Nam-Pla Wan - Thai Sweet and Salty Fruit Dipping Sauce (น้ำปลาหวาน)

Makes about 2 cups
Printable Version

330g of palm sugar (or, as I prefer 165g of palm sugar plus 165g of either brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar)
1/3 cup (80 mL) fish sauce
8g shrimp paste
2 large (46g) shallots, peeled and cut into thin slices lengthwise
66g dried shrimp, divided
Small dried red chilies (I use arbol), to taste

Crush the palm sugar (and cane sugar, if applicable) with a large cleaver or a granite pestle into small chunks. This allows it to melt more quickly and easily.Place the sugar(s) in a medium pot along with the shrimp paste and fish sauce; set the pot over low heat.Keep stirring until everything has melted and come to a gentle boil.Remove the pot from heat and let the syrup cool to about 100°-115°F (43°-47°C); it will also thicken up slightly upon cooling. You should end up with about 1 1/2 cups (360 mL) of sticky sauce that has the consistency of maple syrup.While waiting for the syrup to cool, divide the dried shrimp into two equal portions. Pulverize one portion in a food processor or coffee grinder until you get fluffy, tiny flakes; keep the other portion whole.Stir the dried shrimp and the shallots into the syrup. The residual heat of the syrup will wilt the shallots slightly. And while the moisture from the shallots will thin out the sauce somewhat, the dried shrimp flakes give it body.Crush up with your fingers the amount of dried chilies commensurate with your heat tolerance and stir that in.The sauce is ready to be served with your favorite tart fruits. Provided that you keep the sauce in an air-tight container and don't dip (or, worse, double-dip) the fruit right into the container, the sauce should keep, refrigerated, for a month.

Bûche de Noël with Eggnog Ice Cream Cake, Chocolate Streusel, and Butterscotch Sauce by Pastry Chef Patrick Fahy

Chocolate Streusel
125g cold butter, cut into cubes
65g brown sugar
65g white sugar
170g feuilletine or cornflakes
100g all-purpose flour
25g cocoa powder

Blend everything in a food processor until the mixture comes together. Spread it thinly onto a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake at 350°F for 8 minutes until crispy and slightly dry on top. Allow to cool and break it up into a coarse meal.

Butterscotch Sauce
200g water
100g brown sugar
5g salt
200g heavy cream
In a saucepan, bring water and brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. When the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage (235°F–240°F), stir in salt and heavy cream.

Eggnog Ice Cream
(Yields about 3 quarts)
438g heavy cream
750g whole milk
250g granulated sugar
4g salt
30g nonfat milk powder
325g egg yolks
Half a vanilla bean
5g freshly grated nutmeg
50g dark rum (Meyer's), optional
Gently heat the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla seeds (scraped off of the vanilla pod), and the vanilla pod in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Put the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and place it close to the cream mixture. Quickly whisk in 3-4 ladles of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk to bring the temperature of the yolks closer to that of the cream. Pour the tempered yolk mixture back into the cream pot and continue to heat, whisking occasionally, until the temperature falls between 70 °C (156 °F) and 85 °C (185 °F). Take the ice cream base off the heat and strain. Once that is done, add the milk powder, salt, nutmeg, and rum to the ice cream base and mix well. Then leave the mixture to cool in an ice bath. Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Freeze.

Vanilla Roulade
5 large eggs
90g sugar
43g bread flour
25g cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat the eggs and sugar over a bain marie until the mixture becomes viscous and increases about 5 times in volume. Beat in vanilla. Sift together bread flour and cornstarch and sift the flour mixture into the egg mixture in small increments. Carefully fold in the flour mixture so as not to deflate the egg mixture. Spread the mixture onto a parchment-lined half-sheet pan and bake in a 450°F for about 5 minutes until the top is golden brown. Cool and brush with some simple syrup (optional).

Chocolate Mousse
250g dark chocolate couverture, melted and kept warm
80g egg yolks
16 fluid ounces (473 mL) heavy cream
65g simple syrup (35g water and 35g sugar), boiling hot
Whip heavy cream until slightly thickened (the consistency should be similar to that of runny yogurt); set aside. Whip egg yolks with an electric mixer, carefully and slowly pouring the hot simple syrup down the side of the mixer bowl; continue to whip until the yolk mixture is frothy. Stir in the whipped cream and the melted chocolate.

Sorry for not making any blogs lately but I was kind of busy..

Enjoy! (:

Zucchini "Fish" Cakes with Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce (ทอดมันซูกินี)

Zucchini "Fish" Cakes with Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Makes approximately 20 3-inch cakes
Printable Version

2 pounds (~1kg) zucchini
3 large eggs
2 ounces (57g) Thai red curry paste
1 1/2 cups (180g) rice flour
2 teaspoons (12g) salt
2 teaspoons (8g) baking soda
3 kaffir lime leaves, julienned
1/2-3/4 cup plain vegetable oil for frying
1 cup of store-bought or homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce
1/2 cup finely-chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Grate the zucchini coarsely, skin and all. Place the grated zucchini in a large kitchen towel and wring out as much liquid as you possibly can. The crispiness of the zucchini cakes depends on how much liquid you can wring out of the grated zucchini at this point.Place the grated zucchini in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the red curry paste, baking soda, and salt, followed by the eggs, one at a time.Stir in the rice flour and kaffir lime leaves; mix well.In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat up 1/2 cup of oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot (but not smoking), drop the batter into it 1/4 cup at a time. Once one side is brown and crispy, turn over. Transfer the fried zucchini cakes to a paper towel-lined plate. Replenish the oil as necessary.If you're not eating these cakes right away, arrange them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake them at 375°F until they're heated through and the exteriors become crispy again.Serve the warm zucchini cakes with Thai sweet chilli sauce with some peanuts sprinkled on top or mixed in.

Enjoy! (: