Baby, it's cold outside.

Not really. High today in N Cakalaka - 65.

That doesn't mean that a huge bowl of salty-sweet, birds-eye-chili laden curry isn't going down my gullet, tho.

Used to be, Cheese Fondue was the holiday indulgence of choice in my casa around Xmas-time. And I'd inevitably feel like crap, after eating 2 pounds of cheese and a ton of toasty bread.

This year, we're going lighter - getting out the woks - searing some bok choy, frying some 'fu. Grabbing chopsticks instead of fondue forks. Eating more healthfully.

The coolest (read:cheesiest) part? It's red and green bonanza in this here curry, because nothing shows off the insanely gorgeous color palette de Ma Nature quite so nicely as a big bowl of stir fry.

Christmas Curry

1 red pepper, julienned
1/2 pound baby bok choy, cleaned, bottoms removed
1/2 can baby corn, rinsed
Green beans, large handful, trimmed
1 red onion, chopped
1 block tofu, drained
4 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 small can red curry paste
1 can coconut milk (full fat please)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bird's eye chilis, minced (honestly? I used 6. But I like my mouth to be on FIYAH)
1 1-inch piece of galanga
1/2 stalk lemon grass
4-6 kaffir lime leaves
8 fresh thai basil leaves
1 tablespoon sea salt
1.5 tablespoons palm sugar

Get the big wok out. No, not that one - the BIG ONE.

Drain your tofu and squeeze gently. Chop into 1 inch x 1 inch cubes.

Heat 2 tablespoons sesame oil over medium-high heat and stir fry your tofu until a crust forms, flipping often. If it gets sticky, add a little more oil. Drain on paper towels.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to wok and turn heat to high. Add onion, garlic, curry paste, bird's eyes, pepper and green beans, and toss to coat with oil/curry paste. Cover to let steam for a minute. Stir again. Cover again. Add baby corn and bok choy, stir to coat. Cover for 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, stir, and simmer 5 minutes. Taste for salt.

Ah, the old bowl o' rice trick. Make a batch of jasmine rice, using a teeny bit more water than usual (helps to keep the rice sticky). Oil a small bowl, and press your freshly-cooked rice into it, packing it down. Invert bowl over your serving plate, tap gently, and remove.

Ladle curry around rice mountain, garnish with fried scallions and cilantro, and serve.

Happy Holidays, my dearies.

Curry Malay with Gluten Free Roti!

On the long list of ethnic foods I miss from my NYC days, Malaysian Curry nears the top (ish).

There's a decent version at Cuisine Malaya, but it's pricey. So when I'm both broke and craving dusty, smokey curry, usually I'll do a batch at home. And since I've been delivering this to some GF clients of mine, coming up with a Roti recipe that would work for them was a priority this week.

(Can I just say, for a sec, that gluten free cooking and baking in particular is a tough nut to crack? Reminds me of Chemistry class. I've started actually writing recipes down, because balances are so delicate. Fun!!)

Malaysian curry is really rad because (like most delicious food) it's a melange of regional flavors. There's Indian elements, Thai elements, and of course Indonesian stuff happening. You can purchase Malay curry powders in most ethnic grocery stores, but making your own is easy-peasy if you stock a well-herbed kitchen.

Malaysian Curry spice mix: (per can coconut milk or per 3 servings - increase exponentially for bigger amounts)

Turmeric, 1 tsp
Coriander, 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek, 1/2 tsp
Cumin, 1/4 tsp
Cinammon, 2-3 grates
Fennel powder, 1/4 tsp
Cayenne, dash, for heat
Dash ground cloves

Mix it all in a small bowl and heat a cast-iron skillet to medium-low. Toast the spices for 1-2 minutes, until they're very aromatic. This will help relieve the Fenugreek of some of its bitterness and make for a deeper, richer flavor. (A pregnant client of mine told me that she takes Fenugreek supplements, as prescribed by her Doc - so maybe this is good preggers food?)


Onto the rest of the curry! You'll need:


Cardamom, 2 pods
Cilantro, bunch


1 can coconut milk
1 1/2 cups faux-chicken broth
1 tsp salt or tamari
1/2 tsp sugar


2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups fresh, chopped veggies - Zucchini, green pepper, mushroom used here
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 small tomato, chopped
1/2 avocado, diced (use a not-quite-guacamole-ripe avocado, if possible - it'll hold up better)
2 hard boiled eggs, to serve (optional, but delicious)
Fried, sliced tofu or seitan (also optional, and used here)


In a wok, heat your oil to medium-high heat. Throw the garlic and fresh veggies in, stir, add a dash of water and cover (steaming the veggies a bit as you fry will quicken their cooking time). Stir once every minute or so for 3-4 minutes, until the zucchini has softened a bit. Add your dry spices, stir to coat. Add your broth, coconut milk, cardamom pods, and cilantro. Stir well and simmer 5 minutes. Add sugar and salt, and taste the curry - you want a savory, salty flavor with a hint of sweetness. Use additional sugar if necessary. When you're digging your sauce, add the tomato, avocado, and whatever proteins you're using (ie, tofu, eggs, seitan) and stir gently. Turn off the heat and let the curry sit 5 minutes to blend the flavors.

Serve piping hot with Roti for dipping. Sooo goood.


Gluten-Free Roti


makes 4 crepe-like pancakes


1 cup GF all-purpose flour mix
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or melted butter
1/4 -1/2 cup milk or soymilk
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar


3 tablespoons ghee or butter, for frying


Mix your dry ingredients in a small bowl. In another, mix your eggs, milk, and butter/oil.

While whisking, add your wet ingredients to your dry until well combined. Check for thickness - you want the batter pancake-thick, not crepe-thick. Add additional flour or milk as needed to get there.

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter or ghee in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Grab a large spoon.

Using a circular motion, spoon batter into your hot skillet, around and around, until you've overlapped enough batter to give the pancake some substance. You'll use 3-4 large spoonfuls of batter for each roti. When you see browning around the edges of your 'cake, carefully edge your spatula under and flip the roti. You want some dark spots, which can take longer with GF flour than normal, so be patient.

Keep the roti warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve. They'll stay softer that way!

Curry Yuzu and Mushrooms, plus a recipe for longbeans.

It's lightbox night, ya'll!

Remember that wad of Shiso leaves I bragged about last weekend? Well, the first thing I felt like doing was re-familiarizing myself with their taste, since it had been a while since last I noshed on shiso. So a pesto seemed in order, something with some sesame and garlic, lightly. Over those awesome beans!

Longbeans in Shiso Pesto

Quickest side ever.

1 pound longbeans, ends trimmed, washed thoroughly
12 fresh shiso leaves, torn to pieces
1 scallion, chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds, white
1/4 cup olive and sesame oil, mixed to taste (I used about half of each, to keep the sesame taste a tad light)
Freshly ground Szechuan pepper, 3-4 grinds
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Put everything but the beans in a blender and pulverize it all, pushing down the sides with a scraper as needed, until a uniform texture is reached. Set aside in a bowl.

In a large wok, heat the veggie oil to medium high, almost smoking. Add your beans and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, until they soften a bit. Add your pesto and toss, mixing well, and continue to cook 2-3 more minutes, until the herbs are very fragrant. Either serve as is or transfer to a cutting board and chop the beans into pieces, to facilitate easy face-stuffing.

While I do love me some vegetables, and beans in particular, the consensus was that we needed something more substantial. I'd bought some yuba a couple of weeks back from my uber-favorite asian grocery and I figured I'd do something with that. Yuba is the skin left from the soymilk making process - very chewy, tres cool. You've eaten it if you've ever had "vegetarian fish" at Buddah Bodai or other vegan (read: Buddhist) dim sum places - it's usually rolled and braised and has an awesome texture.

I wanted curry, however.

So we went with stewing it in a quick panang. Turned out rather like large, chewy noodles. Tying it together with some mock duck and mushrooms (and carrots! cabbage!) made it a pretty special dinner.

Curry Yuba with Mushrooms

Yup, that's the yuba, underneath all that veggie, scallion, shallot, hot sauce goodness.

1 pkg yuba (dried bean curd skin)
1 can mock duck or chicken (gluten, available from most asian groceries)
2 scallions
1 carrot
1 small piece red cabbage
2 portobello mushroom caps
1/2 green pepper
1 can coconut milk
Dash palm sugar
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons panang curry paste
2 tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce (available at most asian groceries)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pointer-finger sized chunk of ginger, grated
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Fried shallots, Garlic Chili sauce, fresh scallions, to serve

Fill a large, rectangular container or baking sheet with warm water and soak your yuba until it softens, about 5 minutes. Cut it or tear it into long pieces and set aside in a bowl.

In a small pot, boil your coconut milk and add any flavoring agents you'd like to use (I keep lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in my freezer, so I tossed some in) as well as your curry paste, sugar, and salt. Stir well and simmer for a few minutes. Remove leaves and stalk, if using, and add your yuba - simmer for another 10 minutes. Set aside to steep.

Julienne all of your veggies and heat your sesame oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Slice your mock duck thinly. Toss your garlic, ginger, veggies, and scallion into the wok and stir fry until the carrot shows signs of softening, about 5 minutes. Add your oyster sauce and soy sauce, plus Sriracha, and stir well. Cover with a lid or pizza pan (can you guess which I use? hehehe) and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover and toss vegetables until they dry out a bit, another minute or two.

To serve:

Spoon some yuba and curry into a bowl. Make a well in the center and tong some of the mushrooms and gluten into the middle. Garnish with hot sauce, scallions, and shallots (and hey, why not, some peanuts mebbe). Munch with chopsticks, then spoons. Yum!

Pad Thai, full of SECRETZ

Inorite, Pad Thai? That blandest of Thai dishes, boooooring, who eats that crap, bla bla bla. While I've had some decent PT in my day, it isn't a dish I truly love - and when I go to a Thai establishment, I'm invariably ordering curry. But I've had to make batch after batch of this stuff lately for work, and I think I've finally got a really good, really consistent recipe. So, naturally, I wanna share.

Pad Thai

serves 3-4

12 oz rice sticks
1/3 cup Kecap Manis
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown or palm sugar
2 tablespoons tamarind puree (or 1 tablespoon concentrate soaked in 2 tablespoons hot water, mashed and strained)
1/3 cup pickled turnip, minced fine
1 tablespoon sriracha
6 cloves garlic or 6 shallots, minced
1 large handful bean sprouts
1 bunch scallions, sliced to ribbons
1 block tofu, cubed and fried, or 2 cans vegetarian duck, drained, roughly chopped, and panfried
1/2 cup crushed peanuts
1/3 cup fried shallots
Handful of fresh veggies, ie: 5 mushrooms, 1 small zucchini, 1/2 green pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large bowl, place your noodles. Boil 2 cups water, pour over, and fill the rest of the bowl with hot water from the tap. Stir with fork or salad tongs to separate noodles - you don't want the ends sticking together.

In a large measuring cup, mix the Kecap Manis, sriracha, sugar, tamarind and soy sauce together. Set aside.

In a large wok, add your oil, garlic, turnip and any "tough" veggie you're using (we used thinly sliced green pepper here). Stir fry over medium-high heat until fragrant and soft, about 6 minutes. Add your mushrooms and zucchini, if using. Stir fry until beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Add your noodles and sauce, plus your protein (duck or tofu), and half the peanuts. Grab salad tongs or two large forks and work the pile, mixing and turning over every 10 seconds or so, making sure to coat all noodles. Keep them moving so they don't stick to the wok. After sauce is absorbed, check a noodle for doneness - add water, a little soy sauce, and a little more Kecap Manis until noodles are al dente. Add your sprouts and scallions at the end, toss well, take the wok off the heat, cover, and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Pile noodles on a plate, sprinkle with remaining peanuts and fried shallots. Serve with sriracha, a slice of lime, and a couple scallions and bean sprouts scattered over top. Here, we had choy sum on the side, sauteed in garlic, ginger, and soy sauce.

So, there are 3 things that are essential to this messy process:

Salad Tongs

There is no spatula capable of stirring 5 pounds of Pad Thai properly. So grab your Tongs and go to it.

Kecap Manis

This stuff really isn't a secret, but it is ESSENTIAL. If you use only soy sauce and sugar, you'll be missing out on the smoky molasses flavor bottled here.

Salted (or pickled) Turnip

I've tried fermented bean curd, pickled mustard greens, and bamboo shoots - but nothing adds that awesome, skunky undertone like salted turnip. Yum.

If you're getting tired of Srirachaing everything to death, try this hot sauce accompaniment:

Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon juice from pickled turnips
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 fresh bird's eye chilis

Put it all in a blender and puree. VERY hot, but clean and fresh. Best for dipping.