Our Super H Mart Trip - 2/10/09
Before I could get too far into the list of February's recipes in Gourmet, I needed to visit the local Asian market, Super H Mart. Let me first say that if Super H Mart were the closest grocery store to my house, I would go there for all my groceries, not just specialty items that the standard grocery stores do not hold. Like most Asian markets in our area, Super H carries a large number of standard items, breakfast cereal, pasta sauce, etc. but the reason I went there today was to pick up ingredients for the variety of soups listed in the "Bowled Over" article that starts on page 62. Tonight I made the Thai-style Chicken Soup with Basil on page 70. I even made the extra effort to make the Rich and Flavorful Chicken Stock on page 106 to use as a base for this soup.
As mentioned, the stock was a cinch. The time needed for it to simmer was the only thing that would prevent me from making this stock for all of the soups that call for it. I used dried thyme and parsley and I doubt that the flavor was vastly different from a stock made with the fresh herbs. I actually have enough stock left over to save for at least one other soup recipe.
The Thai-style soup was excellent. I must admit I have shied away from recipes with lemongrass, one of the ingredients that necessitated a trip to Super H Mart. It was nice to see that lemongrass is really pretty easy to work with, though a little fibrous when I was dicing it. My dice is never that small so it was not a huge issue. When I mentioned in an earlier post I am a home cook, I should have amended it to untrained home cook. Ah, someday a knife class will be on my Christmas list. I also had to make a few changes because a few ingredients were not even at Super H Mart. I asked someone at the store if they carried these items so please don't think I didn't try. I replaced the 2 oz. of tamarind pulp with about 6 oz. of tamarind juice and had no luck with lime leaves so I added lime zest. I loved the suggestion to freeze the chicken briefly to make it easier to slice, worked like a charm. The only complaint that I had was the amount of straining needed for both the stock and the soup. I felt like I kept dumping things from one pot to the next. Probably didn't help that Eyrleigh had taken all of the plastic storage items out of their cupboard and strewn them under my feet so I was dodging those from sink to stove and back again.
For reasons beyond my understanding, I decided to also make the Orange Pumpkin Cloverleafs on page 105. I guess I didn't look at the soup recipe closely and see the accompaniment of rice so I thought I'd make a starch. Thankfully, I made the rice to go with the soup because the Cloverleafs were a strange partner to Thai soup. That said, I enjoyed making the Cloverleafs very much. Kneading dough is one of the most therapeutic things I can think of. It's a form of meditation for cooks. I have a tendency while making breads to not let the yeast sit long enough so I timed it this time to force myself to wait the recommended 5 minutes. I also made sure I did not add too much flour in the kneading process and allowed the bread to remain tacky, but not sticky. I think it helped but the rolls still seemed a little heavy. I liked making these rolls but didn't taste enough of a flavor punch to warrant making them again. They were a pretty orange color but there was no noticeable pumpkin or orange flavor. They tasted like ....rolls.
I have actually made another Gourmet recipe since I posted last but I will admit that was last night since the combination of Thai soup, Cloverleaf rolls, and Butterscotch pudding tonight would have made me and anyone reading this post feel a bit ill. I did not make a main dish from Gourmet because I had to use some ground beef and not a singe recipe from the February issue called for it. I made a Shepard's Pie that was perhaps inspired at one point by the recipe in some cooking magazine but has long since morphed into my own thing. I did make the Butterscotch pudding on page 4 as our desert. I don't make pudding much so two puddings in one week really threw Richard for a loop. I did tell him there were 6 pudding recipes in this issue of Gourmet so he could expect another one soon. The pudding was good. I like butterscotch pudding but I would never list it as my favorite dessert. Eyrleigh couldn't get enough though. She kept turning from Richard to me to get spoonfuls and was grabbing for the bowls long after it was gone. I don't think I stirred it enough as it was heating as there were tapioca-like lumps but they sure didn't affect the taste. I'd make it again for Eyrleigh and yes, Richard and I might get a few bites in too.
As mentioned, the stock was a cinch. The time needed for it to simmer was the only thing that would prevent me from making this stock for all of the soups that call for it. I used dried thyme and parsley and I doubt that the flavor was vastly different from a stock made with the fresh herbs. I actually have enough stock left over to save for at least one other soup recipe.
The Thai-style soup was excellent. I must admit I have shied away from recipes with lemongrass, one of the ingredients that necessitated a trip to Super H Mart. It was nice to see that lemongrass is really pretty easy to work with, though a little fibrous when I was dicing it. My dice is never that small so it was not a huge issue. When I mentioned in an earlier post I am a home cook, I should have amended it to untrained home cook. Ah, someday a knife class will be on my Christmas list. I also had to make a few changes because a few ingredients were not even at Super H Mart. I asked someone at the store if they carried these items so please don't think I didn't try. I replaced the 2 oz. of tamarind pulp with about 6 oz. of tamarind juice and had no luck with lime leaves so I added lime zest. I loved the suggestion to freeze the chicken briefly to make it easier to slice, worked like a charm. The only complaint that I had was the amount of straining needed for both the stock and the soup. I felt like I kept dumping things from one pot to the next. Probably didn't help that Eyrleigh had taken all of the plastic storage items out of their cupboard and strewn them under my feet so I was dodging those from sink to stove and back again.
For reasons beyond my understanding, I decided to also make the Orange Pumpkin Cloverleafs on page 105. I guess I didn't look at the soup recipe closely and see the accompaniment of rice so I thought I'd make a starch. Thankfully, I made the rice to go with the soup because the Cloverleafs were a strange partner to Thai soup. That said, I enjoyed making the Cloverleafs very much. Kneading dough is one of the most therapeutic things I can think of. It's a form of meditation for cooks. I have a tendency while making breads to not let the yeast sit long enough so I timed it this time to force myself to wait the recommended 5 minutes. I also made sure I did not add too much flour in the kneading process and allowed the bread to remain tacky, but not sticky. I think it helped but the rolls still seemed a little heavy. I liked making these rolls but didn't taste enough of a flavor punch to warrant making them again. They were a pretty orange color but there was no noticeable pumpkin or orange flavor. They tasted like ....rolls.I have actually made another Gourmet recipe since I posted last but I will admit that was last night since the combination of Thai soup, Cloverleaf rolls, and Butterscotch pudding tonight would have made me and anyone reading this post feel a bit ill. I did not make a main dish from Gourmet because I had to use some ground beef and not a singe recipe from the February issue called for it. I made a Shepard's Pie that was perhaps inspired at one point by the recipe in some cooking magazine but has long since morphed into my own thing. I did make the Butterscotch pudding on page 4 as our desert. I don't make pudding much so two puddings in one week really threw Richard for a loop. I did tell him there were 6 pudding recipes in this issue of Gourmet so he could expect another one soon. The pudding was good. I like butterscotch pudding but I would never list it as my favorite dessert. Eyrleigh couldn't get enough though. She kept turning from Richard to me to get spoonfuls and was grabbing for the bowls long after it was gone. I don't think I stirred it enough as it was heating as there were tapioca-like lumps but they sure didn't affect the taste. I'd make it again for Eyrleigh and yes, Richard and I might get a few bites in too.
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