| Review: Honga's Lotus Petal
Jan 12th, 2008
I love Asian food, especially Southeast Asian and Asian fusion dishes. But I own very few Asian cookbooks, really just a smattering of Thai, and I rarely pick one up from the library just to flip through. I don't know if it's the lists of ingredients that would necessitate a trip to a special store to procure, or the way the recipes all seem the same after a while (at least to my Western palate), but it's rare for me to find an Asian cookbook that I want to stay up late reading.
Honga's Lotus Petal: Pan Asian Cuisine , by Honga Im Hopgood is one of those rare finds. The photographs are beautiful, the narrative is entertaining & informative, and the recipes are inventive & diverse. It probably also helps that the recipes incorporate influences from multiple countries (including the US) rather than focusing on the cuisine of one valley in Southern Laos. Plus the author has a kickass name.
Honga's Lotus Petal is apparently a restaurant in Telluride. I've never heard of it, but I would definitely look it up were I ever to find myself skiing in Colorado. I see the location's influence in the book's focus on healthy, seasonal, organic ingredients.
I don't think I got more than a few pages in before finding the first recipe I wanted to try, a version of cream of tomato soup that substitutes coconut milk for the cream and adds a Thai flair with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. The local grocery that usually stocks lemongrass was mysteriously out, but I had some lime leaves in the freezer. I just bumped up the amount of lime leaves and never really missed the lemongrass. I think you could successfully make this recipe as long as you have at least one of those two ingredients (and some fish sauce of course, you can't do anything without fish sauce!).
I ate my soup for dinner with these Cilantro Noodles from Donna Hay, and enjoyed some even more the next day for lunch. The soup has a subtle, creamy, savory taste. I'll make it again and I look forward to trying many more recipes from Honga's Lotus Petal.
Tomato Coconut Soup2 tbsp cooking oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 shallots, sliced
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp sake or white wine
28 ounces canned whole peeled tomatoes
14 ounces canned coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 kaffir lime leaf
1/2 stalk lemongrass
2 tbsp B-Love's Hot Masala
1 tbsp honey
Heat the oil in a stockpot over high heat.
Add the onion, shallots and ginger.
Stir frequently, until the onions are sweating and translucent.
Add the sake, stirring quickly to deglaze.
Add the tomatoes, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime leaf, lemongrass, Hot Masala, and honey.
Simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.
Remove the lime leaf and lemongrass. Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Serve hot.
-Honga Im Hopgood, Honga's Lotus Petal
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| Oat Knots
Jan 1st, 2008
These rolls are a category winner in the most recent Cooking Light reader recipe contest. These contests are such pieces of Americana - you must incorporate a sponsor ingredient into your recipe. Ten ways to cook with Kr@ft Mir@cle Whip! But the sponsors for the Cooking Light contest are fairly innocuous (soy sauce, rolled oats, and canned tomatoes are a few examples) and the resulting recipes look pretty good.
And these Oatmeal Knots also taste pretty good! Actually they taste really good. They are made with whole grains and very little butter, but they don't taste heavy or spongy. The seeds on the outside provide a nice nutty crunch, and the insides are light, fluffy, and slightly sweet.
The recipe is a standard yeast bread recipe, with one step that I haven't seen before. To melt the honey and butter together with the oats you heat the water for the recipe to boiling and pour it over them. The dough was really wet and sticky for me, I had to add more than the additional 1/2 cup of flour mentioned to get it to stop sticking to my hands (and the counter, and the bowl, and anything else that wandered by). But it didn't seem to adversely affect the resulting texture.
Fashioning the knots was pretty easy, a lot like playing with Play-do, but mine spread out and didn't look a whole lot like knots after baking. It might work just as well to roll them into balls and bake together in a pan like rolls. I love the soft places where rolls merge together during baking and you have to pull them apart before eating. Yumm...
Oatmeal Knotsmakes 241 cup regular oats
1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups boiling water
1 package dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
3 cups whole wheat flour (about 14 1/4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces), divided
Cooking spray
1 tsp water
1 large egg
1 tbsp regular oats
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Combine the oats, honey, butter, and salt and pour the bowling water over the mixture. Stir until the butter melts and everything is combined. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile add 1/3 cup warm water to the yeast in a small bowl and let sit for five minutes. After five minutes add the flaxseed meal and then pour the yeast and flaxseed mixture into the oat mixture and stir.
Gradually add the whole wheat flour and one cup of the all-purpose flour to the mixture, stirring to incorporate. When all the flour is mixed in turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and add as much of the remaining 1/2 cup flour (one tbsp at a time) as you need to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. It will still be a fairly sticky dough.
Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes) and form the dough into a ball. Place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat the top. Cover the bowl and place in a warm spot for about an hour to allow the dough to double in size. When the dough has risen gently punch it down and return it to the lightly floured surface.
Cut the dough into two halves. Working with one half at a time, cut each half into twelve equal pieces. Prepare two oiled cookie sheets. Form each small piece into an 8-inch rope (by rubbing between your hands like making a playdough snake) and tie the rope into a knot. Place each knot on a cookie sheet. When all 24 knots have been created, cover the cookie sheets with oiled plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot for about 30 minutes and allow to rise until doubled in size.
While the oat knots are rising preheat the oven to 400°. When the knots are ready beat the egg and 1 tsp water in a small bowl and brush over the tops of the knots. Then sprinkle with the oats, poppy, and sesame seeds.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden.
-Melissa Hinrichs, Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2008
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| Winter Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese Crostini
Dec 31st, 2007
This delicious recipe comes from The Flexitarian Table, by Peter Berley. The cookbook is based on a fabulous premise ~ convertible recipes that can be prepared easily for either a vegetarian, meat-eating, or mixed group of diners. Unfortunately, for the most part the recipes aren't that appealing to me. Don't get me wrong, it's a great cookbook, I think I just have a different palate than the author. But if you're looking for good mostly-vegetarian recipes or have to cook for both meat-eaters and vegetarians do check this book out. If your palate matches up with Berley's I think you're in for a treat.
One of the recipes that did leap off the page for me was this Winter Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese Crostini, and considering I had to dash through falling snow in my backyard to grab the required sage and thyme I think that a winter soup was definitely called for. The recipe is easy to prepare and just the thing for a cold winter evening in front of the fire. Also, unless you're cooking for a large group you'll more than likely have some of the goat cheese spread leftover for sandwiches and snacks. Unfortunately I ate mine up before having a chance to try it, but panini/toasted sandwiches spread thinly with the herbed goat cheese and layered with grilled mushrooms and fresh tomato seem like an awfully nice idea.
Winter Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese CrostiniSoup
1/3 cup extra-virgin oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (3-4 medium onions)
Sea salt or kosher salt
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
Large pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes or diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
2 2-inch strips orange zest
1 sprig fresh sage
Crostini
4 ounces fresh goat cheese
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1/4 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 baguette
1 garlic clove, halved
2 tbsp chopped fresh chives or flat-leaf parsley, for serving
For the soup:
In a 3- to 4-quart Dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and 1/2 tsp salt and cook, stirring, until the onions are softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic cloves, carrot, and pepper flakes, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the vegetables are sweet and juicy but not browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Check, stirring occasionally, and add 1 tablespoon water if the vegetables appear dry.
Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until the olive oil turns reddish orange, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock or water, orange zest, and sage and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and discard the orange zest and sage. Puree the soup with an immersion blender (or working in batches, in a regular blender or a food processor) until smooth. Season with salt and black pepper. Transfer to a saucepan and reheat before serving.
For the Crostini:
Preheat the oven to 400°.
In a small bowl, use a fork to beat together the goat cheese, olive oil, thyme, lemon zest, and a few grinds of black pepper until smooth.
Slice the baguette on the bias into four to six 1/3-inch-thick slices that are 2 to 3 inches long. Lay the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes.
Rub the toasts with the garlic halves and spread with the goat cheese mixture.
Pour the soup into four bowls and float a crostini on each. Sprinkle with the chopped chives or parsley and serve immediately.
-Peter Berley, The Flexitarian Table
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| Cooking with Pumpkins
Dec 30th, 2007
Following up on my last post on single ingredient cookbooks, I raided another book in my collection for Thanksgiving dinner - this one on pumpkins. (And yes I realize I'm posting this over a month late, insert the latest "I've been busy" excuse here).
Putting together a Thanksgiving menu for my family is increasingly difficult as the diets and food intolerances pile up (currently we've got low-carb, no beef, lactose intolerant, and a tomato aversion ~ oh and two picky kids who pretty much exist on carbs and lactose), and this baked pumpkin recipe was technically off-limits as it includes mascarpone cheese. But as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it. How can you resist a recipe that is baked in a whole pumpkin and includes pancetta and cheese? I don't know about you but I simply can't (resist that is). My lactose-intolerant brother will just have to drool and eat the mashed potatoes that the carb-a-phobes can't eat.
You'll need four 1-lb sugar pumpkins or two 2-lb'ers for this recipe. A one pound pumpkin is very small and can be served as an individual portion. It can be hard to find them that small except around Halloween though, so larger pumpkins can be shared between diners. If you can find the little ones though, how cute is that to serve individual tiny baked pumpkins oozing with cheese and herbs? (Cute is the answer by the way, super cute).
Baked Pumpkin with Mascarpone & Sage4 small pumpkins, each about 1 lb
6 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped pancetta or smoked bacon
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes
2 tbsp chopped sage
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
5 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
Cut a thin slice off the top of each pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and fibers. Place the pumpkins in a roasting pan, putting the tops, flesh side up, next to the whole shells. Brush the inside of the pumpkins and the lids with 4 tbsp of the oil and season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Bake in a preheated oven at 425°F for 20 minutes until softened and beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil and fry the pancetta or bacon until crisp and golden. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and sage and cook for 2 minutes.
Pile the mixture into the pumpkin shells. Spoon on the mascarpone and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. Serve hot.
-Hamlyn, The Pumpkin Cookbook
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| Cooking with Apples
Nov 15th, 2007
I have several single ingredient cookbooks - one on pumpkins, one just about cooking with garlic, and this Apple Cookbook by Olwen Woodier. These books tend to be small and slim, and I rarely think of them when I'm flipping through sources for inspiration. But last week I looked at the bag of delicious Oregon-grown apples in the corner and knew just what cookbook to go to.
Every year around this time my parents take an apple foraging trip to the Hood River area of Oregon. They'll bring back all sorts of kinds of apples you'll never see in the grocery store and I usually score a sampler bag. And because my parents are nothing if not generous, the sampler bag this year actually filled two big paper grocery bags. Despite our best apple-gobbling efforts there were still quite a few left in the bag when they started to get mushy so this last week has been an all apple bonanza.
I made apple cake, applesauce, cider braised chicken, and this recipe for Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Apples. The chicken and cake recipes also came out of the Apple Cookbook and were equally as good but I decided to feature the pork both because it has been ages since I included a meat recipe on this blog and because it seemed extremely seasonal and appropriate for this almost Thanksgiving season.
You take a tenderloin, split it open like a book and pound it flat. Then it gets rolled up with a stuffing comprised of apples and onions that have been sauteed with bread crumbs, butter, and marjoram. You tie up the pork roll, glaze it with a sweet and sour mustard glaze and chuck it in the oven to roast. Served with a side of baked or sweet potatoe, it's a really great combination of sweet and tart, chewy and smooth.
Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Apples1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound)
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
2 medium apples (Jonagold, Stayman, Winesap, Fuji suggested), cored, peeled, and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup fresh bread crumbs, made by processing 2 large slices stale bread
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp savory [I used thyme instead]
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp - 1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
GLAZE
4 tbsp honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown mustard
Butterfly the tenderloin by slicing it open lengthwise almost, but not quite all the way through. Spread open, place between two sheets of wax paper and pound to about 1/2-inch thick.
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the apples and onion and saute until lightly brown and soft, about 5 minutes. Add the bread crumbs, marjoram, and savory and toss with the apple-onion mixture until moistened through. Remove from the heat.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Pepper and salt the inside of the tenderloin and spread the apple stuffing over the surface.
Roll the tenderloin lengthwise and tie with kitchen string. Reheat the skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and brown the pork on all sides. Place in a baking dish.
Combine the honey, sugar, vinegar, and mustard in a small bowl. Pour the honey-mustard glaze over the tenderloin and bake for 45 minutes, basting with the glaze 3-4 times. Remove from the oven; let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.
-Olwen Woodier, Apple Cookbook
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