Thai Basil Pork

I love Thai food. All Thai food. From the Americanized Pad Thai to the more traditional Green Mango Salad. I love it so much that we grew Thai chilies and Thai basil (aka Holy Basil) in our garden this year. When I came across this Thai Basil Pork recipe on the Leite's Culinaria website I knew it would be great! It had all the components of Thai food that I love...it was sweet, spicy, savory...fabulous! The recipe says you can substitute the pork with ground chicken or turkey and even shrimp, scallops, mussels and salmon. I plan on trying this next week with salmon!

Thai Basil Pork

Ingredients:

2 T. vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. shallots, thinly sliced
1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
6 red Thai chiles, cut into rounds
2 T. oyster sauce
2 T. fish sauce
1 t. soy sauce
1 t. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. packed Thai basil leaves
pinch of black or white pepper

Directions:

Preheat a large wok or skillet over high heat for 1 minute. Swirl in the oil and heat until it becomes runny and starts to shimmer. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until the garlic is light golden and fragrant, 15 to 30 seconds.

Raise the heat to high and stir in the pork, breaking up clumps with the edge of your spatula. Stir and cook until the meat has just lost its blush, 1 to 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium and throw in the chiles. Add the oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar and stir to coat the meat evenly. Stir in the basil and cook until the basil is wilted and the pork is cooked through, another 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with pepper. Serve hot with freshly steamed rice.

Homecoming

Our little town had it's homecoming parade last week. There was the requisite police car and fire truck, school band and princesses. There was one thing glaringly missing. No football team. Seems a bit odd to me. Then again, my high school didn't have a homecoming parade so I don't really know what should and should not be in one.

 

Our main reason for going to the parade is that we knew several people in it. One was my gorgeous niece who was a princess. She looked ethereal.

 

Gabby was not so ethereal watching the parade. More Pebbles from the Flintstones thanks to her cousin Ellie's hairstyling.

 

Gabby's godmother and a senior at the high school was also in the parade. She's the little one in the bottom right of the picture. The parade was tiny but had such enthusiasm and fun it made me love this little town even more than I already do.



Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters

Golly gee, Batman! I haven't posted a recipe in ages! Our garden is winding down for the season but here is yet another zucchini recipe. Mario Batali's Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters. They are light and have been a standard in our kitchen this Summer.

The ingredients are simple: Zucchini, garlic, scallions, ricotta (Mario uses sheep-milk ricotta. I just used regular ricotta from the grocery store), eggs, lemon zest, salt, pepper, flour and olive oil for frying.

Start by coarsely grating the zucchini. Squeeze out the excess moisture with your hands.

 

Thinly slice the scallions. You don't want to eat huge chunks!

 In a large bowl, add the zucchini, scallions, garlic, ricotta, eggs, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of both salt and pepper.

 

Mix well, and stir in the flour.

 

Heat 1/4" of olive oil in a large skillet. When the oil starts to shimmer you are ready to cook. Add small mounds of batter to the hot oil. I used a small ice cream scoop to ensure consistency in size, 2-3 tablespoons. Fry over moderately high heat, about 1-2 minutes per side. 

 

These fritters are so light and taste like Summer. A definite keeper recipe!

 

Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters

 

Ingredients:

 

2 medium zucchini, coarsely shredded

2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced

3 large scallions, very thinly sliced

1/2 c. fresh sheep-milk ricotta cheese

2 large eggs

2 t. finely grated lemon zest

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 c. flour

Olive oil, for frying

Lemon wedges, for serving

 

Directions:

 

In a large bowl, combine the zucchini, garlic, scallions, ricotta, eggs, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Stir well, then stir in the flour just until incorporated.

 

Line a large baking sheet with paper towels. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of olive oil until shimmering. Working in batches, add 2-tablespoon mounds of the zucchini batter to the hot oil, spreading them to form 3-inch fritters. Fry over moderately high heat, turning once, until browned and crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain the fritters on the paper towels and serve right away, with lemon wedges.

 

Make ahead: The fritters can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 hours and recrisped in a 325-degree oven.

Happiest Place on Earth

We went to Disneyland two days in a row. We had a strategy, by going at the start of the school year Disneyland would be less crowded. I suppose "less" is a relative term. It definitely was not like peak times where every ride has an hour and a half long wait but it still seemed impossibly busy.

 

Day one it was the four of us, Nate's godparents Amanda and Wayne and my mom. It was nearly 100 degrees and poor Oregonian Gabs does not handle heat well. We took many precautions but she still ended up with a heat rash. Luckily, Amanda is an expert at all things Disney and guided us to the nursery (Carnation Baby Care Center). The nursery was calm, cool and staffed with the sweetest grandmotherly ladies. It was a wonderful respite in the chaos of Disney.

Nate seemed a bit shell shocked by it all and mutely followed us around. He did aptly name the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the "Crazy Train."

Day two we got smarter and left Gabs with her Auntie Steena. The remaining three of us, Nate's godparents and my dad hit the parks at opening. Nate seemed to process everything from the day before and was rip roaring ready to do everything...except Splash Mountain. He didn't want to get wet.

At the beginning of the day my dad took Nate on the more kid friendly rides and Amanda and Wayne took Jim and me on California Screaming and Tower of Terror. What a blast! We then joined up and did everything we could. We screamed, we laughed and ate our way through both parks. The giant turkey legs were delish but the Dole whip floats were phenomenal. Have you had those? They are sold by the Tikki Room (most annoying place on the planet). The line is usually very long but it is so worth it. Pineapple soft serve floating in fresh pineapple juice. On a hot day where you are burning calories simply standing it is so refreshing!

What's also refreshing is getting soaked to the skin wet. We had been asking Nate for two days if he wanted to ride Splash Mountain. "Zippity Do Da" is one of Nate's favorite songs and we knew he would love it. Randomly, with a mouth full of turkey he said he was ready. Amanda happened to have fast passes in hand so we hightailed it over to the ride. Nate LOVED it. He thought it was hilarious that I was drenched and immediately wanted to ride it again. We rode it twice before leaving the park. Nate laughed so much, it was the perfect end to our day.

 

Right before exiting we asked another visitor to take our picture in front of the main Disneyland station. Not only did she say yes but ended up lying down on the ground to get the shot "just right". It's amazing how no matter how long the line, how hot people were, everyone was really truly happy.

I'm Going to...

Disneyland! Well, actually, we just got back. It was hot, it was crowded and it truly is the Happiest Place on Earth! I'm still getting organized from the trip and dealing with a sick baby but will post more soon.

Insults

My mom is hilarious. One of her best insults is calling someone "white bread". It means that the person lacks substance and has no personality. One time she demonstrated how little substance a piece of white bread has by mushing it up into a teeny tiny ball. It's not surprising that she likes whole grain whole seeded wheat bread.

Pet Peeve

I have quite a few pet peeves. One is that hardly anyone seems to know how to count back change properly. They just hand you your change and tell you how much they are giving you. I recently have added a new pet peeve to the list...charities that ask for money by sending you money. Drives me Crazy!