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6 Shortcuts to Eco-Gourmet Cooking: Southeast Asian Style
With talk of locavore cuisine, eat-the-whole-creature cooking and seasonal ingredients made by small producers, it's enough to make you think cooking deliciously and environmentally is beyond our reach. So. Not. True. Be a cheating chef in six easy ways that will impress the green gourmands in your crowd.
Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian restaurants have teams of cooks chopping, stir-frying, and simmering. You don't. But that doesn't mean that you can't impress your dinner guests by incorporating authentic Southeast Asian flavors like lemongrass and kaffir lime into beautiful, spicy and satisfying meals.
Black Rice With Spinach and Caramelized Mushrooms
1. Eat Paste, the Kind in a Glass Jar
World Foods sauces are like Malaysia in a jar, blending Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, and Indian spices and bottling them all up as all-natural sauces and marinades. The World Foods team grinds roots and spices in Thailand, pounds chilies in Singapore, and blends rendang, the anise-, coconut-, and clove-scented lemongrass curry of Malaysia, so you don't have to – and, conveniences of conveniences, they're on the shelves at Whole Foods. Experiment with one of their sauces to make a savory, meatless dish, like Tofu Rendang with Carrots, Shallots and Coriander Leaves (click for the recipe). Use one of their pastes to whip up a dinner featuring Black Rice with Spinach and Caramelized Mushrooms. The company practices a minimalist packaging policy, pack only in clear glass (the most recycling-friendly glass), and supports small farmers in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, plus all ingredients are natural, vegan, and free of MSG.
Singapore Potato-Carrot Curry
2. Make Nice With New Potatoes
Moist, tender potatoes harvested from late July until mid September are so amazing, they can star as the main course at your next summer shindig. Available at farm stands, greenmarkets, and other local outlets , they can become a Singapore Potato-Carrot Curry entree in 20 minutes, using Yeo's Singapore Curry Gravy. Dinner-party fun fact: The sauce contains the rare candlenut from Malacca. The gravy is available at all Asian grocers, Whole Foods stores, online grocers , Amazon.com , and many mainstream supermarkets.
3. Be a Woman With a Can and a Plan
With all the dire news about diminishing fish stocks, it's a small relief to know that seafood like clams, mussels, oysters and scallops from America's sustainable bivalve aquaculture system are plentiful and constantly renewing. (Wild-harvested shellfish are collected with dredges that denude the ocean floor, ruining habitats.) Look for "US farmed" on the labels – it's the law now – and if by any chance the shellfish is not labeled, fish stores are required to keep the tags that identify origins, so just ask for the tags. Take your gorgeous shellfish and pair it beautifully with a spicy, sweet Asian gravy known as laksa – from (shh) a can. Steam open two pounds of any combination of shellfish and add with cooked noodles to Por Kwan Laksa Soup. You'll have main-course noodle soups for your guests (figure one can per guest) in about 15 minutes.
4. Do the Two (Ingredients) Step
Any chef will tell you that when you have exceptional vegetables, the best ways to serve them are incredibly simple. In Italy, that means blanching tender dandelion greens and serving them drizzled with fruity olive oil; I like Lucini and Raineri . In Southeast Asia, it means steaming baby jade bok choy and serving it drizzled with oyster sauce, like Lee Kum Kee premium . Other great two-ingredient combinations are crunchy raw radishes with hoisin sauce by Koon Chun , sautéed mushrooms with Eden's organic shoyu soy ( widely available at health food stores and Whole Foods), and long Asian eggplants roasted with smoky sesame oil by Kadoya.
