Potato Salad—Chaat Style

I have a rocky relationship with potato salad. I don’t love mayonnaise. And, it pains me as a centrist, but I can’t even comprehend the appeal of store-bought potato salad. But, a boutique potato salad can be quite appealing. I love a Japanese potato salad. I sometimes even enjoy a vinegary potato salad. So, the other night, I decided to combine the powers of Indian chaat with potato salad. I had a brown curry sauce from a chicken biriyani. But, it could easily be made just for this purpose and that would make it vegetarian. I then made a quick coriander chutney. I finished it with chopped onion, chopped red pepper, Major Gray’s Mango Chutney, and sev (fried noodles made of chickpea flour.) Puffed rice would have been nice, if I had it on hand. I decided to go overboard with display. But, the flavors were nice. Perhaps I need to make this in a more potato salad format. Stay tuned.

The Luck of the Draw

Luck is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a force that brings good fortune or adversity.” (I would have quoted the OED but they charge.) Today was a day where I wondered if this force was against me today. This is what I deliberated while my husband drove in a blizzard towards dim sum. We were motivated by memory, an extremely powerful emotion. Valentine’s Day, commercial as it is, holds in it a cultural imperative to express something special to a certain someone. Our first Valentine’s Day, my husband and I ate Mamma Santa’s pizza and watched TV. This might not seem romantic, but had we had decided as a couple that this was romantic to us.

With Belle around, I decided to make Sunday all about my flu-free husband in lieu of the actual Valentine’s Day. I decided to make it a double-header—dim sum for lunch and chicken biryani for lunch. Each of these meals has strong memories for us.

And therein was likely my problem. The taste, the smell, the texture of food can be such a powerful trigger for memory. Expecting food to live up to a memory is a fool’s errand. The weather on Sunday, with its white out’s and high winds, definitely attempted to tell me that my plans were foolish. But, I am not particularly attuned to nature or the stars or anything intangible, and so we still endeavored on to get dim sum.

While my mom babysat, we ran into Li Wah just before 3pm (1.5 hours after we left home). The restaurant was definitely winding down. There were families sitting around round tables with small round empty tins sitting on the table attesting to the revelry that had just occurred. There restaurant seemed to be in a collective food coma. And, then there was us—full of expectation and memory of happy Chinese New Year’s past. Three dim sum carts rolled up post-haste and we said yes to everything. There were a very nice shrimp in green pepper and some nice spare ribs. We ate quietly remembering all the good times while listening to a Chinese Language program on the flat screen TV in the corner.



On the way home, I attempted to resurrect the afternoon with baked goods, but alas, Sunday seems to be the day that the baker’s rest and all of the places on the way home were closed.

When we got home, I was still confident enough to make the biriyani. I have never really perfected the dish. It requires par-cooking the meat and the rice to a certain point and then baking them so they finish together. We had a great time cooking, but the resulting dish was not particularly good. It wasn’t inedible, but the rice was overcooked.
So, after luck kept foiling our many attempts at the ideal meal, we ended up eating apples and a valdeon (a Spanish blue.) I would like to say this was the happy ending, and the cheese was quite good. But, the unsatisfying day was not easily mitigated, even by a good cheese.

M--'s Wonderful Thai-ish Wonderful Stew

As I said last week, my friend M-- is a great cook. I didn't say that she is also a wonderful person, but aren't they linked? All the people who I know who are great cooks are also enjoyable people. Food lovers are fun. This friend also has a great sense of humor, makes pysanky like nobody's business, and has there for me for a couple of decades. In that time, we have discussed food constantly--tamari or soy sauce; molecular gastronomy; caramel cake.... And, so if you see a recipe posted through by M-- in my blog not only know that it was originated by a great cook but also a great friend.

Recipes:
M--'s Thai-ish Tofu Stew...Vegan!!!
1 block firm tofu, frozen, defrosted, drained, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 a butternut squash
1 sweet potato
12 shitake mushrooms
3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
3 tbs oil
1 can premium coconut milk
cilantro, washed and chopped - maybe 1/4 cup?
1 lime, quartered
6 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
1 inch galangal
2 stalks lemongrass
10 lime leaves
1 tbsp oil

1) Grate garlic, ginger, and galangal. Add to a medium pot with oil. Fry gently on medium low heat.

2) Chop sweet potato and squash into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces. Chop mushrooms into quarters (I like to remove the stems and chop them finely). Add vegetables to pot. Add water to cover, and add lemongrass (cut each stalk into about 4 pieces and split down the middle if you like...makes it harder to pick out when serving but gets more flavour out) and lime leaves. Simmer until vegetables are tender, adding more water if necessary to keep them covered.

3) Heat oil to medium heat in a good frying pan. Dry tofu thoroughly with dishcloth or paper towels. Fry tofu chunks until nice and golden, turning over once. It will probably take 2 or 3 batched to fry all the tofu successfully. Add more oil if necessary. After draining, sprinkle tamari over fried tofu.

4) Add tofu to the stew, and pour in the coconut milk. If you've bought a lovely, rich, premium brand, it may be mostly solid in the jar. Scrape it out - it will melt in the stew. Add cilantro. Cook the stew for a few minutes longer to make sure it is all hot and the flavours are beautifully blended.

5) Serve over broad rice noodles or jasmine rice with lime wedges and cilantro garnish. If you're feeding guests or children, pick out the lemongrass and lime leaves - neither is fun to bite into. If you aren't vegetarian, you might like to season the stew with fish sauce, although I didn't. This recipe made enough stew for dinner for two, and about 5 lunches. Personally, I would double the tofu next time, because I love it so dearly, and I wanted more of its chewy goodness in each serving. Enjoy!!!