Happy Happy Joy Joy - Mexican ingredients available in Australia

With only six weeks left here in the US, I was not looking forward to the prospect of leaving one of my new favourite styles of food - Mexican. Read proper mexican, not gringo mexican as Noemi would say, and certainly not the tex mex fare usually passed of as mexican in Australia. The sorts of ingredients I was after include whole dried chiles, such as ancho, guajillo, mulato, pasilla and chipotle, spices such as annatto seeds, mexican oregano and epazote (yay), as well as things such as masa harina and my tortilla press, which unfortunately I will have to leave behind.

Anyway the store is in Victoria and is called Aztec Products (http://www.aztecmexican.com.au/index.shtml). And for those of you wondering, this blog was as much about tell y'all as it was helping me remember this great find :)

Vanilla Fest - Thai Coconut Vanilla Soup with Deep Fried Tofu

Well we had the vanilla fest last night with many dishes presented. For a complete rundown, head over to Alice & Steve's blog. I ended up cooking five dishes in all, and this was the first. It is inspired by Thai flavours, complemented by some crunchy bean shoots and deep fried tofu.

Thai Coconut Vanilla Soup with Deep Fried Tofu

Serves 6

Ingredients
2 cans coconut milk
1 red chili, sliced with seeds removed
1 inch ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 vanilla pod, slit and scraped
2 stalks lemongrass, halved and bruised
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar
1-2 tbsp lime juice
1 pkt firm tofu, pressed then cubed
flour, for dusting
handful of bean shoots

Method
1. Combine the coconut milk with the chili, ginger, garlic, vanilla, tamarind, lime leaves and lemongrass in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 15 mins to allow the flavours to infuse.

2. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. Taste, adding any of the three to balance salty (fish sauce), sweet (palm sugar), and sour (lime juice). Once balanced, either proceed with recipe or remove and allow to cool. This stage can be prepared up to a day in advance.

3. When ready to serve, toss the cubes of tofu in salt, pepper and a little flour. Heat vegetable oil to 350F (180C) then carefully drop in the cubes a few at a time. Fry until golden (about a minute), stirring occasionally.

4. To serve, reheat the soup and strain. Divide the bean sprouts between six bowls, pour the soup over the top then add the tofu.

A Bounty of Vanilla - What to do?

One of my favourite spices is vanilla, with it's heady sweet aroma. One vanilla pod is a bounty indeed, only to be surpassed by...

A fistful of vanilla beans! Thanks to Rocio's recent trip back to Mexico, I now have 156 vanilla beans.

While I needed to count them to truly understand the magnitude of the bounty before me, my thoughts quickly turned to what to do with them all.

First up vanilla sugar, which is simply a couple of vanilla beans (usually ones that are used for another application and wiped clean) slit in half, the seeds scraped out and all placed in a jar with sugar. Leave it for a few weeks then use as needed. It can be whipped into a little cream to make a great chantilly cream, or used in place of normal sugar in baking sweet pastries or cakes to add a great hint of vanilla.

My question to you is what to do? If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Food for thought - The Realities of Industrial Pork Production

Warning, this is not pretty. Nor however are the conditions that over 99% of the livestock raised for meat in this country. Part of this blog is going to be a discussion on food itself, where it comes from, what goes into creating it, moving it, preparing it, eating it and cleaning up after it. Among the many food blogs that I read, I found an article on Chef Chris Cosentino's website referring to an article in the Rolling Stone Magazine (of all things) discussing the production of pork. While I won't go into details nor show the picks, you should have a look for yourself here.

Food for thought indeed.