Thai cooking class

Amn't I in Japan? Yes, I am.

Being in Japan, as a Caucasian person, I have instant access to international communities, and also the high school English of every Japanese adult, which often greatly expands when you find them drunk, or 'dorinku'. ("Nice to meet you, I am doRINku!")

In Japan, I have met people from more countries than ever before, and from countries whose people I never would have expected to find in Japan - either because the country is far away or I never used to think about the country very much. Here is a brief list. (I may be a bit wordier than usual at the moment because I've been reading Tolkien.)
Ireland, Jamaica, Philippines, Korea, China, US, Canada, UK (England, Scotland), Singapore, Mexico, Kenya, Germany, Finland, Thailand.

And it is thus that I found myself invited on Facebook to a Thai cooking class, called 'Connie's Mum's Cooking Class.' I don't know who Connie is, and because it was explained in Japanese, I don't know who her mum is either, but off I went.

spicy glass noodle salad

We made three things: green curry, spicy glass noodle salad, and an almond 'pudding', which here, as it seems in American English?, means basically milk jelly, or, gelatinous custard in a cup. Kind of like creme caramel, however that's meant to be spelt.

'pudding' or 'purin'

It was all good, but the green curry was premium. I should have taken a photo of the paste - yes, we did use curry paste, but it seemed to be made entirely of spices, and it came out of a bag, not a jar. It was dry, not at all liquid.

But, I will post the recipe here. I think the secret is as much in the method as in the amazing curry paste.

By the way, Japan's tablespoon size is 15 mls. 

green curry (and half an egg, yes.)

(serves 4-6)

chicken, diced 150g
curry paste 2-3 tablespoons
canola oil 2-3 tablespoons
coconut cream 200 ml
coconut milk 400 ml (or 200 ml coconut cream and 200 ml water)
eggplants 3 medium
fresh, skinny, red chilli... 1-5 [depending on how hot they are and how hot you want it. Slice the chillies and soak them in water. I believe this takes out some of the heat.]
kaffir lime leaves 3 or 4
fish sauce 7 tablespoons? I'll check.
lime juice 3 tablespoons? I'll check.
sugar 1 tbsp
fresh basil mmmm about 8 fully grown leaves


1. Heat oil in a pan, and over a LOW heat, fry the curry paste until fragrant. (It can become bitter at too high a heat).
2. Add coconut cream and stir over a medium heat until a green oil separates on the top. This might take a few minutes.
3. Chuck in the chicken, cook for a few minutes, and then add the coconut milk. Cook for about 5 minutes. Cut the eggplant into Ds or however you like.
4. Add kaffir lime leaves and half the sliced chilli. (The rest will be a garnish.)
5. Add seasonings (not basil) and eggplant.
6. When eggplant is cooked, add the basil and turn off the heat. Serve with rice. Make it as pretty as you like.

Oishii!!!!!

couple of good things

So I've just finished a coursework masters... in linguistics, which I love.

Just wanted to share a couple of great things:

A friend's music

Friend of a friend's writing from what seems like another planet, but also not

Interactive version of my life for the last couple of years (though more writing in English recently)

It's Ride to Work Day on the 12th of October

Makings of pear and almond flan from Consuming Passions.

I'm nuts about nuts, as you probably know. And I really have been after an almond and orange cake recently. Fingers crossed I'll be getting some today. Did you know that practically every recipe for flourless orange cake is the same one? It's in Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern Cookery book. I can just about remember it - 2 whole oranges, boiled for 2 hours, then cooled and mushed up in the food processor.. 250g caster sugar, 250g almonds, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs or is it 6?. Pow!
Cooks for about an hour. That's how many times I've found this recipe.

Oh and one more thing. I stumbled on Frisky Goat Espresso yesterday after marvelling at my workmate's Frisky Goat paper cups for the last few months.
Coffee was nice, but I'm not a real snob. I enjoyed it all the more because of the attractive three manning the (kind of empty) deck... they, and the place, reminded me of home, though it was definitely Brisbane prices. They seemed to know what they were talking about, and they didn't laugh at me for soy, but instead chose a complementary coffee bean to match the flavour of the bean, as it were. AND they spelt my name right on the bottom of the cup. In arty handwriting.
All this being said, if you don't handle your caffeine well (and I thought I had increased my tolerance), go for small.

choice of fat, bit of a rant (sorry about that)

I like butter. Do not misunderstand me. Toast, pastry, crumbles, pancakes. YES.

But I am a Mediterranean girl at heart. I live with/for olive oil.

At the moment one of the people I live with cooks everything with butter. The assumption seems to be that if it tastes good, it is therefore evil, bingeworthy and made with butter. I caramelised some onions for a barbeque - for which I made those salads in the last post - and butterer was impressed and asked how I did it: just with butter?

NAY!!!! Go the evoo!

Onions, potatoes, pumpkin, rosemary, roast garlic, leeks, chicken, oogggggmmm ogm uhgrnm. (this is a throatier --> more realistic version of om nom nom)
What got me started on this today was my appreciation of salad dressing with decent vinegar and good oil. (Which happens to be imported from Italy. This I would not buy, but said butter-lover does not seem to have food miles or food ethics of any kind, really, on the radar. Coles tinned tomatoes from Italy, mineral water and olive oil from Italy, it pains me on my moral highchair. But Italian balsamic-olive oil blend tastes better than the nail-polish remover Coles white wine vinegar!) And sourdough dipped in evoo, like they give you complimentary at Tutto Bene.

So, darling reader, you sexy thing (did you love the Doctor calling the Tardis lady Sexy or what!!???), this is what I plan to cook tonight.

Chicken thighs (found in fridge, highly ethically dubious, but I want to use them before they have a chance to be extremely old, cooked and left on the stove for 24 hours, and fed to us with butter) WITH
chestnuts, olive oil, potatoes, rosemary and garlic (whole cloves) chucked in the oven and roasted. Salt and pepper, bien sur. May have to cover at some point to keep moist.
And leafy green salad. Possibly with some warmed bread on the side to mop up any juices.

Get some free-range (organic, I dare you) chicken and do the same. Tomorrow if not today.

PS. Do I use too many brackets in my blogwriting? What do you think?

Genius, daringly simple Febbaking

This is what I was waiting for, the reason - without knowing it - that I joined the Daring Bakers. Not for the endless rolling and resting of pastry, not for fiddling, getting out and putting back in the fridge, not for beating curdly buttercream icing and making toffee to pralinate in the food processor, or in fact for icing of any kind. Especially not for piping bags.

Genius.

Three ingredients. Chocolate, butter, eggs.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
(Never mind the ice cream. I made pistachio and served it another time. But it turned out such an ugly colour that I haven't got a good photo yet! so you won't see it in this post.)

Cared I that it was Valentine's Day? I wouldn't have noticed except for a certain teenager I know feeling the aloneness of couples all over the world doing coupley things (as far as she knew.. or defying the contrivedness of such a Hallmark holiday.. or not even caring enough to defy).

Chocolate is the answer!

It was a good distraction for my teenage friend, anyway. And an excellent one for me.
And an even better dessert the next day.

Who needs flour, honestly. The TEXTURE.

Chocolate Valentino (Australian adaptation)
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
454 g chocolate, roughly chopped (I just used 450. Aka 16 ounces)
146 g unsalted butter (Imperialists! Just measure it. Or use 125 g like me, quarter of a block.)
5 large eggs, separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While the choc-butter mixture is cooling, butter the pan and line with baking paper.
2a. Put on Ray LaMontagne, Bob Dylan, or whatever music you feel like. Dance around.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. (Hooray! same beater. Clever 'un who wrote this owns the key to my own chocolate heart. Hear me Daring Bakers, our usual recipes use far too many dishes. Don't you have something better to do than wash up?)
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmould..

It needs a good chocolate, because with no added sugar, nuts, flour or that, this cake tastes exactly like the chocolate you use. But even better, because it's cake.