6.10.08

Soon to be on the menu

I've been at it again, wasting copious amounts of time on food blogs and recipe sites, ogling food porn and salivating at ingredient lists. Might have something to do with seeing The Islands Project at the Vancouver International Film Festival last week. By the time in the film they started serving an eight course meal of oysters, I was completely maxed out, and the film was *far* from vegetarian friendly, but it gave me an appetite for getting back in the kitchen.

A friend also turned me on to a food blog called 101 Cookbooks. Heidi Swanson realized that her 100+ cookbooks were packed with sticky notes and reminder tabs but that she actually wasn't cooking anything new. She vowed to try new recipes and document the journey, which brings us to her beautiful food blog where new recipes are added every couple of days, accompanied by some of the most tantalizing food photography. This week I want to try her Slurp-tastic Herb Noodles:

4 ounces thin, dried spinach pasta (thin)
1 cup coconut milk (light is fine)
scant 1 tablespoon green or yellow curry paste
1 1/2 cups lightly flavored vegetable broth
~1/4 teaspoon salt (more or less depending on the saltiness of your broth)
6 ounces tofu, cut into small cubes or pieces
1/4 cup chives, minced
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup basil, chopped just before using
pinch of crushed red chile peppers

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. This is eventually going to be the pot you cook the pasta in.

In a separate large, thick-bottomed pot, bring 1/4 cup of the coconut milk to a simmer, mash and stir the curry paste into the coconut milk so there are no lumps. Now add the rest of the coconut milk and the vegetable broth and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and stir in the tofu. Taste and decide if you need to add more curry paste or salt - if you do want to add more curry paste at this point, make a slurry by combining the additional curry paste and a bit of the broth, working any lumps out - add this to the pot.

Back at the pasta pot, salt the water generously and cook the pasta per package instructions. Drain.

Just before serving stir the chives, cilantro, and basil into the curry pot. To serve, place a nice helping of noodles in the center of each bowl and finish with a ladle of the curry and tofu along with a tiny pinch of crushed red chile peppers.

Serves 2 to 4.


Since that recipe takes 1 cup of coconut milk, I went searching for another coconut milk recipe to finish off the remainder of the can. Luckily I found Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut soup that calls for seasonally abundant sweet potatoes. Sorry, no picture is available.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 1/2 pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 (2 inch) piece fresh ginger root, thinly sliced
* 1 tablespoon red curry paste
* 1 (15 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
* 3 cups vegetable broth
* 3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the sweet potatoes directly on the rack and bake until tender enough to easily pierce with a fork, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and ginger; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry paste and heat for 1 minute, then whisk in the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Remove the skins from the sweet potatoes and cut into bite size chunks. Add to the soup and cook for 5 more minutes so they can soak up the flavor. Stir in lemon juice and season with salt. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of sesame oil and a little bit of cilantro.


But now I really have to get back to work! Put DOWN the food porn, liminal! Pick UP the thesis proposal!

3.10.08

Reader contest!

"Now I'm no meteorologist, but I'm pretty sure it's raining bitches."

First correct response wins a hella prize!

Hint:

1.10.08

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain

Since I moved to Vancouver on August 26th, 2004:

MAX TEMP : 29 °C
MAX TEMP. DATE May.17 2008
MIN TEMP : -12 °C
MIN TEMP. DATE Nov.28 2006
PRECIP ACCUMULATION 5038.1 mm

From August 27 , 2004 to October 1 , 2008 - Vancouver Airport

Got that? The max temp I experienced in that time period was 29°C and the min was -12°C. But the kicker is that OVER 5 METERS OF RAIN have fallen on Vancouver since I moved here. Yep, OVER 5 METERS!

Fun little toy Rocco found, available at The Weather Network. Go to your city and immediately below today's forecast is a button for Historical Data. Enter the start date of the period you're interested in, or just the date you want to see. Once that data loads you have the option to enter an end date. Unfortunately their idea of "historical" only goes back to 2001. That day really changed things, didn't it?

Go play.

Heirloom falls flat

My heirloom tomato plant has been slowly producing little gems all summer. Some tastier than others which, according to my dad, is due to the fact that I have never mastered the art of fertilizing plants. Tomatoes apparently are highly subject to what you add tot he soil and that will directly affect their flavour. Oh well. I'm getting better at it now that I know that.

Check this guy out.




It grew between the slats in the railing around our deck. I was worried that trying to pull it out would cause it to explode but it's intact! Weird looking thing. It's like in the 70s and 80s when there was a craze to produce square eggs. You soften the shell by leaving it in vinegar for a couple hours then squeeze it very carefully into a mold. After the egg "sets" it should have taken on the shape of the mold. Who the hell came up with THAT?