Thai Food...

The weather has been a little warmer, and I've been wanting SE Asian food. So tonight I fixed Thai dishes...

Northern-style Red Curry of Beef and Green Beans

Southern-style Green Curry of Chicken and Greens

Spicy Shrimp Salad

Quick-pickled Cucumbers

White Rice

The curries were yummy, but it was the Shrimp Salad that was the star of the night! And I have lots of yummy food when I go to work tomorrow.

Sausage Gravy...

Sausage gravy (preferably over fresh biscuits) is one of those things that can be really, really good...or quite awful. I think the majority of restaurants offer something that leans towards the totally bland, pasty, gluey mess with just enough sausage specks in it to call it "sausage gravy". I like it thick and creamy, spicy, and chock full of sausage. My daughter counts it as one of her absolute all-time favorites. And she hadn't been able to get a decent plate full the whole three years she was in Germany, so its been high on her list of priorities since she got here. I obliged this morning, after my morning walk. She's a sated M now...

This isn't really a proper recipe...more of a formula or set of guidelines, as its one those things I've never measured when I make it.

Steven's Sausage Gravy

1 pound bulk hot breakfast sausage

1 pound bulk maple breakfast sausage

A little unsalted butter or vegetable oil, if needed

All-purpose flour

Milk

A couple of dashes Worcestershire sauce

Sea salt and LOTS of freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Biscuits hot and fresh out of the oven

• Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up with your spatula, until it has lost all pink.
• Remove the sausage to a bowl, a little at a time, putting it first in a fine mesh strainer over the skillet, pressing all the grease out of the meat and returning it to the pan. When all the sausage has been removed, check the amount of rendered fat in the pan. If you think you'll need additional, add some butter or oil.
• Add sufficient flour to make a thick roux, stirring continuously, until the flour has lost its raw smell and the roux has darkened.
• Begin to add milk to the roux, a little at a time, stirring continuously to remove all lumps. As you are doing so, add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Season with sea salt and quite a lot of freshly ground black pepper.
• When you have the desired quantity of thick, creamy gravy, return the sausage to the pan, stir well, and cook until it just starts to bubble. Serve piping hot over biscuits.

Cooking For Our Daughter...

We haven't had M at home for several years, and she's missed our cooking, so its nice fixing things for her. There are a lot of things we make regularly now that she's never had, too. I gave her some of my pan-fried ham, cream cheese and hot sauce quesadillas last night. Tonight was babi kecap (pork in sweet soy and coconut milk), acar ketimun (quick-pickled cucumbers & onions), and rice...an easy Indonesian meal. Gina made a pineapple gooey butter cake (that is EVIL, basically a pineapple cheesecake). Sometime tomorrow there'll be sausage gravy and biscuits...one of her favorite foods. One she hasn't been able to reproduce since she lived at home (I make mine a particular way). I don't know what else yet...

Barbecue!...

I dragged the barbecue grill out this evening and threw a batch of gai yang, Thai-style grilled chicken, on it. I've made it several times in the past and never really been satisfied with the results, so I sat down today and came up with a new version. Hit the bullseye this time. Here's the recipe...

GAI YANG

(Thai-style Grilled Chicken)

4 teaspoons black or white peppercorns
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, stems, and/or roots
1/3 cup chopped fresh garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons palm sugar or golden brown sugar, tightly packed
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons whiskey or rice wine
3 tablespoons coconut milk
12 bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and skin

• Toast the peppercorns, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds in a skillet over medium heat until they darken a little and smell toasted. Immediately remove from the pan and grind in a coffee grinder, pepper mill or grain mill.
• Combine the ground spices with the cilantro, garlic, ginger, palm sugar, salt, and turmeric in a food processor and process to a coarse paste. Add the whiskey and coconut milk and process to a smooth paste.
• Place the chicken thighs in a non-reactive bowl or casserole dish and pour the marinade over. Toss to coat the pieces well and refrigerate at least a couple of hours, or overnight.
• Grill as appropriate for your particular barbecue, until done. Let sit for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with a Thai-style garlicky sweet-hot chili sauce. We use the one in Nancy McDermott's book, Real Thai.

We served it with rice and some broccoli stir-fried with mushroom soy sauce, sake, and lots of garlic. We've got leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

What Would It Mean...

...if we were to make an effort, culturally, to shift over to such a diet? The changes would be all-encompassing and profound. Vast tracts of land are devoted, both here and globally, to the grain- and meat-based diet of America. That would have to change.

Why did mankind (probably) switch to eating these foods? Ease of production, probably. A large game animal, and later, large domesticated animals, can feed quite a few people at one time. Cultivation and harvest of cereals was likely an efficiency issue as well. Both have subsequently been adapted to the techniques of the Industrial Revolution, which holds efficiency up as its Holy Grail.

To convert to a greens/vegetables/fruit-based diet would necessitate taking large amounts of land out of cereal cultivation and putting them into market gardens. Large, carefully managed parklands/rangelands with substantial herds of wild game animals (bison and deer are logical choices, as well as wild sheep and goat species) would have to replace feedlots, ranches and factory farming. These lands could support a broad range of biodiversity, as a matter of course. Today's monoculture farms bear little resemblance to tradional farms, which often had as many as fifteen or twenty different production projects going over the course of a year, providing a system of backups should any given project fail.

I like the idea, personally. It would certainly change the face of our world.

Is There Any Topic More Confusing...

...than that of what constitutes the best human diet? High carb, low carb, high protein, raw foods, vegan, macrobiotic, etc, etc, to infinity and beyond! I've read extensively on some of these, and at least a bit about most of them. Most of them can sound quite convincing, even though they often contradict one another. The whole thing can be quite frustrating. High protein-low carb has been one of the most popular in recent years, in a number of incarnations and, generally speaking, one of the diets I trust least. Let me explain a few things I think are important...

• The human digestive system does not resemble that of a carnivore, nor do we have the teeth and head/neck musculature of one. We do not manufacture vitamin C in our own bodies, a feature common to true carnivores.
• Neither do we have the digestive tract and teeth of a ruminant. We only have one stomach, just to point out one of the most obvious things.
• What we do have are teeth that are almost identical to those of an orangutan. It can be difficult for an expert to tell them apart if they are just loose on a table. What do they eat? Fruit, leaves, seeds and nuts are the mainstays of their diet, if I'm not mistaken.
• Chimpanzees and gorillas (more close relatives of ours, along with the orangs) are not all that different in what they eat. In lean famine years, chimpanzees supplement with starchy roots and tubers. They eat small amounts of meat and insects, as well.
• The highest rates of osteoporosis are found in the countries with the highest rates of dairy consumption (and protein, therefore). Excess protein in the human diet is excreted in the urine. Said protein leaches minerals (calcium, magnesium, etc) from the bones on its way out. There are a number of additional problems that can come from a high protein diet.
• Paleolithic people, if they had decent access to food, generally were bigger than us, and had better teeth and denser bones. They ate a lot of wild game and fish, wild greens, vegetables and fruits.
• The people of Crete were found to have the healthiest diet (in relation to cardiovascular disease and cancer) in a major study that spotlighted a variety of cultures around the globe. A lot of the low carb diets speak out on the evils of grains. And yet the people of Crete eat about three times the bread Americans do! All of it is whole-grain, though.

I could go on for awhile. A thing that I think is key, from all the reading I have done, is the consumption of omega oils. This was found to be central in the Cretan diet (The Omega Diet). It is also central to the paleolithic diet advocated in the The Paleolithic Prescription. There have been a number of books written on this topic since, but I was not happy with them. They seemed a simple repackaging of high-protein, low-carb diets. Domesticated meat sources are NOT the same as wild game and fish. When we start hybridizing (i.e., breeding) animals, one of the first things lost are the high levels of omega oils found in wild proteins. Additionally, wild game is much leaner than domesticated meat. Another key is the consumption of large amounts of dietary fiber...at least 30 grams a day.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the ideal diet would include large quantities of leafy greens, vegetables, and fruit, supplemented with smaller quantities of wild game, fish and whole grains. Oils should all be cold-pressed. Highly processed foods should be avoided as much as possible. Fermented foods appear to be healthful in a number of ways. Pasteurization is not a good thing. Organic, locally produced foods are a good idea. Chemicals are not. Neither are feedlots and factory farms. If it is domesticated, it should at least be organic and free-range.

I believe there is some merit to the idea that a lot of a person's intestinal flora and fauna are set in youth. I do quite well digesting beans...but I ate them a lot as a child. If I am active and feeling good, I do well digesting dairy products...another thing I had large quantities of, growing up. Some people are not so fortunate. I do not digest large quantities of meat well. What works best for one person may not for another. We need to learn to listen to our bodies. They can tell us a great deal.

A good diet by itself is not enough. An active lifestyle is also required, as are good strategies for dealing with stress.

(And this is not meant to be a scholarly tract complete with hundreds of references, endnotes, etc...just my thoughts concerning something that bothers me a bit)

Potluck Sunday...

We often do potlucks at work on Sundays. This week, someone decided on hamburgers. I was tired when they asked me what I could contribute. I had no desire to stop at the store, so I said I'd make oven steak fries. We do them every so often at home. They're a lot less mess than deep-frying french fries. I just cut the potatoes into eight wedges each and tossed them in extra-virgin olive oil, and plenty of garlic, dried rosemary and freshly ground black pepper. Turns out we didn't have any salt in the breakroom, so I used some Zatarain's Cajun Seasoning. I bake them on cookie sheets at 425-450 degrees until they brown. I had a few requests for how to make them. I tried to eat light at the potluck (and throughout the day...it was slow, so the temptation to snack is a tough one) since I'm trying to get in shape.

For dinner, we had my Swedish meatballs, with mashed potatoes and green beans. Our daughter had never had them before, and ended up eating quite a few of 'em. Another convert...lol.

Sunny Weather...

With the Ultimate Recipe Showdown 3 deadline bumping back to the end of April, and Pillsbury not due 'til about then, we've kinda' eased up on so much rich cooking. I did make something pretty good a couple of nights ago that we're probably going to submit, along with some Pulled Pork and some Peach Tea & Beer BBQ Sauce before that, and some shredded beef (yummm...we enjoyed some machaca burritos for a bit...I LOVE machaca).

The recent sunny weather (which ended yesterday...grrr!) has created a renewed interest for me in SE Asian food. I've been browsing cookbooks, looking at stuff. Especially vegetarian and nearly vegetarian recipes. I've still got contest cooking to do. Light SE Asian dishes of green and vegetables have a great deal of appeal for the times in between. Plus, my interest in losing weight/getting in shape. Gonna' have to make a pilgrimage to an Asian market or two soon...

Taking Advantage of Sales...

Saturday I made a breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, and some biscuits. For dinner, I cooked up a huge bottom round roast($1.89/lb) with beer, garlic, chipotle chilies, Mexican oregano, cumin, etc, then shredded it. We have a ton of it leftover for the coming week.

Today I cooked up what I'm calling a Peach Tea & Beer BBQ Sauce that is a little spicy, and pretty tangy, and I've got a pork shoulder($1.09/lb.) in the oven. I coated it with plenty of dry rub. It wasn't the kind of day for barbecuing outside - we've had snow, rain and periods of blue sky today. I'm hoping I'll get some decently chewy, crispy ends because Gina wants me to make some bbq beans with the barbecue sauce. I'm going to shred the pork whenever it finishes cooking. More food to get us through the week. I made macaroni & cheese this evening. I tried a new recipe I made up. I have been accused in the past of making the Mac & Cheese of Doom. The three of us all agreed that I have surpassed my previous version. Its amazing what a 2 1/2-year old Cheddar($5/lb) does for your macaroni...lol! I'd share the recipe, but it is now destined for an entry in the Ultimate Recipe Showdown.

I am sooo full...

Welsh Rabbit and Ants' Egg Omelets...

I'm off work 'til Monday morning, so I actually made us breakfast this morning. Gina's TMJ has been bothering her so soft food was called for. I decided on Welsh Rabbit, which she'd never had before. Her mom always told her she'd hate it. WRONG. She loved it, and wants me to make it again when our daughter gets here.

WELSH RABBIT

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 scallions, minced (green parts only)

1 cup dark beer or ale (I used Henry Weinhard's Special Dark)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Freshly ground black or white pepper, to taste

1 pound extra sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (I used Tillamook Extra Sharp) tossed with 4-5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

6 or 8 slices of good-quality bread (I used English muffin bread), lightly toasted

Preheat the broiler. Place the toast either on individual, oven-proof plates (two slices per serving) or on a very large cookie sheet.

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the scallions and saute until soft, a minute or two. Add the beer, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and pepper, stir well and heat. When it is just beginning to bubble, start adding the grated, floured cheese, a handful at a time. Stir until each handful melts completely into the mixture. When all the cheese has been added and the sauce is smooth, spoon over the toast and place them under the broiler. Heat under the broiler until the cheese sauce begins to brown and bubble, a minute or two. Serve (3 or 4 servings).

Notes: You can use any decent beer or ale, really. The cheese should be fairly sharp...a sharp, extra sharp or New York cheddar, or any of the good cheeses from the British Isles. A good bread of character is a must - English muffin bread, a country or peasant bread, something of that sort. Thickly sliced, if at all possible. Its not traditional, but you can put some bacon, ham or Canadian bacon on the bread before you pour the cheese sauce over (we added some Black Forest ham this morning).

As for the ants' egg omelets, we were watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations while I was cooking breakfast. He was in Laos this episode. Its a very poor nation, landlocked, dependent on the Mekong River and the surrounding forests for much of their food. Its a very interesting cuisine. Amongst the many...um, different...foods he got to try was an ants' egg omelet, which he said was very good, indeed. He didn't like the fried whole sparrows, however.

It was a beautiful and friendly place. It was difficult for him (and for us) watching the damage America did to that country in the war. People are still picking up (well over 30 years later!) some 400,000 pieces of unexploded ordinance each year...a whopping 1/2 of one percent of the total. Many people - farmers, children, innocents all - are still being injured, maimed and killed every year by the leftovers of the Vietnam War. A sad testament to how we all-to-often "help", bringing freedom and democracy to the masses.

I'm In An Andalusian Mood Today...

Yup. I'm going to take a peppery Andalusian rabbit stew from Clifford Wright's book Real Stew, and make it with chicken thighs (we don't eat Bugs Bunny around here...lol). And, just for fun, I'm adapting a recipe called Mahshi, from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. The original was a dish of eggplant, meat or fowl, cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs, almonds, cilantro and mint, spices and oil, all baked until golden and set. I'm going to modernize it a bit...remove the meat, slice the eggplant (and some zucchini for added visual appeal), coat 'em with the breadcrumbs and almonds and fry them 'til golden, and put the herbs (mint and cilantro) and spices (pepper and coriander, cinnamon and saffron) in a tomato sauce. Layer the whole thing (sliced veggies, tomato sauce, eggs-and-cheese) and bake it. Sort of an Eggplant Parmesan meets Moorish Al Andalus... I'll serve a simple salad with a vinaigrette alongside.

More Contest Work...

I've been working to finish some entries for Taste of Home's America's Best Loved Recipe Contest(http://www.tasteofhome.com/Contests/Recipe-Contests/Best-Loved/), which ends here in a little over an hour, and managed to submit three:

The Vance Family's Navy Bean Soup
"Not Quite Beef Stroganoff"
Easy Portuguese-style Bean Soup

We'll see. They expect about 20,000 entries, competing for the $25,000 grand prize, and will announce the four finalists within twelve weeks. The public will then have a month to vote on their choice for the grand prize winner.