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From the angry ghost of The Neglected Boiled Egg.
Slow is all I can say. I am not referring to the amount of time that you need to let it ferment but more on how long it took me to give this a try. Half the world is already baking this on a regular basis and I have only just joined the bandwagon. Real slow, huh? Better late than never, I guess. When I first read it on The New York Times half a century ago 2 years ago, I was intrigued but I was also living in France — The Land of Artisan Bread at Every Corner of the Street. Well, almost. It was easier for me to just grab the weekly baguettes at Kayser (exactly 8 minutes from my house) than make bread. Plus, my tiny Parisian apartment didn’t come with an oven……even if we bought one we’d had to put it under the bed. The kitchen is that small. I forgot all about No Knead Bread until I saw Spelt flour in the supermarket in Thailand. In fact, along with it I found Atta flour, a wide range of Waitrose flour, and other “exotic” flour. All at reasonable prices. Amazing, huh? Thailand has certainly come a loooooonnnngggg way.
Since I have never had spelt anything before and so much has been written about splet bread, so, spelt bread it is. I was tempted to add Atta flour and a variety of other flour but I thought it’d be best to just start with half white bread flour and half spelt. Who knows how the flours will react. Might turn into No Rise Bread.
My first attempt was a total failure. I added 1 5/8 cup water as specified in The New York Times. After a rest of 12 hours, I was faced with a very wet formless blob of a dough. It spread every which way like it’s got a mind of its own. It was impossible to follow through with the fold and rest process. I tried adding more flour (1 1/2 cup) but it didn’t work. In the end I chucked the whole thing into the garbage bin. Let the blob colonize the trash.
Cheese & Honey Tartine – Manchego would have been my first choice, but, alas, we don’t get that in Thailand.
Frustrated, I set up to mixing the second batch. This time I used only 1 1/2 cup of water. After saran wrapping it, I cursed it gave it a good blessing and hope all my bread woes will be gone tomorrow. It was only then I realized it was almost noon. Which means, I would have to be up at midnight to fold and rest the dough, then bake it at 2 AM. No frigging way was I going to do that. I let it ferment for 19 hours instead, and got up at 7 AM to make bread. (I swear the only times I wake up earlier than that to cook were to make food for monks.)
Grilled Tomatoes, Chorizo & Mint Pesto Tartine – mint and chorizo are my new favorite combo.
This time the dough was still a little wet but almost foldable. I did the best I can and let it rest for another two hours while I went back to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzzzz….
Fried Eggs, Mushrooms & Crème Fraîche – a random mix and match that turned out sumptuous.
When I finally got to bake it, it was beautiful even if it was slightly moist. I know I am supposed to let it cool before cutting but the sweet aroma of fresh baked bread made me really hungry. I went ahead and cut myself a slice and ate it as it is. Sometimes, bread is best enjoyed au naturel.
Bread and Butter – the combo that never fails.
I found out later from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day that bleached white flour tends to absorb more water thus making moist bread. (I plan to bake bread from this book as soon as I can get myself a nice big slab of stone.
Nam Prik Pao Tartine – a staple for many Thais abroad.
Over the course of the past few days, I enjoyed as many different kinds of tartines as I can possible concoct with whatever ingredients I have in the fridge. They were all lovely thanks to the crusty bread that I can now whip up effortlessly. As long as I time myself right.
Nutella Tartine – the staple for the kid in all of us.
*****
A few days after writing this post, I decided to make natural yeast water for my bread. (More info here.) I used dried figs in hopes of churning out fig-gy yeast water to make out-of-this-world fig bread. After three days I ended up with black molds. I chucked the whole thing into the garbage bin. Let the mold and the blob colonize each other. Upset, I made another batch with half Spelt and half whole grain unbleached bread flour with tasteless commercial yeast. The dough still came out moist. I could barely fold it. I am convinced it’s the tropic humid weather.
Since I recently bought four cute little Staubs, I divided the dough into four almost equal parts and made 4 different boules: lardon & thyme, pecorino, fig, and au nature. I think it worked for me because somehow the dough didn’t rise as much this time and it could fit into four small cocottes. The pecorino one was a bit of a disaster. The cheese oozed out and created a nasty burnt mass at the bottom of the oven. Bad cheese, bad.
My favorite is the lardon and thyme boule — luuuurrrrrrvvv the smell of fresh baked thyme and lardon.
I bought a bag of figs that didn’t taste as great as I had anticipated. They weren’t soft, chewy and sticky. I was all about to feed them to my little nephew’s goldfish when I got the idea to poach them in spiced red wine and bake with cheese. (I used the usual spices — cinnamon, clove, anise star.) Only I couldn’t be bothered with the poaching part. I simply let it macerate in the wine mixture for three days. It worked wonderfully. The figs reaked of the Penfolds Grange that I used. I had half a bottle left from the previous night and decided to put it to good use instead of raiding Hubby’s wine cellar. And no, I refuse to drive for an hour in the traffic just to get a cheaper bottle of wine. I am eating it anyway. Might as well use a wine I like. Of course, there wasn’t much I can do with half a bottle. So, I made work with three figs. HA.HA.HA. I didn’t have high hopes for the result but oh, my God. They were DELICIOUS. So delicious that I made another batch with a bottle of Prosecco for lunch with friends from way back when. This time I only soak the figs for a night. The flavor is not as intense as the red wine (or is it because of the Penfolds?) but it was good all the same.
Three figs to half a bottle of wine is a little over the top in the end. I could have used six. For the one bottle of Prosecco, I used eight figs. Twelve to fourteen would have been ideal but eight was all that was left. The recipe below is for one bottle of wine to eight figs.
Ingredients
2 cups water
A bottle of wine of your choice
1 stick cinnamon (about 12 cm)
4 cloves
1 star anise
8 dried figs
2 tablespoons Muscovado sugar
8 tablespoons Mascarpone
8 pieces Stilton cut into 1 x 1 cm thick and 2 cm long (about a heaping teaspoon each)
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon butter
Butter for brushing baking pan
1. Cut and discard the top of the figs. Make criss-cross cuts 1/4 of the way down the top of each fig. Soak them in hot water until plump about 20 minutes. Remove, drain well, and set the figs aside.
2. Pour 3/4 cup of wine, all the spices, and the remaining sugar into a bowl and put into the microwave for 20 seconds or just long enough to melt the sugar. Remove and give a quick stir to make sure the sugar is well melted. Add in the figs and remaining wine. Saran wrap and leave to macerate for three days in fridge.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celcius. Remove figs and drain well. Put the remaining wine into a pot on medium heat and let simmer until half is left. Discard the spices and reduce further until a syrupy sauce is obtained. Add a tablespoon of butter and set aside to cool. Be careful not to let the sauce caramelize and become candy.
4. Mix the Mascarpone with honey and thyme. Stuff each fig with Mascarpone 3/4 full. Insert one piece of Stilton into each. Line a baking pan with foil and brush lightly with butter. Put the figs on the pan cut-side up. Drizzle with honey and bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. When done, drizzle with red wine sauce and serve.
For the Prosecco version, I wanted prettier presentation. I slit the bottom of each fig and piped in the Mascarpone and stuffed in the Stilton.
The only problem was I put the figs slit side down and all the cheese oozed out during the baking. I ended up with flat limp figs in a pool of melted cheese. I guess I should have put the figs cut side up.
I made this for lunch yesterday. A very quick lunch I might add. It took me about 10 minutes. There are many versions of Mentaiko Spagehetti. (One of my absolute favorite is made with fried whole chili and garlic flakes.) This one is made out of necessity — the only fresh things left in my fridge were the mushrooms and a few sprigs of scallions. It’s also one of those rare instances in which I mess around in the kitchen and the food comes out right. Although if I make it again I wouldn’t use the scallions as in the picture. My first choice was parsley but didn’t have any at hand. So scallions it was. I should have just left it out altogether. It didn’t do much for the taste — a little too sharp. Still, I loved it.
No measurements are given simply because I didn’t measure anything. It’s really one of those dishes in which you add as much of everything as you like. I added curly parsley instead of scallions in the recipe below.
Ingredients
Pasta of your choice
Yuzu kosho
Mentaiko (I used the spicy kind)
Yanagi Matsutake or mushroom of your choice
Olive oil or butter
Crème fraîche
Chopped curly parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Set a pot of water to boil. Drizzle the mushrooms with olive oil or butter and grill it in the toaster oven for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, scoop a dollop of crème fraîche into a mixing bowl. Add in the yuzu kosho. I started with half a teaspoon and added in more until I am happy with how it tastes. Mix well and taste. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Set aside.
2. When the water is boiling add in the pasta. Cook till al dente or the way you like it. When done drain and put it into the crème fraîche and yuzu kosho mixture. Mix well. Put on plate.
3. Cut open the mentaiko’s sac and scoop out the eggs with a spoon. Top it on the pasta. By this time, the mushrooms should be done. Add the mushrooms to the pasta. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Mix everything together before eating.
When I moved back to Bangkok last September I did a double take when I saw crème fraîche in the cheese section at the supermarket. Stunned but also excited. I never thought Thailand would caught on this fast. I simply love crème fraîche. Sure, we all complain when big food companies push “industrial food” into EVERY household (especially to this side of the Pacific Ocean), but if it’s not so bad, I can be forgiving. (This is my more-than-a-year-crème-fraîche-deprived soul speaking. I didn’t get one until now simply because as excited as I was in disbelief, I got caught up with the unpacking, resettling, moving….and forgot about THE FACT THAT CREME FRAICHE IS AVAILABLE IN THAILAND.) While I have never used the brand above, I dropped one into my shopping cart two days ago. I am giving it a try out of desperation.
Now that I have it in the cold cradle of my fridge, I am planning to revisit some of my favorite uses for crème fraîche. I have 3 general ways of using it, but am dreaming up of more uses:
1. In baking. I have used it in everything from pastries, cakes, to lasagna. The result is a creamy but light texture……….which means it doesn’t make me feel overstuffed even if I should have stopped after the third helping.
2. In spreads. Like tartine. A simple and favorite way is to mix crème fraîche with cheese such as goat cheese, pepper, salt, chives, basil, and baked garlic. Kinda like making your own Boursin.
3. With honey and confiture. Really. Mix it all up and top with fresh berries or other fruits and it makes for a good substitute for fromage blanc (well, almost) or as a filling/topping for various cakes.
Do you go grocery shopping with a list but end up buying mostly things not on the list? Happens to me all time. I just can’t help it. I see a beautiful butternut squash, I put in cart. I see plump fresh prunes, I put in cart. I see nagaimo…….you get the picture. I am a random impulsive grocery shopper! More often than not, half the stuff I buy gets forgotten in the fridge until they go mushy and fuzzy from the mold. Not that I don’t want to cook them but I somehow always run out of or lack the stuff to make that stuff. At one point in time I was throwing out more food than eating it. Lightning strikes me every time I do that. Well, my pre-New Year Resolution is to make good use of all grocery I buy. One way I try to salvage them is by mixing the various ingredients together. Needless to say, they usually end up in the garbage bin, too. Lightning strikes me twice harder when that happens. (Why is it that some chefs are capable of mixing a bit of this with a bit of that and churn out pristine dishes?????)
I happen to have a butternut squash and nagaimo in the fridge for quite awhile now. Luckily, they are such keepers. Luckier for me, they mix well! Initially, I was going to make two different dishes but my lazy arse wasn’t in the mood I didn’t have the time. I came up with the idea for the butternut squash filling based on the nagaimo and plum filling fritters that I saw on the internet. Butternut squash seems to pair favorably with sage. Even more luck for me, I had some in the fridge, along with a dollop of cream cheese. So, there I was with a decadent filling of squash, cream cheese, sage, and nutmeg. Even more luck for me, Hubby (a very picky eater) loved it! He ate 3/4 of it!
Ingredients
1 small butternut squash (mine was 300 grams)
1 small cut of nagaimo (about 300 grams, too)
3 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons of cream cheese
1 tablespoon julienned or chopped sage
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups iced soda water (plain iced water is fine, too)
Oil for deep frying
1. Peel and slice the butternut squash and rub it with butter. You can bake it in the oven but I just stick in the oven grill for 20 minutes. When done put in a mixing bowl. Add the cream cheese, sage, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. (Actually, I would love to use parmesan and gruyere in lieu of the cream cheese, but alas, I didn’t have them at hand. Fortunately, the cream cheese gave great results!) Mash everything together into a fine paste and set aside.
2. Wash and peel the nagaimo. Slice them into about 3 milimeters thick round slices. When done, place about a tablespoon of the butternut squash filling spread out evenly in between two pieces of nagaimo. Kinda like making sandwiches.
3. Heat oil to medium hot then prepare batter. Prepare batter only when you are ready to do the frying. If the batter is left sitting for a long time, it will become doughy and heavy. Best to make it in small batches. Mix all-purpose flour with the iced soda water. It’s sorta like tempura batter. Doesn’t need to be mix till smooth. A few lumpy dry flour clumps will make it crispier.
4. Dip the nagaimo in the batter and slowly slide into frying pan. The nagaimo is very slippery so take care when putting it into the pan. Fry both sides golden. Remove, drain, and serve immediately!
I love tomatoes despite the fact that it’s almost impossible to get decent ones in Thailand. But when I saw the Yaki Tomato no Pasta — grilled tomato pasta — recipe in the Japanese magazine Dankyu (August issue), I just couldn’t resist giving it a try. The tomatoes are grilled on the stove only long enough for the skin to curl. The skin is then removed and the tomatoes are mashed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cooked pasta is then mixed in. This would have been great had I have any access to ripe juicy sweet tomatoes. Unfortunately we’re talking Thailand. Slightly decent tomatoes are all we get. Even those with promising (but misleading) monikers like Red Honey are major disappointments. There is not a hint of sweetness as the name suggests. Of course there are succulent imported varieties from Japan but you do pay through the nose for it. Momotaro, one of the two varieties (the other one is Mini Fruit) that I like cost about 1 euro for a tomato the size of an infant’s fist. When I do splurge like that I much prefer snacking on it my Ahma’s (Chinese for grandma) way. She would slice juicy plump tomatoes and sprinkle with them dried plum powder for me to snack on. Even while writing this I can still remember the perfect mix of the tomatoes’ sweetness with the slightly salty and sour plum powder!
Back to the pasta……. Incidentally the preceding page shows a recipe for grilled/baked tomatoes with Balsamic Vinegar (I omitted it in the recipe) and, yea, put the two together and we’ve got Baked Tomato Pasta! I actually like this recipe and will be making it more often. You get the fresh taste of the tomatoes but also slightly cooked flavor. For extra crunch, I added toasted pine nuts, and lardon. Baked garlic is also thrown in. For this recipe, I find that it works fine with Thai-grown tomatoes. The one that I got for this recipe is called Dutch Meat (guess where the variety is from) in Thai……for once they got the right name. It was juicy and meaty!
Ingredient
60 grams pasta of your choice
Tomato(es) of your choice (Mine came to about 200 grams)
1 clove garlic
1/2 or more tablespoon of julienned basil
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
1 tablespoon pan-fried lardon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
1. Preheat oven at 160C. Wash and cut the tomato in half. You don’t even have to peel it. After being baked the skin will slip off easily. Place on a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the garlic with olive oil and wrapped in foil. Put both garlic and tomato in oven and bake for at least 30 minutes. The tomato will be a little runny after 30 minutes. Continue baking longer if you prefer it to be a little “saucier” (check after another 20 minutes).
2. Remove the tomato and garlic. Mash the garlic with the back of the a spoon in a large mixing bowl. If you do not like tomato seeds, scope them out with a spoon. It’ll come off easily. I love the seed and pulpy part so I mash everything with the garlic, salt, pepper, and more olive oil. Set aside.
3. Cook pasta until al dente or longer depending on how you like it. Drain and mix with the above. Throw in the pine nuts, lardon, basil, and it’s done!
Otherwise known as Snow Taro (Peuk Hima) in Thai. It’s easily available in most Chinese restaurants in Thailand but surprisingly, you can also order it at Seafood Market. I have always wanted to try making this dish but am told the timing is extremely difficult to master. A couple of months ago I happened to tune into a cook show (can’t remember which) that was making this dish. The chef whose name and restaurant he works in I happen to forget (sorry, chef!), had added a twist to the dish by adding coconut milk. That intrigued me so I did a quick search on the internet and read up on it in a couple of my Thai-Chinese cookbooks. It didn’t seem that difficult. Yet, I spend the whole afternoon working on it.
The first mistake I made was not wearing gloves when peeling the taro. It made my hands itch like crazy! The second was adding the coconut milk and water right from the beginning. The coconut solids burned before the sugar had a chance to crystallize. And lastly it took me three times to get the timing right – the taro sticks have to be added just when the sugar starts to crystallize and no later than that or it won’t coat the taros. (I also ran out of cilantro roots by the third try, so I used cilantro leaves instead. That is why you see green specks in the picture.) Still, it’s not that difficult, really. If I can do it in three tries, I am sure more seasoned cooks than I am can master it in one go. 
The main difference between the recipes that I found on the internet and those found in Chinese restaurants here is the addition of cilantro roots and scallions. I am not sure if this is an influence from the Thai-Chinese community (mostly from Teochiu) or a purely Thai influence. Either way, they taste better with the cilantro roots and scallions. I adapted the recipe from the Thai cookbook, Hua Seng Heng (Saengdad Publishing) and added the coconut milk.
Ingredients
1 taro (Mine came to about 510 grams)
1 cup water
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon pounded cilantro roots
1 teaspoon chopped scallions (use only white part)
Pinch of salt
1. Wash and peel taro (wear gloves, please!) Cut them into 1×1 cm thick and 4 cm long sticks. Any thinner they will break easily when fried.
2. Fry the taros in medium heat. Do not let them turn yellow or brown. Again, the recipes on the internet say to fry till golden but the cookbook says otherwise. Granted I have never had this dish outside of Thailand, it’s never fried golden here. It ain’t called Snow Taro for no reason! You will know the taros are done when they float to the surface. It will still be white with a thin crispy skin and soft inside. (See picture below.) Set aside when done.
3. Set a frying pan (a wok is best but I don’t have any, yet (!!!!)) on medium heat. Pour in the water, sugar, salt, cilantro, and scallions. Mix well. Then comes the vigilant and tricky part. Keep close watch as the sugar turns a very thick syrup and starts to crystallize on the sides of the pan. This will take about 20-25 minutes. Picture below is when the sugar just about to crystallize and turn syrupy.
Add in the coconut milk at this point. Stir and mix well. I would have love to show you the more crystallized pictures but I didn’t have the time to run for the camera. In less than a minute after adding in the coconut milk, the syrup will begin to crystallize fast. At this point, put in the taro sticks. Quickly stir and coat them well. Remove from heat and watch as the sugar magically crystallize on the taro. Remove and arrange on plate. (I waited too long the first time. The sugar burned and turned into a lovely coconut caramel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use it……it would have become Mud Taro.)
4. Scrap and mash the rest of the crystallized sugar. Pour on top of the taro and serve.
Tomorrow marks the last day of the Vegetarian Festival! Not that I am keeping count. I quite like being on veggie mode despite sneaking in meat every so now and then…….not on purpose, though. I am the only one in the house going “green” and since I am too lazy-assed to cook everyday I don’t want to give the maid extra work, I ate meat. But today, the cooking bug got me again and Fried Water Mimosa Noodles it is! Shrimp and/or ground pork are usually added to the dish, but I substituted with shiitake mushrooms instead.
Water mimosa’s stalks are covered with a white foam-like whatever-you-call-it thing. Most Thai supermarkets sell them already removed if not, remove them. It’s inedible. Use only the tender leaves and stalks. This is where food becomes sexy. You need to feel it. Don’t use a knife. Break off the stalks and leaves into pieces much like snapping beans, and discard the tough ones.
Ingredients
50 grams rice vermicelli soaked
40 grams water mimosa
Oil for stir frying
2 large shiitake mushrooms julienned
4 cubes of fermented bean curds
3 or more bird’s eye chili
1/2 tablespoon chopped shallots
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon palm sugar
2 teapoons tamarind paste (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Pound the garlic, shallots, palm sugar and fermented bean curd together. Mix in the tamarind paste and set aside.
2. In a pan, stir fry the mushrooms. Add above and the rice vermicelli. Stir quickly to prevent it from sticking to pan. Add in the water mimosa. Season with salt and pepper as needed. (Different brands of fermented bean curd vary in taste. You might not need to add salt.) Stir and mix everything well. Remove and serve. Simple, isn’t it?
With a twist that is. The annual Thai Vegetarian Festival started a few days ago. It lasts nine days but hard-core devotees began “cleansing” themselves by abstaining from alcohol, all animal products and pungent vegetables a week before. I used to mock it when I was younger. I can understand the meat abstinence but how does giving up garlic,onion, etc. gain one a place in heaven????? But, of course, now that I am older and supposedly wiser, I realize it’s more than that. Someone once explained to me that the smell of pungent food such as garlic often stays with you for hours after eating. For novice monks it can be a distraction when they are learning more esoteric meditations. True, true, true. I can’t even go to bed after a hearty meal full of garlic! While others claim since you are going to be “purging” yourself, why make yourself smell bad….
Abstaining from killing and partaking animal products for just nine days once a year probably can’t buy anyone a place in heaven but it’s a good start. I personally feel it’s a yearly reminder to be a better person, to live a good life, and to ponder on compassion for all living things…..and it really all begins with something as simple as what we put in our mouths…even then, my festivities are limited to just abstaining from animal products. Not quite ready to give up wine, yet, and heaven will just have to deal with the garlic smell. 
The best way to kick off the festival is to start with a dish that reminds one of the good fortunes in life. For me, the most poignant reminder would be Sweet Yam Congee. Ahma (grandma in Chinese) tells me it was a staple during the war and harsh economic times in the past in Taiwan. Rice was scarce and expensive. Sweet yam was added to rice to give it more “volume”. These days, war or no war, it has become a part of Taiwanese cuisine. Now back to the twist — I added pine nuts. I got this idea from my sister-in-law’s Korean mother-in-law (confused?) She (Korean mom-in-law) owns the best Korean BBQ restaurant in Bangkok. No kidding. Naturally, this means, we get a constant supply of amazing Korean food for free, of course. One of the freebies that I love is Korean pine nuts congee. I had never thought of adding pine nuts until recently. That nutty taste somehow brings out the yams’ sweetness even more. If you don’t like pine nuts, you can omit them. The congee is just as great without them!
Ingredients:
1 cup Taiwanese/Japanese rice (I personally think these two varieties are best for congee since they are softer and a little bit stickier)
150 grams of sweet yam
80 grams pine nuts (finely ground)
4 cups water
1. Peel and cut the yam into large coarse chunks. Forget about cutting it into cute little cubes. It will melt when simmered for a long time.
2. Wash rice until the wash water is clear. If you are cooking it on the stove (which needs constant surveillance), put the water to a boil. Add in the rice, yam, and ground pine nuts. Wait for the water to boil again, and turn the heat down to low. Stir from time to time to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom and burning. It will take about 30-45 minutes for it to become congee. Add more water if it becomes too thick, unless that’s how you like it. But if you have a rice cooker, just put everything into the rice cooker!
3. Normally, it is eaten with other dishes, but I find that it makes a wonderful breakfast on its own with some toasted sesame seeds, sea salt, and chopped scallions (Korean style).
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