Vietnamese Iced Coffee

This is a plug for my favorite Asian market in Stevens Point. It's on highway 66, west of highway 39 (old 51), next to and behind a dry cleaner/laundry. It's called the Asian American Market and it's full of all kinds of treasures. Hmong ginger sausages, whole asian-dressed chickens (with the feet and all still attached), a remarkable variety of frozen fish, dried beef, fresh produce, and all manner of sauces and pickles and other seasonings -- it's all reasonably priced, especially when you treat it as a cheap vacation, like I do. Plus it has housewares and gifts: I spied a monstrous mortar and pestle for very little money, and steamers, and Thai rice pots, and an amazing array of inexpensive, colorful, lightweight dishes and trays. There's wind chimes and wall hangings, candy and snacks, and some health and hygiene items in a glass case that I'm too cowardly to ask them about, but it's all fascinating and new and I just love going there.

If you go, be sure and try one of the Thai iced teas, which look -- there's no better way to describe them -- disgusting. But they taste wonderful. And you can skip the Vietnamese Iced Coffee, which is also delicious, but I can give you the recipe for it here because it's just so easy.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

coffee, preferably freshly ground
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 quart jar with lid

Brew really strong coffee, and when it's done brewing, take it off the heat and let it cool a bit. My French Press makes just the right amount. You're going to need about three and a half cups.

Pour half of a can of sweetened condensed milk* into a quart jar. Fill the jar to within an inch of the top with the coffee. Screw the lid on and shake until well blended, and chill. Serve over ice, or put the ice into the glass, fill with the coffee and dump it all at once into the blender and whirl on high until it's a big foamy iced slush. Delicious.

*Obviously, you'll have to make two batches of this to use up the can of milk, but you'll want to because it tastes so good.

Costa Rican Black Beans and Rice

4 cups cooked rice (1 1/2 to 2 cups raw)
4 cups cooked black beans, well drained and rinsed (1 1/2 cups raw)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

Cook beans and rice separately, if you don't have them leftover already. Start heating the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven. When hot but not smoking, add the onion and pepper and cook until tender. Add the rice, then the beans, and finally the cilantro and salt and pepper and serve. A person could add some chopped fresh hot peppers, too. And a spritz or two of lime juice wouldn't be out of place, either.
Leftovers of this could be mixed with tomato sauce and sweet corn and used to stuff peppers or other vegetables, and I like it in burritos, too.


Virtuous StirFry with Thai Tendencies

With all the excess of the holiday season, a simple stir fry really hits the spot, I think. This is just a guideline. I used what I had around the house. The only really important ingredient here is the napa cabbage -- or cabbage of any kind -- and lots and lots of it. The whole point for me was to get as many greens into the mix as possible.

1 large head napa cabbage (or bok choy or cabbage or chinese cabbage, etc.), sliced very thinly
1 medium white onion, sliced thin
1 sweet bell pepper (yellow pepper adds a sweet nuttiness to the dish that you won't get from the green pepper, but a green pepper would add a refreshing herbal quality that you won't get from a yellow sweet pepper -- take your pick)
a handful or two of broccoli florets for each person that you're cooking for
the juice of 1 lime
fish sauce or soy sauce to taste
chili garlic sauce or tabasco or red pepper flakes, if heat is desired
toasted sesame oil (optional)
Rice vermicelli, buckwheat soba noodles, or rice, or wild rice, or cooked barley, or whatever cooked grain you prefer to eat this over
chopped white and green parts of three to six scallions

Assemble ingredients and start the water for the pasta or get the grains cooking. The stir fry vegetables will only take about twenty minutes so time things accordingly.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a heavy pan until very hot. Add the broccoli and stir fry, turning the broccoli regularly, for five minutes or so. I add a tablespoon or so of water here, and let the broccoli fry/steam until the water is cooked away, because I like broccoli crunchy, but not rock hard. Then remove the broccoli from the pan and add the onions and pepper.

Cook until the onions are tender and things are begining to brown a bit on the edges. Remove from pan. Add another tablespoon of oil, if needed, and add the cabbage to the pan. Cook, stirring, over the highest heat you can coax out of your stove, I mean really turn the flame all the way up as high as it will go, for at least a minute anyway, until the cabbage is beginning to wilt and brown on the edges. It should be bright green in color.

Return the cooked vegetables to the pan. Traditional Thai cooking would entail adding a pinch of sugar to the dish and by all means do that if you want to. But I am being virtuous here, and avoiding it. Add fish or soy sauce to taste, and follow suit with the chili garlic sauce or other heat if you're using it, and add the lime juice. Toss and set aside for minute, uncovered.

Cook your noodles now, if you haven't already. They won't take more than a few minutes. Whichever starch you've picked to serve this over (and my favorite is either the buckwheat noodles or the wild rice), season it with a bit of fish or soy sauce and some dashes of toasted sesame oil, if you've got it. Serve all immediately with chopped scallions to sprinkle over the top.

Additions or substitutions would include mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, chard or kale, celery, daikon, celery root, belgian endive, walnuts, pea pods, string beans, bean sprouts, cooked adzuki beans, etc.

Indian Rice Pudding with Cardamom (Kheer)
(From Indian Regional Classics by Julie Sahni)

Serves 4

2 cups whole milk
3 cups light cream (1/2 and 1/2)
1/4 cup basmati rice
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
2 T. coconut flakes
2 T. golden raisins for garnish
2 T. sliced almonds for garnish

1. Combine all the milk and cream in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over very low heat. Add the rice and simmer for one hour (it always takes me longer than this, and it will seem like several days), until the the rice is cooked and the milk has reduced and thickened. Stir in the sugar, cardamom, and coconut. (The pudding will keep, covered, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.)

2. Serve warm or chilled, garnished with raisins and almonds, or not.

Wisconsin Rice Pudding
This is very good with wild rice and dried currants or cranberries instead of raisins.

Leftover rice
enough milk and/or cream, mixed with some beaten eggs and real maple syrup, to cover the rice
A handful or two of raisins or other dried fruit

Mix all together and pour into baking dish and bake at around 300F. until done.


Savory Sweet Potato Pudding

4 or 5 large yams or sweet potatoes
1 or two large russet potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cream (or use more milk instead)
2 Tablespoons butter
1 or two bay leaves
a branch or pinch of rosemary leaves
a tablespoon of thyme
salt, pepper
1/2 a chopped onion or 3 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Peel and boil the cut up sweet potatoes in enough water to cover until very tender. Do the same with the white potato, in a separate pot.
In another pot, simmer the bay, rosemary and thyme in the milk and cream and butter. When the potatoes are done, and they should be very tender, mash them all together. Strain the milk mixture into the potatoes and whisk until smooth. The mix should be very liquid, like a thick applesauce. If it's not, add more milk. Set aside to cool a bit.
Beat the eggs and whisk into the sweet potato mix, and fold in the onions or scallions. Turn out into a buttered or oiled casserole dish and bake at around 350F., or whatever temp you've got your oven at, for 1/2 an hour or so or until puffed and golden on top.
If you wanted the dish to be more virtuous, and I'm very into virtue today, you could cook the herbs in apple cider instead of milk and cream, but don't scrimp on the butter. It will need that body to carry it off. You could substitute olive oil instead if you wanted, but I'd take care to make sure that it was a mild and fruity flavored olive oil, without a hint of bitterness.
Serves 8.


Stuffed Mushrooms
Adapted from a James Beard book -- I forget which one...
Serves 3 or 4 as an appetizer, or 1 or 2 mushroom lovers.

16 large snow white mushrooms with their stems
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (italian flat leafed parsley being much preferred)
1/2 of a medium to small sized onion, chopped very fine.
2 eggs
thyme
parmesan
2 to 3 t. butter

Wipe the mushrooms clean and remove the stems. Place the caps, bottom up, in a baking dish just big enough to hold them all.
Trim and chop the stems and fry them in the butter. With a slotted spoon, scoop out the fried stems and reserve the butter. Set stems aside. Whisk the eggs, add the bread crumbs, thyme, salt and pepper to taste, and stir in the stems and chopped onion. Brush the caps with the butter that you fried the mushroom stems in. Divide the stuffing between the caps, and sprinkle with a little bit of parmesan. Pour a quarter cup or so of water or broth into the pan, taking care not to douse a mushroom. Bake in a 350 f. oven until browned and tender.

So many recipes, so little room. The following recipes are recipes from former seasons, all grouped together into one massive, monumental behemoth. Enjoy ....