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I’ve become pretty seriously addicted to a show called “Good Eats”:http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea. Supposedly it broadcasts on the Food Network, but I really don’t know. Probably six different people have independently recommended this show to me because they know I like science, cooking, and have a sense of humor.

I normally have mixed feelings about cooking shows. In my mind, I see a pretentious chef-school chef who has access to equipment and ingredients I’ve never heard of who in 24 minutes produces something I’d probably never eat, and couldn’t cook if I wanted to because of their quick treatment and step skipping. Now, I’ve seen a few that I’ve liked, but I never got that into them.

Good Eats, on the other hand, is right up my alley. The host, “Alton Brown”:http://www.altonbrown.com, is interested in keeping food simple, and prefers ingredients that are available to everyone. He even has shots of himself at the local restaraunt supply store or grocery store picking up the items. He also avoids recipes. Like myself, he feels that cooking should be an experiment, and that once you’ve got the basic idea of how to cook something, you can freely branch off on your own. He’s also a pretty silly, lighthearted guy, which is something I can relate to.

But most importantly, he describes some of the science behind the cooking. Instead of just telling you to do something, or worse, assuming you already know the technique, he shows you *why* a certain technique is important. He might use a “Hoberman Sphere”:http://hoberman.com/fold/index.html toy to demonstrate the molecular structure of bubbles in whipped cream, or puppets to describe how fat and water interact in a french fry. He even has food scientists and physicists appear on the show to explain certain properties of foods. I’m big on the ‘why’ of things, and I don’t feel comfortable using a cooking technique that I don’t understand. When you understand the why of the technique, the how often becomes apparent.

His simple, yet quality productions show you a basic recipe that includes all the correct techniques, setting you on the right direction for all your own experimentation.

Due to my aquisition of a large pile of his episodes, the last few days have been a cooking bonanza. I’ve made a few things based on his suggestions, but I’m now thinking more carefully about all of the things I cook, and imagining ways to improve techniques based on what is actually happening during the cooking process. We’ve made fish and chips, bruschetta, omelets, salsa, and had brownies in just the past few days. There is a reason my friend Barb calls this stuff ‘Food Porn’.

As you can see, I’m pretty pleased with Mr. Brown and his show. If you have the Food Network, you can probably just watch it. However, his shows are also available on DVD, or if you are an enterprising soul, you can download them via BitTorrent.

Here is a recipe for a spicy curryfied cous-cous that is really cheap to make, and very tasty, not to mention completely vegan. It reminds me of Nigerian food. Of course, because it uses new-world ingredients, its really a type of fusion food, but hey, I’m a fusion kind of guy.

It’s a simple recipe, and you are encouraged to change it around to your heart’s content. Like most of my recipies, it is not a finished product, but a work in progress.

Ingredients

* 1 cup dry cous cous
* 1 and 1/4 cup water
* 1 onion, finely chopped
* 1 bell pepper (any color, but red would be best), finely chopped
* a few tablespoons curry paste (yellow or panang paste would be best, but feel free to experiment with other kinds. The curry pastes from Patak are available in most groceries, and work nicely)
* a little olive oil
* some paprika
* a tablespoon or so of grated fresh ginger
* a chipotle pepper, finely chopped

Procedure

First, make the cous cous (aka couscous). I boil one and a quarter cups of water, then add the cup of dry cous cous, cover, and remove from heat. In a few minutes, the cous cous will soak up the water and be ready to rock.

While the cous cous is going, heat up a wok or large pan with a little olive oil in the bottom. When hot (hot enough to ‘surprise’ the food when it hits the bottom), toss the onion and pepper into the pan and stir it as it heats up. Add the ginger, curry paste and chopped up chipotle. Watch out for the fumes coming off that chipotle, it might sting your eyes a bit. Feel the burn, and keep cooking.

When the onions begin to soften, you are almost done. Grab that pot of finished cous cous, and toss it into the big pan or wok. Stir it up real good with the onions and peppers. If the curry paste hasn’t begun to coat all the cous cous, add a little more. Once it is fully mixed, add some paprika for color and paprika-goodness, and you are ready to eat!

Notes

Almost any saute-able veggie will work well in this. I used a green pepper and an onion tonight, because thats what I had around. You might try bamboo shoots, other colors of bell pepper (red would be particularly good, I think), some squash, or even some diced tomato or peas. Whatever it is, cut it small, so it doesn’t overwhelm the tiny cous couses.

With a single chipotle pepper, the cous cous was ‘not very spicy’ to me, and ‘a little too spicy’ to Madalene. Somewhere in the middle, you’ll find the truth. Start with less chipotle pepper, and if you need more spice, you can add another chopped up pepper after its done, but while its still in the pan. Taste often to get your spice balance right. Chipotle peppers are usually found in a can in the Mexican area of your local grocer-mart. They are smoked jalapenos packed in adobo sauce, and they are crazy delicious. I’ve raved about them in “other”:/archives/2004/05/19/salsa_recipe.shtml “recipes”:/archives/2004/05/30/hummus_recipe.shtml.

The curry paste is a mixture of spices like cumin, cilantro, peppers, tomato paste, and other goodies packed in oil and mushed into a paste. You can get it in the ‘international’ (Indian or Thai) section of your grocer-mart, or you can make your own pastes. I don’t have any good recipes for curry paste right now (if you’ve got one, “send it my way”:/contact.shtml!), so I’ve been using Patak brand curry paste, which is pretty common in grocery stores. Any curry paste will be good though, just a slightly different flavor. Note for vegetarians/vegans, some curry pastes contain shrimp paste or diced anchovies or something, so check the ingredients.

This is a very fast and cheap meal, and is likely to become a staple for me. I made it for a little potluck down the street, and the people got a real kick out of it. I hope you do too!

One of the most fabulous beverages known to man and woman-kinds alike is the sublime Vietnamese Iced Coffee, or Caf? Sua Da (or even, Ca Phe Sua Da, to further transliterate. If you are Vietnamese, please let me know how this would actually be written in Vietnam!). This coffee, a rich french dark roast with chicory, made in a special version of the press pot, and served with copious quantities of sweetened condensed milk and refreshingly cooled with ice, is the perfect complement to any dish, and any occasion. Just don’t drink it if you are hoping to sleep soon. It also makes a nice alternative to the “Thai Iced Tea”:/archives/2003/01/30/thai_iced_tea.shtml recipe I’ve got. They are both great on a hot day, or with spicy southeast asian foods (or anything at all, frankly). Read on for a picture-heavy, overly analyzed method of making the best coffee in town.

Update: Sources for some of the equipment and ingredients are now listed at the bottom of the page, read on to see more.
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Just to pass some time, I’m going to give you the recipe I use for making hummus, the delicious Middle Eastern/Mediterranean spread of goodness.

As usual with my recipes, the amounts aren’t exact, and every batch I make is a little different. This is only a starting place for you to experiment from. Learn the flavors, learn the food, and relish the fact that each batch is unique and special.

Ingredients

* Two cans of Garbanzo Beans (AKA Chick Peas).
* A good scoop of Tahini (maybe 1/8th to 1/4 cup)
* A good splash of Lemon Juice (about the same amount as the Tahini)
* Two or three cloves of Fresh Garlic
* Dash of salt
* A little dollop of Olive Oil (less than the amount of Lemon Juice)
* Something(s) for flavor
** Chipotle peppers?
** Paprika?
** Chili Powder?
** Scallions?
** Red bell pepper?
** Dill?
** Curry powder?
** Radish?
** Be creative!
* A Blender

Procedure

Open one can of Garbanzo Beans, but don’t drain the liquid. Put the whole can, liquid and all, in the blender. Take the other can of Garbanzo beans, open it, and drain this one. Blend the first can’s worth in the blender for a moment, until it starts to break up and get pasty. This will be way too liquidy for hummus. But thats ok, because now you add the second can, the one you drained, and blend that in. Now you have garbanzo paste.

Add the other ingredients, stirring them in, then running the blender to get them all mixed up. You can chop up the garlic first if you don’t have a vigorous blender, but I usually just toss the cloves in whole.

A note about Tahini. First, what the hell is it? Its a butter made from sesame seeds. Tahini is to sesame seeds what peanut butter is to peanuts. It is a very pale tan color, almost grey, and it is fairly liquidy, more so than other nut butters. It seperates easily so make sure to give it a good stir. You can get it at many grocery stores in the Mediterranean or Middle Eastern sections, if they have them. You can also get it at most international food stores, and Whole Foods stores and other ‘natural’ stores often sell it in bulk. It has a lot of nutty bite to it, and makes good sauces when mixed with some lemon juice, garlic and water. It is also essential to the flavor of hummus.

Once you’ve added all the main ingredients, you have a basic hummus that is good all on its own. Taste it, and see if you like it. If it needs more tangyness, add some more lemon juice. If it needs some more bite, add some more tahini. If it seems too thick, add a little bit more olive oil. If it is just missing ‘something’, you can try adding a little more salt, but go easy. Its easy to add more of something, hard to take it out.

I recommend tasting all of the individual ingredients so you can get an idea of how they come together to make the final product. That will help you decide what you like more or less of.

Once you have your basic hummus, its time to go nuts with some flavor. I personally like to add two or three chipotle peppers (a smoked jalapeno that is incredibly good, and quite spicy), some paprika for color, and a dash of onion powder. Sometimes I just add chili powder if I’m lazy. Chopped scallions can also be quite charming, as well as fresh or dried red bell pepper. Experiment with dill too. I’ve had great curry hummus, and fresh veggies like radishes can sometimes be surprisingly good. You can take a piece of pita bread, scoop up some of the raw hummus, and sprinkle some seasoning on it. Give it a try. You can try lots of seasonings this way, and you’ll surely find something you adore.

Once you’ve seasoned your hummus, you can either eat it right away, or store it in the fridge overnight. The next day the flavors will have blended a bit better, and the bits of garbanzo bean will have soaked up some of the excess liquid and your hummus will have a slightly better texture. This recipe makes a lot of hummus though, so I usually just eat my fill after making it, and then the rest just needs to sit in the fridge anyway, so it all works out. If you have good tasty olive oil, a nice thing to do when you serve the hummus is make a small indentation in the top of the hummus pile and pour a bit of the olive oil in. Then as the hummus is eaten, the oil will drain over the surface of the hummus and add a nice flavor to each bite.

I like to eat hummus with pita bread, just tearing hunks off the bread and scooping the hummus, but it also goes good on bagels, in sandwiches, on crackers, as an appetizer with olives, on fresh veggies, etc.

Enjoy!

And now for something completely different… A salsa recipe.

This is the basic salsa that Berg and I made the other night. It turned out delicious, so I thought I’d document it for your pleasure. Many people don’t realize how easy it is to make salsa, and I hope that maybe some people might give it a try.

Ingredients

* One 28oz can of diced tomatoes
* One small green pepper, or half of a big honkin’ one
* One small yellow or white onion
* A carrot
* A small can of green chilies
* Some pickled jalapeno slices or
* A few chipotle peppers, preferably in adobo sauce
* A few cloves of garlic
* A small handful of fresh cilantro
* Black pepper
* White pepper
* A li’l salt
* Some lime juice

Procedure

Its easy. Just dice everything up, and mix it together. I like to put the can of tomatoes (juice and all) in a blender, and hit it for about one second, just to chop it up a tiny bit finer, but thats it. Then I move the tomatoes into a bowl, and do the rest of the dicing by hand. Dice up the pepper, toss it in. Dice up the onion, toss it in. Grate the carrot (or dice it), and toss it in. Crack open that little can of green chilies, and toss it in. Slice up the jalepeno slices, and toss those mofos in. Then add a bit of the juice from the jar of pickled jalapenos, its vinegary and good. Then slice up the chipotle peppers and put them in. They are spicy, so watch out. I put in two medium sized peppers for medium spicyness. Put in one for mild, or three or four for more heat. Chop the cilantro up real fine, and toss it in. Same with the garlic. Add some black pepper. Then add some more. Add some white pepper too, if you’ve got it. Add a dash of salt and a squirt of lime and you are ready to rock.

Then eat it. Actually, for maximum goodness, let it sit covered in the fridge overnight for the flavors to mix. But this is fresh salsa, you can eat it right away if you want (we do).

Here are some notes on ingredients. First, remember that my recipes are very vague, and I like them that way. That means that if you really like something, or don’t like it, add more or less of it, thats fine. You can also leave things out if you don’t have them, but be careful that you don’t leave out too much, or you might be missing critical flavors.

In this dish, the tomato and jalapeno or chipotle peppers are the core. If you have nothing else, you must have these two. Chipotle peppers are superior in many ways to regular jalapenos. They are jalapenos that have been deeply smoked underground, and they often come in a rich smoky sauce called adobo. There are few things in the world more flavorful than a chipotle. They are smoky, peppery, hot, and just damn hell ass delicious. If you are using fresh jalapenos, thats cool too, but you miss out on a bit of smokyness, and your salsa will be less homogenous, that is, you’ll have hot bites, and cooler bites as you hit the jalapeno bits. The smoking and pickling processes help bring out the spice and cause it to blend better with the rest of the salsa. If you are using pickled jalapenos, add some of the brine, its salty and vinegary and will add a bit of acid to your salsa that it can use.

After you have these two basic ingredients, you need to elaborate on the flavor. I like green chilies, so I add a can. Add fresh ones too if you want. Fresh green peppers add a little bite of fresh coolness that I find delightful. Onions are important too, they add a good bite. Carrot is an odd one, people see carrot in there and they get a little question mark over their head. I don’t know why I put it in, but it belongs there. Of all the best salsa’s I’ve ever eaten, nearly all contained carrot. Why? I can’t say, but you should do it.

For general seasoning, fresh garlic is super. Dice up a few cloves real fine and toss them in. Garlic salt will do the trick in a pinch, but fresh garlic is best, and it keeps for a long time, so don’t worry about keeping some on hand. Black pepper is good too, don’t skimp. White pepper adds a peppery flavor as well, but with less bite than black pepper. Its a good flavorful spice. A touch of salt can sometimes round things out a bit, but use your judgment, don’t add too much. A blast of lime juice is a nice flavor, and a good source of acid to help things blend flavors better.

Cilantro is a touchy subject, but frankly I love it. Even if you don’t, you should still put some in, as it is key to this type of fresh salsa. I put a lot in usually. Consult with your other salsa eaters though, because I find cilantro is often a love/hate issue with people, and you don’t want to offend your cilantro-hating friends (as much as they may deserve it).

So there you go, yummy salsa. Nearly all those ingredients are optional, just use as many as you have around, and you’ll end up with a tasty salsa for sure.

As many of you know, I’m a vegetarian. I eat this way for many reasons, including, but not limited to, ethics, environmentalism, health, etc. However, today I broke with my lifestyle. I did not choose to violate my own code, but I couldn’t help myself. What could possibly have caused Sam to give up his strict diet, if only for a moment? I’ll tell you.

A bug. Yes, a little bug, probably a small gnat or fly. As I was pulling up to my house on the scooter, I cracked my helmet’s visor open. The moist weather means that at low speeds, when the vents aren’t flowing, the visor has a tendency to fog up. Opening it a bit helps out. Also, as fate would have it, I was joyously singing Parliament Funk’s “Get Up With the Down Stroke”. I was on the part where they sing, “Make my funk the P-Funk! I like my funk un-cut!”, when the insect flew into my helmet, and down my throat. I felt it thwap into the back of my palate, and I felt a bit sickly as I reflexively swallowed, consuming the insect.

To atone for my transgression, I’m now eating a completely vegan meal. Actually I’m not big on the whole ‘atonement’ concept, I just wanted some curry, and vegan is how I make it anyway. So without further ado, here is the basic recipe for Sam’s Easy Vegan Curry Surprise, serves four not-very-hungry people, three regular people, or two really hungry ones. It also saves well in the fridge, so make extra and eat that sucker for lunch the next day:

Ingredients

* One medium potato.
* One bell pepper, preferably red or yellow.
* One can bamboo shoots.
* One small or medium onion (white or yellow).
* One small apple, preferably a firm, tart variety, like Granny Smith.
* One block of tofu, extra firm.
* Some curry paste, either hot or mild.
* Some coconut milk (in a can).
* Brown basmati rice.

Procedure

First, cut the veggies and tofu up into pieces. Use standard stir-fry size pieces, about the size of a bottle cap. Then begin preparing the potato. I toss the pieces of potato in a microwave safe bowl with a little olive oil, and microwave it for 6 minutes. You can also boil them. Meanwhile, start the rice cooking as per the directions on the box. Then put a little olive oil in a pan or wok, and get it up to heat, around medium/medium-high, and toss in the tofu. Stir-fry the tofu until it is golden brown on all sides. Then pull the tofu out of the pan and set it aside. I usually just put it into the same container as the potato if the potato is done by now (it probably is).

Then begin stir-frying the other veggies in the pan. Do the peppers and onions for a moment, then add the apple and bamboo shoots. Use a little olive oil to keep things lubricated, but go easy on it. As they cook, add some curry paste, and some coconut milk. Use good judgment here, you don’t need to add a lot at once. I usually put in about two or three heaping spoonfuls of the paste, and a 1/4 cup of the coconut milk. Then I stir things up, taste it, and add more curry paste to taste. Whenever you add the curry paste, add a bit more coconut milk. The coconut milk serves to create the ‘sauce’, and is an emulsifier, which is a good thing for this dish. I like to end up with a fairly dry curry, not like a soup or stew or anything, but with enough sauce at the bottom of the pan so that when I spoon out my curry on top of the basmati rice, the sauce dribbles down and flavors the rice. Dig?

As the veggies cook, feel free to taste the food regularly, to see if you need more curry paste or coconut milk. When the veggies are nearing complete, only a few minutes, add the tofu and potato. The potato should help thicken the sauce a bit, and you may need to add more curry paste and coconut milk at this point to balance the additional mass and thickening capacity of the potato. Cook for another few minutes, until everything looks good and hot. When the rice is done, just lay some rice down on your plate, and spoon some curry on. Enjoy, preferably with a good porter.

Oh, and if you are wondering why “surprise” is in the name, then well, I don’t really know. Maybe it’s the apple. Its a great flavor in curry, but it is a bit surprising to bite into something sweet and tart, especially if you don’t know it is there!

(click for larger image)

Thai Iced Tea. If you’ve ever been to a Thai restaurant, you know this delicious orange beverage. It is very strong, very sweet, and very good. It also has a great presentation, with its bright color and the layers formed by the milk. Here is my recipe for this tasty iced tea, which is the perfect complement to a hot day, or a hot dish.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup Thai tea leaves
• 1 2/3 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk (12oz can)

Procedure

Bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly add the tea leaves. Mix it up good so all the tea leaves get moistened. Cover and let steep for 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to let it go longer, or you will get a more bitter tea. Strain out the tea leaves by pouring through a strainer into a pitcher. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. When serving, pour the sweetened tea over ice, but leave the top inch or two of the glass empty. Pour evaporated milk into the glass until full. Enjoy! Serves 2.

Notes

I like to serve it with a straw, so people can mix up the layers if they like, or keep them separate and sip alternately between layers. Part of the goodness of this beverage is the uniqueness, so anything you can do to accentuate the uniqueness is good.

As far as the ingredients go, I usually find myself using less than the recommended amount of evaporated milk, but some people like more milk than I do. Also, some people premix the milk with the tea before serving, but I think that makes the drink less fun. However, if you are making tea for a lot of people, or want to lessen your work, you can make a big batch of the tea, and then simply add the milk at the time of serving. I like to make a quadruple batch (or more) of the sweetened tea, and then just save it in the fridge and keep a few cans of evaporated milk handy. Then its ready for whenever I want some, with minimal preparation.

As far as ingredients go, the hardest to find item is the Thai tea leaves. Go to your local asian food store and look for “Thai Seasoning Mix” or “Thai Tea Dust”. It usually comes in a clear plastic brick-like bag, and looks like dark brown shredded tea leaves. The kind I have right now is called “Police Dog Brand Thai Tea Dust.” Evaporated milk can be substituted with soy or rice milk (I recommend Odwalla Milk, if you can get it, its a mixture of oat milk, rice milk, soy milk, and a little banana/mango puree) if you want to make it vegan. You can also substitute white sugar for evaporated cane juice or “raw sugar”.

For a strainer, you’ll need a pretty fine strainer. Traditionally, a tea ‘sock’ is used, which is a sock-like piece of linen with its opening pulled open by a loop of wire. They are available at many asian food stores. You can also use a regular kitchen strainer, but you’ll let through more sediment. Basically, you want as fine of a strainer as you can get your hands on. Of course, if you only have a basic kitchen strainer, it will still work, you’ll just have more little floaties in the tea, and they won’t hurt you.