Text 35122, 112 rader
Skriven 2016-01-15 03:17:14 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: I'm wandering 815
=========================
Literally as well as figuratively.

Got to Logan at 6 am Tuesday and been
in or around airplanes since then until
about noon today (late Thurs night
eastern time). I've been offered 10
meals by the airlines and have taken
8 or so of them. Some of the food was
actually good. Amazingly good. United
has been crowing about making a
restaurant-quality experience for its
passengers. It took Thai Airways to
deliver on the promise.

Anyhow, I've got a couple hours free
before drinks with friends at a 
notorious dive bar, so I'm giving a
double dose of messages to get ahead
of the game - probably will be out of
commish for a day or two here and there.
I know that when I say that I'm usually
wrong, but if I go AWOL, don't get too
concerned for a few days.


Suan pan zhi, or yam abacus seeds
categories: main, Chinese, pasta
Serves: 4

h - For the Abacus Seeds
500 g taro, peeled and cut into even-sized slices
200 g tapioca flour
h - For the Frying
30 g dried cuttlefish, cut into thin strips
1 lg cake taukwa or hard tofu (preferably yellow
- rather than white for more attractive colour)
- sliced then diced
200 g dried shitake mushrooms, soaked overnight
- and diced
30 g large cloud-ear mushrooms (sometimes also
- called Jews ears), soaked overnight and diced
30 g dried shrimps or haybee, soaked for 20 min
- drained then pounded
200 g minced shoulder of pork
3 to 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 c spring onion stalks and coriander, finely chopped
5 c vegetable oil
1 ts salt or tt
1 ts ground white pepper or tt
1 Tb fish sauce or tt
h - For the Garnishing
A few stalks coriander in finger-length sections
1 lg red chili, sliced on the diagonal and deseeded

The ratio of yam to tapioca flour is highly variable. Pak 
Meh once used a yam:flour ratio of 4:1, which she said 
produced an amazingly intense fragrance and flavour, but 
a very short shelf life, even when kept in the freezer 
afterwards. Commercial ventures tend to use a 1:1 ratio, 
which helps the beads keep longer but produce a much 
starchier, chewier and less fragrant bead. Here we start 
with a ratio of about 2.5:1. Experiment to see what gets 
you your favourite balance of flavour and bite.

Making the Yam Abacus Seeds

Sprinkle some salt over yam and steam for 15 min until 
soft and cooked (check to see if a chopstick will poke 
through the yam).

Put yam in a large pot, add the tapioca flour, and mash 
and mix while still hot to form a dough. This is quite a 
bit of work! You can start off with a potato masher, but 
eventually you'll need to put the back of your palms into 
it and really lay it in, pocketing bits of air into the 
dough as you go

Make small balls, and use your finger to make a slight 
depression in the centre of each ball to make it look 
like an abacus seed. Try to make the "beads" evenly sized 
so that they can be evenly cooked.

Boiling the Yam Abacus Seeds

Boil a large pot of water and add the yam seeds one 
small batch at a time, stirring well to prevent them 
from sticking together. Boil for about 15 min, until 
the batch floats on the boiling water. Remove the seeds 
from the boiling water with a strainer and coat with 
2 to 3 Tb of oil to prevent sticking. Set aside in a 
sieve over a an empty pot to let excess water drip away.

Frying the Yam Abacus Beads

Heat about 6 Tb of vegetable oil in wok on high heat.
Add the chopped garlic and stir-fry until fragrant.
Add the tawkua, pounded haybee and mushrooms and stir-fry 
2 to 3 min until fragrant. Add the pork, cuttlefish and 
cloud ear mushrooms. Add salt, white pepper and fish sauce;
stir-fry 5 min. Add the yam seeds and stir-fry 2 min.
Add the chopped spring onions and coriander and stir 
through 1 more min. Taste, and add salt, pepper and 
fish sauce and stir through if necessary.

Serve up in a casserole dish and garnish with the chili 
slices and coriander stalks. Serve as a standalone dish or 
as part of a meal with rice.

goingwithmygut.com

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