My Japanese Cookbooks
This evening, I raided my bookshelves looking for all my Japanese cookbooks. I didn't realize I had so many. As a basic bible, the Essentials of Asian Cuisine by Corinne Trang should serve me well again this time. I also have a vintage Time Life Book called The Cooking of Japan. It's got recipes for all the classics and lots of excellent photos. I have two Periplus Mini Cookbooks called Homestyle Japanese Cooking, and Quick & Easy Sushi and Sashimi. And then there's a lovely little one calle A Gift of Japanese Cooking by Mifune Tsuji. I also picked up a funky one at the Friends of the Library Sale last month. It's called Japanese Country Cookbook, by Russ Rudzinski. It was published in 1969 and its pages are printed on brown paper stock with wonderful pen and ink illustrations. I haven't prepared any of the recipes from it yet, but I may just give it a try this time. Believe it or not, The Joy of Cooking also has quite a few Japanese recipes. And just in case I run into any unfamiliar ingredients in the process, I have The Asian Grocery Demystified standing by. Of course, if I don't find what I'm looking for in all those books, there's always the Internet.

I am already so familiar with cooking Japanese food that I hardly need recipes anymore. But this time, I really want to try some new dishes, so I'm going to have to get my inspiration somewhere...and that's going to take a little research.
12:01 AM PDT Permalink |

My Japanese Cooking Experience
I lived for two years in Tokyo, and although I already had an abiding love of all things Japanese, especially the food, while I was there, oddly enough I missed the comfort foods of home, such as macaroni and cheese and Campbell's tomato soup, and also my favorite California nouvelle cuisine paired with luscious Napa Valley Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. My son Will is practically made of peanut butter & jelly and Wendy's salad bar, as those were the things I craved most when I was pregnant with him in Tokyo.

But since my return to the U.S., I just can't get enough of Japanese food. I cook something Japanese-style at least once a week in my own kitchen, whenever we eat out it's almost always at Sushi Mambo, our favorite neighborhood sushi bar, and every so often, I get the urge to put on a full-scale miso-shiru-to-green-tea-sorbet dinner...not to mention all the takeout sushi I consume on the fly. I sometimes wonder if I would ever tire of it if I ate Japanese food on a daily basis. After all, I also love Italian pasta, Arabic fatoosh, Indian curry, and hey, good old burgers and fries once in a while. But that's the beauty of ethnic food. Unlike lovers, nobody expects you to be faithful to just one :>)

I've been making Japanese dinners in my own kitchen for ten years now. Ever since I've been living on my own in Napa, I've made a Japanese birthday eve dinner for my son Will. He was born in Tokyo, and every year, because Japan is 16 or 17 hours ahead of California, depending on Daylight Savings Time, his actual Japanese birthday happens on the eve of his U.S. calendar birthday. So each year since then, I've been preparing a Japanese birthday eve feast for him (although sometimes we've been known to cheat and go to Benihana instead :>)

When I make a Japanese feast, I usually serve those spicy little sembei rice crackers for nibbles while I'm in the kitchen, and I serve up all the other dishes together, once they're done. A typical menu includes a tiny bay shrimp and cucumber salad dressed with rice wine vinegar, miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed, gyoza potstickers, yakisoba noodles, plain white rice, skewers of teriyaki chicken bits, and sushi maki filled with cucumber, avocado, and imitation crab. It's a very labor intensive dinner, but the results are always so worth it. And it always makes my son feel special on his Japanese birthday.

This time however, I want to expand my horizons, so I'm thinking of doing some seared fish for an appetizer, some more elaborate and elegant sushi combinations, perhaps a little sashimi with fresh daikon, and maybe even a hot-pot dish like shabu-shabu. I'm ravenous just thinking about it. Somebody hold me back, before I go banging on the door of Sushi Mambo after hours, demanding to be let in for an order of tekka maki!
12:10 AM PDT Permalink |

Welcome to ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie for the month of June
I’ve decided to go with both a familiar movie and a familiar cuisine this time, since this month is going to be a busy one. In addition to my ongoing writing projects, my son Will is finishing his freshman year of high school on the 3rd, and my birthday is June 15th.

So…I’m going to prepare a brunch of fresh fruit and French beignets to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation, and enjoy it with my son on Saturday afternoon while we watch to see if Smarty Jones wins the Belmont Stakes for the Triple Crown. And my sweetheart Rene has plans to steal me away to some undisclosed location to celebrate my birthday, so I will be playing hooky for a few days a little later in the month.

In the interim, I hope to put together a traditional yet innovative Japanese menu, shop for all the ingredients, prepare a feast for the eyes as well as for the palate, and spend an evening enjoying it while we watch Juzo Itami’s Tampopo, one of my very favorite Japanese films.
12:42 AM PDT Permalink |

Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
It's official: I've decided to prepare a Japanese dinner, paired with the Juzo Itami classic, Tampopo, one of the greatest food movies in the history of film. I've been preparing basic Japanese dishes in my own kitchen on a regular basis for more than 15 years now, so this time I want to try something new...something a little more challenging than California Rolls and Teriyaki Chicken. So, over the next few days, I'll be poking around in my many Japanese cookbooks, and scouring the Internet for some new recipes. I'm even thinking of going 'Pacific Rim' with some contemporary Asian-Fusion flavors. This is gonna be fun!
12:05 AM PDT Permalink |

Deciding on the Cuisine and Culture
After much deliberation, I have definitely decided to go Japanese. After all, it's my very favorite Asian culture and cuisine, and there are dozens of excellent film choices to inspire the event. One factor that swayed my decision is the fact that summer vacation is starting next week, which means that my son Will is going to be with me more frequently, and I'm celebrating a birthday during the month of June. So, I'll be a little preocupied with putting on an end-of-the-year celebration brunch with my son, not to mention a little overnight getaway with my sweetie for my birthday.

With all that in mind, I thought it more practical and prudent to keep the learning curve easy this time. So I'm going to go with a familiar cuisine, paired with one of my many favorite Japanese films. All that being said...I'll return tomorrow with my choice for next month's Dinner & a Movie.
12:17 AM PDT Permalink |

Possibilities...
With the bounty of last month's online shopping trip at AsianFoodGrocer.com, my pantry is full of enough basic ingredients to prepare food from almost any Asian culture. With the exception of an exotic spice or two, probably all I will need are the fresh ingredients. So...eenie, meenie, minee, mo: Pad Thai, Curry, Kung Pao, Pho? Time to dive into the cookbooks!
01:09 AM PDT Permalink |

Looking Ahead Toward Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
I've barely used up the leftovers of my Scent of Green Papaya dinner and my thoughts have already turned toward next month's Dinner & a Movie. And since this weblog project is still in its infancy, the possibilities are positively endless. The choice for the first Dinner & a Movie was such an easy one, since I'd never cooked Vietnamese food, and had never written a review of the Scent of Green Papaya. But now, I'm faced with the task of choosing a new cuisine and a new film for next month.

On the one hand, I'm tempted to go with a familiar favorite like Japan, along with a classic Kurosawa film. On the other hand, I'm equally tempted to go for another totally new experience, like Korean or Thai. Although I've tasted foods from both cultures, I've never attempted to prepare either cuisine in my own kitchen.

Hmmm...such a dilemma. I guess I've got some research and deciding to do, so I'm going to give myself a few days to look over my cookbooks and tune into what my tastebuds and viewing pleasure are craving.
12:07 AM PDT Permalink |

Using Up the Leftover Ingredients
The leftovers of my Scent of Green Papaya dinner were almost as delicious as they were the night before, but I still had lots of fresh ingredients remaining as well. There was mint, there were lots of fresh vegetables and plenty of the garlic-ginger jasmine rice. The Vietnamese dinner leftovers gave me a much welcome respite from cooking the next day, but once they were gone, I was ready for a change of cuisine. So I got back in the kitchen a couple of days later and made up a hearty batch of curry vegetable stew using the leftover carrots, onion, bell peppers, and coconut milk. I also made a variation on the Hanoi Yellow Fish Nuggets, using the remaining orange roughy filets, which I dredged in curry powder instead of plain turmeric. I served the stew and the curried fish nuggets over the remaining jasmine rice with a fantastic (and extremely economical) spicy mango chutney that I found at an online grocer called ishopindian.com. It was absolutely delicious.

While I was in the kitchen, I made up a batch of Arabic fatoosh (sort of like an Arabic salsa fresca) from the leftover mint, cucumbers, onions, and garlic, along with a few diced fresh tomatoes, and fresh parsley from my garden, mixed together and dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. After marinating the fatoosh in the fridge for a couple of days, I enjoyed it with chips made from wedges of lightly toasted pita bread. Yum!

It's amazing how the same suite of ingredients can be used to make such dramatically different dishes. It's all in the spice!
12:03 AM PDT Permalink |

The Grocery Bill for My Scent of Green Papaya Dinner (in $U.S.)
The cost of the ingredients for my Scent of Green Papaya Vietnamese dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using things that I already had in my pantry. Of course there were lots of things left over for future meals, so the actual cost of the dinner based on the quantities of the ingredients used to make the dishes will be much lower than the grand total of stocking a pantry from scratch for preparing Vietnamese cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:`
Nuoc mam (Asian fish sauce) – 3.49
Rice Paper Wrappers – 1.99
Chinese 5-Spice Powder – 1.79
Lemongrass - .99
Cellophane Noodles – 1.69
Jasmine Rice – 1.99
Tumeric - 2.79
Rice Wine Vinegar – 3.49
Sesame Oil – 2.99
Fish Broth – 1.39

Fresh Ingredients:
Papayas (Green & Ripe) –5.98
Limes – 1.00
Ginger Root - .99
Red & Green Bell Peppers – 1.49
Jalapeno Peppers - .29
Lettuce - .99
Bok Choy – 1.99
Baby Greens – 1.02
Cilantro - .49
Mint – 1.25
Scallions - .89
Carrots - .49
Cucumber – 1.79
Onions - .25
Shallot - .49
Garlic - .49
Mushrooms – 2.19
Shrimp - 2.40
Firm White Fish – 4.99
Pork Loin – 2.80

Wines:
Sutter Home 2002 Gewurtztraminer 5.99
Beringer Chenin Blanc 4.00

Basics: (Sugar, Cooking Oil, Eggs, Flour, Soy Sauce) 2.00

Total: $64.33

12:32 AM PDT Permalink |

Scent of Green Papaya Film Review

Loved it! Here's a link to the full review:

Film Review: Scent of Green Papaya.

12:09 AM PDT Permalink |

Scent of Green Papaya Dinner & a Movie Recipes and Photos

Here is a link to the recipes and photos for my Scent of Green Papaya dinner:

Scent of Green Papaya Dinner & a Movie Recipes & Photo Essay.

Bon Appetit!

01:40 AM PDT Permalink |

The Morning After: How Everything Turned Out
When I awoke this morning, the aromas from last night’s dinner still hung in the air…mint and cilantro, ginger and garlic, turmeric and nuoc mam. There were lots of leftovers too…spring rolls, soup, baby greens, cellophane noodles, spring vegetables, papaya relish and sorbet...a little of everything except the grilled pork. And there were plenty of leftover ingredients too, which I will be using to make an Indian fish curry, and a batch of Arabic fatoosh later in the week.

And now for the details of the dinner...

The cold summer rolls were delightful, with all the fresh raw ingredients, especially the mint. And despite my skepticism regarding my first experience cooking with nuoc mam, the nuoc cham dipping sauce was the star of the show. The fried spring rolls were another story however. Although they were quite tasty, they were a little greasy, and didn’t crisp up and brown as I’d hoped. I don’t know if it was because the filling had too much moisture or what. The oil was plenty hot, so I don’t think that was the problem, and since the rice paper wrappers are so delicate, I think that particular filling recipe would have been better suited for wonton skins.

The lemongrass consomme with the seafood dumplings was a nice surprise too. The lemongrass added an intensely redolent flavor element, and although they were labor intensive, the seafood dumplings were not only beautiful, but very tasty too.

The green papaya salad turned out beautifully, but after watching the film, I realized that my papaya was not really ‘green’, but was rather just a little under-ripe. Nevertheless, it was a good flavor to compliment the cellophane noodles and the baby greens. I had originally wanted to use watercress, and still think that would be the best choice, but watercress is hard to come by in Napa this time of year, and what little I was able to find was an odd variety that didn’t look anything like the watercress I know and love, and… it was way overpriced. So I chose baby greens instead, which were an excellent substitute. They provided a lovely balance of sweet and bitter, and one of the leafy varieties in the mix tasted just like rose petals. Finally, the Hanoi yellow fish nuggets turned out perfectly and looked so beautiful as the centerpiece of the salad. All the flavor components came together with the lime-mint-rice vinegar dressing for a light and lovely salad.

The pork loin was another unexpected success. For the marinade, I wrapped it in aluminum foil with some of the nuoc cham and dusted it with a whisper of Chinese five-spice powder. Never having used that particular seasoning before, I didn’t want to be too heavy-handed with it. The little bit that I used turned out to be just the right amount. And after much ado about the clay pot for cooking it, at the last minute, I chickened out and decided to grill it on my little George Foreman electric grill instead. Another wise choice. The outside turned a rich caramelized brown, while the inside was still ever so slightly pink, and the meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender. The only problem: there just wasn’t enough of it. We both could have gone for seconds.

I served the pork loin with jasmine rice seasoned with ginger and garlic, and a fresh papaya-chili-red pepper-mint relish…the perfect compliment for the rich, deep spice of the meat. And for the vegetable side dish, I lightly steamed a medley of baby bok choy, julienne carrots, snow peas and mushrooms, which I then tossed in the wok with a little nuoc mam and sesame oil.

For dessert, I served a light sorbet that I made from papaya-pineapple nectar, lime juice, ginger and mint essence, finished with a little coconut milk. Both flavor and texture were absolutely perfect, and I served it with slices of ripe papaya. It was a wonderful conclusion to one of the best meals I’ve ever prepared.

Tune in tomorrow for recipes...

01:45 AM PDT Permalink |

Dinner & a Movie Day
It’s the big day! The one I chose for cooking a Vietnamese dinner and watching The Scent of Green Papaya. I began preparations at about 4:00 in the afternoon, starting with the easy stuff like setting the table, getting out all my ingredients, making soup stock and marinating the pork. But I waited to begin cooking until Rene arrived at 7:00 with his digital camera, since I wanted him to get some shots of the process.

This being the first ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie, the timing was a little different from what I’m used to when I cook a regular dinner. Since I wanted photos, I postponed a lot of my prep work, so it was a little longer between courses. I’d estimated three hours from start to finish, but it ended up being more like five. So it was rather late when we finished eating and started the movie.

Nevertheless, dinner was delicious, and the film was absolutely delightful. Afterwards I still had some tidying up to do, but had I washed a few dishes throughout the evening, so the kitchen wasn’t a total disaster. The rest I will leave for tomorrow. It’s late, so I’m going to save the dinner review for tomorrow too.
12:02 AM PDT Permalink |

Preparing the kitchen, assembling cooking utensils, and prepping dishes ahead.
I spent most of the day getting my house ready for an all-day cooking, dining, movie-watching extravaganza. I wanted the kitchen sink and dish rack completely empty and the stove and countertops nice and clean when I begin cooking. I also hope to keep the dishes done on a continual basis throughout the evening tomorrow, so that I don’t have a giant mess to clean up the next day.

Tonight, I also prepared a couple of things ahead. I made a sweet and sour dipping sauce called nuoc cham. I made a papaya sorbet flavored with with pineapple, mint, ginger, lime and coconut milk. I also took all my frozen ingredients out of the freezer and stored them in the fridge to thaw overnight. But since so much of the dinner relies on the freshest ingredients, most of it will have to wait until tomorrow. I’ve devoted the whole day to cooking, so there’s plenty of time for marinating the pork and preparing the filling for the spring rolls.
12:02 AM PDT Permalink |

Shopping for fresh ingredients
I’m getting so excited about my Scent of Green Papaya dinner that I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to go shopping for my fresh ingredients. So I went today instead. Besides, I wanted to have all my ingredients available so that I could take a photograph of everything before I opened the packages and started chopping things up. I also wanted to prepare a few things ahead of time tomorrow, things like broths and marinades, and most importantly, my papaya-ginger-mint sorbet, so that it has plenty of time to freeze. When you add sugar to a liquid mixture, it takes a little longer than plain water to reach a semi-solid state in the freezer.

Yesterday, I made a call to Vallergas, a local grocery store that has the most extensive produce department, to inquire whether they carry lemongrass, as that is the ingredient that I anticipated being the hardest one to find. Fortunately, they keep it in stock all the time, and so that’s where I chose to shop for all my other fresh ingredients as well.

The produce department at Vallergas was fabulous as always, abundant and dazzling with vibrant color. The red and green bell peppers caught my eye from the front door, the mint and cilantro were both popping fresh, and the lemongrass had just been delivered this morning. I was definitely in the right place…except for the papayas. Although luscious and lovely, alas they were all far too ripe for my purposes. So, after I bought all my other fruits and vegetables, I headed for my favorite Mexican market, where I was told I might find the elusive green papaya. However, the ones they had in stock were unripe, but they were enormous and looked nothing like any papaya I’d ever seen, so I was hesitant to buy one there. The third stop at my neighborhood grocer proved the charm, as they had both ripe and green papayas in stock, and at the best price in town too. So after shopping at three different stores, I had finally gathered all the pieces of the puzzle.

When I got home, I unpacked all my groceries and set up a still life with all the fresh, canned and packaged ingredients that I’ve been assembling over the past couple of weeks. But when I got out my digital camera to photograph them, I discovered that the batteries were kaput, and my teenaged son Will had absconded with all my extra rechargeables for his gameboy and walkman. Fortunately for me, at that very moment, René, my sweetheart showed up unexpectedly, and just happened to have his digital camera with him. He took a fantastic photo of all my goodies and also agreed to arrive early on the day of our dinner to take more photos of the preparation and cooking process. What a guy!
12:02 AM PDT Permalink |