Fire! I Have Created Fire!

Thai food lovers, rejoice with me! I have mastered one tiny facet, one infinitesimal corner of the cuisine, successfully understood and reproduced the making of red curry sauce. Oops, suddenly I realize how much more there is to learn about Thai cooking. Oh well. It was a great moment. 

Thaifood.about.com has a recipe for "Thai Red Curry Paste" by Darlene Schmidt, which was where I started. As I've mentioned, I can't completely follow a recipe unless it has leavening.

• 1 shallot or 1/4 purple onion (I used 1 purple onion because 3/4 would stink up the fridge)
• 1 stalk lemongrass, minced (lemongrass is tough and difficult to chop so I used the most tender parts from all the stalks in the bundle, oh well)
• 1-2 red chilis (I used all the red ones in the package, discarding any green or brown chilis)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-sized piece of galangal (I used regular ginger, a piece the size of my fist)
• 2 T tomato puree
• 1 t ground cumin (1/2 tea cumin seeds, pulverized to powder)
• 3/4 t ground coriander (same as the cumin seeds)
• 1/4 t ground white pepper
• 2 T fish sauce (removed top from bottle, cleaned away salt)
• 1 t shrimp sauce
• 1 t brown sugar (plan to try jaggery next time)
• 1 1/2 t chili powder (ooh, chipotle chili powder would be good)
• 3 T coconut milk (shake the can hard to mix before using, add more if too thick)
• 2 T lime juice
• 1/4 t cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and puree well. This will make a thick, strong-smelling paste which will mellow when you cook it. There will be enough for one curry, or in my case, for at least two curries. Heat with a little oil or butter, then add your choice of vegetables and meat. I used shredded leftover chicken, diced carrots, chopped beans, snow peas and spinach; served with steamed rice, sprinkled with chopped cilantro.

The second half of this recipe was heated with oil, vegetables, chicken, rice, broth and more coconut milk to make a thick soup. I like to use green and orange vegetables (broccoli, string beans, peas, snow peas, spinach, carrots, yams). This was very hot and spicy but so good I couldn't stop eating it. 

Baby Seedlings, Mommy Gardener

About 10 days ago I seeded a 50 cells planting tray with mostly tomatoes, five cells of rainbow mix Swiss chard and five of huckleberries. The first day I soaked the cells good (with the garden hose on dribble) and left them out in the sunshine all day. The next few days the tray stayed out all day, but I brought it into the garage at night (15 degrees warmer than outside and no risk of birds and squirrels when the dog and I weren’t around). Five days ago, the first seedlings sprouted.

I’m pretty sure they are chard. The next day, I took the tray to work and left it on my desk (on a layer of paper towels) in the bright office fluorescent lights all day. The tray has been going back and forth from outside in sunshine to inside (warmer with fluorescent lights) for almost a week now, and almost every single cell has sprouts, except for one row which must be the huckleberries, which should have been stratified, but I haven’t given up on them yet. I emailed their eBay seller a request for a photo of huckleberry sprouts, which will be sent when the seller returns from vacation.

Last night and this morning I’ve been gripped with a huge sense of responsibility, similar in feel but not in degree to the sense of responsibility when my daughter was born. I planted these seeds at the wrong time of year and they are dependent on me now to live. Holy crap. With a child, you can seek advice from all kinds of sources – relatives, friends, pediatricians, advice nurses, baby books, internet – but sources for baby seedlings are rare. I’m digging around gardening sites for guidance. I'm trying to figure out how to rig up a growing light and I need a greenhouse. I have about a week before these tiny seedlings will outgrow their "baby clothes" and need to be transplanted into pots. Actually, they need to be planted in the ground but that's not an option in mid-November.  

Interline Travel with the Wi-Fi Bandit

Do you like to travel? Explore new places, meet people, taste new foods? Everyone who says they love to travel should go on a trip with an interline flier (an airline employee who flies space available – last on, first bumped off). The excitement and uncertainty will make you appreciate the 30 cubic feet of space allotted to you by your plane ticket, even if you still wish you could “fly for free”. Accompanied by my interline friend, I went “leafpeeping” in New England last month, carrying my laptop, printouts of Boston bus schedules, and Plans A, B, C and D.

Plan A is that I fly to Boston, catch a bus to Portsmouth and wait at the terminal. Plan B is take bus to Manchester, pick up the rental car from the airport, drive to Portsmouth, check into hotel and wait for further instructions. Plan D: everything has gone to hell, my travel companion has been rerouted to Fargo and is stuck. Go on vacation by yourself. Plan C? Never set up since Plan A seemed feasible all along. Text messages were exchanged as we flew across country on different flights and times. What a relief, when my plane landed in Boston, to read “ON CLT TO MHT” which meant back to Plan A.

I meet up with PepsiPal, who forgives me my daily coffee while I forgive him his Pepsi transgressions.  When you travel and everything is strange or new, just having the coffee I want creates my comfort zone. Driving around Portsmouth, in search of food and cheap champagne (California wines’ prices make me laugh, I’ve already seen enough to keep me busy for several days. Smuttynose Brewing Company offers tours and tastings Fridays and Saturdays. I’m intrigued by the name and want to try the Pumpkin Ale, the Winter Ale and the upcoming S’Muttonator Double Bock.

There are little Adirondacks on the front lawn of the hotel like an illustration in a children’s book. Breakfast, the next morning, is a crowded business of many people milling around a small room stoking up on calories for a strenuous day of staring at autumn colors. I sit down with my oatmeal and fruit next to a French couple who look like models from an Air France advertisement. They are going to Boston next. What do you say to somebody from France who wants to brave Boston traffic to visit the Freedom Trail? PepsiPal gave them some tips while visions of “Escape from Logan Airport” run through my head.

We are en route to Whaleback Light at Kittery, Maine although I am fully aware that said lighthouse is on an island, difficult to access by boat, and not open to the public. It’s located on the Piscataqua River, closest town is Kittery, established in 1830 and automated in 1963. The 50 foot granite tower originally had a fourth-order Fresnel lens, its present optic is a VLB-44 and the distinguishing characteristic is two white flashes every 10 seconds. The fog signal is two blasts every 30 seconds. These characteristics seem irrelevant until you realize that the two white flashes is unique to the area and serves as a landmark. There are no signposts on the ocean.

Speaking of signposts, I’ve heard they are rarer than hen’s teeth in New England. Sure enough, we get turned around, do some driving in circles and before you know it, we’re halfway to York. Dammit!! Missed the first lighthouse on the Maine coast!! Stay tuned for October sunbathers in New England and what to do in Kennebunkport.