birthday phad thai

Last week, this boy had a birthday. We made some Thai food - green curry and phad thai, yum! - and I made an apple crumble for dessert, his favorite. An odd combination, but sometimes our favorites don't go together. :)

I used some recipes from the cooking class I had in Bangkok last year. Here's the one for Phad Thai (courtesy of the Silom Thai cooking school):

PHAD THAI
(easy and so good! This serves just 1-2, so I quadrupled it, which changes the measurements a bit, but it's very forgiving so just go to taste on most things.)

Ingredients:
100 grams of rice noodles - presoak in warm water until soft, drain
5 medium sized prawns
2 TBS vegetable oil
1/4 cup chive or green onion, cut into small pieces
1 TBS palm sugar or brown sugar
2 tsp fish sauce (or for vegetarian, use soy sauce)
1 egg
1/2 cup raw bean sprouts (or cabbage)
1 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS minced shallot
1/3 cup extra firm tofu, cut in 1 cm strips
1 TBS tamarind paste (or white vinegar)
1 TBS picked white radish, finely chopped (if you can find it, at an Asian market. Dried also works)
1 TBS ground roasted peanut or cashew
1 pinch red chili powder
1/2 lime

Preparation:
1. In a wok or large sauce pan, heat the oil over low heat, add garlic and shallot and fry until fragrant.
2. Add prawns, tofu, beansprouts, onions/chives, stir until prawns are cooked.
3. Crack the egg straight into the wok, stir rapidly until it becomes cooked and scrambled.
4. Add noodles and season with fish sauce, sugar, tamarind paste and pickled white radish. Mix everything together. Keep frying.
5. When the noodles become softened and translucent, remove from heat.
6. Top with ground peanuts and chili powder. Season to taste. Squeeze the lime over the noodles.
Yum! (Photo from my cooking class)

happy Thanksgiving, mate

I had Thanksgiving today. Since it's Australia, people have to work on Thursday (!), so it wasn't going to work to have a big dinner that day. It's amazing how many people we could have invited - everyone was curious and wanted to celebrate American Thanksgiving! But we weren't really up to cooking for 40 people, so we kept it to about 12 (plus a couple kids): Andrew's family, the family I live with, and a couple other friends.
So I've been cooking for two days, and everything turned out so good! I've never done the whole dinner myself before. Andrew helped all day today and was great with the meat, and I had help with the desserts too. We had:
~turkey
~a leg of lamb
~garlic mashed potatoes
~green bean casserole (this recipe is amazing, I have made it a few times now)
~stuffing
~yams - with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, with marshmallows on top (the Aussies couldn't get over that. We do eat strange things.)
~green salad
~steamed veggies
~rolls
The turkey was the best I have ever had in my life! We used an oven bag, and I made a "rub" to pour over it and under the skin that I think did the trick ... blend in a food processor:
4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 tsp chopped fresh thyme
4 tsp minced onion
4 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper (or a bit more)
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c white wine
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Seriously, the most moist and tasty turkey I've ever had. Made for really good gravy too.

So have I mentioned I live with a pastry chef? Jean, the daughter of Rick and Beth (who are letting me take over their spare bedroom for a few months), was up for the challenge of making pumpkin pie, even though she'd never tasted it. Actually I have yet to meet an Aussie who's had pumpkin as a sweet dessert; it's always a savory dish here. Took them awhile to get their minds around it and all wanted to give it a try.Jean made two pumpkin pies, an amazing apple and mulberry pie, her special fudge brownies, and mini pecan tarts!!

It was a really nice time with new friends; everyone seemed to enjoy it (even the pumpkin pie). :) Andrew's mom kept giving me these funny looks - she'd raise her eyebrows like she was surprised or impressed as she commented on each dish. Haha - perhaps I am satisfactory for her son. ;) He worked really hard to make today special for me. Everyone was stuffed full, which I suppose makes it feel even more like Thanksgiving, even though we had the air conditioner at full blast as my laundry dried instantaneously in the hot sun outside.

And the best part: leftovers! :)

creative cooking at 2am

I've been craving frozen yogurt. While we have innumerable gelato and ice cream choices here in Athens, the frozen yogurt options just don't exist. I knew someone who made their own ice cream last year; I ate it out of a plastic tupperware directly from the freezer. How hard can it be to make my own frozen yogurt? It's hot, I have fresh peaches, give me yogurt!

For the record, I didn't actually start this endeavor at 2am, but that is the time at which we currently find ourselves, and here are two reasons:
1. I work in the sex industry. We keep odd hours.
2. I skimmed the "freeze 3-4 hours" part of the recipe in the middle and it didn't really sink in as I was starting my project at 10pm. I could have waited until tomorrow, but, see point #1.

Here is a simple recipe for peach frozen yogurt that I followed, plus my, err, "modifications," shall we call them:

• 2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened sliced peaches, thawed [fresh peaches abound here right now, and they are so good!]
• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin [hmm. As I mentioned, project was started at 10pm, after store closing hours. With no gelatin on hand, I opted for the next best thing: a packet of instant sugar free, fat free vanilla pudding mix. This amounted to 1.5 teaspoons, with the remainder of the package still sitting on my counter.]
• 1/4 cup cold water [we have water in Greece (though may I add I had to put it in the freezer because it's so hot here right now that my cold water tap runs pretty warm)]
• 1/4 cup sugar [hmm, again. I don't seem to have any sugar in the cupboard, which is odd... usually I have baking staples on hand. Never fear! Trusty friend Janell brought me a 25-year supply of Splenda last year and I still have 8 large ziploc bags full of packets. Commence tearing open tiny paper packets...]
• 16 ounces fat-free reduced-sugar vanilla yogurt [Yes, we don't do vanilla yogurt here. I just used Greek yogurt and mixed a bit of sugar Splenda and vanilla in. It was so good I almost ate the whole thing before I could even add it in.]

Directions:

1. Place the peaches in a blender or food processor; cover and process until pureed. Set aside. In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over cold water; let stand for 1 minute. Stir in sugar. Cook and stir over low heat until gelatin and sugar are dissolved.

[It was at this point that I discovered that the previously mentioned vanilla pudding was actually butterscotch. I don't need to tell you what an interesting ... twist this added to my PEACH yogurt.]

2. In a bowl, combine the yogurt, peach puree and gelatin mixture until blended. Pour into an ungreased 9-in. square dish. Cover and freeze for 3-4 hours or until partially set. Cut into pieces and place in a mixing bowl; beat on medium speed until smooth. Transfer to a freezer container. Cover and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.
So here I am in between the two freezing stages. It will now stay in my freezer until morning, but can I just say, IT IS SO GOOD!! And for the record, you can't taste the butterscotch at all. :) It could even have less sugar (maybe would have put less sugar in the yogurt, or maybe if the gelatin had actually been just plain gelatin...) and still be really tasty because the peaches were so good.

I just made my own ICE CREAM, people. Yum!

Gemista

Here is that recipe for the stuffed tomatoes I made a couple weeks ago. It is meant to be done with tomatoes and bell peppers. The peppers are great too, but I prefer tomatoes so I used all tomatoes. You can use either or both. You can also make this vegetarian, by using more rice instead of the meat.

You need:

• 4 large firm, ripe tomatoes
• 4 large green bell peppers (or 8 tomatoes)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb 2 oz lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
  
• salt and pepper
• scant 1/2 cup medium grain rice (not long or it won't cook)
• 5 TBS finely chopped fresh parsley
• 2 TBS finely chopped fresh mint (optional - I didn't use this)
• 3 large potatoes, each sliced lengthwise into 8 pieces
• 3 TBS butter, cut into pieces

1. Slice off the stem ends of the bell peppers and remove seeds with a teaspoon, reserving the lids. Slice off stem ends of the tomatoes and carefully scoop out most of the flesh, leaving a thin layer next to the skin; reserve the lids. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt, turn upside down, and let drain.

2. Put the tomato flesh into a blender or food processor and process to a puree, then mix with the sugar, tomato juice, and tomato paste. (If you use 8 tomatoes be sure you only use the flesh from 4 of them!)

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Heat half the oil in a large pan. Add onion and ground beef and cook over high heat, stirring frequently and breaking up the meat with a spoon, for 10-15 min until meat is lightly browned. Stir in tomato mixture and season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for about 10 min, or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in rice, parsley, and mint, if using. Strain the mixture through a colander into a bowl and reserve the cooking liquid.

4. Stuff the bell peppers and tomatoes two-thirds full with the meat and rice mixture. Arrange the stuffed vegetables in a shallow ovenproof dish and set the reserved lids on top. Put the potato slices between the stuffed vegetables, spoon the reserved cooking liquid over them, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Drizzle the remaining oil over the stuffed vegetables and dot the potatoes with butter.

5. Bake, adding a little water if necessary, for about 1.5 hours, or until all vegetables are tender and the tops are brown. Serve immediately - serves 4.

*Obviously I didn't use the potatoes in mine, but it is a nice addition. The gemista (the greek name, "stuffed") that I have eaten in restaurants have often been black on top, so don't worry if they look burned, it's still great!

Easter bread

Τσουρέκι (tsoureki), is the traditional Greek Easter bread. There are bakeries in Thessaloniki that are famous for their variation - chocolate covered, lemon, orange, etc. I have a recipe for one with orange zest and chocolate chips that I want to try!

But, the traditional bread is simple with a distinct flavor, and often with a red egg placed in the center, to symbolize the blood of Jesus for Easter. I went to the supermarket yesterday and saw carton after carton of red dyed eggs on sale! The flavor is anise seed, which usually I don't like, but it has just a hint of taste in this mildly sweet bread that is actually quite delicious!

So, if you'd like to try something a little different, tasty, and very Greek this Easter, give this a whirl! Your friends and family will be so impressed. Let me know if you try it.

Easter Bread (Tsoureki)

3 packages yeast (or 2 oz. of fresh yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup milk
10-11 cups flour
7 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp anise seeds, powdered or grated
lemon rind
sesame seeds or slivered almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 (maybe after some of the rising is done). Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 cups flour. Stir to batter, cover and set in a warm place for about 1 hour.

After an hour, run hot water in a pan and set a medium mixing bowl on top (to keep ingredients in the bowl warm). Beat 6 eggs, sugar, and lemon rind over the hot water. Stir the mixture into the batter. Add remaining flour. Put dough on a floured pastry board and knead, adding the butter, until smooth and elastic. Place in a large buttered bowl and brush surface lightly with melted butter. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Shape dough into long ropes 1/2 to 1 inch diameter and cut into 12 inch lengths. Braid 3 ropes loosely together and lay on a greased baking sheet. Let it rise, covered, until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush with one beaten egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds or slivered almonds if you wish, and bake for 25-30 minutes.

To be very Greek, push a red egg into the center before you bake it!