Along the spice route

The geographer in me kicked in today while I was in the spice aisle at the Asian Supermarket. I was gathering spices for pho but realized quite a bit of overlap in the various cuisines I prepare, not just in Pacific Island cuisine but in many of the countries along the spice route.

As I walked down the aisle I thought of garam marsala, bizaara, and jerk chicken...the only significant difference between my biryani and pho is the anise...I already had the cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom at home.

It's textbook spatial interaction and diffusion...and it's delicious.

Bouncing around the Pacific Islands

I have been cooking a little of everything during these past few months...most things have literally been a little of this and a little of that...lots of soups, lots of one dish meals...lots of versatility to accommodate the vegan/pescatarian in our midst.  Recently the theme seems to be Asian.

Congee has become my daughter's staple after school snack and she's even using it for suhur...it's no problem to make now that I have this wonderful 4 in 1 rice cooker.  This week we've had a shrimp pancit, a Thai fried rice made from scraps in the fridge - eggplant, haricot verts that were past their prime for eating raw, and leftover chicken.

Today I'm attempting Pho.  My daughter has been obsessing about Pho for quite some time...I finally tried some in NYC two months ago and it was quite tasty, warming, and comforting.  On Sunday we tried a Pho place in Collingdale of all places and the Pho was fantastic!

As I savored the Pho on Sunday, I realized it is so good because it's essentially a slowly cooked broth made from bones...marrow provides a distinctive flavor.  This would have been an excellent "discovery," except my freezer was recently left open so I lost my marrow bones along with the majority of the beef I would typically use for a stew.   But...I do have something that I can use for a dry run.

We had delicious pan-seared steak for dinner on Tuesday...T-bone and rib steak...for some reason, I cut the meat away from the bone before I cooked two of the steaks.  I thought I'd give Pho a try with the T-bone and the Rib-bone - there is some meat attached.  Of course this will not yield the kind of results one might expect with marrow bones and oxtails, but I'm hoping to get a close approximation using the slow-cook feature on my rice cooker. I just need to figure out something for the vegan.

Making Time for Tea

Things have been a little hectic since our four day holiday in London over the Columbus Day weekend.  I've mostly been cooking pots of soup or baking chicken and fish.  One thing that I have managed to do consistently is Afternoon Tea.

My daughter and I had tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace and I think it was the highlight of our trip...now even a simple cup of tea is anything but simple.  At least once monthly we have a full afternoon, either with company, on our own, or with our fellow London Fanatics.  One thing for certain is afternoon tea is quite a bit of work when you're doing everything from scratch.  On New Year's Day, we added spinach quiche to the menu.
We have put together an eclectic tea service that actually looks quite lovely and have preparations down to a science - she makes the scones and tea cakes, I make the sandwiches (cucumber mint and egg mayonnaise) and set the table.

Today she wanted to make scones so of course I thought we should prepare an Elevenses...we scaled back to just two tiers (no tea cakes) and as usual thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Making time for tea is a great way to stop and smell the roses.