Thai Coconut Noodle Soup with Panko-Crusted Chicken

It is a lucky man indeed who can count cooks of both Shiv’s and Swiss’s caliber among their friends. Not only does keeping them around mean one gets to eat the food they make (which, let me just tell you, is spectacular indeed), if one is very lucky, one gets the chance to cook alongside them. Shiv and I have quite a bit of experience working in the same kitchen — it turns out that adding Swiss to the party was like adding a few new steps to a very familiar dance. The three of us spun around each other all afternoon in a manner that would be best described as balletic. I had tremendous fun, and would like to offer an official Thank You to both of them for inviting me to help out with their scheme. Their tasty, tasty scheme.

For my part in the Coconut Dinner Party, I was tasked with whipping up the main course, a solid and surprisingly hearty Thai dish, which would be bracketed on either side by the others’ more ethereal creations. In the best Thai style, this soup fuses Salty, Spicy, and Sour for some serious multi-layered flavor. It starts with a backbone of gorgeous aromatics, gets some heat from both chili and red curry, a salty fish sauce tang, and the zip of freshly-squeezed lime. Coconut milk serves to round off the harsh edges, and you’re left with a savory, creamy broth that would be delicious on its own — but we gilded the lily with the textural additions of some silky noodles and the crunch of panko-crusted chicken.

You can probably use any kind of chicken in this — or for that matter, seared tuna, thinly-sliced beef, tofu if you’re so inclined — but we opted for the dark meat of chicken thigh. The flavor tends to be much richer than a standard chicken breast, I think that it’s a little more tender, and the oily unctuousness both blended well with the coconut milk and provided a good counterpoint to the crackle of the panko. Bonus: you might also get a chance to debone the thighs yourself, which I personally found very satisfying.

The soup ended up being a two-stage affair, with the broth leisurely constructed early on in the afternoon, and a brief dash at the end to cook the chicken, plate, and garnish all at once. Also, can we please have a cheer for non-superfluous garnishes? The cilantro and scallion tossed on top as the bowls are headed tableside add a perfect breath of green, and wilt deliciously into the rest of the soup as you eat.

The following recipe is modified from a Jean-Georges base, courtesy of starchefs.com, with our own little fillips here and there.

Thai Coconut Noodle Soup with Panko-Crusted Chicken

First part:
1/2 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 chili, chopped (use whatever heat level you like)
1 knob of ginger, chopped
1 tsp galangal
1 stalk of lemongrass, chopped into smaller sticks and smashed (I used the back of my knife for the smashing bit, and would highly recommend tying these up in cheesecloth for removal later.)
1 tsp red Thai curry paste
4 cups chicken broth

Second part:
1/2 package rice vermicelli noodles
2 cups coconut milk
12 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
Fish sauce (nam pla) to taste
2 Tbsp (or thereabouts) lime juice
4 chicken thighs
1 egg
Panko bread crumbs
Cilantro, chopped
Scallions, sliced

1. Sweat the onion, garlic, chili, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, and curry paste in oil (I used a nice green olive oil plus a pat of butter, although strictly speaking I should have opted for peanut) for 5 to 10 minutes, or until everything gets soft and melty.
2. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, and simmer for half an hour.
3. You can hold the soup at this point until you’re getting ready to serve — I had it on the back burner for an hour or two — or just go ahead with the next step right away if you like.
4. Beat the egg, and dip the chicken thighs into it, followed by a coating of the panko crumbs.
5. Another dollop of oil in a sturdy skillet on high heat. Lay down the chicken, and cook through — about five minutes per side. I always give myself a little extra time in case they need a few more minutes.
6. Bring the soup back to a simmer if you’ve dropped it to a back burner. Drop in the noodles — they don’t need more than a minute or two. Be sure to add these before the coconut milk — the noodles suck up a lot of liquid, and you’ll want to replenish with the coconut after the noodles have done their thing.
7. Add the shiitakes and the coconut milk. Sprinkle in the fish sauce — a few drops will do, but add to taste. Same with the lime juice: start with a tablespoon or two, add a little more if you don’t taste that bright thread of citrus backing up the cream of the coconut.
8. Simmer for another minute, and dish up into four bowls.
9. Slice the chicken into strips and lay on top of the lovely pillow your noodles have created. Toss a light handful of scallions and cilantro on top, and serve.

The Great Coconut Dinner Party of 2010: Passionfruit Massaman Curry Potato Salad

It’s sometimes hard to gauge the success of a dinner party. Some people go by the number of bottles of wine that get consumed; others by the number of noise complaints the raucous laughter inspires. Others still judge by the state and quantity of the leftovers (or lack thereof) or the state of the plates. I personally use a more…deconstructed scale. I tend to judge the success of a party by how thoroughly I manage to destroy the kitchen. As we all know, I have the power to take down a whole kitchen when just cooking on my own, for one or two people; add two more cooks and seven guests to the mix and you see some destruction on an epic scale.

Using that yardstick, I know for a fact that the Great Coconut Dinner Party was a raging success–between myself, Biscuit, and our incredibly wonderful host/ringleader, Swiss, we managed to do such damage to the kitchen that it apparently took the better part of a week (and a visit from a plumber, I believe) to put it back together again.

Of course, such mayhem cannot come without rigorous planning. Heavens, no! The GCDP had been brewing since early in the summer. Swiss and I had gone out for some drinks and were chatting about the Essex Market or somesuch thing (we spend a lot of time discussing these sorts of things) when he made The Suggestion: we spend so much time discussing food, why don’t we make some together? And invite a few other people over to eat it? Oh, and what if we had a theme? Surely that would make it easier! (Note: It did not. More fun, for sure, but not easier.) Brilliant! And lo, it was decided.

A few weeks later, Swiss and I went into planning mode,  sprawling ourselves all over the war room  (actually his living room) with piles of cookbooks, poring over his food porn (the man’s collection is not to be believed) and plotting our wild and ambitious meal. We set a tentative menu, set a date (and a date for a dry run, which I cannot recommend strongly enough if you decide to helm such an affair), and took a deep breath, wondering what the hell we’d gotten ourselves into.  It was simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

The final menu ended up looking like this:

• Passionfruit-mint-cachaca shot with coconut foam
• Tuna and avocado ceviche with oven-toasted coconut and sesame
• Passionfruit massaman curry potato salad
• Panko-crusted chicken and coconut milk soup
• Mango sorbet with savory tuiles
• Frozen raspberry cream with green tea sponge and coconut fluff

I’m sure you can understand how, after coming up with that litany, bringing on an extra pair of hands seemed like a good idea (actually, ultimately two–the lovely Jackie took care of the beautiful tablescaping). With a full complement of troops, we managed to acquit ourselves with only one explosion, narrowly avoided the emergency room (turns out, wearing pants was a REALLY good idea), and fed a total of ten people before midnight. It was sufficiently exciting that we plan to do it again in a few weeks–once we have a new menu, and once Swiss’s kitchen recovers.

While we prepare for that, we will be coming at you with an entry from the one and only Biscuit, wherein he will share the recipe for the main course that the guests couldn’t stop raving about–panko crusted chicken with a coconut milk soup! In the meantime, take a quick gander at the recipe for the third course, the passionfruit curry potato salad. Enjoy!

Read on…

A Little Zing: Creamy Lemon Spaghetti with Salmon

This dish is a little bit comfort food and a little bit for-adults-only. It’s creamy and rich but also unmistakably bright and fresh. It’s a good one to have in your back pocket for a quick weeknight dinner, especially come winter when we aren’t drowning in gorgeous produce.

I know, we’re supposed to be eating raw tomatoes out of hand, ’tis the season to be all-zucchini-all-the-time, (if you’re drowning in zukes, try this or this.) But sometimes you can’t argue with a craving.

This pasta is a spin on spaghetti al limone, zippy with lemon juice and zest, calmed with a scoop of creme fraiche (I love the Ronnybrook stuff), and elevated a bit with a few ribbons of moist, thinly-sliced smoked salmon. The salmon shouldn’t cook; just toss it in with the hot pasta to warm through. You could add some capers for a true near-bagel experience.

Read on…

Just out of the ordinary: Aztec Chocolate Cupcakes.

If you’re on this site, you are probably of the same mind as I am, but I’m going to just go ahead and say it out loud: I love the Internet. It’s the ultimate playground for a misanthrope with an esoteric shopping list such as myself. Seriously. It’s where I get my news, my entertainment, my lessons in cookery, my clothing, everything. It’s also where I stumble across such useful articles as this.

Fascinating!

I mean, before reading that, I had no idea that my intent was malicious when I brought in delicious baked goods to share with my colleagues. I thought I was just sharing something that I’d wanted to make; thank goodness I have the Daily Mail to tell me that secretly, what I want to do is distend the army of gorgeous women that I work with (and, in the interest of full disclosure, I work with some ridiculously beautiful women)! I feel so much more informed right now. So much more aware of who I am as a human. So full of evil glee. *ahem*

Now that I have revealed my innermost evil to you all, let’s talk about the delights that have formed the most recent weapon in my campaign to infect my colleagues with delicious treats: Aztec Chocolate Cupcakes! Essentially, it’s the gourmet Hostess cupcake of my dreams: chocolate cupcake with cinnamon and chili, topped with a luscious cinnamon-chocolate glaze. It’s a flavor combination I’d been contemplating for some time, enamored as I am with Mexican hot chocolate and all things cinnamon, and this seemed like the perfect vehicle. I was not wrong. The cinnamon and chili took what was originally just a perfect chocolate cupcake, and made it something warm and magical; the cinnamon-infused glaze gave it an unctuous richness.

Now, if chocolate and chili is not your jam, I’d still like to ask you to check out this recipe–omit the spices, and you’ve got what I consider to be a perfect chocolate cupcake base, an ideal canvas for your chocolate flights of fancy. It’s moist, has a lovely, light crumb, and takes to experimenting with enthusiasm. I personally plan to try at least a few more riffs on it in the near future, though I’m not yet sure what form or flavor profile that will take.

I’ll probably end up asking The Internet.

Read on…

The Quickest Biscuit: Blackberry-Peach Cobbler

This recipe is a game-changer. You may usually be the crumble type, or a pie person, but this cobbler may convert your dessert forever.

Let me introduce you to the quickest biscuit recipe you’ve ever met. It goes like this: self-rising flour, crème fraiche. A little sugar if you’d like. But that’s all. No worries if you don’t have self-rising flour around–it’s just a mix of flour, salt, and baking powder, in the quantities specified below. Mix ‘em up and use them to top your favorite fruit, sprinkle a little sugar over it all, and pop your cobbler in the oven. The biscuit topping emerges twenty-five minute later puffy and golden, pillowy inside, perfect to soak up the bubbling fruit below. A cinch, really.

The original Bon Appetit recipe calls for stovetop-cooked blueberries as a filling, but I bought blackberries instead–they’re Matt’s favorite. (He was pleased, though less pleased with the heat of the oven in his “office” on this 100-degree day. Oops…luckily the cooking time is short.) Precooking the fruit really isn’t necessary. Doubling the recipe might be–there’s no shame in eating leftover cobbler for breakfast, topped with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Read on…