A Timely Gift
A most unusual and timely gift arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It was a letter from my sister-in-law, Jane Derick, a lovely Canadian woman who is married to my older brother Steven. They live in Ottawa, and, being the genteel lady that she is, she still practices the rapidly-vanishing art of handwritten correspondence. She writes the most fascinating letters, filled with news of their artistic and musical activities, often accompanied by unexpected enclosures such as snippets of fabric, magazine clippings, and small handicrafts. I never know what trifles and delights I will find inside an envelope with Jane's handwriting on it.

Well...this time, it was a recipe for fatoosh, and a tiny packet of a powdered spice called sumac, which is widely used in Middle Eastern food. It's almost as if she'd tapped into my psyche. At the time she mailed the letter, she couldn't possibly have known that this month's menu would be Middle Eastern. I hadn't announced it yet. And after the Middle Eastern dinner I had at Pasha for Rene's birthday, I was most curious to investigate this newly-discovered spice called 'sumac'.

As a child growing up in Alabama, I was deathly allergic to a wild plant called sumac, which grew in the woods that bordered our yard. It produces a rash, similar to that of poison ivy or poison oak, and I was forbidden to play in the woods, because every time I did, it meant a trip to the doctor for a pricey bottle of special lotion to soothe the itching. But despite my compliance with the edict set forth by my mother, we also discovered that I didn't even have to touch the sumac to have an allergic reaction to it. On my eighth birthday, I awoke with my face swollen up like a cherry pie because one of our neighbors had burned sumac clippings on their trash pile, and I had breathed the smoke from it. Yikes!

So when I saw 'sumac' listed as one of the spices on the menu at Pasha, I was naturally leery and didn't order any dishes that contained it. Nonetheless I was still curious, and with a little investigation on the Internet the following day, I learned that the sumac used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine is in no way related to the wild variety that I'm so allergic to.

So...with this month's Dinner & a Movie, I will get to try sumac at last. Thank you Jane.
01:06 AM PST Permalink |

A Dinner & a Movie Dilemma
As my friends and family are gradually becoming aware of my monthly Dinner & a Movie project, I've recently had inquiries as to who gets to come and enjoy my feasts and films. This has given me reason to consider when I'm finally going to start inviting guests other than Rene and my son Will to partake. I suppose the curiosity of my friends and family comes mainly from the fact that, in my e-mails and conversations with them, I often allude to the dishes I'm planning to serve, and sometimes I'm guilty of downright bragging once the dinners are done. So it's only a matter of time until I will have to 'put my money where my mouth is' and invite a few extra guests to my Dinner & a Movie.

Last month, in response to an e-mail with an alluring description of my Taiwanese 'Eat Drink Man Woman' dinner menu that I sent to Camie Bianchi, owner of Your Home... Nursing Services, a home health care agency, her reply was, "I'm coming for dinner!" A few days ago, Yvonne Baginski, publisher of a seniors' resources magazine called Born to Age, asked "Who gets to eat all that food?" And just today, my artist friend Michael Knigin e-mailed from the Hamptons to ask, "Why wasn't I invited???"

Although I would love to have had all of them as guests at my table, with all the unfamiliar cuisines I'm learning to prepare, alas...Here is how I answered: "You'll be first on my list when I get confidence enough to invite a few extra guests for Dinner & a Movie. At present, however, when things get cookin' in my kitchen on my Dinner & a Movie night, I'm usually just one bean sprout away from total insanity. Somehow I always manage to pull it off without pulling out my hair and ordering pizza delivery. But I'm not quite ready for anyone but Rene and and my son Will to see me like that. :>) And although the dishes almost always come out tasting as good as they look, and I always make it sound like a Swiss picnic in my weblog, don't believe a word of it. It's more like pandemonium in a pot. But I'm getting a little better at it each month, so... by next Spring, I might be brave enough to invite a couple of extra guests...Although I will probably have to put them to work in my kitchen!"
01:06 AM PST Permalink |

Looking for Recipes
I've got a feeling that finding authentic Iranian dishes is going to be somewhat of a challenge. Although I have a gorgeous cookbook called Mediterranean Cooking With Olive Oil, published by the International Olive Oil Council, with recipes from Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunesia, Turkey and Yugoslavia, none of the recipes are specific to Iran. And although it has served me well in most cases, I don't think the Joy of Cooking will be of much help this time. So, looks like I'm going to have to rely on the Internet, and the guidance of my friend Michael Alimusa, who owns a Middle Eastern restaurant here in Napa called Small World. I also found out that a mutual friend, Ali Rafiee, who is originally from Iran, has agreed to advise me on which dishes to serve.
12:35 PM PST Permalink |

My Middle Eastern Cooking Experience
I love Middle Eastern food. I love the way it tastes. I love the way it smells. I love shopping for all the exotic ingredients that go into it. And I love making it.

I was first introduced to the flavors of the Middle East by Abdel Albaroudi, from Syria, and Nazim Hakim from Lebanon. They were both waiters and dining room managers at the St. George Restaurant (now Tra Vigne), where I used to work in St. Helena, a small town in the heart of the Napa Valley. Business was always slow in the winter, so to amuse themselves and help pass the time on those long nights with no customers, they used to make some of their favorite Middle Eastern dishes. The chef, Paul Wiggins, was an agreeable fellow who always fed us well and never chased us out of his kitchen. So Abdel and Nazim used to make things like Fatoosh, and Falafel, and Tabouleh, and a Middle Eastern version of Steak Tartar. One bite and I was hooked.

Fast-forward ten years. I'm back in the Napa Valley after two years of teaching English in Tokyo, publishing a little free-press magazine called Pathways to Health. One of its features was a monthly restaurant review, and my very first candidate was the Small World Restaurant, a little falafel place a few blocks from my house. When I went in to try the food and interview the owner, Michael Alimusa, we became instant friends. And although I have long since ceased publishing the magazine, I still design all his flyers, menus, business cards and newspaper ads. And whenever I drop by with the finished goods, he always feeds me and sits down with me for a nice long chat. He is from Nazareth, Israel, where his father once owned a restaurant. Needless to say, Small World serves some of the best Middle Eastern food this side of the River Jordan. His menu includes three different kinds of Falafel, as well as Hummus, Baba Gunoosh, Tri-Tip Schwarma, Lamb Gyros, Mediterranean Salads, and honey-golden, melt-in-your-mouth-and-turn-your-knees-to-water Baklava for dessert. And everything he serves either comes in or with warm, doughy pita bread. So...I've asked Michael to be my culinary mentor for this month's Children of Heaven dinner.

In my own kitchen, I often make Fatoosh, although my recipe deviates somewhat in its presentation. Instead of serving it like a salad, I leave out the lettuce and serve it with pita wedges. Sort of like Middle Eastern chips and salsa. I also make Middle Eastern lamb and rice dishes from time to time, and I've even tried my hand at homemade pita bread. On rare occasions, it comes out perfect. But more often, it's a disappointment, if not a downright disaster. When it comes to my flatbreads, I'm reminded of a passage from Illusions, one of my favorite books by Richard Bach, in which Donald Shimoda describes the panbread Richard makes over his campfire. "It's sort of like...a fire...after a flood...in a flourmill, don't you think?" So I'm definitely hoping that Michael will help me get it right this time.
02:57 AM PST Permalink |

November's Dinner & a Movie
Welcome to ThingsAsian Dinner & a Movie for the month of November. This month I have chosen a darling little Iranian film called Children of Heaven, and as a complement, will serve a variety of authentic Iranian dishes. I love all the flavors of the Middle East, and this film is one of the best in my video library. The story centers around two Iranian children, a brother and sister from a financially struggling family. When the boy loses his sister's only pair of shoes, they must secretly share his until he figures out a way to get a new pair for her. Such a simple plot, yet Children of Heaven is one of the most endearing films I've ever seen. I can't wait to watch it again, this time with all the flavors of Iran to go with it.
02:54 AM PST Permalink |

Halloween Plans
Every year, Rene and his sister's boyfriend David decorate their house for Halloween, and every year, it gets more elaborate. This year, it's done up like a Medieval castle with a draw bridge and a steaming dragon on the roof. Inside, there will be lots of props like mummies & ghouls popping out from unexpected places. They really go all out. Rene is always a little unsettled when the Six Flags season finishes at the end of the summer, so this project gives him something constructive and fun to do with his free days. Six Flags is still open on weekends, but he has lots of time in between. He hates to be idle and always loves a creative project. So he really throws himself into the Halloween decorations. And every year, it's more impressive than the last.

I've been so busy with work these past few weeks that I've hardly had time to consider my own Halloween costume. I spent all day last Saturday helping my son Will to costume himself as Miroku, his favorite Inuyasha anime character. For myself, I'm going 'Goth', which means I'm just going to put together lots of elegant black garments and accessories, with no specific character in mind. Although I always feel somewhat ridiculous in costume, I've had fun with it in years past. Last year, I went dressed as Frida Kahlo, and the year before that, as a Japanese geisha.
02:37 AM PST Permalink |

Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
For the month of November, I have chosen a darling little Iranian film called Children of Heaven, which I've already seen twice, and a Middle Eastern menu to accompany it. Although I often make fatoosh, and have even tried my hand at homemade pita bread, I've never made Iranian food, per se, so it will definitely be an interesting culinary adventure to focus on Iranian culture and cuisine.
01:06 AM PDT Permalink |

Looking Ahead to Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
ThingsAsian has recently added all the countries in the Middle East to its list of destinations, which means I get to venture into the delicious and exotic world of Middle Eastern cuisine. All those rich spices and hearty recipes will be perfect for the cool November weather. And since my Dinner & a Movie will coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which is always a big food fest with Rene's family, the Middle Eastern menu will be a nice departure from all the leftover turkey & stuffing.
03:05 AM PDT Permalink |

Collecting Recipes
Although I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, I have been collecting them for years. I have recipes jotted down on cocktail napkins from the old St. George Restaurant (now Tra Vigne) in St. Helena, where I used to work. I have lots of Mexican recipes that Rene's mother Jovita uses to make his favorite dishes. I have a whole binder of recipes printed from Internet websites. And somewhere in my collection, I have a fantastic barbeque sauce recipe, handwritten on a piece of official White House stationery.

Oddly enough, I don't have any of my mother's favorite recipes anywhere except in my head. In fact, I don't even think they're written down anywhere. My mother never was much of a 'gourmet cook', but she made the best chicken pie on the planet. Other family favorites were pot roast with brown gravy, Southern fried chicken, beef stew, meatloaf, pork chops, spaghetti with meat sauce, seafood gumbo, crab omelets, apple pie, peach cobbler, and the lightest, fluffiest buttermilk biscuits from the Mason-Dixon Line to the Gulf of Mexico. She made dinner for eight every night, and each week after church, we gathered around the dining room table for a big Sunday dinner. She always made a huge turkey filled with moist and savory stuffing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. During the holidays, our kitchen was transformed into a Christmas goodies assembly line that turned out countless dozens of divinity and praline candies, butter balls, spicy cheese straws, and homemade Chex mix. And my mother made a four-layer coconut-pineapple cake for my dad's boss every year that was absolute heaven. So I guess that's where I get my love of cooking, although I also learned a lot working in the restaurant business. I was always hanging around the kitchen, observing the chefs and pestering them with questions.

It's easy to tell which are the favorite recipes in my cookbooks. They just naturally fall open to those pages, most of which are splattered and stained with the ingredients that go into that dish. Among the most obvious are the recipe for a delightful little cheese puff called Gougere in my Silver Palate Cookbook, the recipes for Basic Sushi Rice and one for Stuffed Pickled Cucumbers in The Cooking of Japan; and the page with the Spinach Timbale recipe in my original copy of The Joy of Cooking is a dead giveaway too.

I have recently added two daily recipe features and two food blogs to my Yahoo home page. Last Saturday's Epicurious Recipe of the Day was one for Empanadas. Of course, as usual, I ad libbed a bit and made them with ground beef instead of chorizo, corn niblets instead of potatoes, and tomato-jalapeno salsa instead of bell peppers. The result was a dozen tasty little meat tarts in a flaky, golden pie crust. Yum! They disappeared faster than you can say 'Epicurous.com'.

And now that I'm doing Dinner & a Movie, I'm adding a half-dozen new recipes from various sources to my collection every month. No doubt some of them will become favorites that I will make over and over again. Among the most memorable so far are the recipe for Prawns with Kimchee and Chili Mayonnaise, and the Peaches Marinated in Rice Wine that I made for my Korean 301/302 dinner... the Chicken and Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce, and the Coconut Shrimp that I made last month for my Thai Suriyothai dinner... the Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Nam Cha Dipping Sauce, the Green Papaya Salad with Cellophane Noodles and Hanoi Fried Yellow Fish Nuggets, and the Grilled Pork with Chinese Five Spice Powder that I made for my Scent of Green Papaya dinner... the homemade chutneys and Mulligatawny Soup I made for my Monsoon Wedding Indian Curry dinner... the Buckwheat Soba with Ponzu sauce that I made for my Tampopo Japanese dinner... the Shrimp and Water Chestnut Croquettes, the Hot and Sour Soup, and the Baked Tilapia from my Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese dinner. And I have no doubt that many of the recipes from my upcoming dinners will make it to my 'All Star' list as well.
12:10 AM PDT Permalink |

The Changing Face of My Spice Rack
Last week, before my Taiwanese Dinner & a Movie, I gave my kitchen a very thorough cleaning, which included wiping all the jars in my spice rack. I couldn't help noticing how it has changed over the past few months as I have added new spices for each Asian cuisine. Where I used to stock only salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, cumin, paprika, bay leaves, cinnamon, a generic curry powder, cayenne pepper, chinese mustard, and powdered ginger, I have now added such exotica as garam masala, sumac, cardamom, turmeric, corriander, Chinese Five Spice powder, five different kinds of curry powder, and whole cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon sticks. And with trying a new Asian cuisine every month, I don't know that I will ever go back and use them all up, however, since many Asian cuisines have spices and other ingredients in common, my array of exotic new spices may do double duty in many meals yet to come.
12:13 AM PDT Permalink |

'Eat Drink Man Woman' Film Review

Ang Lee's 'Eat Drink Man Woman' was yet another cinematic and culinary delight. Here's a link to my Film Review.

12:00 AM PDT Permalink |

Recipes & Photos
My Taiwanese 'Eat Drink Man Woman' Dinner & a Movie exceeded all my expectations. The meal was one of the easiest and tastiest I've ever prepared, and the film was a delight. I served Shrimp & Water Chestnut Croquettes, Hot & Sour Soup, Baked Whole Tilapia Fish with Chinese Chili Sauce, Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Vegetables, Shrimp in Spicy Sauce, San Pei Chicken, and Taiwan Fried Rice.

Here is a link to all the Recipes and Photos.

12:01 AM PDT Permalink |

A Tally of the Cost of Dinner
The cost of the ingredients for my 'Eat Drink Man Woman' Taiwanese dinner are listed below. Keep in mind that the prices are based on buying everything new rather than using ingredients 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 Taiwanese cuisine.

Specialty Ingredients:

Chinese 5-Spice Powder - 1.79
Sesame Oil - 1.99
Dried Shitake Mushrooms - 2.49
Bamboo Shoots - .99
Water Chestnuts - .99
Rice Wine - 3.79
Rice Wine Vinegar - 2.29
Chili Paste - 1.69
Panko Bread Crumbs - 2.99
Tsingtao Beer - $6.99

Fresh Ingredients:

Ginger Root - .93
Onion - 1.01
Scalliions - .59
Whole White Fish - 1.76
Shrimp (2 lbs) - 9.96
Garlic - .56
Ham - 1.29
Bok Choy - 1.19
Celery - 1.29
Pineapple - 1.00
Green Peas - 1.79
Carrots - .56

Basics:

White Vinegar - 1.19
Soy Sauce - 2.99
Cooking Oil - 2.49
Corn Starch - .99
Eggs - 1.79
Sugar-1.19
Rice - 1.99

Total - $60.56 U.S.

02:32 AM PDT Permalink |

Tasty Leftovers
The leftovers from my Taiwanese dinner were almost as delicious as they were the night before...and plenty of 'em. Since Will couldn't be with us on Dinner & a Movie night, I made sure to save him a little of everything. He's in two choral groups at Vintage High: a small Men's Choir, and a large Concert Choir. On the evenings he has a performance, he gets all dressed up in a handsome tuxedo, and I always like to serve him a light meal before the show. So he enjoyed a tasty Taiwanese dinner before last night's performance. And after the show, when Rene and I got home, we had an encore of last night's meal as well. Everything warmed up just fine, and it was a welcome treat after an evening of beautiful choral music.
12:55 PM PDT Permalink |

My Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese Dinner... How Everything Turned Out
Last night's dinner was smooth as silk. All the prep work I did the night before went a long way toward making yesterday's cooking tasks a breeze. However, it still took me all day in the kitchen to get it on the table by eight.

The Shrimp & Water Chestnut croquettes were definitely my favorite. I rolled them in panko bread crumbs and they fried up crispy and golden. As an added bonus, I ended up with a dozen pork dumplings, which were originally intended for the Hot & Sour Soup. But the soup had enough other ingredients that it didn't need dumplings, so I baked them in the oven and they turned out crispy and savory. Both were so tasty that they didn't even need the Hoisin Sauce I served with them. The Hot & Sour Soup turned out just as I'd envisioned (minus the dumplings). Rene loved it.

The San Pei Chicken was an unexpected success. For such a simple recipe, it was one of the tastiest dishes on the table. All it took to prepare were two chicken leg quarters and equal parts of sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine, simmered for 6 hours in the crock pot the night before. To prepare for serving, I thickened the sauce with a little cornstarch in a saucepan on the stove, and baked the chicken legs in the oven for half an hour. The sauce made a lovely brown glaze with a surprisingly complex flavor.

The Pork Stir-Fry with Chinese Vegetables was perfect. The sauce was velvety and delicious, and the vegetables were cooked just right. It was a nice complement to the Fried Rice, which included diced ham, pineapple, carrots, peas, scallions, garlic and ginger.

The baked Tilapia fish with Chinese Chili Sauce was another success. I'd never baked a whole fish before, so it was a new culinary experience for me. The fish was moist, tender and flavorful, and the sauce was translucent, slightly sweet and spicy. It was another dish that Rene especially enjoyed.

The Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry was also tasty, but it wasn't extraordiinary. I had hoped that it would be more crispy, however, the recipe called for 3/4 cup of stock, so it was much more saucy than I'd envisioned. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Needless to say, with all that food, we didn't make it to the Lychee Fruits and Pineapple in Rice Wine that I'd planned for dessert. But they will keep until another evening when we're not so overstuffed.

Amazingly, I managed to keep the dishes done throughout the meal preparation, so my kitchen wasn't a disaster area. Tidying up and putting away the leftovers was quick and easy, and the rest of the clean-up was not a huge chore today.

We also enjoyed the film Eat Drink Man Woman. Of course, we'd already seen Tortilla Soup, which is a Latino version of the same screenplay by director Ang Lee, so we were familiar with the plot. We're undecided as to which one we liked better, so we're going to watch Tortilla Soup again this evening.

All things considered, my Eat Drink Man Woman Taiwanese dinner was one of the easiest and tastiest Dinner & a Movie projects to date. So be sure to check back in the next couple of days for my photos, recipes and film review.
03:22 AM PDT Permalink |