Shellfish Chowder

Chowder is arguably one of the most comforting dishes to eat on a cold, winter night. I even ate it on quite a few occasions when I was living in Bangkok. The best supermarket for expats who are missing their local food is Gourmet Market, which is located in both Siam Paragon and the Emporium shopping centres. They always had a great range of chowders and bisques, and they were pretty much the only Western food that I ate while I was in Thailand. Seafood chowder is a beautiful and unique dish. Apart from the seafood, the basic ingredients of a chowder are relatively simple and almost what would be considered peasant food – potato, onion and bacon. These ingredients, combined with the delicious creamy soup, ensure that the seafood is not overwhelmed by exotic or overly robust flavours, and as such the flavour of the sea is the champion of a chowder.

You could add pretty much any type of seafood to a chowder – crustaceans, molluscs or fish. This recipe calls for clams, mussels and scallops. When preparing the seafood, it’s important to make sure that they have been scrubbed well and, in the case of mussels, de-bearded. De-bearding refers to the process of pulling out the hairy looking thing sticking out of the mussel. Don’t let it deter you from eating these! I used to find mussels quite unappealing, as they can often be tough and rubbery if overcooked. In this instance, they were cooked perfectly. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten mussels that were so tender, and so I was very proud of that fact. One of the interesting things that I discovered in the course of preparing the chowder is the myth regarding mussels that fail to open after they have been cooked. The common belief is that if mussels don’t open, they aren’t suitable for eating. However, I discovered that it is, actually a myth. Unopened mussels are perfectly fine to eat – the reason for them not opening can just come down to the membrane of the mussel that is connected to the shell. Of course, if you want to be careful you can still throw these mussels out, but try to open them before you do so and you may discover that they’re perfectly fine, which is usually the case.

Chowder comes from the north-east of North America, namely New England and Newfoundland. There is a group of thought that chowder made its way to North America from France. While there are elements of this recipe that reflect French cooking, especially the use of thyme and white wine, there’s no concrete evidence that it actually came from France. As I’ve often said, a dish reflects the area from which it comes from, and chowder is certainly no exception. The north-east coast of North America has some of the best seafood in the world, especially crustaceans and molluscs. Seafood, subsequently, is a major part of the cuisine in that area and, given the very cold climate in those areas, a comforting soup that warms and fills the stomach and uses the freshest local produce is perfectly suited to the lifestyle of the locals. So I recommend this dish for a cold winter night, and crusty fresh bread, such as sourdough, is almost a necessity along with a nice glass of white wine.

Recipe (serves 4):

500g clams

500g mussels

8 scallops

1 cup water

½ cup dry white wine

1 bay leaf

8 sprigs thyme

2 brown onions, peeled & finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely diced (my addition)

4 rashers bacon, finely chopped

2 potatoes, peeled & finely chopped

2 cups single (pouring) cream

Sea salt & cracked black pepper

Soak the clams and mussels in cold water for 20 mins to remove any sand and drain. De-beard the mussels (pull and remove the hairy bit on the side of the mussel).

Place the clams, mussels, water, wine, bay leaf and thyme in a large saucepan. Cover and cook, shaking occasionally, over a medium heat for 5 mins.

Remove clams and mussels from the pan and discard any unopened ones. Reserve a few clams and mussels in their shells for serving. Remove the meat from the remaining ones and discard the shells. Strain the cooking liquid and set aside.

Cook the onion and bacon in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring, until the onion is translucent. Add the potato, reserved cooking liquid and cream. Cover and simmer over a medium-low heat for 10 mins or until the potato is soft.

Add the scallops and cook for 2 mins, then add the clam and mussel meat, salt and pepper. Cook for 1 min or until warmed through. Serve in shallow bowls topped with the reserved clams and mussels in their shells and crusty bread on the side.

Cuisine: North American

Source: “Seasons” by Donna Hay

Rating: Five stars

Laksa with Beef and Dried Prawns (Guay Tio Kaew)

This laksa recipe from David Thompson is the War and Peace of laksa recipes, if not all Asian recipes. Indeed, it’s the most complicated, lengthy and labour-intensive recipe I’ve ever cooked. A brief look at the ingredients of the recipe indicates the multi-layered elements of this laksa. I actually prepared and cooked it over two nights – I prepared the laksa paste on the first night, which itself took longer than the usual laksa paste takes to make because of the unique method of char-grilling the garlic and ginger. In my opinion, it would just be impossible to cook this in a single night unless you had help from your partner or someone else (I cooked it by myself and so had to prepare all of the elements). I’m not saying at all that the effort isn’t worth it, but you need to be prepared to spend a great deal of time and energy in making this dish. While I always enjoy the process of cooking and creating, I must admit that it was a stressful dish to make, and by the time I had finished it, my shoulders and neck were so tense that I could barely turn my head. I think a great deal of the stress comes from time management – the timing of all the separate elements of this dish is quite important, and you need to make sure that you pay attention to all of these elements in order to bring them together at their peaks.

The recipe is quite unique and interesting, and in my opinion it’s actually arguable whether it ultimately is a laksa or not. It comes from Thai Street Food by David Thompson, perhaps the best non-native expert on Thai food (other than myself, of course). Certainly, laksa is not a Thai dish. It originates from Malaysia and Singapore, and to a lesser degree from Indonesia. Laksa is in my top three favourite foods in the world, what I call my 'desert island' foods. Everyone has probably asked themselves this hypothetical – if you were placed on a desert island and could only eat one dish for the rest of your life, what would it be? Well, one dish would become monotonous after a while, so I've altered the hypothetical to include three dishes. It’s one of those difficult questions to answer, such as what your favourite movie of all time is, because there are so many dishes that I love. I think the three would be stuffed crust pepperoni pizza (we’re all allowed an unsophisticated dish!), Thai red curry and laksa.

So I’m very familiar with laksa and its basic elements. Further, I lived and worked in Thailand for one and a half years, not to mention all the other times that I have travelled there, so I know a great deal about Thai cuisine. I was going to say that I know the A-Z of Thai cuisine, but it’s such a broad and regional cuisine that I think it’s impossible to cover the gamut of Thai food without immersing yourself in all areas of Thailand for many, many years. Basically, while this recipe is delicious, it’s not really a Thai dish in my opinion. Nowhere in Thailand have I ever come across a laksa – most Thai people don’t even know what laksa is! Further, it certainly isn’t considered a common form of street food, which Thailand is famous for. There are definitely elements of Thai cuisine in the dish, but to label it as not only a laksa but an example of Thai street food is, in my humble opinion, incorrect and a misrepresentation of Thai food. It actually more closely resembles a Thai red curry than a laksa, as the consistency of the ‘soup’ is quite thick, similar to red curries, whereas laksa soup is usually not nearly as viscous.

Saying all that, this dish is certainly worth the effort! The final result is a delicious combination of some of the best flavours of south-east Asian cooking. The fact that it isn’t exactly a laksa or a red curry, but something in between, is actually quite intriguing and provides a unique eating experience for lovers of Asian food. There could be an argument that there are too many competing flavours and elements to the dish, but south-east Asian food can be quite complex and layered. So prepare yourself in advance if you want to make this dish, which I recommend you do, and I recommend you make it as I did over two nights, unless, as I said, you are going to have help in making it. Just enjoy it for what it is – not a traditional Thai recipe, not an example of Thai street food, not really a laksa, but nevertheless a delicious, creative and ultimately fulfilling recipe.

Recipe (serves 2-3):

400g beef flank, cheek, shin or brisket

2 cups coconut milk

2¼ cups coconut cream

3 cups stock or water

Good pinch of salt

3 bay leaves

2 green cardamom pods

3cm cassia bark piece or cinnamon quill

2 pandanus leaves, knotted

2-3 tbs fish sauce

Pinch of white sugar

¼-½ tsp roasted chilli powder

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

½ cup sliced red shallots

150g firm tofu

250g fresh rice vermicelli or 200g dried rice vermicelli, soaked for 20 mins

3 cups bean sprouts

¼ cup dried prawns, coarsely ground

2 tbs preserved Chinese vegetable (dtang chai) rinsed and drained

3 eggs, hardboiled, shelled and quartered

¼ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

2 tbs chopped spring onions

2 tbs chopped coriander

Wedges of lime & roasted chilli powder to serve

Laksa paste

2 bamboo skewers

5 dried long red chillies

1 tbs coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2-3 cloves

5 slices ginger

4 garlic cloves, unpeeled

3-5 dried bird’s eye chillies

Pinch of salt

2 tbs chopped lemongrass

1 tsp Thai shrimp paste

2 tsp curry powder for beef (see below)

Pinch of grated nutmeg

Curry powder for beef

5 long peppers known as pipalli or peepar (optional)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1½ tbs coriander seeds

1 tbs cumin seeds

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp fennel seeds

7 Thai cardamom pods or 4 green cardamom pods, husked

2 tbs turmeric powder

1½ tbs ground ginger

To make the curry powder for beef, grind the whole spices to a powder using a mortar and pestle. Add the turmeric and ginger, then pass the powder through a sieve. Store in the fridge.

Next, make the laksa paste. Soak the skewers in water for about 30 mins. Nip off the stalks of the dried long red chillies, then cut along their length and scrape out the seeds. Soak the chillies in water for about 15 mins until soft.

Meanwhile, separately roast the coriander, cumin and cloves in a dry, heavy-based frying pan, shaking the pan, until aromatic. Grind to a powder using a mortar and pestle.

Thread the ginger and garlic onto individual skewers. Grill all the skewers: the ginger need only be coloured, but the garlic must be charred and the flesh soft. Allow to cool, then peel the garlic.

Drain the soaked chillies, squeezing to extract as much water as possible, then roughly chop them. Rinse the dried bird’s eye chillies to remove any dust. Using a mortar & pestle, pound the long red chillies with the salt and, when reduced to a paste, add the bird’s eye chillies. Continue to pound, adding the lemongrass, galangal, shallots, ginger, garlic and shrimp paste, reducing each one to a fine paste before adding the next. Finally, stir in the ground spices, curry powder and nutmeg.

Place the beef in cling-wrap in the freezer for 30 mins beforehand. Trim the beef and cut into thin slices around 2cm thick. Rinse well and dry.

In a large saucepan or stockpot, bring the coconut milk, 2 cups of the stock and 1 cup of the coconut cream to the boil with the salt. Add the paste and, when it has dissolved, the beef. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the beef is just cooked and beginning to become tender. This could take anywhere between 25-45 mins.

In a dry, heavy-based frying pan, briefly roast the cardamom or bay leaves, cardamom pods and cassia bark/cinnamon quill, then add them to the beef, along with the pandanus. Simmer for another 5 mins, skimming occasionally.

Return the soup to the boil (after the option of straining it) and add the fish sauce, sugar and chilli powder. Add the remaining cup of stock and another cup of the coconut cream. Leave to simmer very gently for several minutes, stirring as needed. It improves if left to stand for an hour or so at this point.

Meanwhile, pour the vegetable oil into a large, stable wok or a wide, heavy-based pan until it is about 2/3 full. Heat the oil over a medium-high flame until it reaches 180 degrees. Deep-fry the shallots in the oil until golden, stirring so they cook evenly, then drain on paper towel. Deep-fry the dried chillies for a few moments, then drain on paper towel. Pat the tofu dry and deep-fry it until it has a golden skin. Once drained, cut tofu into cubes. Reserve the oil as the Laksa may need to be enriched later.

When almost ready to serve, re-heat the soup and check the seasoning – it shouldn’t be too thick. The surface should be dappled with an attractive amount of oil. If not, add 1-2 tbs of the remaining oil.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Pull apart the rice noodle strands and add to the water, together with 2 cups of the bean sprouts. Simmer for a moment or two then drain and divide among four bowls. Add the beef and ladle over the soup.

Sprinkle the Laksa with the ground dried prawns, preserved Chinese vegetable, quarters of hard-boiled egg, roasted peanuts and the remaining cup of bean sprouts. Garnish each bowl with 1 tbs of the remaining coconut cream, 1 tbs of the deep-fried shallots, and some spring onion and coriander. Serve with wedges of lime and roasted chilli powder.

Cuisine: Thai (arguable)

Source: “Thai Street Food” by David Thompson

Rating: Four stars