Kitchenography

Canh Chua Tom aka Sweet and Sour Shrimp Soup aka Fisherman's Soup

This combination of shrimp, pineapple, and tomato in a gently sweet-sour tamarind broth is my favorite soup. It goes by various names (hence the title of my post) and seems to be a staple in Vietnamese restaurants, or at least I've never been in a Vietnamese restaurant that didn't serve it.

It's the sort of thing that seems open to endless variation. I've had it with squid or fish instead of shrimp, with okra added, or with rice noodles added. One of my favorite restaurants which made one of my favorite versions of this added thinly sliced hearts of celery. They also used to add little bits of crispy shallot which were a terrific addition. I've had it garnished with cilantro, Thai basil, or mint. Sometimes it has hot peppers in it, sometimes it doesn't. I once had it flavored with cumin which I don't recommend.

Since I no longer have easy access to a Vietnamese restaurant -- there seem to be only two within the Baltimore city limits and I'm not crazy about either of them-- I have taken to making this soup myself. Coming up with a decent version took awhile; the thing that truly had me stumped when first making it was the broth. The internet was full of recipes that suggested adding lime to a broth made with shrimp shells, or just a broth made from simmering the pineapple, tomato, and shrimp with fish sauce but none of them tasted right. It wasn't until I found a recipe from Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam that I realized that the secret to the broth was tamarind.

Tamarind is a common ingredient in southeast Asian and Indian cooking. It comes from a pulp found in the seed pods of the tamarind tree and it's sold in Asian and Indian markets in 8-oz blocks which are a sticky mixture of the pulp and the seeds. To use it, it is first soaked in boiling water and then forced through a sieve. (For more complete instructions and some funny observations on the nature of tamarind, see this post from Tiny Banquet Committee about making banana tamarind chutney.) The sieved pulp is then stirred into the soup where it adds a gentle and pleasant tartness.

This past weekend I found pineapple at a reasonable price at my supermarket, and because Saturday was a mild, spring-like day (unlike the day before which was 15 degrees at 7 a.m., or the day after which was grey with snow flurries) this soup was our light dinner. It's not a soup for frigid weather -- it's delicate, not rib-sticking. But for a mild winter day, it's perfect.

Spicy and Sour Shrimp Soup

adapted from Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam

2 ounces of lump tamarind

1/2 cup boiling water

8 ounces medium shrimp (31-35 size), shelled

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup, plus 1 teaspoon nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 shallots, thinly sliced

3 stalks fresh lemongrass, white bulb crushed and cut into three 2-inch sections

1 large ripe tomato, cored, seeded and cut into wedges

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 fresh, ripe pineapple, cored, cut into 1/4" slices, and then cut crosswise into small chunks

1 celery heart, the pale inner section, ribs only, sliced very thin

1 teaspoon salt

2 fresh chili peppers, minced  (optional)

1/2 cup fresh bean sprouts (optional)

1 scallion, thinly sliced (optional)

2 tablespoons shredded mint or cilantro leaves

1. Soak the tamarind in the boiling water for 15 minutes or until the tamarind is soft. Using the back of a spoon, press the tamarind through a fine sieve into a small bowl.

2. Toss the shrimp with 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, chopped garlic, and pepper. Let stand for 30 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in a 3 quart sauté pan. Add the shallots and lemon grass and sauté briefly without browning. Add the tomato and sugar and cook over medium heat until slightly soft. Add the pineapple and celery and cook stirring for about two minutes.

4. Add 5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the sieved tamarind, salt, and the remaining 1/4 cup fish sauce. Turn heat down, and simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Stir in the chiles and bean sprouts if using them and the shrimp. Cook for about 30 seconds, than remove from the heat and allow to sit for about 30 seconds to 1 minute more, or until the shrimp is cooked through.  Be careful not to overcook the shrimp here.

5. Add scallions and/or mint or cilantro and serve.

Purported to make 4 to 6 servings but if it's all you're having for dinner, it's enough for two people.

What's In Your Basket?

Rachel, fellow Baltimore City resident and author of both Coconut & Lime (recent winner of The Food Blog Awards Best Food Blog - Original Recipes) and Food Maven has invited bloggers to participate in a blogging event called What's In Your Basket? where people describe what they bought on one trip to the store.

I have multiple places I shop for food, some of which I hit on a  weekly (or even more frequent) basis, and some of which I go to only once a month or so. Most of the produce I buy comes from the farmer's market, although at this time of year very little of it is local. I buy meat and most supplementary produce from Whole Foods. Pasta, olive oil, canned tomatoes, and deli meat are bought at an Italian deli called Trinacria (although for some reason we've always called it Trinacria's) Most of the rest of my grocery shopping is done at Giant which is a Baltimore/DC area chain. There are two Giants that are within a couple of miles of my house, one which is old and small and somewhat rundown (at the Rotunda for any curious Baltimore readers) and one that is large and brand-new. I prefer the small, old Giant. Once a month I make a stop at the Super Fresh which is the only place nearby where I can find Milkbones in a 10-pound box and my brand of dog food in a big bag. Plus I make occasional trips to a Syrian grocery store and an Asian grocery store.

I had initially planned to write about Trinacria's which is my favorite among the stores where I shop. It's a small hole in the wall with a grimy and uninviting exterior but the interior is stuffed and stacked with Italian grocery items. There are enormous pyramids of canned tomatoes, bins of pasta, and shelves filled with things like lupini beans, Italian cookies, and Italian antacids. The deli meats are cheaper than anywhere else in town and include things like capicola and Calabrese ham. Trinacria's is also my source for imported Parmigiano-Reggiano and other cheeses. 

I see the same people every time I shop there. There's young Vince who seems to manage the place, sweet and forgetful Uncle Vince who's the son of the original owner and has been working here ever since he came back from Europe at the end of WWII at age eighteen, and Mike who gives wine recommendations (red only, he doesn't drink white wine). The place has so much personality compared to everywhere else I shop other than the farmer's market that it was the obvious choice.

Except this past Sunday I went to Whole Foods and had two completely Baltimore moments which made me decide that I'd write about that shopping trip instead.

On Sunday morning I had to drive to New Jersey and on the way home as I drove back into Baltimore I was driving down Fleet Street on the east side of the city in an area that is far newer and glitzier than the area I live in on the west side, and because the afternoon was supposed to be snowy and I planned to make a pot roast, I stopped at the Whole Foods there. As I walked through the produce department I did a double take when I saw (attention Wire watchers!) Kima Greggs, or, more accurately, the actress who plays Kima Greggs.

Sure, sure, you probably run into celebrities all the time where you live but I live in Baltimore so this is a big deal for me. Plus, I'm a huge admirer of The Wire and Kima Greggs is one of my favorite characters. And besides, The Wire is such a Baltimore thing. No, I didn't say anything to her, it seemed like it would be intrusive. For the record she was in the produce department for quite a long while and seemed to have a cart full of leafy green vegetables. That was my Baltimore moment number one.

I bought my pot roast and potatoes plus a few other incidentals and headed for the registers. My checkout person was an African-American woman wearing a black hijab and a long-sleeved, ankle length black dress, and she was calling everyone hon -- "Did you find everything ok, hon?" "Paper or plastic, hon?" -- which delighted me to my core. That was Baltimore moment number two.

In certain Baltimore neighborhoods, everyone is called hon. It's more often used by woman then men, and woman who call everyone hon are called hons. They are typically big-haired white woman. Waitresses (the kind of waitresses who work in places where they wear cotton uniforms -- not the kind of waitresses who work in places where they have "waitstaff") are often hons, but hons show up all sorts of places. The cashiers at my dealership's service department are hons, and I've been waited on by hons in the checkout line at the Home Depot beyond Greektown. Mike tells me there are hons who work at the courthouse where he works.

But the woman at Whole Foods was sort of a fusion hon, a hon playing against type. She had the hon lingo down, but in appearance was the polar opposite of a hon. I can't truly explain why but II love that sort of stuff!

I headed home with my groceries. The sky was low and grey and the air was heavy and cold the way it is when you know it's going to snow. At home Mike had a fire going in the woodstove and the kitchen was warm and bright and smelled of wood smoke. I got my pot roast into the oven and spent a pleasant afternoon hanging out and watching football with Mike (and by watching football I mean reading cookbooks while Mike watched the game) while the first snow of the winter fell outside.

Oh, wait, this was supposed to be about what was in my marketbasket, wasn't it? I'd like to be more precise about what I bought but I seem to have thrown out the receipt. But from memory:

Chuck roast   $10.21                                                                                                                  

Potatoes $1.49 a pound (I bought two or three pounds)

Organic Water Crackers with Sesame Seeds  $3.19

2 bottles of Odwalla Super Protein on sale for $4.00  (these seem unappetizing to me  but my son loves them)

Rachael Ray is Everywhere

Rachael Ray seems to be everywhere these days. How many shows does she have now, three? Four? Ten? She has a magazine on the newstand (I also think I saw her on the cover of a tabloid),  and now she's even shown up on the boxes of one of our household staples, Wheat Thins. For years the familiar yellow box has been unchanged but sometime in the last couple of months the Wheat Thins box got a new look with images of Rachael Ray on four of its six sides.

Don't misunderstand, this is not an I-hate-Rachael-Ray rant. Generally I'm fine with Rachael Ray. I don't understand the whole who-does-she-think-she-is-she-was-never-trained-as-a-chef issue that some people have with her. She's a home cook who is just providing ideas for other home cooks, especially the ones who are responsible for putting a meal on the table on a nightly basis and don't have endless time to futz around in the kitchen creating culinary masterpieces. She seems to be promoting food that is mostly homemade and doesn't usually rely on convenience foods.

No, I don't know why she insists on calling extra virgin olive oil EVOO but it doesn't bother me, and I don't understand why so many people find this to be like fingernails on a blackboard. And, yes, some of her patter seems sort of inane but I imagine anyone asked to make small talk for the camera while they cooked would end up saying their fair share of inane things. The big, rapturous look when she tastes what she's made or tastes something on her travel show is pretty hammy, but again, I can't work up even minor irritation over it, much less full-blown dislike.

But all that aside, I still don't want to see Rachael Ray's oddly Betty Crockerized image staring out at me everytime I open a cupboard.

So Mike fixed it for me:

Artichoke Lasagne

I've realized that in writing this blog there are certain themes I seem to come back to again and again, and artichokes may be the one I most often revisit.

Artichokes are among my favorite foods -- maybe my absolute favorite. If there's artichoke on a restaurant menu, I order it; if there's an artichoke recipe in a cookbook, I make it. I hope one day to make a pilgrimage to Castroville, California.

Lasagne, the kind with paper thin homemade pasta and layer after layer of thinly spread filling, has been another recurring theme. This is a light and delicate lasagne, completely different from the classic American idea of lasagne which is a heavy and hearty affair. I was first introduced to the feather-light Italian lasagne in Marcella Hazan's books, and it also is something I can't get enough of. You can imagine how inspired an idea I thought artichoke lasagne was when I saw a recipe for it in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. A perfect marriage!

The original recipe is a minimalist thing meant to completely showcase the artichoke. Five or six medium artichokes are trimmed, sliced paper thin, braised in a mixture of butter and water with a little salt until they are tender, then mixed with bechamel sauce, and then layered with lasagne noodles. I bet it's fabulous and someday when the perfect storm of time, energy, and reasonably priced artichokes occurs, I will make Marcella Hazan's artichoke lasagne. Time and energy, because lasagne itself is a lengthy undertaking and adding the trimming of artichokes to it would add considerably to the time involved. (Maybe it's just me but I cannot whip through trimming artichokes. It takes time.)

Instead of fresh artichoke my version used frozen artichoke bottoms -- a discovery I've only just recently stumbled upon after seeing a passing reference on a blog to the existence of frozen artichoke bottoms and the fact that they're usually available from grocery stores that specialize in middle-eastern foods. And because they were frozen rather than fresh artichokes, I decided to forgo the braising in butter and water and instead sauteed them in olive oil with a little onion, garlic, thyme, and wine to add additional flavor.

I also did not manage the six to eight layers Marcella Hazan's recipe calls for. This may have been because I was not spreading my filling thinly enough. Or possibly it was the constant taste testing of the artichokes. It's possible I taste tested my way out of at least a layer. Maybe two.

This is what happens when you have mad, giddy artichoke love.

The resulting four-layer lasagne was still a success. How successful? Mike and I ate it for dinner. The next morning I had it for breakfast. I had it again for lunch, and then as a mid-afternoon snack. The following morning I had the last of it for breakfast again. This morning I am wishing there was still more.

I think the homemade pasta makes a huge difference in this lasagne. It results in a very light and delicate dish. But if you are not up for making your own lasagne noodles,  this would still be worth making with regular dried lasagne noodles. If using dried lasagne noodles, I'd go with thicker layers of filling and fewer layers to balance out the thickness of the lasagne noodles. I also see lots of possibilities for variation with this -- for instance, artichoke and spinach lasagne.

Artichoke Lasagne

béchamel (I increased the recipe by 1.5 times)

lasagne noodles, boiled - I made my own using lasagne noodles using 2 cups of flour and three eggs (here are some great instructions on making home made pasta) but if you aren't into making your own pasta, then use whatever pasta you'd normally use for lasagne

2 14-oz bags of frozen artichoke bottoms (or 4 14-oz cans of artichoke bottoms, rinsed and drained)

olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced fine

1 small onion, medium dice

salt to taste

2 sprigs of thyme

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

butter for buttering the lasagne dish

1. Thaw the artichoke bottoms overnight in the refrigerator. Slice them in half, then thinly, thinly! slice the halves.

2. Gently saute the garlic and onion in about two tablespoons of olive oil. Add the sliced artichoke, add salt, saute for a few minutes more, then add the wine and sprigs of thyme. Simmer gently until wine has evaporated.

3. Meanwhile make the béchamel sauce. Set 1/2 cup of it aside, then mix the remaining béchamel sauce with the artichoke mixture, after first removing the thyme sprigs from the artichokes.

4. Boil the lasagne noodles. If you are using homemade noodles, they will take about 1 minute to cook and as they finish cooking, transfer them first to a waiting bowl of cold water, then to a clean kitchen towel. I usually cook the noodles as I go, cooking the noodles for the next layer as I'm finishing layering the ingredients for the previous layer.  If using packaged noodles, follow the carton instructions.

5. Butter the lasagne dish, then spread the bottom of the dish thinly with a few tablespoons of the béchamel sauce you have set aside. Add a layer of noodles, top them with a thin layer of the artichoke mixture, then sprinkle with the grated cheese. Continue doing this for at least six layers. The final layer of noodle should be topped with the béchamel sauce you have set aside, then sprinkled with the remaining grated cheese.

6. Cover with foil and cook in a preheated 350 degree farenheit oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the oven up to 400 degrees and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until the lasagne is lightly browned on top.  Let is sit for 10 minutes before serving.

This will serve six generously.

Best Recipes of the Year Lists

I always like those end-of-year lists many newspaper food sections publish of the editor's favorite recipes. Theoretically all of the ho-hum and so-so recipes have been weeded out for me leaving only the cream of the crop and thereby increasing my chances of cooking something I'll want to make again and again. To me, that's the ultimate test of how good a recipe is -- it becomes something you make on a regular basis.

A lot of these newspaper recipes disappear fairly quickly into archives where they can only be viewed for a price, so if you see anything you want to try, print it out rather than bookmarking it.

LA Times Top Ten Recipes of 2006

Seattle Times' Best Recipes of 2006

San Francisco Chronicle's list of the top recipes from each of the last 20 years

Chicago Tribune's Best Recipes of 2006

Toronto Star's Top 10 Recipes of 2006

The San Jose Mercury News' Top 5 Recipes of 2006

The Atlantic Constitution Journal's List of Favorite Recipes from 2006

NPR's Kitchen Windows Year's Best Recipes

This one I just stumbled across but it seems like a good thing to have standing by: best chocolate chip cookie

And just in case you're feeling the urge to shed a few pounds (and who isn't at this time of year?): Bon Appetit Editor's Picks: Recipes to Jump Start Your Diet