Fried Rice with Sausage

OK, so this is the ultimate "I'm afraid of eating anything strange, so I'll stick with something I know" food. Actually, it's a simple dinner that's inexpensive and filling all at the same time.

Fried rice is made with pre-cooked rice that has been chilled or cooled. There are several mystery sauces added to the fry, but mainly there is oil, chili sauce, egg and vegetables. The vegetable usually consist of bits of carrot and sliced stem pieces of collard greens.

I like my fried rice with bits of sausage because the sausage here is a bit sweet. The rice is fried up in a large wok with lots of stirring to keep it moving and thoroughly cooked.

Finished fried rice is place on an oval plate (no other style of plate is used) and served with a bowl of broth that either has a meatball or a bone in it along with some herbs. You can also order a fried egg to go on top of your fried rice.

Add some chili sauce and soy sauce to the rice and stir it in, then enjoy a tasty evening treat!

Note: real fried rice is only available at night, along with fruit shakes and fried noodles. There are stalls set up around town in designated places. Foreigner price: 5,000 Riel ($1.25). Local price: 3,000 Riel ($0.75).

Back to Cambodian Food!

I am so happy to be back in Cambodia enjoying Cambodian food. There is just nothing else that compares to the yumminess of food here. Besides that, if you get tired of Cambodian food there's plenty of Western food to enjoy.

Back to eating sour soup and rice, mom's cooking at the cottage with roasted salted fish.

I love the noodle soup in the morning at the Soup Dragon with iced coffee (no milk this time). It's become the place for locals to do business in the morning. I just enjoy watching the pubs open and clean up for a fresh day ahead.

Of course there is also the yummy street snacks of fresh fruit, roasted bananas, and roti with sweetened condensed milk.

Come on over to savor the flavors of Cambodia!

Polish Cabbage and Noodles Dish

OK, so this dish was inspired by an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that I briefly caught. It was some Polish restaurant. I know there's a funny Polish name for this dish, but of course it escapes my memory.

I was mesmerized by this dish because 1) it was so simple, and 2) I had all of the ingredients sitting in my fridge. The Cal Poly Organic Farm cabbage heads from my CSA boxes have been crying out to be turned into something delicious, and one can only eat so much coleslaw.

So, I did a little online investigating and discovered many recipes for this dish. It's really very simple. All you need is:

1/2 head of sliced cabbage
1-2 yellow onions, sliced
1/2 package of egg noodles (other noodles will do, but these are the tastiest)
1 kielbasa sausage
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup sour cream
salt & pepper to taste (I used my mortar to grind some fresh white Cambodian Kampot pepper)

Fill your pasta pot with water to start it boiling.

Get the butter melted in a BIG frying pan, or wok. Add the yellow onions and cook on medium-low until tender then turn down to low to start carmelizing them.

Slice the kielbasa into somewhat thin rounds. Cook over medium heat in a skillet to brown them on each side.

If the water's boiling, add the egg noodles and boil them according to directions on package.

Add the cabbage once the onions are a nice golden brown and let that stir-fry until tender. Once nice and tender, add the egg noodles along with salt and pepper to taste. Toss in the kielbasa slices and stir in the sour cream. Allow it to continue cooking on low for a few more minutes.

Oila! Scoop into a bowl and have yourself some delicious Polish comfort food.

Feel free to veg it up a bit by add more vegetables in the onion and cabbage stir-fry and leave out the sour cream. Consider using another cheese, or none at all.

Easy standby stirfry

Fried Tofu with Collard Greens

I love making this as it is so simple and easy and I can let the tofu cook first while cutting up the rest of the vegetables.

Before starting, get your rice started cooking, either in a rice cooker or on the stove top. Rice can always stay warm if it is ready before the stir-fry.

1. Cube very dense tofu and place in a hot wok with oil. Sprinkle some sugar and salt over the top. Cover and let brown.
2. Minced several cloves of garlic to place with the tofu after the first side is browned.
3. Slice 1/2 of a yellow onion. Cut the stems out of the collard greens, then thinly slice the leaves. Select another vegetable of your choice. I like broccoli, cauliflower or carrots, but any will do.
4. When the tofu is brown on one side, turn all the cubes over. Add the minced garlic. Continue cooking until the second side is brown.
5. Add the most dense vegetable first (i.e. cauliflower). Add a 1/4 cup of water to the pan and cover to let cook. After about 1 minute, stir in onions leaving the collard green leaves for the last item to be added.
6. If necessary, add more salt and/or sugar.
7. Add the vegetable mix to a plate or bowl of steamed Jasmine rice.

Enjoy! It should take less than 30 minutes.

Season's Baking

I am on a huge kick of using fresh vegetables and ingredients while trying to avoid using canned or packaged products. I like the idea of going back to cooking origins by making things from scratch.

Thanksgiving was a great time for cooking from scratch. I have learned everything I need to know about roasting a turkey from my mom. She learned from her mom (who actually hated cooking and was always looking for shortcuts), but expanded upon what my grandmother did to create her own traditions.

Unfortunately, I didn't participate in preparing the turkey for roasting since I was working that morning. However, I did all the shopping for the ingredients so I got to choose what we would eat this year. And, I did get to prepare the mashed potatoes and a "new" way of preparing yams using fresh ones instead of canned yams. More to come on that later.

Here's the menu of our traditional Thanksgiving feast:

Roasted Turkey (Norbest) - roasted with the stuffing inside the bird
Stuffing (though I never eat my mom's) - white bread torn into small bits and mixed with the turkey's inards that have been cooked with onions and celery and lots of poultry seasoning
Mashed Potatoes - I wanted to use broth, but was overruled and used milk and butter with salt & pepper to taste (should have used my Cambodian pepper)
Yams - I prepared these on the stove top in a skillet
Creamed Corn (a recipe given from a longtime family friend) - canned corn & whipping cream, 'nuf said!
Cranberry Sauce (homemade from whole cranberries) - we prefer this to the canned stuff, hands down.
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (not my choice, but there's been an excess of these in the fridge.)

Recipe for Skillet Yams
(as half-heard from a morning news show while I was getting ready for work)
4-5 medium yams (the red/orange ones), peeled and cubed
1-2 cups chicken, turkey or vegie broth
1 cup brown sugar
2-4 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp oil

Directions
Place oil in bottom of large skillet (cast iron is preferred, though any will do). Add cubed yams, broth, butter and brown sugar. Stir and cover. Cook on medium heat until bubbling, then turn to low to simmer until the liquid becomes a thick brown sauce. Remove from heat and serve.

The first time cooking these for Thanksgiving this year I got caught up talking with a dinner guest and they overcooked, but were still very tasty!

Homemade Pumpkin and Banana Breads

I was feeling very culinary when I woke up yesterday morning. Plus I knew I had to bake something for a brunch the next day.

I have modified my mother's original recipes for both of these sweet breads (cakes are a more fitting description). Instead of white flour I used whole wheat flour. Instead of milk, I used soy milk. Instead of candied Maraschino cherries, I used dried Goji berries (it was either those or dried currents). Everything else was more or less according to her recipes.

The result is a denser, less sickeningly sweet bread, though still sweet because of those chocolate chips that must go into the Banana Bread. Once you starting using chocolate chips, you'll never go back.

My sister modified the Banana Bread recipe by adding cocoa powder to it. It was different from my mom's, yet tasty, too!

[I'm tired and will post the recipes later.]

Vegetarian Chili (from scratch)

I started making this chili when I was teaching English in China in 2002-03. We had very cold winters but very warm apartments and nothing better to do but have potlucks in each other's places. I think I made chili at least 3-4 times. I discovered the beans in the market place and the vegetables were just so dang cheap then!

Other people brought over the fixings and sides to go along with the chili such as: corn bread, grated cheese (a luxury in China!), vegetables, drinks, etc.

Beans are not for "hurry up and eat" kind of people. This takes time: at least 4 hours must be set aside for the process.

The Beans
I generally like to use black beans, but a variety of beans can also be fun. More recently I used a combination of black, red and Peruvian dried beans.

Be sure to wash and pick through the beans to take out any non-beans (such as pebbles).

For this recipe I used 1 cup each of the black, red and Peruvian beans and used the quick cooking method. Place the dried beans in a really big soup pot and a good 6-8 cups of water. Bring the dried beans to a boil for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 1 hour.

During this 1 hour wait time I like to prep my add-ins.

The Veggies
1 1/2 - 2 bell peppers (capsicum): green and/or red, diced
1 onion, diced
2-3 large tomatoes, peeled* and diced
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
Chili powder, to taste
Garlic powder and/or freshly minced garlic, to taste
Salt, to taste

*To remove the skin from a tomato, stick a fork in it and hold it over open flame if you have a gas stove. You will hear the tomato hiss and pop. If you're unfortunate enough to have only electric, gently drop them in already boiling water, remove quickly and place in ice water. The skins will be ready to slip right off!

Back to the Beans
When your 1 hour is up, pour the beans and water into a colander (which is already in your sink). Rinse well, then put back into your big soup pot. Add all the above ingredients except for the spices as that can be done later. You can add a little water to this if you think it's too thick.

Boil the mixture for up to 2 hours, or until the beans are softened (you can tell by tasting), stirring occasionally. In the last 1/2 hour, add the spices and make sure you taste it until you have the right combination.

Some other stuff
While the beans are cooking you can bake some cornbread, prepare some garlic bread, grate some cheese, cook up some rice or spaghetti.

In China we ate a lot of rice and since there were 11 mouths to feed (plus 3 young men), we prepared a lot of rice to put in the bowl of chili to make it go farther.

My mom likes to have chili over spaghetti for some reason. I grew up eating it that way, too, and now it's kind of like a comfort food.

Once your beans are finished, you will have tons to eat! Why not make your chili into an event or special day and invite people over to enjoy the fruit of your cooking. Maybe even ask them to potluck the fixings and sides? Or, bring over 1/2 the pot to a neighbor (that's what we do!) Otherwise I recommend freezing at least 1/2 of the pot to savor later.