Nothing Fishy

 

I am committing myself to making more delicious Asian-inspired foods this winter.  I love the care that goes into making beautiful Japanese food.  I love the flavors of Korean and Vietnamese and Thai food.  To get myself started, I looked for a recipe on the web for vegetarian fish sauce.  There are quite a few!  As far as I can tell, fish sauce serves to add salt and umami complexity to recipes.  Most of the time, when I see fish sauce in a recipe, I just add extra tamari.  We'll see what happens when I add my special phish sauce to Veggie Pho, and all the curries and soups I plan on making this winter.

Fysh sauce?  It tastes gingery and sour and sweet and salty all at once.  My first use of the fish sauce is in a big batch of vegetarian kim chi I am fermenting in the fridge.  I'll let you know how it turns out in a couple of weeks!

Vegan Fish Sauce

Based on Ms. Nadja Dee Witherbee's recipe

Takes 1 hour

Makes 1 3/4 cups of sauce

2 cups wakame seaweed, broken up (I think I would use kombu next time)

3 dried shitake mushrooms

4 cups water

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 1/2 TBSP black peppercorns

1/2 cup tamari

2 tsp. lime juice

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 TBSP rice wine vinegar

3 tsp. palm sugar

1 tsp. fresh grated ginger

1/4 tsp. chili powder

In a large pot, bring seaweed, mushrooms, and water to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer again, and cook for 30 minutes.

Let cool.  Strain into a clean bottle.  Store in the fridge, for up to 1 month.

Your house will smell intense while this is cooking!  Moste Potente!

Let me know if you have a good name to call this stinky sauce by!

Happy Diwali Pistachio Ice 'Cream'

This year for Diwali, we had a few friends over for masala dosas and sambhar.  Friends brought a salad and chutney and some tapioca payasam!  We had an amazing gluten-free, vegan meal to accommodate everyone's issues, and no one thought for a second that anything was missing.  My contribution to the desserts, because sweets are the most important part of any Diwali celebration, was a Pistachio Ice 'Cream' adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe.  With real nuts and a can of coconut milk it is so rich!

Enjoy, and Happy Diwali everyone!

Pistachio Ice 'Cream'

adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes 6 servings

Takes 1 hour active time (plus cooling and ice cream churning time)

1 14 oz. can coconut milk (make sure it's good and doesn't have any additives)

5 1/2 tsp. corn starch

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup raw pistachios (shelled)

1/2 cup raw cashews

4 cardamom pods, shelled and crushed to a powder

Mix 1/4 cup of coconut milk with the corn starch to make a slurry, taking care to whisk out the lumps.

Heat rest of coconut milk and 1/4 cup of sugar on medium high heat.  Just as it begins bubbling, turn down the heat to simmer, add the slurry, and mix constantly for 3 minutes.  It will thicken right away.  Turn off the heat, let cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a thick skin from forming.  When it's cool enough, put it in the refrigerator.

Bring the raw pistachios, cashews and 1/2 cup of water to a boil.  Remove from heat, and when cool enough, begin removing the skins from the pistachios.  This is tiresome.  You should be able to squeeze the pistachios and the skins should come off neatly, but some times you need to scrub with your finger tips a little for the thin skins.  It's helpful to keep another bowl of water handy to wash your hands. Return the skinned pistachios to the cashews.

When you have skinned all your pistachios, place the pistachios, cashews, powdered cardamom, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in the bowl of a food processor.  Process, adding the reserved nut-boiling water as necessary to make a smooth paste.  Add this paste to the chilling coconut milk and stir until well-combined.  Chill until you are ready to make your ice cream, or overnight.

Make ice cream according to your maker's directions.  Freeze the ice cream after churning for 30 minutes or so for really nice consistency.

Enjoy!