The Virtues of Being a Follower

Blogger.com has this cool feature where you can declare your love publicly for Armchair Foodie, as well as staying apprised of all my posts via your own blog's dashboard.  Just click on "Follow This Blog" to the right to become a True Follower.  Come on, everyone's doing it.  Ok, well my mom and my sister-in-law are.  But they're both two very happening chicks.

Soul Food

Happy Holidays, Friends.

The following is my very first explicitly NON-food-related post.  In the interest of proving my total devotion to a life lived through food, I had vowed not to jibber jabber off-topic.  But I just returned from a trip where I had a life-changing experience, not in a restaurant, but in a tiny apartment in a downtown Vancouver high-rise where there is a business called, of all things, Smile Thai Massage.  Don't let the simply optimistic name (or the potentially smarmy combination of the words "Smile" and "Massage") distract you.

In the hands of Austin Sakchai you will find yourself... reborn.  If you should find yourself in Vancouver, treat yourself to the best (and, if you can believe it, least expensive) massage of your life.  Just in case you didn't catch the hint or two, find his web site here.

And, to get you in the mood for Vancouver, here's a cool shot I took from Stanley Park.  

Stir Crazy Days

This is my default outfit for the last week.  I told you I wasn't going to show it, but it's become so part of my every day life that it just didn't seem right to hold out on you any longer.  Though the mannish snow pants were strategically cropped from the picture.  Anyway, I've got another snow day from work tomorrow.  The freeway is closed.  My grandma in Wilsonville had to cancel her holiday travel plans to my mom's house, leaving both of them vastly disappointed.  My own trip (romantic getaway to Vancouver followed by a couple days visiting my sister Claire in Seattle),  scheduled for Wednesday, is starting to look dicey.  This weather is starting to be a bit of a bummer, my friends.  I keep telling myself it's really not that bad, but then when I think of Adam driving on the freeway at five o'clock tomorrow morning and I break into a cold sweat, I realize that I have been slightly kidding myself.

And to top it all off, we've been stuffing our gullets with carbs galore.  It must be that cold-phobic, nesting instinct kicking in full force because my meals have consisted of a multitude of flour- and lipid-based products; today alone we had pancakes, cheese and crackers, spaghetti, and cookies.  So by the time dinner rolled around, it was definitely time for something decent. 

Enter the vegetarian's friend, Seitan.  For those of you who have never heard of it, it's a form of wheat gluten that, like tofu, complements the flavors of whatever you cook it with.  Unlike tofu, it has a slightly tougher, chewier texture and in the words of Adam, "Mmm!  It takes like chicken!"  Sorta looks like it too:
After sauteing it with some onions, shallots, and garlic for a few minutes in olive and sesame oils, I added chopped kale and purple cabbage.  Pretty colors:
I popped a lid on the pan for 5 or 10 minutes so the veggies would steam themselves, and then stirred in a sauce consisting of the seitan's juices (reserved), some cornstarch dissolved in water, soy sauce, fish sauce, chili flakes, and pepper.  Served over rice with a splash of sesame seeds on top, it really turned into a "chicken" stir fry to write home about.  If the local postal service weren't shut down, that is.
P.S. I started a new infusion today.  I had all these lemons that I was going to bring to a meeting for work (as garnishes for sparkling water) but it was cancelled because of the weather.  Luckily I had a bit of vodka left and luckily I didn't know what the hell else to do with the lemons, and so in a few days I'll have a zinger of an alcoholic beverage to enjoy in front of the woodstove.  I added some sugar too, to see if I can make it taste like Limoncello.

Cold Day, Hot Food

This is my backyard right now.  Actually, the snow is about twice as deep now as it was when this picture was taken this morning.  Also, that very excellent looking icicle is no longer with us because I discovered today that Adam has somewhat of a compulsion about wrenching off icicles.  As soon as one forms on the eaves of the house, he pulls it off.  The things we learn about the people we love.

Anyway, when weather like this hits, making soup is pretty much required and as luck would have it, I didn't even have to set foot in the snow for it.  If you don't already know it by now, discovering that I just by chance have the ingredients for a cool dish without having to shop is one of the GREATEST things EVER.  So, the presence of a two-pound bag of carrots in the fridge dictated what kind of soup it would be...  
If you should find your backyard full of snow and your fridge full of carrots any time soon, here's what to do.  Wash and roughly chop the carrots (a recipe I was taking inspiration from suggested that I peel them, but I was not about to waste my time with that).  Throw them in a pot with 3 or 5 cups of water, and a quartered potato if you've got it.  Set it boiling, then simmer, covered, till the veggies are tender.
Meanwhile, roughly chop up a cup's worth of onion and/or shallots and saute them in some olive oil.  In a few minutes, add a few cloves of crushed garlic and saute a little longer.  Don't get fancy with your chopping-- it's all going in the blender in a few minutes.  When they're soft, add a few teaspoons salt, and the herbs and seasonings of your choice.  I added cumin, oregano and a little curry powder.  

Transfer the carrots, potato, water and the onion/garlic/herb mixture to a blender and puree.  Unless your blender is industrial-sized, you will need to do this in batches.  Return the lot to the pot and taste.  Adjust seasonings as needed.  Garnish with any fresh herbs you have lying around-- I happened to have my favorite, cilantro.  If no herbs, try some pumpkin or sesame seeds.  If no seeds, good old fashioned salt and pepper will also do the trick.
According to the weather forecast we are due for a blizzard this weekend, so Adam and I stocked up on other comfort foods to enjoy once the soup is gone: homemade tamales from a co-worker, good old spaghetti with tomato sauce and garlic bread, breakfast burritos, pancakes... maybe we'll fit a few carbs in there somewhere too.  Kidding.  More to come from the winter weekend kitchen...

Ghee, this is good.

Hi Honies!!!  I'm home...

Sheesh, I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.  But cut me a break, my (probably few) remaining devoted readers: it's the holidays, which, even if you're a bigger grinch than the Grinch, really throw a wrench into the schedule of daily life.  Luckily I'm not a grinch, so I don't mind the alterations; I even like them, most of the time.  I even don't mind the several inches of snow we've been showered with over the last few days, though I certainly don't intend to include any photos of myself in my snow gear (hint: this outfit conceals any indication of my gender).

I have been cooking though, and am especially thrilled about the recipe I am posting today, "South Indian Prawns in Coconut."  Before I give you the details, let me plug its cookbook for a sec.  Don't let the Smarmy-Used-Car-Dealer title fool you; The Classic 1,000 Indian Recipes contains the recipes for utterly authentic Indian food, and I can tell this in two ways.  1. Last week I made two dishes from this book that rivaled some of the best Indian food I've eaten in restaurants.  2. The recipes contain ingredients that you're only going to find in either a really good American ethnic grocery store, or in a standard grocery store... in Bombay.  Black mustard seeds.  Asafoetida.  Black cardamom pods.  Gingelly oil.  Jaggery.  Luckily this recipe suffered not in the slightest from a few missing ingredients.

2 lb. cooked, peeled prawns (just get the frozen bagged kind; it still tastes great)

1 tsp. turmeric

5 Tbsp. coconut milk (I used about double this amount-- your call)

1 cup shredded coconut 

2 Tbsp. coriander seeds (I only had ground)

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

1 large or 2 small dried red chilies 

1/4 tsp. black peppercorns (I pestled them)

1 Tbsp. black mustard seeds (if you can find them!!)

2 tsp. tamarind concentrate (ibid)

1 red onion, roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped or crushed

1 inch ginger root, roughly chopped

3 Tbsp. water

3 Tbsp. oil

2 fresh curry leaves (if you can find them)

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Mix together the prawns, turmeric and salt and set aside for ten minutes.  Puree the cocunut milk, coconut, coriander and cumin seeds, chilies, peppercorns, mustard seeds, tamarind, onion, garlic and ginger to a paste, adding water if necessary.

Heat the oil and fry the puree for 10 minutes, stirring continuously.  Stir in the prawns and curry leaves and simmer for 10 minutes.  

Garnish with the cilantro and serve hot with rice.  

My revelation about this dish and another one I made from this book ("Chickpeas in Sauce"), is that the thick, fragrant sauce that most Indian dishes are composed of is made from pureed onions and garlic!  If that's your base then no wonder FLAVOR is the name of the game.