Life, love, and the pursuit of chocolate.
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It’s that time of year again. You know, when even those who don’t follow football perk up at the mention of a Super Bowl Party. All of a sudden everyone’s got a favorite team. Or not. Football is just the excuse. The party is really about friends and the food. Actually, that’s really what life is about isn’t it? Good friends and good food… but I digress. We’re here to talk about the Super Bowl football food. What says football better than wings?
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Who else is tired of the MGD64 commercials? They’re kind of silly. Actually, I’m finding commercials a bit annoying in general lately. Maybe I should pick different content to watch (What? So I like the B movies… Mickey Blue Eyes, Beauty Shop, … is it really so wrong? I’ve been taking a break from cooking shows today. But the MGD64 and Old Navy commercials are getting to me). Oh, anyway. I can’t fight it. I like fluff and bad commercials come with fluff (unless it’s marshmallow fluff. Mm. marshmallows…)
I have made this Pho a few times before and it is extremely quick and produces an intoxicating broth. The anise and cloves with ginger and garlic… they blend beautifully. How to Eat Supper
One of the secrets is to roast the spices and other aromatics under the broiler to release the flavors and aromas (star anise is so pretty).
Vietnamese Rice Noodle Soup with Beef and Fresh Herbs (Pho)
(adapted from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio’s Award-Winning Food Show
1 medium onion, thin sliced
4 large garlic cloves, thin sliced
One 2- to 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thin sliced
6 whole cloves
1 whole star anise, bruised; or 1/2 teaspoon anise seeds
fresh-ground black pepper
Four 14-oz cans chicken broth
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc nam)
6 to 8 ounces linguine-style rice noodles
6 to 8 ounces top round steak
1. With the oven rack about 4-6 inches, preheat the broiler. Line a sheet pan with foil.
2. Scatter the onion, garlic, ginger, cloves, anise and 5 grinds of pepper on the foil. Broil for 5 minutes, turning the pieces once. This will toast the edges of some of the onion and release the frangrance of the spices. Scrape everything into a 6-quart pot.
3. Add the broth, sugar, and fish sauce. Bring to a gentle boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, get the rice noodles ready. Put the rice noodles in a large bowl and cover them with hot tap water. Soak the noodles for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they are tender but a little firmer than you want.
5. If you are able to slice the beef thin enough, you can just put the beef in the bowl with the noodles and it will cook in the hot broth. I have found though that it is difficult to slice the beef thin enough even if I freeze the beef first. SO I usually throw the meat into the pot for 1-2 minutes before serving.
6. Divide the noodles between 2 bowls. Ladle bubbling broth into the bowls.
7. Serve it with a traditional “table salad” of cilantro, basil, serranos or jalapeños, bean sprouts and lime wedges (oh, and don’t forget the hoisin sauce and Sriracha!)
I forgot to eat lunch today. That sounds silly, I know. But do you ever get into one of those modes? Totally focused on something and its like your stomach stops checking in until you’re STARVING. That was me today. I worked from home and was checking things off of my todo list: check check check, when around 5pm my stomach screamed “Stop! Feed me!”. I needed something quick, but most things I think of first as “quick” are full of bad-for-you things so I stopped buying them. What’s a girl to do? My stomach was tempting me to break a resolution (eat healthy) : “Eat the marshmallows… And wash them down with cookies. And… chocolate.” But I stood firm, I want to eat healthy. I feel better when I eat healthy even if I do LOVE dessert. I also want to eat the food I have on hand (I’ve been bad in the past about eating a little bit of something and letting the rest go wasted. But that is expensive and decidedly not green. And also on my list of resolutions are “save money” and “be greener”. I did very well in 2008 adding green habits, but there is always room to improve… ). I have been good eating leftovers, not eating out as much, and eating good-for-me meals most of the time (not all of the time. I have to leave some room for brownies and other treats some of the time).
Anyway. Back to my empty belly and how I filled it… I’m not sure why or how, but I thought of the leftover capellini noodles I had in the fridge and next thing I knew, I had a psuedo-chow mein noodle stir fry dinner. And it was good. I’m not talking crazy good like the shrimp the other night, but for a 5 minute, healthy meal it was really tasty. I wish I had some shrimp or chicken to throw on top of it, but I settled for an all veg. version.
While prepping and gathering ingredients, I started to heat:
about 1 tbsp canola oil
about 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil (for flavor)
Add:
2 cloves garlic, minced (sort of)
a little fresh ginger, also sort of minced
Let it get fragrant and just start to brown a little, then add:
1 tbsp or so of sweet jalapeno sauce (very similar to thai sweet chili sauce)
about 1/5 bag of frozen veggie medley (carrots, peas, green beans)
When that is heated through, add:
some leftover noodles (I had capellini, but I think any noodles would work)
a dash of soy sauce
Mix it up. When mixed and hot, push to one side of the pan and scramble 1 egg on the empty side of the pan. Stir it all together, put it in a bowl with a couple of grinds of fresh pepper… and víola. Enjoy.
In keeping with my resolution to try new recipes, tonight I decided to try a recipe from How to Eat Supper. This is a great book. I’ve tried a few things from it over the last 6 months and I have not been disappointed by anything. In fact, I’ve been wow-ed by the result of each recipe. I bought it when I saw the review from Angry Chicken. I read through a lot of the stories on the day I bought it. It’s really a great book.
So tonight, I made “Plumped Ginger-Caramel Shrimp”:
I think next time I will measure more carefully and use regular sugar (I was out, so I used brown sugar tonight). Here’s the thing with me and recipes… I tend to take them as suggestions a lot of the time. I try to be more careful the first time I make something, but I still have a hard time measuring everything precisely if its all going into a pan (as opposed to a mixer… since usually the mixer means I’m baking and baking is a little more like chemistry. Although I did treat chemistry much the same way I treat cooking now… I’d add a bit more of this and smidge of that just to see what would happen. Hmm.)
The result tonight was great, but it did not have the same sticky caramel-looking coating shown in the picture in the book. Not like a crazy caramel sauce, just a nice thick glaze. My sauce was more runny… but tasted so good. I love shrimp. And the ginger-garlic with a little sweetness. I had to force myself to stop eating.
As an added bonus, start to finish it took less than 30 minutes.
Plumped Ginger-Caramel Shrimp
from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper
Brine:
1/2 cup kosher or sea salt (not iodized)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup medium-hot chile powder [* I used cayenne... but not a 1/3 cup. more like 1/6]
2 quarts warm water
1 1/2 pounds large frozen shrimp (in or out of their shells; organic if possible) [* I used shelled and cleaned frozen shrimp which made it really simple]
Sauté:
4 large garlic cloves
One 4-inch piece fresh peeled ginger
4 tablespoons expeller-pressed or cold-pressed canola oil or other mild oil
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Salt
4 teaspoons sugar
1. In a medium stainless or glass bowl, blend the salt, sugar, and chile powder in warm water. Drop in shrimp, and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes while you set up the rest of the meal.
2. Drain the shrimp, peel off their shells if necessary, and pat the shrimp dry.
3. Chop the garlic and ginger together into 1/8 inch pieces. Heat the oil in a straight-sided 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir in the garlic-ginger mixture, the pepper, and a sprinkle of salt. Cook for 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spatula. Blend in the sugar and keep stirring until the garlic is pale gold. Do not let the pieces get dark brown.
4. Immediately drop in the shrimp and stir for another 1 to 2 minutes, or until the shrimp are turning pink and are barely firm. Turn the shrimp into a serving bowl. Taste them for seasoning, adjust as necessary, and serve hot or warm.
