Khao Tom Thai Rice Soup

Given how much I always thought I hated congee, I find it pretty shocking how much I now enjoy it.  I haven't tried it in many restaurants because I'm still a little weirded out by ordering rice gruel with a potential surprise inside, but I love making it at home.  We don't do it very often, but that's because I tend to forget all about it until hit with an intense congee craving.  Usually that happens when it is cold out and I am feeling under the weather.  I swear this stuff is almost better than chicken noodle soup.

This congee is in some ways not that different from the Rice Soup, Khmer Style we made a year ago (both use ground pork and Southeast Asian ingredients like fish sauce and lemongrass), except that this congee added tofu and was even more flavorful, which I expected given we used a homemade broth that was very flavorful in and of itself.  I also liked the texture of this congee better because it wasn't quite as thick.  You could totally play with this recipe to adjust the seasonings and ingredients if you felt like playing around in the kitchen (or if your kitchen is simply missing one or more ingredients).  If you're not a fan of pork you could use ground chicken or turkey and if you wanted to be a little more Chinese (and less Southeast Asian) you could use ginger instead of lemongrass, peanuts instead of fried shallots and a combination of soy sauce and salt instead of fish sauce.  You could also omit the Thai chili if you're not a fan of spicy food.  Personally, I thought the dusting of Thai chili gave it the perfect kick, which was muted by the congee, but gave it a little extra zing.

Recipe after the jump!

Rice Soup, Khmer Style

It seems a little ridiculous that we are taking a break from our (Belated) Chinese New Year meals to make a Cambodian version of congee (a traditional Cantonese rice porridge), but Alex is sick and it's gross and snowy outside so I really wanted to make congee.  After watching Chrissy Teigen make a Thai version of pork congee on Eric Ripert's YouTube series, On the Table, I wanted to make pork congee.  And it just so happened that Hot Sour Salty Sweet had a recipe for a Cambodian congee with pork and a bunch of other deliciousness.  So I decided that we could take today off from Chinese food and make some Khmer-style congee.  

Congee is homey and comforting (and thus, good sick day food).  And when you throw in all of the garnishes that are typical of Southeast Asian cuisine, it can be quite delicious (which appeals to everyone who isn't sick, namely myself, and some of those who are).  Fish sauce, chilis, herbs, limes and fried shallots are a lot more fun than just scallions and sesame oil.  I'm not knocking Cantonese congee in the slightest - I'm just saying that sometimes Southeast Asian congee recipes are a nice way to mix it up.  While the congee was cooking I got a little worried that it wouldn't have enough liquid - that it would be wallpaper paste rather than porridge.  And it definitely started to veer off in that direction.  We ended up adding a little more liquid to loosen it all up a little, but I have adapted the recipe to include an extra 1-2 cups of water during the cooking process.  Note that we used a ridiculously large Le Creuset to cook out congee (which allowed a lot of water to evaporate and necessitated 2 additional cups of liquid) and if we had used a smaller pan an additional 1 cup of water would probably have been sufficient.  It was still a little more of a solid than a soup after the liquid cooked off, but that's ok.  It was still warm, comforting and yummy.  The congee itself had really nice flavor from the combination of dried shrimp and pork.  I don't know that I necessarily like the flavor of pork congee better than chicken congee, but this dish made a really good case for pork.  Beyond the flavor of the soup itself, I thought that the garnishes and everything else on top of the congee really made the dish.  There is something to be said for being able to garnish a dish to suit your own tastes and preferences.  We made the fish sauce pretty spicy and it was awesome spooned on top of the congee.  But some people might not want quite that much spice.  And then I went pretty heavy on the Thai basil, cilantro and fried shallots because I absolutely love all of those flavors.  But again, some people might not.  For the record, I'm not usually a big fan of bean sprouts (they just don't do it for me because I don't feel like they add anything) but I thought they were perfect here.  They provided nice texture.  And with congee, one of the things that I really want is texture.  Obviously you want the congee to be flavorful, but a bowl of tasty porridge is still a little mushy and boring.  You need something to give it a little bite.  The bean sprouts, fried shallots and peanuts all added a necessary textural contrast (as well as more flavor) to the congee. 

Recipe after the jump!

Slow Cooker Korean Beef Stew with Napa Cabbage and Pickles

Alex and I have a rather glorious All-Clad slow cooker in the closet that we almost never use.  I am determined to change that this winter.  I want to make at least one batch of slow cooker chili and at least one stew (or other braised dish).  I guess this recipe would take care of the stew, but let's get a little crazy and make another stew because why not?  But seriously, a slow cooker is brilliant for a lazy Sunday wintertime meal.  You throw it together in the morning (or the afternoon) and wander off for a few hours.  And later that evening you end up with something warm and hearty.  Today we started putting dinner together around 3:30 pm.  After we seared up the beef and threw it in the slow cooker, we took the dog for a long walk and hung out on the couch for awhile.  And then around 7:30 pm dinner was ready!  This recipe was fairly labor-intensive for a slow cooker recipe - there were several stages and several pots used, but it simmered away unattended for 3 plus hours, which was nice.  The dish that finally emerged from the slow cooker was warm, rich and comforting - perfect for a slightly chilly lazy Sunday.  It had a rich meaty flavor from the beef and the beef stock, plus a nice sweetness to the broth overlayed with the aroma of toasted sesame oil.  With each bite you got shreds of sweet cabbage, hunks of tender beef, steamed rice, and the slight crunch of bean sprouts.  My favorite element might have been the pickles.  I really loved the how the pickles provided lovely little bursts of acidity and a little heat.  And they held up a lot better once we added them in the slow cooker than I thought they would.  I took a few bites and told Alex to break out the kimchi because I thought the kimchi would be a nice spicy side and would provide some complimentary (but absent) flavors and a nice textural contrast.  When I asked Alex what he thought about the stew he said (and I quote) "I think it was very good - I think serving it with kimchi made it better." 

Recipe after the jump!

Brussels Sprout Fried Rice with Crispy Cauliflower

Alex disagrees with me on this - but this dish was my favorite thing we have made all week.  He preferred the Fish-Fragrant Eggplant (Yu Xiang Qie Zi). And it was vegan!  I'm not saying that I want to be vegan (or vegetarian for that matter), but I thought it bore mentioning that this recipe is vegan.  Alex said he would have liked the dish more if we added some finely chopped egg pancake (which we briefly considered doing until we realized that we were out of eggs).  I get where he is coming from, but I don't think the lack of egg hurt the dish at all.  I think the addition of egg would be tasty, but I don't know that it would unduly improve the recipe for me.  My favorite thing about the dish was that the flavors were simple, but fantastic - slightly spicy, salty and full of vegetable goodness.  This is the type of dish I would make for myself all the time if Alex weren't around - I love plates or bowls full of roasted vegetables.  And brussels sprouts and cauliflower are among my absolute favorites.  Instead I have to settle for eating this kind of dish occasionally because it's not really his thing.  He is a good sport about it, but there are other dishes (most of them Asian, pork-based or spicy) that he would prefer.  But that's ok.  I just have to sneak in my roasted vegetable fixes at lunch since he is not around!

Recipe after the jump!

Madhur Jaffrey's Shrimp Biryani

I have been wanting to make Indian food for a few weeks now.  But something always got in the way.  Tonight we finally had the opportunity to make some biryani.  Biryani is a dish that I have enjoyed at restaurants in the past (although I typically eat chicken biryani rather than shrimp biryani), but I have never attempted to make it at home before.  Madhur Jaffrey is my go-to Indian chef so I decided that I had to use one of her recipes for my first attempt at biryani.  One of our Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks contains a recipe for lamb biryani, but I found this recipe online at Serious Eats.  Since we had shrimp in the freezer and shrimp is healthier than lamb, I decided to go with the shrimp biryani, rather than the lamb.  Another benefit of making shrimp biryani rather than chicken or lamb biryani is that a biryani with meat takes far longer to cook.

Alex and I are agreed that the biryani was good, but not our favorite Indian dish that we have made.  The shrimp had nice flavor, but the rice was less flavorful than Alex had hoped.  We added a little more lemon juice to the shrimp, which I think was a nice touch, but I wish we had added a little more cilantro to the rice as well.  It also occurred to me after the fact that we could have added some mango pickle (like they do at the biryani cart near my office) or something else to the dish to give it some kick.  Maybe next time?

Recipe after the jump!

Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa

Even though I am typically not a fan of black beans I was really drawn to this recipe.  It just sounded so interesting - so different from the things we typically make.  And if we had made the recipe as intended (using a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of roasting our own chicken breasts), it would have been a fairly quick and easy meal to throw together, so that was another draw.  As it turns out, I actually like black beans.  Or at the very least, I really liked these particular black beans.  My main problem with black beans is that they are often starchy and muddy tasting, with a really mushy texture.  These were really flavorful and we left them pretty much intact so they still had a little texture.  We added some serrano chilis to the black beans and the salsa to give it all some kick and I think that touch was key.  A little spice can work wonders for me.  The beans went really nicely with the chicken, the apple salsa and the brown rice.  I thought it all just worked really nicely together.  Alex and I were both surprised by how flavorful the dish was.  He actually liked it so much that he brought in the leftover beans, rice and apple salsa to work - even though he thought it made him look like a hobo since that entire portion probably cost less than $0.50.

Recipe after the jump!

Fried Rice with Chicken and Chinese Sausage

When I was younger I hated fried rice.  I'm not sure why I hated it, except that (1) I loved plain white rice and I thought putting things in it or on it (including soy sauce) ruined it and (2) I disliked cooked carrots and peas so I couldn't understand why you would add them to any dish.  It took me years to grow to appreciate fried rice and even now, I have to admit that I prefer plain white rice with any meal.  I'm happy to eat fried rice as a meal in and of itself, but if I am going to order family-style and share a bunch of dishes with friends or family, I would prefer to stick with plain white rice as the accompaniment to my meal and not fried rice.  True story.  So I almost never order fried rice at a restaurant because I just don't see the point.  Somehow it is an entirely different story at home, where we make fried rice from time to time.  But I think that fried rice serves a purpose for me at home that it doesn't serve at a restaurant.  Fried rice for me is an amazing way to repurpose leftovers (both rice and protein) and is also a comforting, homey meal.  At restaurants I generally want meals that I cannot or for whatever reason prefer not to make at home.  Somehow in my mind, fried rice is not a restaurant-quality dish.  And to be perfectly honest, so many restaurants make such inferior, mediocre fried rice that I wouldn't order it even if I considered it to be a restaurant-quality dish.  I guess that's the rice snob in me rearing its ugly head.  This fried rice is wonderful because it has a variety of flavors and textures - I love the chunks of egg, the sweet sausage and the marinated chicken.  And you can really modify it to suit whatever it is that you have in the fridge.  No peas?  No problem.  I considered adding some dried shiitake mushrooms like we did in this Stir-Fried Rice with Pork and Shiitake Mushrooms, but I got lazy.  I also considered adding more soy sauce or other liquids to season the rice itself like we did in this Thai Fried Rice and this Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage and Chicken Adobo.  But I generally prefer my fried rice on the dry side and I wanted a more clean/pure fried rice, so I left the soy sauce out as well.

Recipe after the jump!

Chicken Congee

Most Cantonese people I know think of congee as comfort food.  Up until last night I thought of congee as old people food.  When I was a child I hated anything that was the consistency of gruel or porridge.  I couldn't stand oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, or congee.  I was convinced that all of those things tasted like wet cardboard and were just gross.  But then I went off to college and discovered that I actually liked grits.  And then about two years ago I discovered that I really like oatmeal.  I have to make a disclaimer when stating that I like oatmeal.  I like my oatmeal flavored with brown sugar and topped with lots of fruit.  So it's not like I inhale bowls of plain oatmeal every day for breakfast.  Now that I know that I actually like oatmeal and grits when they have some flavor, I decided to go back and try congee again.  But I wanted to make my own so I knew exactly what went in it and I could make it flavorful enough to override my initial dislike.  So I poached some chicken breasts with ginger and scallions to start a stock and then took a shortcut to making real stock by adding some chicken bouillon.  In my defense, I didn't have the time to make a real stock, or the quantity of chicken parts.  Then I slightly undercooked my congee so that my rice wasn't as gruel-like and mushy as the congee that I remembered from growing up.  I also took another shortcut before cooking the rice of rinsing it and soaking it.  Rinsing the rice helps to remove the extra starch (so that it wasn't quite as crazily thick) and soaking the rice helps it to cook faster.  What resulted was a really flavorful and comforting bowl of chicken congee that I would be happy to eat any day.  It was the perfect sick food - warm, lightly seasoned with ginger and scallion, and hearty.  I served my congee with scallions, cilantro, fried shallots and sesame oil for garnish (basically the same things that I garnish my Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup with).  I know that other people use different garnishes, but that was what I wanted (and what we had in the apartment) so that was what we used.  And since it was delicious, that is probably what I will stick with in the future.

Hurray for discovering foods that I didn't think that I liked, but actually like quite a bit, and that I can make good congee at home for myself!  Maybe I will try out my recipe on my mom sometime and see if it gets her approval.  If she likes it then I know I have a winner on my hands!

Recipe after the jump!

Ginger-Cilantro Rice

I love rice.  Even if I didn't love rice, we would eat it all the time in our apartment because Alex is verging on obsessive about rice.  He has eaten big bowls of plain buttered rice before.  Just rice with a little butter, s&p.  That's it.  I'm telling you, he's crazy about his rice.  Because I'm not quite that crazy, this isn't plain buttered rice.  Instead this is a fancy rice tossed with a ginger-cilantro-scallion sesame oil mixture.  I guess the lesson learned is that Alex goes plain and homey, I go fancy.  I really wanted this rice to go with the Miso-Marinated Chilean Sea Bass.  I originally wanted to make brown rice, but I thought that it would be fun to serve the sea bass with a more flavorful/interesting alternative.  I wish there had been a more balanced flavor profile to this rice.  The flavor and aroma of the sesame oil was a little overwhelming.  And it almost tasted a little bitter or acrid.  I assume that is from the sesame oil because there weren't any other ingredients in the rice that could result in that bitter flavor.  I wanted this rice to have more of the flavor of the herbs and less of the sesame oil.  So if I were to make it again I would cut the amount of sesame oil in half.  You could taste the ginger, but not the cilantro or the scallion and those were the ingredients that I really wanted to taste.

Recipe after the jump!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that sounds like it should come from Hainan Island off the south coast of China, but I saw it far more in the week I was in Singapore than I ever did in China.  It's entirely possible that I just wasn't looking while I was in China, but there you have it.  Hainanese chicken rice has always reminded me of White-Cooked Chicken (aka Poached Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Sauce).  But I love White-Cooked Chicken, so that's a good thing.  In my mind there is no other way to cook chicken that leaves it that succulent and moist.  Alex's complaint is that poached chicken doesn't have the flavor of other chicken preparations, but I feel like nothing tastes more purely of chicken than poached chicken.  And if you love chicken the way I love chicken, that is a really good thing.  Granted, I always want poached chicken to be served with some sort of sauce (like a ginger-scallion sauce, or this spicy chili sauce).  As usual, Alex's complaint was that he wished the poached chicken had more flavor.  I thought it was delicious.  And I thought the spicy chili sauce that was served with it was also delicious.  It was spicy, bright and just a little sweet.  The one criticism of Alex's that I will agree with is that the flavors of the chicken are subtle and delicate enough that the sauce obscures the flavor of the poached chicken.  So use the sauce judiciously if you really want to taste the chicken.  But if you're going for spicy goodness, by all means dunk your chicken right in the sauce and go with that.  Either way you will have a wonderful meal.  

But (and I say this because I am trying to save you from repeating our mistakes) do not make the mistake of starting to cook at 7 or 8 pm.  If you do that you won't be eating until 9 or 10 pm because scrubbing the chicken, seasoning the chicken, and then poaching the chicken takes a long time.  It's fairly easy to do, but it does take awhile.  And I didn't read the recipe all the way through so I didn't realize just how long it would take when I proposed it.  I have a bad habit of doing that...  So unless you really do want to eat a late dinner (even by NYC standards), my advice would be to go ahead and get started on this bad boy on the early side.

Recipe after the jump!

Minced Lamb with Mint Stuffed Zucchini and Rice

I would rank this both as one of the most interesting and the most satisfying meals we have cooked recently.  I have never made stuffed zucchini (or any sort of stuffed vegetable with the exception of these Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms we made last month).  And I have never tried either of these recipes from Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey.  Madhur Jaffrey suggested stuffing her Minced Lamb with Mint into tomatoes before roasting the tomatoes in the oven, but I have a longstanding prejudice against stuffed tomatoes.  I really don't enjoy them.  Alex and I both really enjoy zucchini and Google turned up all sorts of stuffed zucchini recipes when I searched.  Plus stuffed tomatoes are all gross and mushy.  So I decided that stuffed zucchini sounded like a better option.  And I decided that we should make some fancy rice rather than plain basmati rice.  I really prefer plain basmati rice, but I know that Alex really enjoys spiced rice so every once in awhile a try to throw him a bone.  And this rice was really nice.  The sweetness and floral quality of the spices was a nice counterpoint to the spicy lamb mixture.  As for the lamb, it was just delicious.  It had some serious heat, but the spice wasn't  overpowering.  You could still taste the aromatics and the spices in every bite.  The zucchini really soaked up some of those intense flavors, but still provided a nice textural counterpoint to the ground lamb mixture.  It was just a really really nice dish.  Both the lamb and the rice take some time and effort, but they are more than worth it.  The best endorsement that I can give for this meal?  I would make it again and I wouldn't change a single thing.  It really was that good.

Recipes after the jump!

Korean Rice Bowl with Steak, Asparagus and Fried Egg

After a few weeks of working late and not being able to cook, it has been pretty exciting to be able to cook dinner every night since Monday.  I have weeks of recipes that have piled up on me, just waiting for me to have some free time to cook.  This take on bibimbap was one of the ones that I have been dying to make.  Given how excited I was to make this dish, it's not at all surprising that this is my favorite dish we have made this week by far.  To use Alex's favorite phrase when he really likes something we made it was "kind of awesome."  I concur.  It was kind of awesome.  All of the ingredients worked perfectly together - the sesame salt on the asparagus, the marinated flank steak, the fried egg with the runny yolk and the fluffy white rice.  The Korean hot pepper paste added the perfect level of flavor and spice.  There are a few ingredients and a few steps (which requires the use of a few pans/pots), but it all comes together pretty quickly.  And every component to the dish plays off every other component in a way that really satisfies.  The dish is delicious - a real winner.  There is literally nothing I would change about it.  And that almost never happens.

Recipe after the jump!

Thai Fried Rice

I knew that during our streak of Thai meals I had to make a fried rice.  I love Thai fried rice.  And I love fried rice in general.  But when you're making this many meals with rice, it's inevitable that you will end up with some leftover rice and by the end of the week you should have more than enough leftover rice to whip up a batch of fried rice.  The past few meals have been chicken, beef and shrimp, so I figured we should go back to pork for the fried rice.  Originally I was going to serve the fried rice with either a tom yum soup or maybe some sauteed cabbage on the side, but in the end I decided that the fried rice could stand on its own.  And I'm glad I did.  Because if I had served anything as a side dish to this rice, it would have to be pretty darn good to compete.  Because this fried rice was pretty awesome.  I really liked the spritz of lime juice and the Thai Fish Sauce with Hot Chilis on top of the rice.  It really made the dish.  The freshness of the lime and the salty, spicy flavor of the fish sauce totally brought the rice up to another level in terms of flavor and complexity.  And really brought the whole dish together.  When you cut into the egg yolk and it oozed down into the rice it almost gave the fried rice a sauce and bound it all together.  I generally prefer to cook my egg into thin pancakes and then mix it in with the rice, but I think that for this dish the fried egg with the runny yolk was a much better choice than the egg pancakes.

Recipes after the jump!

Teochew Braised Duck and Coconut Basmati Pilaf

I originally planned on making this braised duck recipe as part of my Chinese New Year series of meals.  But I never got around to it.  Earlier this week I went by Fairway and picked up a duck and it occurred to me that we had all of the ingredients we needed to make the duck.  And even though we already finished our seven meals for Chinese New Year there was no reason not to make the duck.

I really like this duck, but there are two things I wish we had done.  First, I wish that after we finished braising the duck (and cooling it in the braising liquid), that we had seared it quickly in a screaming hot pan to crisp up the skin over the breasts a little.  Second, instead of making the chili-lime dipping sauce I would have made a simple Vietnamese salt, pepper and lime dipping sauce (made by combining kosher salt, ground white pepper and a healthy squirt of lime juice).  In Vietnamese restaurants the sauce is usually served alongside dishes like Bo Luc Lac (Shaking Beef), butter-fried frog legs, and roast quail.  I thought that the chili-lime dipping sauce here was a little one note and harsh and didn't complement the duck as well as the salt, pepper and lime dipping sauce would have.  The duck was slightly sweet, moist and very flavorful, if a little on the greasy side.  Granted it is duck, so it should be a bit on the greasy side.  You wouldn't believe how much duck fat rendered out during the braising process.  It was unbelievable.  As for the coconut rice, it was nice.  I might add a little more cardamom and ginger next time - particularly the ginger because neither Alex nor I tasted it at all.  I would also add a little more salt and 1 tsp of sugar to the rice, just to give it a hint of sweetness.

Recipes after the jump!

Stir-Fried Rice with Pork and Shiitake Mushrooms (Rou Si Chao Fan)

Fried rice has never enjoyed the prominence in China that it does in the United States.  While I was in China I really only saw fried rice served in the little noodle shop near my school in styrofoam containers, along with various stir-fried noodle dishes.  I don't recall ever seeing it in restaurants.  Not once!  But Alex and I like to make fried rice periodically because it's an excellent way to use up leftovers and to put together a quick and tasty meal.  It has never occurred to me before to use dried shiitake mushrooms in my fried rice, but I really liked that touch.  I think that I might incorporate those mushrooms into more of my fried rice recipes because I really liked that touch.  Dried shiitake mushrooms have a much deeper and earthier flavor than fresh shiitakes.  It's very umami.  I love egg and leeks in fried rice, so we threw those in there (even though the recipe didn't use them) as well.  I thought that the ground pork was really nice in here because it was more evenly dispersed than chunks or slices of pork would have been.  All in all, I really liked this rice and would make it again.  It's not earth-shattering, but it's flavorful and homey. 

P.S.  I have decided that my seven Asian meals for Chinese New Year is restricted to main courses and fried rice (and other sides) don't count.  So this is just a bonus!
 

Recipe after the jump!

Pork Vindaloo with Aromatic Yellow Rice and Spicy Cucumber Wedges

So our last few attempts at Indian food have been less than stellar.  We attempted to make a tandoori-style shrimp a few weeks ago and it tasted more like a shrimp scampi than anything else.  All you could taste was butter - nothing else.  And then we tried to make a spiced rice that was bland and overly wet.  The meal was not at all memorable, except in how mediocre it was.  It was an absolute and utter letdown.

But this Pork Vindaloo was everything that I love about Indian food - spicy, aromatic, and flavorful.  As I walked down the hall to our apartment I could smell it and I knew I was in for a treat.  I've never had a pork vindaloo before, nor have I ever cooked a vindaloo, so this was a first on several levels.  It was delicious.  But consider yourself forewarned - this dish is SPICY, just as all good vindaloos are.  The pork is nice and tender from the slow braise and falls apart with the slightest nudge from your fork.  But if you don't like spicy food, then I would not make this recipe.  I guess you could dial down the spice level by using sweet paprika instead of the Kashmiri red chili powder, but the heat is half the fun.  I will admit, I tend to prefer plain white basmati rice to any sort of spiced rice and this recipe for Aromatic Yellow Rice hasn't changed that.  While it is good and has a delicate, but discernible, bouquet of spices, I would still prefer some plain basmati rice.  Alex likes spiced rice more than I do and he said that the rice was a nice accompaniment to a meal because it's not so heavily spiced that it would overcome or compete with the flavors in your entree.  I can agree with that.  But I would probably still make plain basmati instead.  I thought that the Spicy Cucumber Wedges were a really nice and fresh side dish.  They had far more flavor than I had expected, given that they don't marinate at all before you serve them.  I loved the combination of the roasted cumin seeds, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and fresh cucumbers.  I think they would make such a wonderful dish at a potluck or a picnic!  Actually, I think that this entire meal would make a wonderful potluck or picnic meal.

Recipe after the jump!

Ginger Fried Rice

I have been eying this recipe for Ginger Fried Rice from Jean-Georges Vongerichten for ages.  The picture in his Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges cookbook is simply stunning.  But as with most recipes in his cookbook, the ingredient list for the fried rice was a little intimidating.  Rendered chicken fat is not something I often keep around the apartment.  But then I saw Mark Bittman's adaptation of the recipe on his blog, and I decided I no longer had any excuse for not giving the fried rice a shot at home.  Granted, this is the world's most complicated and precise recipe for fried rice, but both Jean-Georges (a man whose restaurants I have dined at numerous times and loved) and Mark Bittman assure me that the extra steps are "absolutely worth the effort."  Well ok then!

So yes.  I have to jump on the bandwagon and admit that the extra steps are completely and utterly worth the effort.  The crispy ginger and garlic bits are delicious, as is the yolk from the fried egg, which oozes so beautifully all over the rice.  It is so simple, but so very good.  This fried rice was the star of the day.  It doesn't look like much, but looks can be very deceiving because it is absolutely delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Cilantro Lime Brown Rice and Roasted Corn

Since we went a little overboard on the fajitas and the shrimp last night, we have a nice big hunk of steak leftover.  When I was trying to think of what to pair with it, the first thing that came to mind was cilantro lime rice, like they serve at Chipotle.  And when when I typed "cilantro lime rice" in my Google search engine all sorts of blogs and other recipes popped up.  Apparently I'm not the only one who loves that freaking rice.  It's delicious.  I guess I should have known or assumed that other people would have attempted to replicate the Chipotle rice at home in the past.  To go with our rice and steak, we decided to roast some corn.  Since Alex and I are trying to do the healthy thing and since we are out of regular basmati rice, I decided to try to make my version of Cilantro Lime Rice with brown basmati rice.  Generally I am not a fan of brown rice over white rice because it tends to take so much longer to cook and it tends to have an interesting toothsome texture, but I figured what the heck.  Rather than going out to the store to pick up some more white basmati rice, I might as well use what I have and pretend that I'm being healthy instead of just lazy.  Since I think that brown rice, like most whole grain versions of pasta, rice, etc., requires a little more seasoning to make it palatable, I cooked my rice in chicken stock instead of water.  You could just as easily use vegetable stock, but we had chicken stock so I used it.  I also threw in a little sauteed garlic and some chopped scallions in addition to the lime zest, lime juice, and chopped cilantro.

Overall, I would have preferred to use white rice instead of brown.  I just think that the nuttiness of the brown rice competed a bit with the flavors of the lime, cilantro and the scallions.  Also I think that white rice cooks up much fluffier than brown rice, no matter what type of rice it is.  All-in-all, I would make the rice again.  I would just try white rice instead and I think it would be a completely different dish.

The corn however was a great success.  I love elote - Mexican grilled or roasted corn smeared in mayonnaise with chili powder, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice.  It's messy, but unbelievably delicious.  However, I just can't justify the wanton use of mayo in my own kitchen so I made a modified version.  I think the corn tastes best when grilled so it can get the smoky flavor of grilling and the char from the flame.  This version lacks that smoky flavor and char, although I did try to impart some smokiness with the use of ground cumin, and also lacks the creamy goodness of the mayo but it is a wonderful summer side dish nonetheless.

Recipes after the jump!

Coconut Rice

Mangoes over coconut sticky rice is one of my favorite Asian desserts.  If we're being honest here, there are very few Asian desserts that are any good.  The Chinese like to throw beans in things and call it dessert (like baobing - Taiwanese shaved ice with beans, fruit and syrup).  But mangoes over coconut sticky rice is unbelievably delicious.  The idea to use coconut rice as a savory component to a meal, rather than as a dessert, came from Fatty Crab here in NYC.  They serve coconut rice with their chili crab and their mussels.  The coconut rice is also used in their nasi lemak and the Malay fish fry we tried there the other night.  So as a side for the Spiced Chicken with Coconut Cream we made the other night I decided to go ahead and make some coconut rice and serve it both as a more savory side and for dessert.  The texture of the coconut rice isn't the same as the sticky rice, thus it's not quite as dessert-like, but it makes an amazing side dish.  One that we will definitely be making more often.

Recipe after the jump!

Oyster Mushrooms and Asparagus Over Eggy Rice

So the thought of putting a raw egg yolk on rice and then mixing it up might not appeal to some.  If you're one of the people who is totally grossed out by that, no need to read any further.  But there are lots of dishes in which you serve a raw egg or raw egg yolk over some sort of rice or pasta and let the heat of the rice or pasta cook the egg.  For instance, that's how pasta carbonara is traditionally made.  And bimbimbap.  So when I had the negi tori don (charcoal broiled organic chicken with scallion and raw egg over rice) at Yakitori Totto recently it started me thinking why not make something like that at home?  Alex was a huge fan of the idea so today for lunch I gave it a shot.  For the record, Mark already beat me to the idea and made what I am calling eggy rice (for lack of a better term) for dinner last night.  Great minds think alike.  Or something.  For lunch today, I made a pot of steamed rice, and then I sauteed together oyster mushrooms and asparagus to serve with my rice, and tossed it all with a raw egg yolk.  I seasoned my vegetables liberally with shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) to give it some kick.  If you're not a huge fan of shichimi togarashi - the main ingredient of which is ground red chili pepper, you should cut back on the amount I used.  Voila!  A delicious, hearty, fairly healthy, vegetarian lunch.  I love it.  

Recipe after the jump!