Mango Panna Cotta, again!

Yes, again. This time, I did it in the simplest way possible; but plated it differently, from my previous attempts. Simple, because its just cream and mango cordial, mixed (half and half), a heaped teaspoon of dissolved gelatin added, to each cup's worth of mixture. (Fresh fruit reduction gives a more complex flavor, and takes more time). Usually I pour the mix into shot glasses; this time I wanted to 'turn it out,' so emboldened by extra gelatin, I poured the mix into small coffee cups, and after four hours in the frig., I prized out the gelled cream with a knife, tapped the bottoms of the cups, sliding the gel out.
I added a little more cordial, reduced with a little wine, into the bowls, and garnished every thing with sliced fresh mango. Yes, its that easy.

Fay and Kingston joined us for dessert

Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh (Hokkien: 肉骨茶) is a Chinese soup popularly served in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan (where there is a predominant Hoklo and Teochew community) and also, cities of neighbouring countries like Batam of Indonesia and Hat Yai of Thailand. The name literally translates as "meat bone tea", and, at its simplest, consists of meaty pork ribs in a complex brothstar anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic), boiled together with pork bones for hours. However, additional ingredients may include offal, varieties of mushroom, choy sum, and pieces of dried tofu or fried tofu puffs. Additional Chinese herbs may include yu zhu (rhizome of Solomon's Seal) and ju zhi (buckthorn fruit), which give the soup a sweeter, slightly stronger flavor. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking, with varying amounts depending on the variant. Garnishings include chopped coriander or green onions and a sprinkling of fried shallots.

And this would have been all I would have known, if not for the kindness of my neighbors, Fay and Kingston. Kingston is from Malaysia and Fay is from Shanghai, and is a great cook. I've been learning first hand about the most subtle and delicate Chinese dishes from her, and they've had some of my stuff as well. Recently after Malathi and I devoured a bowl of Bak Kut Teh, Fay offered to fix a fresh batch during the day, so that could photograph it. Her method was close to the description above; the meat was spareribs, and for the base of the 'tea' she used sort of a large 'tea' bag, which is packed with the dried ingredients, that give the soup, its subtle rich flavor.



You can see what's in there; nothing familiar to me at all. The bag boils in a claypot, with dried tofu, mushrooms, dried red dates, and other stuff, and of course the pork spare ribs. Meatiness of the ribs, is soft in the mouth and tea/soup -- its not sweet, its not sour, its not chilli hot -- its such a complex blend of new flavors, that finds places on your tounge, you didn't know you had!

Morning in the Island

my-halflife as been quiet, as I was ill for a little while, and then was too upset by the war to do food posts. i've been posting on my other blog on that stuff though.
i think we are well over the worst of it now, and i hope we can start again, and get it right, this time.

new food posts will be coming up soon..:)

Prawn Soup

This was an experiment that worked.
(If I give the impression that all my cooking experiments work -- I'm misleading you, lots turn out bad; but I don't blog about them! :))

I just imagined this dish, when I was watching TV. It subtle, kinda chinese/thai like, but at the subtle end of things.
Start with 20-5 super fresh prawns, and separate the heads, and shells from the bodies, deveining the bodies. Boil the heads/shells, in a 1 liter of water, reducing the heat so that its just simmer after you see the first bubbles appear. Add a few cloves of garlic, cleaned, and two or three bombay onions (shallots), cubed. Some whole black pepper corns would be nice.
Marinate the prawns in fish sauce & green chili sauce, adding enough for to coat each one. About a tablespoon of fish sauce and perhaps 1.5 of green chili sauce, and 50ml of sweet vermouth. Taste the marinate. Are the tastes balanced? Add a more sugar and/or salt, if needed.

After about 30 mins (of marinating/simmering), add a little vinegar and fish sauce into the simmer prawn shells/heads. Just a splash. Taste. The sour/salt should be a faint mixure in the background, the foreground being a stronger prawn flavor. Puree the whole liquid thing. Yes, the heads, shells and every thing. It will not trouble your mixure/liquidizer/belnder at all. Strain this, into pan, and bring to a simmer. Add the marinated prawns, for 4 mins.
Take off the heat; you are done.

Published in Print : Lentil Soup

Published in Spectrum, vol1(4), April, 2009, in my regular Achcharu column; based on a previous blog post.

Happy New Year!

Leeks Cumber Salad

This salad, which turned out quite nice, is for Sharni, who told me recently that she was waiting for more vegan recipes on my blog!
I enjoyed this for lunch, recently and it was really simple to make. Then I realized it may be vegan. :)
Slice a cumber (i like finger cumbers, because they look super cute, but any cumber would do) into small length wise strips, after washing, peeling and cleaning it. Dress it with a tiny bit of good sesame oil, an inch of wasabi paste, a teaspoon of sugar, a capful of vinegar (i used cider vinegar, this time), and two pinches of salt. Taste it and adjusts the balance of the flavors. The sugar brings out the heat of the wasabi beautifully, I think.

Wash and slice the leeks finely (i didn't have the end of the root in vegetable drawer, just the top part), and blanch for 2 mins. (let it sit in fresh boiled water for 2 mins). drain well, even patting drying with kitchen paper, and plate in a doughnut shape, adding drops of sesame oil and sprinkling salt over it. Spoon the cumber in the center. Sprinkle every thing with fresh black pepper.

The flavorings are subtle here, the highlights are the crunch of the leeks and smooth moisture of cumber, which have there own, lovely taste. As you bite in though, there are hints of heat (wasabi) and sweetness/tartness, blended with the nuttiness of the sesame.

I feel very virtuousness having had a vegan lunch, and I hope Sharni likes this!

Leeks Lentil Soup

Good stocks -- flavorful and thick -- are the foundation of my cooking. Not hard to make, they keep well in freezer, saving time later. I should do just a post on stocks, and guess I will, but its so simple -- its hardly worth that. Take 800 g of chicken necks, 200 g gizzards, and 200 g of wings, and pressure cook for 30 mins with 1.25 l of water. Strain and your done. Add a few crushed cloves of garlic, some black pepper and teaspoon of tomato paste if you have it handy, before you pressure cook, to up the flavor.
Or don't use a pressure cooker at all, and start with the bones of the roasted bird to really do it right. Okay, so there is a more complicated way to do every thing -- but the simple way also works. Anyway you do it, the point is get your stock going, and your all set for awhile.

I made stock yesterday, before i went out with friends in evening, and ended up having the rump of Wagyu beef! That was nice, but then in morning, after all that heavy eating and drinking it was time for soup. So I boiled a small cup of Mysore dhal, in four cups of water and then added a chopped leeks root, boiled it down a little more, and added a little less than half a cup chicken stock. Add more, as it boils down, if you have it. After about 30 mins, I pureed the whole thing, added salt, slowly, tasting each time, and then a teaspoon of sugar, and voila, it was ready. Sprinkled chille pieces on top, and dribbled cream in circles, as it lay in the bowl.

Wow it was good. Eat, sleep and repeat, with another Vegetable; this is easy and looks really cool.

Candied Orange Peel, Cours Saleya, Nice

Candied Orange Peel, Cours Saleya, Nice
Originally uploaded by pradeep jeganathan.

This photo is being considered for the Schmap guide to Nice, France!

Nice!

Whale Watching off Mirissa + Lunch!

About a 150 km from Colombo, Mirissa is a very small town, on the southern coast. But from its habour, one can for a goodly fee (Rs. 6000/=) sign up for a boat ride of several hours, to the deep waters some 15 miles out and with luck, see both the blue whale, the largest animal on earth, and the dolphin, bottle nosed and other variates, who are of course, cuter than cute.
And so we went, stayed at the Giragalla Inn, which overlooks the lovely Giragalla (Parrot Rock), and woke up early, took the boat at 7, were very lucky with our sightings!


(Dolphin breaks the water -- above -- Whale dives, below)


Then, hungry after the long ride, which took 5 hours, and having postponed breakfast fearing seasickness (we had all dosed up on avomine), we fell upon a simple, classic 'rice curry' lunch at the old and famous Weligama Bay Rest house.



the most interesting dish, a karavila curry, which I'd never had before, wasn't the most popular, since true to its name (bitter gourd), it remained bitter :). Still since I've been fixing Karavila salads, I tried quite a bit of it. It wasn't very good; perhaps more lime would have helped, with more initial de-bitterizing!?