A couple of months ago, completely out of the blue, I received a message from Premshree of polkadotsocks.net. He mentioned he would be visiting Amsterdam, and wondered if I’d be interested in sharing a meal together. It’s always fun to meet food bloggers from other countries. I proposed we’d cook together, since I’d love to … Continue reading
Ladyredspecs aka Sandra has a great blog Please Pass The Recipe, which I have been following for years. Although geographically speaking India is about halfway between us, in terms of climate or familiarity with the cuisine, she is a lot closer to Indian cuisine than I am. Lately Sandra has been posting Indian vegetable recipes … Continue reading
Suzanne of apuginthekitchen recently posted about a coconut cauliflower soup that looked great, and so I wanted to try making it as well. With roasted cauliflower, coconut milk, and Thai red curry paste it promised great depth of flavor. As Suzanne made the recipe as published and wasn’t completely happy, I decided to make some … Continue reading
My recent short trip to India inspired me to try and cook some more Indian food. After the success of Shahi Salmon, I decided to try my hand at Lamb Korma. It is similar because it also has a creamy sauce made with yogurt and tomato. If you are new to Indian food, too, I … Continue reading
With as much cooking experience as I have, most new dishes I try turn out well the first time I make them. And so what you read on this blog is mostly successes. But to allow you to learn from my mistakes, I don’t shy away from sharing my failures as well. Above you see … Continue reading
We’re on a wine discovery vacation in Spain, and so there have been a lot of posts about Spanish wine lately. Although I do intend to write more about wine than I used to, this will remain primarily a cooking blog. And so it is about time to post a recipe again. I prepared and photographed … Continue reading
This is not an authentic Thai dish, but my own creation that was heavily inspired by Thai cuisine. Plaice (Dutch: schol) is a flatfish that is very common in the Netherlands. I had some rawit (Thai red chillis), galangal, and limes in my refrigerator and I decided to use them to create this dish. The … Continue reading
My friend Melvin is great at cooking Asian dishes, and recently he made tom yum goong for us. This is a sour (from lime) and spicy (from chillis) Thai soup with shrimp. We liked it a lot, so I wanted to try making it, too. You can decide on how spicy you’d like it by … Continue reading
Recently I posted a recipe for goat satay, saté kambing, prepared sous-vide. This had turned out to so well that I wanted to make it again soon, but this time with chicken. Unlike goat (or lamb) shoulder, chicken meat is tender and does not need to be cooked sous-vide to become tender. This changes the recipe … Continue reading
Blade steak or flat iron steak is a relatively inexpensive cut of beef that when you cook it sous-vide becomes more flavorful than many more expensive cuts of steak, and just as tender. Look for steaks with a lot of marbling in them, because that is what gives them the flavor. In the Netherlands this … Continue reading
I’ve never been to India and I’ve never even eaten at an Indian restaurant. But I was curious about the cuisine, and so it was a great pleasure that two natives, Vinod and Seema, were willing to cook for me and show me how Indians cook at home. Of course India is a large country … Continue reading
I’ve just had this for dinner and it was so good that I wanted to blog about it straight away! Satay is Indonesian for a grilled meat skewer. Saté babi is pork, saté ajam is chicken, and saté kambing is goat. The meat is first marinated, then grilled, and served with a peanut sauce. As … Continue reading
I love recipes that use all parts of an ingredient. When I saw the recipe for deconstructed duck fried rice on Simon’s blog Stranded on the Island, which uses the duck breast, skin, and fat from the skin, I decided straight away to make it as soon as possible. Using the fat rendered from the skin … Continue reading
Doesn’t this salmon look amazing? Believe me, it tastes as tender and juicy as it looks! That is because it has been cooked sous-vide at 43C/109F. What makes this dish even more mouth-watering, is that the salmon has been cooked and then seared with Thai green curry paste, freshly made from scratch. It is served … Continue reading
Shrimp and mushrooms are a classic combination in stir fry dishes. In this Chinese-style dish, I’ve added another layer of flavor by braising dried shii take mushrooms in oyster sauce first. It is a bit more work, but worth it. Tender juicy shrimp with slightly chewy flavorful mushrooms and crunchy vegetables combined with a delicious sauce … Continue reading
Char Siu is pork that is marinated in a sweet spicy red sauce, and then cooked while basting with the marinade until crispy on the outside. When the pork is cooked sous-vide, the result is even more spectacular because of the nice contrast between the tender and juicy meat and the crispy exterior. This is … Continue reading
Panang is a Thai curry made with meat and red curry paste enriched with peanuts, cumin, and coriander. It does not contain vegetables, except that it is garnished with chiffonaded kaffir lime leaves and thinly sliced red chilli peppers. I’ve posted about Chicken Panang before, based on a recipe by the High Heel Gourmet. This time … Continue reading
As dessert in our High Heel Gourmet-inspired menu, we prepared Thai coconut rice custard. This turned out very nice, with a nice contrast between the sweet palm sugar-flavored bottom and the salty creamy coconut top. This is an original dessert that is delicious and easy to make, although finding the ingredients may be a challenge. It … Continue reading
The next dish in our High Heel Gourmet-inspired Thai feast was this simple but oh so tasty stir-fried chicken and eggplant with red curry paste. This was actually one of the tastiest Thai dishes I have prepared so far. The eggplant soaks up the curry flavor and it all works beautifully together. Making our own … Continue reading
The second course of our High Heel Gourmet-inspired Thai feast was Thai fish mousse (Hor Mok Pla). The flavors are quite similar to Thai fish cakes (Tod Mun Pla), as it is fish with Thai red curry paste. But the texture is quite different, as it is steamed rather than deep fried, and rather than … Continue reading
Miranti’s blog The High Heel Gourmet is an excellent source for learning how to prepare authentic Thai food. Every recipe I’ve tried from her has been a success, and without ever having set foot in Thailand I somehow feel comfortable about the authenticity of the Thai dishes that I prepare guided by Miranti. There is … Continue reading
Have you been wondering what I made with the Chinese chicken stock? Well, here it is: Chinese hot pot (also known as Mongolian hot pot), a festive dish that is delicious, healthy, and surprisingly easy to prepare for such a feast. As always, it is worth making your own stock. Raw meat, seafood and vegetables … Continue reading
To prepare a Chinese hot pot, I needed to make Chinese chicken stock. Stock is an important ingredients for soups, sauces, and risottos, and homemade stock made from scratch can’t be beaten. Traditionally Chinese chicken stock is made using a whole chicken, but for better flavor extraction I used chicken wings and ground chicken instead. … Continue reading
Thanks to The High Heel Gourmet I am cooking more and more Thai food. When I made a batch of Thai red curry paste (Kaeng Kua) to make Tod Mun Pla, I decided to use the leftovers to make another dish I saw on Miranti’s blog: Pad Prik Khing Goong, or green beans and shrimp … Continue reading
Fish is easily overcooked, and so the precise temperature control of sous-vide cooking is great to always obtain tender juicy fish that is perfectly cooked. Moreover, vacuum sealing the fish with a marinade allows the marinate to penetrate optimally while the fish cooks. Fish only takes a short time to cook sous-vide, as it only … Continue reading
At the Asian market I also picked up Chinese eggplants. They are thinner, have a milder flavor, and a more smooth texture than regular eggplants. I thought it would be appropriate to prepare it Asian style with ginger, soy sauce, and chili, and since I had some chicken thigh meat that is what I prepared … Continue reading
I was feeling adventurous at the Asian market and bought this vegetable that I had never seen or heard of before. It looked like a cucumber with ridges and the sign said “terroi”. When I googled that on my phone, I got no hits whatsoever. As I was feeling adventurous, I bought it anyway and … Continue reading
In most cases I plan what I am going to prepare for dinner and shop accordingly in advance, but for tonight I wanted to finish some leftovers I had in my fridge and created this dish. I had some Chinese cabbage (also known as Napa cabbage), shrimp stock, shrimp and shiitake mushrooms. I thought this … Continue reading
My first try making fish paste from scratch was a bit of a disaster, but the thai fish cakes (tod mun pla) made with store-bought fish paste were such a big success that I wanted to try again to make my own fish paste from scratch. This time I used fresh (farmed) trout instead of … Continue reading
Lately I’ve been trying more and more Thai food, using recipes from The High Heel Gourmet. Kees is working on the boat and I promised to prepare dinner for the workers. It was unseasonably cold, so I decided it had to be comfort food. Then I read about Gra Bong Tod on Miranti’s blog, and I … Continue reading
