I’ve noticed that ever since I’ve started cooking more and more, I’m starting to collect cookbooks. Usually nothing fancy, but the bargain section of the bookstore almost never fails to tempt me with a $3 cookbook that looks like it would offer the kind of recipes that I don’t get online. I find myself collecting ethnic cookbooks, mostly; I think that mainly it’s to get the kinds of recipes that you don’t find as often on blogs, or at least the blogs I read. I mentioned in a previous post that I had recently picked up another in the Culinaria series, which I like. But the other day I found a book that was clearly published by the same people that published my The Taste of Africa cookbook. I haven’t posted any recipes from that book yet, but everything I’ve tried out of it has been fantastic. Not just good, but pretty amazing. It has a very particular layout, with a particular typesetting and a large main picture of the dish and a few smaller pictures interspersed throughout the recipe; when I opened up a book called Thai and South-East Asian Cooking and Far Eastern Classics (how’s that for a catch-all title) and found the same layout, I had to pick it up (it helped that it was basically free with my rewards credits).

Last weekend I cracked it open and flipped through a few recipes. The thing is quite huge, so I decided I wanted to make some fried rice, and then had to narrow it down to one of a dozen recipes. The one I settled on, Thai Fried Rice, did not disappoint. I’d be lying if I said I followed the recipe exactly – there were just some ingredients I didn’t have – but I think it was the basic of this recipe that led to its success, and It certainly came out delicious.

I think one of the key things that made this recipe so good was it’s first step: cooking the jasmine rice in coconut milk. I had to add more water toward the end to finish the rice off, but otherwise it cooked up fine. After the rice cooks it has to cool completely, spread out on a cookie sheet, so I cooked it earlier in the day to give it plenty of time.

Onions, garlic and ginger all get fried in a large skillet, or better yet, a wok. I do not have a wok, and everything just barely fits in this rather large skillet of mine.

I used pork in this recipe even though the original recipe called for chicken, because it’s fried rice and the point is you can add anything, right? I cooked the fairly small pork chunks most of the way through before the next step.

The pork and rice stir fries for a while. I cooked it as long as I could before I had to add some oil to the mixture to keep the rice from sticking to the pan. The recipe called for a teaspoon of chili oil, which I did not have, so I used some Thai chili sauce and added some more vegetable oil to the pan. I added probably a tablespoon of each to the pan mainly because I felt like it needed a little more juice to keep things moving easier in the pan.

The recipe called for red bell pepper and corn, and I threw in some more fresh green beans from the garden. This only got cooked for a few minutes before the adding the final touch: two beaten eggs, seen here glistening at the end of the spatula and quickly seeping into the rice. The final stir frying happens just long enough to cook up the egg.

Like I mentioned before, this turned out awesome. The jasmine rice and the coconut milk lent a creamy texture to the dish, with two great mellow flavors. Combine that with the kick of the chili sauce and curry powder and the crispness of the quick-cooked veggies, and the egg bringing it all together… it was fantastic. So far this series of books not disappointed, and I look forward to trying more recipes from this and the African book.

Thai Stir Fry (from Thai and South-East Asian Cooking and Far Eastern Classics)

Ingredients

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 3/4 cups jasmine rice, rinsed
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 pound of pork or chicken, cut into small chunks
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 teaspoon hot curry powder
• 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the rice. Bring to a boil, the reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Add water if needed throughout the cooking. Spread the rice on a baking sheet and leave until cold.
2. Heat the oil in a wok, add the garlic, onion and ginger and stir-fry over medium heat for 2 minutes.
3. Add the meat to the center of the pan and stir fry for 2 minutes, until meat is mostly cooked through. Add the rice and toss well. Stir fry over high heat for about 3 minutes more, until the meat is cooked through.
4. Stir in the red pepper, corn, chili oil and curry powder. Toss over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the beaten eggs and cook for 1 minute more.

I love rhubarb. Unfortunately, for whatever reason it is ridiculously hard to find where I live. It’s not in the grocery stores, the most of the farmstands either aren’t open or don’t carry more specialty foods like it, and we don’t have the farmer’s markets that provide a wide variety that you find in the city. But last Saturday we went driving and actually found a farmstand that was selling rhubarb, much to my delight. I’ve had this recipe, which is courtesy of The Rustic Kitchen, for several years now, but I never had the opportunity to make it. It seems to be a variant of this recipe, though the copy I have was handed out at the original Green City Market demonstration and includes ginger in the shortcakes, not the compote. It was definitely worth the wait!

All the dry ingredients get combined in a large bowl and whisked together.

Add the cold butter and shortening to the dry ingredients. Someone once impressed upon me the need for keeping this all cold and cutting the butter quickly without mashing and warming. A lot of recipes say to cut with two knives or something similar, but I find it almost impossible to do well without a pastry cutter.

If the butter is getting to warm (like what happened to me in my very warm kitchen), put it into the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so to cool it down. What you want is a texture something like cornmeal, with no substantial hunks of butter.

After the butter is worked in, the ginger chips get mixed in. I had some ginger nibs that I bought at the Spice House in Chicago the last time I was there, but I had mixed them in with some cacao nibs I also bought there. I didn’t feel like picking them out, or adding cacao to the recipe, so I decided to cut up some ginger chew candy into small hunks. The original recipe called for a half a cup of of chips, but I got tired of cutting and was concerned about the density of ginger chips in the final shortcakes, so I ended up using about a quarter of a cup instead.

The wet ingredients get mixed in until it forms a fairly stiff dough, which is turned out onto a lightly floured surface.

This is patted into a circle and wrapped in plastic wrap, then refrigerated for an hour or overnight. I was making these for breakfast the following morning, so overnight it was!

Also made the night before was the rhubarb compote that would go with the shortcakes.

Before you cook it, rhubarb doesn’t have much going for it besides it’s bright magenta color. It certainly doesn’t smell tasty.

The rhubarb goes into a saucepan with a lot of sugar and a little water and salt. And that’s basically it: it’s super simple. Stir every once in a while and let the rhubarb cook down to a thick, pink, pulpy compote.

Into the refrigerator it goes. In my case, overnight, but if you’re making it same day, refrigerate until cold to let the compote thicken.

The next morning, the shortcake dough was rolled out to 3/4″ thick and cut into 2″ rounds. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures pre-baking (most likely due to it being pre-breakfast).

The ginger chips, made out of the candy, melted during baking like chocolate chips in a cookie. They integrated into the dough a bit more and were gingery without being too strong.

The shortcakes are split in half like biscuits and a healthy dollop of the rhubarb compote is added. The shortcakes themselves had a great consistency, light with a crisp outside. And the compote was fantastic in it’s simplicity, sweet and tart at the same time. It would be great on any kind of toast, but with the ginger shortcakes it was a winning combination.

Rhubarb Compote with Ginger Shortcakes (courtesy of The Rustic Kitchen)

Ingredients

Ginger Shortcakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small chunks
• 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into small chunks
• 1/2 cup ginger chips
• 2/3 cup buttermilk or half-and-half

Rhubarb Compote

• 6 cups 1-inch pieces rhubarb (about two pounds)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

Ginger Shortcakes

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add butter and shortening and cut together with a pastry cutter until the the dough resembles a coarse meal.
3. Stir in ginger chips. Then add buttermilk and stir until dough forms a ball.
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a round. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour, or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400ºF and take dough out of the refrigerator to rest for about 10 minutes.
6. Cut 12 2″ biscuits and place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Rhubarb Compote

1. Stir together rhubarb with sugar, salt and water in large saucepan over medium high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar dissolves.
3. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until rhubarb becomes soft, about 20 minutes.
4. Refrigerate until cold to thicken compote. Reheat before serving if desired.