Toast

Election Night Curry

I'm taking a vacation day on Wednesday so that I don't have to wake up for work, since I suspect any effort to go to sleep at a reasonable hour Tuesday night would be doomed. I am so anxious about the election that I can work up a sweat reading the paper, and I have begun to address audible comments to televised news and punditry, with only the cats to hear me.

I in no way presume that anyone is interested in my position on this contest, but lest you think me evasive or coy- I'm happy to tell you that I (enthusiastically) support Barack Obama. I'm not going to talk about the issues here. It isn't that I think it would be somehow wrong to do so, but rather that I am already way too keyed up, and I'm pretty sure the only possible effect of airing my views in any detail would be further angst on my part, and maybe boredom on yours. Apparently there are still a substantial number of undecided voters. The mind boggles. I can't imagine what they want to hear, or what they are waiting for.

In any event, if you are, as I am, planning a Tuesday evening, after voting, wrapped in an afghan in front of the tube, clutching a bowl of some sort of comfort food, and a spoon (or chopsticks), you may have been, as I was, intrigued by the recipe in the Times Magazine last weekend. The article discussed Katsu Curry, a specialty of Go Go Curry restaurants. This Japanese (! curry?) chain now has a few outposts in New York, which are proving popular.

Katsu curry is, "a comfort food, an energy food, a power food, a guilty pleasure," says Miyamori, the proprietor of Go Go.. It is "British Indian food as imagined by excited Japenese and cooked in the United States a hundred years later," per Sam Sifton, who wrote the article. As he commends it for televised football viewing and as it can be served layered in individual, personal bowls, it sounded just the thing to me. And really, the bowl arrangement is best. I've got it spread out a bit here, so you can see all the parts- but layered is nicest- and most efficient for living room consumption
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The dish consists of rice, topped with a fruity pork curry, and further topped with strips of fried, panko encrusted pork chops, a handful of shredded cabbage, and a dribble of Tonkansu "fruit and vegetable" sauce.* Sound yummy? I picked up the S&B Japanese curry powder* and the Tonkatsu sauce* at the Asian grocery in the Strip at lunchtime on Thursday, and I was pretty sure this was going to be the meal in question. I was so certain that I dragged an eclectic bag of groceries to and home from post-work theater-going (August Wilson's last play, "Radio Golf"- and a terrific performance it was, too), just so I could try it out this weekend.

To avoid disappointment, (I do NOT want to suffer from disappointments of any kind, if at all avoidable, on Tuesday) I thought I'd have a dry run ahead of time, so here you are. A little research revealed that there are also chicken versions of this curry, which was good, because I had ground chicken, and no ground pork. Also, I oven- fried the pork chops, rather than deep frying them, partly out of nutrition guilt, but mostly because I didn't fancy dealing with smoky fat..laziness, more than anything. Also- sue me- I used basmanti rice rather than short-grain Japanese rice, because I like it better- especially with curry. Anyhow, the curry keeps, and I will reheat it and cook it up for election night, making another pork chop to slice up then.

This is really just the thing for the purpose- invigorating to the fingertips, strong and sustaining..it suits me fine- and no doubt would also work for the football viewer. Here are the instructions- as minimally altered by Yrs Truly -based mostly on availability of ingredients:

3 Tbsps butter
1 lb. ground pork, turkey or chicken
s and p
3 Tbsps flour
3 Tbsps S&B Japanese curry powder
peeled onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
peeled sliced carrot
2" fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
mango, peeled and coarsly chopped, or a peeled banana and 2 Tbsps sweet mango chutney- such as Major Gray
a green apple, peeled, cored and quartered
2 Tbsps tomato paste
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
1 cup chicken broth
6 thin boneless pork chops, pounded
2 beaten eggs
1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs
cooked rice
shredded cabbage
tonkatsu sauce

Curry Sauce: Melt the butter and add the meat. Brown the meat thoroughly, add S and P, then stir in the flour and curry powder. In the meantime, combine everything else, up to, and including the Worcestershire sauce in a food processor, and combine thoroughly. Add to the meat, and cook, stirring for five minutes or so, until sludgy. Add the chicken broth, stir and cook down over a very low heat, for about an hour. You can do this ahead, and reheat it, if you like.

Pork: Preheat the oven to 450. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Beat the eggs, and put the eggs and panko each in a wide shallow bowl. Heat a large saute or frying pan with two tablespoons of peanut oil until almost smoking. Dip each chop into the egg, then coat thoroughly with panko, and, for a good crust, repeat. Set in the hot oil. Brown each chop on both sides, then set on the lined cookie sheet, and place in the preheated oven. Finish cooking in the oven, until cooked through and beautifully browned. Slice chops on the diagonal.

Assemble: Put a nice scoop of rice in each bowl, ladle on some curry sauce, and top with slices of pork and a handful of shredded cabbage. Squirt on some tonkatsu sauce, tasting it first, to make sure you like it. (I do. It kind of tastes like V-8 juice with the color and texture of oyster sauce. In a good way. Really.) Consume, holding the bowl in one hand, and chopsticks, or a spoon in the other. And hope for the best.

* I have pictured these ingredients in an effort to make it easier for you to find them; it always takes me forever to locate a listed ingredient in an Asian shop...though they are labeled in English, it just helps to know what they look like.

Food 2.0

Recently, I received several "Advanced Reader's" copies of food books, which is a delightful side benefit of writing a blog, a not-for-profit enterprise- in my case, anyhow. It makes me feel puffed up and important, giant geek that I am. But even better, I get to see lots of interesting new stuff and add to the strain on the inadequate shelf space in my apartment. Life is good.

When invited to preview, I tell publishers' representatives that while I promise to read their book, I cannot promise to review it. I don't review books often, and may well find I have nothing much to say about a new cookbook. If a book is wonderful, or fun, or incredibly awful, I will talk about it, or just let you know it's out there-in case you didn't. Know, that is.

It is a good thing that I am not a reviewer of food books by trade. While I read cookbooks like novels, and have bought far too many of them myself, I am wordless after a preview of most. If you see a book featured here, there is probably a fair amount of enthusiastic babbling or, well, the opposite. I do favor the former, and generally only go after a bad book if I believe the author both influential and egregiously lazy. This is an unusual case, though, because I think something good is in danger of going under.

Warning: In a few minutes I am going to be ungracious.

Food 2.0 presents food by Charlie Ayers, the original, and former long-time head chef guy at Google. Google, in its role as employer, is famous for the wonderful food served to its high tech workers, so good that it keeps them hanging around working, instead of, say, going home.

The book is published by DK publishing, heretofore associated in my mind with cleverly designed, modern travel books, loaded with attractive and helpful illustrations. Food 2.0 is, however, excessively and ineffectually tarted up design-wise. As a result, one might well fail to notice the really excellent recipes, which are delicious, healthy, and mostly very simple to prepare. This guy is clearly a terrific cook- one of those people with a major flair for combining flavor and texture in sometimes new, but not bizarre ways- original, but not weird. His recipes do not require odd ingredients, and can all be made, without excessive fuss, at home.

Ayers has a distinct, neat personality and some very good ideas to impart, but they are not organized in an accessible way for a person who is used to, say, reading books. Perhaps this is an attempt to convey some sort of techie, info-in-bytes kind of feeling, but it is distracting and unattractive, and also, it doesn't work. This is a book, for crying out loud- you can't click on a word for more information. And what is more, there is no index. Even a food magazine, if decent, has an index.

The type-faces and cover photo (of what looks like an dull, ordinary burger-though it is not)- just plain, well, suck. I have no problem with the all-black-and-white interior concept as an idea-it could have been good. But these are boring photos; they are badly composed, as is the type and layout. They make the book look junky, and this guy is not junky- his food is great. It's really too bad. [note: Farmgirl Susan has pointed out (she got an advance copy too) that the final edition will have full color photos. There's a note on the back to that effect, which I didn't notice. I hope that will improve the look of the thing, and maybe that there are some design changes in the offing, too. Couldn't hurt.]

I hope there will be sufficient mass media reviewer interest in the quality of the food, so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. This is emphatically not a book I would have picked off the rack to have a look at. I may be a bit of a nut about type design, layout, and the book as a physical object, but I think it is not eccentric to call this one plain ol' ugly.

I am a little surprised at how much I apparently care about this sort of thing. I mean, for example, I am very fond of a number of cookbooks of the spiral-bound, standard production variety, and am not at all offended by their design. They are what they are, and likeable for it. But this one- it's pretentious, in its own casual way, and the design detracts from the text. End of cranky rant.

Anyhow, I'm glad to have the book for the interesting ideas and recipes, and here is one I made for a simple stir fry. I used my last frozen duck breast on this , but chicken breast is specified, and of course, would be good, too. This recipe serves one.

1 tsp veg oil
1 cup mixed vegs (diced onion, green beans or sliced sugar snap peas, and carrots in small pieces)
1/2 tsp finely chopped lemongrass
duck breast or chicken breast , cut in thin strips
1 cup raw peeled shrimp
1/2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsps dark soy sauce
2 tsps rice vinegar
1 tsp light brown or palm sugar
1/2 tsp. asian style dark sesame oil
freshly ground black pepper
2 handsful shredded lettuce

In a wok, heat the oil and stir fry the veg for a couple of minutes. Add the lemongrass and duck, and stir fry until the duck has lost almost all pinkness. Add the shrimp, and fry until pink. Add everything else- except the lettuce, cook for a minute or two, and pour over lettuce. Eat this right away! If you want a heartier meal, add a cup of cooked rice noodles along with the soy and flavorings.

I love the lemongrass flavor. I had some cute yellow carrots- so I used both the yellow and orange for prettiness. This is an especially good casual stir fry, though I'm not sure why it works so well. Clever fellow.

Home-made Takeout Roundup

A while ago, I asked for ideas about home made take out-meals we pack to take for lunch, on the plane, to the park for the afternoon. I have organized the responses here for you. Please let me know if I somehow missed yours, or fouled up your link. As you can see,I haven't been overburdened with entries.... so do feel free to send along late ones, and I will add them, as long as this post remains on my front page.

Before I roundup the brownbag bloggers, I thought I'd pass along a Deborah Madison idea (sorry, no photo on this), which I found strangely appealing. It is very simple- an idea, rather than a recipe, and one well suited to a take along dining. I came upon it looking for something a little bit different to do with the radishes which appeared in my first CSA farmbox of the year, collected Wednesday evening (about which, more soon, especially in regard to both pea greens and rhubarb).

Why, you might ask, would a person do anything to radishes, other than wash and trim them, and serve them with good bread, salt and sweet butter? Exactly so. This is just the convenience food version thereof, easy to consume and very packable . You chop the radishes finely, and mash them up with a tiny bit of lemon zest, sea salt, and good butter. You can add a few of the radish leaves, finely chopped, if they are in good shape.

Then you can make some very refined little crustless tea sandwiches, or pack them in a small crock, or tupperware thingie, along with a hunk of crusty bread, for spreading on the spot. Handy and charming, IMO. You could customize this radish butter with chopped fresh herbs of your choice: I put some chives in mine.

On to business. You can find the following takes on home-made take out at these linked spots:

Maninas made a recipe for chickpeas, which gets better the longer it sits- hence a good choice to carry with you-maybe for several days in a row. It has tomatoes and almonds, too, and was adapted from a recipe she found at the Traveler's Lunchbox.Incidentally, I have made this dish myself-in the Traveler's Lunchbox version, and it is exceptional. Also, it is very economical, that is to say, just about free, keeps splendidly and travels well. Eat it with a salad and a piece of cheese, and you could live on it indefinitely. This is a keeper for sure.

Sarah, of Avenue Food, was also inspired by our friend the chickpea, which appears to combine admirably with shrimps in a pretty salad.

Melissa of Banlieue Blog is clever with wraps, using flour tortillas, rice paper, or my favorite idea-puff pastry. She bundled up a red pepper mozzarella pesto spread, rocket (that may be arugula to you) and ham slices. Go check out her blog; this lady can really cook!

Anapestic, of the blog by the same name, has got an "unnamed" lentil barley concoction that sounds delicious, toothsome, and probably even healthy.

Tanna, of My Kitchen in Half Cups had beautiful smoked salmon sandwiches, instead of nasty airline food on the plane, though they confiscated her yogurt as a "liquid".

The chocolate lady took us on a ride around NYC, and shared the excellent lunch she carried, wrapped in a cloth napkin. The cloth napkin is something which I had not previously thought of, though I use cloth napkins all the time at home. After all, if you are bringing your empty containers home to refill another day, how much trouble is it to bring a napkin home? They are, after all, virtually weightless, and foldable. This was pointed out to me by zp, whose lunch post follows.

Zp, of i hate the new yorker, has written about the enticing sandwich pictured here, and various other carry alongs, including a personal favorite of mine, the tomato sandwich.

Ximena of the beautiful Lobstersquad gets to eat lunch at home, and finish up with a nap on the sofa, but she packs a real lunch for her less fortunate commuting partner, including a green bean salad in his "Nomad" model lunchbox.

Finally, Biggie's blog Lunch in a Box is all over this, as it is entirely devoted to "building a better bento."

In fact, there a quite a few bento-themed blogs out there, many of which are helpful with take-out plans, as well as decorative and entertaining. Do a google specialized blog search for "bento", and see what I mean.

Don't forget, if you have other ideas for us, late entries are welcome. Send your link to lindystoast at gmail dot com.

Home-made Take-out Event

Addendum upfront : Deadline revised: you have until June 1st to make lunch!

The noodles you see here were the subject of musings and a recipe* in the NYTimes Magazine recently, and they kind of called to me. I have made sesame noodles before, and there are plenty of recipes out there, though this is a particularly satisfying version. It was the caption that got me thinking about the packed lunches I take to work. Sometimes I go empty handed, and rely on local takeout for breakfast and/or lunch, but mostly I try to bring both with me. It's really expensive to eat lunch out a lot, leftovers can be put to good use in lunches, and hey, I like to cook.

To me, these noodles constitute pretty much the ideal take along lunch, better than random take-out, and as much of a feeling of treat being had. They would work even without a work fridge, because they have no ingredients to spoil during a morning, and are best served lukewarm. Also they are very, very nice, moderately healthy, and suitable for sharing with vegetarians.

I took my noodles for lunch with a pair of chopsticks (because I just like to eat noodles with chopsticks...I even sometimes eat Italian-style pasta with chopsticks, though not, admittedly, in public.) As I was enjoying them, and thinking they were pretty, I thought about some of the beautifully arranged bento boxes I've envied, and of those nifty stacked aluminum containers (I forget their name) delivered to some lucky people in India for their lunches, and just take-along brown bag lunches in general. Personally, I am fond of this Tupperware container, which in addition to being the nearly transparent green of spring leaves, collapses into itself when empty, for easy transport home. With these lunch thoughts in my head, it was a short step to the following idea for making some gratuitious work for myself.

So this is what I'd like to do, and I hope you will participate, either by posting in your blog, if you have one, or emailing me with your written recipe and a link to your photo, by May 15. Make a home-made take-out meal of the sort you like, or would like to take with you to work, or school, or to the park to eat while you watch the kids, or write your novel, or both. Maybe it is beautifully arranged in a divided enamel container, or it is a terrific recreation of Vietnamese street food, or it reminds you of the school lunch you took to elementary school. Maybe you take it in your Spiderman lunchbox. Perhaps you can make a giant pot of it for a dollar, and eat it for 2 weeks without getting bored? Whatever you like.

If you can, take a picture of it, and also, importantly, of the container or containers you will carry it in. Email (lindystoast at gmail dot com) me your link anytime on or before May 15, and I will have a round-up shortly thereafter. I think there's a lot of scope for individual cleverness here, and I'm looking forward to seeing some goodies, and getting some ideas for future lunches.

Let's, uh, do lunch.

*n.b. Recipe available in comments section, scroll down to check it out.
The cloth is for tying up your lunch-or anything else- you just put the thing in the middle, and make two ties across the top from the corners. They become a handle. It was a present from the redfox, quite a few years ago, when she lived in the Berkeley. She took me to Japantown in SF, when I visited for Christmas- and that is where it comes from. I am partial to the bunny motif.