sliced chiles, minced garlic, grated ginger, lime juice, a pinch of sugar, and fish sauce. To serve, bean sprouts, grated carrots, mint, and basil were added before folding each crepe in half. Lettuce was served on the side for picking up the crepes. 

The crepes are a simple, tasty vehicle to convey all the fresh, bright flavors of vegetables and herbs and the zip of the dipping sauce. They become like a handheld salad with the lettuce used to wrap the crepes before dipping. I could go on and on about the flavors of the fresh chiles and just-snipped herbs, but there’s much better talk of good food and recipes to go with it in this book. 

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Squash Ribbons with Tomatoes, Peanuts, Basil, Mint, and Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce

Now that I’ve officially lived in Austin longer than I’ve lived anywhere else, I’m getting used to the growing seasons here. And, I get excited every time a vegetable comes into season. It’s like I’ve never eaten a tomato before when I walk into a farm stand and find heirloom beauties for the first time this year. I get just as excited when the first broccoli shows up in the late fall and for every other vegetable too. The start of each season is special, and the flavor of those first-of-season, freshly harvested vegetables is unmatched. So, I felt like I was reading the thoughts of a kindred spirit when I dove into my review copy of Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden. He clearly has true respect for vegetables, their seasons, and the subtle differences among early-season, mid-season, and late-season versions. After presenting some building block recipes for flavored butters, sauces, vinaigrettes, breads, grains, and pickles, the book is divided into Spring, Early Summer, Midsummer, Late Summer, Fall, and Winter. When each vegetable actually appears will, of course, depend on where you live, but you’ll find delicious ways to use the vegetables from the first harvest through the last. A lot of the recipes incorporate breadcrumbs or croutons or nuts for added texture and flavor. And, the Brined and Roasted Almonds recipe is one that’s already become a favorite for me. It works with any nut, and it’s a simple matter of soaking raw nuts in a salty brine, draining them after 30 minutes, and then roasting them in the oven. I can’t stop making and eating these nuts and telling everyone to do this. Also, a lot of the recipes are perfectly paired with toasted bread slices or flatbread to be used as vehicles for the combinations. Some examples are the Fava Beans, Cilantro, New Potatoes, and Baked Eggs; Potato and Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Feta, and Arugula; and Israeli-Spiced Tomatoes, Yogurt Sauce, and Chickpeas. Another one on my short-list of things to try is the Carta di Musica paper-thin flatbreads with Roasted Eggplant Spread, Herbs, and Ricotta Salad. This isn’t an entirely meat-free book, but the focus stays squarely on the vegetables. Since our “summer” vegetables arrive early, I’ve already been enjoying summer squash and tomatoes, and I loved the idea of using them in a salad with Asian flavors and lots of herbs. 

I did make one little change to the suggested process. The recipe was intended to make use of thinly-sliced, raw ribbons of summer squash and zucchini. But, I was using the grill that day anyway and liked the idea of adding a slightly smoky flavor to the dish. I gave the ribbons just a minute on each side over the coals before proceeding with the salad. The sauce was a mix of minced hot chiles, minced garlic cloves, fish sauce, water, and white wine vinegar, and it will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. The rest of the salad components included havled cherry tomatoes, I added some larger tomatoes cut into wedges, thinly sliced green onions, basil leaves, mint leaves, chopped peanuts, and olive oil. Everything was tossed with the Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce and olive oil and placed on a platter. 

The fresh herbs and crunchy nuts mixed well with the vegetables and the spicy sauce, and the salad was great alongside grilled shrimp. This book was a welcome read thanks to the care with and interest in vegetables at their very best, and the layers of flavor worked into each dish will keep me coming back to try more things. 

Squash Ribbons with Tomatoes, Peanuts, Basil, Mint, and Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce  
Excerpted from Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2017. Photographs by Laura Dart and A.J. Meeker. 

Serves 4 

4 firm medium zucchini or a mix of zucchini and yellow summer squash 
Kosher salt 
1 pint cherry tomatoes (a mix of colors is nice), halved
1/2 cup salted roasted peanuts, roughly chopped 
1 bunch scallions, trimmed (including 1/2 inch off the green tops), sliced on a sharp angle, soaked in ice water for 20 minutes, and drained well 
1 small handful basil leaves 
1 small handful mint leaves 
1/4 cup Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce (see below) 
Extra-virgin olive oil 

Using a mandoline, carefully slice the zucchini from the bottom to the top to create very thin ribbons of squash. (If you don’t have a mandoline, just cut the zucchini into very thin crosswise slices, to create rounds.) Toss the squash with 1 teaspoon salt and put in a colander so the salt can draw out excess moisture. Let them sit for 30 minutes. Blot the squash on paper towels to remove the moisture and excess salt. Pile into a large bowl. 

Add the tomatoes, peanuts, scallions, basil, and mint. Pour in the spicy fish-sauce sauce and toss again. Taste and decide whether the salad needs more salt. Add 1/4 cup olive oil and toss again. Do a final taste and toss, arrange on plates, and serve right away. 

Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce
Makes about 1 1/4 cups 

1/4 cup seeded, deribbed, and minced fresh hot chiles (use a mix of colors) 
4 large garlic cloves, minced 
1/2 cup fish sauce 
1/4 cup water 
1/4 white wine vinegar 
2 tablespoons sugar 

Stir everything together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust so you have an intense sweet-salty-sour-hot balance. Ideally, make this a day ahead, then taste and readjust the seasonings on the second day. The chile heat is likely to get stronger. The sauce will keep for a month or two in the fridge. 

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Grilled Chicken with Gingery Tamarind Yogurt Marinade and Fiery Tamarind Barbecue Sauce

I love learning about a place by learning about its food. Seeing similarities to other cuisines but with subtle differences adds to the understanding of a place. In The Food of Oman, of which I received a review copy, I learned about the mix of Bedouin traditional foods and ingredients and flavors brought there by the Indian Ocean trade routes. Those flavors that make up Omani cooking are found in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and East Africa. Many ingredients are used in dried or preserved from like dehydrated coconut milk, dried limes, and salt-cured fish because of the history of needing those foods to last for distant travel both on land and at sea. I’ve used dried lime before, appreciate the concentrated flavor, and couldn’t wait to use it again. There are comfort-food rice dishes that are common for lunch meals in Oman like Arseeya, a savory chicken and rice porridge; Omani Lentil Soup made with dried lime, ghee, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and more; and Sur Vegetable Biryani with layers of spiced vegetables and rice. One of the rice dishes I want to try soon is Mandi Djaj which is a popular take-out dish of turmeric and saffron spiced rice cooked below roasted chicken and spicy, smooth hot sauce on the side. There are also fish dishes, curries, vegetable sides, and breads and savory snacks. The Royal Sticky Date Pudding looks very hard to resist, and Samar’s Date Cake baked in a bundt with date syrup swirled on top is tempting me as well. I enjoyed the stories about foods cooked over live fires at beach parties and at roadside stands. The kebabs in the book all look delicious. But, the Gingery Tamarind Yogurt Marinade and Fiery Tamarind Barbecue Sauce captured my attention first. 

The marinade was to be made with seedless tamarind paste. I found a product from Thailand that is packaged as a softened concentrate ready to use and was able to skip the step listed in the recipe below for softening tamarind in boiling water. The tamarind liquid was whisked into yogurt with cold water, vegetable oil, minced ginger, minced garlic, black lime powder, and salt. I had some black, or dried, limes in my pantry because they last for at least two years. I broke one into pieces and ground the pieces in a spice grinder to make a powder. It smells wonderfully like lime with a little interesting earthiness. The marinade was poured over seasoned chicken pieces, and the chicken was refrigerated and left to marinate for an hour or longer. The author describes the barbecue sauce as addictive, and I was eager to find out if that was true. The sauce was made with more tamarind, minced Thai bird’s eye chiles, garlic, salt, and I used honey rather than sugar. The mixture simmered for several minutes and thickened. I grilled the chicken over wood coals, and basted it at the end of cooking with some of the sauce. 

Indeed, I could see how this sauce could be habit-forming. It’s tangy and spicy and just sweet enough. While the chicken marinated, I also made Mkate Wa Ufuta or Zanzibari Sesame Bread. It’s a delightfully simple dough of all-purpose flour, coconut milk, and an egg. After rising, the dough was divided into pieces, each piece was flattened into a round and cooked in a hot cast iron skillet with sesame seeds added to each side. It was puffy and chewy and a perfect vehicle for scooping up any sauce left on the plate from the chicken. I’m going to enjoy learning more about the country as I eat my way through the book. 

Gingery Tamarind Yogurt Marinade 
Recipes reprinted with publisher’s permission from The Food of Oman: Recipes and Stories from the Gateway to Arabia by Felicia Campbell/Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Makes about 2 cups (enough for 2 to 3 pounds of meat or chicken) 

1/2 cup packed seedless tamarind paste 
3/4 cup boiling water 
1 small (5.3-ounce) container plain Greek yogurt 
1/4 cup cold water 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
1 (1 1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and mashed into a paste or grated using a Microplane
3 large cloves garlic, mashed into a paste 
1/4 teaspoon black lime powder 
2 teaspoons kosher salt 

Break the tamarind paste into pieces and place in a small bowl; pour the boiling water over it and let soften and cool, about 30 minutes. Mash the tamarind by hand in the water to break it up. 

Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the tamarind concentrate into a bowl, a little at a time, using a wooden spoon to firmly mash and press the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible, occasionally scraping the pulp on the underside of the sieve into the bowl. This will take a few minutes. Discard the mashed fibrous pulp in the sieve and set the liquid (about 1/2 cup) aside. 

Whisk together the yogurt, cold water, oil, ginger, garlic, black lime powder, and salt in a medium bowl; stir in the tamarind liquid and adjust the seasoning with salt to taste. Use as a marinade for chicken or meat, allowing the proteins to marinate at least 1 hour. Shake off any excess marinade before grilling. 

Fiery Tamarind Barbecue Sauce 

Makes about 1 1/2 cups 

1 (400-gram) block seedless tamarind paste 
10 bird’s eye chiles, minced or grated 
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated 
7 tablespoons sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more 

Break up the block of tamarind into a few pieces and place in a medium saucepan with 3 cups water; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, lower the heat to medium, and simmer, stirring constantly with pressure to break up the tamarind, until the tamarind has softened and the mixture has thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. 

Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the tamarind concentrate over a small saucepan, a little at a time, using a wooden spoon to firmly mash and press the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible, occasionally scraping the pulp on the underside of the sieve into the bowl. This will take several minutes. Discard any mashed fibrous pulp in the sieve. 

Add the chiles, garlic, sugar, and salt to the tamarind liquid and bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cover (as it will sputter), decrease the heat to low, and cook 10 to 12 minutes, until thick and darkened. Turn off the heat and let sit 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt and sugar to taste, and add a little water to thin the sauce out, if desired. Serve alongside grilled chicken or meat or atop roast meat or vegetables. If the sauce becomes too thick before using, reheat over low heat, adding a little water as needed. 

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Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts and Mexican-Style Chocolate Sauce

Kurt may not agree with this assessment, but I don’t think I have very many baking pans. I don’t have every possible size for cakes or tarts, and I really only have a few pans that are for specific things like madeleines or snowman-shaped cupcakes. Of course, I want every baking pan I ever see, and I imagine I’ll use all of them enough to justify them taking up storage space, but only very occasionally do I actually add to the small collection. I’d considered getting pans for baked doughnuts for ages, and when I saw the Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts in Barefoot Contessa Foolproof, I had to do it. In that book, the baked doughnuts are served with hot chocolate. We weren’t having hot chocolate weather when I made these, and I’d just read about several lovely chocolate sauces in Modern Sauces. So, I opted for Mexican-Style Chocolate Sauce instead of a hot beverage to accompany the doughnuts. The chocolate sauce has espresso, cinnamon, Kahlua, and some pure chile powders that give it depth and interest. Paired with the light and cakey, baked cinnamon doughnuts, it made for a delightful dessert.

Making the batter for the doughnuts is as easy as it gets, but the most important instruction is to fill the doughnut cups in the pans three-quarters full. Yes, I learned that the hard way. After mixing the dry ingredients in a large bowl, the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl, and stirring the wet into the dry, don’t overfill the pans. If the cups have too much batter, you won’t have holes in your doughnuts. I got it right on my second try. After baking, the doughnuts cooled for a few minutes before being tapped out of the pans. Then, they were each dunked into melted butter and then dipped into cinnamon sugar. You could dunk and dip both sides, but I only did one side for each doughnut. The chocolate sauce is simple to make and can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated as needed. Chopped dark chocolate, or feves as I used, is placed in a bowl. Cream is brought to a simmer in a saucepan. Off the heat, sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract, almond extract, Kahlua, chile powder, and a pinch of salt are added to the cream. The cream is then poured over the chocolate which is whisked until smooth. You can use whatever pure chile powder you prefer, and chipotle is suggested. Instead, I used a big pinch of ancho powder and a little bit of cayenne. You’ll want to taste and add small pinches of chile powder until you’re happy since the richness of the cream flattens out the chile flavor. I wanted a subtle earthiness from the ancho and just a slight tingle from the cayenne. It took a few added pinches and taste tests to get it just right. Serve the chocolate sauce in small cups for dunking the doughnuts or for pouring the sauce on top of them. 

Buttery, cinnamony doughnuts are ideal vehicles for this rich and flavorful chocolate sauce. After this, I think my new baked doughnut pans will be getting plenty of use. And, now I have to ponder my lack of mini Bundt pans and possibly do something about that. 

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Lemongrass Tofu with Chiles

I happen to really, actually like tofu. I like it in all forms whether silken, firm, or extra firm. I like the flavor, and there is a flavor to tofu albeit very mild. It’s versatile enough to be used in endless ways and can be incorporated into dishes both savory and sweet. However, the one way I still have never tried tofu is in its homemade state. Andrea Nguyen’s new book Asian Tofu will change that. After reading the book recently I couldn’t wait to get cooking, so the dish I’m showing here was made with store-bought tofu. Soon enough though, I’ll be turning back to the complete tutorial at the beginning of the book for making homemade tofu from dried soybeans. Obviously, it’s not necessary to make your own tofu for the recipes in the book, but the instructions are there if you want to experiment. There’s also a buying guide to inform you about the varieties typically available in stores. The recipes cover everything from starters and soups to main dishes and salads and even sweets. Not all of the dishes are vegetarian but many are, and there’s usually a simple way to adapt dishes with meat to make them vegetarian if you’d like. For instance, the Grilled Crisp Tofu Pockets from Malaysia are made with a sauce that includes dried shrimp paste, but a sweet chile sauce could be used instead. Some pages I marked show dishes like Silken Tofu and Edamame Soup, Twice-Cooked Coriander Tofu, Pressed Tofu and Peanuts in Spicy Bean Sauce, Spicy-Sweet Fried Tofu Buns, and Spiced Chickpea Crepes with Soybean Paneer. When I finally make my very own homemade tofu, I’ll use it for Japanese Chilled Tofu. To get started using the book, I wanted to try the technique of briefly brining tofu before frying it which both flavors the tofu and gives it a firmer texture. The Lemongrass Tofu with Chiles dish includes that step, and since asparagus was a suggested ingredient, the time was right.

In the tips section at the beginning of the book, Nguyen explains that soaking pieces of tofu in hot, salted water allows the surface of each piece to firm up after being dried. Then, when the pieces are fried, the oil drains from them more easily. The salted water also seasons the tofu pieces giving them even better flavor. The cut tofu pieces only need to sit in the hot, salted water for about 15 minutes. Then, they’re drained and dried before being fried. Once the tofu pieces have all been fried and are left to drain of excess oil, the rest of the dish is a snap to prepare. Finely chopped shallot, chiles, and lemongrass were stir-fried briefly before sliced bell pepper and asparagus were added. The recipe includes green beans as it's written, but asparagus is mentioned as an option. After a couple of minutes, the fried tofu was added followed by a mixture of sugar and curry powder. A scant quarter cup of coconut milk and a bit of fish sauce were added, and that was all there was to it.

The fried tofu was crispy and chewy with a good, golden crust. Since the crust formed quickly as the tofu fried, there was no chance for oil to soak in and lend heaviness. The dish was just rich enough with the tofu and the small amount of coconut milk, and the flavor with the added lemongrass and heat of the chiles was miles beyond what you’d expect from a plate of tofu and vegetables. I can already tell that with this book, I’ll be an even bigger fan of tofu than I was before.

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Chile Chicken Noodles with Spicy Broth

It doesn’t even matter how late I am in getting to an issue of Donna Hay magazine. Every time, there is page after page of food I can’t wait to cook. The last issue I read was #60 which appeared at Christmastime in Australia, hence there are several cute Christmas cookies in it, but it was on our newsstands in March. There’s a strawberry lime and coconut pie, mini strawberry tarte tatins, and strawberry and lychee sorbet. I need to hurry to try those while strawberries are in season. Following those recipes is a story about curing fish with several beautiful and delicious-sounding salt mixes, and I’ll get back to those as soon as I can. Then, there was the roasted potato, asparagus, and herb salad which I made immediately. It reminded me a little of another Donna Hay salad with potatoes that I first made a few years ago, but this version was tossed with a mustard vinaigrette rather than a creamy dressing. You see how this goes? There’s seriously something I have to try on every page. When I arrived at the end of the issue, I learned a new Donna Hay book had been released. It’s called Simple Dinners, and unfortunately, it’s not available on Amazon right now. Hopefully, it will be soon. There were a few pages extracted from the book in this issue, and that’s where I saw this dish of Chile Chicken Noodles with Spicy Broth. It was incredibly simple to prepare as promised by the name of the book, and it involves a great trick to getting a nice glaze on the chicken pieces which I foolishly doubted at first.

There are three parts to the recipe. Rice noodles were cooked and set aside. Then, a spicy broth was made was simmering ginger, chiles, and some Shaoxing wine in chicken or vegetable stock. The third part is the chicken itself. Pieces of sliced chicken breast were tossed with chile jam, and I used a locally-made jalapeno jelly. After coating the chicken well, the pieces were cooked in a little oil in a frying pan. The noodles were divided between bowls and covered with the spicy broth. The sticky, sweet, and spicy chicken was placed on top, and the bowls were garnished with green onion, or garlic chives from my garden and purple spring onions in my case, and cilantro.

I wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to put the chile jelly or jam on the chicken as it cooked since I thought it might burn. I wondered if it would be better to coat the chicken after it had cooked. I tried a couple of pieces of chicken that way, and I was wrong. Coating the chicken after it cooked failed to give it a good glaze. Since the sliced chicken pieces were small enough to cook quickly, the jelly had just enough time to slightly brown and form a sticky glaze as it should. Now I have another quick meal with big flavor to turn to when I need it. And, I have several more recipes from that magazine to try.

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Peanut Chile Bread

It had been months, actually almost two years, since I saw Dan Lepard’s Peanut Chile Bread, and it was high time I tried making it. But, every time I set out to make a bread with commercial yeast, my sourdough starter feels neglected, overlooked, like I’m cheating on it. I couldn’t have that. It had been too long since my starter and I had spent time together, so I took Dan’s recipe and combined it with the sourdough bread recipe that I use more than any other. That is the Norwich Sourdough that came from Susan at Wild Yeast. From Dan’s recipe, there are roasted, spicy, red chiles, cumin seeds, peanuts, chunky peanut butter, and tahini. I mixed all of those ingredients into the Norwich sourdough right after the autolyse, and it worked like a charm. I got to try this bread without breaking my starter’s heart. The result was sesame-crusted loaves with a rosy-hued crumb from the chiles. It was nutty and a little spicy and perfect with some olive oil for dipping.

I used fresno chiles, but whichever red chile you prefer is fine. They were roasted under the broiler and left to cool. Stems and seeds were removed, and the chiles were chopped. Tahini, peanut butter, cumin seeds, and salt were placed in a bowl, and hot water was poured over them. The chopped chiles were added along with some cold water and the peanuts. Since I was turning this into a sourdough, I used one-third of the total water for the recipe at this stage. The other two-thirds was used to begin the dough by combining it with starter, bread flour, and rye flour. That was mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook for a few minutes and then left to sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the chile and peanut butter mixture was added to the dough, and it was mixed until well incorporated. The dough was then left to rise in a wide bowl in which it could be turned without removing it to a work surface. The dough was turned at 50 minutes and then at 100 minutes while fermenting for a total of two and a half hours. After fermentation, the dough was turned onto a work surface and divided. It was allowed to rest before being shaped into long loaves. The loaves could have proofed at room temperature until ready to bake, but I proofed them partially at room temperature and then overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning, as the oven pre-heated, the loaves were brushed with water, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and slashed down the middle. They baked until golden and crisp-crusted.

This flavorful bread was great alongside a salad and with soup, but my favorite use of it was for spicy carrot sandwiches. Those sandwiches were mentioned in the March issue of Food and Wine. After toasting the bread, hummus was spread on it and then topped with grated carrots that had been briefly cooked with sliced garlic, crushed red pepper, and I used cumin seeds instead of caraway. A spoonful of Greek yogurt finished the sandwich. The nutty bread and spicy carrots made a great match.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

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Salsa de Cacahuate y Chile de Arbol

Any time I leave Austin, even for just a few days, I miss the salsa. You can find tacos just about anywhere, and some are certainly better than others, but it’s the salsa I always look to first to judge a place. If I’m served a bland salsa that tastes more like a jar than like fresh, hot chiles, I know the meal isn’t going to matter much. Here at home, I sometimes choose a restaurant based on which type of salsa sounds good that day. I might be in the mood for a bright, tomato-forward sauce. Other days, a smoky puree of dried chiles could be what I want. There are tangy tomatillo salsas, extra-hot chipotle ones, chunky salsas, thin and smooth versions, and on and on. And, I’m not above begging for recipes for salsas. On one occasion, I asked a server at a restaurant if I could have the recipe for the deep, dark, smoky, and very spicy salsa they offered. After checking with the chef, she told me, no, she wasn’t allowed to give it to me, but then she quietly explained to me what she observed each day as the salsa was made. Serrano chiles were roasted until well-charred, and then they were pureed with onion and a little garlic. That’s still one of my favorites, but I always enjoy trying new ones. So, I was thrilled to see an entire article about various salsas in the August/September issue of Saveur, and I recently made two of them. The tomatillo and chipotle salsa with roasted garlic was simple and delicious and perfect for dipping chips. The one I want to tell you about today, though, is the peanut and chile de arbol salsa because it’s a little different from all the others I usually encounter. This is a thick puree, a little like a satay sauce, and it’s very well-suited to top a shrimp taco.

For this salsa, everything is cooked in a skillet on top of the stove. Peanuts, thyme, dried arbol chiles, black peppercorns, allspice berries, minced garlic, and chopped onion are sauteed until the onions are softened. The entire mixture is transferred to a blender, a little apple cider vinegar, salt, and some water are added, and it’s pureed until very smooth. Mine seemed very thick, so I added a bit more water and another dribble of vinegar and pureed again.

The finished sauce is a nice, light, beige color which might fool you about the level of heat you’re about to experience. The arbol chiles are not a subtle variety. However, once the salsa is spooned into a toasted tortilla filled with shrimp, shredded cabbage, and cilantro, its spiciness is just right. This is a keeper for my ever-expanding list of salsa favorites.

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Vegetable Summer Rolls with Chile Lime Dipping Sauce and Salt and Pepper Squid

What we have with these two dishes is a delicious mix of contrasts. With the rolls, the pale, white, chewy rice paper wrappers are filled with bright, colorful, crunchy vegetables, and they're mild tasting until dipped in the chile lime sauce. Meanwhile, the fried squid is crispy on the outside and coated with a riot of flavor after being stir-fried with garlic, green onions, and chiles. Under the crisp coating, the squid is pale and mild. These recipes came from an article about party food in last June's Food and Wine. I didn't actually make them for a party, but I can tell you they would have worked well for one. The summer rolls can sit in the refrigerator for a few hours after being assembled, and the squid can be kept warm in the oven after it's been fried. I did make one small change to the summer rolls. One of the filling items was supposed to have been rice vermicelli, but I was determined to use all raw ingredients and not have to cook anything for the rolls. So, I used shredded lettuce in place of the noodles. I made a slight change to the squid as well since I skipped the dusting with five spice powder that was suggested. Otherwise, I followed the instructions and was thrilled with the results.

For me, making summer rolls is one of those fun kitchen tasks like pitting cherries and rolling fresh pasta dough. You soften a brittle rice paper wrapper in warm water, lay it flat, and pile on the fillings before folding in the sides and rolling it up snuggly. It seals itself into a nice, little package. I think the self-sealing is possibly what makes it so fun. The fillings here were thin strips of red and yellow bell pepper, shredded lettuce instead of rice vermicelli, strips of avocado which I tossed with lime juice to prevent it from turning brown, julienned cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, Thai basil leaves from my garden, and I might have added a few thin strips of serrano chile as well. The dipping sauce for the rolls was made with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, water, and a chopped red chile. The fried squid was breaded simply by dipping the cut pieces into egg and then into cornstarch. It was fried in batches and left to drain. Once all the squid was fried, it was then quickly stir-fried in a little oil in which garlic, green onions, minced red onion, and a finely chopped jalapeno had been cooked.

I actually really like squid, but I realize it might not be everyone's favorite ingredient. When it's fried though, it's hard not to like, and this version with the added flavor from the final stir fry was especially good. The salad in roll form was fresh and light while feeling a little more substantial than just a salad on a plate. These two dishes full of contrasts went together perfectly.

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Peach Mango Chutney + a Giveaway

There are a few standard types of cookbooks. There are the ones that offer recipes for soups, salads, mains, and desserts. Then, there are ones focused on particular topics like sweets or appetizers or grilling. I just read a review copy of Plum Gorgeous by Romney Steele, and this cookbook doesn't fit any of the standard moulds. Instead, this book is a stroll through an orchard from season to season with memories, quotes, and recipes for fruits at their peak of ripeness. The chapters move from citrus to berries followed by stone fruits and fall fruits. There are recipes for preserving fruits, turning them into lovely desserts, and using them in savory dishes too. So, among the citrus recipes, you'll find orange marmalade and preserved lemons and ideas for using them along with kumquats and toasted couscous with halloumi and a rangpur lime mascarpone tart. I was taken with the idea of making a sweet, savory chutney, and I had a mango from my CSA waiting to be used. There's an apricot mango chutney in the stone fruit chapter, but since it's peach season here, I went with what was available. Local peaches, onion, and chiles with my mango from south Texas and a few other spices became an aromatic, spicy condiment. There are suggestions for serving the chutney with cheese and bread or stirring it into a rice dish with chicken. I've used it two ways so far. First, I topped some little pieces of homemade sourdough with Pure Luck chevre and dollops of the chutney. Then, I stirred some into whole wheat couscous with toasted pine nuts, parsley, spinach, and pulled pieces of roasted chicken. Both were sweet, savory bliss.

Making the chutney was actually easier than I expected even though it does simmer for about an hour and then sit overnight. A pound of peaches was pitted and chopped but not peeled, and the mango was peeled, pitted, and diced. The recipe also calls for dried apricots, and even though I was using fresh peaches instead of fresh apricots, I added a few chopped, dried apricots for the texture. Onion, garlic, a few chopped hot chiles, lime zest, grated ginger, a cinnamon stick, coriander seed, mustard seed, cloves, black pepper, raw sugar, and champagne vinegar were also included. Everything was combined in a stock pot and cooked until the liquid evaporated and the flavors came together. In the recipe you're instructed to leave the chutney covered in the stock pot overnight. I leave almost nothing out in my kitchen since I fear the house is too warm in the summer. So, I refrigerated the chutney overnight. The next day, it was cooked again to deepen the flavors, and I added a little salt and more black pepper. The finished chutney can be kept in the refrigerator for several months, but I don't think it will last that long.

This book is both a guide to each season's fruits and a collection of fond memories centered on food. It's a great resource for using what's available now at the markets, or in your own orchard if you're lucky enough to have one, and for daydreaming about next season. I've already tried the fig relish recipe as well, and I'll be mentioning that soon.

Now, regarding that giveaway, Back to the Roots has offered to send a grow-it-at-home mushroom garden to one lucky commenter. I recently received a mushroom garden of my own, and it's an amazing way to easily grow food on your kitchen counter. The garden is contained in a small box with recycled coffee grounds for soil inside it. You just mist the open sides of the box each day, and oyster mushrooms begin to grow after about a week. Read more about the mushroom gardens here, and you can receive a 10% discount on purchases with the code mushrooms4me10. All you have to do to win a garden is leave a comment on this post before Monday August 8, 2011 at noon CST. Include your email address with the comment so I can contact you. The winner must provide a US mailing address. Good luck!

UPDATE: The winner of the mushroom garden is Lola Lobato.




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Poached Shrimp with Watermelon Curry and Masa Cookie

It’s time for summer fun, summer vacations, and summer food. To celebrate the beginning of the season, Tribeza has organized an event, the Summer Solstice Chef’s Table Series from June 27 to June 29, to showcase menus inspired by this time of year. At eight different Austin restaurants, guests will have an opportunity to dine with the chef and enjoy special dishes created just for this event. Trio is one of those participating restaurants, and Chef Todd Duplechan’s menu will include poached gulf shrimp with watermelon curry and a masa cookie, warmed loch salmon with braised market vegetables and lemon aioli, and bacon wrapped lamb loin with heirloom squash and black garlic custard. I had the opportunity to stop by the kitchen at Trio, talk with Chef Duplechan about the Chef’s Table dinner, and watch as he showed me how to prepare the poached shrimp dish. We talked about the Texas heat, spices and chiles, what grows locally, and he taught me a few interesting cooking techniques along the way.

Here in central Texas, Chef Duplechan likes to cook what grows nearby, and that fits with his idea of creating a new southwestern cuisine. He says “there’s more to southwestern cuisine that blue corn chips.” Rather than taking influence solely from Mexican cooking as most southwestern dishes do, his creations brings together elements of cooking from various hot weather climates around the world. By taking cues from Southeast Asia, his dishes have a lightness that’s especially welcome during our hot summer season. A perfect example of how these ideas come together is this poached shrimp dish. The shrimp are from the Gulf and as many of the other ingredients as possible were procured locally.

Watermelon, which is a well-loved Texas summer fruit, is taken in a new direction via Southern India for this curry sauce. Making the sauce began with mustard seed oil being warmed in a saute pan. Cumin seeds were toasted in the oil, ground coriander and ground mustard seeds were added, finely diced green chiles and ginger came next, and this mixture cooked just until the chiles softened. Next, turmeric and pureed watermelon were added, and the sauce was allowed to reduce and thicken. The watermelon was not strained, so it retained some texture. I was offered tastes as the sauce reduced and Chef Duplechan explained how the watermelon takes on a squash-like flavor when cooked. It also becomes sweeter as the water evaporates. Once reduced, lime juice and zest were added which cut the sweetness, and chopped cilantro was added. In the end, the sauce had an underlying sweetness, bright lime flavor, and nice notes of heat from the chiles and ginger.

Next, we talked about the shrimp. These were big, fresh, gorgeous ten per pound, Gulf shrimp. They had been shelled, deveined, and skewered to make them straight. They were going to be oil poached but not in plain oil. This was one of those cooking tips that’s genius, that adds so much flavor, and that I never would have thought to do. The oil had been treated like a stock. The shrimp shells and some of the same spices used in the curry had been cooked in the oil and then strained out before the oil was used to poach the shrimp. I tasted the oil before the shrimp were placed in it, and it was so flavorful I knew the shrimp were going to be phenomenal. To gently poach shellfish in oil, the temperature needs to be no higher than about 125 degrees F. Duplechan checked the temperature and maintained the low heat by pulling the pan with the oil off the heat when the temperature climbed too high. He explained the good news about poaching shellfish is that you have a long window of doneness. You can watch as the shrimp turn from translucent to opaque white, and you want to pull them from the oil before the opaque-ness reaches the center of the shrimp. They’ll finish cooking from residual heat once removed from the oil.

One last element for this dish was a masa cookie. Masa is a typical southwestern ingredient, but it was given a new twist here. It was baked into a tuile after being mixed with sugar, and ground coriander and mustard seeds. No water was added. The dry mixture was spread on a baking sheet, and as it heated in the oven, the sugar melted and the tuile formed. The big, thin cookie then easily broke into pieces. It was a sweet, savory, corn-flavored bit of crunch.

The dish was plated with a layer of arugula, then the watermelon curry, the shrimp were pulled from the skewers and placed on the sauce, the masa cookie was broken into shards which were strewn about, and last, a little drizzle of the poaching oil was added. My reaction upon tasting the finished dish was a wow. That was perfectly cooked, juicy, plump shrimp, and all those wonderful flavors in the watermelon curry accompanied it nicely. The fresh, bright flavors and slight edge of heat, the mix of textures with the crisp masa cookie, and the lightness of it all made a stellar combination. And, this is just one of the courses offered at Trio for the Chef’s Table Series.

For more information about the menus, the locations, and the opportunity to sit and dine with some of Austin’s top chefs, see the Tribeza site.

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Black Pepper Tofu

Over the last few months, I repeatedly heard great things about the new book Plenty by Yottam Ottolenghi. Then, I read an issue of Delicious magazine in which there was a story about the book with six recipes. Well, after that, I could wait no longer. I finally ordered my copy of the book, read it, and quickly realized I’d probably end up cooking everything in it. Seriously, every single thing looks great. The sweet potato cakes, mushroom ragu with poached duck egg, and crusted pumpkin wedges with sour cream will all be tried soon. First up, though, I made the black pepper tofu because that had caught my eye when I saw it in Delicious. This is a spicy, big-flavored kind of dish with great balance. When Kurt saw the sauce coming together in a saute pan, he said it looked like it was going to be really hot and spicy. It did look that way with the red chiles and generous amount of black pepper. But, the chiles used were mild, and the black pepper heat was tempered by the kecap manis, or sweet soy sauce, and some sugar. The result was a tangy, interesting mix of flavors enveloping crispy tofu chunks.

I’m not sure why, but the version of the recipe in Delicious is slightly different from that in the book. The quantities of ginger and the different soy sauces are just a little more or less, but I don’t think those slight changes would even be noticeable in the finished dish. To start, drained tofu was cut into chunks, coated with corn starch, and fried in hot oil. I’ve finally learned a better way to fry tofu. Rather than heating oil in a wide saute pan and adding tofu only to watch it pop and splatter and cause oil to end up all over my stovetop, countertop, and floor, I now use a small saucepan instead. Heat an inch or so of oil in the saucepan, and the sides will be high enough to contain the splattering business. You’ll need to fry in batches so as not to overcrowd, but you’ll use less oil and spend less time cleaning. The fried tofu chunks were left to drain on paper towels while the sauce was made. Now, this was destined to be delicious because making the sauce began with melting a good bit of butter in a large saute pan. To the melted butter, chopped shallots, red chiles, garlic, and ginger were added. It instantly smelled amazing. Next, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and kecap manis were added. I learned from The Perfect Pantry that I could make kecap manis by simmering soy sauce with molasses until thick which I did. Then, sugar and lots of coarsely ground black pepper were added, and the tofu was stirred into the sauce with big pieces of green onions.

The flavor of the sauce was bold and exciting, and the tofu somehow magically remained crunchy and firm on the surface even though it had been warmed in the sauce. It really was not a tongue burning kind of hot sauce. The spiciness was there, and the black pepper was prevalent, but the sauce brought together an interesting mix of the whole flavor spectrum. I'm already deciding what to make from the book next, and I may not even bother finding room for it on a shelf since it’ll be spending most of its time in the kitchen.

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