Cooking The Books

My Most Prized Cookbook

All my cookbooks bar one sit tucked away on a set of shelves in my kitchen where they're instantly accessible.  Tools of the trade to get dog-eared and splattered with food.  One of them is somewhat different to all the others though and so has pride of place on the living room shelves nestled amongst, come to think of it, some pretty random things: a couple of human bones, a nautilus shell, some mementos from The Fat Duck and a pickled shark - to name a few.

My girlfriend is half-Malaysian and a couple of years ago we went over there to visit her family.  As far as food goes it's by far and away the best food I've ever eaten on a holiday, or for any two weeks of my life for that matter.  As this blog shows I'm pretty partial to oriental food and over there, surprisingly, they tend to eat it all the time.  Noodles for breakfast isn't a sign you failed to finish your takeaway the night before, it's just normal everyday fodder.  Over the course of the holiday I many dishes stuck in my mind and I took loads of photos.

Later in that year I received a present from my girlfriend and opened up to find the most amazing handmade cookbook.  Leah had collated all our food related holiday photos and then scoured the web for recipes corresponding to the dishes in them.  It was such an amazing present and so nicely done, yet she still wonders why I don't have it in the kitchen getting greasy with all the others.

Anyway here's a few photos of inside the book, along with some others that are in the book.

One of the dishes that stuck in my mid the most from the trip was kangkong belacan.  Luckily Leah got a recipe for it in the book and so I thought I'd make and blog it for you.

Weird And Wonderful: Part 3

Tripe.  No one food stirs up so many emotions in me.  The first emotion is joy, there's nothing quite like it to eat - the firm bite (like well cooked squid), the interesting texture, the way it soaks up flavours.  It's hard to describe just how good it is and why it's that good. 

The next emotion is anger.  If there's one thing food related that winds me up more than anything it's folk (adults really - one needs to cut kids a bit of slack) saying they don't like something before they've even tried it.  Nothing sums this attitude up more perfectly than offal, in general, and, more specifically, tripe.  So many people over here, if asked, will reply 'No, I can't stand tripe', so you reply 'What don't you like about it?  The flavour?  The texture?' to which you get in response 'I've never had it, it's just horrible and I know I wouldn't like it.'  How exactly I wonder, as I've just said tripe is quite unlike most other foods.  Plus what's the harm in trying?  It's hardly poisonous, as demonstrated by the continued survival of the billions of folk around the world who do eat it. Even if they did stick it in their mouths and found it unpleasant I've read various research claiming it can take anywhere up to 10 times of eating for a person to like something.  How many folk enjoyed beer the first time they had it?  Are you glad you went ahead a few more times?

Following the anger is shame, embarrassment in my lack of understanding for these people because, if I'm honest, I was in exactly the same position three odd years ago and for the 28 years preceding that.  The thought of tripe turned my stomach.  I remember being in a restaurant with my girlfriend, it was the Green Dragon on Gerrard Street, and it was the first time she'd met my mum and stepfather.  I'd recently made the conscious decision to broaden my tastes, to put reason above any irrational or learnt dislikes, and a dish sat on the table full of wobbly white rectangles.  We'd not ordered tripe but I had an inkling that was what it was and it took me a long time to put it in my mouth.  I finally did though and was met with a lovely, gelatinous texture and meaty taste - alas a chat with the waiter revealed all I'd eaten was a it of boiled pigskin, different but nothing I'd not eaten before, even if prior to that it had been attached to a bit of pork.  Soon after that though I did order some steamed tripe with ginger and from that point on I was a convert.

Embarrassment is soon followed by pity because I know that not everyone will indulge in such a journey of self-discovery that I did, three years (and counting) of force feeding myself everything I was given the chance to, and because of that a lot of people will miss out on so many wonderful culinary delights.  I've found my tastes are far from set in stone and if I put my mind to it I can eat, and normally enjoy, pretty much anything.  It's so liberating.

Back to tripe anyway.  When tripe first sprang to mind, being offal, the obvious cookbook choice was the wonderful Nose to Tail Eating written by Fergus Henderson.  Cited by many as one of the greatest cookbooks of our time, and legendary amongst chefs, it is full of traditional British dishes using everything from an animal one can.  Flicking through the pages though the only recipe for tripe was tripe and onions and, as much as I like to eat everything, I think of roux-based white sauces as one of the low points of any cuisine.  Back to the drawing board.

All these decision, and most of this post for that matter, have been in my head for about 6 months and about 5 months ago, as mentioned here, I went to Peru and encountered a national dish called Cau Cau, a tripe and potato stew delicately flavoured with cumin and herbs.  Fast forward to last weekend and I looked in my Peru cookbook and there was a recipe for Cau Cau and so I decided to give it a go and blog it.  One word of warning though, last Sunday was the day after my girlfriend's birthday and so I was very hungover.  As much as I like tripe it isn't the most pleasant smelling thing whilst cooking and on top of the hangover it really turned my stomach.  If you are going to follow suit then bear this in mind.  Also I don't think tripe is the easiest thing to get hold of for most people.  This country isn't blessed with the tripe stalls shown at the top of this post (this was Lima Market, Peru) but I managed to pick some up in London's Chinatown.

Weird And Wonderful: Part 2

Today's weird and wonderful item is a pretty common one, well available in every oriental shop I've seen anyway.  I think it's also eaten all across the Far East, you definitely get it in Chinese food and then the packet I bought was from Thailand.  Admittedly China and Thailand doesn't constitute all across the Far East but I'm going to stand my ground on that statement anyway.

Once released from its plastic jail it spreads out into quite a big cabbage-like thing.  Amongst the briney vinegar there's also a lone red chili, I guess to add flavour much in the same way you would add spices to a onion pickling solution.  I tried some straight from the pack but it was a bit on the potent side, very salty and strong.

There was some squid in the freezer I wanted to use so I googled around and, luckily for me, it appears squid and pickled mustard greens is a usual combination.  After reading through the various recipes I had a good idea of the general flavours and proportions of each ingredient so put together the recipe below.  Some recipes said to rinse the greens, others didn't - I didn't.

Valentine's Meal

 

Special occasions are always a bit of a balancing act with me.  Obviously the first thing I want to do to celebrate - whether it be birthday, new flat, new job or Valentine's day - always involves food, either out or cooking.  I have to remind myself that not everyone's obsessed with food like I am and so they may just want to have a drink or even, perish the thought, do something that doesn't involve the ingestion of solids or alcoholic liquids. 

As you're all aware the most recent occasion was Valentine's day.  I'm not a big one for going OTT for this, no big presents or bunches of roses, although I'm happy to acknowledge its existence and happy to use it as an excuse for some nice food with the better half.  Speaking with her she mentioned she'd like a pisco sour and some ceviche, memories of our last holiday, probably because the new screen saver at home pops up image after image from our Peru holiday and we both end up sat staring at that rather than watching the TV blaring away next to it.  I looked up the local South American restaurant (Sabor in Islington - definitely worth a visit) but they'd taken the set menu route, without these dishes, so I decided to make it at home instead.  The lack of cooking making it perfect for the evening as I wouldn't spend all my time in the kitchen.

Back when I first spoke of ceviche I did prepare some to write about on the post too.  I followed a recipe from a book I bought in Peru, alas what they translate to limes are actually a thing called a limon (I think) which although small and green is nowhere near as sour as our limes.  Due to this the recipe I made was completely inedible and so I spared the write up.  I was not going to be caught out twice though so checked out a recipe in a South American book that a friend of mine Kavey (who with her mum Mamta run the fantastic Mamta's Kitchen website) kindly bought me.  The recipe for ceviche in this used a mixture of the juice of two lemons and one lime so I used this as my starting point, and as pisco sours also use the same citrus juice I extracted six lemons and three limes' worth.

Weird and Wonderful: Part 1

As mentioned previously by the end of my week in Austria I was desperate for some Chinese food.  I'm a fairly committed meat eater but by the end of a week of meat and chips I was gagging for veg and on the last day was getting massive cravings for tofu.  As soon as I got home Saturday night, although I'd just finished a 10 hour trip, I dumped my bags in the flat and set off for the local takeaway.  I was having a bit of trouble keeping the order size sensible and ended up ordering mixed seafood fried ho fun (thick flat rice noodles), salt and pepper tofu, Chinese leaf with garlic and a bit of Sichuan hot and sour soup to wash it all down.  Far too much for a one person meal but, after two minutes in the microwave, it made a fine breakfast Sunday morning too.

After letting my breakfast leftovers settle I headed down to the local Chinese supermarket to pick up some supplies for the week - Chinese chives, some Chinese broccoli, some water spinach, some char siu bao and some deep fried tofu.  It then dawned on me I've been meaning to buy some fermented tofu so I grabbed some of that too, the white one with bits of chili in it, and headed over to pay.  I was stood at the till when the girlfriend called me over to look at something and that's when the inspiration for this series of posts began.  Underneath the fruit juice my girlfriend pointed out there was a long line of preserved vegetables, bags of various things in liquid that every Chinese supermarket has but I doubt very many westerners buy.  The above bag of Hot Cowpeas caught my eye so I asked the shop assistant what you did with them and, happy with his response, decided to put myself on the front line and give them a go.