Chiang Mai - Northern Thai food at Tong Tem Toh

One evening in Chiang Mai we ventured a bit outside of our normal old city stomping grounds to the Nimman district. The reason was to have dinner at Tong Tem Toh, a restaurant that specializes in Northern Thai food.



The setting was very nice, and the place was busy - which gave us a chance to peruse the menu as we waited for a table.



The heart of our dinner was a massive Northern Thai food sampler plate:



In the center are two bowls of Nam Prik - Thai chili dip. The one in front is Nam Prik Ong - made with minced pork, tomato and chili. The one behind it is Nam Prik Noom, which is primarily made from very hot roasted green chilies.

Both dips were very good with the provided veggies and pork rinds - we particularly enjoyed the green Nam Prik Noom.

Also on the plate was some Sai Oua sausage (which was better than the version we had tried earlier) and some Jeen Som Mok Kai - a fermented pork and egg mixture that we were not particularly fond of.

We also ordered Burmese pork curry:



It was absolutely delicious, as was a plate of grilled pork:



They were grilling this out front of the restaurant while we were waiting and the smell was irresistible, so we had to order some even though we ended up with too much food.

Overall it was a delicious and very interesting meal in a nice atmosphere.

Taco Shop Hot Sauce Recipe Revisited

We posted our original recipe for Taco Shop Hot Sauce almost three years ago, and since then I've been continuing to making it so that we always have it on hand.

Over the course of many, many repetitions, my technique has gradually changed. While the original recipe is perfectly fine, I now do a few things differently that I think both simplify and improve the process:

• I no longer make the chile paste separately unless I am using it for something other than hot sauce.
• I make a smaller batch size. The sauce can start going a bit weird after several weeks and making a smaller amount avoids having it last past its prime.
• I broil the tomato and the garlic now, rather than cooking them in a frying pan. It is easier and works just as well.

Here is the updated recipe. Go make some right now!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce

This makes enough to fill a small (8-ounce) squeeze bottle, with a bit left over.

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes (approx. 8 ounces)
4 garlic cloves (skin on)
Small handful (approx. 1/4 ounce) dried chile de arbol
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 pinches Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt


Use your fingers to break off the chile stems and break larger chiles into smaller pieces. Get out as many chile seeds as you can.

In a small frying pan over medium high heat, toast the chiles while constantly stirring them around until they darken but do not burn (about
5 minutes). If your stove has an exhaust fan, you may want to use it.

Place the toasted chiles in a large bowl, discarding any seeds that fell out during the cooking process. Microwave a cup of water for 2 minutes and pour it over the chiles. Place a small plate on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. Soak for about twenty minutes.

Score both the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes with an "X" to allow the skin to peel away easily.

Put the tomatoes and garlic on a sheet pan and put them in the oven on broil until the garlic softens and the tomato skin begins to blister (5-10 minutes). You may need to take the garlic out before the tomatoes.

After cooling for a few minutes until you can safely handle them, peel the skin off of both the tomatoes and garlic. Remove any hard center bits from the tomatoes.

Put the chiles and the garlic in a blender, along with about 1/4 cup of the chile soaking liquid and blend until it forms a smooth paste.

Add the tomato and vinegar and blend until everything is well mixed.

You may need to add more soaking liquid to reach the consistency you want. The amount of water will very greatly depending on how juicy your tomatoes are.

Add oregano and salt to taste, giving a quick blend to mix.

Food Photo Round-Up #2 - Part 2

We've been on a bit of a Korean food kick lately. Case in point above, Samgyeopsal - slices of grilled pork belly, painted with Korean chili paste and eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf with some sliced garlic.

And below, our take on Daeji Bulgogi - Korean spicy bbq pork:



We haven't been neglecting Mexican food, though. We recently did up a big batch of tamales:



When we make tamales, we do a variety of fillings. Sherry wraps them in different shapes so that we can tell which is which.

Keeping with the masa theme, here is our first go at making gorditas:



The key to a gordita is that the masa is thicker than a tortilla. When you fry it, it gets crispy on the outside, but still has a soft texture in the middle. These ones were filled with chorizo and cheese.

Rounding out the Mexican fare is a breakfast of Huevos Cubanos - eggs in saucy black beans with fried plantains and bacon:



We had this dish when we were in Veracruz, and finally got around to making it ourselves.

Not a picture of food, but the dining room at Misión 19 in Tijuana:



We went down for dinner with a group of like-minded folks and had a really great meal.

Turning to inspiration from across the pond, we recently made fondant potatoes for the first time:



A popular side dish in the UK that you rarely see on menus here, fondant potatoes get browned in olive oil and then get finished in the oven with the addition of stock and butter. The result is golden on the outside and tender on the inside.

Sherry was craving crêpes the other day, so she got out Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and found this Gâteau de Crêpes à la Florentine:



Rich and decadent. I love the way it feels to take a bite as your fork cuts through the many layers of crêpes.

And finally over to Spain for some gazpacho:



We had a record tomato harvest this year, and gazpacho is a great way to use them when they are ripe. We used to make gazpacho in the blender, but we've migrated to a more rustic, chunky version that we like a lot better.

Canned Tomatoes and Tomatillos

We ended up with way more tomatoes this summer than we could handle, so we had to do something with the overflow. We are perpetually out of freezer space, so canning seemed the most practical option.

Because our tomatoes had high enough acidity (we checked with a pH meter!), we didn't need to pressure can them - boiling was sufficient. We gave them a quick roast under the broiler first so that the skins could be easily removed.

After it was all said and done, we ended up with 29 pints (mostly red, but a few jars of green zebras):



We also did up a bunch of tomatillos the same way - resulting in a nice little pallet of 1-cup jars:



I think we're set for the winter!

Fried Green Tomato BLT - The "BLFGT"

I am happy to present to you the Menu In Progress House "BLFGT" (Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Green Tomato) sandwich. Home-cured bacon, homemade sandwich bread and lettuce and tomatoes from the garden.

Having produced prolifically for the past several months, our initial planting of tomatoes is winding down, and Sherry has started pulling out some of the plants. We had some green tomatoes still on the vine, so fried green tomatoes seemed in order.



In addition to the Early Girl tomatoes from the plant we pulled out, we picked a few unripe Green Zebra tomatoes to add to the mix.



You fry up the bacon:



Bread the tomatoes in flour, beaten egg and cornmeal and fry them up in the bacon fat:





Toast some white bread:



And make yourself a sandwich.



Serve with a homemade zesty dill pickle and you are good to go.

Tomato Season is Offcially ON!

Our summer garden is a forest of tomato plants, and they are now producing more tomatoes than we can eat (which is saying something, because we eat a lot of tomatoes).

If we keep getting production like this, we're going to need to look into canning some. I'm thinking I'll quickly roast or blanch them, peel them and just can them whole.

Come winter, it will be nice to be able to pull a jar of our own tomatoes from the pantry shelf to use to make a batch of pasta sauce.

For now, though, we're doing our best to keep up with the influx of fruit.



That means eating lots of tomato-centric dishes like gazpacho. No complaints here...

The PPLT - Pulled Pork, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich

We invented a new sandwich last night, and it is awesome! I proudly present the "PPLT" - a pulled pork, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

The PPLT has everything I love about a BLT - smokey pork goodness, fresh produce and crunchy toasted bread. This one was made with leftovers from our last batch of smoked pork butt, homemade sandwich bread, lettuce from the garden and farmers' market tomatoes (we have a bunch of seedlings planted, but it will be a while yet before we have our own tomatoes).

We crisped up some of the darker outside bits of pork and left other bits soft and succulent. The result was heaven between two slices of bread. This may just be my new favorite sandwich.

Homemade Mozzarella with Garden-Fresh Tomatoes and Marjoram

Even though we didn't get started on our garden plot until early September, we still wanted to give tomatoes a shot. We planted some varieties known to tolerate colder weather (Early Girl, Siletz, Glacier) , and were lucky to get some help from late season warm weather.

While we haven't gotten a ton of tomatoes, the ones we have are very tasty. Yesterday, Sherry made up a batch of fresh mozzarella to enjoy with some of them. We didn't have any basil on hand, so we picked some sprigs of marjoram from our patio.



Sherry has had trouble making mozzarella in the past, but this batch came out perfectly. It is really easy to make (when it works). If you are interested in giving it a try, stop by our friends' new cheese and wine making shop, Curds and Wine when it opens this Thursday and get yourself some cheese making supplies.

Oven-Dried Grape Tomatoes - And a Hummus Recipe

We love grape tomatoes. They are great in salads, with bread and cheese or just as a quick snack. They often taste great at times of the year when larger tomatoes are lacking flavor. And, perhaps most importantly, they are practical for growing on our patio.

A problem with tomatoes, large or small, is that they are feast or famine. You spend weeks and weeks looking at your tomato plants, willing for them to ripen. Then, suddenly they do - all at once. When we have an excess of larger tomatoes, we make hot sauce. When we have too many of the little guys, though, we have taken to oven-drying them.



It's pretty simple, really.

Slice them in half and arrange them cut-side-up on a sheet pan that's been lightly anointed with olive oil. Put them in an oven at a very low heat for 6 to 8 hours, or until they've shriveled, but aren't dry and hard.

"Low heat" can be tricky - we use our smaller, warming oven set to about 120 degrees. If you have a toaster oven, you can definitely use that. In a regular oven, just set it to its lowest setting and check after 3 to 4 hours.



Once much of the moisture has been released, we pack the tomato "raisins" into jars and cover them completely in olive oil. Stored this way they will keep for months in the refrigerator (just be sure to keep the tomatoes submerged in oil as you use them).



You can use these tomatoes just like you would any store-bought "sun"-dried tomatoes. Recently we have really enjoyed them as an accent flavor for hummus.



Hummus may just be the most perfect spread ever invented. The next time you find yourself reaching for that tired jar of miracle whip, whip up a batch of hummus instead.

Hummus with Oven-Dried Tomatoes

This is our go-to hummus recipe with the bonus addition of the tomatoes and hot sauce. We like it on the bright, acidic side. If that isn't your preference, you may want to reduce the lemon juice and/or up the amount of tahini.

1/2 garlic clove
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 tablespoon tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons Oven-Dried Tomatoes
1 tablespoon Taco Shop Hot Sauce


Put garlic into the food processor and pulse to mince. Add drained chickpeas and pulse again.

Scrape down sides of bowl and add tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, tomatoes and hot sauce. Blend until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Taste and supplement any of the ingredients if needed.

Taco Shop Hot Sauce

Update: A revised recipe is available here. There is nothing at all wrong with this recipe, but the updated version is simpler to make.

The ubiquitous to-go hot sauce container above will be immediately familiar to anyone who lives in an area where taco shops ply their trade. Every place has their own sauce, and while they share a lot in common, each version is a little bit different. This one, however, is not from just any taco shop - it is our own house hot sauce.

If you've been following our blog since 2007 (which you haven't, because nobody was following our blog in 2007...), you may know that we've made hot sauce in the past. But that wasn't taco shop hot sauce - it was more of a Louisiana-style pepper sauce (think Tabasco). Taco shop hot sauce is a different animal entirely. Less vinegar flavor, more chile depth.

In coming up with a hot sauce recipe, I had a few goals in mind:

• Keep it pretty easy to make. Because I'm lazy.
• Get bold, but clean flavors - deep, but not overcomplicated.
• Make it plenty hot, but not so hot that you can't slather on a bunch without completely burning your face off.

Hot sauce was the main reason I started making the chile de arbol paste I posted about a while back - it provides the backbone for my recipe. If you have a batch of that chile paste on hand (and you should), making my hot sauce is easy.

Here is what I do. I take some tomatoes and cloves of garlic (with the skin still on) and toss them into a medium-hot frying pan:



You could probably do this with a pan in the oven, but I'm a stove-top guy. I like to see what's going on and poke and prod. I move things around every so often so they don't just cook on one side.



Once they are nicely charred and getting soft, I take them out to cool (the garlic usually is done earlier than the tomatoes). Let them cool enough to be able to peel them with your fingers without burning yourself. The garlic should pretty much pop out of its skin and the tomato skin should come off easily (and don't worry about getting every last bit off).



Then it is into a blender with some red wine vinegar, Mexican oregano, salt and enough water to loosen it up a bit.

Despite the posed picture at the top of this post, we put our hot sauce into a squeeze bottle for easy delivery. And deliver it we definitely do - we've been going through a ton of the stuff. Particularly at breakfast...



In addition to being great on a breakfast quesadilla, or in a taco, it also works well in other situations. We use it as a base for a killer ranchero sauce (and have also been known to just use it straight-up for that purpose), a little bit of it makes an awesome guacamole even awesomer, and it adds a perfect final touch to a ceviche.

When making hot sauce I've mostly been winging it with the exact quantities (and I encourage you to do the same). I did pay attention the last few times I whipped up a batch, though, so the following recipe is pretty representative of what I do on average.

Taco Shop Hot Sauce

1 pound tomatoes
4 garlic cloves (skin on)
2 tablespoons chile de arbol paste
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/4-1/2 cup water
2 pinches Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Put the tomatoes and garlic in a medium-hot frying pan and cook them for 15 to 20 minutes - until they get soft and are charred on the outside.

After cooling for a few minutes until you can safely handle them, peel the skin off of both the tomato and garlic. Remove any hard center bits from the tomatoes.

Add the tomato and garlic to a blender with the chile paste and vinegar and blend until very smooth.

Add water gradually to reach the consistency you want. The amount of water will very greatly depending on how juicy your tomatoes are.

Add oregano and salt to taste.

Spaghetti With Tomato Salsa Cruda

So Sherry is out of town for a couple of days and I'm on my own.

It feels very strange pulling out just a single glass from the cupboard.

It feels even stranger being completely responsible for dinner!

In case you haven't guessed already by reading previous posts of ours, while I may be the source of much of the inspiration for what we do, Sherry is very much in charge when it comes to the execution.

Last night, being temporarily responsible for both the inspiration *and* the execution, it was all on me to figure out what to make for dinner. It needed to be heavy on the inspiration, while at the same time being easy on the execution. I went with a simple, summer-focused tomato pasta dish based on ideas I got from this thread on eGullet. It isn't so much a recipe as it is a simple process and a state of mind.

While making breakfast, I also chopped up a few cloves of garlic (four, I think). I put the garlic in a medium-sized bowl and generously covered it with extra virgin olive oil. Don't hold back on the olive oil, since that is the only fat in the dish and we want the richness that it provides.



If that looks like a lot of garlic to you, have no fear - it mellows nicely. If you aren't a big garlic fan, I guess you could use less. Or just make a different dish...

The olive-oil-covered garlic just sits at room temperature on the kitchen counter for the day - the flavor of the garlic slowly leaching out into the oil.

A few hours before I wanted to have dinner, I diced up a couple of good-sized tomatoes (around 10oz, total) and popped them into the garlic oil. I added a few generous pinches of kosher salt, gave it a quick stir, and then left it alone for a while longer.



After a few hours with the odd stir now and then (and admittedly stealing bits of tomato "to make sure it tastes right") the mixture was transformed. The tomatoes softened and gave up much of their juices to mix with the oil to become a rich, fragrant sauce.



At this point, I admit that I could happily spoon this stuff into my mouth now and call it a day. I smells amazing and tasted event better. But, we need to control ourselves and do a bit more to pull the dish together.



Heat some water, salt it generously, grab some spaghetti (we keep ours in an Oban canister, don't you?) and toss it in to cook. And yes, "grab some" is the measurement. I told you in advance this wasn't really a recipe!



When the spaghetti is ready, drain it and mix it in the pasta pot with the tomato sauce. Serve it in a bowl and top it with a chiffonade of basil. What? You don't have a chiffonade of basil? Neither did I, but I quickly rectified the situation. I told you in advance this was more a state of mind than a recipe...

The result was exactly what I was looking for. Richness from the olive oil, pungent depth from the garlic, and drawn together perfectly by the essence of the tomato.



All in all, I think I did pretty well.

I'm still very much looking to having Sherry back tomorrow, though.

Pappa al Pomodoro - It's Still Summer In San Diego

Just a quick picture to counter all of the pumpkin and butternut squash posts out there that are trying to drag me unwillingly into fall. I'm not ready yet!

Recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.