from Steamy Kitchen food column in Tampa Tribune

If I had to just choose one thing, “my killer app” in the kitchen, it would be salt. It doesn’t matter what cuisine I’m cooking, salt is the basis of flavor in a savory dish. Call me a salt snob, but I stay away from the regular table salt, mainly because it tastes like crap! The granules are way too fine, the anti-caking agent just sounds gross and added iodine is sooooo 1920’s. The taste reminds me of…um…getting smacked in the face with a salt lick dipped in a vat of bitters?

Normally, I use kosher salt in the kitchen, mainly because of the texture and cheap price. I really like the feel of kosher salt in my fingers as I’m seasoning, and I’ve learned to season by sight, feel and taste. I’m just too lazy to bust out the measuring spoons, because each time, I have to wash and wipe dry the set of awkward, clanging, dangling spoons for fear of tainting the oregano with chili powder or powdered sugar with vanilla extract. How inefficient! Wouldn’t it be cool if spice jars came with twist lids that doled out the spice in teaspoon increments? What a great product idea. And if you steal my idea, at least take me out to dinner. But I digress.

I also use sea salt and serve sea salt at the table. Sea salt is evaporated sea water, and you’d be surprised at how many different types of sea salt there are, Australia’s Murray River pink salt crystals, salt from the tropical salt beds of Bali, grey salt from France and even Hawaiian black lava salt. The colors are naturally occurring and the taste? Imagine standing at the clear, blue water’s edge in the Mediterranean, closing your eyes and letting the crashing waves mist your face. I call that $12.95 for an 8oz vacation!

Normally, because of its price, I reserve sea salt as a “finishing salt” to sprinkle on a dish either at the table or after the cooking process. But guess what I discovered at the market? Affordable sea salt that is shaped and textured just like kosher salt. Look for Alessi Fine Sea Salt at the market or Pure Ocean sold by Seasalt.com. Pure Ocean is Kosher certified, if that’s important to you. If you see other brands of sea salt at the market, look at the label and make sure that the only ingredient is salt.

So, now that sea salt is finally affordable enough to play with, let’s take it one step further and talk about combining spices and herbs with sea salt to create flavored salts. One of my favorites is orange and lemon zest, which is perfect for summertime dishes and keeps in a jar for months.

It’s great on any seafood, steamed vegetables or grilled chicken. Cut back on the amount of salt that you normally use during cooking and instead, sprinkle the Citrus Flavored Sea Salt on top of the dish to finish. You can certainly cook with the flavored sea salt, but using it as a finishing salt really lets the flavors sing.

The formula is simple - spice or dried herbs + fine ground sea salt. If you’re using fresh ingredients (like citrus zest) make sure you dry them out in the oven first. Other combinations that work well: Chili powder + lime zest; toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorn or even lavender + mint, which is great on lamb or eggs. If you don’t want to make you own, check out

SeaSalt.com - they have some fabulous fusion flavors like Espresso Brava (great on steaks), Spicy Curry, Vintage Merlot, Chili Verde, Black Truffle, Thai Ginger, Smoked Serrano and Soy Sauce Salt.

Curry Salt

2 teaspoons curry powder + 1/4 very fine sea salt

Make sure you get the “fine sea salt” when working with a powder spice. If you can’t find the “fine” grind, then just throw it in the food processor or spice grinder and pulse a few times. This salt is excellent on roasted cauliflower!

Sichuan Peppercorn Salt

Sichuan Peppercorn or Szechuan Peppercorn is really not a peppercorn at all - its a berry from a bush that will make your tongue and lips tingle and numb when you eat them. Yes, its legal. No, you can’t snort it. When you dry-roast the peppercorns, your entire house will smell heavenly…woodsy, citrusy, earthy…so incredibly aromatic

Dry toast 1/4 cup of Sichuan Peppercorn in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure you don’t burn the spice! It should take about 5 minutes and you’ll see a bit of smoke. Let cool and grind in spice grinder or food processor and combine with equal amount of sea salt.

Sichuan Peppercorn is great in:

Sichuan Peppercorn Roasted Chicken

Grilled Giant Prawns with Sichuan Peppercorn Dipping Salt

Citrus Flavored Sea Salt

2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons orange zest
¼ cup sea salt (fine)

Preheat oven to 200F. Set a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread out the lemon and orange zest. Bake for 30 minutes or until the zest has dried. Combine with sea salt. Store in covered glass jar on counter.

Wow, this stuff is great on just about anything - chicken, fish, vegetables, pork…I use this salt the most in my cooking because it’s just lifts any dish that I make with a bright, cheerful color and fragrance!

Great with carrots:

Honey Ginger Carrots with Citrus Salt

Matcha Green Tea Salt

1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder + 1/4 very fine sea salt (you may have to grind your sea salt in food processor or spice grinder if you don’t get the fine sea salt)

Matcha or Maccha is Japanese green tea powder made from the highest quality of green tea leaves. Its a stunning and lovely mossy color which makes such a pretty finishing salt, especially if you use a white plate and also sprinkle some directly on the plate. Matcha powder + sea salt + couple pulses in food processor if you are using course sea salt

You know what is so totally divine? Your favorite chocolate truffle or chocolate bar + dip in Matcha Salt. So very different!

Use with dishes that are light in texture and flavor, like eggs, tofu, fish, since this salt’s flavor is more delicate and subtle. It gives a beautiful floral, grassy, sweet and soothing aroma. You can buy Matcha powder at your local Asian market. Sometimes coffee/tea shops will carry as well. But…matcha green tea powder is not the same as green tea leaves. Ask specifically for “matcha powder.” Its a little expensive. I paid $7.50 for 1.4 oz jar at a Japanese market in Los Angeles (which will last me a long time as I only used about 1 teaspoon in my mixture. Don’t get the super-premium stuff, it would be a waste to use the expensive powder for the salts. Buy online at Amazon (this is the brand I got). Use your leftover powder to make:

White Chocolate Matcha Ice Cream.

**

And if you haven’t read this yet:

“WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?” Come read the responses from readers - guaranteed to make you laugh!

If there’s one thing that I absolutely cannot stand, it’s wasting vibrant, perky produce. But when a recipe calls for only 1 tbl of fresh, minced herb and the store only sells them in gargantuan bunches, my palms sweat as I begin planning my week’s menu all around this stupid little herb, just so every last bit of it gets used. Cooking is no longer fun when I have to come up with concoctions like Chocolate Parsley Ice Cream, Oooey, Gooey, Caramel Oregano Buns or even Lucky Charms with Marjoram Sprinkles just to avoid the guilt of being a wasteful human being and risk bad veggie karma.

Wouldn’t it be cool if produce stores sold herbs by the fraction of an ounce? Like, I could go and pinch a teeny, tiny little bud of dill that weighed 2 grams, because that’s all the recipe called for. I’d gladly pay double the price just so I don’t have to open my refrigerator door and have this dill monster shaking its now soggy, flaccid fist at me, screaming, “Curse you, vegetable sinner!”

Last fall, inspired by my friend, Jan, I began planting my own herb and vegetable garden to combat this problem. I had visions of running outside on a whim, caressing my beautiful, lively herbs, inhaling its sweet, grassy fragrance, and only plucking what I needed for tonight’s supper. Dreamily, I purchased 3 tomato vines, 6 different herbs, a selection of 4 gourmet lettuces, broccoli, 3 chili peppers, and 3 lime trees. I could hardly wait!
It’s been 4 months. So, you wanna know what really happened? Well, the plants grew fast and furious – the tomatoes shot up 3 feet in one month and started popping out hundreds of green tomatoes, the herbs went hopping mad and took over the entire side of the lanai, especially the mint, which began its hostile takeover of garlic chives. The colossal broccoli leaves cannibalized all available sunlight and left poor chili peppers to crane its neck this way and that just to reach a spot of warmth.

The garden totally consumed me – from figuring out what to do with a bucket of lettuce leaves every other day to scolding mint bully to back the hell off of chives. I began giving away bouquets of herbs to friends, neighbors, the mailman. I left bags of tomatoes in unlocked cars at the gas station. I hid herbs in my purse, pouncing on anyone browsing in the herb section, “Hey, ya want some free herbs?” And no, Thai Basil is not smokable.

It was bad, outta control bad. Thankfully, the “Giant Arctic Florida Freeze of 2008” happened in January and the frost took down about half of my crops.

BEFORE AFTER ARCTIC FLORIDA FREEZE

I KNOW! I KNOW! Slap me. I bragged about my tomato harvest on Christmas Eve! Some weather god up there must have heard me say, “neener neener boo-boo!” and POOF! The Giant Arctic Florida Freeze was all my fault. I take full responsibility and in the future will think twice before rubbing the Florida sunshine in someone else’s freezing ass.

Well, in the end, peace has once again descended upon the Steamy Kitchen household and a happy medium with my garden has been discovered. The frost left me with straggly bits of cilantro and mint, a few peppers and a big bucket of fallen green tomatoes. My good friend, Jeremy of Cork Restaurant in Sarasota, shared with me his recipe for Green Tomato & Jalapeno Jam. It’s heavenly sweet heat slathered in a simple grilled chicken sandwich.

In case you are wondering…

We Tampa Bay Floridians are a bunch of pussies. Keep in mind that The Giant Arctic Florida Freeze happened early January, which is normally the middle of the frickin’ winter in the United States.

NEWS HEADLINES: because our reporters have nothing else to sensationalize

“Tampa’s Massive Arctic Blast”
“Tampa Braces for Deep Freeze”
“Record Lows as Tampans Prepare for Winter Freeze”

The freeze indeed did happen. Just for like 2 hours. REALLY! For 2 whole entire hours, the citizens of my community did not know what to do. We were scared shitless.

THE REALITY

January 2nd: flip flops, shorts
**January 3rd: flip flops, jeans, light jacket, socks** <–THE FREEZE. I wore socks with my flip flops. Think GHETTO-Geisha.
January 4th: flip flops, jeans, light jacket
January 5th: flip flops, shorts

You don’t believe me? OMG. Watch this short clip - if you look realllly hard, you’ll find traces of The Giant Arctic Florida Freeze. And it only froze under that tree cuz a homeless man must have pissed under it.

The famous 2-headed broccoli

but only one of them tasted sweet…the other tasted slightly mischievous

2nd photo - from left to right…alligator pond, herb box, salad greens, broccoli, lemongrass.

Oh, and that mysterious, handsome object behind the plants?
I was a BAD, BAD girl when husband went away!

Green Tomato and Jalapeno Jam

from Chef Jeremy of Cork Restaurant
This isn’t a typical sweet breakfast jam - this is a savory, sweet and spicy jam great on sandwiches, grilled fish/chicken. Think of cranberry sauce on turkey type of combo.

Simply AWESOME.

4 jalapenos, stems & seeds removed, sliced
1 cup loosely packed cilantro and mint steams and leaves (the ratio of each is up to your taste)
2” section of ginger, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, smashed
½ cup cider vinegar
2 tbl soy sauce
1 lb green tomatoes (skin removed and chopped)
3 cups sugar

In a blender or food processor, blend the jalapenos, herbs, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and cider vinegar till smooth. Add the mixture to a heavy bottom pot with the sugar and tomatoes. Place on the heat, bring to a simmer and cook on low till glossy and thick, about 15 minutes. Make sure you stir occasionally to avoid the jam from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

I made Oishii Eats Vietnamese Summer Rolls (Goi Cuon) with Cashew Nut Dipping Sauce this morning on television! They came out fantastic and the crew devoured them seconds after the camera shut off. In the video I show you how to roll ‘em tight!

Wanna watch?

The video format is Windows Media Player. Click on image below, when you get to the site, click on the Featured Video link

BTW, she was referring to this HOT magazine photo shoot!

***

Both Oishii Eats and I enjoy our shrimp grilled rather than boiled. Below is the Vietnamese Summer Rolls (Goi Cuon) recipe and the Oishii Eats Cashew Butter Dipping Sauce.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls (Goi Cuon)

6 oz dried rice vermicelli
24 small sized shrimp, shelled
16-24 round rice papers (8″ diameter)
1 head of butter or Boston Bibb lettuce, leaves separated
1 cup julienned or shredded carrots
½ cup julienned red bell peppers
½ mango, sliced into thin slivers
24 mint leaves

Shrimp marinade for the Vietnamese Summer Rolls
½ tsp fish sauce (substitute with soy sauce)
½ tsp freshly grated lemongrass
freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp sugar

Marinate shrimp in a small bowl for 10 minutes. In meantime, boil a pot of water. Add vermicelli and cook for 4 minutes. Drain immediately, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Try to remove as much water as possible. Set aside.

Grill the shrimp in a large skillet with 1 tbl cooking oil on high heat until cooked through, about 2 minutes. You could also skewer the shrimp and grill on your outdoor grill. When shrimp is cool enough to handle, bisect each shrimp down the middle of its back so that you have two identical halves of shrimp.

Grab a square or rectangular baking dish and fill it with about 1″ of cool/room temperature water. Dip one rice paper round in the dish for a quick 2-seconds. Lift round and let the water drip off. Place on clean, dry work surface. Blot the top of the round with a paper towel. You’ll work one roll at a time.

Now it’s time to roll. The wrapper will still be a little stiff. By the time you finish piling on the ingredients, it will have softened enough to roll. Lay 4 halves of the shrimp in a line near the bottom 1/3 of the round. Top with some lettuce, vermicelli noodles, carrots, bell pepper, mango, and finishing with 2 mint leaves. Try to keep the ingredients compact and piled on top of the shrimp. Starting with the side closest to you, roll up the roll tight, stopping halfway to gently tug back on the roll to tighten. The wrapper is self-sealing. You can use a sharp knife to cut off the two ends to make it look neater.

Transfer to platter and cover with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Wipe counter or plate dry and repeat with remaining.

Some rice rounds are made thicker than others. If you find your wrapper is a little too stiff by the time you need to wrap, either blot less water off the rice round next time, let it sit for a few seconds before adding ingredients or dip in just slightly warmer water (but not hot!) Just remember to let the water drip off and wipe your working surface dry each time - a dry surface allows the rice paper to stick to the surface and create a little tension so that you can wrap.

Also, I’ve found it’s best to work one roll at a time - since it only takes a few seconds for the rice round to soften, you really aren’t saving a lot of time by dipping all your rice rounds at once. In fact, if 2 rounds touch each other - they will stick and you’ll have a heck of a time getting them apart without tearing or wrinkling. If you must dip all at once, separate each wet round with a damp paper towel.

Serve with the Cashew Butter Dipping Sauce.

Cashew Butter Dipping Sauce

adapted from Oishii Eats

Most recipes for dipping sauce call for Peanut Butter, however a Cashew Butter or even Almond Butter is more fragrant, delicate and oh-so-delicious. I like my sauce a little thin, so that when I dip my roll in the sauce, it lightly coats the roll and I can still taste the fresh, vibrant vegetables inside.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, finely minced (about 3 teaspoons)
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
3 tablespoons cashew butter
1/4 cup water

In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil. When it is hot, add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add hoisin, sugar, chili garlic sauce, cashew butter and water, whisk and simmer for 1 minute. You can add an additional tablespoon of water for a thinner consistency.

***

Thank you Diane

Thank you Diane for my hand-knitted fingerless mittens, the hand-knitted dishcloth and treats for the guys!! You rock!

Yeah, that is a nasty bruise on Nathan’s forehead. He was running around the playground at school, ran behind the swingset and BAM! got smacked by the swing. Ouch. Poor baby. But the chocolate lollipops made him feel so much better. Don’t they look so nice, clean and neat right in the morning before I take them to school?

***

Those Lights

The post about these lights are almost done. I’m writing a pretty in-depth review for you and will post this weekend.

***

More great dishes for Chinese New Year
(Feb 7th, Year of the Rat)

Whole Grilled Fish on Banana Leaf - serving whole fish on Chinese New Year signifies abundance!

Chinese Style Steamed Fish

Chinese BBQ Pastries - super easy using store-bought puff pastry

Andrew and I arrived home safely late Monday night. Our trip to Los Angeles was full of Mom’s home cooking - we had Chinese hot pot, fried garlic chili crab, chicken noodle soup with rice noodles, homemade XO chili sauce, and Hainan steamed chicken. Oh it was heavenly and I ate like a madwoman. These trips back to Mom are essential to restoring my inner Asian balance.

Our flight to Los Angeles left super early from the Tampa airport, which is about an hour away. Since we rushed out of the house at 5am, I left dishes unwashed in the dishwasher from the night before. All my energy was focused on getting to the airport on time and making sure that I didn’t pack my normal purse contents of hand lotion, hair spray, bottled water, weed killer, self-inflating rafts, bacterial cultures, bleach and rodent poison.You know, anything that could potentially be used as a weapon.

Back off, bucko, I can hurt you with my hand lotion. It’s LAVENDER SCENTED WITH EXTRA ALOE.

Curiously, a book of matches and a lighter are permitted on flights. Hmmmm…..I wonder which government employee had a bottle of scotch under his desk while writing the rules?

So anyways, every night in L.A. at 8pm, I’d call back to talk with Scott and say goodnight to Nathan over the phone. Being the resident cook and nutritionist in the household, I naturally would ask Scott what he fed our little child while I was gone. Scott would rattle off a list of food items, and made extra effort to tell me about the bounty of food items that were a color other than BEIGE.

“Ahhh….good. Well, I’m happy that you are feeding Nathan well,” and with that, I had happy dreams of my husband in the kitchen, cooking a wonderful meal for himself and my precious 3-year old. They would sit down together at the dinner table every evening with soft Christmas music playing, eating wholesome foods and discussing the highlights of the day, like what animals did you learn about at school.

Monday night when I arrived at home, I noticed the kitchen was spotless. No dirty dishes in the sink, no clean dishes that needed to be put away. Totally spotless. I smiled smugly, thinking, “What a loving husband…making sure that I came home to a clean house.”

I opened the dishwasher and GASP!!!  The dishes in the dishwasher were dirty and THE EXACT SAME DISHES USED FOR DINNER THE NIGHT BEFORE I LEFT.

So, giving my dear husband the benefit of doubt, I’m going with 2 options here.

SCENARIO A: Scott and Nathan had for dinner the exact same menu that we had a week ago. A menu that included:
2 steak knives, one of them used to smear butter, the other to cut steak
4 large plates, each with a trace of homemade demi-glace and port reduction
6 glasses, one with red lipstick
3 salad plates, one with an arugula leaf stuck to the back
whisk coated with my special homemade poppy seed salad dressing

SCENARIO B: They ate out every single night.

hmmmmm……because I can totally see Scott, whose ‘default’ food is takeout pizza and microwaved chicken nuggets, standing over the hot stovetop, making demi-glace.

Well, next time I think I leave town, I might just pre-make food, freeze them in individual servings, wrap in colorful cardboard with directions to nuke.

Scallop Salad with Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing

This salad dressing recipe was adapted from a book called Asian Tapas by Christophe Megel and Anton Kilayko. I’m so in love with this dressing that I made it for my Fried Green Tomato Salad and then added just a touch of vanilla to it for this recipe. Sweet chili sauce and vanilla is an unexpected pairing, but WOW, does it work well together. Add scallops to the salad and you have a nice, light and healthy meal.

Scallop Salad with Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing

serves 4

20 dry-packed scallops
salad greens - in the dish above, I chose to Asian-fy the greens and used sweet pea leaves, napa cabbage and bass vines as my salad.

Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing
1 tablespoon bottled sweet chili sauce (I use Mae Ploy brand)
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon minced cilantro
1 pod vanilla or 3 drops vanilla extract

Slice open the vanilla pod and scrape out seeds. Combine with the rest of dressing ingredients. Pat scallops dry. Season with salt and pepper. In hot skillet with cooking oil, sear scallops over high heat for 1-1/2 minutes each side. Remove from heat immediately. Serve scallops on top of salad greens and Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing.

***

Los Angeles Cooking Classes

Thank you Epicurean School of Culinary Arts for hosting my classes!! And a big thank you to all the students who attended, especially Jenny who came to both classes. I had a blast meeting so many of you in person. If you’re in Los Angeles, stop by Epicurean on the corner of La Cienega and Melrose and pick up a class schedule. Owner Tina and her staff are so incredibly warm and welcoming. They’ve asked me to come back and teach in a couple of months - I’ll keep you posted.

OMG! I’m now only 1 degree away from Rocco. He’s been to Epicurean to shoot something for TV!

***

Thank you for your votes!

at Well Fed, but sadly, I didn’t win the Best New Blog (sniff sniff) but congrats to French Laundry at Home for winning both Best New Blog and Best Humor! Go check her out! Anyone who can cook an entire foie gras and shaved truffles certainly deserves a round of applause!

As for the other categories that I *really* didn’t deserve to be in, like Best Photography (I mean, who could go against Bea at La Tartine Gourmande, my photog idol?!) and Best Writing (I so heart Bittersweet Blog’s colorful knitting!), well maybe next year.

But still, I’m celebrating anyways and buying myself a new pair of hot-red 4″ hooker heels so that I can dance like this because I am THIS CLOSE TO A REALLY COOL ANNOUNCEMENT. And no, I’m NOT pregnant.

Because I live in one of the hottest states in the United States, and by “hot” I mean the moment you step outside, the crease in the back of your knees sweat as fast as spinach in a fry pan. In the summer, I curse the humidity, especially when my friends back in San Francisco brag about having lunch alfresco on happy-sunshiney-afternoons. But then along comes December, and guess what. I am still growing tomatoes, gardening in shorts and a tank top in almost 80F degree weather. Love it.

Na na na na boo boo!

In October, I bought a few Earthboxes - and began growing 3 tomato plants, lettuce, herbs, cauliflower, peppers and broccoli. The tomatoes took off like like a dog in heat and within weeks grew to 3 ft tall with a gazillion flowers. That’s the beauty of the Earthboxes…low maintenance…high productivity. Kinda like me, right Scott?!

Anyways, they grew so friggin’ fast that one day I came home to find all 3 tomato plants toppled over because the wire trellis couldn’t support the plants’ weight. One plant broke and therefore the 2 months of tomatoes which i had lovingly massaged, sang to and kissed, were left dangling helplessly on the stem. The other plants were ok, so today Scott built a massive wooden trellis system, about the size of a small bathroom just for them to “grow into.” I really should take a photo for you (next time).

18 small green tomatoes…perfect for Elise’s Fried Green Tomato recipe paired with my Sweet Chili Dressing and home-grown greens. These green babies are goin’ out in style.

I have another Earthbox just dedicated to different kinds of salad greens - our little family can’t keep up with all the lettuce we are producing. I’ve become a lettuce-pusher….presenting bags of lettuce and herbs to my friends every time I visit. This Fried Green Tomato Salad with Sweet Chili Dressing was so satisfying that I have a feeling that many of the remaining tomatoes will be plucked before ripening. Panko breadcrumbs were a perfect breading - so incredibly light yet packs a massive crunch when fried…..continued….

pssst….I forgot to drizzle with the Sweet Chili Dressing before taking the photo.

Fried Green Tomato Salad with Sweet Chili Dressing

adapted from Elise who adapted it from Better Homes & Garden New Cook Book. For my GF friends, substitute flour and breadcrumbs. The sweet chili sauce below in the dressing recipe is GF.

serves 4 as part of multicourse meal
prep 10 minutes   cook 8 minutes

3 medium, firm green tomatoes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
2/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
large pinch of chili powder
salad greens

1. Slice unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2″ slices. Season both sides with salt, pepper and chili powder and let sit. In meantime, make salad dressing (recipe below) and prep the following in separate bowls in this order: milk, flour, egg, panko.

2. Heat a large skillet with olive oil on medium-high heat. Dip tomato slices in milk, then flour, then eggs, then panko. In skillet, fry slices 3-5 minutes each side until golden brown.

Sweet Chili Dressing

1 tbl bottled sweet chili sauce (I use Mae Ploy brand)
1 tbl tomato ketchup
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbl sugar
1 tbl water
1 tbl lime juice
1 tsp minced cilantro leaves

Combine ingredients and mix well.

The Sweet Chili Dressing recipe is adapted from Asian Tapas cookbook. I’ve been playing with the recipes in this gorgeous book - every recipe has a photo!

***

Menu for Hope

This is my first year participating in Menu For Hope, and rather than me and my chinglish fumble a description, here is the program, from the words of the founder herself, Chez Pim:

“Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event in support of the UN World Food Programme.  Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired me to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born.  In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US$60,925.12 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes.  For every US$10, the donor receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice.  This year, the prizes include once in a lifetime experiences such as touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià, dining on a historic British meal prepared by Heston Blumenthal, or joining Harold McGee on a lunch date to satisfy a lifetime’s worth of cooking curiosity.  You can also tag along with your favorite blogger on a tour of their favorite markets, restaurants, or even receive a care package fashioned especially for you from your favorite bloggers themselves.  All you need is $10 and a bit of luck.

We may never eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, but why should that stop us from trying?”

Our East Coast host is Serious Eats, one of my fav food sites. Come support the worthy cause and see the full list of prizes!

My donation is 1 ounce of saffron threads from Saffron.com. This, my friends, is an entire ounce - more than you can ever use!  The prize code is UE-05.