Tag Archives: food

Courage!

After some tinkering, I believe I have successfully recreated that excellent drink based on the Courage coffee drink from ‘Rice to Riches‘. ‘Courage’ is a chocolate orange espresso drink with a spicy kick. My version is a bit healthier since it has no sugar and no saturated fat when using a plant-based milk.

To recreate the Courage drink, you will need:

  • a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • a shot or two of espresso
  • 2 to 3 (2-inch) orange rind strips
  • 2 dried red chilies (More or less according to taste. I like mine extra spicy, so I use 3. You may roughly tear them up to maximize the kick at the back of your throat.)
  • about 12 oz. milk (I like almond milk, but you can use skim, whole, soy, or whatever you have on hand)

1) Put the chilies, orange rind strips, and milk in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Remove from heat and steep for 10-15 minutes.*

2) Mix the cocoa powder into the espresso.

3) Strain out the chilies and orange rind into a cup. Add the espresso cocoa mix and stir.

4) Enjoy.**

*When I’m in a hurry to catch the morning train, I just dump the contents of the saucepan into a travel mug, add the espresso and cocoa, and let it steep like tea that way. A spill proof mug is great when I’m running for the bus. :p

**If you’re one of those namby pambies who couldn’t take coffee without sugar, go ahead and add the sugar, you effeminate punk.

[originally published on LiveJournal]

This is why Thai food is awesome. ;)

Curry is no way an English invention, no matter what cretin insists it’s so. Especially if he’s coming from a land where the cuisine is notoriously bland. How else can you explain them confusing a simple dipping sauce for a chemical attack?

That’s got to be some damn good chili when a hazmat team seals off your street.

Which reminds me of a time when a former tenant, an English woman, called up my mother to complain of a strange chemical or gas smell coming out of our kitchen. My mother was cooking Chinese food.

So, do you want to spark your own ‘terror alert’ incident? The recipe is included in the article right here.

[originally published on LiveJournal]

Nam prik pao

4 tbsp oil; 3 tbsp chopped garlic; 3 tbsp chopped shallots; 3 tbsp chopped dried red chillies; 1 tbsp fermented shrimp paste; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tsp palm sugar

Heat the oil, add the garlic and shallots and fry briefly. Remove from oil and set aside. Add chillies and fry until they start to change colour. Remove and set aside. In a pestle and mortar, pound the shrimp paste, add the chillies, garlic and shallots. Over a low heat return all the ingredients to the oil, and fold into a uniform paste. The resulting thick, slightly oily red/black sauce will keep almost indefinitely. If you wish you can add more fish sauce and/or sugar to get the flavour you want.

spiced pecans!

I was trying to recreate this particular nut mix with the method from this recipe when I realized I’m out of maple syrup. So I had to make do with some Korean citron honey tea that was lying around. It worked out quite well and it did save me the trouble of zesting the orange.

Here’s what I did:

Take about 2 heaping teaspoons of the citron tea and mix in a little bit of warm water; just enough to make it into the consistency of maple syrup. Stir that into the pecans until well coated. Then mix in some fresh ground black pepper and a few pinches of ground cardamom. (Yeah, I know cardamom was not originally in the prepackaged kind, but I like it for the added kick.)

Spread the nuts on a foil-lined flat baking sheet in an even single layer and bake in a preheated 350o oven for 10–15 minutes. Stir and flip the nuts every 5 minutes. Before the last five minutes, stir in a handful of dried cranberries and continue baking until toasted and most of the liquid absorbed. Foil bits sticking to pecans doesn’t taste very good, so cool just long enough to handle and transfer the nuts into a container.

Yum.  ^_^