Tom Yum Soup Recipe

Fragrant and distinct, the classic tom yum kung soup is a perfect blend of the most common Thai herbs and vegetables, many of which you may be able to grow in your own backyard.  Don’t have it all going in your garden just yet?  All of these ingredients can be found in Asian supermarkets, and most can be found in your well-stocked local supermarket.  Not only is this soup a delicious amalgamation of savory, tangy, and spicy tastes (if you’ve had this soup before, I know you’re craving it now just reading about it), it may have health benefits.  Ingredients such as shallots, chili peppers, lemongrass and galangal are touted as having immune-boosting properties.  Try it tonight or the next time you’re fighting a cold.  Serves 4.



Tom Yum Kung    

6 cups chicken stock

2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 5 inch sections, and bruised with a mallet

1 inch piece of galangal or ginger root, sliced

3 shallots, cut in half and crushed with the back of a knife

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 8-ounce can of straw mushrooms, rinsed

2 chili peppers, chopped

1 tablespoon chili paste

12 Large shrimp, peeled tail-on and deveined

1 lime, juiced

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons fish sauce

Handful of cilantro, coarsely chopped



Bring chicken stock to a boil over medium high heat.  Add lemongrass sections, galangal and shallots.  Tear the kaffir lime leaves halfway and add to pot.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add straw mushrooms, chopped chili peppers, chili paste, shrimp.  Add lime juice, sugar, fish sauce.  Simmer for a few minutes more until shrimp is cooked.  Remove from heat and garnish with cilantro to serve. Enjoy!

Buttermilk-brined turkey

Now if you know me, you know that I tend to be humble, but I make this statement with assurance and pride. I can make the best damn turkey. I've perfected this turkey after several years of modification and experimentation. Most importantly, each morning after Thanksgiving, I'm missing the 4am early bird sales because I am at home taking copious notes on what went well, what went wrong, and what should be tried to make the following year's turkey even better. With a cup of coffee in hand, I'm sure I annoy everyone as I conduct in-depth analyses, interviewing each family member on the intricacies of the turkey I just cooked the night before.


Here are my top three successful-turkey-cooking tips, followed by what is really what I've found to be THE recipe for the most tasty, succulent turkey. The recipe began as a Williams-Sonoma recipe for buttermilk-brined turkey, but has been modified a great deal. I'm also going to include my own time table for feeding about 10 guests on Thanksgiving. I ask my guests to arrive at 4pm, and we're usually ready to eat by about 4:30 or 4:45 pm. We usually eat on the early side because for all the years I've been cooking, kids and early bedtimes have been a factor.



OK, unless you can already cook a great turkey, you REALLY want to print this out and file it for next year! (I usually am fairly humble, right?)



Top three musts:

1. Must use a fresh organic turkey (not frozen!).


2. Buttermilk brine is the way to go. The combination of the buttermilk and the salty solution helps create a tender and juicy turkey.


3. An instant-read thermometer is the most important part of cooking any meat, but especially a turkey (any cheap one will do).

Ingredients:

1 14-16 pound turkey (for my table of about 10 guests with enough for leftovers)

2 cups turkey brine (usually a kosher salt and herb mixture. I've tried different brands, and any seems to work - you could make your own if you really wanted to)

4 quarts buttermilk

1 handful (total) of celery, carrot, onion cut in large pieces

1 stick of butter at room temperature

Large brining bag

6 tablespoons flour (for gravy)

About 1/3 cup Williams-Sonoma Turkey Paste (it's basically a thick mixture of grapeseed oil and dried herbs - you could easily make your own - and next year, I may try)

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Wednesday Morning - the day before Thanksgiving:

In a small saucepan over high heat, combine the 2 cups turkey brine and 1 quart water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring often, until the brine dissolves, about 5-10 minutes. Let the brine mixture cool to room temperature. While cooling, start the giblet stock.

For the giblet stock, use everything (including neck) except the liver. Simmer in a pot with 12 cups of water and the handful of veggies for 1 hour. Strain (unless you like the giblets in your gravy - I personally don't). Cool, then put away safely in the fridge for tomorrow.

While the stock is cooking and the brine is cooling, rinse the turkey inside and out and place in a large brining bag inside a pot (make sure you put in a pot or you could end up with a big mess if the bag breaks!). Be sure your pot will fit in the fridge.

Now that the brine is cool, add the brine liquid with all it's herbs, and the 4 quarts buttermilk to the bag with turkey. Zip it carefully, pressing out air, and shake it around a bit to completely coat the turkey. Refrigerate for 24-36 hours, turning occasionally (I do this by just taking the pot out and shaking it around a bit).

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Thursday (Thanksgiving Day)

• 12pm: discard buttermilk-brine. I do this by taking the bag out of the pot, putting it in the sink and clipping a corner of the bag. I drain the liquid first because this avoids any potential mess. Take the turkey out of the bag and rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water and pat dry. Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack in a large roasting pan. Carefully slide your hand between the breast meat and the skin and add a generous amount of turkey paste (or oil/herb mixture). Let the turkey stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Also, take the turkey stock and butter out of the refrigerator.
• 1:30pm: position a rack in the lower third of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Set aside 2 cups of stock to make gravy later on, and add the rest of the turkey stock to the bottom of the roasting pan. Rub butter on the outside of the turkey and then plop the stick right into the bottom of the roasting pan as well, right into the stock. Roast the turkey for 30 minutes, watching carefully that the skin does not brown too quickly. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F, and continue roasting, basting every 30 minutes or so with the pan juices. If the breast begins to brown too quickly, tent it loosely with aluminum foil. After about 2 hours of total roasting time, begin testing for doneness by inserting the instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the breast, away from the bone. The breast should register 165 degrees, and the thigh, 175 degrees. Here's the important trick - if the breast is not at 165, set your timer for 10 minutes and check again. Relying on the right temperature and not overcooking is KEY. Using the timer so you don't forget to check often is KEY. The turkey will be done around 4pm or so. If you have never cooked an fresh and organic turkey, you'll notice they often cook a little faster than frozen turkeys.
• When the turkey breast registers 165, remove from oven, transfer to a carving board, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 20-30 minutes.
• To make the gravy: pour all the pan drippings into a gravy separator (not imperative, but a worthwhile tool to have - even if you use it once a year!). Add about 6 tablespoons of fat to a medium saucepan. Add 6 tablespoons flour, whisking constantly and cook till brown. Add the remaining 2 cups turkey stock and drippings (the pan juices only - no more fat). You may need to play around with the gravy adding water/stock to thin or more of a flour/water (slurry) mixture to thicken. The pan juices will be very salty, so if you choose to add salt, taste first.

Last thoughts - This is the recipe that has worked for me consistently for a few years and was probably as close to perfected this year as it's going to get. I realize there are all sorts of prized recipes (and I'd love to hear them!) whether they involve basting with a soaked cheese cloth, the philosophy of no basting, or being deep fried in gallons of oil. If you don't already have a great recipe - the buttermilk brine is the method to try next year!

Oh, and don't forget - in the words of Moose from Nick Jr. "When everyone's together, everyone is happy, we're thankful that we have so much to share".

Hot chili paste (lot jiu jeung)

This flavorful hot chili paste goes hand in hand with fried Chinese dumplings, with any shrimp or pork dim sum dish, or on top of a bowl of noodles. Here's how I made this simple and delicious condiment:

1. Over a medium flame, heat about 1/2 cup oil (I used corn).
2. Add about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and fry until a light golden brown.
3. Reduce heat and add about 4 tablespoons of crushed, dried, hot pepper. Stir continuously and turn off flame when fragrant. This process is fairly quick. Watch carefully to be sure the pepper/garlic does not burn.
4. Add salt to taste.

The type of pepper you use will determine the flavor and heat of your chili paste. My dried cayenne peppers yielded a chili paste that was so manageable that my kids could try just a touch of it. It was also so delicious that we were microwaving hot dogs just to have something to eat with it. Another batch made with my Thai peppers yielded a chili paste that was all heat - to the point of being just painful.

Click here to see how I dried my peppers. If you don't want to delve into this recipe and have some good dim sum restaurants around, try asking for "lot jiu jeung" - the phonetic spelling for "hot chili paste" in Cantonese. Enjoy!

Panzanella salad - show off your summer bounty

I love this panzanella salad because I can put it together quickly without consulting a cookbook, because it tastes like summer on a plate, and because when my guests comment on how delicious it is (cause they always do), I can casually point out that the ingredients come from my garden. Don't believe me? Try it yourself. I'd like to know if they DON'T ooh and aah over it!

Toss together in a large bowl:

• french bread cubed and sauteed in a pan with olive oil and chopped garlic
• tomatoes cut into wedges or large chunks
• sliced fresh mozzarella - I aim for large bite sized pieces
• basil snipped into thin ribbons
• very thinly sliced red onion
• a very generous amount of balsamic vinegar drizzled on the salad to taste

The bread will soak up the balsamic vinegar and juice from the tomatoes. Feel free to add an extra drizzle of olive oil if you like.

Today's project: ground red pepper

I love a really spicy dish whether it's a spicy beef Vietnamese noodle soup, an Indian vindaloo, or a pasta with tomato sauce that packs heat. Remarkably, I'm a really good pepper grower (if you're thinking something like - oh, that's because peppers are really easy to grow, just don't tell me because my pepper harvest really helps to boost my gardening confidence each year when everything else dies).

Yesterday and today's task was to figure out what to do with all the cayenne peppers. Who can cook all these peppers (especially if you're the only one in your family who loves spice)?! I decided to make my own ground pepper to use throughout the next several months. I generally buy spices without too much thought as to how the powder or flake gets into the little jar (you go to the store, stand at the rack, find your spice by alpha order, put it on the conveyor belt and pay). It was very cool to see that within 24 hours, my cayenne peppers could begin in the garden, and end up a perfectly ground spice in a little glass jar, and that I could make it all by myself. Doubters, watch the process unfold...

Here are the peppers on the plant, in my garden 24 hours ago.


The peppers are first rinsed and dried gently and thoroughly. I read about a few different methods of drying peppers, and decided to experiment. I strung some up with thread to air dry in the house (more below), but the quickest method was to use the oven. The lowest setting my oven would allow was 170 degrees, and this temperature was just right. I cracked the oven door to allow for a little air circulation. Here are the peppers ready to be dried in the oven. Notice there is room around each pepper, and that they're not touching. The larger pepper (I have yet to figure out what type of pepper it is, but it's a spicy one) was cut in half to speed drying. You can discard the seeds, but I wanted to keep the seeds for more heat in my ground pepper. ***Caution: when cutting hot peppers, it's a very good idea to wear rubber gloves as the capsaicin remains on your skin for a long time (like when you're eating something that's finger lickin' good, or like when you're putting your contacts in. Ouch).

I didn't time the process, but it probably took about...8 hours or so to completely dry the peppers. They're done when there is no moisture left whatsoever in the pepper. I did have to leave the house to run some errands twice during the day, so I just turned the oven off, kept the peppers in there, and turned the oven back on when I got back in. I did turn the peppers over once or twice during the entire process, but I'm not sure this is even necessary. When they were completely dried, I just took them out and left them for today. The oven is at such a low temp, that it's not necessary to stand guard at the oven all day.

***Caution: If anyone in your family is very sensitive to hot peppers, you may want to use a different method. For us, it was not like a tear gas bomb in our kitchen or anything, but there was definitely an odor (or fragrance - depending on how much you like hot peppers!) throughout the house, and one child sneezed a little bit and complained her nose felt like it had pins and needles in it. I did not have this problem at all, and neither did the other 2 family members. I did keep the side door open though.

Here are the peppers in a bag and ready to be ground. In reality, they're a dark red, not quite the black as the photo makes it appear.

Here's our process for grinding the peppers. You can use a food processor or grinder, but I've read this will give you more of a powder than a flake, like I wanted to have.

Here is the dried cayenne pepper, crushed to my liking and ready to be added to pasta, soup, stir fry, sauce, pizza, French fries, and anything else I can think of!

Here is the other part of the experiment. Directions on the web specify to use a thick needle and fishing line or super thick thread to string the peppers, which I did not have. I used a regular sewing needle and some thick sewing thread, and so far, it seems to have worked fine. I have read that the process of air drying in the house - preferably in a sunny and dry spot, can take about 3 weeks. I have also read some reports of the peppers molding on the inside using this method, which is why I decided to dry some in the oven as well, just in case. I will report back on how the air drying goes! Isn't it a cute and festive decoration?!

Pindo Palm Jelly

On the short walk from the pool to the house we rent in the "low country" in South Carolina, Winter picked a berry from the tons of these little palm trees in the community and said, "Mom, smell this." Well, I've played that game before and it's not always fun. I was cautious at first, but then quickly began oohing and aahhing over the fragrance that in an instant transports you to the warm sunny place of your dreams. You cannot prevent the immediate inclination to hold in your hand a drink blended with ice and topped with a frilly paper umbrella. The berry smelled distinctly tropical, and though the olfactory memories are quickly fading, I vaguely remember hints of mango, papaya, pineapple, whatever, just TROPICAL. As we walked home practically snorting the berry, two women rode by on bicycles and told us they heard it was possible to make jelly out of the berries. Well, color me paranoid, but I'm not about to pick berries from random palm trees (I'm from the suburbs of Maryland) and make jelly without doing my research.



Here's what the research shows: the palm is a Pindo Palm tree, aka Jelly Palm Tree if you're from Florida, or aka Pindo Date if you're from the Deep South. I did find a recipe for Palm Jelly, appropriately from The Post and Courier, a publication out of Charleston, SC. The original article "Palm Jelly, One of Mother Nature's Tasty Gifts" from The Post and Courier contains other interesting recipes, and for my anonymous bacon fat loving friend, even lists a recipe that calls for a cup of bacon fat. Oinky tasty!



As we were on the island, landscapers were removing the fruit bunches. Apparently, in the landscape Pindo Palm fruit can be a "nuisance" since they fall, become a mess, and are very attractive to wild animals. According to the recipe below, it may have been prime time for us to harvest the berries for jelly, as the fruit were beginning to fall from the palm. Here is more information and the recipe for Palm Jelly as copied from Teresa Taylor's original article. Next year I will try this for sure...


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Chris (Chris Nietart is a Post and Courier reader who contributed the recipe) says the jelly is great on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with cream cheese on an English muffin, and also makes a nice glaze for poultry and sweet potatoes.

Palm Fruit Jelly

5 cups juice (see cook's note)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 box Sure-Jell fruit pectin
5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter, to prevent foaming

Cook's note: Gather fruit when the first fruit begins to fall from the tree, Chris says. People are happy for you to take it, especially if you give them a jar of jelly in return. I collect it in a plastic clothes basket and let the fruit ripen outdoors until it begins to fall off the stalk, usually in a day or two. I covered it with screening this year to keep flies away!

Rinse the fruit thoroughly; it is not necessary to remove the 'caps' on the fruit as they will cook off. Fill a large pot with the fruit leaving several inches at the top. Cover the fruit with water, bring it to a boil, and then cook at medium for 1 hour uncovered. Let the fruit cool down for an hour. To collect the juice: Scoop portions of fruit and juice into a jelly bag over another container and squeeze the bag to get the juice, some of it will appear thick, and then discard the pits. (This is the messy part). You may notice that your juice may vary in thickness, and you can combine all of it and stir to get a more homogenous batch before you begin the jelly making. As I measure for each batch, I sieve it through a cloth baby diaper (purchased new for this purpose) to remove any small bits of pulp.

To make jelly: In large pot (pasta size) combine palm juice and lemon juice, and stir in box of pectin, using a whisk. Heat to a boil and stir in sugar and butter. Bring mixture back to a boil and turn heat down to medium high and continue to cook for 13-15 minutes. Monitor closely so that it does not boil over. Palm jelly requires longer cooking time than other jelly.

Pour jelly into half-pint sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace, and process for 5 minutes.

Thanks also to Virginia Edmonds of Ladson, who sent a copy of a Post and Courier article from 1979. The recipe was similar; however, it did note that if the fruit mixture fails to jell, it's delicious over pancakes, waffles or ice cream.

Grilled jalapeno cilantro turkey burgers

A most delicious burger was BBQed last night. These days, there is no shortage of jalapenos and their little zing is added to everything I cook. I read about a roasted jalapeno cilantro pesto and planned to top my grilled turkey burger with it, but at the last minute, decided to just mix most of the ingredients into the meat to keep it simple. Due to my time crunch, I also didn't roast the jalapenos. For a most delicious and very low fat burger, add all to taste, then grill:

ground turkey
chopped jalapenos (I use seeds and all)
a couple of minced garlic cloves
chopped cilantro
pine nuts
salt and pepper

Edited to add: I tried to make this burger again cooked in a pan, and it was horrendous. I think there's something about the grill that seals in the juice and adds a little some 'um some 'um.

Shhh...I know the secret ingredient!

Over spring break, we took a fantastic road trip to several locales that included visiting: the cutest baby you ever did see, children's museums, carriage rides in the country, mansions, drive-in movies, waterfalls, pygmy goats, a dollhouse made of human fingernails, one of the Natural Wonders of the World, and to top it all off, Foam Henge. During our last stop, we stayed at the Blacksmith Inn in Lexington, VA, just next to Natural Bridge. The inn, hosted by Yorkshire transplants, was tops, and the food was something we're still talking about (click on the link to see the spread), but what I can't get out of my head is the tomato side dish Beryl made one morning. They said it was a simple recipe, but I knew there must have been some secret ingredient. I had the nerve to ask for the recipe and they've agreed to allow me to post it here. I have several tomatoes in the garden destined in about 2 weeks to become the main ingredient in:

YORKSHIRE FRIED TOMATOES ON FRIED BREAD:

Slice and core tomatoes (preferably Italian). Fry in a little bacon fat until soft. Add some hot strong tea to maintain a nice sauce texture. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Slice white bread from an uncut loaf about medium thickness. Beryl makes her own bread each evening, and no doubt this cannot be reproduced, but we'll make do. Fry in bacon fat until golden brown on one side only. Place tomatoes on fried side of bread. Enjoy!

Strawberry, rhubarb, mulberry, apple pie

2 pack deep-dish frozen pie crust
about 2-3 T butter

5 cups fruit
3/4 cup sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 T lemon juice
1/8 t salt

Set the crust out at room temperature. Mix your sliced fruit, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a large bowl and let stand 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Pour fruit into crust. Dot the top of the fruit with 2-3 T butter. Remember to dot the top of the fruit, NOT the crust. The second pie crust should be at room temperature, soft and easy to work with. Place on top and crimp edges with your fingers or a fork. Cut a few vents in the top of the crust.

I usually make sure to line the bottom of the oven with some foil in case the fruit bubbles over. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes on the lower 1/3 of the oven, then put a baking sheet under and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Check the edges of the crust to be sure they don't burn. If the edge get a little toasty, you can lightly cover the edge of the crust with foil part way through. Enjoy (preferably with ice cream)!



A note about my pie: This recipe is my sister's recipe for pie. She is the most amazing baker, chef, whatever. She would never dream of using frozen pie crust and makes it all from scratch. I'll just say...I don't have a rolling pin, so unfortunately, I need to use frozen pie crust. It still makes an amazing pie - not as delicious as her pies - you can't fake a real pie crust - but it comes very close. My plan was to make a strawberry/rhubarb pie for my 11 year old's (who doesn't like cake) b-day. Since we only planted strawberries and rhubarb this spring, we didn't yield a lot of fruit by June. Luckily there were mulberries ready for picking across the street, and an apple in the fruit bowl to bring the amount of fruit to 5 cups. The final result was one amazing fruit pie. I took the edges of the top crust that hung over, rolled it out (did you catch that?), and cut an 11. The vents on top were also 11's. I'm not a great baker, so the pie might not look so beautiful, but I can tell you it sure tasted good.