What Are Your Culinary Resolutions for 2010?

[Casey]

Here are mine:

I want to learn how to make:

1) An authentic Thai green papaya salad. (Vegetarian-ish or vegan version, like they serve at the Vegan Factory in Tarzana, a Thai restaurant that in the last year has become one of my favorite places to eat--especially since I can eat anything on their menu!) My immediate problem is that I learned that I need to buy a Thai mortar and pestle set (there are two kinds, neither of which I have, but I need the kind that is specifically needed to make Thai green papaya salad because otherwise you can't make this properly). There are Thai markets around (one of them in Reseda, so...fairly close to me), but I still have to go there and actually do it--which I haven't done yet. The second problem is that, if possible, I need to find the acceptable vegetarian substitutes for the fish paste, etc. which are standard in this dish. I love green papaya salad. (And I found out that, in Thailand, it's the cheapest kind of roadside/streetside "fast food." Served with a scoop of rice, it's Thai food-on-the-go that evidently anyone in Thailand can buy for the equivalent of a few of our cents.)

2) Kung Pao Tofu. (My present favorite thing to get when I'm eating in an ethnic restaurant.)

3) Fresh Mexican salsa (the kind made every day in most Southwestern-Mexican-ish kitchens). With black beans (Whole Foods 365 brand: 99 cents a can) and organic sprouted-corn tortillas, this becomes an entire meal for me.

Hopefully, by the time 2010 turns into 2011, I will be making all of the above in my very own kitchen.

Anyone else want to learn to make something new this year?

[Nyxipoo]

OMG Som Tum!! The Spanish Inquisition of salad!

This is a fairly good recipe and is incredibly easy to make both vegan or vegetarian by using soy sauce in place of fish paste/sauce: Click Me!


Me, I would like to refine my baking abilities. I can cook like a crazy-woman, but pastries and such are still a new world (aside from the basics).

[Casey]

Originally Posted by Nyxipoo

OMG Som Tum!! The Spanish Inquisition of salad!

This is a fairly good recipe and is incredibly easy to make both vegan or vegetarian by using soy sauce in place of fish paste/sauce: Click Me!


Me, I would like to refine my baking abilities. I can cook like a crazy-woman, but pastries and such are still a new world (aside from the basics).

Yes!!!

And that's the mortar and pestle I need to buy, too!

This is a great recipe, and it tells how to substitute for the fish paste!

Thank you, Nyx!!!

Muchly, muchly appreciated!



Casey

P.S. I got so excited reading the recipe, I forgot to ask about your baking!



Anything in particular you're wanting to learn how to bake? If I were to do baking (I don't eat many baked goods, except bread when I have my couple of sandwiches a week), but if I were to do baking, I want to learn how to make some good quick breads (like rolls and biscuits; I already know how to make good cornbread), so I could do them fairly easily for ordinary family meals (but wouldn't have to go through all the rising-and-resting stuff). I've always wanted to be able to serve just-out-of-the-oven quick breads with regular family meals for those who eat a lot more bread than I do.

What are you thinking of?

[Nyxipoo]

Some good bread technique/know-how plus pie crusts and tarts and things like that.

I read about a book that goes into the ratios of baking, and how that's all you really need to know to cook good bread. It's called Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and I may end up picking up a copy.

[Casey]

Originally Posted by Nyxipoo

I read about a book that goes into the ratios of baking, and how that's all you really need to know to cook good bread. It's called Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and I may end up picking up a copy.

I've printed off a copy of the order page for Ratio, but for much, much more than this particular book, I owe you Nyx.

For a very long time now (years and years!) I've been thinking about food prep vis-a-vis basic chemistry and physics principles. Kitchen stuff (from buying to storage to clean-up) is all about chemistry and physics (for example: surface tension in the water you fill a used, sticky bowl with so the bowl can soak--as well as the soap or detergent used to boost the dissolving power of the water), and I've always thought that, just as there is a "kitchen table math" book (Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math: Book 1 Ages 2 to 8, by Chris Wright, Ph.D.), to teach not only math basics, but effective mathematical thinking, beginning at age two or so, there ought to be similar books for chemistry and physics, using common household situations (many of them repeated several times daily) to explain to children (and adults! ) the principles by which we live every moment of our lives, some of the important scientific factual basics, and some of the just literally dirt-common practicalities, to explain what we're actually doing when we're unknowingly and unthinkingly using chemisty and physics in our daily lives. (Most of us--those of us who aren't sufficiently scientifically learned--are something like the proverbial person who never knew he spoke "prose" until after it was explained to him that he'd been speaking prose all of his life). [No gender bias intended here! ]

I have searched, several times, for "kitchen" and "cooking" chemistry and physics books, looking (ideally) for ones created for children or the parents of children, but the only ones I've found up to this time were textbooks (usually beginning at about $125.00 a copy and then going upwards) intended for college students (undergrad and graduate) who are preparing for serious careers in food manufacturing and processing, etc. Up until now, with your post about Ratio, I'd never found the "hidden door" into how to connect with books NOT intended for people who have already aced serious physics and organic chemistry at their top-rated universities!

But thanks to you, I now know about a whole host of books which should, at least collectively, have a great deal of what I've been searching for.

Besides Ratio (which sounds like a book every bookshelf should have), I'm going to be ordering:

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbes: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life, by Dr. Joe Schwarcz.

Kitchen Chemistry, by Ted Lister.

Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking, by Herve This (translated from French; this seems to be by far the best of his books which have been translated into English; the reviews on the others are often not-so-good).

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, by Harold McGee.

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, by Robert L. Wolke.

What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science, by Wolke (and Parrish?; it's unclear on the description of the book).

So these, plus Ratio!), will probably cover a good part of the chemistry basics, and maybe some of the more important physics basics as well.

I thank you, Nyx. Without the heads up on Ratio, I likely never would have connected with these other books.

[Nyxipoo]

Oh Casey! Have you ever watched an episode of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown...? I have a feeling you may like him..