Conference turris::cooks

1682.0. "Madhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern Cookery" by HAMPS::PHILPOTT_I (Col. Philpott is back in action...) Wed Mar 22 1989 11:35

    I mentioned in the Spring Roll note that Madhur Jaffrey has just
    produced another cookery book, this time entitled "Far Eastern Cookery"
    
    It is ISBN 0 563 21364 7 (paperback) and 0 563 21365 5 (hardback),
    and is published in England by BBC publications. You may be able
    to find it in the US...
    
    It covers the cuisine of 8 areas in the Far East: Hong Kong,
    Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan.
    There is an eight episode TV series to go with it that may show
    up on PBS TV in the states I guess. 
    
    So far my wife and I have tried about a quarter of the non-Thai
    dishes in the book, with mixed feelings. By and large looking at
    the Thai recipes, Ann feels that the spice content has been toned
    down somewhat to cater for blander western palates. Also a few of
    the recipes include expensive ingredients that had my wife remarking
    that the recipes were 'gedat' (literally 'show off') - this may
    have some substantial basis since the TV series shows Madhur Jaffrey
    eating the food the book describes in some very upper-class homes
    (eg in Thailand she visited a university professor and a Royal
    Prince...) That said the book makes interesting reading.
                                                            
    The following are some of the Thai recipes that I have not already entered
    a variant of... Now if you'd like a couple of these entered to give
    you an idea of whether you should make the effort to find the book,
    then please reply here saying which one[s] you'd like to see, and
    I'll try to find the time to enter them (slow transatlantic links
    not-withstanding).
    
    Chicken, Prawn and fruit salad		Yam Polamai
    Thai Pork Curry in a Burmese (*) style	Kaeng Hanglay
    Easy Beef curry				Kaeng Phet Nua
    Chicken with garlic & black pepper		Kai Tod Kratium Priktai
    Squid Salad					Tam Pla Muk
    poached fish				Kaeng Som
    Fish steamed with lemon grass		Tom Som Pla
    stir fried pork, chillies & beans		Moo Pad Prik Sai Tua Fak Yao
    'Flying greens'				Pak Bung Loy Fa
    Spinach with garlic				Pad Pak Bung
    Coconut milk custard			Sankhaya

    If you want one of these, please reply here and I'll try to find
    time to enter it...
    
    /. Ian .\

    
     If you've never tried Far eastern cookery (like me) and would like to
    experiment, in addition to Ian's recipies from the book, FOOD &
    WINE magazine just happens to feature Vietnamese cookery in it's
    April issue.  It has  illustrsted recipies for such things as
    Spring rolls, Gingered cucumber, stuffed chicken wings to name a
    few.  You can get it from most magazine racks. 
    
    I will be looking forward to some of the requested postings, though
    I admit I've never done much Far Eastern cooking -- some of the
    photographs of the dishes look not only nutritional but really
    exquisite! 
    
    Thanks Ian 
    Nancy N

    
    OK: first the soup...
    
    The taste of lime is provided by bai ma-gkroot (kaffir lime leaves)
    and lemon grass, these may be obtained either fresh or dried from 
    Indo-Chinese grocers (try either Phnom Penh, or South-East Asian 
    Import-Export both in the center of Lowell). If you can't get them 
    then use lime zest.
    
    The quantity of liquid (chicken stock plus coconut milk) should
    be 2 cups in total, but feel free to adjust the balance to make
    the soup thicker or thinner to suit your taste.
                        
    Galanga is a relative of ginger. If you can't get galanga then use
    about half the amount of ginger.
    
    The chili is optional, and the amount should be to taste :-)
    
                                 Ingredients
    
    1 cup	coconut milk
    1 cup	chicken stock (or water)
    1 cup	sliced chicken meat (or shrimps)
    		lemon grass
    1"-2"	fresh Galanga 
    2		bai ma-gkroot (kaffir lime leaves)
    1 T		fish sauce
    1 T		lime juice
    pinch	sugar
    1 t		msg (highly optional)
    1 T		thinly sliced red and green chilis
    
                                    Method
    
    Bring stock to boil and stir in coconut milk. Simmer. (if you want
    the msg add it now). Add lemon grass (take about 12" of lemon grass,
    trimming  off and discarding the straw like ends first, then chop
    into pieces about 2" long), bai ma-gkroot, galanga (sliced very
    thin if fresh galanga is used). Bring back to a simmer, and stir
    occasionally for ~5 minutes.
    
    Add chicken (or shrimp). When chicken is cooked through add remaining
    ingredients and stir for ~2 minutes.
    
    Serves 1-2 people
    
    /. Ian and Ann .\