Hiking and Food (part 3b)

The preceding farfalle was followed up by a mushroom risotto. This is the "easy" version (since we're in hiking mode.)

At a future date, the CC will publish a full version (in which you make your own mushroom broth.)

It goes without saying that there's just no comparison.

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"Simple" Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

3 shallots (diced real fine)
2-3 leeks (diced fine, mostly white parts but some green too.)
a variety of mushrooms (button,crimini,shiitake diced -- they will shrink!)
2-3 cups arborio rice
3-4 cups broth (read below if you use commercial broth!)
butter
olive oil
salt and pepper

Recipe

Heat one burner, and keep the broth on a simmer. (I skimmed the broth, you may want to do the same.)

Heat the olive oil, and fry the shallots and the leeks. When they are light golden, add the rice, and stir so that the arborio is liberally coated with olive oil. Fry for 30 seconds or so.

Add the mushrooms, and fry for 3 minutes or so. The mushrooms should give off copious amounts of liquid. Add the salt and pepper.

Now comes the hard part.

Add in a ladeleful of the hot broth, and stir. As the rice absorbs the liquid, keep adding more ladlefuls, and stirring.

The rice should be solid (and lightly sticky) but not "hard".

Serve warm.

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In retrospect, even while going hiking, I should've bought some "dried porcinis" (the reconstituted broth would be divine!), and some "parmigiano reggiano".

The CC wishes to apologize to his friends, and hangs his head in shame.

Hiking and food (part 3a)

The next day was a bit of a hiking bust. It poured continuously, and in any case we were in no mood to do a strenuous hike after the previous day's.

However, on the bright side, we had some amazing food.

This recipe is utterly simple but its simplicity belies its brilliance.

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Farfalle con piselli

Ingredients

6 shallots (cut into rounds)
1 1/2 packages frozen peas (frozen will do since texture is not important)
lots of basil
salt and pepper

Recipe

Heat up some olive oil, and fry the shallots till they "sweat". Add in a package of the peas, and some water, salt and pepper. Let the peas cook for 5-6 minutes.

Pluck the basil leaves, and dump the above mixture with the leaves into a blender. Blend till smooth, and dump the mixture back into the pot. Add the rest of the peas, and cook for 5-6 minutes. Do not overcook!

Serve the sauce over farfalle, with plenty of black pepper.

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A word to the wise.

One of my friends (who shall remain unnamed), in her infinite brilliance (yes! I know I've revealed the gender), decided to skip two out of the three ingredients (shallots and basil.) The consequences of the afore-mentioned are left as an easy exercise to the reader.

Hiking and food (part 2)

The next day, the CC had the unfortunate responsibility of explaining the non-negotiable rules of hiking to a bunch of supposedly experienced hikers.

Folks got mauled.

Then, the CC got mauled.

After that, the food got mauled.

Sometimes being right means that you have to eat burnt veggie burgers but far better to eat burnt burgers, and espouse some truths than spend your vacation in the morgue.

For the record, if you "broil" something, generally 2 minutes is more than sufficient.

Hiking and pasta

Next up on the California trail was Yosemite where we carried our food and our water.

The CC got there first (predictably!), and was charged with cooking dinner.

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, halved, and cut into ringlets
3 zucchini squash (cut into rounds)
12-20 pattypan squash (cut into quarters)
mint, and basil (cut coarsely by hand)
salt to taste
pepper (lots!)

Recipe

Heat the olive oil, and fry the onions until they are soft and limp. Toss in the squash, and some water, salt to taste, lots and lots of black pepper, cover and let the squash cook. Add the mint and basil at the end. Turn off the heat.

Serve over farfalle (bowtie pasta for the Americans.)

Long beans

The CC figured that he should write about the long beans, given how much I like them.

For the Indians in the audience, we're talking about chaudi (and for the non-Indians, you don't really know how to pronounce that "d" so don't even bother!)

The CC just wanted to say that he misses them but how the hell can the CC miss them when they are so easily available in NYC?

OK, he just crave them.

Meyer-Lemon Granita recipe

Ingredients

20 Meyer-lemons
8 tbsp sugar (this is approximate, read below.)
infinite patience (traditionally in short supply!)

Method

Squeeze the lemons, and put the juice through a fine sieve (you only want the liquid.) Add the sugar one tbsp at a time, and stir until it dissolves. You want to end up with a solution that's still quite tart but has a sweet-sour taste (trust me, this works well in the end even as a "dessert" -- the first time the CC made a granita, it was too sweet.)

Now comes the hard part. Put the stuff in a large bowl, and place it in the freezer uncovered. As it starts freezing, stir it up.

Initially, you can wait upto 2-3 hours in summer. After that, you'll need to do it every hour, then every half-hour, then every 15 minutes, until you end up with ice-crystals that are "quite dry" (like powdered snowflakes.)

Scoop and serve in martini glasses. The flavor crystals explode in your mouth.

The Italians may not know how to form a government, but they know how to eat well.

Cambodian Food (in the ghetto)

First stop, the day after I arrived was a Cambodian lunch place in some suburban ghetto. Gritty surroundings, lots of barbed-wire, geeks galore from Silicon Valley, and some amazing food.

We ordered a catfish hamok (also spelled as h'mok and amok), and a dish with long beans. (I'm sure I'm not doing justice to the pronunciation.)

The h'mok is fish chunks mixed with coconut milk, and ground coconut meat. It's heavy on the galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and particulary kapi (or gkapi) (fermented shrimp paste.) All of this is wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed.

The aromas are simply sublime! My sister was generous enough to let me have the "first smell".

The CC openly admits his addiction to gkapi (watch for a post on this later), but this is not for the faint of heart, and is definitely an acquired taste.

The CC was also just impressed that the long bean dish contained long beans. Far too often, restaurants substitute French beans (what a copout!)

Talk about an auspicious beginning to a vacation!

Ode to a Meyer-lemon granita

It looks like yellow snow,
But it tastes like ambrosia.


Not exactly Keats but it pretty much sums up the situation aptly.

Back from California

I'm back with culinary adventures in tow.

Watch this space for some rather fun food adventures in non-chronological order. (I can't be that conventional!)