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November 6, 2009

Essential tool: the whisk

Whisks are one of the workhorse tools in my kitchen. I use whisks for making gravy, smoothing out a sauce, mixing up the dry ingredients when baking, scrambling eggs, making cornstarch/water slurries for thickening, beating eggs, incorporating wet ingredients into dry ingredients when baking, and so much more. A whisk is a simple tool, but it is one that I always reach for when I am cooking.

If you've ever wondered how whisks are made, wonder no more. This video from Cooking Up a Story takes you on a tour of the Best Manufacturers plant to get the inside scoop on how whisks are made.

Posted November 6, 2009 10:30 AM in Tips, Techniques & Tools | Comments (0)

November 1, 2009

Asian Grandmothers' Secrets

Today I used the last of my Thai basil to make this Thai Basil Pork. The recipe was featured in the Boston Globe on 10/28/2009 in a review of The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook.

Last spring, a delicious spicy basil pork dish that I had at The Chatta Box inspired me to grow Thai basil in my Aerogarden. I became obsessed with Thai basil. Early in the summer, a friend told me that she bought some Thai Basil plants at her local Walmart. I'm not a fan of Walmart, but I was willing to break my no Walmart rule when Thai Basil plants were involved. My local store had five plants, I bought all five. They didn't like the cold weather we had at the beginning of the summer, but after a few weeks, they started producing a bumper crop of Thai basil. We enjoyed lots of delicious meals featuring Thai basil because the more I harvested it, the more it grew. When frost started threatening in mid September, I put the huge pot of Thai basil in my little red wagon so I could easily put it in the garage at night and bring it out on warmer days. I've been nursing it along for the past month. Tonight's dinner was the Thai basil's final hurrah.

I cheated on the Asian grandmothers, but just a little bit. First, the recipe uses ground pork and the ground pork that I can get is very high in fat. So I bought pork tenderloin, trimmed it, cut it into chunks, and ground it in the food processor. This works great when you want lean ground pork. The recipe also called for Thai chilies, which I didn't have. I used a heaping tablespoon of Thai chili paste. And I tossed in about five julienned kaffir lime leaves, just because I'm crazy about the flavor of kaffir lime limes.

I served the Thai Basil Pork with jasmine rice and roasted carrots tossed with a dressing of fish sauce, sesame oil, powdered galangal, and brown sugar. The grandmothers' Thai Basil Pork was easy and delicious. Perfect for a busy night.