le sauce

weekend class: rice paper dumplings with mung bean filling

weekend class = learning a thing or two about cooking and dining well. techniques, ingredients, recipes projects that definitely need to be tackled on the weekend. the result? weekend-class fare, of course.

Well, I should have know when my dough came together with no effort, when the specified mere 1 minute of kneading resulted in the texture I was after, when the rest time was just a quick 5 minutes, that the hard part was to come. Dough-making is never without its anxiety as far as I'm concerned (I may have taught myself the basics of baking last year but it's still doesn't come easily to me). It was the moment I stopped to take a picture of my ready-to-use dough that things went wrong. The dough was ready to use the moment I let air touch it, and a couple of minutes later it was dangerously, if not visibly, a touch too dry. Wetting my hands slightly helped bring it back from the point of no return, but I did let a small piece pass that point. I added more water to it or rather, too much and didn't feel confident about how much flour and starch to add to balance out my mistake, so that piece was a loss. The batch I made by weight was much more successful than when I measured the flours, so, as usual when it comes to flour, weigh if you can. But that's the only warning/advice I have for you. The good news is...

...it's generally really easy to make your own rice flour dough! That idea is ridiculously exciting to me because, first, look how beautiful your homemade dumplings can be, all plump and shiny, slightly translucent and exactly the texture of the best of its kind at dim sum. And then, think of the possibilities. I didn't know where I was headed at first with a slightly denser batch I'd made, but I steamed some unfilled rounds of it anyway and ended up with rice cakes, of course! I froze those for a future soup. I'm going to be brave enough next time to steam a sheet of the dough, making it just a touch wetter so it spreads without rolling, to cut into fresh rice noodles. Can you imagine? My accidents led me to the confidence to try that--it's quite amazing how a little too much air and a little extra water will change the elasticity of this super-glutenous dough drastically.

mango salad with hazelnut and lime dressing

My little cousins (well, they're really my cousins' kids) are strange. I think. This is not the kind of salad I'd expect them to like, and in fact, I warned them against it because of the red bird chili sprinkled through it--I had even more in mine than I cite in the recipe below. 

At first I thought they were asking if they had to try some of it, since it was laid out with the other food at a recent family event and the kids in our family are always encouraged to try everything.

So I said, "Oh, no, don't worry, it's too hot for you."

"But we can try a little, right? And if it's too hot, we don't have to take any more."

"Errr...ok...."

Seriously? They wanted a salad of fruit, nuts and herbs, that might be too hot for them? I was so not that sophisticated when I was eleven. There was also a nine-year-old, the sole vegetarian in her family for years by her own initiative, who raved about my olive oil cake with sauternes. But that's a story for an upcoming post. Weird, I tell you. In a good way.

But you, I fully endorse this recipe to you. I am biased, but I love it. It's nutty from the toasted almonds but because the base of the dressing is hazelnut oil. The most lip-smacking part comes from the lime flesh that is added to the dressing. Having made it both with and without, I swear it makes all the difference. I sometimes partake of mango salad at Thai restaurants, even though I know there's a little fish sauce spiking the flavour. This is the perfect vegetarian version, equally complex, balanced and delicious in it's own right. Again, biased, but I have to say, I prefer this one! Let me know if you agree?

yogurt marinades

I made a Greek yogurt-based tandoori marinade twice in the same week recently. The first time, it was for mushrooms that I broiled in the oven. Things started smoking, pans started burning but it was worth it to have the marinade turn into a delicious glue that charred in spots. The second time, an outdoor BBQ solved all problems and seemed to sear the marinade in place for more flavour on the food and less everywhere else. 

Which is why I like yogurt marinades generally. Oil-based marinades are great too, but there's often a lot left behind when food is transferred from it to the grill. What I also love about yogurt is that it's perfect for strong, spicy concoctions like tandoori paste or blends with harissa or jerk spices. You can pile on the chili-heavy blends for taste and the yogurt mellows out the heat.

I'm working on a favourite yogurt marinade for the grill to share with you, with lime zest and lots of spices. If you have any favourites of your own, do tell...!

cookbooks i'm craving: asian dumplings, encyclopedia of asian food

There's been so many great things said about these two book, more than enough to tempt me to buy. But in the end, I'm sold on Andrea Nguyen's book Asian Dumplings because it features a picture in the early pages of crispy, golden taro dumplings--my FAVOURITE dim sum order...and to think it would be possible to make them in my own home??

And just browsing the index of Charmaine Soloman's Encyclopedia of Asian Food convinces me that I could learn some Sri Lankan recipes that aren't even in my aunt and mother's repertoire. If you're interested in Asian cooking, check them out, or look out for some sample recipe tests here soon.

the ingredient: fresh rampe (pandan/screw pine leaves)

My family cooks with rampe (also known as screw pine or pandan leaves) constantly, but this is the first time I have seen fresh leaves. I'm used to a very dark leaf which has been frozen fresh or dried, pre-cut into 3-inch pieces. Rampe is a key ingredient in Sri Lankan and other South Asian cuisines, and it's in almost every one of the Sri Lankan recipes on this site.

I would have expected the fresh leaves to be as strongly perfumed as the dry ones, but these were not as fragrant as what I'm used to. Then again, my mother cooked with the ones you see here and she was not impressed with their flavour or aroma, so perhaps these leaves are not as fresh or as good as they look. Anyone else have experience with fresh rampe? Is dried or frozen usually better in North America?

curry laksa

While following this intensive recipe for Yotam Ottolenghi's laksa soup I had time to ponder, almost meditate, on a few things...

1. If I can go to the effort of making this soup, I really never need to buy a pre-made broth, stock or flavour base of any kind. (The paste in this recipe is so flavourful that I think you could get away with using water instead of the broth that's called for.)
2. Why the hell didn't I double this recipe and freeze the paste that's the flavour base of this soup? I could have had laksa with almost no effort next week if I'd had the foresight to do that.
3. This soup isn't going to be as spicy as I remembered it. These chilies are milder than the ones I used last time.
4. Could it be that I really only feel alive when eating chilies? Is this an addiction? If this is a vice does that mean I have to give up another vice because I'm only supposed to have one vice by this age?

There's nothing difficult about making this soup, it just takes effort. The ingredient list is 20 strong, and I would suggest that while you can make a substitution here and there (mostly in the vegetable or garnish area), you need each one of them. It's well worth the effort if you want a creamy, spicy, complex but harmonious homemade soup that is the definition of laksa, just don't let my musings go to waste...

steamed tofu with a tart tamari dressing

I am a big fan of tofu, which is not to say that I eat it all the time (I don't really eat anything all the time) but I think it's pretty spectacular. Some think tofu is bland, but that's sort of like calling rice or pasta bland--it's not about the flavour, it's about the texture and how that pairs with what else you're having. And like rice or pasta, you don't need to pair tofu with a lot. It's true that marinating firm tofu will help flavour the dense insides a little, but I like to prepare silken tofu very simply.

Sometimes I stir fry it, because even when you're careful about it, some of it will break down and thicken the sauce. But here I chose to leave the tofu whole and steam it, so I could scoop off large pieces with my spoon and eat big but delicate mouthfuls. The soft rice is the toothsome part of this dish, the tofu, true to its description, is silk. Both are the foil for this tangy soy dressing, which is similar to a dressing a filipino friend of mine used to make to spoon over rice. His raw version called for soy sauce, scallions and sugar. I added rice vinegar and dried chili for more zing, and cooked it down to give it some body.

summer in (little) india

 

 

above just some of the things i ate at this weekend's fesival of south asia, in little india (gerrard st., toronto): 

corn roasted, then rubbed with lime and cayenne, rose syrup falooda topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, kulfi, spicy chat papri...

 

 

 

 

by evening, lahore tikka house's patio (above) was packed as usual.

 

 

the rest of the street grew dark, but the lights from storefronts cast a glow on street stalls. still, you could hide unnoticed sitting on the curb, or tucked behind a table (do you see him, below?), watching a perfect weekend and celebration of a culture come to a close.

 

 

i love you, lahore tikka house

i swear that when the two of us were ordering this meal at lahore tikka house on monday, it seemed reasonable. i mean we planned to take a little to work for lunch the next day, so we picked two dishes each, oh and we'd need some regular rice and naan too. and then the food started to come and we realized we were thinking with our empty stomaches and not with any perspective at all.

and i still stopped the waiter and asked for one more thing as these waves of food were arriving--lahore's awesome, awesome roasted green chilies. they're slightly salty and not as hot as you might expect. i mean they are hot, but they aren't unbearable if you like chilies, and we finished them all. gobbled them down.

if you've ever been, you know visiting lahore tikka house on a summer evening is an experience even aside from the food. sitting outside under their canopy of coloured fabric, strung with little white lights is sort of magical. yet the atmosphere is totally laid back too--there's a communal dining feeling i get there because most of the parties are large and everyone always seems to be having a great time and feeding off the good mood. or maybe i'm just projecting, because being there always puts me in a good mood. the highly savoury, spicy, delicious food puts me over the top.