You like salt in your food, she doesn’t. You like real spice in the dish (not the toned down versions touristy joints are noted for), she cannot take that.

Well, if you are doing the cooking and your joy is in seeing her enjoy the food, doing it your way just takes all the joy out of it. So, knowing how to work in compromises is the key here. I’m still learning, to be honest.

Serve It On The Side

If something can be served on the side, then that is an easy one. Salt obviously can be added at the table, though some will argue that it is not quite the same as adding it at a precise point in preparation or cooking.

Ah, perfection – where would we be if we could not slip your grasp? In a quiet and lonely place I would suppose, eating the perfect food we cook that only we like.

Hold the lime! Yes, she does not care much for lime or vinegar either. No problem, slices of lime can be passed on the side.

Temper It.

And the spice? Cloves and cinnamon can’t be passed on the side, they have to go into the dish at the appropriate time, and that is not a nod to perfection, just reality. But, chilled slices of cucumber and tomato on the side will temper the spice and heat of any dish.

In South-East Asian cooking, especially the one-dish meals, cucumber and tomato slices are very commonly included. Think chicken rice or fried rice for example, or mamak fried noodles. No, the chef was not lazy or unimaginative. There is usually chilli on the side, if not in the dish, and these vegetables help when your tongue is burning - from the chillies that you mistakenly or otherwise, tucked into with gusto.

Reduce It or Mask It

Some people dislike gamey tastes, as in oxtail, lamb shanks and duck. If cooking oxtail soup, an initial boiling and discarding of the water helps.

Lamb shanks lose their gamey taste with an appropriate choice of spices in the masala. Herbs can have the same effect.

But be warned, if you are taking the ’spice route’, that freezing leftovers moderates the spice effect, and the dish will be gamey when re-heated. This one I found out the hard way - she loved the original, could hardly eat the re-heated dish.

It’s all about recognizing that tastes and tolerances differ, and finding a way to accommodate everyone that you cook for.

It can’t be done successfully all the time, but to me it is worth a try. And that is why, with cooking, as with the rest of life, we live and learn.

Last night I cooked my usual Pork Vindaloo, but thought I’d give it a bit of a tweak for a change.

Nothing dramatic, just cut back on the dried chillies from 20 to 12, and added 1 heaped teaspoon of Garam Masala.

It turned out quite nicely, mellower due to the reduction of the chillies and with a deeper flavour due to the addition of the Garam Masala.

 It will be interesting to see how it freezes (I froze 4 portions), as typically the chilli heat diminishes in the freezer and a richer flavour develops.

Time will tell.

Usually on weeknights, I have a soft spot for quick and easy recipes. Not too many ingredients, not too much prep, easy cooking. Usually.

Since I cook because of the freedom of choice it gives me in terms of culinary indulgence, from time to time I get overwhelmed by that urge to cook purely for taste, never mind the effort.

So this week has seen me do somewhat long recipes on two days straight.

Monday, I cooked Lamb Shanks in Indian spices. If you have cooked Raan, North Indian Moghul style Roast Leg of Lamb, you will know the sort of dish.

This one started with an impulse buy in the supermarket – I saw a pack of 2 New Zealand lamb shanks and immediately thought of using them in this dish.

So, a lot of trimming of the shanks, preparation of marinade, frying the whole spices and masala, adding in the shanks, then transferring all to a casserole just large enough to hold the shanks.

I would have liked to have done 3 hours in the oven at 110°C / 230°F, but I started late because it was a busy day, and settled for 150°C / 300°F for 2 hours. Plus 10 minutes under the broiler.

This is not one of those stick it in the oven and leave it dishes. Since there is very little masala, it is fairly dry and does not even qualify as a braise. So, the shanks had to be turned after 45 minutes, 90 minutes, 2 hours then again after 5 minutes under the broiler, each time spooning some masala over the shanks.

It turned out well, served with rice, an Indian style tomato soup and a very un-Indian French beans sautéed in butter.

Tuesday, I decided to cook an Indonesian ox-tail soup. This one is a joy – it took much experimenting before I finally created a recipe I was happy with.

It does however have a number of steps that are there purely for taste and quality, at the expense of expediency. I first slowly bring the ox-tails to a boil in plain water, removing scum as it rises. Then that water gets discarded and the pot scrubbed off to remove any scum sticking to it.

I then start over, frying spices etc, until the water goes in again, then simmer for 2 hours. This too is not a leave it sort of dish. It does require periodic monitoring that it is at no more than a simmer. If you boil it with all the fat still there, it will become an oily emulsion, ie. ruined.

After 2 hours simmering, in go the vegetables, then simmer for another 30 minutes. Put the pot into a basin of water to cool it down. After 3 changes of water, it is cool enough to go in the fridge. That will allow the flavours to mature and the fat to solidify on the surface.

Today, Wednesday, I will de-fat the soup, re-heat it, season, garnish, and we will have it for dinner.

Quite a week. I also took all the requisite photos, and will be publishing the articles and recipes on my site in due course.

And was it all worth it? I reckon so. Easy stuff gets boring after a while.

I wrote in my post of 16th June, 2008 that freezing the cloud ear fungus (mushrooms) seemed to give them a slightly powdery texture.I since cooked a larger batch, and as noted, prepared more gravy so that the mushrooms could be submerged in gravy when frozen.

This has done the trick - texture was normal, so obviously any deterioration was due to freezer damage from exposure, albeit in an airtight container.

Cooking with Cloud Ear Fungus

Sometimes in your travels, you come across a great dish that you cannot forget. Trying to re-create it at home can be a challenge, but it is worth the effort.I first came across the dish on one of my regular business trips to Jakarta. Staying at a hotel that was popular with the locals and not tourists meant that the food there was pretty authentic. I quickly developed a selection of favourite dishes from the menu that became dinner must-haves.

One trip, I noticed the menu had changed and on it was Ikan Bakar Colo Colo. I decided to try it, and was struck by how simple it was and the great taste. They used a nice thick seabass fillet in that hotel, though they did say that restaurants outside would grill whole fish, rather than a single portion fillet. One of the things that made it special was the colo colo sauce, some call it a sambal, which because it was served in a small quantity, did not overwhelm the fish.

So, the dish went onto my list of must-haves. Some trips it was not so good, I suspect because the chef who got it onto the menu was the expert and if he was off, then another chefs efforts did not quite measure up.

Re-Creating The Recipe.

When I got back to Thailand, I searched the net and downloaded a recipe. I tried it as is, and it was a veritable disaster.

So, I had to content myself with having the dish whenever business took me to Jakarta. One day, waiting for a flight at an airport out in the provinces, I came across a cookbook at the airport bookstore. In it was a recipe for Ikan Bakar Colo Colo, so I bought the book on the spot.

Soon after, I tried the recipe as is. It was good, but not exactly what I had in the hotel. So, the next trip when I got to eat the dish, I made a careful comparison of ingredients and taste, to the best that one can tell by looking at and tasting the finished dish.

The difference came from the green chillies, which have a unique taste, addition of bird chillies which give a ‘kick’ to it, a little garlic and I believe the Indonesian kecap manis, or sweet soy sauce, which has a taste rather different from Chinese Sweet Soy Sauce.

And so, all set, I cooked the dish back in Thailand. It was wonderful!

As I no longer travel to Indonesia on business, I cannot readily get kecap manis, but I do intend to ask anyone who travels there to bring back a bottle.

Article / Recipe

It’s hard to get bored with food if you always tweak the recipes you use. I do that, even with my own creations. If the result is great, I’ll share it as an update, which is what I am doing today.

In May, I posted an article and recipe for Fusion Duck Curry. At the time I was eating the curry, I made a note that I would like to try it with the addition of curry leaves and garam masala.

Well, some time has passed and I was asked if I would cook the dish again. As I did that, I saw my note to try the variation. So I added 3 sprigs of curry leaves at the same time as the sliced onions, and ½ teaspoon garam masala together with the other spice powders. I also reduced the water to 1 cup, and reduced the heat to get the barest of simmers. Cooking time was the same.

It worked wonderfully, with a thicker, more flavourful gravy. Try it, you will not be disappointed I assure you.

Of all the fish that I buy and cook, the most versatile for me is mackerel steak. It has great texture, reasonable taste and it freezes well, qualities that give me a range of choices for when and how I will cook it.

A mackerel steak will go well in many Asian curries. I have for example used it in fish-head curry; no cheeks, but a lot more flesh than an actual fish-head. In Malay cuisine, it is good deep-fried then sautéed in a spicy sambal paste. And it goes well in Indian curries.

Thirty years ago when I was in Kuala Lumpur, there was an Indian restaurant in Brickfields that did a roaring trade in deep-fried fish at lunchtime. Essentially, it had a spice rub applied, then was deep fried and served piping hot. If you use mackerel steak for this, it makes sense to have it sliced thinner.

Mackerel steak takes well to western style preparations, though here of course I would want thicker slices. Any dish that calls for firm-fleshed fish will be pretty OK with mackerel. And for simple weeknight meals, a basic western preparation of mackerel steak is hard to beat for simplicity and goodness.

This is an example of a broiled mackerel steak that I do. Originally inspired by a Mark Bittman recipe, I have since added minced garlic and minced chilli to the mustard. In moderation, I might add, but enough to give a little extra dimension to the taste. Total time to broil was 17 minutes. Seven minutes on the first side, turn and dress with mustard mixture, then broil for another 7 minutes. Top with the chopped honey tomatoes and broil for another 3 minutes. The rack is placed 13 cm / 5 in. from the element, and I do not put it closer to finish as that is not necessary.

This is one main course that takes less time to cook than the potatoes. In this instance, as the main has plenty of flavour, I paired it with a simple Italian style potato salad. Boil the potatoes skin on, peel and slice, allow to cool, then sprinkle with minced garlic and parsley. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and you’re all set.

With a green salad on the side, it makes a good meal.

Want more on mackerel steaks? See Article and Recipe

As a kid, whilst Ceylonese Banana Leaf Cuisine was a treat, prawn or shrimp curries were not on my list of favourites. When it came to prawn curry, we had a choice of ‘wet’ prawn curry, ie a prawn / shrimp curry with gravy, generally with smaller prawns, or a ‘dry’ prawn curry, ie. stir-fried prawns, generally larger ones. The larger ones would be salt-water prawns, as Tiger Prawns were unknown back then.As we bought the curries from restaurants, the prawns were usually cooked shell-on to save time, hence my dislike of them; I was never one to eat the heads, so the shell was just a needless nuisance at that time.

Today, a spicy stir-fry of prawns (shrimp) has certainly become one of my favourites, though I do remove the shells for cooking. And yes, I am partial to a nice prawn curry with gravy.

The stir-fry that I like is a visual treat with the different colours of the ingredients and the great texture of the dish - yellow from the turmeric, red from the slivers of ground chilli and sliced onions, green from the sliced chillies and curry leaves, black from the pepper and mustard seeds and the golden colour of fried garlic. All these, with a taste and aroma to match.

Full Article and Recipe

One of the undoubted favourites in Thai cuisine, leaving aside touristy stuff, is grilled chicken. It is usually served with som tam (Thai papaya salad) and sticky rice (glutinous rice).

Getting a good recipe is difficult. I have 3 from my collection of Thai cookbooks, and they can be best described as not having any commercial potential. So, I have been experimenting, with a fair degree of success, but still not at the point that I can say “This is it”.

Last night I made another change to my recipe, and instead of grilling the whole chicken, I just roasted it. To be honest, I was lazy to set up the rotisserie and just used the smaller oven. The fan supposedly gives the effect of a rotisserie, but moves the air around the chicken instead of moving the chicken - so the manual claims, doubtless with input from the marketing department.

Anyway, I decided to try the circular heating element in addition to the upper and lower elements, and this time I positioned the roasting tray on the lowest rack level. This positions the chicken so that most of it is directly in front of the fan. Not a good idea. Within 20 minutes it became apparent that spots were going to char long before the chicken would be done. I dropped the temperature from 180°C / 360°F to 160°C / 320°F for 10 minutes and raised the rack 1 level so that only the top third of the fan blew directly at the chicken.

When I was comfortable the chicken would not char, I raised the temperature to the original setting. By then my calculated timing was out of course, and I was flying by the seat of my pants. No matter, at least I had things under control. (For more on the circular element and timings, please see my earlier post under category “roast chicken”).

The chicken was done 10 minutes later than I expected, though I must say that I was deliberately trying to get the breast meat to the point where it just crosses from ‘moist’ to ‘not moist’. You see, Thai grilled chicken is usually served with a dipping sauce that is bottled and sold commercially under various brands, and it is a real treat. So, having the breast meat just ‘not moist’ would I thought go well with the sauce. Of course, leg meat remains moist even so, but that is OK.

We ate it with jasmine rice and raw vegetables, with the dipping sauce of course.

I ate most of it with a knife and fork, but as with all good grilled or roasted chicken, at a certain point you are better off using your fingers, which is what I did. I enjoyed it very much, and pretty much picked the bones clean.

And the crying dogs? Apparently in Thailand when you pick the bones clean and leave no meat for the dogs, some people call it “making the dogs cry”.

I mentioned in the post that I would give an update on how well the dish took to freezing.

Well, I’m pleased to report that it does keep well and taste and texture do not suffer as a result of freezing.

I defrosted only in the microwave, as I am not a huge fan of microwaving vegetables and the like. Then to complete reheating, I put the thawed braised pork and cloud ear fungus into a shallow bowl, which I then put in the electric rice-cooker. The one I have includes a steamer insert, so once the rice is cooked and it switches to keep warm mode, I put in the insert and the bowl. It heats through in about 20 minutes.

If you do not have the steamer insert, you can also put the bowl directly onto the cooked rice. In any case, just be sure that you use oven mitts to handle the bowl when removing, as it gets very hot. 

And if you do not use an electric rice-cooker at all, or if you are reheating a large portion, you can always reheat gently on the stove top.

Only two points are firstly, I wish I had more gravy, it is delicious and more would be nice. Secondly, there was a very slight powdery feel to the mushrooms, which only I noticed, and this is perhaps because there was not enough gravy to submerge the mushrooms in the freezer. Nothing too obvious, as I was the only one who noticed it. And the overall taste was great, just like curries and stews which improve with freezing.

So, all told a good candidate for bulk cooking and freezing.