Chang's Mongolian Beef (Tuesday, April 19, 2011)

I had a craving for P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef so I did a search to find out what the secret is that gives their beef that little crunchy edge. What I found was a whole recipe.  The recipe is simple.  It's all about the sauce which is started with garlic and ginger followed by the addition of soy sauce (1/2 cup), water (1/2 cup) and brown sugar (3/4 cup).  I substituted some beer and rice wine vinegar for the water.  I do not regret that decision.  The sauce then needs to reduce for a while.  Apparently the trick that all Chinese food restaurants use is to coat the meat with a dusting of corn starch to give it a little bit of a crust and allow for optimal sauce coverage.  I knew they used cornstarch but I always thought it was added to the sauce to thicken it.  Maybe at some places they do both. I bought a one pound flank steak, sliced it into chunks with 45-degree, against-the-grain cuts and tossed them in a bit of cornstarch.  These went into a wok with about a cup of oil and were essentially fried in small batches giving a nice crust and good color.  Meanwhile the sauce was reducing and when the meat was complete I tossed it into the sauce and let it finish cooking there.  I cut the tops off of 4 bunches of green onion and added those right at the end just to give them a delicious coating.  Knowing how the sauce is made, I now know why this dish is so good.  Sugar and salt make anything taste good.  Using less sugar would probably be just fine.  Also, there's really only a need to make about half of the sauce that I made.  I followed a recipe but ended up with about twice as much sauce as necessary when I plated up.  It was a shame to let all that go down the drain.  I felt like I was flushing my stash of crack.  I made brown rice to go with it.  That makes it healthy!!!  I'm going to try and plant the bottoms from the green onion in the garden, I'm told that the greens will grow back, and when they do I have a good idea what I'll use them for.

Gang Garee / Yellow Curry with Chicken and Potato (Sunday, April 17, 2011)

Ever since leaving Lubbock, TX I miss the Thai food I used to get at Choochai.  This was a little hole in the wall joint painted purple and manned by Than, a five foot Thai immigrant who sat behind the bar seating cooking food right in front of your face while buckets around you filled with water dripping through the ceiling.  He was the man, and the people that worked there knew us by name.  I have never been able to find Thai food as good as that.  The Gang Garee, Kow Soy and Special Artar were my favorite dishes and they also had egg rolls that were out of control.  There was a note on the menu that said, "If you order hot it will be hot.  No refunds."  This place makes it a few stages hotter than most places.  I always went medium and that beaded sweat under my eyes.  I miss that place.
This meal started when I went to Bowood Farms, a plant nursery here in CWE and saw a plant that was labelled "Curry."  It smelled just like curry but said "non-culinary."  It occurred to me that I had no idea what curry was.  The next day I found myself in Penzey's spices and realized reading the label on the curry that it was a blend of many things, namely Turmeric, which gives it the yellow color.  Now I was even more curious about the "Curry" plant that I saw, cause it smelled exactly like curry and according to the label there is no such thing as a curry plant.
I bought some of the curry powder and when I got home realized I had most of what it takes to make something close to Gang Garee (yellow curry with potatoes).  I started with olive oil, onion and garlic and added a few spoonfuls of the curry powder.  Immediately the apartment was filled with the smell.  I let these flavors meld and develop a while over med-high heat and then added the chicken.  I let this cook briefly before adding potatoes and carrots.  I let all of this sautee for a few minutes so everything could absorb some of the yellow from the pan.  I added a can of coconut milk and some of my home-made chicken stock.  I was worried about the coconut milk because it was of a cottage cheese consistency.  I was about to ruin a good dish as I added it.  As soon as it hit the heat it turned to liquid.  Disaster averted.  I then added a few spoonfuls of chili paste, salt, pepper and a bit of cream to help it thicken.  I let this stew on low for the better part of an hour until the potatoes were cooked through and served it over some rice.  I think it was missing a little something but for a first attempt on the fly it turned out really well.  I actually think I did a better job than some Thai restaurants, even though I'm not sure that I adhered to the rules of Thai cuisine.  Some thinly sliced onions toward the end would add some nice crunch and perhaps some cilantro would lend it a more interesting flavor and some color.  AHH!  Fish sauce.  That's what I left out.  For a relatively hassle free, one pot meal, this is a winner that I will continue to work on.  Plus, you can use just about anything you have lying around.  Choochai 4 Life!

Spring Arugula Salad (Saturday, April 16, 2011)

To celebrate the start of actual Spring in Saint Louis some color was in order.
I planted some Arugula and Siamese Dragon (mixed Asian greens) under a cold frame back in February.  To fill you in, I have a 5 by 20 foot garden bed at Bell Community Garden.  A cold frame is essentially a mini greenhouse that has a transparent top. Mine is made with a wood frame and an old window from Schlafly Bottleworks.  These are used to extend the growing season and even grow some things all the way through the winter.
Anyway, I grew a patch of greens and about a week ago they started to succumb to some sort of pest that was eating very small holes in the leaves. It looked like some little squirrel came through with a mini shotgun and had a blast.  After some close observation and Google searches I determined that the culprit was the ever so tiny Flea Beetle.  These are little beetles of various colors that jump like fleas and eat tiny holes in a number of plants.  Allegedly there has to be a pretty serious infestation to kill the plant but I decided to go ahead and harvest some of the greens and eat them before the the little buggers got too much of them.  I also wanted to start clearing this area so I could plant tomatoes in it, of which I planted three varieties so far.  I've learned while gardening that in order to not have pesticide laden greens you must be okay with eating blemished food.  From  about a two square foot patch of greens I obtained about enough for four salads.  We had to clean the greens of the dirt and remove some roots that made their way into the bag.  Harvesting things close to the ground is bound to add some soil to your take. A salad spinner came in handy here and sparked discussion of how the big growers clean their truckloads of lettuce for the supermarket.  Maybe a giant salad spinner?  Or, perhaps just submersion in large pools of water with included time for sediment to sink?
We simply tossed the greens with strawberries, Gorgonzola cheese and a Blackcurrant vinaigrette.
I recently discovered Vom Fass, a little store on Manchester that sells oils, vinegars, liqueurs (including Absinthe) and scotch out of casks.  You simply buy a bottle from them and pay per 100ml.  They also let you take samples to your hearts desire.  They have vinegar made from all sorts of things: mango, honey, quince, pear and the list goes on.  Then you'll find a handful of olive oils (I almost typed EVOO, but I hate when Rachel Ray says that), nut oils, and infused oils.  It's an awesome little place and it's only a few doors away from Penzey's spices which sells about any spice you can dream of.  Justin doubted, "I bet they don't have what I'm looking for."  Sumac?  Of course they do.
Normally, arugula has a very peppery flavor, which it did on the back end, but I thought this salad tasted very earthy and nutty.  I felt like there was some roasted peanut in there somewhere and this made the Gorgonzola a great addition.  This was definitely the most flavorful salad I've ever had that can be attributed to the actual salad greens.  I'm now a believer in the sentiment that food loses flavor (and nutrition) the longer it sits and waits to be eaten.  These greens tasted like they came from the earth and I'm looking forward to more of that.

*Note:  You can spot some of the holes in the picture.  The ones you can see are actually some of the larger ones.  Most of them look like tack holes.

The "Versus" Pizza (Monday, April 4, 2011)

Made some pesto, had some dough on hand and decided to use my leftover veggies to make another pizza.  On one side is Pesto with Peppers.  On the other is Marinara with Eggplant.  I also threw a few anchovies on a few slices worth.  These are not your supermarket variety however.  I bought them at an international market and they're much less salty and marinated in olive oil, garlic and parsley.  I know, "ew, anchovies!"  Shut yo' mouf!  They're good.  Other changes I made was to roll the edges for a thicker, softer crust, put the toppings over the cheese and only baked for 8 minutes at 500.  The crust is much better this time, but the pizza is also a little floppy. Now it's time to watch some basketball.  Go Butler!

Pizza with Eggplant, Peppers and Mushroom (Sunday, April 3, 2011)

It's been awhile.  I haven't stopped cooking but I've been too busy (when I say busy I mean lazy) to write about any of it.  I've been making lots of homemade breads lately.  I recently bought a book called "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day."  The premise of the book is to make a dough from their "master" recipe and then refrigerate it for up to 14 days.  As it ages is becomes more sourdough-like.  So today, I used the master dough to make a pizza.  I rolled and stretched a grapefruit-sized ball of dough and put it on a cornmeal coated pizza peel.  Meanwhile my oven was heating to 500, the highest it goes.  I also have a pizza stone in the oven that I use for breads, and now, pizza, finally.  I spread on some of my own marinara sauce (see earlier recipe).  I sliced some Chinese eggplant, yellow bell pepper, Anaheim pepper, Baby Bella mushrooms and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Veggies, meet pizza.  To top it off, some freshly grated mozzarella.  The pizza slid easily off the peel onto the baking stone for about 9-10 minutes, barely enough time to pour and taste my beer.  I topped it off with a Chiffonade of basil and some Parmesan cheese.  Bella! I've been meaning to start making pizzas and flatbreads.  This is a thing that you can make with endless variety and as summer veggies become abundant it will be an easy go to, especially since I'll have bread dough on hand all the time.  To go with it, I had a Sierra Nevada Glissade which I really enjoyed on a warm spring day like today.  I'll leave the discussion of beer to the beer bloggers (ahem!  Willie, ahem!).

I have some backlogged meals to write about in the coming days, including the Family Recipe Beef Stroganoff, Pistachio-Roasted Purple Potatoes, Mixed-Berry Sorbet and a quick and easy fresh pasta dish (including discussion of my new favorite kitchen toy).