Category Archives: Recipes

Lime gelatin with Fleur de Sel

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Homemade lime gelatin with sea salt

A bumper crop of limes in my backyard when winter came to an end had me thinking of ways to employ them.

I do quite a bit of Thai and Vietnamese cooking, so having limes handy makes sense.  There’s one dwarf Bearss and one dwarf Mexican – both terrific producers.  The Bearss gives me large, seedless, regular old limes, and the Mexican, small, thin-skinned, sour fruit.  Both are in wide, deep containers.  They get plenty of sun, I water them regularly during the summer, and I stay on top of the fertilizer situation, which is key, particularly the nitrogen.

If you live in the East Bay, I encourage you to plant a little citrus orchard, even if you need to do it with containers.  Get yourself these two lime trees, a Eureka lemon, a Meyer lemon,  and perhaps a Kaffir lime, depending upon what you like to cook.  I also have a Calamansi, a hybrid native to Southeast Asia and very popular in the Philippines, that I’ll talk about in another post, but it does not do quite as well in non-tropical climates.  Keep your trees in the same vicinity for pollination.

So, what to do with all these limes?

My son, now 23, is always clamoring for some kind of fruit-flavored gelatin.  If it’s fluorescent, so much the better.

Not a problem, as I am never without a large canister of Knox unflavored gelatin.  Why?  I admit to being a fan of terrines, molds and aspics.  In fact, I’m all about the whole garde manger (cold foods) thing.  While I put together numerous roasted vegetable terrines in my day, I have no problem busting out some sort of crazy thing from the salad section of a 1958 American cookbook.  The more retro and scarier the better.  Why not?  It’s a hoot when you present your friends with a dessert that involves Jell-O, mayonnaise and shredded carrots in 5 colorful layers.

This time I thought I’d use my 1940’s-era metal aspic molds for little lime gelatins, and then top them with a sprinkling of fleur de sel – the cream of the sea salt crop.  The salt idea came from my fondness for Thai lime drink, which is a little salty.

I made the little ones as a kind of palate cleanser, and several custard cup-sized versions without salt to serve to my son in lieu of packaged Jello-O.

If you find it too sour or sweet, adjust the recipe.  Note, however, that a reduction in total liquid volume will require an adjustment in the amount of dry gelatin needed.

I would be surprised if you think this recipe is not sour enough, though, as I was generous with the ratio of lime juice!  That said, I don’t know what kind of limes you’re using.

The bottom “lime”:  Please make your own gelatin desserts using unflavored gelatin and fruit juice.  You’ll save money and be able to control the sugar.  Buy a large container of Knox brand at a store that serves the restaurant trade, like Smart & Final.

Lime Gelatin with Fleur de Sel

1 Tablespoon Knox, dry, unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
Green food coloring
Fleur de Sel

1).  Stir dry gelatin into the 1/2 cup cold water and allow to bloom for 10 minutes
2).  Combine boiling water and sugar thoroughly in a glass bowl  (I use a tempered glass pitcher – easier to pour from)
3).  Stir in bloomed gelatin until completely dissolved
4).  Stir in lime juice
5).  Add a little food coloring; make it as green as you like
6).  Pour into molds and place in fridge
7).  Unmold when very firm (dip bottom in hot water for a second if it sticks) onto small serving plate
8).  Sprinkle a very small amount of salt on the top right before you serve

Korean rice cakes

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Korean Rice Cakes with XO Sauce

Korean Rice Cakes with XO Sauce

When I visit that Mecca for Asian groceries that is 99 Ranch Market (3288 Pierce Street, Richmond), I usually run into interesting products I haven’t worked with before.  Often the item is something I’ve seen on a plate in a restaurant or read about and have been wanting to try my hand at.

Enter a 1-pound bag of Korean rice cakes I found in the refrigerated noodle section.

Korean rice cakes (garaddeok)

Korean rice cakes (garaddeok)

Rice cakes, called ddeok, are an integral part of Korean cuisine, and there are numerous kinds.  Some are made from glutinous rice, some from non-glutinous, some are sweet, some savory.

A little squeeze of these plain solid tubes through their wrapper told me they’d be like Shanghai rice ovals, namely dense and chewy.  Called garaeddeok, they are the main ingredient in ddeokbokki (spicy Korean rice cakes), a popular dish that’s readily available from street vendors.  The heat in the dish comes from the addition of a pungent chili paste called gochujang.

I figured I’d follow the directions on the package and deviate as needed based on a little research.  Sometimes English instructions on Asian food products are minimal, so it helps to get an elementary grasp of how a noodle or cake is dealt with from a trusted book or blog.  For example, it’s good to know about any soaking or pre-cooking requirements.

Advice that was universal:  better to undercook  than overcook garaeddeok, given that they should be quite chewy when served.  Many cooks suggest rinsing and soaking, though this was not mentioned on the package.  Most cooking treatments involve a spicy sauce that self-thickens from the starch in the cakes.  Check, check and check.

Apparently these commercially prepared and  packaged cakes run a far second to fresh ones purchased at rice cake shops in Korea.  I believe that.  I would imagine the texture suffers in large-scale production.

The bare-bones recipe I developed turns out a tasty dish.  Try it and then move up to real ddeokbokki recipes, which I plan on doing now that I have an idea of how garaddeok behave when subjected to heat and liquid.

These rice cakes are very chewy, but give them a try.

Here’s advance warning that you’ll be seeing other dishes inspired by Korean ingredients on the blog.  The number of authentic Korean restaurants in the East Bay of late has allowed me to sample a broad range of  dishes – not just barbecue or bibimbap, but things like tofu soup – so my interest is at an all-time high.

Korean Rice Cakes with XO Sauce
   serves 4 or 5 as a side dish or part of a larger meal

1 pound Korean rice cakes (garaddeok), cut into 2-inch lengths, if purchased whole (and if you get them whole, tell me where you got them!)
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 green onions, chopped (both green and white parts)
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons (or more) XO sauce (buy this seafood-based chili-garlic sauce in Asian markets)

1).  Rinse rice cakes and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes
2).  Heat oil in a wok (or a heavy, slope-sided cooking vessel); non-stick is a good choice for this dish
3).  Saute the green onions and garlic until a bit soft
4).  Add chicken stock and soy sauce and bring to a boil
5).  Add rice cakes, separating them carefully first if they’re stuck together
6).  Cook over high heat for 3 minutes, moving them around regularly so they don’t stick together
7).  Add XO sauce and continue to cook as above; if very dry, add a little more stock
8).  When sauce thickens sufficiently, turn off heat and serve, but don’t cook them more than another 3 or 4 minutes

Korean rice cakes cooking in wok

Korean rice cakes cooking in wok

Thai steak salad

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Thai steak salad - a great way to use leftover steak!

Thai steak salad – a great way to use leftover steak!

I had a large piece of leftover tri-tip (end of the bottom sirloin) on my hands the other day and wanted to use it as-is, since it was nice and rare.  One of the best ways to use leftover steak is in a salad with Thai flavors.

The inspiration for this dish is nam tok, the Issan/Laotian* grilled beef salad containing herbs, fresh veggies, rice powder and a fish sauce/lime juice dressing.  Anyone who knows me knows I love the food of Issan, the Northeastern region of Thailand, which is famous for its hom mali (Jasmine) rice production and, sadly, the poverty of its farmers.  Many of these farmers have been spending time in Bangkok in recent years selling street food, which has made Issan goodies quite popular there, particularly gai yang, a pungent version of grilled chicken.  I’ll post more about Issan in the future, but the one thing you should know about its food is how clean tasting and bright it is, being highly dependent upon fresh produce.  *Note that Issan and Laos share a border, and that the people of Issan are of Laotian heritage, because there wasn’t always a border between them.

The one thing that may throw you here is the rice powder.  Rice powder is toasted rice that has been ground to something between coarse and fine, and it gives Issan warm salads a nice crunch.  It is best to make it yourself, and I’ll tell you how to do that.  In a pinch, though, you can use rice cereal (Cream of Rice).  Just toast it slowly and carefully in a pan over a flame and then allow it to cool.  This will not be half as good as real rice powder, but sometimes you have to make do.  Make sure that whatever you use is not so hard that people will damage their teeth.  Check your work – make sure it’s toasted enough.

If you want to make this a meal, serve it with sticky (sweet) rice.  This would be authentically Issan/Lao.

Renate’s Thai-stye Steak Salad
   Serves 4 or 5

3/4 – 1 pound leftover steak, sliced in thin strips (nothing with destinctive seasoning)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
1 red chili pepper, seeded & deveined, finely minced
2 green onions, sliced into small rounds
1 English cucumber (if a huge one, use half), sliced
1/4 cup Thai basil, thick chiffonade (roll and cut)
1/4 cup cilantro, rough chop (don’t make tiny pieces)
1/4 cup mint, thick chiffonade
1 tomato, cut into large cubes
1 small red onion, sliced medium
6 cups lettuce
2 tablespoons rice powder (recipe below)

1)  Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chili pepper well and set aside
2)  Place the sliced steak into a bowl and toss with a couple of tablespoon of the dressing; set aside for 10 minutes
3)  In a large bowl, toss everything (including the marinated beef and dressing) except the rice powder
4)  Check seasoning.  If too mild for your liking, mix up a little more dressing.  If not sour enough, a little lime juice.  And so on
5)  Toss in the rice powder at the last minute and serve

Rice Powder

1/4 cup sweet rice (it’s not really sweet )
Heavy saute pan
Mortar & pestle or clean coffee grinder* or stand blender or bullet blender (blenders have to be very dry!)

1)  Toast rice over low-ish flame until golden brown.  Keep it moving.  Don’t burn it.
2)  Remove rice to a small bowl and allow to cool completely
3)  Grind until you have a coarse powder
4)  Store what you do not use in an airtight container, but don’t keep it more than a month or so

*If you use a coffee grinder that you use for spices, make sure it is absolutely clean.  You can grind a batch of rice to clean it completely.  Don’t use a coffee grinder that you also use for coffee.

Bo Kho – Vietnamese beef stew

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Bo kho - Vietnamese beef stew. So good!

Bo kho – Vietnamese beef stew. So good!

One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes is thit bo kho, or beef stew.  You often see it on menus as ‘beef stew noodle soup,’ and it comes in a big bowl with rice or egg noodles.  In Southern Vietnam it’s eaten with French bread instead of noodles.  Doesn’t matter – it’s all good.

The recipe that follows is from my friend and cooking school mate, Phu Nguy, who translated it for me recently, and talked me through its nuances.  Currently a chef at a fancy Japanese place in San Francisco, he’s been a wonderful sushi resource, but this soup is pure heart.  When it comes down to it, we are the food we grew up with, and it’s clear that Phu has been down with thit bo kho for some time now.

The broth of this stew/soup is fragrant, red, rich and complex, and the big pieces of beef and potato translate to comfort food no matter where you’re from.  There is something a little different about it, though.

There is star anise here.  Even if you are not a big fan of its licorice-like flavor, try this stew anyway because it really works here.  There’s anise in Chinese-style BBQ duck, and you like that, don’t you?

There’s lots of prep, but resign yourself to it.  Turn on the radio and enjoy it.  Please use real, fresh ingredients, like actual lemongrass stalks, bulb garlic and fresh ginger.  Make sure your dried spices haven’t lived in your kitchen since 1990.  Asian cuisine relies on bright, fresh flavors, and your dishes will really shine if you make the extra effort.

Here are a couple of tips to help with the recipe:

1)  Chopping lemongrass is a bit of a pain, but you can do this in a small food processor if you’re in that much of a hurry.  Take off all the outer leaves until you are left with the tender part inside.  Cut the top half off and use the bottom half.
2)  The curry powder called for is basic curry powder – nothing fancy.
3)  Buy whole star anise.  It’s best to get this loose at places like Whole Foods so you can buy a small quantity at a time.
4)  A daikon is a huge white radish, and any Asian market will have them.  Check out the daikon in this photo:

daikon

5)  Do not upgrade the meat requirement.  You need a tough, flavorful cut that requires long, moist cooking.
6).  Use potatoes of the waxy variety that will hold their shape, i.e., red.
7).  Seriously consider the tendon option (see ** below).  If you like pork belly you should try it.  Tendon has the mouth-feel of fat but contains very little, and texture-wise is something like firm gelatin.  It picks up the flavors of what it’s cooked with, in this case the rich broth of the stew.
8).  When I want to super-enrich the broth and/or I have extra people to feed, I add more beef, but only 1-1/2 extra cups of water per extra pound of meat.

I hope you try this.  You won’t believe how good the broth is, so make sure you have extra baguettes on hand.  Be sure to check out the photos at the end of the post.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Vietnamese Beef Stew  –Bo kho
Serves 6

Ingredients
Beef chuck or bottom round – 2 lbs (cut into 2-inch cubes) */**
Canola or vegetable oil – 3 tablespoons
Fresh lemon grass – 2 stalks (discard the leaf; use the bottom half and finely chop)
Fresh red chili peppers – 2, seeded and minced
Brown sugar – 2 teaspoons
Fresh ginger root – 2 tablespoons, grated
Ground cinnamon – 2 teaspoons
Curry powder – 2 teaspoons
Freshly ground black pepper – to taste
Fish sauce – 3 tablespoons
White onion – 1, medium dice
Garlic – 4-6 cloves, minced
Tomato paste – 1/3 cup
Star anise – 4 whole
Salt – 2 teaspoons
Carrot – 2 medium, cut into medium-sized cubes
Red potatoes – 4 of average size, peeled, cut into medium cubes
Daikon (Japanese or Korean) – 1 peeled, and cut into medium cubes
Baguette  – 1 whole, warmed in oven for a few minutes before serving
Lemon wedges

Procedure
Marinate the beef in a mix of the lemon grass, chilies, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, curry powder, fish sauce and black pepper in a bowl.  Mix well and let stand for 45 mins. 

Beef process
In a heavy Dutch oven, heat the oil until quite hot.  Sauté the onion and garlic for a minute and do not allow to burn.  Add tomato paste and stir-fry for 1 ½ mins.  Add the beef and let it fry on all sides for a few minutes  — until it gets a little color.  Add the star anise, 1 teaspoon of the salt and 4 ¼ cups of water.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 1 hour and 45 mins.  Skim foam from the top occasionally.

Vegetable process
Add the carrot and cook for 10 mins.  Add potatoes and cook for 10 mins.  Finally, add the daikon and cook for 10 mins.  (In total, this stew simmers for 2 hours and 15 mins.)

Check the beef for tenderness.

Serve in deep bowls with bread (dip it into the stew) and with salt, pepper and lemon wedges on the side.

*For more flavor:  add extra beef.
**To make it authentically Vietnamese:  add beef tendon.  If you want to do this, cut tendon into pieces about 2-inches long and then boil in plain water for a good two hours before you make this soup.  Then add it with the beef.  If you boil the tendon until it is quite soft, then you can add it to the soup with the carrots.  Tendon is all connective tissue, and takes a long time to become soft.

Beef cubes in marinade for bo kho

Frying meat and seasonings for bo kho

Adding veggies to bo kho

Ground pork and tofu

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Pork with tofu - mabo tofu

Pork with tofu – mabo tofu

I’ve always loved mabo tofu, the Sichuan tofu and ground meat dish that’s both spicy and numbing in its true form, which contains both chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns.

Many of my friends cannot tolerate the “mala” characterictic of Sichuan cooking – namely the numbing heat – so I adapted a version I can feed to almost everyone.  While it lacks Sichuan peppercorns and bean paste, it still has heat and complexity, and I use a higher ratio of ground meat than is normally used to contrast the soft texture of the tofu.

This recipe uses both chili garlic sauce and red pepper flakes in oil, both of which may be purchased in Asian markets.  The chili garlic sauce looks a little like thick red pasta sauce.  The red pepper flakes in oil will be deep red and the pepper flakes will be mixed with the oil but not ground to a paste.  This product has a fresher look and will have some texture, since it’s not cooked.  Often served on the side as a condiment, I like its brightness when added to this dish.  There are many types of chili in oil, so make sure you get one that is plain or has only peanuts added.  These items will be packed in jars and located in the condiment/sauces section of the market.

Finally, if you don’t have a wok, you can use some kind of heavy, slope-sided pan, but I can’t stress enough how valuable it would be for you to have one flat-bottomed, cast iron wok in your possession.  It won’t stick, needs no wok ring, stays put (it weighs a ton), and retains heat.  I included a photo of mine under the recipe.  In that wok is stir-fried pork chops and red peppers.  If you want the recipe, contact me.

Renate’s Mabo Tofu
Serves 4; serve with rice

2-1/2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-1/2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
1 green onion, medium chop
1 red chili pepper, seeded, deveined and finely minced
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes in oil
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1/4 cup soy sauce (real soy sauce, please)
1 pound soft tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1-1/2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 3 tablespoons water

1).  Heat oil in wok over medium flame until good and hot – ingredients should sizzle
2).  Add garlic and ginger; stir-fry for 30 seconds (if you don’t have wok tools, use a heat-proof spatula)
3).  Add green onion and chili pepper; stir-fry for 30 seconds
4).  Add ground pork and stir-fry until cooked but not overcooked
5).  Stir in chili garlic sauce and red pepper flakes in oil
6).  Stir in sherry and stir-fry mass for 15 seconds
7).  Stir in soy sauce
8).  Add tofu, carefully folding it in so cubes remain as intact as possible
9).  When mass is bubbling pour in cornstarch mixture and fold in gently until completely incorporated and sauce is slightly thickened
10).  Serve and enjoy!

One of my woks: cast iron/flat bottom

One of my woks: cast iron/flat bottom