Pickled Broccoli Stems

Tell the truth. What do you do with your broccoli stems? Do you buy the crowns and skip the stems altogether? Do you toss them out with the compost? Or, like me, do you begrudgingly peel them and slice them up and throw them in your stir fry? It adds a crunch like a water chestnut but it never really did much for me....Until now.

I was listening to a "Splendid Table" Podcast interview with Martha Rose Shulman about different creative vegetable recipes. Her solution for broccoli stems was to peel them, slice them and throw them in a jar with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Shake them up and put them in the fridge overnight. The next day she tossed them with garlic oil and vinegar to make some quick broccoli stem pickles.

I tried it immediately. In fact I bought some broccoli just for the stems, which was definitely a first for me. I took Martha's advice for the most part except I skipped the garlic (because everything I cook already has loads of garlic in it anyway. I thought I'd stray from my norm), added a shaking of olive oil and rice vinegar and topped it with a dab of Jack's chili concoction (crushed chili, dried shrimp and fish sauce). The pickled broccoli stems are great on their own but I like them added to my rice bowl of the day which may contain any combination of stir fries, eggs or kimchi. The stems adds a satisfying crunch and who doesn't love a good pickle.

Since then I stumbled across Martha's recipe here. She's done them lengthwise in the photo but I'm quite happy with my humble medallions. Trust me- you'll love these. And if you don't, I'll happily take all your stems and leave you with your stinkin' crowns.

Hard-Boiled

We recently visited the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, just outside of Chiang Mai. I'm a sucker for hot springs but this one was very different from any I'd ever been to before. Rather than everyone gathering to soak their weary bones in the mineral springs (which there was a bit of this) the vast majority were coming from afar to....cook eggs....

I've definitely heard tales of boiling eggs in hot springs but I never imagined there was a tourist attraction designed specifically for this. Right there at the park you can purchase eggs to boil and baskets to boil them in. Thanks to our friend Gai, who lives in the same town of the hot springs, we came well prepared with our own stash of baskets, chicken eggs, tiny speckled quail eggs and condiments.

We wandered into the park. A concrete human-made canal meandered under trees where families sprawled out dipping their legs in the warm water and snacking as Thais do so well. Further into the park we discovered the spring itself that was spurting forth boiling water at 105 degrees C/221 degrees F. So, yeah, probably too hot to soak in. A pool was built a bit away from the spring and boiling water poured into it. The pool had nails all along the sides to hold the baskets of eggs. We hung our eggs on the nails and stepped back. A sign explained how long to leave the eggs in to soft boil, half boil or hard boil them.

Then we found a shady spot near the canal and....ate eggs. Gai brought along a seasoning sauce similar to soy sauce and added some ground black pepper to dip the eggs in. I have to say I'm not a huge fan of hard boiled eggs. I'll eat them if they are there but I never go out of my way for them. But sitting there, eating our eggs fresh out of the hot spring on a lazy Sunday morning, well they were good. Even Honey tried a bite. Just one though.

We were sent home with 2 baskets full of hard boiled eggs which Honey enjoyed cracking and peeling and Jack enjoyed eating for several days. We ate them as is, uninspired to turn them into egg salad or deviled eggs or....what else do you do with hard boiled eggs? Suggestions please!

Until our next culinary adventure: Happy half boiling!

We're Back....!!!

I have been a bad blogger...sorry ya'll. I have a list of excuses. Do you want to hear them?

- We moved cross country. A couple of months ago we relocated up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We are still exploring our new surroundings though we are pretty settled in now.

- Honey has moved her bed time to better match with ours so we can have lots more quality family time which often means watching "Pippi Longstocking", dancing to the likes of Katie Perry and Amy Winehouse who Honey has developed obsessions with and generally making a big mess of the house. This also means that I have about 3-4 hours less time in the evenings to tend to my personal business. It's a trade off but I'm sure most people would give a lot to spend 3-4 extra hours with Honey each day.

- It's the year of the rabbit. If you believe in Chinese Astrology than the Rabbit year provides a quiet time for burrowing and having some quiet time to reflect nestled in between the bustling Tiger and Dragon years. It's a good excuse as to why I haven't even logged into this blog for months even though ideas are a-flowing and we are cooking a-plenty.

Since we moved up to Chiang Mai we have been inundated with food options. And I'm talking local foods, foods from all of Thailand's corners and almost any type of international food you can imagine. We've actually been cooking up a storm, opting to infuse our kitchen with all kinds of fresh ingredients rather than having to choose between a million different food stalls and restaurants. Mostly really simple stuff- rice with stir fries with lots of local ingredients, home made soups, noodles etc.

I'm a bit more inspired to tell you about some of the things we've been doing and cooking so I do hope to get on here a bit more in the upcoming months!

Going Bananas!

When I was a kid we used to let bananas go bad so that we could have banana bread. That's not really the case anymore. I seem to be inundated with bunches of bananas on a regular basis, bunches which a family of 3 can barely make a dent in before they turn brown on the outside and mushy on the inside.

I've tried re-gifting fruit in Thailand but for some reason I'm not very good at it. Maybe I'm not pushy enough. Or maybe I'm not sneaky enough. The locals give us gifts of fruits, vegetables, cooked foods, sweets on a regular basis. I smile and thank them profusely even if I know we won't eat what has been given. This all goes fine until I try to lovingly pass the same food item on to someone else in the community. But they manage to refuse.... with a smile and a thank you.

And that's how I found myself on Friday with huge bunches of ripening bananas. Luckily, we were also going to a party that evening so I had a place to pawn off some of my goods. As it turned out, they were so yummy I could have easily consumed them all on my own!

I started off by peeling all the bananas and smushing them up into a gloopy mess. This is the base for all good ripe banana recipes.

From there I hemmed and hawed over what to make and finally decided on banana ginger cake and banana jam. There's a resort we like to go to on the island of Ko Lanta that makes their own homemade jams for breakfast. As I recall, they did pineapple, papaya and banana jam. For those of you who have gone to this resort with me may remember how I could have easily eaten that banana jam with a spoon (I very well may have).

So I went on to make 2 banana ginger cakes and a pot of banana jam. I brought the cakes and some of the jam to the party and they disappeared pretty quickly. The banana jam was on the sweet side for me but still extremely yummy. It actually tasted like and had the consistency of apple butter. It's good on toast, stirred into oatmeal or yogurt and could easily be a tasty topping for pancakes. And yes, I ate some of it with a spoon.

By Monday I had another stack of ripening bananas. I made another banana cake and decided to experiment with some more banana jam. For this next batch, I used half the sugar and lime juice instead of orange juice to take away some of the sweetness. This time it was thick and sticky, less sweet and had an addictive tartness. This jam actually went well on the banana cake as the sweet and sour elements balanced each other out creating a very satisfying snack.

I brought some of the banana cake to my neighbor who had given us one of the many bunches of bananas that I had finally managed to use up. She enjoyed the cake so much that she promised she would bring me even more ripe bananas. You can imagine my delight!

Here's some banana recipes to start you off:

Banana Ginger Cake - I was inspired by this recipe. And I think that this cake would be awesome with the ginger whipped cream suggested. Yum!

• 2-1/4 cups of flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• a pinch of salt


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 1/3 cup butter softened


• 2 eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla


• 2 cups mushed ripe bananas


• 2 Tablespoons fresh grated ginger

Mix the first 5 dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the sugar and the butter together. Beat in the eggs. Stir in the banana mush, vanilla and ginger. Once well blended add in the dry ingredients stirring until the ingredients are completely blended. Plop the mixture into a greased cake pan. As usual, I threw mine in the rice cooker, set it on the cake setting and let her do her thing. If you are still slaving away in front of a hot oven, set it to 350 degrees and wait about 45 minutes.

Sweet Banana Jam

• 2 cups of ripe banana mush


• 1 cup of sugar


• 2/3 cup of orange juice


• 1 teaspoons of vanilla


• a pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan on low heat mixing well. Cook the mixture, stirring often for about 30 minutes. The jam will start to thicken up so that your spoon will leave a line in the jam as you rake it through. It's okay if the jam starts to brown on the bottom of the pot- it gives it a toasty banana taste but be careful that it doesn't burn.

Sour Banana Jam

• 2 cups of banana mush


• 1/2 cup of sugar


• about 5 Tablespoons of lime


• 1 teaspoons of vanilla


• 1 pinch of salt

Follow the same directions as above for the sweet banana jam. This one was definitely thicker than the sweet one. You may want to play around with the taste and consistency. I saw some recipes that added water to the one's using lime but I prefer the sharp sourness and thickness of it.

Chang Beer Bread

Beer bread is such a fabulous concept. The batter takes 5 minutes to make, requires no kneading and can bake while you are whipping up a soup, stew or entree that the bread can be the perfect accompaniment for.

I admit- I enjoy a bit of kneading as much as the next girl but my life has become a bit jam packed with work and raising a toddler who likes to stick close to my side while I'm in the kitchen.

And the result is good- crunchy exterior, chewy inside. The bread has a give to it that is super satisfying. Still hot, the bread is perfect with a slab of butter and a drizzling of honey for a snack with a cup of milky tea.

Beer (easy to come by here) replaces the yeast (not so easy to come by here) to form this super quick recipe. My Thailand beer of choice is Beer Chang, names for the elephant, Thailand's national animal. Chang is by no means the best beer around. It's cheap (just over a dollar for a big 24 ounce bottle) and strong (6.4%) and has a biting bitterness that is extremely rewarding on a hot day. Currently, one of my favorite treats is a can of Chang left in the freezer for a couple of hours so that freezes up into a beer Slurpee. Unlike Jack, who changes his drink of choice every 6 months, I have remained loyal to Chang since I've been in Thailand.

Here's the recipe (it really, really doesn't get any easier than this):

• 3 cups of flour (I've seen recipes that call for self-rising flour but I just used ordinary bread flour)
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar
• 1 Tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 12 ounce can or bottle of your favorite beer
• Something to grease the pan with.

Mix together dry ingredients. Add in the beer mixing well. The dough will be sticky. I tried mixing with my hands at the end but I found the sticky dough was difficult to manage as I tried to keep Honey from all the dangers the kitchen has to offer. Just a spoon works well. Grease a pan, through in the dough and cook. As usual I set my rice cooker to cake and let it go to town but for those of you still using ovens try 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

The Disappearing Sapote

You might have suspected but my sapote experiment was a failure. But one woman's failure is another woman's black sapote with Splenda, so not all is lost....

I should back up a bit. A while back I blogged about Black Sapote, an intriguing fruit for the sheer fact that very few people have actually heard of it. During the long ripening stage I got sidetracked to Costa Rica for work. My plan was that on return to Florida I would have a sapote-fest. But just days into my trip I got this email from my mom:

"I hope you are not disappointed but I ate the black sapote this afternoon. I think it would have been too ripe when you got in next week. I added a little Splenda and ate it like pudding but after I read your blog, next time I will add a little vanilla."

Is it just me or does that sound like secret code for something? Regardless, the whole experience is only making me more curious about the fruit (maybe it wasn't an apple in the Garden of Eden after all) and I'm back in Thailand where strange fruits thrive yet sapotes do not...

So one of my resolutions for 2011 is to find a black sapote, let it ripen to mushy perfection, and gorge myself on it- minus the Splenda.

Black Sapote

My parents are members of a local farm's community supported agriculture (CSA). Nearly each week they go to pick up their share of vegetables. Much like the free gifts of food we often get in Thailand, the weekly vegetable share defines the week's meals. I love so much about this- the eating what's fresh and available, the surprise of what's coming and the planning for a week of creative meals ahead. As you see from the picture above there was a variety of goodies that arrived. The most interesting of all was the green apple looking fruit called a black sapote:

The black sapote is also appealingly named 'The Chocolate Pudding Fruit'. Do I have your attention now?

The black sapote is in the persimmon family. It is native to Mexico and is now cultivated in Florida. When ripe the fruit is soft like a marshmallow and the inside is squishy and black. If you didn't know better, you'd probably ditch it at this point. The inner pulp can be eaten as is, mixed with some milk or orange juice or even made into ice cream or shakes. A Miami blogger talks about it a bit here . Reading through the comments makes me think that vanilla should definitely be involved...

I tried this fruit a couple of years ago but as time blurs memories I'm waiting eagerly for this gem to get soft and gooey so I can try it again. Check in with us soon because these things are supposedly ready to eat in a week to 10 days.