"(Sunset Magazine) Cooking for Two..." (Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing) & "The Savory Way" (Winter Vegetable Puree) by Deborah Madison & "Leo Buscaglia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano" (Honey Bread Pudding) - Valentine's Day 2016

Date I made these recipes:  February 14, 2016 – Valentine's Day

Sunset Cooking for Two...or Just for You

Published by: Lane Publishing Co.

© 1978

Purchased at Hennepin County Library Used Book Sale

Recipe:  Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing – p. 45

The Savory Way by Deborah Madison

Published by:  Bantam Books

© 1990; ISBN 0-553-05780-4

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe: Winter Vegetable Puree – p. 197

Leo Buscaglia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano

Published by:  SLACK Incorporated

ISBN: 0-8050-3725-X

Purchased at: Barnes and Noble Used Books, Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Honey Bread Pudding – p. 139

Well Valentine's Day has come and gone and although I barely had my act together when it came to selecting a menu, I managed to pull this meal out for the win!  Valentine's Day was saved, be still my heart! (Pun intended.)

Occasions like this often require a consultation with my better half as to which recipe(s) to select.  Normally, I'd go through a couple of cookbooks, earmarking recipes for him to consider, but this year I didn't and he was not at all happy: "What?  You don't have anything marked for me to look at?"  [Insert look of horror here.]  "No, I don't and that's because you often look through the entire book anyway and select something that I didn't mark."

Like tonight's entree, Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing.  I saw the recipe but ignored it; he saw it and thought it had potential.  And this is why we work so well together.

So he selected that recipe and I filled in the rest of the dinner with the winter vegetable puree and also the bread pudding from Leo Buscaglia and Biba Caggiano's "Love" Cookbook.   I toyed with making something chocolate but that is just so expected and I hate doing the expected so I switched it up and made honey bread pudding out of a "Love" cookbook; honey + "love" = perfect for Valentine's Day.  And so with that, our menu was all set and all that was left to do was to go shopping for the few ingredients I needed to make our day complete.

One and a half days later...

...Okay, this dinner almost didn't get off the ground because I couldn't find rhubarb.  Actually, I found it, I just didn't buy it when I found it (frozen) at the Lunds & Byerlys grocery store nearest our house because that would have been too easy.  Instead, I intended to purchase it at another Lunds & Byerlys in the city of Edina, where Andy and I were running some errands on Valentine's Day.

Except, of course, that Lunds & Byerlys was out of the frozen rhubarb.  What?  Let's review:  it's winter in Minnesota and a grocery store is out of frozen rhubarb?  Because....why?

Well this was puzzling and irritating at the same time because that meant we had to go all the way back to the other Lunds & Byerlys just to get rhubarb.  I was most certainly not feeling the love at that point, "L&B."  Not feeling the love.  But we made the trip because once we had our minds set on the dish, we had to have it which meant we had to have the rhubarb which meant that we had to waste gas going right back to the original source.  I could have screamed.

Luckily, the dish turned out and was very tasty even though I was skeptical that the spices – cinnamon and allspice - would overpower the dish.  They did not.  And as crazy as this sounds, I like the fact that a Cooking for Two cookbook delivered just the right amount of food.  I know, right?  Because folks, I've made a few other dishes from alleged "two person" cookbooks and either we both starved or we had way too many leftovers.  This amount was perfect plus, there were many other tasty-sounded recipes that will likely appeal if this one doesn't float your heart-shaped boat. 

Next up:  the side dish!  And now it's true confession time because I have to admit to you that I spent all of ten seconds leafing through The Savory Way  before finding what I wanted – potatoes – and calling it a day.  Some cookbooks are like that and I mean absolutely no disrespect to the author, Deborah Madison, because she writes excellent cookbooks.  I just needed to get on with my meal planning already, and that meant time was of the essence.  For those with plenty of time, this is a great cookbook and you'll be hard pressed not to find several recipes to suit your fancy.

For tonight's dinner, I made her dish pretty much to order although I barely added any butter (you can add butter or cream as optional ingredients) and I could have used a bit more salt because without it, the vegetables were not as flavorful.  I think that any type of root vegetables will do in this dish but I chose to go with potatoes, celery root, rutabaga and leeks. 

Although the flavors were slightly more savory than the pork chop dish, they worked pretty well together and we enjoyed eating them.  I wish we could say the same about the bread pudding which was not at all bad, it just wasn't the bread pudding we were used to.

For one thing, this recipe called for Italian bread and I don't know—I think it was the wrong flavor and consistency for the dish.  And instead of breaking the bread into cubes and baking it in a round casserole dish or soufflé dish, the bread was layered like a lasagna.  And....no.  And then there was the rum and I want it noted that while I am always a fan of using liquor in cooking, the recipe called for 1/3 a cup and that's a lot of rum.  A lot of rum.  We could smell it in the living room, that's how much rum there was.  So if we made this recipe again and it's unlikely, we would not layer the dish, use different bread and – I cannot believe I am saying this – cut way down on the dark rum. 

The nice thing about Leo and Biba's cookbook is that they've created menus to help you with your menu planning -  Loving Dinners for Two; Loving Dinners for Friends; Loving Dinners for Family which can be a great thing if you're trying to design a special dinner for Valentine's Day. 

So I was just sitting here contemplating the bread pudding recipe and Valentine's Day and how disappointing this dish was when it sounded so promising, when out of the blue, this scene from the movie, The Godfather, played in my head:  "I know it was you, Fredo.  You broke my heart.  You broke my heart."  This recipe broke my heart but if you tweak it just a little, I think you could have a winner (and then Fredo won't die and then Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) won't be mad and it'll all be good).

Until next Valentine's Day....

Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing – serves 2- From Sunset Cooking for Two...or Just for You

1/8 teaspoon dry rosemary, crumbled

½ teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

2 pork loin or shoulder chops, cut ¾ inch thick

1 tablespoon salad oil

2 slices firm-textured bread, cut into ½-inch cubes (about 1 ¾ cups)

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/2 –inch pieces (about 3 cups)

1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

Mix together rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Sprinkle evenly over chops.  Heat oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat; add chops and brown on both sides; set aside with drippings.

Stir together bread cubes, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, rhubarb, and flour; spread half the mixture in a greased shallow 1 ½ to 2-quart baking dish.  Arrange chops on top; spoon over 2 tablespoons drippings (add water if necessary, to make this amount); top with remaining rhubarb mixture.  (Cover and refrigerate if made ahead.)

Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for 45 minutes; then uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer or until pork is fork tender.

Winter Vegetable Puree – makes about 2 ½ cups, serving 4 to 6 – From The Savory  Way

2 cups White Rose or red potatoes, scrubbed and diced into ½-inch pieces

3 cups mixed winter vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas, leeks, celery root, and fennel, diced into ½-inch pieces

3 sprigs chopped parsley

1 pinch of dried thyme

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Salt

Butter or cream (optional)

Champagne vinegar

Freshly ground white pepper

Put the vegetables in a saucepan with the parsley, thyme, garlic, salt, and enough water to cover.  (Ann's Note:  just saying the word "salt" is not a good indication of how much.  I did not use enough.  You've been warned.)  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are completely soft, about 20 minutes.  Pour them into a colander set over a bowl; reserve the liquid.

Pass the vegetables through a food mill or mash by hand.  (The food processor will tend to make them too gummy and glutinous.)  Use the cooking water to thin the puree to the proper consistency.  Stir in additional butter or cream to taste and season with salt, a dash of vinegar and pepper.

Ann's Note:  I didn't use the vinegar and used just a scant amount of butter.  The resulting flavor was okay but a little bland so I added more salt.  If I made this again, I might use some chicken broth in place of some of the vegetable liquid; vegetarians, ignore that note!

Honey Bread Pudding – makes 6 servings – From Leo Buscalia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano

Ann's Note:  As stated above, I think I would have liked this recipe a lot better had I used different bread, torn it into cubes instead of slicing and layering it, baked it in a round casserole and used less rum.  "But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln..."

8 to 10 (1/2-inch thick slices crusty Italian bread, preferably one to two days old, with crust removed

¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter

½ cup honey

1/3 cup dark rum

½ cup golden raisins, soaked in lukewarm water for 20 minutes, then drained

4 large eggs

½ cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Generously butter a 9 x 12-inch baking dish.  Arrange the bread slices in a single layer in the dish, slightly overlapping each other.  Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the honey and rum, and raise the heat to high.  Cook, stirring, until sauce begins to thicken and is foamy and bubbling, 3 to 4 minutes.  Stir in the raisins, remove from heat, and pour over the bread evenly.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with 1/3 cup of the sugar.  Add the cream and milk, and beat well to combine.  Pour over the bread and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325F and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until pudding is set and the bread has a nice golden color.  Remove pudding from oven, and let it stand.  Cool to room temperature and serve.

Prepare ahead:  Complete steps one through four a day or two ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.  If pudding is refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature before serving.

"The (Martin) Yan Can Cookbook;" "The Pot and How to Use It;" "Vegetable Love" - Lemon Chicken, Tangy Sushi Rice and Lemon Light Carrots

Date I made these recipes – January 17, 2016 – still cold

The Yan Can Cook Book (As Seen On National Public Television) by Martin Yan

Published by:  Doubleday

ISBN: 0-385-17606-6; © 1981

Purchased at local library used book sale

Recipe:  Luscious Lemon Chicken – p. 93

The Pot and How to Use It – the mystery and romance of the rice cooker by Roger Ebert

Published by:  Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC

ISBN:  13: 978-0-7407-9142-0

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books – Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Tangy, Stick Sushi-Style Rice By Devin Chalmers on November 2, 2008 6:18 A.M. – p. 95-96

Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka with Christopher Styler

Published by:  Artisan

ISBN:  10: 1-57965-168-2

From my late friend Carol's collection

Recipe:  Lemon-Light Carrots – p. 188

For the record, it's still cold.  In fact, probably colder.  When I last peeked through my fingers at our indoor thermometer, I think it said -4 and that was midday.

You should also know that our kitchen, added after the house was built (1904), is not insulated.  Every single window displayed indoor frost.  Yes, that's right:  indoor.

So by all rights, I should have and could have made another comfort food dish just like last week's "fancy" chili except I decided I had held off on making my Asian meal long enough.  Besides, the use of lemon and lemon juice temporarily tricked me into thinking I was in a warmer climate.  Dream on.

In an "amazing but true fact" moment, all three of the dishes here worked well with each other.  And honestly, the Vegetable Love book just fell open to the right chapter to reveal a delicious carrot recipe. It was a sign, no?

Let's start with Martin Yan of The Yan Can Cook Book.  In the 1980's, well before the Food Network emerged, PBS hosted a number of shows from previously unknown chefs like Yan.  His book is named for his show.  As I found with his other books, Yan delivers a wide variety of Chinese dishes, all of which sounded pretty yummy to me.  The dish I selected was really tasty and the lemon sauce was light instead of cloying.  Sometimes I think the American versions of Chinese sauces come with instructions along the lines of "Make thick and goopy and by all means, add lots of sugar."  This is not that dish.

As I was making this dish, I thought about the first time I had lemon chicken and that was at LeeAnn Chin's, named after local Chinese restaurateur and cookbook author, Leeann Chin.

I've written about Leeann Chin before and how she turned a few family recipes into a culinary empire.   Back in the early 80's, she operated a couple of Leeann Chin restaurants before expanding the business to include several quick-service/take-out sites, and one of her famous signature dishes at all locations was lemon chicken. 

Leeann's lemon chicken is different from Martin Yan's as it is breaded and fried and then the sauce, containing sugar and corn syrup, is poured on top and not mixed in with the stir-fry.  If it's made fresh, it can be pretty divine.  But after she went the quick-service/take-out route it wasn't so divine.  If left to sit too long, the breading gets soggy and the lemon sauce recipe seemed to morph over the years from light and delicate to almost syrupy, at least to this palate.

And so even though I loved most of her other dishes, I feared my lemon chicken days over.

But then I found this recipe and I would make this again 1,000 times over.  The only small frustration with the ingredients – and it is small – is that the marinade calls for 1 teaspoon of "ginger juice."  Let's discuss!

A quick Google search told me I could buy a bottle of "ginger juice" at a grocery store but I'd be paying close to $5 for the bottle and that was ridiculous considering I only needed 1 teaspoon.

And so I then Googled "make your own ginger juice" and came up with several recipes.  My version was undoubtedly not the right one (dice up ginger, add water, voila!) but it worked for me.  Besides, it was for the marinade so it didn't need to be spot on.  At least this is what I told myself; purists may differ.

Luckily, you'll only have to marinade this for a half an hour and then you can get going cooking it in your wok.  I love dishes like this.

So that's Martin Yan's recipe and now let's discuss the book The Pot and How to Use It – the mystery and romance of the rice cooker by Roger Ebert.

I do so hope you remember Roger Ebert.  He became a household name to many when he and the late Gene Siskel, both film critics for competing Chicago newspapers, starred in the TV show, Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. 

When this show started up, I remember thinking that it was kind of quirky but it soon became incredibly popular, with viewers tuning in to watch the two guys throw down against each other.  I don't recall Ebert liking too many movies and the fact that Siskel usually liked something Ebert hated spurred them on into near fisticuffs.  Still, it was an entertaining show and I learned a lot about the movies.

After Siskel died, Ebert took on a new movie critic partner and all was well until Ebert was diagnosed with cancer.  He wrote this book while undergoing treatment (he died in 2013) which is amazing to me because a mere headache can wipe me out, never mind cancer.

It appears that this book was prompted by Ebert's desire to eat relatively healthy after his cancer diagnosis as well as a love of cooking things in one pot.  Others favor soup pots or casseroles but for Ebert, it was a rice cooker.  The beauty of this book though, is that it includes more than just basic recipes such as  "Seafood Jambalaya (p. 85)," "Chicken Spaghetti (p. 85)" and even "Oatmeal (p. 97). " And these were all fine and well and good but at day's end, I opted for the sushi rice to accompany my lemon chicken.   Yes, that was a totally predicable choice but it worked out really well.

This recipe – Tangy, Sticky Sushi-Style Rice (submitted by Ebert fan, Devin Chalmers) – could not be easier and yet, finding white sushi rice, as opposed to brown sushi rice (OMG – ugh!) turned out to be harder than I expected. Actually, let me clarify:  I could have easily gotten my hands on several pounds of sushi rice but I didn't need that much and so finding just the right amount proved to be the challenge.  Inexplicably, at least three stores I visited had brown sushi rice and I must confess that never, ever did I think that sushi was made with brown sushi rice.  Seems like a sin against culinary nature to me!

Happily, Whole Foods had a small package of white sushi rice containing just about the amount I wanted and so all was well with the world.  And, considering that Whole Foods' nickname is "Whole Paycheck," we got out of there for only a couple of bucks – score!

For the record, all of the recipes in this quirky book sounded great and Roger's commentary is hilarious so it was a total win-win purchase on my part.

This leaves us then, with our third cookbook, Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka.  This thing is a "tome," containing 667 pages of vegetable recipes and then several more source lists.  Naturally, it weighs a ton and so do handle carefully!

Normally, selecting a recipe from a book this large would overwhelm but as I mentioned previously, the book just seemed to fall open to just the recipe I needed to round out my Asian meal:  Lemon-Light Carrots.   This dish – basically, slow-cooked carrots – is freshened up by lemon juice, lemon zest and Chinese five-spice powder.  We loved it.  But if carrots are not your thing, then by all means peruse the rest of the book for alternatives, broken out into the following chapters:  "Vegetables of the New World;" "Vegetables of the Mediterranean Basin, Europe and the Arab World;" "Vegetables of Asia and Africa," and "Citizens of the World."  The carrot recipe, found on page 188, was part of the "Mediterranean Basin, Europe and the Arab World" section and yet it fit perfectly with my Asian theme. 

And as with the other two books by Martin Yan and Roger Ebert, Vegetable Love's author, Barbara Kafka, is very well-known in culinary and cookbook circles.  Her cookbook, Roasting, is probably the most well known and yet you know what?  I don't have it.  I must rectify this forthwith!

Luscious Lemon Chicken – serving size not given but there was enough for two decent servings

½ pound chicken or 2 breasts, boned

2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons green onion

¼ cup soup stock

1 tablespoon wine

1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar

½ lemon, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon cornstarch solution (Ann's Note:  I guessed at the ratio and thought my solution was a bit too thin i.e. too much water to cornstarch but it worked.)

For the marinade

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons wine

Dash black pepper

1 teaspoon ginger juice (Ann's Note:  you can buy this premade or make it like I did – finely chop or grind some fresh, peeled ginger, then add water.)

Cut the chicken into 1 ½ inch squares; marinate for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok over high heat and stir-fry chicken for 1 ½ - 2 minutes. (Ann's Note:  The chicken pieces were still pretty raw after 2 minutes so I cooked them for a few minutes more.)  Add the remaining ingredients except cornstarch and lemon.  Mix well and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer for 1 ½ minutes.  Add lemon slices and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Thicken with cornstarch; garnish with extra lemon slices. 

Tangy, Sticky Sushi-Style Rice – serving size not given but I made about 2 cups (Recipe with notes from Devin Chalmers)

2-3 cups white sushi-style rice (short-grain) (Ann's Note:  Use the plastic measure that came with your rice cooker pot as the measure for your rice and not a regular measuring cup.)

5 parts rice vinegar to 1 part sugar with a bit of salt

Rinse white short-grain rice carefully.  The water should be clear, and long-grain rice is for Communists.  (Ann's Note:  I'm sorry to say, I feel the same way about brown rice!)

Add a little (maybe a third by volume) more water than rice.  Let it soak for a good half hour or so.  (Ann's Note:  I barely covered the rice and it cooked perfectly!)

Cook in the Pot.

While the Pot goes, prepare a solution of approximately 5 parts rice vinegar, 1 part sugar, and a bit of salt.  Call it a third of a cup total for 2 to 3 cups of rice.  Microwaves can help with this, or you can cleverly harness team from the Pot to assist dissolution.

Remove the rice to a large, shallow bowl-like thing.  Have a friend fan the rice while you drizzle the vinegar concoction and gently turn the rice.  (Fanning helps with the stickiness.)  (Ann's Note:  I put Andy in charge of the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture as well as the direction to "remove the rice to a large, shallow bowl-like thing."  Upon reading that, he snorted and then got out a large, plastic, not-so-shallow bowl-like "thing" a/k/a/ Tupperware and that was that!)

For extra fun: (suggested by Devin)

• Add (low-sodium? Perhaps) soy sauce and wasabi for a cheap cheap cheap alternative to waiting in line at a sushi restaurant.  All you really wanted was the soy sauce and wasabi, right?
• Make rice balls!  You can put thing inside them.  I suggest using a piece of plastic wrap to keep your hands clean if you're making more than a few.  Make a hole with your thumb to insert fillings – maybe something sweet, bits of pickle, anything.
• For added points shape your rice ball into a fat triangle and wrap with seaweed.  Eat while the nori is crispy.
• Rice balls are notoriously hard to keep more than a day; they dry out in the fridge very quickly.  I've had some limited luck microwaving them a bit.

 Lemon-Light Carrots – makes 5 cups; serves 8 as a side dish

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

10 medium carrots (3 pounds), peeled, trimmed and cut into 3 x ¼ x ¼ -inch matchsticks (Ann's Note:  OR—you can do like I did and buy carrots that have already been cut into smaller matchsticks for salads and then just keep an eye on your cooking time.  Worked like a charm!)

1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced

Zest of 2 lemons – removed with a vegetable peeler and thinly sliced into long strips (about 3 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Melt the butter in a nonreactive 4-quart pot over low heat.  Stir in the cayenne pepper.  Add the carrots, onion and lemon zest and mix well.  Cover the pot.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender but not mushy and the onions have softened and turned light yellow, about 45 minutes.

Stir in the five-spice powder, lemon juice and salt and cook for 30 seconds more.

"On Campus Cookbook" and "The Campus Survival Cookbook #1" - Pungent Curry Dip and Meat Loaf and Short-Cut Mashed Potatoes for Back to School

Date I made these recipes:  September 13, 2015 – Back to school!

On Campus Cookbook – For the Non-Kitchen Cook – Quick, easy, inexpensive dishes for hot pots, blenders, and toaster ovens by Mollie Fitzgerald

Published by:  Workman Publishing

ISBN: 0-89480-775-7

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Pungent Curry Dip – p. 51

The Campus Survival Cookbook #1 by Jacqueline Wood & Joelyn Scott Gilchrist

Published by: Quill

ISBN: 0-688-05030-1

Purchased at Hennepin County Library Used Book Sales

Recipes:  Meat Loaf and Short-Cut Mashed Potatoes – p. 90-91

And they're back!  Minneapolis grade and high school students started back to school in late August, college students started back the first weeks of September and now they are all back in the swing of things, studying themselves silly—or so we hope.

We live near the University of Minnesota and over the years have seen an explosion of student housing lining University and Washington Avenues (the main drags).  Sure, there are dorms, but there are also apartments housing all these students and the nice thing is that these apartments give them the opportunity to cook – not that they do, just that they have the opportunity.  And this is a far cry from what I had when I was in school.  (By the way, we watched a student apartment building go up on the corner of Washington and Huron and it is called, I kid you not – "WaHu."  Snort!)

For those of us living in the dorms – a requirement for all freshmen who were not otherwise commuting - we pretty much brought one and only one piece of kitchen "equipment" with us when we moved in:  a (electric) popcorn popper.  This was essential to dorm life as we ate, and ate and ate more popcorn than I care to think about.  That and pizza but we ordered out for that.

Some people had a hot pot to make tea, flavored coffees (just out on the market) or hot chocolate but not many.  It just wasn't a popular item for us.  And PS—even though Starbuck's CEO, Howard Schultz, graduated from my alma mater – Northern Michigan University – four years ahead of me, takeout coffee shops, never mind Starbucks, were light years away from being developed.  Yes, we were dinosaurs.

Mini-refrigerators were in hot demand but those were rented from the university; I can't recall if local stores like Shopko, even sold them but likely not.  I do recall that you had to be at least a sophomore to get your name on the "I want to rent" list and it was first come, first serve.  My roommate and I were tickled to be "awarded" one and used it pretty much to store her mother's delicious baked goods that she made for us on a regular basis (mom lived at an nearby air base).  Actually, the word "stored" is inaccurate, seeing as how nothing we put in there ever lasted that long.  We'd get a knife and start slicing and talking all at the same time until what do you know, the delicious loaf of pumpkin, apple or banana bread or strudel was gone = how did that happen?

During my junior year, I lived in an apartment where my roommates and I ate better but still didn't have much in the way of kitchen equipment.  And during my senior year, I ended up moving back to the dorms – this one intended for junior, seniors and grad students – and there you could either cook in the kitchens on each floor or opt to continue with the school's cafeteria plan which was, of course, horrible, but it was easier than menu planning on your own.

And that about concluded our student cooking endeavors.  If ramen – the staple of students everywhere – was around, we didn't know about it.   The closest anyone came to eating something with noodles in a flavor packet was to make Lipton Chicken and Noodle soup in a hot pot. I recall a few times that the dorm I was living in would host a dinner for T-day or Christmas, but for all I know, it was catered by the school cafeteria, not cooked with our own two hands.  We were too busy studying partying to be bothered, don't you know!

You can tell that times have changed, not only by the heavy marketing stores like Target does for college students, pimping out all kinds of kitchen gadgets that these students just have to have, but also with the publication of more and more "college" cookbooks.  One of the books I'm showcasing here – On Campus Cookbook – features recipes intended for hot pots, blenders and toaster ovens.  Not featured in this book – and that's because it was published in 1984 – are recipes for microwaves, a piece of equipment which has now overtaken popcorn poppers as a dorm/apartment staple.  It's only a matter of time then, until I acquire a "student" microwave cookbook.  (And PS—early microwaves cost a ton of money and also weighed a ton.)

And so to the recipes!  Finding something to make from the On Campus Cookbook was a little challenging because I don't have a blender or a toaster oven.  I do have a hot pot but wasn't in the mood for a "hot" anything given the very warm weather we'd been having.  And so, the curry dip.  One bowl and only a few ingredients works for me. 

The other featured cookbook, The Campus Survival Cookbook #1, broadens the scope of student fare by including menus for different days of the week, as well as "party menus" (well, duh) "survival menus" and "flat-broke" menus (isn't that an oxymoron?) that provide a little something for everybody.  The meatloaf I made was from the "Wednesday, Fourth Week" menu that also included the "Short-Cut Mashed Potatoes" and a "Church-Supper Cole Slaw" (untried).  My only issue with this cookbook is that it was a little hard to read as recipes were crammed onto the page and were in old-fashioned typewriter (remember those?) type.  That said, I flagged several recipes before deciding on the meatloaf and "mash" combination.

All recipes were good and nothing was too difficult so grade and high school kids should consider these as well.  In fact, Food Network's show, Chopped, is currently nearing the end of a teen tournament and last week, had a special college edition.  The requirement for these competitors though, is to transform the ingredients into something spectacular so kids, be thinking about what you can do with curry dip, meatloaf and mash.  "Time starts...now!"

Pungent Curry Dip – Makes 2 ½ cups

2 cups mayonnaise

3 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons honey

3 teaspoons lemon juice

3 teaspoons curry powder

2 tablespoons very finely chopped onion

Combine all ingredients in a medium-size bowl and stir well.  Served chilled with raw vegetables, such as carrots, celery, cauliflower, mushrooms, cucumbers...

Meatloaf – serves 2

1 ½ lb. ground beef

3 tablespoons chili sauce or barbecue sauce

3 slices bread, torn up small

1 cup milk

1 egg

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon ketchup

Preheat oven to 350.  Championship time for mixing this is 3 minutes, if ingredients are lined up.  Mix and bake it all in the same Pyrex ovenware bowl, or in a bread loaf pan.  (Makes excellent sandwiches, too.)

Measure everything except first two ingredients (beef and sauce) into pan or bowl.  Beat with a fork to mix well.  Add ground beef.  Squish everything together with hands until well mixed.  Pat down until smooth.  Cover with chili sauce or barbecue sauce.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.  (Ann's Note:  more like 1 hour, 15 minutes) to ensure the middle of the loaf is done.  Pour off excess fat before serving.

Short-Cut Mashed Potatoes – serves 2

2-4 medium potatoes

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

¼ cup milk (or more)

Salt and pepper

If you have no proper potato masher, or you just can't face the job, this method will get you there.  But, start these before you get going on Meat Loaf.

Scrub potatoes clean and dry them.  (If you can eat 2 each, use 4.)  Place on center rack of oven.  Now mix Meat Loaf and put in oven.  When potatoes have cooked about 1 hour, feel them.  If soft when pinched or pressed with fingers, they're done.

Cut potatoes open.  Scoop out insides onto plate.  Add butter, milk, and ½ teaspoon salt.  Mash well with back of fork.  (You will need extra butter, milk, and salt if you've used 4 potatoes.)  Add a couple of dashes of pepper, mash and mix.  Serve.

Ann's Note:  I had both regular milk and buttermilk in my fridge but I used the buttermilk for extra flavor.

"Cookin' Up a Storm" & "Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking" - Cheese Coins (crackers) and Creole Corn and Crab Bisque - Hurricane Katrina Anniversary

Date I made these recipes:  August 29, 2015 – Hurricane Katrina's 10 year anniversary

Cookin' Up A Storm – The Life and Recipes of Annie Johnson – Updated 2^nd Edition by Jane Lee Rankin

Published by:  Grace Publishers

ISBN:  0-9657387-2-8

Recipe:  Cheese Coins – p. 70

Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking by Emeril LaGasse & Jessie Tirsch

Published by:  William Morrow and Company, Inc.

ISBN: 0-688-11284-6  

Purchased at Hopkins Library Used Book Sale

Recipe:  Creole Corn and Crab Bisque – p. 59

Today – August 29 – marks Hurricane Katrina's 10^th anniversary when a good portion of New Orleans as well as other places along the Gulf Coast went underwater after a massive storm surge.  Some of those images are forever engrained in my brain and likely yours as well.  I cannot imagine the horror but am cheered that New Orleans is slowly rebuilding – not fast enough - but it's getting there.

Now the title of Cookin' Up a Storm is somewhat misleading as it has nothing to do with Katrina and nothing to do with New Orleans but I liked the title so much that I had to include it in this post.  This cookbook is subtitled "The Life and Recipes of Annie Johnson," domestic help to the Rankin household of Louisville, KY.  As with many southern African-American women, Annie Johnson was a fabulous cook and her recipes here are all basic, delicious, (mostly) southern specialties like the cheese coins I made. 

I love books like this that are half memoir, half cooking and could have easily cooked up my own storm by making all the recipes in this book.  I chose Cheese Coins because they are a southern specialty (I hardly know a southern cookbook that doesn't contain this recipe or one for cheese straws) and I was intrigued by the use of the puffed rice cereal – not to be confused with Rice Krispies.  I know this because I Googled "puffed rice cereal" and saw that it was as I remembered i.e. a lot bigger than Rice Krispies and made by Quaker Oats.  But alas, folks, finding this cereal was like looking for the unicorn.  Four stores later (I am not kidding), we found what we wanted at Lunds & Byerlys.  This is sad because I'm thinking that today's preferences for sugary cereals is why the basics are disappearing off the shelf.  So thank you, L&B!

And wouldn't you know, we both loved these very easy cheese coins and are placing the recipe into our "consideration" pile for our annual holiday party, especially since we know now where to find the rice cereal.  It's the littlest things that please us.

At the same time I was cooking up a storm with the cheese coins,  I started Emeril's bisque recipe.  Our elusive ingredient for this recipe was the seafood broth.  I knew, with certainty, that Swanson made this broth and yet our grocery store no longer carried it so that was another thing to add to the list of treasure-hunt items.  We found that, and the puffed rice cereal at Lunds & Byerlys. Coastal Seafoods, where I stopped to inquire about crabmeat, also sold homemade fish broth but it was more expensive and I would have had to freeze it.  Coastal Seafoods also had lump crab (frozen) but it was more than what I needed and very expensive so I ultimately went with canned crabmeat. All was not lost at Coastal though as they carried the small bottle of liquid shrimp and crab boil I needed so I bought that. 

After rounding up all the usual ingredients, I set to work and the first order of business was to make a proper roux for the bisque.  Epic fail.  While making the first one, I spooned too much flour into the butter and it turned into pie dough.  Dammit!  So I tried again and it was better but still not like the pictures.  This Yankee doesn't get much practice making a roux so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Roux is a thickener made with flour and butter (fat) and it thickened my bisque all right to the point that I ended up with chowder.  And folks, I didn't even add all the roux required!  Luckily, this mattered not as the dish was delicious, even if we settled for canned crab meat.

All in all, this was just a lovely repast showcasing the best of southern cooking.  Hurricane Katrina was a very sad event but the resilience of people in New Orleans and other coastal areas is inspiring.  Cooks and chefs of all kinds have rebuilt New Orleans, considered by many to be the culinary capital of America.  May they all continue to cook up a storm.

Cheese Coins – Yield:  4 dozen

 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 pound (4 cups) cheddar cheese, grated

2 cups puffed rice cereal (Ann's Note:  NOT Rice Krispies.  Quaker makes this cereal.)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

With an electric mixer or by hand, mix the butter and cheese together.  Sift the flour, salt and cayenne pepper together.  Add to the butter and cheese, mixing until a soft dough is formed.  Add the puffed rice by hand or with a spoon, mixing well.

Form 1-inch balls and flatten to make coins.  Place on lightly greased baking sheets 1 inch apart.

Bake in a 375 oven for 15 minutes, or until coins start to turn golden brown.  (Ann's Note:  About 13 minutes seemed right.)

Creole Corn and Crab Bisque – Makes 7 cups, 6 first-course servings

3 tablespoons Roux (see below or see page 5 if you have the cookbook)

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup minced onions

1 cup uncooked corn, scraped from about 2 ears

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons minced celery

1 cup Crab Stock (page 11) or Fish Stock (page 9) (Ann's Note:  or store-bought.  Swanson's makes a fish broth but not all stores will carry it.)

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

3 bay leaves

3 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon liquid crab boil (Ann's Note:  Zatarain's makes this product.)

½ pound (about 1 cup) lump crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage (Ann's Note:  Coastal Seafoods in St. Paul had it frozen but way more than I needed so I used – gasp – canned lump crabmeat.)

¼ cup chopped green onions

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

For the roux:

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter

1 cup flour

Prepare the roux, set aside 3 tablespoons, and refrigerate the rest for future use.  (Ann's Note:  See instructions below on how to make the roux.)

Heat oil in a large pot over high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the onions and corn and sauté for 1 minute.  Stir in the garlic and celery and sauté for 30 seconds.  Add the stock, salt, pepper, and bay leaves and bring to a boil.

Stir in the milk, cream, and crab boil.  Bring back to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Whisky in the roux 1 tablespoon at a time until thoroughly incorporated into the soup.  Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook, whisking until the mixture thickens.

Stir in crabmeat, green onions and Worcestershire and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes.

To serve, ladle 1 generous cup of the bisque into each of 6 soup plates.

To make the roux (makes about ¾ cup)

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour 1 tablespoon at a time and cook, whisking constantly, until the roux is thick and forms a ball, for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat or incorporate some immediately into a dish you're preparing.  If you prefer, allow the roux to come to room temperature and refrigerate it, covered, for a week or two.

"Tropical Fruit Cookbook" - Hawaiian Sunset Salad

Date I made this recipe:  August 21, 2015

Tropical Fruit Cookbook by Marilyn Rittenhouse Harris; illustrated by Charlene K. Smoyer

Published by: University of Hawaii Press

ISBN: 0-8248-1441-X

Purchased at Hennepin  County Used Library Book Sale

Recipe:  Hawaiian Sunset Salad – p. 70

People, at long last, it got stinkin' hot in these parts, with the temperature and the humidity heading up in the upper registers.  About damned time!  Still, it felt rather tropical outside and so what better thing to make than this tropical salad?

This book amused.  One should not be fooled into thinking that "tropical" equals "exotic" because most of the fruits listed here are ones we eat regularly:  avocados; bananas; grapefruit; lemon; oranges and so on.  And as I found, some of the less-popular fruits like passion fruit or guavas, are hard to find unless you live in the tropics in which case, jackpot!  My husband and I went to four grocery stores before finally and almost finding guava at Lunds & Byerlys.  I say "almost" because naturally, the store was out of guavas that I needed for the recipe and wouldn't have them in until the following week – maybe – and so I Googled substitutes and it recommended strawberries or pineapple; I used strawberries. So I'm afraid I cannot tell you all about guava and that's a damned shame but our schedules were such that it was now or never for the recipe.

The thing that sold me on the book though, was not necessarily the recipes but the illustrations by Charlene K. Smoyer.  I don't know who she is but I love her renderings. Alas, her illustrations are not sold separately, making me contemplate getting a second book just so I can deface it by removing and framing some of the artwork which I know, sounds horrible but how else am I going to get that artwork on my walls?

As to the recipes, most sounded really good but I was in a salad mood and was particularly swayed by the author's note (regarding the salad recipe): "In Hawai'i, many people watch sunsets carefully, looking for a "green flash" on the horizon as the sun's ball of fire sinks into the beautiful, blue Pacific.  This salad, combining green, gold, pink, yellow, and red, carries with it the memory of a Hawaiian sunset." 

I have been to Hawaii four times and while I have never seen the "green flash," I have seen some spectacular sunsets.  And since I love Hawaii, I thought the least I could do is to make this salad.  And by the way, and speaking of green and colors, I have seen the Aurora Borealis ("northern lights") a couple of times in the Boundary Waters area in Minnesota and that is impressive.  And I've heard wolf howls, happily from a distance.  One does not find wolves in the tropics and for this we are thankful.

So anyway, the recipe:  it was serviceable but it didn't float my boat, primarily because I felt something was missing in the dressing.  Although the author suggested using macadamia oil, I was not in the mood, especially after my guava search, to go track that down.  Had I done so, I would have likely thought the dressing was good.  As it is, it was just olive oil, pepper, minced kumquats and sesame seeds.  The author suggested I could use lime zest instead and I think I would have been happier with that.  And by the way, kumquats are like little mini oranges.

And as long as I'm being picky, the Chinese pea pods were bland and needed to be snapped in half as they were just too big to eat on their own and the water chestnuts are just silly.  Honestly, unless they are in a casserole, slathered with cream of mushroom soup, there is just no need to add water chestnuts to anything.  We added chicken because yes, this was a dinner salad, but Andy would have liked it more if I had marinated it beforehand.

All in all, this wasn't a bad dish but it wasn't a "nailed it" one either.  I think it could be good if you substituted a few more things and/or just selected another recipe like Lychee Champagne Punch (p. 834) or one of the many chutney recipes made from tropical fruit.  They sky is the limit in terms of recipes but you may have trouble sourcing some of the ingredients and that's a shame.  I had guava many years ago and would have liked to reacquaint myself with it but alas, 'twas not meant to be.

Aloha!

Hawaiian Sunset Salad – Yield:  4 servings

3 cups Chinese pea pods

2 guavas, unpeeled, deseeded, and diced

1 carambola, ("star fruit") thin star slices

½ cup sliced water chestnuts

½ cup thinly sliced red onion

3 cups coarsely chopped watercress

Dressing:

4 tablespoons macadamia or live oil

1 tablespoon coarse black pepper

2 kumquats, minced or 2 tablespoons lime zest

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Optional: The addition of 3 cups cooked chicken cubes turns this salad into a meal

Ann's Note:  If you cannot find guava – and believe me, it is not easy to find – Google says that you can substitute strawberries or pineapple.  Also, "carambola," is often called "star fruit" at the grocery store.

Steam or microwave pea pods to crunchy but tender.  Cool.  Mix dressing ingredients in a salad bowl.  Toss pea pods and all remaining ingredients with the dressing in salad bowl.  Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.

"Betty Crocker's All-Time Favorites" - Fiesta Tamale Pie

Date I made this recipe:  January 26, 2015

Betty Crocker's All-Time Favorites by Betty Crocker

Published by:  Golden Press

© 1971; Third Printing 1972

Purchased at Hennepin County Library Used Book Sale

Recipe:  Fiesta Tamale Pie – p. 18

Welcome to the Battle of the Betty's!

In this corner, weighing in at a whopping 94 years of culinary experience, the one, the only, the author of "Big Red," the most beloved cookbook ever, Betty Crocker!  [Crowd goes wild].

And in this corner, the newcomer restaurant on the block, the "red-headed stepchild" of Psycho Suzi's, a "bitchin'" Minneapolis restaurant, Betty Danger's Country Club:  a country club on crack! [Crowd goes wild].

Last weekend, my husband and I girded our loins and tried out the new restaurant on the block, Betty Danger's Country Club:  a country club on crack. Betty's is the third restaurant opened by Leslie Bock in the up-and-coming Northeast (or Nordeast, as the natives call it) neighborhood of Minneapolis.  Just down the street is Leslie's first restaurant, the crazy-fun, tiki-centric Psycho Suzi's and Donny Dirk's Zombie Den.  All three of these restaurants can be visited by hopping on the – I love this – Tiki Tram!  Leslie is just a creative genius.

 Betty's, which just opened in late December, sports, among other things, a Ferris wheel (called, The Danger) on the corner of its lot.  Should you be so inclined (spring, summer and fall), you can dine in one of the cars as the wheel turns.  Lit up in country club colors of pink and green, the Ferris wheel is visible for miles, making your GPS temporarily obsolete.  That Betty—how thoughtful.

For the golf-minded, Betty's provides Betty Danger's Monetary Correction Golf Course, a "put-put" golf course located on the property.  And for the literary and library set, there's Betty Danger's Library dining room, filled to the rim with people reading eating and drinking themselves silly amongst books and horse and hound wallpaper that makes you feel like you should be the proud owner of an English estate...except you're not.   For now.

While all three restaurants serve up their own brand of theme food, Betty's gives us the flavors from the mythical village of "Mexampton" – country club food with a Mexican twist.

It is here where the Battle of the Betty begins. For lo, though I do like a bit of Mexican flavors here and there, Betty Danger's lived up to her name, giving me a painful case of heartburn.  And the thing is, nothing in and of itself was that hot, such that we had to gulp pitchers of beer, it was just that everything came with a pepper...or 12...causing a slow burn.

And so this kids, is what made momma reach out to her other Betty, Betty Crocker.  You cannot go wrong with a recipe by Betty C.  You cannot.  Betty C. doesn't make a lasagna with Pepper Jack Cheese.  Betty C. would find this unseemly.  Betty D. might do something so foolish as that, but Betty C. would never.

Betty C. would also never put jalapenos on a Sloppy Joe (Sloppy Wog) or in a pot pie or in a shrimp salad.  But of course, all bets are off when you live in Mexampton.  Mexamptonites apparently love peppers; "regular" (not that there is such a thing) Hamptonites probably do not.

And lest you think it was just me, my husband, who has a high tolerance for heat, was rather exasperated with the menu as well, particularly with whatever (hot) dip came with our basket of fries.  I honestly thought the man was going to throw down his napkin in disgust and make like a tree and leaf, but he stayed the course.

So when we got home, I started searching for a recipe that would soothe my soul and my ravaged esophagus and of course, Betty had the answer.  Betty's Fiesta Tamale Pie is so innocuous you could probably feed it to a newborn and it would go down, stay down. Betty C. only uses 2 to 3 teaspoons chili powder.  Betty C. does not use jalapenos.  Betty C. recommends you top this concoction with shredded American cheese.  That's practically Velveeta, people!  Betty C. does not believe in shredding our stomachs.  Betty C. is clearly looking out for us.  Betty D. is giving us a wild ride.

This cookbook – All-Time Favorites – is full of similar recipes sure to please and comfort and soothe and I don't think you can go wrong with anything here but I must say, it was rather hilarious to see the recipe for the Fiesta Tamale Pie.  Nothing against Betty D. because the food was good if not a little spicy, but an entire meal of that is just asking for it.  "Danger" is right!  I even started eyeballing my martini to see if that really was an olive in my drink or just another pepper in disguise.

So:  for an easy, no-spice meal, go with Betty C.  For a fun time in the city's new hotspot, go with Danger.  Betty Danger. 

Fiesta Tamale Pie – 6 to 8 servings

1 pound ground beef

¼ pound bulk pork sausage

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can (16 ounces) tomatoes

1 can (16 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained

20 to 24 pitted ripe olives

1 ½ teaspoons salt

2 to 3 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup milk

2 eggs, well beaten

1 cup shredded American cheese

Heat oven to 350F.  In a large skillet, cook and stir ground beef, pork sausage, onion and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender.  Drain off fat.  Stir in the tomatoes, corn, olives and seasonings and heat to boiling.

Pour into an ungreased baking dish, 8x8x2 or 11 ½ x 7 ½ x 1 ½ inches, or a 2-quart casserole.  Mix cornmeal, milk and eggs and pour over meat mixture.  Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.

Note:  The meat mixture can be prepared ahead of time and kept, covered, in the refrigerator.

"Mixt Salads" - Siam (Salad) - Gulf Shrimp with Mango and Green Papaya (Oh, so good!)

Date I made this recipe:  August 11, 2014

Mixt Salads – A Chef's Bold Creations by Andrew Swallow with Ann Volkwein

Published by: Ten Speed Press

ISBN:  978-1-58008-057-6

Purchased at:  Hennepin  County Used Book Library Sale

Recipe:  Siam – Gulf Shrimp with Mango and Green Papaya – p. 119-120

I don't know why, but it often takes my brain a while to start craving fresh vegetables and green, leafy salads, usually (and regrettably) about the time that the "growing" season ends.

Not so this year.

In the blink of an eye, I got my "I have GOT to have a salad" groove on thus, Mixt Salads.  But wouldn't you know, the salad I chose didn't have a green leaf in sight, instead utilizing fresh mangoes and papaya and herbs. Oh, and shrimp.  (I love shrimp).  And the hilarious and ironic thing is that this salad was included in the book's "Winter" section.  I did not want to wait that long.  But come winter, when I'm cursing Nature for dropping all that white stuff otherwise known as "snow" on us, I may have to bite the bullet and make this salad again as it was just that good.

First, there's the very yummy marinade made with orange juice, jalapenos, garlic, ginger and ground pepper.  Never mind the salad, give me these marinated shrimp any day!  And I must confess that I didn't grill the shrimp as instructed because the shrimp I bought were too small for the grill and I couldn't find the grill pan so I sautéed the shrimp in the marinade for a couple of minutes until the shrimp was cooked and wow – fabulous!  I feel a new party appetizer coming on....  (Please note that you need to marinade for four hours before cooking.)

The shrimp are placed on a salad of daikon radish, mangoes, papaya, red pepper, shallots and herbs and there are instructions for plating the salad so it looks like the beauty shot on page 118.  And the beauty shot is great but let's get real:  put it all in a bowl and toss it.  No fuss, no muss, no bother. 

The instructions also call for julienned slices of mango and papaya and yes, we have a mandolin (not the instrument mandolin, but a kitchen mandolin) but again, I'd have to take time out to find it and assemble it and besides, I manage a pretty decent julienne all by myself, thank you!  Besides, slicing, dicing and chopping are my idea of relaxation and I was in a "relaxing" kind of mood.  (The other reason to avoid a mandolin is that it can cause serious hand-harm if used incorrectly! Let's just say the blade is very sharp.  Very.)

So once you slice and dice and grill and whatnot, you add the dressing and then you can top the thing off with Chipotle Honey.  And don't you know, I had one chipotle chili left in my refrigerator.  Reuse, recycle!

Now I've said before that I am rather a woos when it comes to heat (of the chili pepper kind) and this dish had enough heat without the addition of the chipotle honey as it called for 1 ½ teaspoons of minced Thai bird chili and the marinade contained 2 tablespoons of jalapeno.  So true confession:  I deliberately shopped for the tiniest Thai chili I could find and since I lived to tell about it, I'm thinking that was just the right amount.  Because 1 ½ teaspoons is asking for it and you heard it here first.  But kudos to those whose palate (and stomach) can take the heat!  Yes, I know—"if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," but I stayed in and braved the chili heat and then cursed myself for not wearing gloves as I felt the sting of the chilies the rest of the night.  Serves me right.

Now, not that this book didn't have a ton of delicious looking and sounding recipes but honestly, now that I made this recipe, all the other ones pale in comparison.  This is not necessarily a bad thing for me, considering I only make one recipe per book featured in this blog but you should go where no other blogger has gone and make something else so that you, too, can get your salad fix on. 

PS—I was also in a noodle kind of mood so I made some (cold) rice noodles to go with this salad.  You might want to follow suit.

PS2—And one more thing:  shout out to Ann Volkwein, who worked on this book with author, Andrew Swallow.  I met Ann several years ago in NYC and almost worked with her on a dining guide for Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Alas, it did not come to pass but I always get excited when I see her name on a cookbook.

Siam (Salad) – Gulf Shrimp with Mango and Green Papaya – serves 4

For the marinade

2 cups fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons chopped jalapeno pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh garlic

3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

Freshly ground black pepper

20 large fresh Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined

For the dressing

¼ cup fresh lime juice

1 ½ teaspoons minced Thai bird chile

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon fish sauce

½ teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic

1 tablespoon minced lemongrass

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup canola oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup unsalted peanuts (optional)

For the chipotle honey

2teaspoons chopped canned chipotle chili

¾ cup honey

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad

1 daikon radish, diced

2 mangoes, cored, peeled and julienned

1 green papaya, peeled, seeded, and julienned

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

2 shallots, finely diced

Leaves from 1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch basil, chiffonaded

1 bunch mint, chiffonaded

To make the marinade, combine the orange juice, jalapeno, garlic, ginger, and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a bowl.  Add the shrimp and let marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, chile, vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, lemongrass, and sugar in a blender.  Slowly add the canola oil in a stream, and blend until emulsified.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 300F (for the peanuts) and the grill to high.

Spread the peanuts on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.  Let cool, then chop and set aside.

To make the chipotle honey, add the honey and the chipotle chile to a blender and pulse to combine.  Set aside.

Remove the shrimp from the marinade, season with salt and pepper, and grill for 4 to 5 minutes, or until opaque, flipping once.  (Ann's Note:  I sautéed the shrimp for a couple of minutes in the marinade instead of grilling them.)

Ann's Note: To make the salad you can follow the author's directions below or combined all the ingredients except the chipotle honey in a bowl, toss and then drizzle the honey on top of each plate to taste.  Add peanuts if desired.  It has the same effect as following the directions below but with a lot less fuss.

To plate each serving, combine ¼ daikon, 1 cup mango, 1 cup papaya, 3 tablespoons bell pepper, 1 tablespoon shallot, 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, 2 tablespoon basil and 2 teaspoons mint with 2 ½ tablespoons of the dressing.  Place 5 shrimp on top, garnish with 2 tablespoons of the roasted peanuts, and drizzle with 1 ½ teaspoons of the chipotle honey.