Rujak--What to Serve with Hot (Spicy) Entrees

What kind of salad works best with Thai food, curries, Indonesian Reistafel  and all those fiery-to-the-taste-buds, sinus clearing dishes?  Years and years ago, when I made curry often (the kids loved it!) I came across a recipe that was absolutely perfect for my spicy concoctions.  I've never seen it before or since.  The  page where I typed (yes, typed) it is even yellow and curry-spattered, with the holes fortified with reinforcements.  The salad is a tart fruit salad.  Here is the recipe.
You will note that the ingredients are common and therefore relatively cheap.  I think a kiwi would work well.  The recipe predates kiwi's availability in the stores.  The recipe predates almost everything, except the Cheeseparer.  

Note:  the "sour salt" is citric acid which many grocery store will sell, but you can also find it at the drug store and if that doesn't work crush a vitamin C tablet if the ingredient is citric acid.  It keeps the apple and banana from turning that yukky brown. 


Rujak--Tart Fruit Salad


4 cups water 
3/4 cup  dark brown sugar  (light brown in a pinch)
1/2 t. crushed chili peppers (hot pepper flakes)
1/2 t. sour salt
1 T. lemon juice
1 lemon cut into eighths 
sliced banana (not overly ripe)
orange sections (canned mandarin in a pinch)
peeled apple wedges
thinly sliced unpeeled cucumber 


Boil sugar and water until it makes a clear syrup--about 4 minutes; remove from heat.  Add hot pepper flakes and sour salt; stir until salt dissolves.  Stir in lemon juice after syrup has cooled slightly.  
About 2 hours before serving, mix syrup with the cut up fruit and cucumber.  Chill in coldest part of refrigerator and serve ice-cold.
This is  served as a side dish and eaten as a "refresher" between mouthfuls of hot food.  
 No idea where this recipe originated.

The Cheeseparer. 




 

Dinner is served

We finally had a dinner party, and it was kinda, sorta frugal and totally delicious.  I found some fresh wild Atlantic salmon at Whole Foods for $10.99 a pound.  Cheap for what it was.  I made a lime butter sauce for the fish (limes were on special).  We grilled corn along with the fish (over oak) and I cooked up some green beans, likewise on sale now as was the corn.  I made a fab gazpacho with tomatoes from the garden, as was the garlic and the herbs.  So delicious.  For desert, we had homemade berry (raspberries and blackberries) ice cream.  Berries were on special, too, as was the wine. 

We had enough salmon left for lunch, beans for another meal, and the ice cream lasted for nine servings.  Being in diet mode, we didn't exactly heap it into our bowls.  Which was fine.  What I liked about the ice cream was that it wasn't so sweet that you couldn't taste the tartness of the berries and the creaminess of the cream.

The meal was not a lot of work, especially with my better half doing the corn and the salmon, and making the ice cream the day before and the gazpacho in the morning so it would be well chilled. How much would this meal have cost at a restaurant?  I don't even want to know! 

Now, the rains have come.  We had a chicken salad on spinach tonight, with heirloom tomatoes and feta.  As good as it gets.  Had to cook indoors due to the weather, but I have a grill pan, and it was no big deal.  We decided to make another ice cream over Labor Day.  Maybe a gelato or an ice milk. Something delicious.  As always.

Take Five Ripe Tomatoes . . .

In mid August, if you are growing your own or have access to a farm stand or farmer's market, the best recipes always begin with the phrase, "take five ripe tomatoes."


Here are some of the things we do with those tomatoes:
1)  Tomato Bread Salad - I'm serving tonight with fresh basil, fresh spinach, and fresh mozzarella.
2)  Homemade tortilla soup.
3)  Insalata Caprese  (tomatoes with basil, olive oil and fresh mozzarella)
4)  Tomato/vegetable soup
5)  A simple plate of sliced tomatoes with fresh herbs
6)  Gazpacho

Tortilla Soup

3 T. corn oil

4 corn tortillas, cut in strips

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium onions, chopped

4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 T. ground cumin

1 jalapeno pepper

8 cups chicken broth

½ cup fresh cilantro 

Garnishes:  fried strips of tortilla, grated Cheddar, cooked chicken breast (in thin strips)

Diced avocado, chopped cilantro

Heat oil in 4 quart stockpot and fry strips of  tortilla until crisp.  Remove and drain on paper towels.

Saute  garlic and onions and cook until onions are soft.  Add remaining ingredients, including tortilla strips,  bring to boil and simmer 20-25 minutes.  Add salt and paper.  Serve  in bowls with garnishes. 

What are some of YOUR faves?

Here is a tomato bread salad recipe from Epicurious

Away for the Weekend

Frog in the Lily Pond at our host's place in the Berkshires

Even a so-called cheap house party weekend can add up: gas, food for the group, wine for the group, entertainment, meals en route.  I figure the outlay for around $230.00 in total for  three days.  Not bad, actually if divided by day.  I took along some pecan pie bars, which are actually to die for, and an "antipasto salad," of pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, proscuitto and provlone and salami.  This is an Emeril Lagasse recipe and it serves ten and is really good, probably less than $1 a serving.  The pecan pie bars consist of a shortbread crust (with brown sugar), baked and a pecan mixture (more butter and brown sugar) poured over the hot crust.  It makes about 28 bars if you don't cut them too big.  Very rich, so nice little pieces are fine. 


Our host made a wonderful pork loin, part broiled, part baked and part smoked, with plenty of garlic cloves.  I took a head of my fresh organic garlic and some tomatoes, too.  We just have to stop in Stockbridge, MA at the Red Lion Inn every so often for lunch in the courtyard.  A beautiful warm day, and nice wine and food.   We like the Saturday morning rehearsal at Tanglewood, for only $17.00 a head.  We had a nice picnic with the antipasto salad, the bars and some leftover pork and tomato/cuke/onion salad from the night before.  Oh yes, and wine.  


We could easily have spent 3 times as much on lodging, Tanglewood tickets, and eating out.  I did buy a CD of the Silk Road Ensemble which I've enjoyed at home already.  This is our only vacation this summer, except for my two days in Georgia visiting relatives.  I went to a wonderful party in the country where the host served is own (Angus) beef, his corn, his tomatoes, his okra, his figs and his peppers.  It was a very special evening.  Somewhere miles east of Athens.  The evening before, I partook of homemade peach ice cream.  Life is good in the summertime.  
We had insalata Caprese for lunch.  Home grown basil and home grown tomatoes.  I suppose I could make my own mozzarella, but that sounds like work.  
Last night we grill chicken dressed in fines herbes and seven different veggies.  Enough for a second dinner.  I have one (1) cantaloupe from a plant that was supposed to be a cucumber.  Go figure. 

I hope you have a garden.  The frogs and bees and hummingbirds, the butterflies and even the cheeky chipmunks make it a living spot where flora and fauna and exist.  
Yesterday, a brown creeper came in the kitchen window and existed the living room.  I heard a commotion in the kitchen and one of the cats was most uncharacteristically on the counter.  Bird had enough sense to leave when we opened the door. 

Yours in sometime frugality

The Cheeseparer