Thai Cooking School: Pad Thai

The first of the three dishes that my friend Mary and I made after taking our cooking class was Pad Thai. This recipe stumped us at first, as the proportions looked wacky and we weren't sure how many people it was supposed to serve, so we made a few adjustments to serve our party of 8.



The flavor was perfection, but the texture left a little something to be desired since we didn't soak the noodles long enough (we did 30 minutes, recommended by our teacher). Next time I make this, I'll try adding 10 minutes at a time until it comes out right. Anyone have any advice for how long to soak the noodles? We're on the right track with this dish, just needs a bit of fine-tuning.



Pad Thai
Adapted from Niddy
Printable Recipe

8-10 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed
8 oz medium rice noodles, soaked in room temperature water for ~40 minutes
1/2 cup firm white tofu, cubed
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup sliced chinese chives or green onion
1/4 cup ground peanuts
1 tbsp sweet pickled radish
1 large (or 2 small) garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp minced shallot
1 egg
4 tbsp tamarind paste
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
about 3/4 c vegetable oil, divided
1 cup water
2 limes, cut into wedges for garnish

1. Heat a few tbsp of the oil in a pan or a wok. Fry prepared tofu until all sides are golden brown. Place on paper towel to absorb oil. Set aside. Mix together tamarind paste, sugar, and fish sauce, set aside.

2. Heat a few more tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan or a wok. On medium-high heat, add minced garlic, shallots and pickled radishes in the pan. Stir fry until fragrant. Take care not to burn.

3. Add shrimp and deep-fried tofu. Mix and stir until shrimp is cooked. Once shrimp is cooked, push all to the side of the pan to create room for noodles.

4. Add another tablespoon of vegetable oil into the space in the pan and then add noodles, and tamarind paste mixture. Quickly stir and mix them well. When stirring the noodles, try to spread them out. If the noodles look too dry, dip your fingers into the 1 c. of water and sprinkle the water on the noodles. Sprinkle water on the noodles as needed. You likely won't use all of the water.

5. Once the noodles are soft and cooked, mix them with the other ingredients that are on the side of the pan. Once again push the mixed noodles to the side of the pan to create room for an egg.

6. Crack the egg into the space and scramble it with a spatula or a cooking spoon. Push the mixed noodles on top of the egg. Add the chives or green onion and 1/2 cup of bean sprouts. Mix well and turn off heat.

7. Divide onto plates. Garnish with remaining bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and lime.

Grow Your Own #32 Roundup

Welcome to the Grow Your Own #32 Roundup! A special thanks to Andrea of Andrea's Recipes for masterminding this event and giving me the opportunity to host during my favorite time of year for seasonal food. Below you'll find a wonderful array of blog posts about dishes made from homegrown produce. Please visit each of the posts and enjoy!



Claire from Purely Food made Smoked Salmon and Mangetout Risotto


Dhanggit from Dhanggit's Kitchen made Flambéed Banana Tart Tatin


Chris from The Cellar and The Pantry made Instant Pickles


Claudia from Honey from Rock made Arugula Pesto Pizza


Maybelle's Mom from Feeding Maybelle made Pickled Baby Carrots (Sending her good wishes as she was about to have a baby as she posted this recipe!)


Ginny from Just Get Floury made Ginny's Black Bean Burger


Stefani from Cupcake Project made Vegan Chocolate Basil Cupcakes


Solange from Pebble Soup made Rhubarb and Banana Yoghurt Fool


Liz from The Not So Skinny Kitchen made Basil Chicken


Mangocheeks from Allotment 2 Kitchen made a Lettuce, Pea, and Mint Tart


Andrea from Andrea's Recipes made Roasted Garlic Hummus


Linda from Kitchen Therapy made Asian Amaranth Greens


Amy I. from Playing House (that's me!) made Mixed Basil Pesto

Thai Cooking School

Last week, my friend Mary and I took a Thai cooking class with Niddy from thaicookinghouse.com. This was my first time since I was a kid taking a cooking class, and I'm hooked! I can't wait to sign up for more.



The biggest thing I learned was that, with the right ingredients, these dishes aren't as complicated as I had built them up in my head to be. We're lucky to have several fabulous Asian grocery stores in our area, so accessing the ingredients is extra convenient. Thai cooking has been demystified! We learned how to make 5 dishes:

Pad Thai


Phanaeng Curry Chicken Fried Rice


Ginger Chicken


Red Curry Chicken with Thai Eggplant and Bamboo Shoots


and Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango


Mary and I gathered our friends together last weekend and recreated a few of these dishes to show off what we learned. I'll be posting the results (and recipes) over the next few days!

Seeing Stars, 7.28.09

Welcome to Seeing Stars, the weekly feature where I highlight some of my favorite blog posts that I've "starred" in Google Reader.

I'm starting something new this week! If you have or know of a blog that I might enjoy having as part of my Google Reader repertoire (and I do like more than just food blogs), I'm always looking for fun new reads. Feel free to comment with suggestions! In the meantime, enjoy this week's fabulous finds:

Blueberry Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Crumb Topping by Alice at Savory Sweet Life


Mixed Fruit Vintage Cases by Ange at Jars of Cute


Making a Mario Mushroom Out of a Radish by Carey at Serious Eats


Vanilla & Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta by Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker


Me Likey Collection by Sassafras Lass by Kristen at Paper Crave


Cheddar Cheese Biscuits by Jessie at The Hungry Mouse


Fonts: Stitched Typefaces by Luzel at iDIY

Daring Bakers: Mallow Cookies

I'm so thrilled to be participating in my very first Daring Bakers challenge! I've been reading along with this blogging group for what seems like years now, and finally got up the courage to join in on their monthly baking adventures. I've been cooking with the counterpart group, the Daring Cooks, for a few months now and have loved the sense of community that's fostered by creating the same recipe along with hundreds of other food bloggers.





The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network. Check out Nicole's blog for the recipes.





We were given the option to make either cookie or both, and I chose to make the mallows. By some miracle, everything fell into place perfectly. There were certainly times when I needed to use my underdeveloped baking gut (such as how long to whip the marshmallows until they were done), but I must've made the right choices, since it almost all worked out! I made these several weeks ago and am still in awe of the fact that I successfully made marshmallow from scratch.



My only real sticking point (no pun intended) was that the chocolate never completely dried, even after 3 days. It may have had something to do with tempering or blooming or something else I didn't pay attention to. Oops. I'm okay with that though, because they were finger lickin' good. I still consider this a win.



I can't even say how thrilling it is to have a successful DB challenge under my belt. I'm already on the edge of my seat looking forward to the next one!

Sunday Brunch

Now that's my kind of meal.

Midnight Muffins

More and more, I'm finding myself overtaken by an extreme impulse to bake, and it strikes at the strangest times. Most recently, it happened late at night, when Andy was working late and I was caught up on everything I wanted to accomplish for the day. I knew I wanted to make something using white chocolate, since I inadvertently built a stockpile large enough to have us covered if disaster strikes (what, you don't want white chocolate chips when an earthquake hits?!).



I decided on muffins. Giant ones. With blueberries and white chocolate chips. I've used this flavor combo before (in bread pudding), and it's a favorite of mine. I didn't have any plain yogurt, so I used blueberry, which explains the strange grayish blue tint and the AWESOME flavor. The texture of these muffins is incredible. Dare I say perfect?



I learned some new tricks while making these muffins (yet another reason why America's Test Kitchen is the best thing to happen to my cooking since Bittman). First, don't use muffin papers, just spray the pans to grease them. The papers often stick to the muffin and are just not necessary. Another shortcut is to use a greased 1/3 cup measuring cup to divide the batter into the muffin tins. For other recipes I might use a 1/4 cup, (this used a larger one since the muffins were supposed to be big). Finally, if you're baking with blueberries, toss them with a bit of flour before adding them to the batter so they don't all sink to the bottom.

Giant Muffins
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
Printable Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups whole or low-fat yogurt (plain or flavored)
2 large eggs
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups add-ins (Amy's note: I used 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, but you can use whatever you fancy!)

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt and eggs together until smooth. Gently fold the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined, then fold in the melted butter and add-ins.

3. Using a greased 1/3 cup measure, portion the batter into each muffin cup. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

4. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then flip out onto a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Rustic Summer Fruit Tart

Per my geeky husband, this past Wednesday was Pi Approximation Day, 7/22. According to him, it was a special day "because a common approximation for pi is 22/7." Right, I knew that. So of course I had to make an approximation of a pie. Meet my rustic fruit tart, otherwise known as a galette or crostata.



For the filling, I used peaches, blueberries, and redcurrants (yes, redcurrant is alloneword). This was my first time using redcurrants. They're lovely little fruits, but I don't adore them quite as much as other berries. They remind me strongly of pomegranate seeds without the extra crunch. I'm glad I tried them though; I've often seen beautiful photos of redcurrants by other food bloggers like Helen at Tartelette and Aran at Cannelle et Vanille and have always wanted to taste some myself.



I've decided that "rustic" desserts are right up my alley. I don't need to worry about precision because they're meant to look a little unfinished, and the priority is on the flavor. That's really where I'm finding my baking groove... I tend not to enjoy the decorative, presentation aspects of cooking and baking quite as much as the 'making it taste good' part. This tart definitely fit the bill.



Rustic Free-Form Tart Dough
Adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
10 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
4-6 tbsp. ice water (Amy's note: I used about 8)

1. Process the flour and salt together in a food processor until combined. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about 15 pulses. Continue to pulse, adding the water through the feed tube 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together and forms a ball, about 10 pulses (Amy's note: I needed many more than 10).

2. Turn the dough and any crumbs onto a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a 6-inch disk. Wrap the dough tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Before rolling out the dough, let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes to soften slightly, about 10 minutes.

Rustic Summer Fruit Tart
Adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

1 recipe Rustic Free-Form Tart Dough (above)
1 cup fresh berries (blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries)
1 pound fresh stone fruit (peaches, plums, apricots, or nectarines), pitted and sliced into 1/2 inch thick wedges
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 375F. Roll the chilled dough out into a 12-inch circle between 2 sheets of floured parchment paper. Slide the dough, still between the parchment, onto a large rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

2. Toss the berries, stone fruit, sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

3. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper from the dough. Mount the fruit in the center of the dough, leaving a 2 1/2 inch border of dough around the edge (Amy's note: be careful not to pour in any excess fruit juice that remains in the bowl. It will flood your tart.) Being careful to leave 1/2 inch of dough around the fruit, fold the outermost 2 inches of dough over the fruit, pleating every 2-3 inches as needed.

4. Bake until the crust is golden and crisp and the fruit is tender, about 1 hour, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking.

5. Let the tart cool slightly on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then use the parchment paper to gently transfer the tart to a wire rack. Use a metal spatula to loosen the tart from the parchment. Let the tart cool on the rack until fruit juices are thickened, about 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CEiMB: Oven-Baked Onion Rings

This week's Ellie Krieger recipe is Oven-Baked Onion Rings, selected by Mare of Meet Me in the Kitchen. These were tasty, as long as you're not expecting the deliciousness of the deep-fried version to land in your mouth.



I used a bit more than the 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper that the recipe calls for and it added quite the welcome kick. I also realized as I started cooking that I forgot to pick up buttermilk (I'm on the hunt for the powdered kind so I always have it on hand; I've been needing it so often lately!). So I used an America's Test Kitchen substitution trick, adding a tablespoon of lemon juice (you can also use white vinegar) to a cup of milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.

As always, you can find links to other bloggers' interpretations of this dish at Craving Ellie in My Belly.

Oven-Baked Onion Rings
Adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger
Printable Recipe

Canola oil spray
4 cups baked potato chips
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more to taste
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1-2 large Vidalia onions, peeled

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Coat a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray or line with a silicone baking mat and set aside.

2. Place the potato chips in a food processor and process into fine crumbs, about 20 seconds. Transfer to a shallow bowl, stir in the cayenne, and set aside. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, 2 tbsp of the flour, the salt, and the pepper and set aside.

3. Slice the onions into 1/2 inch thick rounds and separate into rings, keeping only the large, whole rings (reserve the rest of the onion for other uses). You should have 12-14 rings.

4. Place the remaining 1/2 cup flour in a sealable plastic bag, then add the onions and shake well to coat. One at a time, dip the onion rings into the buttermilk mixture, then dip into the potato chip crumbs, coating each ring evenly, and place on the baking sheet. Coat the surface of the rings lightly with canola oil spray and bake until the coating is crisp, 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and serve immediately.

How to Cook Something: Mixed Basil Pesto

Welcome to How to Cook Something, my feature where I share a recipe from my favorite beginner's cookbook, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, in an effort to learn my way around the kitchen. Today's recipe is pesto.



We have an abundance of basil at the moment, thanks to our Aerogarden (a hydroponic indoor growing system that we got as a wedding gift). We're growing the "international basil" seed set, which includes 6 different varieties. I decided to throw a bit of each into the pesto and see what happened.

I wound up not being able to tell that there were 6 varieties of basil in the mixture. I used walnuts and I loved how there was a hint of nuttiness along with the other flavors. I'm glad to be able to check this classic basic dish off my list!





This is also my entry for this month's Grow Your Own challenge that I'm proudly hosting!



Mixed Basil Pesto
Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Printable Recipe

2 loosely packed cups fresh basil leaves (a variety of types or all one type), big stems discarded, rinsed, and dried
Salt to taste
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp. walnuts or pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

1. Combine basil, salt, garlic, nuts, and about half the oil in a food processor or blender.

2. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container occasionally, and adding the rest of the oil gradually (Amy's note: I didn't use the entire amount. Add until you get a texture you like). Store in the refrigerator for a week or two, or in the freezer for several months.

Rainbow Cake

Today was my friend Mary's birthday! I wanted to make her a fun surprise to show her how happy I am that she's around, and after lots of debate, decided on a Rainbow Cake. This is another recipe I've had on my to-do list forever, but chose it mainly because Mary is fun and colorful, just like the cake!



I first read about the Rainbow Cake phenomenon at Omnomicon (one of my favorite food blogs). Aleta, the author, has an awesome step-by-step tutorial on how to make this cake, so I'm going to refer you to her post if you'd like to make one. I didn't use her soda method, just used a plain ol' box of Betty Crocker white cake mix, made according to the package directions. I used about one scant cup of batter per color.





Have I mentioned how much I adore my box of food coloring? It's far more fun than a box of Crayolas, and I *love* Crayolas.



I used cream cheese frosting tinted purple (Mary's favorite kind of frosting and favorite color) and served it with berry lemonade. She was so surprised and happy when she cut into the middle. Score! Happy birthday, Mary! Big hugs!