chez pim

Pad Thai for beginners

Completely foolproof recipe -not kidding you- on Monday.

Well here it is. A bit ahead of schedule even. ;-)

Pad Thai is one of the most popular Thai dishes, perhaps second only to Tom Yum Goong. It's also one of the most requested recipes here on Chez Pim. Why, then, has it taken me this long to post this recipe, you asked? I don't know...perhaps it's because I don't actually have a recipe! Is that a good enough reason?

Then what am wasting your time for, you are wondering, yes? Well, it's true that I don't have a recipe, but what I have, and will share with you here, is way better than a recipe. It's in fact a fool-proof way to make Pad Thai -Pad Thai for just about anyone from beginners to experts. I must warn you that I will a bit wordy. I could easily write a very short description and make everything look and sound easy -but that means I'd be leaving you to figure out the details on your own. Or I could explain every step of the way so that you understand what goes into a Pad Thai and what distinguishes a great one from the usual blah. The piece might look a little intimidating, but I think it will in fact be easier than any easy-looking recipe. And, I promise you, if you read through the entire thing, you'll never have to look at another Pad Thai recipe. You'll be set. Really you will.

There are so many silly Pad Thai recipes around, a quick google reveals one with ketchup as an ingredient. What an abomination! Not even the fabulous June Taylor's artisanal ketchup can rescue that one! A few other recipes I came across would have us make four or more portions of Pad Thai at once –which, I can guarantee you will result in clumps of oily, sticky noodle unfit for human consumption.

The textures and flavors of a proper Pad Thai derive largely from the way the dish is cooked, that is to say its quick footloose dance in an ultra hot wok. That simply means you can't do many servings at once.

No, no, I'm not going to make you drive around town procuring all the exoticities required to make a proper Pad Thai only to feed just you and your sweetheart. It is entirely possible to feed a whole crowd. You just have to do it like they do on the streets of Bangkok -cook one or two portions at a time. Your friends and dinner guests must be a bit patient, but they will kiss you in the end –no, not the rear end, just the end of your party, get your mind off the gutter you!

Breaking news: Alain Passard to cook at Manresa

This is not a very good picture, but the subject is interesting so I hope you'll forgive me. Yes, it is Alain Passard, cooking at the Rarities Dinner at the Masters of Food and Wine in Carmel last year.

He had a big rack of lamb to cook, and instead of using the stove or oven, he decided to set up the outdoor fireplace on the patio to do it. He spent most of the prep time outside, nursing his fire and his lamb in between a smoke or two of cigar, even after it began to drizzle. Daniel Boulud and I joked that Alain was cooking his lamb à la vapeur. Funny.

That was when an idea germinated in Alain's and David's minds, and that idea has finally come to fruition, and now they are ready to announce it.

Alain Passard is coming to Manresa! He's coming to cook three dinners, on March 9, 10, and 11! David and the team at Manresa have been planning this a long time, and Cynthia, the lovely gardener is planting special produce particularly for this dinner even. You should go to the Manresa blog to check out the details. If you want a table, call quickly. They are filling up fast. They are only doing one turn, that's 60 seats, per night. Grab the phone. Quick!

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Update: Sorry to say the dinners are now fully booked.

Michelin news from Paris

Michelin 2007 news is out of the bag this morning. This is a big surpirse, not the least because it's not even February yet, but even more so because of all the grand changes in it.

Yes, yes, yes, I know. I'm not going to torture you with a drawn out musing about this. We're talking Michelin stars here and you just want to get to the good stuff. So here it is!

New three-stars:
L'Astrance, Pascal Barbot and Christophe Rohat
Le Meurice, Yannick Alléno
Le Pré Catelan, Frédéric Anton
Pic, Anne Sophie Pic
Hélène Darroze, Hélène Darroze
Lameloise, Jacques Lameloise (regained the third star they lost few years ago)

Announcing Menu for Hope Raffle Winners

What's up with these cups? Don't they hurt your eyes just looking at them? Try dealing with over a hundred of these, and countless little bits of paper with names written on them that had to be sorted into the proper cups. Fun, no?

No, no, these cups are not what I meant by a wicked application that will automatically do the drawing for us. No, these cups from last year's raffle are the reason we now have said piece of code, so that the kind raffle elves and I need not bother with any more of these cups. Not a one. This year, our friend Derrick of An Obsession with Food wrote a little piece of code that cleverly did away with them for us. He even published the code so those of you who are interested in that sort of thing can go check it out.

It's a great thing Derrick wrote this program for us, truly, since the tremendous support that poured into our campaign this year sold 6,000 raffle tickets. Bravo and brava to everyone involved! Together we raised $60,925.12 to support the UN World Food Programme. My head hurts just thinking about tearing out six thousand little chits of paper and writing a name on each one. It'd be time for next year's campaign by the time I'm done...

So, now, without further ado. Here are the winners........

drum roll please......

Chickens and Eggs, Haute Couture Style

An egg fairy gave me a baker's dozen tray of colorful eggs the other day. The fairy, in fact, is our lovely gardener Cynthia, and the eggs came from the flock of fashionable hens we keep at the Manresa biodynamic garden.

I'm not kidding about the fashionable bit, really. As you can see from the pictures above, some of them apparently walked straight out of fashion week into our chicken coop. We have Araucana hens, with colors ranging from light brown to copper, accented with gorgeous black patterned feathers. We have the White-crested black Polish hens, sporting jet black feathers and a head of striking white plumage –David calls them the Chanel chicks. My favorites are the Buff-laced Polish hens, with the same billowing plume as the black Polish hens but in light brown and feathers intensifying in colors from beige to brown -the shades just perfect for the coming Spring fashion, Oscar de la Renta's, I'd say. Plus, these are not only haute couture chickens but they are fed haute cuisine. They eat the surplus produce from the garden and scraps from the kitchen at Manresa, no all go into a compost pile for them to peck on to their heart's content.

Galatoire's

Josh and David decided that my one formal meal in New Orleans would be at Galatoire's. So on the second night of our quick three-day trip, Jill and I, and even the boys, got all dolled up and went down to the Quarter.

Galatoire's is where people in New Orleans go to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, their daughters' Sweet Sixteen Parties, and whatever special occasions life throw at them. This is the kind of place that is at once grandiose and uncouth, not unlike the city of New Orleans herself.

We sat in the raucous downstairs dining room, not the newer and posher one upstairs. That's the way to do it, the two New Orleans boys Josh and David insisted. We had made a reservation, of course, in the wonderfully quirky reservation system that they have. At Galatoire's one doesn't call the restaurant for a reservation. One calls one's favorite waiter, who would make certain there is a table waiting on arrival.

A day at the races

We spent the afternoon at the race today -plenty of new things to learn for me, exacta, trifacta, words that probably sound a lot more interesting in the New Orleans accent than they actually are.

We also had lunch here, and being that this is food-focused New Orleans, the food was not bad at all. We had a good crab cake, decent shrimp cocktail, delicious gumbo, and a rather odd sounding Corned Beef Po' Boy that David gobbled all up before I could taste.

There's even an oyster bar right there, on the race track. Only in New Orleans.

no beating this spirit

scenes from New Orleans

Here are a few scenes from New Orleans. More later.

chez Josh in New Orleans

(The photos with me in it are by our friend Jill Dupré)

We arrived late this afternoon to New Orleans. And I found myself immediately installed in the kitchen cooking for ten. We are celebrating tonight, a visit that's two years overdue for me, and a homecoming of sort for David. We are at a gorgeous old house belonging to Josh, David's old school friend, and Jill, his lovely wife.