Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Archive for July, 2008

Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures, teaches cooking classes and hosts cooking-related meetups in Chicago. She invites food bloggers to join in by posting a recipe on the many themes she offers each month. One coming up this month is Thai food.

Dan and I both love Thai food, and I’ve been making it more myself lately. Recently, I made tom yam kung (aka hot and sour) soup. It turned out pretty well, but you really need to have authentic ingredients for it to taste right.

I was able to find lemongrass (and now I have it in my garden) in the grocery store, but no kaffir lime leaves or galangal (Asian ginger). So I’ve found an online source that I ordered from and will hopefully have these ingredients soon, so I can try it again and see if it tastes more authentic. It was good, but it just didn’t have the same flavor as the tom yam kung soup I’ve had at local Thai restaurants. btw, Rama Garden in downtown Norfolk is my favorite local Thai restaurant.

This recipe is from “Madhur Jaffrey’s Far Eastern Cookery.”

Tom Yam Kung (Hot and Sour) Soup

1 lb. medium shrimp, shelled and deveined (reserve the shells)
2 sticks fresh sliced lemongrass
4 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves, or 1 tbsp. finely grated lemon rind
1-1/2 quarts chicken stock
1 tbsp. fish sauce
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. chili paste (nam prik pow)
1 15-oz. can straw mushrooms, or 12 medium fresh straw mushrooms (found these at American Asian Foodmarket, corner of Great Neck Road and Virginia Beach Blvd., Va. Beach)
3 fresh hot green chilies
3 tbsp. fresh cilantro

Rinse shrimp, drain and pat dry. Cover and refrigerate. Cut each stick of lemongrass into 3×2-inch pieces, starting from the rounded bottom end. Discard the strawlike top. Lightly crush the 6 pieces with a skillet or flat side of a heavy knife.

Combine the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves or lemon rind, stock and shrimp shells in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Strain, then add the fish sauce, lime juice and chili paste. Mix and taste, adding more fish sauce or lime juice if you need it.

Drain the mushrooms and add to the seasoned stock (if using fresh, quarter them and blanch in lightly salted boiling water, then add to the seasoned stock).

The soup may be prepared in advance to this point. Cool, cover and refrigerate for up to several hours.

Prepare the garnishes shortly before serving the soup. Cut the green chiles into thin slices. Heat the stock with the mushrooms in it. When it begins to bubble, drop in the peeled shrimp. Cook on medium heat for about two minutes or just until shrimp turn opaque. Put soup into a large serving bowl or individual serving bowls. Garnish with green chiles and whole fresh cilantro leaves and serve hot.

I think it’s pretty cool, anyway

Any idea what it is? Make a guess in the comments.

Kung Pao Peppers

I was talking to some friends about how our garden is doing – we have seven different kinds of peppers going right now, including four hot varieties, so I’m listing them here for our, and their, reference. I’m sure when they’re ripe, they’re going to be prolific, so make your requests now

The number after the pepper type is its measure on the Scoville scale, which measures the hotness of a pepper. The scale goes from 0 for sweet bell peppers to 15-16 million for pure capsaicin, which is the chemical that supplies the heat in a hot pepper. In 2006, the habanero pepper, with a Scoville range of 350,000–580,000 for heat, was overtaken by a new variety: the Bhut Jolokia from India, with a Scoville range of 855,000–1,041,427. That’s scary hot.

By the way, “hot” and “spicy” are not the same thing; hot is heat (duh) and spicy has a lot of spices in it. Spices are the dried seeds, fruits, roots, bark and other parts of plants (not including the leaves, which are herbs); examples are cumin seed, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and saffron. So food can be spicy but not hot.

• Anaheim – 500–2,500
• Cayenne – 30,000–50,000
• Jalapeno – 2,500–8,000
• Kung Pao – 7,000-12,000
• Pimento – 100-500
• Sweet bells – 0
• Tabasco – 30,000–50,000

Here’s a hot tip (groan ): If you eat something that’s too hot from chiles, drinking water, beer or wine won’t help. Capsaicin is not water-soluble, so those beverages won’t reduce the heat at all. Instead, have some dairy ready, maybe as a dip or sauce – milk, sour cream or yogurt will counter the heat.

Chile peppers are an ancient crop that originated in what is now Mexico and South America. After European explorers found the Western Hemisphere, peppers spread around the world and now are found in cuisines everywhere. There’s lots more information on chile peppers at the Chile Pepper Institute, a program of New Mexico State University.

Now that I’ve written all this up, I thought I’d submit it to Weekend Herb Blogging, a weekly blogging event begun by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen, and hosted this week by Simona, who writes Briciole.

Dan and I have been watching the HBO miniseries “John Adams” on DVD through NetFlix. I think it’s very well done – we’ve enjoyed it a lot.

Have a great Fourth – I’m making all-American brownies and Southwestern potato salad to take to a cookout tonight.

This is so cool – I’ve never won anything from a food blogging event before, but last week, I did

I posted a recipe for the Iron Chef: Honey event hosted by Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. There were only two entries, and for mine, I won a cookbook called “Covered in Honey.”

It has some wonderful-sounding recipes in it. Here are a few I’d like to try:

• Savory Scones with Rosemary and Chevre
• Crispy Chipotle Cracker Bread
• Island Chicken Salad with Miso, Lime and Lime-Honey Dressing
• New Mexican Layered Enchiladas with Red Chile and Mesquite Honey Sauce

Thanks, so much, Joelen! This is a great incentive to keep submitting recipes for your events. In fact, I have one I’m going to submit for the upcoming Thai event. We LOVE Thai food In fact, I’m growing some of my own Thai ingredients – a lime tree, lemongrass and Thai basil.