Hot Sour Salty Sweet A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia

by Alford, Jeffrey; Duguid, Naomi

• ISBN13: 9781579651145
• ISBN10: 1579651143
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-07
• Publisher: Artisan

Summary

The culinary map of Southeast Asia is about to change, if award-winning cookbook authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid have their way. Realizing that the wonderful flavors of Southeast Asia spill over national borders, Alford and Duguid set out to eat their way through the region's towns and villages, all the while collecting recipes, cooking techniques, stories, and photographs. In Hot Sour Salty Sweet, dishes like Spicy Grilled Beef Salad and Vietnamese Chicken with Fresh Herbs appear side by side with more exotic treats like Jungle Curry from Thailand and Pomelo Salad from Cambodia. There are simple warming soups, easy stir-fries, brilliant, hot salsas, and cooling desserts. Evocative stories and photographs of their travels also appear throughout.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Alford is a writer and photographer based primarily in northeast Thailand and Cambodia. He plants and harvests rice each year; helps raise frogs and several varieties of fish; and happily struggles along in three languages: Central Thai, Lao Isaan, and Northern Khmer. His forthcoming book, to be published in 2014, is tentatively titled How Pea Cooks: Food and Life in a Thai-Khmer Village. His earlier books, all co-written with Naomi Duguid, are Flatbreads and Flavors;HomeBaking; Seductions of Rice; Hot Sour Salty Sweet; Mangoes and Curry Leaves; and Beyond the Great Wall. Jeffrey is currently developing a series of intensive culinary tours through northeastern Thailand and western Cambodia (the Angkor Wat area) under the name of Heritage Food Thailand.

Naomi Duguid is a writer, photographer, teacher, cook, and world traveler. Her most recent cookbooks, Burma and Taste of Persia, transported readers into cultures and flavors not yet celebrated in the West, and respectively won the 2013 IACP Cookbook Award for Culinary Travel and both the 2017 IACP Cookbook Award for Culinary Travel and the 2017 James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year, International. Her previous award-winning titles, coauthored with Jeffrey Alford, include Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas, their first book, which won a James Beard Award for Cookbook of the Year; Seductions of Rice; Hot Sour Salty Sweet, also a James Beard Cookbook of the Year; Mangoes & Curry Leaves; and Beyond the Great Wall.
 
Duguid’s articles and photographs have appeared regularly in Lucky Peach, Food & Wine, and other publications. She is a frequent guest speaker and presenter at food conferences. She is the host of Toronto’s Food on Film series and has a strong online presence (Twitter and Facebook). Her stock photo agency, Asia Access, is based in Toronto, where she lives when she is not on the road.

Table of Contents

preface	2	(5)
the river, the people, the food	7	(12)
dishes for every occasion	19	(4)
sauces, chile pastes, and salsas	23	(24)
simple soups	47	(17)
salads	64	(23)
rice and rice dishes	87	(26)
noodles and noodle dishes	113	(33)
mostly vegetables	146	(25)
fish and seafood	171	(21)
poultry	192	(23)
beef	215	(19)
pork	234	(27)
snacks and street food	261	(28)
sweets and drinks	289	(19)
glossary of flavorings	308	(5)
glossary of ingredients	313	(12)
mail-order sources	325	(1)
bibliography	325	(3)
acknowledgments	328	(2)
index	330

Excerpts

Quick and Tasty Yunnanese PotatoesJiaxiang Tudou--Yunnan This is slightly chile-hot and very, very good, either hot from the wok or at room temperature. Serve as part of a rice meal with grilled or stir-fried meat, some lightly flavored Chinese greens, and a soup. It also makes great leftovers, cold or reheated. We like the leftovers topped by lightly stir-fried greens and a fried egg. No extra seasoning needed. 2 pounds potatoes (see Note) 3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil 5 Thai dried red chiles 1 cup finely chopped scallions or a mixture of scallions and chives or garlic shoots 1 teaspoon salt Wash the potatoes well but do not peel unless the skins are very old and tough. Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water until just cooked. Drain and put back in the hot pot to dry. When cool enough to handle, slide off the skins if you wish. Coarsely chop the potatoes or break them into large bite-sized pieces. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan, then toss in the chiles. Stir-fry briefly until they puff, about 30 seconds, then add the potatoes and stir-fry for about 3 minutes, pressing the potatoes against the hot sides of the wok to sear them. Add the chopped scallions or greens and salt and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Turn out onto a plate and serve hot or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6 as part of a rice meal Note: You can use leftover boiled potatoes for this dish. The proportions above are for about 6 cups cut-up potatoes. If you begin with less, reduce the amount of greens and chiles proportionately. And your potatoes may already be salted, so be cautious as you add salt to taste. Baked Bass with Spicy RubPa Pao--Laos, Northeast Thailand In Laos and northeast Thailand, fish and curries are often cooked in banana leaf wrappers over a small fire. Wrapping keeps in moisture and flavor, so it lends itself perfectly to fish prepared with a marinade or with aromatics. You don't have to have banana leaves for this dish, just aluminum foil, but if you do come across banana leaves fresh or in the freezer section at a Southeast Asian grocery store, buy a package and keep it in your freezer. Banana leaves give a pleasant scent to the food as it cooks and they're easy and fun to work with. Two 1- to 1 1/2 pound gutted and scaled whole firm-fleshed fish (striped bass or lake trout, for example, or a saltwater fish such as snapper) 2 tablespoons Peppercorn-Coriander Root Flavor Paste (recipe follows) 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed, smashed flat with the side of a cleaver, and cut into 1-inch lengths 2 limes, cut into wedges Salt and freshly ground black pepper (optional) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or light a grill to produce a medium heat. Wash the fish inside and out and wipe dry. Make three shallow diagonal slashes on each side of each fish. Put some flavor paste in each slit and then smear the rest over the outside and a little on the inside of the fish. Put the chopped lemongrass inside the fish. Place two 18-inch square pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil side by side on your work surface. If you have fresh or frozen banana leaves, use them: Lay one or more overlapping pieces of banana leaf (strip out the central rib of the leaf first) on top of each. Lay one fish on each set of wrappings, diagonally or whichever way allows a complete wrap. Wrap each fish firmly in the banana leaf, if using, and then in foil, tucking in the ends as you roll it up to seal it well. Bake on a baking sheet in the center of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or grill on a grill rack 5 to 6 inches from the flame for 15 to 20 minutes a side. The fish should be moist and tender. Remove from the heat and place on one or two platters. Serve in the banana leaf wrapping or turned out onto the platter(s), as you please. Accompany with lime wedges and, if you wish, salt and pepper. Serves 4 a