Pineapple Gojju

I have a real treat for you today - a guest post by my friend's 17-year old daughter Molly. She is one of those uber-talented teens who is sweet and thoughtful, studies hard, can do yoga like nobody's business ... and is an amazing cook. She teaches the exercise/yoga class I attend every week and does a wonderful job of tailoring the moves to my aging body. Molly traveled around the world two years ago and fell in love with South Asian cooking. I've invited her to share one of her favourite recipes with us today - Pineapple Gojju - which I can't wait to try.

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It is Saturday morning and as I’m enjoying my pocket of warmth in my bed, safe from the frigid winter air outside, I am already planning what to eat for breakfast (the only motivation for leaving at all). I could opt for my usual meal - oatmeal with some chia seeds or berries on top - but today I have no plans, just a craving for some extra spicy-savoury-deliciousness.

I took a trip to India two years ago with a close family friend of mine and of all the incredible dishes we tried my absolute favourite was the coconut pineapple curry *mouth waters*… it’s the perfect balance of heat and if you love coconut as much as I do, this is bound to become your new ‘fav’ as well.

The majority of our trip was within the state of Karnataka, home to the small town of Hampi, and a few hours from the main city of Bangalore. There was one particular restaurant that holds a fond place in my memory, obviously for the food, but also for the breathtaking scenery.

This was the view from my bamboo mat on the floor

After weaving through a banana plantation for about a kilometer you’d come to a quaint little cafe - The Mango Tree Restaurant (even though there were in fact no mango trees nearby). It looked out on a beautiful green marsh with water buffalo passing by nonchalantly every half hour and monkeys climbing up in the trees… surreal I know.

Once our shoes were off and we were comfortably seated cross-legged on the floor mats the waiter would come around with fresh watermelon juice and our menus.

To the left is me (Molly) - we are very grateful to be under the shade of a big tree and about to eat!

A special bond was formed that day between the curry and me. Since returning home I’ve been trying to recreate the recipe on my own with the help of the Internet and cookbooks. I came up with this version, inspired by a recipe found on food.com, with my own twist.

Pineapple Gojju

Now its quite possible that this dish seems so magical to me because when I ordered it I hadn’t eaten in hours and was so hungry anything would’ve tasted like a five star meal, but I’m putting the recipe out there anyway and I hope you find it’s as comforting and homey on a cold winters day as I do.

So here goes!

PINEAPPLE GOJJU (Serves: 4-8)

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon canola or grape seed oil (I use grape seed) 
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped 
1 garlic clove, finely chopped 
1 cinnamon stick 
3 clove hearts 
2 cardamom pods, capsules crushed
3 teaspoons ground coriander 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (more or less depending on how spicy you want it) 
1 pineapple peeled and cut into small squares 
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut milk (I used the Thai Kitchen brand, from a can)
*if you prefer a sweeter tasting curry, add 1 tablespoon of sugar

Optional:
1/4 cup dried currants or golden raisins (I use currants)
Sprinkle of desiccated coconut flakes and/or extra cinnamon when serving.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare all your ingredients.
2. In a frying pan heat oil and fry onion, garlic and whole spices until onions are soft.
3. Add ground spices and stir for one more minute.
4. Add pineapple and stir until well coated.
5. Add salt, coconut milk, and sugar if using.
6. Cook uncovered 5 minutes or until soft.
7. Serve with steamed white or brown rice.
8. Enjoy!

Making Sushi

Have you ever made your own sushi? I know lots of people have, but I'm not one of them. I love trying new recipes, though, so I was keen to try.

Our son Malcolm suggested we make sushi for lunch when we visited them last weekend. Most of the ingredients are easy to get, but I wasn't sure about the raw fish. I was told at our local grocery store's meat counter that their salmon was not considered sushi-grade, but it was fresh from New Brunswick and had been received that day which seemed good enough for me.

I thought sushi making would be much more difficult than it is to make the rolls stay together and look pretty.

All you do is press some sticky rice on the seaweed sheets leaving about an inch along the top edge bare without any rice. You have to use sticky rice so that the grains will stick together - regular rice won't work.

Then you add your choice of thinly sliced vegetables (we had cucumber, carrots, and avocado), crab meat, or raw salmon along the edge nearest you. 

When you have all the ingredients you want, then you roll the log starting from the side nearest to you. The bamboo mats help you make a tight roll. The inch of seaweed wrapper at the top edge of the sheet is used to seal the log together. It helps to have a bowl of water to dip your fingers into if they get too covered in rice or if you need to help the seaweed wrapper make a firm seal.

Then, using a sharp knife you cut the log into bite-sized pieces and put them on a plate to admire eat.

We started our meal with miso soup so we would have the energy to make our sushi lunch. Miso soup is very easy to make and a great addition to a sushi meal. We modified this recipe and it turned out to be so tasty.

To make miso soup, boil together:

4 cups water

1/2 cup chopped green onion (or more if you want)

1 package firm tofu (it must have been about 2 cups)

3-4 tablespoons miso paste

2 sheets of nori (dried seaweed), crumpled

I love sushi and am impressed with how easy it was to make them look good - and of course, they tasted great!

Newfoundland Food Favourites

When I go on vacation I love to sample regional specialty dishes and interesting new foods (although we are frugal so we cook for ourselves lots of the time as well, to cut costs).  While Newfoundland is known for some rather dubious foods such as fried bologna and vienna sausages, it also has fine seafood and delicious traditional baked goods available and we were fortunate to be able to sample some of each.

We had several delicious fish dinners - some we bought and some we cooked ourselves.  A couple of highlights include the fish cakes at The Treasure Box in Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne Park).  They were delicious and served with toutons (more about them later), molasses, baked beans, and mustard pickles.  The Treasure Box is both a craft shop and a relaxed cheerful eatery.

We also had amazing fish and chips from The Little Red Chip Wagon in the parking lot of the Bonne Bay Marine Station in Norris Point (Gros Morne Park).  It was raining the day we had the fish and chips so we ate in our car looking out over the harbour.  The fish and chips with cole slaw were perfect.  The fish was crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside and the fries were homemade. Mmmm, wish I had some right now in fact.

  

We also had the most delicious salmon cakes when we stayed on Quirpon Island in a Lighthouse Keeper's Inn .  They gave me the recipe so when I make them I will let you know.

We also had a Jiggs dinner when we stayed on Quirpon Island.  It is a traditional boiled dinner consisting of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips, pease pudding, and dumplings all boiled together.  It was served with molasses for the dumplings and mustard pickles for the corned beef.  I know there are many variations to this dinner, both around Newfoundland and all down the eastern seaboard of Canada and the USA.  I'm not sure how they vary - anyone know?  I think one of the more unusual elements in this boiled dinner was the pease pudding, which was made by boiling split peas in a bag along with the rest of the dinner.

We also tried a few traditional baked goods. Touton which is a like a pancake made by frying bread dough in a pan with butter or pork fat was often made by the fisherman as a quick way to get some bread ready for the lunch meal.  It is served with molasses or corn syrup.  The first time we had touton they had a more homemade appearance (which you can see below as compared to the breadish rounds on my plate with the fish cakes in the first photo).  

I just had to show you the charming 1940s fishing cabin where we first discovered toutons. The toutons had been cooked as part of a demonstration by one of the Parks Canada staff in Gros Morne National Park.  I love the laundry billowing out on the clothes line behind the cabin.  Boy was it windy there! 

And finally we had molasses buns which tasted a bit like gingerbread, although they don't have any ginger in them.  I guess molasses and cinnamon together trick the brain into thinking it is gingerbread. The molasses buns tasted delicious heated up with a bit of butter on them with a cup of tea.  I also have the recipe for these and will give them a try soon.

Newfoundland is famous for its bakeapples which ripen at the end of the summer.  You can buy bakeapple jams, spreads, syrups, and desserts all over the province.  We bought many containers of bakeapple spread and had it on bread every day for lunch.  Yummy!  

We also bought a few jars of jam as gifts when we visited the Dark Tickle company in St. Lunaire-Griquet in Northern Newfoundland. Don't you love the name - Dark Tickle (although really it has a more maritime meaning than one would initially think because a tickle is a Newfoundland word for a narrow channel of water).  You could buy Dark Tickle products all over Western Newfoundland.  

And finally we couldn't resist bringing these bags of chips home for the kids to try.  I feel like you could have your whole meal and it would just involve eating chips with different flavours on them.  We've tried the roasted chicken and it was popular with 50% of us - the other 50% not so much.  Have you ever had these flavours?  Do you have unique chip flavours where you live?  Do tell.  We have barbecue, salt and vinegar, sour cream and onion, and ketchup, and plain, of course.

So there you have it - some of the food highlights from our trip.  I'm keen to cook up the salmon loaf and the molasses buns so I'll let you know how they taste once I've made them.

Larb from Laos

We have been traveling at a break-neck pace through Asia these past few months and I now have food from Laos to share with you.  

We opted to make Larb, a spicy mixture of marinated meat with greens and herbs, which is considered the national dish of Laos. It can be made with almost any kind of minced meat (and is sometimes eaten raw although we most definitely cooked ours) flavoured with fish sauce, lime, and chili. The dish is served with sticky rice, ground toasted rice, and a variety of raw vegetables.

Larb is really tasty and easy to make and something that I will definitely cook again as a quick summer meal that is different than a regular salad.  I wasn't sure I had used the right kind of lettuce as Romaine didn't seem very Laotian, but I didn't know what else to use and the boat shaped leaves worked well to load up with rice, larb, and vegetables and use as a wrap.

By the way, I based my version of Larb on recipes found here, here, here, and here.

Ingredients:
vegetable oil for cooking
2 lbs ground chicken or pork
1 stalk lemon grass 
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 red onion or 2 shallots, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I used lemon juice as some of us don't like lime)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 red chilies (optional)
2 tablespoons ground toasted rice powder

Serve with:
lettuce leaves
1/4 cup mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
cucumber slices
lemon wedges
ground toasted rice powder
sticky rice
(please ignore the red and orange bell peppers as they were my own addition and are not mentioned in any of the recipes I read - I just like them and thought they would taste good with Larb ... and they did)

To make ground toasted rice powder:
1.  Place about 1/3 cup of uncooked sticky rice in a dry frying pan or wok and cook over medium heat shaking frequently and stirring.
2.  The rice is done when it looks toasted and lightly browned.
3.  Grind the toasted rice in a coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle into a fine powder.

Method:
1.  Cook ground meat until it is no longer pink.
2.  Add the lemon grass, green onions, red onions, ginger, fish sauce, lime juice, red pepper flakes, and chilies (if using) just as the meat is finishing.
3.  Add 1 tablespoon of the ground toasted rice powder and toss and add more as needed so the meat is not runny.
4.  Taste and add more fish sauce, lime juice, or chili flakes as desired.
5.  Serve meat at room temperature with the rice and vegetables.  

P.S. You should read this interesting post for details on all the different spellings of Larb, Lab, Laab, Lahb etc

Char Kroeung from Cambodia

Our around-the-world-cooking adventure has taken on lightening speed as I want to finish before our youngest goes off to university in September.  We just finished Thailand and are now in Cambodia (virtually speaking, of course).  I like to post these recipes so I have an easy resource to find them again (love that search feature down the sidebar!), but I was pleased when Donna from An Anglo in Quebec commented that she actually makes some of the international recipes too. Yay, for inspiration!
After a bit of research into Cambodian cuisine we decided to make Char Kroeung.  Kroeung is a distinctive spice blend that is used in many dishes in Cambodia.  I based my recipe on this one, but had to make some changes as I was not able to get all the same ingredients (no kaffir lime leaves available at the local grocery store here in Ontario) and I had to take the spiciness down a notch.
Here's the recipe.
For the kroeung paste:
2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves removed and thinly sliced

5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1 large shallot, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed chili peppers
1/2 cup water

For the stir-fry:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
600 g beef or 600 g chicken (I used chicken), cut into bite-sized chunks
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large onion, peeled and sliced into wedges

Oher vegetable (optional)
1 red bell pepper, sliced (bell pepper) 

1/2 cup roasted peanuts, ground

Method:
1.  Blend all the kroeung paste ingredients in a bowl until smooth (the recipe calls for mixing them in a blender.  Since we don't have one we did try the mortar and pestle, but I'm not sure it did much).
2.  Add the meat to the kroeung paste and mix well.
3.  Heat the oil in large wok over medium heat. Add meat, stirring well until browned.
4.  Add fish sauce, sugar and salt and stir until the sauce is bubbling.
5.  Add the onion wedges and cook for a few minutes.  Then add the other vegetables if using and cook a few minutes.
6.  Add the red bell pepper and 6 tablespoons of roasted peanuts. Stir for another minute, then remove from heat.

Sprinkle with remaining peanuts and serve with rice vermicelli noodles, lettuce (we used spinach), and bean sprouts. The recipe also called for fresh mint, but we don't care for mint so I omitted this.

We loved this dish.  I say that frequently, I know, but I will definitely be making it again so that confirms my Char Kroeung love.

P.S.  I've seen this written as Cha Kroeung and Char Kroeung and I'm not sure which is correct (they both have close to the same number of Google hits so that doesn't clear it up either).  If anyone has been to Cambodia and knows which way to spell it, I would love to find out.

Pad Thai

We've made it to Thailand in our round-the-world cooking adventure.  Since I had never cooked pad thai before, that is what we chose to make.  It tasted great and really wasn't very difficult.  I used this recipe here, but made some modifications since I was cooking for 7 people and I wasn't able to get all of the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8):
1-454gm (16 oz.) package of rice noodles (linguine-width)
4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
marinade for chicken: 3 teaspoons of corn starch mixed with 1/2 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 fresh red chilies, minced (optional)

1/2 cup fresh coriander/cilantro (optional)
3 cups fresh bean sprouts

8 green onions, sliced

3/4 cup peanuts, roughly chopped

slices of lime

1/2 cup vegetable stock

oil for cooking

Pad Thai sauce: 

3 tablespoons lemon juice (the original recipe called for tamarind paste, but I couldn't find any so I used lemon juice)

6 tablespoons fish sauce (this is the magic ingredient that makes it taste like Thai food and is available in most grocery stores)

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed chili pepper flakes

5 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

METHOD:

1.  Marinate the chicken pieces for at least one hour.
2.  Soak the noodles in warm water for 30 minutes or until they are soft enough to be eaten, but still a little crunchy.
3.  Mix together the pad Thai sauce and set aside.
4.  Heat oil in a frying pan or wok and cook the garlic (and chilies if using) for about 30 seconds.  Add marinated chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Add 1-2 tablespoons of chicken stock at a time as needed to keep the cooking chicken moist.
5.  Add the noodles to the cooked chicken and pour the pad Thai sauce over it.  Using two utensils stir the noodle mixture like you are tossing a salad for 1-2 minutes.  Add more oil or chicken stock as needed to keep it moist.
6.  Add the bean sprouts (and 1 more tablespoon of fish sauce if desired) and cook for 1 more minute.
7.  Serve the pad Thai with fresh coriander, chopped green onions, chopped nuts, and a slice of lime.

I felt like this meal was a little lacking in the vegetable department so I stir fried some bok choy and red peppers with onion and garlic and a little fish sauce.  It was my own version of faux Thai vegetables, but they tasted great with the pad Thai.  I didn't include a photo of them because they weren't authentic.

We've also cooked Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam so I'll be posting them soon.  Have you ever cooked pad Thai?  It is a popular dish and I think this version tasted pretty authentic if you want to give it a try.

Burmese Soup

Well we've finally made it Burma (in a virtual sense that is ... in our round-the-world cooking adventure) and we decided to cook some Chickpea Soup. You can see the soup being cooked in the traditional way by the Shan people in this video (the video is so interesting and well worth the time to watch it - my favourite part is when the camera looks down and you can see the river and the boat through the floor boards).
Chickpea Soup is cooked in several different pots and then assembled at the last minute.  You can see all the parts ready to be ladled into bowls in the photo below.  It may look like a lot of pots to clean, but they mostly had vegetables or noodles so they cleaned up quickly.  The key to this soup is using enough of the spice mixture that goes on top as that is what makes the soup so interesting and flavourful.  
This was one of our favourite dishes from our world cooking adventure (do I say that every time?).  It was so delicious we've already made it a few times.  

Here's the recipe with the modifications we made:
BURMESE CHICKPEA SOUP
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 litre water
4 tbsp oil
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cm ginger, peeled, pounded (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
3 tomatoes, diced (or 1/2 can diced tomatoes)
1 tsp paprika powder
Pinch of salt
2 chicken skinless boneless chicken breasts
400g rice noodles, blanched
200g blanched baby bok choy
2 cups bean sprouts
4 teaspoon sesame seeds
4 teaspoon crushed roasted peanuts
2 teaspoon fried garlic
4 teaspoon light soy sauce
4 teaspoon sugar cane syrup
Sliced green onion, to garnish
Dried chilli flakes, to garnish
Lime wedges, to garnish (although we used lemon)

Method:
1.  We mashed the chickpeas using a mortar and pestle, but next time I would just boil them and then mash with a potato masher.
2. Combine the mashed chickpeas and water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Cook on low, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
3.  Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté the turmeric powder, onion, garlic and ginger, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
4. Add the tomatoes, paprika powder, salt and chicken. Stir-fry for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside.
5.  Prepare the noodles according to package directions.
6.  Blanch the bok choy for 2 minutes in boiling water.
7.  Combine the sesame seeds, peanuts, fried garlic, soy sauce, and sugar cane syrup in a bowl to season the soup.
8. To serve, divide noodles among 4 soup bowls. Ladle the chickpea mixture over the noodles. Add some tomato-chicken mixture.  Add the baby bok choy and bean sprouts.  Top with the seasoning mixture made in step #7. Garnish with the spring onion, chilli flakes and lime. 

We have already cooked dishes from Thailand and Cambodia so I hope to have them posted soon too.  Have you ever cooked any South Asian food?  I'm really enjoying the food from this part of the world.

Thoughts on Bangladesh

Brick walkway at the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed

As many of you know my friend Kim and I taught in Bangladesh during the summer of 2011.  It was an amazing experience and one that we hope to repeat again in the next few years (you can read more of my posts about Bangladesh here)

You remember how we are cooking our way around the world well the next one I should be posting about is Bangladesh, but the truth is I feel funny writing about the aloo chop I cooked when there are other much more pressing things to discuss about Bangladesh. 

Things like the building that collapsed in Bangladesh last month killing over 1000 people.  The building, Rana Plaza, was in Savar a town northwest of the capital Dhaka. The Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) where we taught is less than two kilometres away from the collapsed building.  We went to the Rana Plaza on our first day in Bangladesh to withdraw money from the bank machine and then went to a building across the street and past the underpass to purchase material for our salwar kameezes and scarves. The people who worked in the garment factories and in the shops who were trapped, injured, and the families of those who have died are on my mind.

Did you know that two babies have been born to women trapped in the rubble.  Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?

Did you know that one woman was found after seventeen days of being trapped in the debris.  Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?

There has been a lot of talk about reform of the garment industry and to that I say hear! hear!   I have been relieved to know that not only has Joe Fresh, the Canadian clothing company associated with Loblaw, admitted they were subcontracting with one of the garment factories in the Rana Plaza while most other clothing manufacturers have not, but they also are working toward better monitoring of the factory working conditions.  

I worry about the backlash this type of accident will have on consumers. Will they want to boycott clothing made in third world countries? Possibly, but is that the answer when the jobs are very much needed.  Can you imagine what would happen to the economy of an already fragile country, if all the garment factories closed. I think about the people who make the clothing I purchase and hope that they were fairly treated, at the same time knowing they were likely underpaid and likely working in crowded unsafe conditions. Unfortunately we are left without many options. Several of the news reports I listened to claimed that adding only a few dollars to the price of the garments we buy would entirely change the working conditions and wages if that money went directly to solving the problems.  Who wouldn't happily pay a little bit more to know that the garments were made in fair working conditions (like fair trade coffee). The problem of how to help the people working in the garment factories is on my mind.

The Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed has been helping with the rehabilitation of many of those injured in the collapse of the building (you can read more about it in this article put out by the World Health Organization).  Helping people with spinal cord and limb injuries is one of the things that CRP specializes in.  The rehabilitation of those injured in the accident has been on my mind.

Savar City Centre

Photo taken by me on the overpass in Savar

Collapsed building in Savar just down the street from the above photo (source)

Bangladesh is one of those places that elicit a complete range of emotions - it did when we were there and a tragic accident like the recent one brings all that to the fore again.  It seems so frivolous to talk about the Bangladeshi food I cooked after such a sobering topic, but nevertheless I wanted to share with you one of the the things we really enjoyed when we were in Bangladesh.   

Our favourite food in Bangladesh was aloo chop, which you can see in the photos below.  You can admire how they are supposed to look because as you will soon see mine didn't look quite as good.

The lovely woman who cooked our meals and helped us whenever we needed anything (like giant spiders being removed from our washroom)

I thought I would give making aloo chop a try when we got to Bangladesh in our world cooking.  Unfortunately they didn't work out as well as the original ones did.  You can see how difficult they were to make in the photo below.  I basically made a thick mashed potato, formed it into a cup shape, and filled it with a seasoned egg mixture.  I then added a bit more mashed potato to close the top.  It was easier said than done though as it was difficult to seal the egg inside the mashed potato. I then rolled the balls in bread crumbs and fried them in a pan to brown the outsides.

I'm not going to include a recipe as they were not the best things I've made.  I think the originals were fried in more oil than I used, which might have given them that nice even brownness.

I guess we will just have to go back to Bangladesh and taste some of the real ones.