international – Page 10

calamansi olive oil bread

Published on November 4, 2013February 5, 2015 by Lan | MoreStomach20 Comments

some weekends ago,
maybe it was two ago,
i had brunch with some of dw’s friends
i remember it was a blustery day
warm in the sunlight
cold in the shade
the kind of weather you felt
silly for toting a jacket
but foolish without a scarf

these friends of dw’s
had just returned from a jaunt out west
where they picked calamansi fruit
from their father’s tree
and shared with me
just the smell of these tiny citrus fruits
took me back to the time
i lived in manila
when my nanny made fresh calamansi juice everyday
a drink that wasn’t quite like lemonade
but had all the components to quench a thirst
that only childhood and tropical heat can produce

because our home now is nothing like
the heat the Philippines is known for
i like to utilize the oven much more often
than is necessary in the cooler months
there is always something to bake,
you know?
a cake
bread
roasting veggies
any reason at all to turn that knob
and so with that in mind
after a whirlwind 2 days in Charlotte
last weekend,
before the calamansi could go bad,
i used them in some breakfast cakes
to add a touch of sour and sweet
and all good things reminiscent of
the tropics
these cakes were born.

edit to add: felicia of dish by dish adapted this recipe, found here.

calamansi olive oil bread
adapted from gourmet traveller, Sept 2011 issue

makes 12 mini loaves

300 g sugar
3 eggs
1 cup almond milk (any milk, animal or otherwise)
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice 11 calamansi (that’s how many i had… alternatively, you can use juice of 3 lemons)
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder

preheat oven to 350F

in kitchen aid mixer, beat sugar, eggs and pinch of salt until thickened

combine the almond milk, olive oil and calamansi juice, mix. slowly add to egg mixture. add in the dried ingredients

divide among greased tins (i used my mini loaf pans, though i think cupcake/muffin tins would be fine, or just one loaf pan, but the baking time would be different).

bake for 13 minutes

allow to cool before removing from tins

serve warm or at room temp

best eaten day of, with coffee or tea, or if you can’t possibly eat them all in one sitting, wrap well in plastic wrap, will keep for the week in fridge

chicken masala

Published on September 12, 2013September 11, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach10 Comments

it’s not yet autumn
but i suppose it’s unofficially fall,
what with school already started,
the daily commute with the added 10 minutes
due to kids ambling with textbook laden backpacks
and yellow school buses dotting the neighborhoods
the ac has been turned off at night
as the temperatures dip into the delicious 60s,
our windows flung open to cool the abode
only to be shut the moment i open my eyes from slumber
as i haul ass to shower in the morning,
shivering and silently lamenting the passing of summer
already the trees are shedding their leaves
the morning is darker still when i rise

these are dw’s months
autumn is his favorite season
you can tell a lot about a person
by what their favorite season is
i like the summer months
hot and heady and sweaty and messy
golden days with humidity to exhaust even the staunchest
and healthiest of beasts
(i’ll leave it to you to figure out what kind of person
i am with that description!)
but man, when september hits,
leading into october
the air has a crunch of apples
and cinnamon breezes,
cool to the skin but warming to the core
fall makes me feel drowsy
but frantic all the same
i am holding out for an indian summer
desperate for july & august
whilst trying to bask in what the coming days could bring

and what is coming in these days
are stews and soups
and hearty one pot dishes
that require ingredients thrown into a pot
set on low
and simmered all the long day

if you can’t tell
i’ve been on an indian kick lately
(truth be told, i’d make afghani food if i could
find a reputable cookbook or blogger,
that cuisine is so underrated)

for this dish,
amrita says you must have this recipe in your life
i completely and wholeheartedly agree
i started the process saturday night
cooked it on sunday
and as i’m typing this, wednesday,
i have one portion left for lunch

chicken masala
adapted from the subjectivist

*note: we (i mean, dw) chopped an entire bird. we get our poultry from a local farm every two weeks and i will tell you, this past summer with this csa has been an exercise in coming up with interesting chicken recipes. i wanted to make use of every part of the chicken, with bones. i can’t imagine not having bone-in. i’m just saying.
**note: i completely and utterly forgot to add chili. i know. so there was no heat but it was still incredibly good. also, i like my chicken to fall off the bone tender so i cooked it on low for longer than amrita’s version.

1 whole, organic grass fed chicken, about 3-4lbs, chopped with bone in

for the marinade:
1 black cardamom pod
half cinnamon stick
1 tsp nutmeg (i don’t have whole pieces of the stuff)
2 tsp of fennel seeds
3-4 cloves
3 TBL of white vinegar
1 tsp of ground turmeric

2 large tomatoes
2 TBL vegetable oil
2 large cloves of garlic
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1/4 cup of coconut creamer (i use So Delicious)
Salt

in a frying pan, dry toast the black cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, fennel seeds, and cloves. don’t get crazy and burn it. add mixture to a spice grinder, again don’t get crazy, you’re not going for a powder, just a slighlty coarse-fine mix is good (i know, it’s confusing, go for in btwn the two textures.) add to big bowl with vinegar and turmeric. then add in the chicken pieces, you want to coat the pieces well. cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge overnight.

next day: take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before starting the whole cooking thing. you want the chill to be off the meat/bones prior to adding it to the hot pan.

on the stove bring a pot of water to boiling. criss cross cut the butt ends of the two tomatoes, add to the water and cook for about 5 minutes. you want the tomatoes to be just submerged in the water. remove the tomatoes and put into blender/vitamix. reserve 1/2 cup of the water, discarding the rest. blitz the tomatoes, skin included, into a puree.

meanwhile, in the same pot, add a bit of oil and saute the garlic and onion slices. season with salt & pepper, and cook until nice & brown. remove from heat and grab the mixture of onions & garlic to add to the blender/vitamix. blitz with the tomato puree.

using the same pot, that will have residual oil (add more if you need) brown the chicken pieces. you may have to do it in batches. don’t crowd the pot. when done, lower the heat, throw all the browned chicken pieces back into the pot, add the tomato/onion/garlic puree, along with the reserved 1/2 cup of water. simmer on low heat. add in the coconut creamer, mix, ignore for anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour. season to taste. per the original recipe, this is a slightly dryer dish. i will admit to missing the gravy.

serve with naan.
it’s great the day of, but even better the ensuing days.

other indian inspired dishes:
morestomach blog – coconut egg curry
morestomach blog – vegan indian feast
bon appetit hon – butter chicken
manger – butter chicken + peshawari naan

tofu gyoza

Published on August 29, 2013August 28, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach18 Comments

you guys,
the time is drawing closer
so close i can almost
touch it

i will warn you:
in the coming weeks
this space will vomit
love stuff

no fear,
i’ll still have recipes,
a few crafty things,
hopefully pretty
pictures
but my stories
will be mainly
about the last two
years
to the culmination of
you know:
Ball & Chain Time y’all!

i guess i should start
with how we met
but before that,
i do want to acknowledge the
almost 1 year i was Single
i took deliberate time off
from serious dating
i fostered relationships
and god bless,
i confronted being alone
i also reveled in being
Cantankerous

from the moment i left home
i began dating in earnest
i’m what you would call a
Serial Monogamist
and so when i found myself
not being attached
it was daunting

fast forward to the moment i
decided that wading into
the dating pool was something
i wanted to do again
(i was in spain at the time)
it was like a new year’s resolution of sorts

and like how i conduct
the majority of my days,
how my everyday life is,
i met the love of my life
online

in the swimming pool of
Online Dating
i pretty much dove into the
deep end
i gave myself 3 months
and should nothing happen
i was going to take another
break
lo & behold
3 weeks in,
4 guys later,
dw emailed me
and that was that

Tofu Gyoza
*note: i purposefully made the filling bland. my favorite part of eating dumplings/dimsum/wontons/gyoza is the various dipping sauces i can choose from. drowning these little gems in sauce is fun. for this particular meal, i kept it simple with 1:1 of soy sauce & rice wine vinegar, a healthy pinch of sugar & a light drizzle of sesame oil. you can certainly dip in plum/hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, whatever.

1 packet round wonton wrappers
1 container of firm tofu
half an onion, diced
1 knob of ginger, minced
1 garlic glove, minced
1/4 cup of sliced wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted in warm water
2 oz somen noodles, cooked according to package instructions
2 tbl soy sauce
1 tbl rice vinegar
1 tbl sesame oil
1 tsp sugar

except for the wonton wrappers, in a bowl, mix everything together. you want the mixture to be clumpy, not a wet mess. the cooked somen noodles will act as a binder

with the wonton wrappers, put a small amount, about a tsp in the middle. wet the edges with water, fold over. and if you’re feeling fancy, pleat them. you want the gyoza to sit up so shape them to be able to sit up but make sure the seams stick

heat up a pan with a bit of sesame oil. put the gyoza in a fan-like pattern in the pan, fry them until the bottoms are nice and crispy. pour in 1/4 cup of water and cover, being careful of splatters. steam for about 5 minutes and remove lid, making sure all the water has evaporated

other dumplings/wontons/gyozas:
angry asian creations – wonton soup
angry asian creations – wonton noodle soup
delicious shots – vegetable potstickers
wandering chopsticks – a variety of dumpling recipes
the little kitchen – (who completely influenced me by via her instagram) chinese potstickers

vietnamese pickled carrots + daikon

Published on August 20, 2013August 20, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach11 Comments

if you know me at all
you know that i can’t make coffee
to save my life
or dw’s
i laugh when i think i
used to argue,
vehemently,
with nuria about my coffee making skills
to be fair, she’s a coffee
aficionado
i think she’s been drinking the
stuff since being weened
off the boob

anyway,
i’m not a fussy person
i don’t require a fancy contraption
to brew my cup
nor do i need the best
java
i’ve tried measuring the
amount of grounds to water,
it’s usually too strong,
still
and um. honestly
i’ve been going with the
is the coffee looking super
dark & sludgy? method

all this to tell you:
i’m capable of putting
crap in my body,
that i can consume
sub-par tasting stuff
like a champ
and that not everything i make
comes out golden
or perfect

when i started this space i
promised myself that i would show
the good stuff
the bad stuff
and the ok stuff
today it’s the ok stuff
pickled carrots & daikon
is yet another condiment
that’s added to banh mi
to vermicelli noodle bowls
to summer rolls
i made this for a catering
thing i did last month,
my first!,
i used it to accent
banh mi bruschetta

it came out ok
not the best
certainly, not the worst
just not right
which is ok
consumable
edible
thank goodness i only
have 3 more jars of the stuff left

again, i adapted this recipe.

lamb larb

Published on June 3, 2013June 12, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach16 Comments

many many (and many) years
ago
i lived in thailand.
it was during my
formative years
so please know
i will not be able to provide
any kind of reference for
the best street food
but i can tell you that
they really are the
land of smiles.

we have plans to honeymoon
there
with the goal of
this
until then, i console myself
with this salad

this really simple thai salad
can be prepared ahead of time
be served hot
or at room temp
any ground meat will do
and other than the random
cleaning of herbs
very simple to put together

what’s your favorite thai dish?

lamb larb

1 lb organic ground lamb
1/4 white onion (red would be better) thinly sliced
1/4 cup water
2 stalks of green scallions/onions, diced
handful of kale, washed & rough chopped (sooooo optional, omit if authenticity is your thing)
3 TBL lime juice
3 TBL fish sauce
dried red pepper flakes
1 thai chili
cilantro leaves and mint, washed & dried, amount according to preference
1/8 cup of toasted rice powder (recipe/instructions follow)

toasted rice powder

1/8 cup of rice or gluttonous rice

dry roast in pan over medium heat until turns a light brown. grind in spice grinder until powder-ized.

cook ground lamb in skillet with no oil, with a wooden spoon be sure to separate the big chunks. go for medium heat, if you go too high it’ll caramelize the meat and that’s not the goal. cook through. at this point, i usually strain the meat of any excess oil/fat. the dish is supposed to be juicy so i add water, it’s up to you. return the meat back to the pan, add in the green onions and kale (this is just *my* addition because i had an excess of the stuff in the fridge, this is very optional) and cook until wilted.

take off heat, add in the onion slices, mix it through. allow to cool and then season with lime juice and fish sauce. season according to taste, i went with 3 TBL of each but you can certainly add more or less. i also added a dash of red pepper flakes and diced thai chili for pretty color. right before serving i add in the mint and cilantro leaves and top with rice powder.

this dish can be served at room temp or hot, with lettuce leaves or sticky rice.

others who’ve made this:
shesimmers
wandering chopsticks