We were quite a boring family when I grew up in North Platte, Nebraska. There just weren’t very many super exciting things for a Chinese immigrant family to do in the small town and we lived on a dirt road, across from the empty field lot, next to the traffic light in the middle of nowhere. Usually on weekends, we’d stay at home. But once every couple of months, when we were feeling a bit frisky and itchin’ for some variety, we’d all pack in our puke green Chevrolet Impala station wagon (complete with the lovely wood paneled sides) and drive to the nearest Asian market - Denver, Colorado, which was four and half hours away and four and a half hours back. It was good to be near our peeps, stock up on Asian ingredients and pick up a Chinese newspaper, our only link to what was happening back home. Oh, those were wild times.

My parents kept themselves occupied at home by building and tending to a ginormous backyard garden where we grew a bunch of Chinese vegetables and also all the normal Midwest garden stuff like corn, raspberries, watermelon and zucchini.

I hated the garden. No, hate is not a strong enough word. I’d rather spend my day picking rabid gnats off a monkey’s back than to tend to the half-acre of time sucking, weed wrestling, no-good garden. Oh, I’m sure my family enjoyed the fresh fruits and vegetables that we grew…but I don’t really remember that. All I remember were the weeds and zucchini. I don’t know what kind of ancient Chinese squid brain fertilizer my dad used, but damn, that stuff was potent, particularly favoring the zucchini.

My job was to go out into the garden every day, pull them stupid ‘ol weeds and then haul back the day’s squash harvest. We’d pile them up on our picnic table in the patio, stuff them in the refrigerator, canned them for the pantry (gross) and offer basketfuls to our neighbors. Pretty soon I was running out of room and ended up chucking them down the basement stairs just to temporarily have a place to store them. But then I’d forget and rotting zucchini smelled quite awful.

Mom made batches and batches of zucchini bread and would send me to school with loaves of zucchini bread to bribe my school teacher with. Very quickly, it became clear that the bribe was beginning to have adverse effects, especially after third loaf of zucchini bread in seven days, so I started chucking the zucchini bread into random, unlocked parked cars on my way to school. But then, I think people were tired of sitting down into their car seats and “squish” finding freshly squashed squash bread. They started locking their doors.

Well, I’ll tell you what. After all those years of making zucchini bread, I swear, my mom has perfected the recipe. So, when I challenged Chef Greg Howe of the Ritz Carlton to a Iron Chef-like competition and found out that the not-so-secret secret ingredient was zucchini, I called my mom for her recipe. And then I tweaked it ever so slightly to include two of my latest obsessions - coffee and cardamom.

By the way, Chef Greg kicked my butt in the competition. If you are ever in Sarasota, treat yourself to an exquisite dinner at the Ritz Carlton. Chef Greg is a master of packing bursts of fresh flavors in the most delicate, light textures. His unique Popcorn Bisque is a must-try. Just don’t order their zucchini bread dessert…I think mom’s was better! 

So, here’s my version of Cardamom Coffee Zucchini Bread.

Cardamom Coffee Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon finely ground coffee beans
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
One 8.5oz can crushed pineapple

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, ground cardamom and espresso.

In your mixer, beat the eggs with the canola oil, sugar and the brown sugar. Add the zucchini and crushed pineapple. Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour mixture, half at a time, letting it mix in between. Do not over mix.

Spray 2 loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray. Divide the batter in half and fill. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Zimmern: “completely rotten, mushy onions.”

Bourdain: “…Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

Alfred Russell Wallace, some naturalist in the 1800’s: “After a fruit-eating bat has pee’d on it.”

Henri Mouhot, French naturalist: “On first tasting it I thought it like the flesh of some animal in a state of putrefaction.”

BBC: “It has been likened to rotting onions, unwashed socks and even carrion in custard, but the most accurate description by far is that of a sewer full of rotting pineapples.”

Richard Sterling, travel/food writer: “… its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.”

Lovely.

I grew up eating the fresh durian during the summers that we’d go back to Hong Kong, so it’s something that my family has always loved. To me, it’s creamy, luscious, custardy. I would choose durian over the finest cheese. In fact, it’s so creamy that I’ve used durian as a “cheese” to spread on crackers!

MARK MY WORDS: I think durian is going to be next big good-for-you-make-millions multi level marketing thing, like mangosteen and acai. Can you imagine if some company claimed that durian is the “Asian secret” to eternally youthful skin? And you have to smear this durian stuff on your face nightly as a mask?

Yeah, I’d be lickin’ that mask right off. (ewww. I know. I disgust you!)

Durian Virgin? Come to Mama…

Ok, so if you’re a durian virgin, I’ve got a very, very tame recipe for you.

While fresh durian is hard to find outside of metro cities with a large Asian markets, frozen durian is pretty good. The durian fruit is frozen at its peak of ripeness, but will lack the pungent aroma and taste of fresh durian, which is a really good thing if you have asshole neighbors, which thankfully, I don’t anymore (no, not you Lisa!)

Ask your Asian grocer if they carry frozen durian. If they do not, beg, plead and bribe them until they succumb to the durian love fest.

Making frozen yogurt with the durian was absolutely perfect. The yogurt is tangy, smooth and refreshing - a perfect pairing for a fruit that is considered a “heat” fruit, meaning the fruit has heating properties vs. the usual cooling properties of fruit. Ok, will go into that whole cooling/heating foods thing in another post.

Frozen Durian from Thailand

Defrosted durian looks like this. Not so bad, right? There are several large brown seeds inside the fruit.

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Durian Frozen Yogurt

16 ounces Greek yogurt or 32 ounces whole milk yogurt
4 ounces frozen durian fruit
1/2 cup sugar

If you are using whole milk yogurt (and not the Greek yogurt), you’ll need to strain out the water (whey). Line your fine meshed sieve with a double-layer of cheesecloth. Spoon the yogurt in, and let it sit propped over a deep bowl in the refrigerator for at least four hours. Discard the whey (water.) If you are using Greek-style yogurt, no need to strain, just use as is.

Use your hands to scoop out and discard the large seeds. The durian should be soft enough at room temperature to use a potato masher or whisk to smush and break up the durian. In a bowl, mix the yogurt, durian and sugar together. Taste and if add more durian if it’s not durian-y enough for you! Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

Following the your ice cream maker’s insturctions, churn, baby, churn the durian yogurt until the mixture is the consistency of soft ice cream.

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Who else loves durian?

Chez Pim makes Sweet Sticky Rice with Durian and Coconut Milk Sauce

Malaysia’s Best loves Durian Butter Cake

Wokking Mum whipped up a batch of Durian Cupcakes

how about you? Have you ever had Durian?

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Thanks to two of my favorite bloggers WhiteOnRice and Wandering Chopsticks, I learned a few secrets to some great recipes that I shared on TV last month…come take a look at the video:

(by the way, ABC7 upgraded their video application, now it plays on both PCs and Mac!)

When you get to ABC’s site, click on FEATURED VIDEO right below recipe name.

Here’s what you need to make Vietnamese Iced Coffee, or Cafe Sua Da:

1) French roast medium coarse ground coffee: You can use any type of coffee really, many Vietnamese use Cafe Du Monde French Roast Chicory coffee, but as long as the coffee is medium coarse ground, you can use it. Fine ground coffee would fall right through the little holes of the coffee press.

2) Sweetened condensed milk: It’s the sweet, sticky, thick stuff - NOT evaporated milk! No substitutions here!

3) Vietnamese coffee press: Found at any Asian market - usually between $1.50 and $4.00. Here are some resources.

4) 2 glasses: one filled to the brim with ice.

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Step 1: Add 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk to a glass

Step 2: Add 2 tablespoons of ground coffee to the base of the coffee press

Note: if you want a much stronger coffee, Wandering Chopsticks recommends to wet the grounds just a bit to let them expand. About a spoonful of water should do the trick!

Step 3: Screw on the press tight. The coffee should be packed well.

Step 4: Pour boiling hot water into the coffee press.

Cover with its little hat.

Step 5: Wait. It will drip veeerrrry….veeerrrry slowly.

The longer it takes, the stronger the coffee. Notice that there are only a few drops per second. For me, I can’t wait any longer than 5 minutes. If the coffee is dripping too fast, then use a small spoon or tip of knife to screw the press on tighter, 1 turn clockwise. Or if it’s dripping too slow, unscrew 1 turn counterclockwise.
 

While it’s dripping, go get some ice in a glass. You’ve got nothing else to do!

Step 6: Once it’s finished, stir well.

You can set your coffee maker on top of its overturned lid to prevent dripping onto your nice table.

Step 7: Pour over ice and enjoy!

See how happy Vietnamese Iced Coffee makes me?

from Steamy Kitchen column in Tampa Tribune 5/21/08

When I was little, my mom used to take a 2-quart pitcher, fill it with water, add a few tea bags and placed it in a sunny spot early in the day. My job was to chase the sun. As the sun moved throughout the day, I had to nudge that stupid pitcher.

Not a fun job, especially since back then as a kid, tea to me tasted like tree bark. What made the whole job worse was that our patio was covered with an open latticework canopy of two-by-fours. Great for playing a quick game of tic-tac-toe in the shade-produced lines, but you can imagine the frustration of making sun tea?

I’m sure many of you also used this highly inefficient, child-labor intensive method. Oooohhhh, it’s “green” you say, since the only energy you’re using is the sun’s rays? Well, it’s green alright, green as in nasty bacteria. Ok, well, the bacteria isn’t necessarily green, but you know what I mean. According to the Center for Disease Control, brewing tea in the sun for long periods of time actually encourages the growth of bacteria. The water in the jar may only heat up to 130F, not nearly hot enough to kill any bacteria that may be already lurking in your water, jar or tea leaves.

I don’t ever recall any of our houseguests getting sick from our sun-brewed iced tea, but hey, I’m not going to doubt the CDC. To borrow a famous quote from the shamed E.F. Hutton, “when CDC talks, people listen.”

So, I’ll give you two of my favorite methods of making iced tea. Because now that I’ve grown up and have reached that certain income bracket where I’m required to enjoy nasties like beer, cigars and coffee, I really do like iced tea.

The first method is cold brewed, and it’s so easy you can make it in your sleep! Before you head off to bed, fill a pitcher with 6 cups of cold water and add 3 tablespoons of loose leaf teas or 6 tea bags. Stick the pitcher in your refrigerator and when you wake up, it’s ready to be served over ice. According to The Simple Leaf, this method produces a “fool-proof, crystal clear iced tea.”

Easy enough, but sometimes, you don’t have the smarts to remember to do this before you go to sleep. I’m not great at predicting the next day’s food or drink urges when I’m yawning and clawing for my comfy mattress, since most of my urges seem occur pretty darn spontaneously. In the moments where I want iced tea NOW, I brew a batch of triple strength tea and pour that over a pitcher full of ice.

My latest obsession is a hand-blown, heat-resistant glass pitcher from Tea Forte, called Tea Over Ice. While pricey ($40.00) it’s been getting a lot of use in my home because it makes the perfect vessel for 5-minute home-made infused iced teas.

The recipe below is for Apple Ginger Mint, but feel free to experiment with your own favorite herbs, spices and fruits like: blackberry-basil iced tea, peachy-cardamom iced tea or apple-cinnamon iced tea. Just make sure you cut up or smash the fruit to release all of its flavors. Add fruit juice for that extra kick. Speaking of kick, read my note at the end of the recipe!

Apple Ginger Mint Iced Tea

2-3 bags of green tea
2 inch piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks
1/4 apple, cut into matchsticks
1-2 sprigs mint
2 cups boiling hot water
1/2 cup apple cider
2 cups ice in pitcher
Honey, as desired

Combine tea bags, ginger, apple and mint in a tea pot. Fill with boiling hot water and steep for 5 minutes. Pour and strain into ice-filled pitcher. Add apple cider and honey as desired. Fill individual glasses with ice and serve.

Yields 4 servings

Psssst!!! To make Apple Ginger Sake-Tea-ni: pour 1-1/2 oz chilled sake in martini glass and 1-1/2 oz of Apple Ginger Mint Iced Tea.

Note: This post seems silly now - because

1) I’m not mad at Scott anymore - that was SO last week

2) Andrew had a brain MRI on Tuesday morning

However, this story was published in the Tampa Tribune (my deadlines for the paper are a week ahead of pub date), and I’m not quite ready to talk about Andrew quite yet. (Yes, he’s healthy, fine) So I’m posting this little story anyways.

Also, something happened on the way to Flickr…the colors on the photos flattened out and are a little mushy. ??? Can’t figure it out this morning and will work on it later. In the meantime, enjoy!

Uninhibited Rage of Energy

I’m mad at my husband and it sucks. 36 hours ago, he lashed out at me, totally uncalled for and ever since then, I’ve been waiting for that apology. Waiting…nothing. That’s the trouble with being married to one of the most stubborn individuals this side of the universe.

When I’m upset, I retreat to my kitchen and make something. Sometimes, the most brilliant concoctions arise from my uninhibited rage of energy. I tear, chop, slather, peel, whirl and blend. Pots clang on the stovetop, the KitchenAid spits out patches of stray flour, the cheap blender vibrates across the counter, and the whirring exhaust fan drowns out angry thoughts in my head. I chop loads of fresh mint because no matter how hard I run my chef’s knife across the leaves, it happily returns with a bright, refreshing, crisp fragrance that bathes my tear-streaked face and clears my breathing.

I churn out dish after dish after dish, beautifully displayed a crisp, clean tablecloth. Candles are lit, Bebel Gilberto sings. Then, the perfect feast just sits there on the dining table, untouched and lonely.

Because I’m still waiting for that apology.

So that night, I made the most luscious Indian spiced yogurt and exhilarating Ginger Lime Cooler. I wanted to share so badly. I wanted us to sip the drink together, two straws from the same tall glass and relax on the lanai. I wanted us to giggle at licking a spoonful of a luxurious, smooth, honeyed yogurt and then chase it with a sip of the quick, sparkly, tickly drink.

I placed a glass of the cooler in plain sight. Not even a glance. Nudged it closer to where he was sitting. Nothing.

Will you share with me instead? Cheers!

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These are fabulous recipes from Modern Indian cookbook , written by my new friend and famous chef, Hari Nayak. If you are new to Indian cooking, this is absolutely the perfect book to start with. The recipes are simple, elegant and uses ingredients you can find in most supermarkets.

Sparkling Ginger Lime Cooler

serves 6

1 (3-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, grated on microplane grater
½ cup coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves
½ cup fresh lime juice
6 cups sparking water or club soda
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

In a blender, blend together all the ingredients, except ice. Strain and serve over lots of ice. You can also add gin or vodka too!

Yes, this is the same yogurt sundae from November. Remember when I slept with Rocco?

Sweet Yogurt Sundae with Saffron & Pomegranate

My favorite source for saffron is a company called Saffron.com, where you’ll find a better quality of the spice at least 10 times cheaper than at your local market. You can judge the quality of the saffron by just looking at it. Pure saffron is red and only includes the style. If you see any yellow or orange on the thread, then you’re paying for the stigma which is colorless, tasteless and aromaless. Get the good stuff, as you are only using a pinch of the spice.

Serves 8

4 cups plain yogurt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 pomegranate
2 kiwis
large pinch of saffron strands

Line a large sieve or colander with cheesecloth. Place colander over a bowl. Place yogurt in colander to drain for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Discard the water (or whey.) Turn the yogurt into a bowl and mix in the honey, nutmeg and cardamom. Lightly toast the saffron strands in a small dry skillet over medium heat, until brittle. Let saffron cool on plate and with your fingers, finely crush the strands. Cut kiwi into small pieces and remove the seeds from the pomegranate. Layer yogurt, fruit and saffron in dessert cups.

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Photo time!

Here are the photos that led up to the money shot. I’m still not happy with these photos, but take a look. And !@(*$&!$! what’s going on with the soggy, mushy colors??? They look perfectly vibrant to me loaded from my computer, but then it gets to the web and BAM! the photos look drunk. I’m using same monitor to view both. argh.