photo: marjorie o'brien
Results tagged “nomuse.com” from NoMuse
Prep time: 30 minutes
Total time: About 2 hours
Makes: about 5 servings
1 can coconut cream
1 can light coconut milk
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 pork steaks
1 tablespoon Splenda
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 cup cashews
In a heavy soup pot, heat the coconut cream and coconut milk until glistening and fragrent. Add 1/4 cup curry paste, mix well, and allow to simmer.
Rinse and dry pork steaks. Trim visible fat and slice thinly. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and stir fry the pork slices with 2 tablespoons of red curry paste until the pork is well coated and even seared. Add the pork mixture, carrots, Splenda, and cashews to the coconut curry mixture. Simmer covered for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. Serve hot over brown rice.
This variation has only a passing resemblance to the original recipe for red beef curry, but it was quick, easy, tasty, and used what I had in stock.
Derived from "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: About 1 hour, 15 minutes
Makes: about 12 cups stock
14 cups water
2 leeks, sliced
2 bunches of scallions, sliced
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
10 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
12 whole peppercorns
3 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and sliced
1 bunch parsely
1 bunch cilantro
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
Wash vegetables. Combine ingredients in stock pot. Bring to boil on high heat. Cover. Reduce heat to simmer for about 45 minutes. Strain stock and press vegetables for extra liquid. Discard vegetables or pulp for use as a thickener for soup.
Refrigerate for 4-5 days. Freeze for up to 6 months.
Derived from "Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special."
Several years ago, while working for a company in Orem, Utah, I was taken to the Thai Chili Garden for my first exposure to thai food. I started with Pad Thai and quickly worked my way into Spicey Pad Ped before taking the plunge into thai curries. I fell quite in love with mussamun curry. I queried the proprietors for their recipe without success and I googled for potential recipes as well. I finally found a recipe which looked promising.
After investing well over $50 in exotic ingredients and spending several hours grinding whole spices by hand with a mortar and pestle, I rustled up the worst approximation of mussamun imaginable and terminated my efforts to make this thai dish at home.
Then, a few months ago, Nancie McDermott's "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
The mussamun was exquisite. It is also labor intensive and I better understand why it is a special occasion curry in Thailand.
Do to my lifestyle changes earlier this year, I've had to make adjustments to the recipes from Real Thai. I've noted the omissions and substitutions at the end of each of the applicable recipes linked below.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Total time: About 2 hours
Makes: about 10 servings
5 cups light coconut milk
2 pounds pork steak cut into small pieces
1 cup coconut cream
1/3 cup mussamun curry paste
2 tablespoons Splenda
3 tablespoons tamarind liquid
12 whole cardamom pods
6 cinnamon sticks
2 pounds red potatoes, washed and cut into chunks
1 large onion cut into thick wedges
1/2 cup dry roasted cashews
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
In a heavy soup pot bring the coconut milk to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add pork and reduce heat to a low simmer for about 1 hour, or until the pork is thoroughly cooked.
In a heavy skillet over medium heat, warm the coconut cream until oil begins to appear on the surface. Stir in the curry paste and continue cooking for 3-4 additional minutes.
Combine the curry into the soup pot. Add the potatoes, cardamom, cinnamon, tamarind liquid, and Splenda. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the onions and cashews and continue to simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Add lime juice to sharpen the flavor.
Nancie's recipe calls for additional fish sauce(3 tablespoons) and brown or palm sugar instead of Splenda (2 tablespoons). Do to my lifestyle change early in 2005, the dreaded middle-aged white man's disease, and a suboptimal gene set, I've left the fish sauce out of my curry and swapped brown sugar for Splenda with acceptable results. Nancie also calls for beef and dry roasted peanuts; but, I was introduced to mussamun with pork and cashews and prefer them in mine.
Derived from "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
Prep time: about 35 minutes
Makes: about 2/3 cup1/4 cup tamarind pulp
1/2 cup water
Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 20-30 minutes. Drain liquid through a fine meshed strainer and press extra liquid out of the pulp with the back of a spoon. This doesn't keep well. Discard unused portions.
From "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
Prep time: about 40 minutes
Makes: about 1 cup
1/2 cup dried red chilies
10 whole peppercorns
1 tablespoon whole coriander seed
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
4 stalks fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro (leaves and stems)
1 tablespoon finely chopped and peeled fresh galanga or ginger
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped shallot
Stem chilies and remove seeds. Chop coarsely and soak in warm water, about 20 minutes.
Dry roast the whole spices over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring or shaking to prevent burning. Grind whole spices and peppercorns in a spice grinder.
Remove hard outer leaves from lemongrass. Remove the upper grassy top and the hard root end at the bottom. Thinly slice crosswise and chop.
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth using the chili soak water to facilitate the blend.
Store the paste in a tightly sealed glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Nancie's recipe calls for additional salt (1 teaspoon) and shrimp paste (1 teaspoon). Do to the dreaded middle-aged white man's disease and a suboptimal gene set, I've left both of these out of my red curry paste.
Derived from "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
Prep time: 40 minutes
Makes: about 1 1/2 cups
1/3 cup dried red chilies
2 tablespoons whole cumin seed
1 teaspoon whole corriander seed
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 stalks fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon finely chopped, peeled fresh galanga or ginger
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
Stem and remove seeds from chilies. Coarsely chop and soak in warm water for about 20 minutes.
Measure spices, whole seeds in one bowl, ground in another. Dry fry whole spices 3-5 minutes over medium heat stirring or shaking to prevent burning. Return to bowl to cool. Dry fry ground spices 2-3 minutes as above. Grind whole spices with a spice grinder. Combine all spices together.
Trim lemongrass stalks. Remove grassy tops and hard root bottom yielding about a 3 inch stalk. Remove hard outer leaves. Slice stalk crosswise as thinly as possible. Chop slices.
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth using the chili soaking water to facilitate blending.
Store in a glass jar, covered tightly. Keeps for about 1 month in the refrigerator.
Nancie's recipe calls for additional salt (2 teaspoons) and shrimp paste (1 tablespoon). Do to the dreaded middle-aged white man's disease and a suboptimal gene set, I've left both of these out of my curry paste.
Derived from "Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking"
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: About 1 hour, 15 minutes
Makes: about 8 cups stock
10 cups water
2 medium onions, quartered
1 medium sweet potato
2-3 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
2 medium potatos, washed, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 sprig parsley
1 sprig cilantro
1-3 bay leaves
6-12 peppercorns
6 allspice berries
6ish mushrooms, sliced
Wash vegetables. Combine ingredients in stock pot. Bring to boil on high heat. Cover. Reduce heat to simmer for about 45 minutes. Strain stock and press vegetables for extra liquid. Discard vegetables or pulp for use as a thickener for soup.
Refrigerate for 4-5 days. Freeze for up to 6 months.
Derived from a variety of Moosewood cookbooks, but primarily "Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special."
Cole's Photo Album continues to be updated. If you have just been looking here for the updates, you have been missing out. Nat suggested this pointer to his album.
more photos of cole
Yesterday, Nat kicked me into semiconsciousness around 5:00a to let me know she was having contractions.
"Cool," I thought, "no work and a bit of a sleep in." I staggered out of bed and turned off the alarm clock.
By 8:00a, however, her contractions had stopped and Nat told me to go to work. I was at the office for all of an hour of work when I received a phone call from her saying the contractions were back and really bad. I asked how far apart her they were. She didn't know but offered to ring back directly. A few minutes later she informed me she was at six minute intervals.
The one thing iterated to us over and over ad nauseum during our six weeks of Babies for Idiots classes was not to show up to the hospital until Nat had been contracting at a three to five minute intervals for over an hour. I began the intentional dragging of feet before leaving work. I managed to stall for a half hour, told Rita I was off to try to have the baby, filled the car up with gasoline on my way home and bought Nat a slushie at the QuickieMart.
Twenty minutes later we were waiting for parking at the hospital. Nat let herself out of the car and waddled off to labor and delivery. I eventually followed with her bags.
When I arrived, she was already in a room and events had shifted into a kind of fast forward. Nurses flowed in and out. It turned out she was fully dilated and birth was happening soon. The anesthesiologist arrived directly and quickly became Nat's favorite person. Dr. Pieper appeared in short order and Cole was born at 1:45p MDT.
At the time of birth, Cole was 19.5 inches long, 6 pounds 11 ounces. As promised, tacky, sentimental, poorly framed, badly lit photos of the chap. As a bonus, constant reader, photos of the completed nursery.
Cole Hattaway arrived this afternoon at 1:45p MDT. He was nineteen and one half inches long and weighed six pounds eleven ounces. All fingers and toes appeared to have been in place and Nat is doing quite well. Tacky, sentimental, crappy pictures, the story of how it all happened and more tomorrow. Or, the next day. :)
Am I a real adult now?
I spent the last five days in a postmodern fugue of home deconstruction converting the loft overlooking our living room into a full fledged bedroom/nursery. We most likely have less than six weeks before the chap makes his appearance and I'd like the baby space to be in order before he arrives. I'll be taping, floating and sanding most evenings this week. I'm hoping to have the room nursery-ified by Monday, July 5th.
Deconstruction included removal of the single pane privacy glass near the ceiling on the east side of the house. The sheets were approximately 7' x 3' and have been replaced with framing, insulation, sheetrock, wafer board and tar paper. Siding will follow soon. Well, as soon as I get the remaining 23 sheets of wafer board installed and off the stack of siding. The new arrangement will hopefully reduce our heating and cooling bills a bit and permit sleeping in without going blind from the sun cresting the neighbor's roof.
I've uploaded some of the in process photos.
In a tragic turn of events today, my VW Golf got the crap beat out of it by some angry weather. Justin has the complete coverage over at The Stickboy Chronicles. Maybe I'm just not meant to have a nice car...
For some reason, the scene in "Evolution"
Justin, of course, delivered photos of the carnage.
Between getting my hair cut and my woodworking group, Saturday was pretty much a loss for getting much of anything done. Sunday, however, I got busy framing solo. Nat came out and helped me get some supports on the eastern wall, and John (Number Three) helped me move the north most wall from the patio into its position when he arrived for dinner. I whipped up some experimental tequila lime fajitas and acquired John's help with the last wall yesterday. I miss having Justin about, but not anywhere near enough to begrudge him a job he seems quite likely to enjoy. I'm hoping to get the roof in place within the next couple of days.
A few pictures of the shed in progress.
My Constant Readers may recall my entry relating how I arrived at the decision to build an updraft ceramic kiln. With graduation looming, access to the metal shop in the art department closed for the summer and my welder's pending move to Wyoming, I felt some pressure to get my kiln frame built. After carefully reviewing the updraft section of Fredrick Olsen's "The Kiln Book"
After the adventures in funding the potential to buy more natural gas, I confess to a degree of uncertainty, hesitation and fear regarding my metal shopping trip. I kept expecting the woman who accepted my order to request my permit, license to buy steel, secret handshake, password or first born child. Happily, once I got my mind wrapped around the basic nuances of ordering terminology, the purchase proceeded without any major hitches. I did discover steel tube does not mean round. The hard way.
Justin and I took the metal to the shop at the art department of the University on Saturday morning. I discussed my project with one of my ceramic instructors and with the shop/tool manager prior to buying the metal. I offered to cover my consumables and both assured me use of the facility was not a problem so long as I was out before it closed for the summer. Justin and I measured and cut most of the stock I'd purchased before wearing out a fairly fresh band saw blade. The next day, I ran into the shop manager and told him what had happened.
Because I thought I'd covered my bases, I didn't drop in at the art department first thing in the morning. This was a mistake.
When I dropped in midway through Monday morning to get a list of parts necessary to get the plasma cutter and mig welder usable, I was quickly made aware the midden had hit the rotary air circulation device and my name was mud. In fact, after explaining what had happened and iterating my complete willingness to pay for consumables to include the band saw blade, I was invited to take my metal elsewhere. I was told if I were making an art piece, I could be excused for my use of the tools; but, as I was building a tool to facilitate the continued pursuit of my area of emphasis, there was no room for my use of the metal facility. After five years of tuition and exorbitant studio fees to the art department, I simmered with anger just barely controlled. Justin and I relocated the metal to my house.
I spent most of the following week chasing down a welder. By Saturday, I had stick and MIG welders and a plasma cutter. Justin and I worked hard and managed to get a pair of frames together -- although the first requires some extensive rehabilitation. We returned the MIG and plasma cutter about 11:30p and got some sleep before replacing his subfloor the next morning (see the June 1 catch up story below).
In the end, all forward progress on the home studio is good and welding equipment pops up in the most unexpected places.
I have been telling myself for quite some time, my life will slow down once I finish school. In late March, the understanding of what had to be done in order to end my extended stay as a student here at the University of Utah entered my event horizon. Sections of my life were back burnered and put in a stand by mode, to include my little self documentation project here. In early April, I slid in a quick entry, the piglet's progress, partially as documentation (I was rather uneasy about firing the little bugger) and partially so my friend, Ellen, could have a look-see. I then dropped off the grid with regards to handling my life documentation. What follows is an attempt to relate what has been happening.
Kiln Frame
The top of my list was the frame for the gas kiln I am constructing and documenting here. What I've got to say is lengthy and I want it as part of my studio documentation. Suffice it to say, the thousand dollars I thought I'd save building my kiln from scratch has been spent. Several times. Read more about the kiln frame. View photos. Update: of cabbages and kilns
Graduation
Friday, May 9th, twelve years of playing at being a college student finally came to an end. I bought a hat and dress and snoopy danced across the stage to receive my empty diploma holder. I took the day off work and Nat, LaRayne and I made a day of both our graduations and lunch. It was a good day. Photos here.
Subfloor 5/1
Justin had issues with the floor in his living room. He didn't care for the carpet. He didn't like the creaks and the groans. He was a bit tired of listening to his friend's dodgy music coming up from the basement apartment. He started disassembling the floor when he needed something to do. It was casual. He worked at it when he was bored. Then, of course, he was notified he was to be laid off and subsequently found another position in the company. In Casper, Wyoming.
We shifted his subfloor replacement into high gear and knocked it out the weekend of May 1. We even managed a sufficient amount of insulation in the floor to dampen almost all of noise from the basement apartment. Justin snapped a couple of shots of the 95% completed floor. The remaining 5% was scheduled for Memorial Day weekend when we planned to handle the bathrooms.
Justin Moves
Number Six split for his new base of operations, Casper, Wyoming. He was in Casper getting oriented to the new job for a week before going to Denver for training for a month. The trip up was an adventure.
Pedestals
Each year, the graduating class from the art department holds a show at a local gallery. New Visions Gallery is a small artist run gallery and is also the hosting venue this year. They don't have many pedestals, so Patty, Shawna and I spent a couple evenings manufacturing some pedestals. Pedestal construction.
Surgery
I've had an umbilical hernia for a couple of years. It had been more annoying than actually inconvenient, but it was getting worse. Rather than wait until it was painfully inconvenient, I visited a surgeon and then scheduled surgery for the week after I graduated. Basically, getting patched meant no heavy lifting for the better part of a month. This, of course, added substantially to what I felt HAD to be done before surgery.
On Friday, May 14, Dr. Todd sliced me open, slapped in a vulcanizing patch and super glued me back together. The first couple of days, I found it difficult to move. I was, however, off the prescribed pain medication by Sunday and feeling quite well by Wednesday. Everything went well and my navel, though still healing, doesn't appear to have someone's finger poking through.
Senior Show
Thursday, May 20, Exit Exhibition, the senior show, opened. Nat and I popped in to see how it looked and skipped out with our friends, AnnMarie and Jake for some dinner after finding the lions share of the food money had been used for alcohol. One can only get so full on cheese, albeit delicious cheese, and crackers.
Rejection Letters
Part of seeking outlets for the stuff I wind up making involves form letters from folks who don't want me or my stuff. The week after I graduated, I bagged my first three rejection letters. It was a strange sensation to me. I expected to feel something, but even the sense of rejection wasn't excessively whelming. After a bit of consideration, I decided on a new album devoted to scans of my rejection letters. Anytime you are feeling down, Constant Reader, feel free to visit my digital shrine of unwantedness in writing. To date, I have rejection notes from:
- Salt Lake Farmer's Market.
- Finch Lane group show.
- The forthcoming Lark Books 500 Cups.
Justin Sewage and Bathroom
Memorial Weekend, Justin popped in from Denver. He and I spent all three days playing with his in progress bathroom remodel, to include replacing a good chunk of cast iron sewage pipe with PVC pipe. We also mixed and poured about two hundred pounds of cement. It just wouldn't be a holiday for either of us if we didn't whip out some cement. The previous Sunday, May 23, I pulled electrical line for his air conditioning condensor and then played supervisor for the install. View a few photos from both projects.
Home Depot Spend-A-Thon
Memorial Weekend also meant 12 months no interest at the orange store. I bought quite a bit of lumber. Now I just need to get a kiln shed built, upper windows in the house removed and the nursery squared away because...
We've got less than 10 weeks to go before the chap arrives.
Two years ago, I had an assignment to build a piggy bank for a handbuilding ceramics class. I was enamoured of the idea of a Minature Japanese Pot Bellied Samurai Piggy Bank and I built one. At the greenware critique, I thought I had been told to rebuild the head and arms. I returned to my studio, decapitated my pig and fought with several attempts at improving the head and arms. They all left much to be desired. Eventually, the pig dried out as I lost consecutive gumption battles to finish it. Finally, with graduation looming around the corner and only a pig blocking my hasty departure, I finally convinced myself to get it done. These photographs were my proof that it had been built in the event of a kiln disaster.
Questar delivered and installed my new meter this morning. Installation included connecting the meter both to the house and to the new kiln line with a valve to shut down the kiln line. A picture of the new meter has been added to the end of the Kiln Construction photo album. Next on the docket is an enclosure for the kiln and assembling the frame. Glacial progress continues.
I scheduled time with Number 6 to pour a cement pad for the kiln I am currently building. Saturday morning quickly became Saturday afternoon as most anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The auto parts places in Bountiful weren't open until 8:00a, the hitch that was purported to come with the truck we'd arranged to borrow didn't, said hitch was part of a display in a store that didn't open until 9:00a, and when we finally made it to AA Ucart, the two yard mixing trailer was already out for the morning.
The evening before, Justin and I set and leveled the forms and installed the rebar. I, however, neglected to remeasure and recalculate the final volume of the pad -- I strongly recommend against this course of action for those of you considering playing with cement at home. The difference between 2 and 2.75 yards is large. I somehow managed to convince myself the pad volume could not possibly have exceeded two yards. My preliminary calculation was 1.8 yards before I laid in a ton of gravel. A phrase often used by one of my drill sergeants regarding assumptions springs readily to mind in hindsight.
My constant readers may recall the pad we poured at Justin's house last easter and the subsequent razzing regarding his expertise in the volume calculation department. While Justin's pad was a miserable three trips for cement, I successfully stooped to a new low with four trips for cement to finish my pad -- two to Ucart for the first 2.5 yards and two to Home Depot. I was positive after recalculating 2.35 yards would be an excessive amount of concrete to finish the job and bought an additional half yard just to be safe. When it became clear the extra half yard was insufficient to do the job, the trips to Home Depot started.
This, of course, only doubled the crow I have to eat.
Stupidity aside, the premixed concrete is hands down the best way to deal with significant amounts of cement for the home owner. The price is a bit less than purchasing the same amount of concrete by the bag from the home improvement megastore, though the savings was almost eliminated by a price reduction this last week on the per bag price of cement. I'm told the premixed cement is a better quality cement. I chatted with Doug at Ucart while he mixed up my second batch. Mixing on the spot allows the supplier to add in small extras like a defloculant to reduce the amount of water needed to make the cement usable -- less water means stronger cement. Not breathing the concrete dust or moving the eighty pound bags of mix multiple times is another significant bonus. The twelve bags of mix allowed me to correct my mistake, but at a cost of an aggravated lower back and full activation of my allergies.
The kiln construction photo album has been updated with a few photos associated with the pour. The three photographs at the cement yard were taken with my Sony Clie NX-80 PDA. I am undecided whether the camera attached to the palm is worth its cost, but it was handy for the capture of these images.
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