A Broad Reference

In Taiwan it was so hot in the summer I tended to pick cold things to eat for lunch. Back in Berkeley where it's normally chilly 72oF air conditioning-like, we've hit the heatwave of the summer. It was 107oF in Healdsburg and 94oF in Berkeley, so I'm feeling a little wilted and less like cooking (or eating). This is a salad inspired by the typical sesame noodles you can find on any corner in Taipei and leftovers in the fridge. If you're feeling salady and not wanting the extra carbs, you can omit the noodles and just double the amount of veg and chicken. Serves 4.

For the sauce
1/3 Cup Tahini
3 Tbs fish sauce
3 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame (toasted) oil
1/4 Cup green onions (chopped)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tsp siracha or hot chili oil to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients and mix well. Sauce should be nutty, tangy and spicy.

8oz noodles (cooked, rinsed and chilled) optional
4-6 Cups cabbage (shredded)
1 carrot (grated)
1 Cup sliced radishes (optional)
8oz chicken (shredded)
1/4 Cup cilantro leaves

Toss noodles with 1/3 of the sauce. Toss veggies with other 1/3 of sauce. Mix together and top with chicken and cilantro. Serve remaining dressing on the side.

Posted by Misty at 09:01 AM | Permalink

We ran out of mayonnaise this weekend, and Gwynie put a request in for me to do a homemade batch rather than buying it. We like the idea of knowing everything that goes into our food, and commercial versions of mayo have a long list of chemicals that stabilize the emulsion and prolong shelf life. Bleh! & Hello allergies! Mom used to make it all the time when we were little, I don't know whether it was unavailable in the store or just her Cordon Bleu Culinary School skills coming out. She whipped it together with her hand held immersion blender. The two things I remember clearly was how easy it looked and how much her recipe made- practically 2 or 3 cups of the stuff! Nowadays with an heightened awareness of salmonella/food poisoning I could never make that amount since it takes us ages to get thru a large jar. You prolly don't want to store it for more than a week tops, so I thought I would experiment with smaller volumes for 1 or 2 servings. Basically you need eggs, oil, acid and flavors. In general it's 1 -1 1/2 cups of oil for each egg, and that will make up to about 1 1/2 cups of mayo. I can get the cutest little quail eggs at our local Asian market, which allows me to used the same ratios but in miniature (ie for each quail egg use 1/3-1/2 cup of oil). A lot of recipes talk about dripping the oil in but with the immersion blender that's not necessary. If you can't get it to thicken, keep adding small amounts of oil. (I know- doesn't that seem counter intuitive to add more liquid to something that's runny? Trust me it works!) The immersion blender is what allows these smaller volumes to work. I suppose you could attempt with the whisk attachment in a bowl but this way you only use the blade attachment, and the bottle you store the mayo in anyway...

Ingredients
1 quail egg
1 quail egg yolk
1 Tbs vinegar (I used cornichon pickle juice)
1 tsp mustard
Salt, pepper & sugar to taste

reserve
1 Cup neutral oil (split into 3)

Method
Combine the ingredients in a small bottle using immersion blender.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till mixture becomes opaque and oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture will be runny.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture will start to thicken.
Check flavor and adjust as you like.
Add 1/3 cup of oil, blend till oil is fully incorporated.
Mixture should be thick, glossy and hold it's shape.
Makes about 1 cup.

Voila homemade mayonnaise! If you're feeling super fancy you can add herbs/spices and call it aioli...

Posted by Misty at 11:46 AM | Permalink

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen films you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what films my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note -- upper right hand side.)... If you have already done this one before, just add me to your tags.

1. Bladerunner (Director's cut)
2. Eat Drink Man Woman
3. Matrix
4. Howl's Moving Castle
5. An officer and a gentleman
6. Tampopo
7. Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind
8. Enemy Mine
9. Terminator I & II
10. Strictly Ballroom
11. Serenity
12. Star Wars
13. TopGun
14. Princess Bride
15. Tombstone

Posted by Misty at 01:12 PM | Permalink