Two amazing films for you to watch....

You must watch these short films... two of them made by independent film maker/writer/director/composer Kurt Kuenne. I promise these films will make you smile.

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.






Kurt is now my favorite film maker. I want everyone I know to watch his work. His full length documentary film, Dear Zachary is heart rendering, I suggest you rent it, buy it, or do what I did, watch it streaming on Netflix.   http://www.dearzachary.com/

Wordless Wednesday : Onomea Bay

Thai Spicy Beef Salad : Yam Nuea

Last night my friend Ron came to dinner and we had a Thai and Viet Dinner. I made Vietnamese Summer Rolls with shrimp, peanuts, cucumber, herbs, radishes, carrots, rice noodles, ginger, chiles and bean sprouts. They were served with two sauces. I also made Spicy Beef Salad, Yam Nuea, which literally means "tossed beef". It is one of my absolute favorite things. While this recipe is exact, I usually eyeball the ingredients and adjust and taste until the flavors are at their most pungent. I make it spicy, but you can serve the chiles on the side if you have someone who cannot take the heat. This is also something I love to make when I have steak left over for any reason. Sometimes I just grill an extra one and save it for the next day's salad.. I have taken some liberties here by adding ingredients that may not be found the purest form of the recipe in Thailand, though I took measures not to "Americanize" the recipe. 

Thai Spicy Beef Salad : Yam Nuea

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless steak, almost any cut works for this, but I generally use sirloin or rib eye. 

Salad

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots or red onions, separated
• 2 tomatoes, wedged
• 1/2 cup sliced cucumber1/8 cup thinly sliced 
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup very thinly sliced cucumber
• 1 inch piece of galangal (or ginger if you cannot find galangal) finely minced Thai chile peppers or Hawaiian peppers
• 1/2 cup each rough chopped Thai Basil, Mint, green onions and Cilantro
• 1 inch piece of galangal (or ginger if you cannot find galangal) finely minced 

Garnish (use all or any of these as you desire)

• Bean sprouts and/or lettuces, enough to make a bed on a platter
• Toasted sweet rice (see note)
• Toasted Peanuts
• Sliced kumquats 
• Lime wedges
• Chopped Thai Basil

Sauce

• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 3 tbsp. sweet dark soy sauce 
• 3 tbsp. sweet chili sauce
• 6 tbsp. minced garlic
• 3 tbsp. minced galangal or ginger
• 3 tbsp. chopped coriander/cilantro (including the roots)
• 1/4 cup chopped shallots (small red or purple onions)
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 3 Thai Chiles minced finely

INSTRUCTIONS

Barbeque the beef, it should be rare to medium rare on the inside and nicely crusted on the outside. Slice as thinly as possible. If the steak is wide, cut pieces in half so that they can be eaten without using a knife. 

Put dressing ingredients in a blender and combine.  Pour about 1/4 cup of the dressing over the beef slices and allow to marinade for about 30 minutes. If you do not have a blender or want to do this the old fashioned way, you can use a mortar and pestle to crunch up the dry ingredients and then add to the liquid. 

Put all salad ingredients together and toss in a bowl with the sauce. Place the salad on a platter lined with bean sprouts and/or cabbage or lettuce. Garnish as desired. 

NOTE: The toasted sweet rice is toasted in a dry skillet and then ground slightly either using a pestle and mortar or a small grinder. This is an essential textural element to the salad.

Serving:

Serve with sticky rice, lettuce, condiments and dipping sauce.

In Thailand the first two condiments below (Nam pla prik and Prik dong) are likely be on every household's table together with a separate small dish of plain white sugar and a separate small dish of ground chili powder. Spoonfulls of each are added to suit individual taste. You can make a portion of Nam pla prik and Prik dong and keep in a jar (non refrigerated) for serving as a condiment in this manner. These condiments keep very well.

Prik Si-iew wan, kratiem dong and Khing Ki mao are less common and usually served for particular dishes.

Nam pla prik:

Put two thirds of a cup of Thai chile peppers in a 1 pint jar, and fill with fish sauce. Seal and keep for a week before using.

Prik dong:

Put two thirds of a cup of Thai chile peppers in a 1 pint jar, and fill with white rice vinegar.

Prik si-iew wan:

Put two thirds of a cup of jalapeno peppers in a 1 pint jar, and fill with sweet dark soy sauce.

Kratiem dong:

Peel and slice two thirds of a cup of garlic, place it in the 1 pint jar, add 1 teaspoon of palm sugar, and one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of MSG (optional but recommended) and topped up with white rice vinegar.

Khing ki mao:

Julienne two thirds of a cup of fresh ginger (into match stick sized pieces). Place in the 1 pint jar. Add half a cup of whiskey (rice whiskey if available). Add 1/2 cup white rice vinegar, and fill up the jar with fish sauce.
You can play with this basic salad and substitute grilled tofu or grilled eggplant to make this vegetarian, of course then you need to find vegetarian fish sauce equivalent. I have seen this in Asian markets. You could also use it with pork tenderloin or shrimp. 

Chestnut Pasta and Paradise Pesto

I have already posted about how to make chestnut pasta, so if you are interested in making your own go here. This post is more about what I topped it with last night... Macadamia Nut Pesto, or as I like to call it: Paradise Pesto.

Chestnut Pasta Drying

Paradise Pesto is very easy to make and keeps well in the refrigerator. You will need a food processor for this, or at least if you want to make it in an hour.

Macadamia Nut Pesto A.K.A. Paradise Pesto

1# of raw macadamia nuts *
2 large bunches of Italian Basil
1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley
10-15 cloves of garlic (depending how much garlic flavor you like)
1/2 pound of freshly grated Parmesan
a pinch of crushed red pepper
Juice of one lemon
Olive Oil (about 1/2 cup)
Salt and Pepper to taste

*If you cannot find raw macadamia nuts, it is OK to use roasted, but omit the toasting of the nuts and do not add salt until you have tasted it.

In a dry frying pan, toast the nuts until they are just golden, remove from heat and allow them to cool.

In a food processor Place everything but the olive oil. Pulse a few times, then run the machine while you are pouring olive oil in. Check for texture, if it is very dry, you may add more oil. Taste and add seasonings if you think it needs some. Uses: Pour over pasta and toss, make bruschetta, make pesto rolls, put under the skin of a chicken before roasting, use as a condiment on sandwiches, pour over cream cheese for a dip, use as a sauce on pizza or just stick a spoon in it every once in a while!

Wordless Wednesday : New Kitty

Savoring Salted Caramel Gellato

YOU can do this,even with a little Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker!

I have a wonderful gelato machine from Italy and I use it to make ices and sorbets most of the time. It takes up some valuable real estate in my kitchen and I respect that by utilizing it more regularly than I would if it were in my cookware storage pantry. However, I have never liked ice cream, no not even as a kid. The people I cook for love ice cream and I love ices and sorbets, so it all works out for mutual benefit when I put my machine to work here. 

A few days ago I was talking on Facebook with a friend of mine, Candace Grover who works as floor manager at Goods for Cooks in Bloomington Indiana. The recipe Candace told me about hit a weak spot in me. I LOVE caramel, really dark rich caramel and if it has a little sea salt sprinkled on top, all the better. She had been making lots of ice creams and she felt that she had hit the jackpot with a recipe from Gourmet magazine in August 2009, Salted Carmel Ice Cream. I took that concept and ran with it because as I stated above, there is one sweet that I am totally HOT for and that is really great caramel. 

Here is the recipe as I changed it, you can of course go to Epicurious and find the original recipe by Andrea Albin. One note, I have a Gelato Machine and that mixes the ice cream/gelato a bit slower hence there is about 20% less air whipped into the final result with my machine than you would get with a traditional ice cream machine. I like that better, but the results vary from machine to machine. Many people today are dealing with the machines that you freeze a container and then pour the mix into the container. The problem here is that you must chill your mixture as much as you can and then hope that you get the appropriate freeze before the gel in the container melts (about 20 minutes.) My gelato machine chills and churns and I usually have it going for about 30 minutes before I switch to freeze only mode.

My Homemade Vanilla

Salted Caramel Ice Cream inspired by : Gourmet | August 2009

Andrea calls this as sultry and I completely agree. The recipe is based on the much loved candy that has taken American Gourmets by storm... salt caramels. The candy originated in Brittany, where of course the wonderful flaked salts come from and they are known for their dairy cows... cheeses, milk and cream. Oh heck... I think I want to go there right now... they are also famous for their oysters, but that is another story.  

 

Yield: Makes about 1 quart Active Time: 30 min Total Time: 4 hr 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided 3 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt such as Maldon (I used my Maple Smoked Hawaiian Sea Salt) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 vanilla bean scraped clean with a knife 3 large eggs (I use those of the "Six Sassy Sisters Hen House" that my friend Janet Montrose owns.) Equipment: an ice cream maker Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. This is a real key to depth of flavor.  Add 1 1/4 cups cream (mixture will spatter) a litle bit at a time and cook, stirring, until all of caramel has dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and stir in sea salt and vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, bring remaining cream, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally.  Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of spoon and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil). . Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, and spoon it through the sieve, then stir in cooled caramel. Add the scraped vanilla bean into the custard, stirring occasionally, until very cold, 3 to 6 hours. Freeze custard in ice cream maker (it will still be quite soft), then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up. *note, my machine slowly cools the mixture so I skipped the chilling in the fridge, but if you have one of the machines that do not chill, you must do it in the refrigerator.