Tom Yum Soup

I was craving some spicy Thai soup but needed something low-cal (and low-carb!) so I picked up some lemongrass and threw together some Tom Yum. It turned out to be really quick and easy to make, not to mention absolutely delicious.

South Beach Tom Yum Soup
5-6 c chicken stock
1 stalk lemongrass
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
2-3 small cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 c sliced mushrooms (I used cremini)
1 red bell pepper, sliced (slices cut in half so they're not too long)
1/4 c thinly sliced green onions, white and green parts divided
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp Sriracha
2 cans light coconut milk
1 lb cleaned, shelled shrimp
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

First, prepare the lemongrass: remove the tough outer leaves, trim off the root end, and then thinly slice just the ivory-colored part. Take the thin slices and either pulse them in a blender or food processor, or do what I did, and have your Rugrat mash them well in a molcajete. The lemongrass should end up looking like little bitty threads.

When the lemongrass is prepared, put the chicken stock into a large stockpot or dutch oven over medium heat. I used about a box and a half of chicken stock (about 6 cups). To the chicken stock, add the lemongrass, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, bell peppers, and the white parts of the green onions. Add the fish sauce and Sriracha, and then let it simmer for about 5-7 minutes, until the veggies are tender and the flavors have had a good chance to combine. Add in one can of coconut milk and taste the soup. Mine was very strong at this point, so I added another can of coconut milk to mellow out the flavor a little bit. If you need a bit more salt, add another shake or two of fish sauce. Bring the soup back up to a simmer and add in the shrimp. Let the shrimp cook about 2-3 minutes (if your shrimp are on the small side; 4-5 minutes if you've got bigger ones), until they're opaque, pink, and curled up. Take the soup off the heat, stir in the green parts of the green onions and the chopped cilantro, and serve.

Note: You could add some fresh shredded basil to this and it would be wonderful; I just didn't happen to have any and it wasn't looking all that hot in the grocery store.

Spicy Seafood Stir-Fry

This is a great refrigerator-clean-out meal that you can throw all kinds of veggies into. It could easily be a vegetarian meal, if you omit the shrimp. And it is perfect for South Beach: for Phase 1, leave out the rice; for Phase 2, use brown rice instead of white.

Spicy Seafood Stir-Fry
1/4 c low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Sriracha
1/2 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and then into 1/2" wide half moons
1 chopped bell pepper (I used red)
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I used cremini, but any would work)
3 baby bok choy, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 container of tofu, diced (I used silken but I think firm tofu would hold up much better)
1/2 lb cleaned & shelled raw shrimp

First make the sauce: in a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, Sriracha, ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Add the tofu and set aside.

Heat the canola oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is rippling slightly, carefully throw in the zucchini, bell peppers, and mushrooms. After the veggies have started to soften and brown slightly (just a couple of minutes), throw in the bok choy, the tofu and sauce, and the shrimp. Cook just until the bok choy is wilted and the shrimp is done (opaque, curled up, and pink). Serve over rice (or not, if you're on Phase 1 of South Beach).

Easy Asian Sole

I do not like fish. I will go out of my way to eat anything other than fish, unless it is deep-fried or comes inside its own shell. But I am trying to eat healthier these days - I consider myself kind of "in training" before starting the South Beach diet in earnest - and I've been inspired by watching reruns of the BBCAmerica show You Are What You Eat. So with that in mind, I picked up two petrale sole filets at the grocery store and whipped up this quick and easy meal. And here's another first: with all the delicious green onions, cilantro and ginger, I'm submitting this as my first entry to Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging, which is being hosted by Cooking 4 All Seasons this weekend.

Easy Asian Sole
2 filets sole
1 cup milk (approx)
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 c low-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp chile paste (sambal oelek)
1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 green onions, sliced (green & light green parts only)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Put the sole in a wide dish and pour the milk over it - the milk should just barely cover the fish.

In the meantime, mix up all the rest of the ingredients (except green onions and cilantro) in a bowl. Mix in about half of the green onions. After the fish has soaked in the milk for 20 minutes, pat it dry, season with salt & pepper, and put it in a shallow oven-safe dish. Pour the dressing over it. Bake for 10 minutes, until the fish flakes easily. Serve over brown rice (they have frozen brown rice at Trader Joe's - cooks in 3 mins in micro!) and spoon a little of the marinade over the top - the rice tastes great with the dressing. Sprinkle with the reserved green onion & the cilantro.

This really turned out well, and soaking the fish in milk first removes a lot of the "fishy" taste that I hate.

Asian Chicken Salad

A light, tasty salad for hot summer evenings. Quick to put together, if you've got pre-cooked chicken on hand. I'll be submitting this easy weeknight dinner to Sweetnicks' ARF/5-a-day roundup this week.

Asian Chicken Salad
1 roasted chicken breast, meat shredded
1 sweet bell pepper, sliced into matchsticks
3 cups coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
2 Tbsp sliced green onions
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 c Asian Dressing (see below)
1/4 c fried chow mein noodles

In a large bowl, toss the shredded chicken, bell pepper, coleslaw, green onions and cilantro with the dressing. Serve topped with the chow mein noodles.

Asian Dressing
1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
juice of 1 lime or 1/4 c rice wine vinegar, whichever you've got on hand
1/4 c reduced-salt soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp shredded fresh ginger
2 tsp Sriracha sauce (or more, to taste)

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl and use immediately.

Review: Qin's

Qin's Bistro & Bar opened yesterday in Antioch - mere blocks from our house - and we were among the first people to try it out.

This place is GORGEOUS. We felt very underdressed (he was in a t-shirt and shorts and flipflops, I was in a tank and capris and flipflops). This place has a very nice lounge-y vibe and I could easily see it drawing crowds of twenty- and thirty-something singles if it were located in Walnut Creek. The water wall is the first thing you notice, followed by the large, open bar immediately behind it. The light fixture over the bar is stunning. The restrooms are beautiful, and there's wood and tile everywhere. The place is very large, with (I believe) private banquet rooms in the back.

They had lots of staff there last night and the service was very attentive. I ordered a cosmopolitan with Grey Goose Orange vodka; Mr Wonderful got a Guinness. The drinks took a little while to arrive but when they did, my cosmo was perfect. Delicious, not overbearing but not weak either. Our waitress was sweet, but seemed inexperienced (not just because it was a new restaurant; I believe she hasn't had much experience as a waitress at all). We ordered Salt & Pepper Calamari and a Thai Steak Salad to start. The appetizers were amazing -- the calamari was perfectly cooked, with a little bit of spicy kick and no rubbery texture (which would indicate overcooking). The salad was excellent, with a tasty lime-based dressing and tender slices of steak.

The first indication that something might be not-quite-right was when our entrees came out. We were only about halfway through our starters when they arrived. This is likely due to the inexperience of the waitress (putting the order in to the kitchen all at once, rather than waiting a few minutes to submit the entree order after the appetizer order). But the entrees themselves were disappointing. I ordered the Thai Lemon Grass Shrimp with Coconut Rice. The rice was tasty, but the shrimp were woefully underseasoned and didn't taste like much of anything. In fact, I ended up dipping the shrimp in the chili sauce that came with my calamari in order to salvage it. And for $23, I think they could have given me much more than four (admittedly huge) shrimp. If I remember correctly, the dish mentioned green curry, which I was looking forward to, and I didn't taste any curry at all. I could be mistaken; I read a blog post about green curry earlier in the day and maybe I was just projecting, but I thought it mentioned curry. Anyway...disappointing. Mr Wonderful's Peking Duck was not much better. Again, the meat was underseasoned. It tasted fatty and bland. The duck came with three taco-shaped buns (I say buns, because they were obviously made of the same white, puffy dough as dim sum pork buns) and two sauces - a plum sauce and something else. He said it was "decent" when all the elements were combined, but it certainly wasn't spectacular.

After we finished our meal, we spoke to the manager and gave him our assessment. Generally I'd shy away from being so blunt about a restaurant's failings (I'd usually just not go back if it was bad) but we really want to see this place succeed. It's a HUGE step up for Antioch nightlife, and I'm thrilled that we're getting more high-end options out here in the far east bay. I hope that Qin's can overcome their difficulties in the kitchen and develop a good base of customers, because this place is definitely a step in the right direction. If Antioch's image is going to improve, we need more restaurants like Qin's. So please, if you're looking for a night out on the town, considering dressing up and heading for Qin's instead of going over the hill to the 'Creek.

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

A delicious, spicy Thai curry soup, made with coconut milk and lots of fresh herbs and spices. Yummy mushrooms and carrots mean that this will qualify as my ARF/5-a-day submission to Sweetnicks' roundup this week!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup
3 Tbsp EVOO
1 onion, cut in half and then sliced into thin wedges to make strips about 2" long
2 c mushrooms, halved or quartered (depending on size)
1 carrot, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
3 chicken cutlets, sliced into 1" strips
1-2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1-2 tsp red Thai curry paste
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp fish sauce (available in Asian foods aisle of your grocery store)
1 can coconut milk
6 c chicken stock
1/2 pkg maifun (rice noodles, available in Asian foods aisle)
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/4 c chopped basil
4-5 green onions, sliced lengthwise to make long strips (green parts only)
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions and mushrooms until mushrooms begin to brown and onions are soft and translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Add the carrots and the chicken strips, then season with salt and pepper. Go a little easier on the salt than you normally would, as you'll be adding fish sauce later and that's pretty darn salty. When the chicken strips are almost opaque on all sides (it will NOT be cooked through), add the ginger, curry paste, brown sugar and fish sauce; stir to combine well. Then add the coconut milk and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and then add the maifun (break it up a bit before adding it or you'll have unmanageably long noodles to deal with when serving/eating). Throw in the cilantro, basil and green onions and cook for another couple of minutes, until the noodles are tender.

This soup is extremely flavorful and pretty healthy (as long as you don't think too much about the sodium content). It's even better the next day, when the flavors have all been sitting together overnight.

Asian Chicken Salad

Loosely based on the Thai Chicken Salad recipe in the September 2007 issue of Bon Appetit, this salad has a super-yummy peanut butter-based dressing. It was pretty heavy on the garlic though, so I think I'd scale that back next time.

Asian Chicken Salad

2 roasted chicken breasts (I roast my chicken breasts - with skin & bone - at 400 with just some olive oil, salt & pepper, for about 40 minutes or so), shredded or diced into bite-size pieces
3 c coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage & carrot)
1/4 c chopped green onion
Thai Peanut Dressing (see below)
1/4 c chopped roasted, salted peanuts
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/2 c crunchy fried asian noodles (the stuff you get in a can)

Toss together the chicken, coleslaw mix and green onion with enough of the dressing to get it moist (you'll probably have a ton of dressing left over). Top with peanuts and cilantro, and surround the salad with the crunchy asian noodles.

Thai Peanut Dressing (from Bon Appetit recipe)
4 large garlic cloves (I found the garlic to be a little overpowering, so you might want to scale back on this)
1/4 c soy sauce
1/3 c fresh lime juice
2 T sugar
1 T smooth peanut butter
2 t chopped fresh ginger (I used a microplane and grated mine)
1 1/4 t hot chili paste (such as sambal oelek)
1/4 c vegetable oil

Puree all ingredients in a blender. Mr Wonderful brought over his Magic Bullet, which is like a wee little blender, and I used that. It works great for prepping small amounts of food or making salad dressings.

Spring Rolls with Hoisin Dipping Sauce

Spring Rolls
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister

My mom recently sent me a few Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, and I thought this would be a great, light recipe to try. It's from the August 2007 Bon Appetit issue, and it turned out very well. It's low-fat, high in fiber, and full of incredible flavor. I poached the shrimp in plain old boiling salted water for a couple minutes, and they were perfectly cooked. It took a few tries to get the rolling technique perfected, but it's just a question of practice. I ended up adding green onions and a little bit of the dipping sauce to the spring rolls before rolling, and I think that improved the final product. Also, the hoisin sauce is pretty spicy, so you may want to cut back on the chili-garlic sauce if you're sensitive to that. It was fine for Mr Wonderful and I though; we like spicy stuff. :)

The recipe is available on epicurious.com.

Review: Lone Tree Thai

D and I decided to try a new restaurant the other night: Lone Tree Thai Cuisine. Not a very exciting name, considering the street it's on is (you guessed it) Lone Tree. But I was hoping it would end up being a great hole-in-the-wall Thai place less than five minutes from my house. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly measure up.

We ordered a TON of food. Pad thai (the standard by which every Thai restaurant must be judged), mixed seafood green curry, laarb (a "salad" with beef in it) and, as an appetizer, "fish cake." Which was actually fish cakes, plural: there were five of them. The texture of the fish cakes was odd - kind of rubbery and flabby, but the flavor was decent, especially when you put the cucumber-relish stuff on top of it. Next the laarb arrived, and it was....kind of frightening, actually. A huge mound of ground beef with a little lettuce thrown in, a dab of mint, and (supposedly) some cilantro. But the oddest thing about it was the sauce or grease that they cooked it in; at one point, D said "Movie popcorn!" and then that was all we could think of. It was pretty awful. The pad thai was ok, except that they overcooked the prawns - WAY overcooked them. And the green curry was mild (we specified extra-spicy everything, because that's just how we roll) with - again - seriously overcooked seafood. The salmon was cooked well, but all of the shellfish was horribly overcooked.

D and I agreed that we would not be returning.

Coming up soon: Greek(ish) salad. Gotta use up that seedless cucumber and the feta!

Pork and Veggie Stir Fry with Rice Noodles

Dinner 4/26/07
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

I based this stir fry on Rachael Ray's Asian-Style Pork and Vegetable Noodles, but made a few substitutions. I'm not a big fan of bell peppers, so I threw in some chinese peapods instead of the red pepper strips. I used some rice noodles, because I had them on hand. I put a little honey in the dressing to cut the heat and the super-salty elements. And I left the green onions out until the very end, because I wanted them to keep their fresh, green color and flavor.

Overall, it was fairly tasty, although I think it needed more heat (maybe a little chili oil in the dressing?) and I way overcooked the pork. Lesson learned - have all your elements in place, and no matter how long she cooks the meat on her show, do NOT stir fry meat for more than a minute or two before you throw in the rest of the ingredients.