Curry Mee

Gung hay fat choi, everyone! Happy Lunar New Year!

A few months ago, Sharon wrote about planning out a week's worth of meals. D. and I decided to give it a try ourselves, since we were eating out too much. Between the stress of test-taking, work, life, and the never-ending diet (17 pounds and counting!), we didn't make the time to plan and cook healthy meals. We'd make the healthiest choices possible when we went out, but it was still not good for us.

While we were meal-planning, we decided to clean out our pantry and freezer. Why buy more groceries when we had plenty of stuff on hand? Our problem was that we'd buy without a plan, so we had a mish-mash of ingredients that didn't seem to pair well.

To our surprise, we've had a lot of interesting meals. It's amazing what we've found in our hodgepodge of ingredients. After reading this article in the New York Times, I had to try one of the recipes. Believe it or not, we had almost everything on hand. Instead of half-and-half, we used 1:1 heavy cream and milk. The only things we had to buy were some of the fresh items: lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, scallions, Vietnamese mint, and noodles. We omitted the bean sprouts and cilantro, because I'm anti-sprouts and D.'s anti-cilantro.

The ginger and lemon grass went on to the next night's dinner: Ginger Honey Chicken.

Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup (Curry Mee)
(from the New York Times, article by Julia Moskin)

Note: I halved the recipe, which made exactly two servings.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small onion, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced lemon grass or pale green cilantro roots

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dark red chili paste, such as sambal, more for serving

3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast meat, thinly sliced and cut into bite-size pieces

3 tablespoons curry powder, preferably Malaysian, Thai or Vietnamese

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup half-and-half

4 cups chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar, more to taste

About 12 kaffir lime leaves or curry leaves, fresh or frozen (optional)

8 ounces dried thin rice noodles (bun or vermicelli), or other Asian noodles such as udon or lai fun

Salt to taste

1 cup bean sprouts

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 scallions, cut into thin rings

2 shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried in vegetable oil until brown (optional)

Quartered limes for serving.

1. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger and lemon grass and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Do not brown; reduce heat if necessary. Add garlic and chili paste and stir until fragrant. Raise heat, add chicken and stir-fry one minute. Add curry powder and paprika and stir to coat. Then add coconut milk, half-and-half, chicken stock, turmeric, fish sauce, sugar and lime or curry leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions (about 4 minutes). Rinse and drain.

3. Taste broth and adjust seasonings with salt and sugar. Divide noodles into large soup bowls. Bring broth to a boil, then ladle over noodles. Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions and fried shallots, if using. Pass limes and sambal at the table.

Yield: 4 main-course servings.

Note: To make this rich soup more substantial, boiled potatoes are sometimes added to the simmering broth and cooked until very soft.

The resulting broth is hearty without being too thick, even without the potatoes. One thing to keep in mind is that the noodles will absorb a lot of the broth, so undercook them a little to keep them al dente. Or else they'll turn into mush, which isn't very palatable. I love rau ram, or Vietnamese mint, which adds a nice bite to the rich coconut milk.

Los Angeles: Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles

Like Britney, my comeback has had its setbacks. I still have my hair... for now. When the tests ended, it was holidays, my yearly respiratory infection, applications, and more holidays. I hate personal statements. I'm fabulous and I'm insane enough to make chemistry a career... what more do these schools want?

Apparently, a coherent message about my goals and experiences. If it weren't for good friends answering panicked pleas for editing help, I would have submitted some craptastic essays to some fairly prestigious schools. Yikes.

I'm going to blog regularly after the apps are done in early January. Until then, I'm going to close out 2008 with a visit to a place of legend and lore.

There are many great food pairings, but one of the greatest is fried chicken and waffles. It's baffling to the uninitiated and very few would utter "waffles" when asked for a compliment to fried chicken, but it works. It works incredibly well. I bow to the altar of fried chicken and waffles and the place to worship is Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, with several locations in the Los Angeles area.

Last Sunday's visit with D., Teej, and Krazo took place at the Pasadena location. D. and Krazo ordered the Carol C. Special with one fried chicken breast and one waffle. D. noted that Roscoe's was a smidge pricey for its portion sizes, but it's best to price the dishes per calorie. That way, it appears downright cheap.

Teej ordered the Jeanne Jones Omelette with a waffle, while I ordered the 'Scoe's with gravy and onions. My chicken, all dark meat, was fried to perfection. The crust stayed crispy even drenched by the gooey gravy and onions. Crispy, however, didn't translate to my waffles, which were a little underdone and soggy. I was slightly disappointed, especially since Roscoe's was the place that turned me on to the classic waffle. After a crisp and thin waffle from Roscoe's, I swore off Belgian-style waffles forever and bought a classic waffle maker.

Service was excellent and the atmosphere is dive-ish, but comfortable and fun. Fried chicken and waffles... don't knock it until you've tried it. Happy New Year!!

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles (Pasadena location)
830 N. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91104

Cookbook Series: Bœuf bourguignon, Potatoes Gratin from Thomas Keller's Bouchon

So... I'm back.

It took a while to recover from the Chem GRE. Imagine having brain freeze for about a week or so. Even though it's not the longest nor the most comprehensive test, it's definitely one of the most brutal. My version of the test was 130 questions with 170 minutes to answer them. Do the math and that leaves roughly 0.76 minutes or 45.6 seconds per question.

45.6 seconds for p-chem?! As if.

I managed to look at and think about all of the questions, which is supposedly a small victory in and of itself. How did I do? I don't know... I was numb walking out, both from the mental lashing and the freezing test center.

Then, it was time for the regular GRE, which is a lot like the SAT. To my vague horror, I realized that I would be taking the GRE almost 10 years to the day of my last attempt at the SAT. Geez, I feel old.

Anyway, we're here to discuss food.

D. was traveling and, for his return, I decided to make Keller's bœuf bourguignon. D. has eyed the recipe for a while and with fall rolling in (although it was beach-worthy weather in San Diego), it seemed like a nice dish.

Anyone who has ever cooked a Keller recipe can tell you that the man is nothing if not detailed. I found this old article about Bouchon and I have to agree that it's fussy, it's crazy, but the result is so utterly worth the effort that one bows reverently to King Keller and makes more of his recipes.

It starts with boneless beef shortribs, which I stupidly overbrowned. Instead of turning into tender stew meat, it came out a bit tough.

However, I'm a little ahead of myself. The bourguignon really begins with a red wine reduction. Red wine cooked with a ton of aromatics until it had reduced into a thick sauce. After the reduction is complete, more aromatics are added and topped with a cheesecloth. The browned meat is added on top of the cheesecloth. Keller apparently dislikes debris clinging to the meat, so he recommends using the cheesecloth as a "basket" for the meat. The meat cooks in the reduction, aromatics, and beef stock for a couple of hours, then the meat is lifted out and the veggies strained and discarded.

After removing the meat and discarding the aromatics, the broth is strained over and over. In the end, I strained this lovely broth eight times. Eight. Keller would be proud. That might make up for the massive sin I commit against his greatness: I use store-bought beef stock.

That thud you heard was Keller hitting the ground.

Anyway, I'm too lazy and lack enough foresight to make stock ahead of time. One of these days, I'll make a ton of stock and freeze it. Overall, the broth was excellent and clear as a summer's day.

The vegetables are cooked separately, but with enough herbs and spices that they taste like they were cooked with the meat. It's fussy, but the vegetables stay bright, vibrant, and firm, just like Keller said.

D. loves potato gratin, so we made Bouchon's recipe. Lots of thyme and Emmentaler make it fabulous. Keller uses panko crumbs for the topping, which creates a more delicate crust.

Our table, complete with the epi baguette from San Diego's Bread & Cie.

Posting the recipes, even abbreviated versions, would take forever. So, buy the book and pay homage to the fabulousness that is Thomas Keller.