New Year's Eve 2015

To ring out the old year, I made a dinner from Pacific and Southeast Asian Cooking (aka TLPacSEA) from the Time-Life Foods of the World series. This is the latest book in my project of working my way through this series.

In all cases where fresh coconut was needed, I used grated coconut from a packet.

To start the meal, we had Banana Cows (p116). We're not big cocktails drinkers, but this was nice, barely tasted alcoholic, rum, banana, milk, vanilla, Angostura bitters. Banana and rum complement each other and the bitters took the edge off the sweet. The only problem was the quantity. One recipe fills the 12-oz glass that's asked. Not having snapped to the 12-oz part, I used 8-oz glasses. I should have made a single recipe and split that between us. But we enjoyed our cows.

For a starter, we had Lime-Marinated Scallops with Coconut Sauce (p9). I made approximately a whole recipe (7oz of scallops rather than 8oz). These would be tiny servings if six were being served and servings for four would be quite small. (On the other hand, serving all this for two was perhaps a bit much.) I used part of a can of coconut cream that was lingering in the pantry for the coconut top milk. There was an enormous amount of sauce. We'll use it as salad or veggie dressing in the next days. The dish was very tasty and very easy.

There were two mains, both things that would work well as finger food: Malaysian Curry Puffs (p7) and Saté Ajam—Broiled Skewered Marinated Chicken (p26).

The "puffs" are kind of mini-empanadas filled with a delicious spicy beef mixture. (I didn't get all of them well-sealed, you see.) I made a full recipe, since that's how much beef I bought (and ground in the food processor). The meat mixture is easy to make and extra yummy. I used store-bought pastry and was sorry. Home-made would have been much better. I might make the meat and use it to stuff phyllo packets or something similar.

The chicken saté was also yummy. A quarter recipe (one kip filet) would have been enough for four wooden skewers, with corresponds with the recipe. I didn't make the peanut sauce since neither of us particularly like that. I used coarse salt to help with mashing the garlic. I used store-bought ketjap manis. I sprayed the brochettes with oil rather than drizzling. Very easy to do. Very tasty.

For some vegetable matter, I went for Urab—Vegetable Salad with Spiced Coconut Dressing (p93). This recipe looked a bit questionaable to me, so I consulted Sri Owen's Indonesian Food and Cookery, where the salad is call Urap. Here I learnt that the sauce (more or less the same but using chili powder and garlic instead of sambal oelek, which was store-bought) is called bumbu. Owen says that if you're using dried coconut, you should boil the mixture with some water for 5 minutes. I boiled, but forgot to add the water, so my sauce was rather dry and crumbly rather than being any kind of runny. But it tasted fine. She always gives two versions of the salad, one with cooked veggies, the other with raw veggies (watercress, carrots, white cabbage, radishes, cuke, and spring onions)

The times given in TLPacSEA for steaming the veggies were wildly off (which is what made me consult Owen). I made about half a recipe. I did the bean sprouts for 3min (slightly less would be okay);  the cabbage, cut in wider strips than asked for, for 3.5min (a teeny bit longer might be okay if you prefer your cabbage softer); the spinach for 1.5min, which should have been no more than 1min; the green beans (haricots verts) for 5min. Owen also uses carrots, so I steamed thin slices for 5min.

Altogether a pretty salad, easy to assemble and very tasty. It would make a good dish for a pot luck or a buffet.

With a mix of Hawaiian, Malaysian, and Indonesian, this was altogether a nice dinner, everything I'd make again.

Happy 2016 to all!

This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-Dec-14: The beans I put on after lunch for tonight's dinner didn't want to get cooked in time, so they're sitting outside freezing their booties off until tomorrow. Instead I defrosted some chipolatas (sausages); need to note the brand because they were a bit on the salty side. Roasted some broccoli and cauliflower, along with one sweet potato for Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Cream (web), which I saw in the CL I read through this morning. (One sweet potato was plenty for two.) For dessert, we split the last mango ice cream sandwich, which was a reasonable amount (as opposed to the whole one per person recommended in the menu).

Tuesday/30-Dec-14: Late start, then shopping today. Very crowded again, and all the checkout lines weren't open, so there was a bit of a wait.

Cooked yesterday's beans some more, then finished off Pork Stew with Red Chiles and Black Beans (web), about a 2/3 recipe. Red beans, since I discovered I was out of black beans; the red beans seem to be Dutch, so they could be quite old and that could be why they took so long to cook. It was good, but nothing special. Didn't much care for the added honey. Chocolate mini magnums for dessert. Ed was still wanting some chocolate, so I made some Angel's Dreams (TLWine, p33), which were quite good, even though we don't have proper glasses for such things.

Wednesday/31-Dec-14: Ed's been busy hanging new lighting over the kitchen sink. He spent the morning and afternoon occupying the sink area, meaning I couldn't start cooking till much later than intended.

Knowing we're eating out tomorrow, I planned a lightish food for tonight.  For the meal, there was Gingery Cauliflower Soup (Q&E, p13) and (more or less) Easy Potato and Pea Samosas ( web) with Fresh Green Chutney (Q&E, p113). The soup is an old favorite; usually we eat most of it, tonight only about half. This is not the same baked samosa recipe I've made before; couldn't find that one. I made six samosas (I ate one, Ed ate three) to use up the packet of filo that I started with strudel; now I've got some filling leftover for something else. The chutney used mint from the garden. Very unusual for there still to be mint in the garden at the end of December.

Ed thought we needed a picture of me making the samosas.

And I thought we needed a picture of him eating one.

For our late evening munchies, I made a half recipe of Baba Ghanoush (WofE, p334) using some roasted eggplant from the freezer. This turned out especially good. As go-withs there was a plate of carrots, cukes, red and green bell peppers, radishes, cherry tomatoes (for me). I defrosted a second batch of roasted eggplant to make a recipe from WS, but didn't have the oomph. Twas OK in the end because we didn't quite finish the first batch, but will have to do something with it in the next days. For some reason I was exhausted after dinner and Oscar and I took a nap in the rocker. Polished off a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream in the course of the evening; Ed and I were both a little loopy.

Thursday/1-Jan-15: Splendid lunch out today at one of our favorite restaurants. No further food needed.

Friday/2-Jan-15: Tonight was Carrot Ginger Soup (web; cookbooker) with the two extra samosas. For dessert we finished off the last bit of pudding with slogs of crème de cacao and cream.

Saturday/3-Jan-15: Went to mail a package this morning, only to discover that the post office closes at noon, not at noon:30. Stopped at boulangerie for bread and a three king's cake.

Oops, forgot to notice that the chicken for tonight's planned dinner wanted to marinate for four hours. Instead we had Chile-Lime Veggie Noodles (web; cookbooker). Three king's cake for dessert.

Sunday/4-Jan-15: I actually got the chicken on to marinate this morning so dinner was a half-recipe of Grilled Chicken Piquant (CL92, p166). Easy and really good. You're supposed to boil the marinade at the end to use as a salad dressing, but since I made a half dose, there really wasn't enough to boil for five minutes. I just made up another small batch to drizzle my store-bought greens (frisée, carrots, beets, cabbage, and whatever else). A nice plate. We finished the three king's cake and may try to get another before they're gone.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: yes for Dec/no for Jan; #4 FotW: yes for Dec/no for Jan; #5 BREAD: no

IHCC: Appetizers!

Neither Ed nor I are party people, and on New Year's Eve we're big stay-at-homes. I usually make and buy a selection of little goodies we can eat throughout the evening while we watch a film or play a game. This year, with appetizers as the IHCC theme, I decided to do a selection of Jaffrey's finger foods for our evening fare.

Here's most of the spread. Clockwise from the upper left, there's Baba Ghanoush (Creamed Eggplant with Tahini) (World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, p334), pita quarters, Easy Kebabs (Tala Gosht) (Spice Kitchen, p34), Shrimp with Garlic and Chilies (Lehsun Vali Jhinga) (Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, p17), Ajwain-Flavored Chicken (Murgh Ke Mazedar Tukray) (Spice Kitchen, p32), and Sour Potatoes (Khatte Aloo) (100 Essential Curries, p11). 

The chicken, shrimp, and lamb are dishes I've made before, served as a main course, rather than as nibbly bits. I've not used this particular recipe for baba ghanoush before (or at least I didn't make a note of it), but what was most interesting about it is that I used frozen eggplant! A couple of months ago, I had an eggplant that wasn't going to get used. I roasted it, peeled away the charred skin, mashed it up, and froze it. And it worked great! If you like baba ghanoush (or other dishes with mashed roasted eggplant), this is something to do with your bounty. (I read somewhere that you can do this with or without the flavorings, but that it works best to freeze just the eggplant.)

The lamb was a bit that didn't get used for lamb biryani. I had about one quarter of the meat called for in the recipe and used about half the spices. The meat can be marinating for several hours, and the finishing is quite easy, taking very little attention, so it's a good party food. 

The chicken is one kip filet (skinless, boneless chicken breast half); this was about one third of the meat called for in the recipe. Again I used about half the spices. I left this marinating quite a while also. The finishing takes a little more attention than the lamb, but nothing is complicated, so it's also a good party food.

I made the shrimp dish with frozen cooked shrimp, rather than raw. To keep the amount parallel with the lamb and chicken, I should have cooked only half the shrimp I had, but opted to finish off the package. The rest will appear in another dish in the next days. This dish takes a little more last-minute attention, but could still work as proper party food.

The Sour Potatoes were delicious and a snap to make. You start with cold boiled potatoes, peel and cube them, then toss with salt, lemon juice, ground roasted cumin, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne, and chopped coriander. If you're in the habit of keeping boiled potatoes in the fridge (aren't we all?!), this could be a quick and healthy snack at any time.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs. It's hard to believe we're already half-way through six months of cooking with Madhur Jaffrey. It's been fun trying new recipes, revisiting old favorites, and finally making some of the treats that have been on my make-me-soon list for a very long time.

New Year's Eve dinner 2009Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Hot Pepper

Cooking Italy Assignment Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Hot Pepper, p185

After being otherwise occupied for the greater part of the last eight weeks, now I need to start getting caught up with the Cooking Italy curriculum. Only after making our xmas dinner did I realize that risotto with porcini was on the Cooking Italy schedule. I could have made that instead of the truffled risotto and ticked another off the list. Oh well. Instead I got started again with the scallop sauce since it's simple and the kind of thing we eat frequently, one of the few kinds of things I might make without even looking at a book.

Our new year's eve dinner as planned was simple, but turned out even simpler than planned. I scurried around making a fig flan without thinking that it would need hours in the fridge to cool properly. So that will be eaten later.

For a starter we again had slices of the foie gras wrapped with dried magret that we got at the cancelled marché de Noël, accompanied by a small salad with vinaigrette. Rich, but yum! No doubt we'll repeat this until we've used up what we bought.

(Ed set the table unsupervised, thus the mismatched and incomplete cutlery.:-)

For the main course, I served a half recipe of the scallop sauce over spaghettini. I had thought to make fresh pasta, but ran out of time. This sauce was probably better with dried pasta though. Since it's really fast cooking, I had the water at a boil and everything chopped and measured, then finished it up when I took the starter plates to the kitchen.

Preparation for the sauce begins by sautéing a pile of garlic until golden:

Then you add aromatics and sauté a bit more. I didn't have a fresh chili, so I added a shot of chili flakes instead. Here's an action shot, with a spurtle-ghost:

Finally, you add the scallops, sauté till they're done, toss with the spaghetti, and serve. I used small (frozen, defrosted) scallops that are about the size of mini-marshmallows:

The most interesting thing about this particular recipe is the topping of toasted bread crumbs. A little extra effort and a very nice effect. The crumbs soaked up some of the extra sauce and were quite delicious.

Without the fig flan, we skipped dessert, but had plenty of munchies to while away the time waiting for the new year to appear.