Pho Pas?

At your (room) service

I got to work early today and therefore was the first on the scene to scoop an ample container of fresh coconut cream to use in my dtom kaa kai.

Dtom Kaa Gai is a wonderfully rich soup of chicken, coconut and galangal. LOTS of galangal is required.

the peeling of galangal requires a firm hand

I accidentally jabbed our kitchen porter with the tip of my knife. Oops.

After the galangal is peeled it is soaked in salt water to mellow it a bit. We then simmer it in coconut cream and chicken stock with some chilis, shallots, coriander roots, lemongrass and lime leaves. After seasoning with palm sugar and salt you add your straw mushrooms and sliced chicken. When the chicken is cooked ladle the soup into a bowl and season with lime juice, fish sauce and roasted chili powder (blue tongue powder). And a little fresh coriander (cilantro for you North Americans).

beware the breakfast cook

beware the smiling room service waiter, for he brings bad tidings

As today was Sunday I cooked a humongous roast of beef. Chris the Sous-Chef made an equally monstrous Yorkshire pudding. We truly went all out: I cooked up frozen peas and corn and even powdered gravy!

Yorkshire Pudding, for the staff canteen

Borough Market

The oldest and greatest market in London, the Borough Market has been operating at its current location for 250 years, but was established during the Roman occupation. I went thinking I wasn’t going to buy much, and ended up with an armload of expensive treats.

I couldn’t resist buying a large ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella from Campagna. It is nothing like the fresh mozzarella I’ve had in Canada. I just had a piece accompanied by some prosciutto, a slice of Poilane bread and some lovely lettuce that I found at the market called Brown Spotted Trout (as in the fish, the vendor kindly informed me).

I also picked up some chantrelles, a bottle of artisanal cider and a lemon almost as big as my head.

smoked garlic!

The crowd was starting to thicken and I’d thought I had had enough, so I made a quick exit only to stumble upon Neal’s Yard Dairy on a side street. I bought myself some real butter, straight from a happy cow. Slathered some on a piece of the Poilane sourdough as soon as I got home…delightful. Also got some Neal’s Yard yogurt to go with the english raspberries that are so perfectly ripe at the moment.

"m'am, please stop photographing the cheese"

Jasmine

We at Nahm use Thai jasmine to perfume the water used to make rice. Thai ‘jasmine’ is not the same garden-variety jasmine found in the backyards of North America. That is Arabian jasmine (I think). Thai jasmine has a wonderful smell. We also use it to perfume dessert syrups, and yesterday we extracted coconut cream using jasmine water in order to obtain a perfumed coconut cream for dessert applications. Jasmine water is made by delicately opening each flower and placing it stem-end down into water so that it floats on top. It is then left to infuse overnight. Rice made with jasmine is really good!  You could do this with any fragrant flower on hand, provided it isn’t deadly nightshade or something like that.  Roses work.

all you need is a little patience

From the Couch

Today is my only day off this week and I am determined to spend as much time sitting down as possible. The day started with a good two-hour sit on the sofa with a cup of Nescafe and a book of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. I was then forced to leave the house briefly to go to the post office and the grocery store, where I purchased a bottle of Chablis to celebrate. I’m back on the couch now and am contemplating going to a movie at the Chelsea Cinema later on tonight.

Yesterday I worked like a fiend for 16 hours without a break OR a meal. I was fairly stressed out for the better part of the day and I could barely make it to the bus stop at the end of it. On the bright side, it was the first day in four that I didn’t get a bollocking. Let’s hope this trend continues.

Paul BOWLcuse

my former colleague Max

The Cook

“A cook they had with them, just for once,

to boil the chickens with the marrow-bones,

and poudre-marchant tart, and galingale,

He knew how to recognize a draught of London ale.

He could roast and broil and boil and fry,

And prepare a stew, and bake a tasty pie.

But a pity it was, it seemed to me,

That on his shin an open sore had he;

For sweet blanc-mange, he made it with the best.”

Geoffrey Chaucer