One of the first blogs I ever came upon was Chez Pim and the post that popped up was all about Pad Thai. Who was this Pim? How did she make such a beautiful Pad Thai? I made a mental note to make this recipe one day, as it was one of Lenny’s favorite dishes and then I continued reading about the girl Pim. I loved her culinary adventures that were delicious in one breathe and wrapped around somewhere exotic in the next – a girl after my own heart. You see we are a bit a like, I love to eat, cook, drink and travel. One just has to utter the words, TRIP, TRAVEL,and SUITCASE with a sprinkle of good food promised and I am there – does not even have to include a passport but that just makes it even more exciting.
We had the chance to finally meet Pim at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine event last year. She was adorable, taking us under her wing and showing us around the event; she was exactly as we thought she would be in person ….. sweet! Over the course of a couple glasses of bubbly, we got to know more about her as well as the “book” she was working on; we even got a sneak peak. It was lovely – full of Pim charm and enticing foodie wisdom. We could not wait to get our hands on a couple copies! Her book came out in the summer but we did not get a chance to get a copy until she was up in the city speaking at Omnivore Books. Not only were we able to attend the event but she agreed to let us capture it so that we could share her foodie adventures with you – I will not tell you about it, you must watch it!
I have loved reading the book, it is warm, personal and full of interesting tid-bits about her life as a “foodie”. As well she includes many fantastic recipes. What I like about her advise is that she is not preaching to you about how to become a foodie, rather she is sharing her experiences through her sweet opinionated self and you can take it or leave it. She will take you on a adventure with every chapter that will leave you salivating for more!
Now back to Pad Thai …. as I mentioned it is one of Lenny’s favorite dishes. I on the other hand have always been one to take it or leave it. I just have never found a place in the city that makes it like they do in Thailand. When I first came across her post, I had a very good feeling it would be good! So, I invited a couple friends (who have been to Thailand and also love Pad Thai) over and then I grabbed “The Foodie Handbook” turned to page 66 and headed to Clement Street to get ready for our Pad Thai party. Her recipe is simple. The hardest part was finding the translator in the markets – *smile*. It is such a great dish to make with friends … pour a few glasses or Reisling and let the fun begin. We all agreed it was the best Pad Thai we have eaten outside of Thailand; slightly salty, a little sour and sweet all tossed together with a “bite” of heat to warm it up. Add noodles, seafood and crunchy bean sprouts and chinese chives to balance it all out! In all honesty this was the first time I actually wanted more Pad Thai …. the next day!
You are hungry? You want the recipe? Pim has been so kind to donate a copy to Chez Us so we can share it with one of our readers. Just leave a comment below telling us one of Pim’s favorite childhood memories (in the video) and tell us about your favorite Pad Thai experience, for a chance to win her book. We will be announcing a winner on March 5, 2010, so please leave a comment by midnight on March 3. Can’t wait for the drawing then you can purchase her book here.
And the winner is …………. drum roll please …………….. Kristina at Former Chef!
Congrats Kristina!!! I, too, loved this story about driving to Hua Hin – so me!
Creamy yellow lentils are simmered with your soup basics (carrots, celery, onions) and flavored with sweet butternut squash and spicy Basque chorizo to make this cozy winter time soup. Add a perfectly poached egg and you have the perfect meal to warm your soul after a cold day outside.
Bea over at La Tartine Gourmande inspired me to make this meal for us. As soon as I saw the photo on her site, I knew we had to eat it as it has two of our favorite ingredients, lentils and chorizo and one of Lenny’s favorite additions to any meal, the runny egg. I did make a few minor adjustments to the recipe as I used what we had on had, as well Bea’s recipe calls for white lentils and I have yet to find them.
You will love this filling soup – it is comforting, spicy and sweet all in one bite!
In a large pot, heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, leek, celery, thyme and chorizo and sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring every so often. Do not brown. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the lentils, carrots, butternut squash, parsley stalks, water and stock. Bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until vegetables are soft. Season with salt and pepper. Bring heat to low, to keep warm. Prepare poached eggs. To serve ladle soup into a serving bowl and top with poached egg. Sprinkle a bit of paprika over the top. Serve. Eat.
The fourth appetizer we have for our Super Bowl Healthy Eats Seriesis spring rolls with a green garlic and soy dipping sauce.
We love making spring rolls as a healthy appetizer. As well they are great for a light meal. Spring rolls are like a salad burrito – everything you should be eating in a nice tidy roll up. Sometimes we will grill meat or seafood and roll that up with all the crisp veggies. This time we grilled some eggplant as well as portobello mushrooms that were lightly seasoned with a little sesame oil and salt. I normally make a dipping sauce that uses fish sauce but we wanted to keep within our vegetarian diet so I made this soy based sauce with some green garlic that I picked up at the market last weekend. As well we cheated a bit and served a store bought peanut sauce but if you would like to make one check out Maria’s recipe, it sounds and looks amazing!
Recipe: Green Garlic and Soy Dipping Sauce
1 green garlic stalk, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 small jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced
Put everything in a small bowl and whisk or put everything in a small jar with a lid (as we do) and shake. Let set for about 30 minutes before serving.
Recipe: Spring Rolls
1 carrot, scrubbed clean and either grated or cut into thin matchsticks
1 red pepper, cut into thin matchsticks
1 cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
red leaf lettuce, washed and dried well
bean sprouts, washed and dried well
1 portobello mushroom, thinly sliced
1 small eggplant, thinly sliced
fresh basil leaves
fresh mint leaves
round rice sheets
Prepare all of your vegetables and set aside. Heat a stove top grill pan and drizzle a bit of sesame oil in it. Add the mushrooms and eggplant, in batches, and cook until soft. Set aside. Have a bowl full of hot water, it will cool down as it sits. One at a time dip a rice sheet into it, for not more than 3 – 4 seconds. Lay the rice sheet on a cutting board or a work surface. Place a small amount of a lettuce leave on the rice paper, then your vegetables and a few herbs on the near side of the rice sheet, closest to you. Do not over pack the sheet or it will not roll. Start rolling away from you, gently pulling a bit of the rice paper over the veggies – roll, tuck in the sides, roll, tuck in the sides. Continue making rolls until you have used all of your ingredients. Cut each roll in half and plate. Serve. Eat.
If you want to use the traditional fish sauce here is the recipe that we like.
If you would like to see a tutorial on rolling, this is the best we have found.
Cauliflower and sweet potatoes are seasoned with fresh turmeric and coconut milk to make this creamy winter time soup.
I had seen a recipe somewhere for a soup that had cauliflower, sweet potatoes and coconut milk in it; but, I cannot find the book anywhere. I decided I would create my own version and I wanted it to be light and somewhat curry like. I was lucky to find some fresh turmeric last week and thought it would be the perfect addition to this soup. I have never worked with fresh turmeric before and I was not sure what to expect. Fresh turmeric looks like ginger, actually, rather knobby but orange. I decided to use a microplane and zest it with the onion while it was cooking – the color was brilliant a beautiful bright yellow and the scent ….. YUM!! After I pureed the soup I added a small amount of coconut milk, only enough to really bring out the flavor of the turmeric and to create that nice warm Thai inspired flavor I was after. It was a success. Not only was this soup fantastic the first night, the second evening it was even better.
Recipe: Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup
1 head of cauliflower, washed, stemmed and cut into chunks
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small knob fresh turmeric, zest or use dry turmeric, to taste
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic, cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric, stir. Add the cauliflower and sweet potato, stir and cook for about 15 minutes, until very fragrant. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a low simmer and cover. Cook until the veggies are soft, about 30 minutes. Process in a food processor, in batches, returning to medium saucepan. Gently reheat over low heat, stir in the coconut milk. Season with salt. Garnish with cilantro and the harissa. Serve. Eat.
Sweet butternut squash is slowing cooked with onions, garlic carrots and celery until caramelized and then simmered with a rich vegetable stock to create this dairy free creamy soup.
It is a good thing we like soup, and we hope you like it as well, because we will be eating it all week. We are approaching the end of our “detox” month and while we have cheated (ourselves) a couple times by having a glass of wine as well as a margarita, overall we have done a pretty good job! We have some good soups planned and are sure you will love them!
I love making butternut squash soup as you can get a creamy texture without adding any dairy. I made a batch of a traditional butternut squash soup that we like – full of carrots, celery, onions, garlic – but then I swirled a sorrel paste through it, right before serving I sprinkled a generous dusting of Ezpeletako Bipera (Basque Paprika) over the top, for added flavor and color. It was …… amazing.
Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup with Sorrel and Ezpeletako Bipera
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1/4 of a yellow onion, peeled and chopped
4 carrots, scrubbed, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed (i leave the paper on, it blends up in the food processor)
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion, celery, carrots and butternut squash. Cook for about 15 – 25 minutes over low heat, until lightly caramelized. Add the stock, bring to a medium boil, cover and lower heat to a low simmer. Cook for 30 minutes. While the soup is simmering, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small pan, add sorrel and cook for about 3 minutes. Put the sorrel in a food processor, give a whirl and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, pulse until smooth, set aside in a small bowl. When the soup is finished cooking, in small batches (as it will be very hot) puree it until smooth. Pour back into your saucepan and gently warm for about 3 minutes. To serve, pour soup into bowl and swirl a tablespoon of the sorrel mixture into the soup and then sprinkle the ezpeletako bipera over the top. Serve. Eat.
Organic brown rice is simmered to perfection with green onions, olive oil and grated carrots, then lightly scented with warm bahart, served with simply roasted cauliflower for an easy midweek dinner or a great side for a roasted meal inspired meal.
We are down to bare bones at our house, it is definitely time to hit the market again. I only had a few ingredients to work with cauliflower, rice (thanks to Gudrun, for snagging me a big bag of Massa Orangics Brown Rice at Blogher – been dying to try their rice), some random staple veggies and spices. Usually when I have cauliflower around, I end up steaming it or turning it into soup – this was not exciting at all. As well, we are not big rice fans as we find it rather boring, but these were my ingredients to use – feel like a “Chopped Episode”.
I decided I would saute some green onions with garlic and then lightly brown the rice before adding the water. While it was simmering, I rummaged through my spices and decided to go with a middle eastern inspired meal, by adding Baharat. Baharat? Some of you may be wondering what that is, others know exactly what I am talking about. Baharat, in Arabic, means spices. It is a mixture of spices that is used in Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Israeli and Palestinian as well as in Turkish and Iranian dishes. Typical ingredients of Baharat include: allspice, black peppercorns, cardamon, cassia, cloves, coriander, cumin, nutmeg and dried red chilies or paprika. While the rice was simmering away (and did it smell great or what), I roasted the cauliflower with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. By the time the rice was finished, the cauliflower was roasted to a nice golden color. I seasoned the rice with a little grey salt and a sprinkle more of the baharat. The caramelized cauliflower was the perfect companion to the warm comforting rice – the baharat added such a pleasant aroma and taste to the entire dish.
Recipe: Baharat Scented Rice
2 green onions, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
1 teaspoon baharat
1/2 carrot, grated
kosher salt to taste
Heat olive oil in a saucepan, over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, give a couple stirs and then add the rice. Stir a few times until the rice is lightly golden. Add the water and baharat, bring down to a simmer, cover and let cook for about 45 – 50 minutes. 10 minutes before it is finished stir in the carrot and season with salt. Remove from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes. Serve. Eat.
Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, stem removed and washed, pat dry
drizzle of olive oil
sprinkle of sea salt
Heat oven to 425. Slice cauliflower and lay in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprikle with salt. Put into oven and roast for about 45 minutes, until golden, cooked but slightly crunchy, unless you prefer a softer vegtable, then cook longer. Remove from oven. Serve. Eat.
Sweet winter beets are roasted to perfection and then drizzled with a slightly sweet, slightly salty and slightly spicy dressing, to make a great side salad or a light dinner entree.
We have been really digging beets lately and it is a good thing since we are smack in the middle of beet season! We roast them, steam them and sometimes saute them. Sometimes we drizzle with a mere bit of olive oil or maybe balsamic or just a dusting of sea salt; either way, they are sweet and earthy with every bite! As well as delicious, they contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer. So eat your beets!
We wanted a light meal the other night so I thinly sliced some beets and roasted them until cooked through but still slightly crisp to the bite. I made a dressing (all by taste, sorry no measurements this time) with soy, tahini, a little water and this amazing Yuzu Kosho, that David from Earthy Delights sent us to try out and to write some recipes with. I have been dying to try the Yuzu and had planned to rub down some pork with it or roll out some sushi, but have not had time for a proper meal lately, so I decided half way through making this dish, that we needed some heat – remember we love heat around here! It is amazing – spicy (you don’t need much), slightly citrus finish and a little salty. This dressing was perfect with the sweet but earthy beets, it gave them a very exotic flavor. Easy and healthy, too!
This week only, if you are a twitter peep, do to @earthydelights for your 15% off coupon – you want some of this Yuzu, trust us!
Recipe: Roasted Beet Salad with Tahini Yuzu Kosho Dressing
Heat oven to 425. Lay out a piece of foil and put the beets in the center. Drizzle over some olive oil, just enough to moisten. Close up the foil. Put into the oven and roast for about 20 – 30 minutes, depending on how thinly you sliced them. While the beets are cooking, make a dressing using remainder ingredients. I made it entirely on taste, we like it spicy, so we went a little heavy on the yuzu. Remove beets from oven and plate. Drizzle the dressing over the top. Serve. Eat.
Crisp Belgian endive are lightly dressed with Crema di Balsamico and finished with pungent roquefort for a simple salad course or a light dinner.
One of our favorite salads is the simplest to make, it is a Belgian endive salad. We love how the leaves gently cradle the Creme di Balsamico and pieces of ripe roquefort, it is like a present with every bite. We love to pair this salad with a crusty and warm loaf of bread for a light dinner or with a roasted piece of meat for a bigger meal.
Cut the end off of the endives and separate each of the leaves, put into a serving bowl. Crumble roquefort over the top, to taste, we like a lot of it. Drizzle with the creme di balsamico and olive oil, to taste. Sprinkle with maldon salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste. Serve. Eat.
