Foraging in Seattle is Cookin' with the Food Forest

To encourage more people in their explorations of foraged foods, I will be leading some plant ID tours around Seattle's Beacon Food Forest between May-August 2019. Here is the flyer, below. 

Beacon Food Forest information can be found on their website: https://beaconfoodforest.org/

Oyyyyy Vey! Next Book...Coming Soon

Oh man, I haven't posted diddly squat since I published my last book. But that's because I've been working on my next book and not exactly thinking about randomly blogging into this here void.

Anywho, here's a sneak peak of a recipe from my next book, Some of That: Foraging in Seattle. My current plan is to make sure the book available in April on my Amazon author page.

Plum Excitement

(AKA Five Spice-Vanilla Plum Clafoutis)

Seattle is an excellent place to grow Italian prune plums because so many people have planted the trees and forgotten about them. Once you have your “plum eyes” on, you will be excited to find the trees dropping so much beautiful fruit! Ask your neighbors if you can harvest their fruit— maybe you can thank them later with a bite of this custardy plum dish if you don’t mind them suddenly wising up. Italian plums are especially easy to deal with because they can be eaten slightly firm or quite soft and they don’t seem to get bugs while they’re chilling there in the tree waiting for you. Their flesh doesn’t stick to their pit, so they’re a snap to slice open, cut up and dehydrate if you like. I’ll shut up now and say that the below is one of my favorite ways to use fresh plums! Be sure to use the heavy cream— this doesn’t taste as nice when you try to go low-fat. Substitute very ripe pears in autumn or (pitted) sour cherries in early summer if you hanker for the dish off-season. Double the five-spice powder if you want!

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon soft butter

250 milliliters heavy cream (1 cup)

110 milliliters whole milk (1/2 cup)

2 large eggs

70 grams sugar (50-60 grams if you like things less sweet)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

seeds of a 1-inch piece of vanilla bean

½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder*

350-400 grams ripe pitted Italian plums, artistically sliced in strips to an equal thinness of about ¼-½ inch

2 tablespoons brown or turbinado sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350° F and generously coat the bottom of a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie pan with the soft butter.

Whisk together the cream through five spice powder until fully combined, then pour about 2/3 cup of it into the dish. Bake 12 minutes.

Now add the sliced plums on top of the custard in a tidy, even arrangement, sprinkle on the turbinado sugar, and gently pour the rest of the custard mixture over the plums.

Bake for about 50 minutes. If that seems long to you, you can tent aluminum foil over it for the last 10 minutes. When it’s done, the custard will be puffy and pleasantly browned. It will still jiggle in the middle. Let it cool to at least “warm” level before consuming, but room temperature is best. It will be soft and yummy! To fancy the dish up, right before serving, dust lightly with powdered sugar.

                                      

Egads, Some of These Book is Published....Time for Some Food Photos

 Here are some photos to go along with Some of These.

Better photos than mine that I've plucked from other people's posts include a URL so you can go there when you want.

You can see other pics that I already posted here when I originally received feedback that photos should be included.

I suppose you think I need to add more of my own photos to this post and explain more. Well, maybe when I am not in the throes of ADHD. I can promise to muddle along and add things when they occur to me. In the meantime, do let me know what you feel is missing, and I'll add it here.

Sangkaya Sticky Rice Buns

Palm sugar cooking - bonus video for the insane

Palm Sugar Blobs - The original in Bagan, Myanmar

"Husband and Wife" - see the quail eggs?

Properly sliced cabbage strips for cabbage stir fry

Curry paste in process. See the shrimp paste?

Khao Soi

Sticky Rice Bread

Easy Roti Jala

Fresh Rolls (photo from http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/2008/04/14/popiah/)

Nam Kang Sai (photo from https://m.inquirer.net/lifestyle?id=278966)

Miang Kham (photo from https://mythaicurry.com/blogs/recipe-blog/miang-kham)

Geez I'll Get to My Next Book Soon, OK

Alright, I swear that I have been working diligently on my next book, Some of These. 

Looking at my calendar and the rate at which I am moving, I believe it will be published in October. 

Until then, why not ponder a few of the exciting "illustrations" that I plan to include?

Yum

Cabbage slicing guidelines for the perplexed

Coconut RULES (assuming you use the good stuff)

Needs no explanation

Poor shrimpykins, soon to be paste-ified

Eventually: Next Book Will Be Cranked Out

As I work on cranking through the writing and editing of my next book about Southeast Asian cuisine, I received a great recommendation. Given the cost limitations of the print media I am working with at this time, I should post photos of the recipes here on my blog. I'll do that. Here are a few to get your eyes, brain and taste buds coordinated.

Shaping an Eggy Custard Bun

Easy Ginger Blobs

Digging into some Burmese Fish Noodle Soup (Mohinga)

Sangkaya buns in the oven

Singapore Curry Puffs - baked!

Sticky rice bread shaping in progress (see, no flour for rolling)

OK, Peeps, Let's Make Roti Jala!

Does this mysterious substance pique your curiosity? Learn how to make it by watching this very clear video here!

Before you leap to the video, you say, so, what is it? Roti jala from Malaysia. Eat it with any curry, perhaps a bit like how you'd eat curry with naan or paratha.

When I make roti jala, I let the batter set overnight in the fridge -- that makes it a little more delicate (same thing you do with French crepes, my dears)--but it's not entirely necessary.

I'll be putting a roti jala recipe in my next cookbook, which is likely coming out soon (Summer 2018), or whenever my hands can handle the agony of mousing around to format the final manuscript.

Enjoy!

Yo yo yo, how about that spicy Lao chili oil?

Everyone has been pestering me incessantly to post something new, so I found something to say.

I recently re-created this Lao hot sauce with tasty results. It's probably a little chunky some, but kabam, what flavor. Secret ingredients: shallots, man, shallots. And gobs of chili. It's similar to Lao Gan Ma Chili Sauce, but WAY better! I recommend trying it on everything that seems like a good idea.

Oily goodness

Slathered on some dry-fried tofu

On a khao jee sandwich w/plenty of mayo, veg + more fried shallots

My recipe? What? Inconceivable! You'll have to wait for my next drivel-fest, Some of These. Yes, I admit I am trying to focus my next book on Southeast Asia. Let's see if I can keep up my usual fantastic momentum. Until then, let your fingers make sweet love to your search engine of choice; look for something like "homemade chili oil recipe." You can do it, Duffy Moon.