By Alan Gore
It’s December already, when the frost has given brilliant new colors to the license plates all over the Valley and Phoenix lies under a freshly fallen blanket of crystal meth. Yes, this is the month for our Christmas Around the World buffet. We know how busy you are in this season of joyous spending, so instead of a dinner, Shoestring Gourmet will be a Sunday brunch. Bring any dish traditionally served this time of year for Christmas. Any country is eligible, but there is a huge variety of Christmas fare just in the cultures that make up America. Between the lutefisk of Minnesota to those Hawaiian luau favorites, you can find any country’s cuisine adapted to that great family gathering we celebrate at Christmas. We’ll even stretch the definition of the season just a little to include, for example, the grand sashimi spreads with which the Japanese celebrate the year’s end.
For November’s raucous rijstaffel, hosted right here at the Gore place, we had an unusual number of dishes prepared on the premises. Jim Morgan led off with his ‘dragon wings’ - chicken wings basted with black beans and coconut milk. Ursula Gore followed with crispy Chinese spring rolls. Though these items were supposed to be just the appetizer, people kept loading up no them all evening. Originating in Thailand,
Ray Pisar & Diana Toone’s nam sod, spicy ground chicken with lettuce, and sticky rice, was a salad that looked so familiar, yet tasted like nothing we have ever encountered before. This was accompanied by Oriental spinach salad. Marilyn McDonald brought nasi kuning lengkap, baked rice cone. This was yellow rice with turmeric, slightly self-adhering, formed into a cone, flavored with lemon grass, onion and garlic, then garnished with raw peanuts, red bell peppers, and red onions. Marjorie & George Roberts whipped up some paksiw na latong from the Philippines, creamy eggplant with coconut sauce. This dish happens to be our first featured Recipe of the Month, as you see below. Next came Ken Brown and his Chinese hot and sour soup, crammed with many different meats and vegetables, then Barbara Brand with her south Indian potatoes. We welcomed an old friend, George Miles, back after a long absence from Gourmet, with sticky rice. Jane Khatiblou brought our last main dish, which was a delicate pork and rice noodles with snow peas. For dessert, Kebba Buckley mixed ginger and coconut ice cream on the premises; with vanilla-almond cookies. Then, in traditional Mensa fashion, everyone piled into the bedroom – to watch ‘Chef’ on PBS.
We meet next month on Sunday, December 14, at noon. Please be sure, as always, to call Ursula Gore at 863-9648 by Thursday, 12/11 to get directions and to coordinate the dishes.
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Our Recipe of the Month, a tradition which starts with this issue, is Paksiw Na Latong, which comes to us from ‘las Islas Filipinas’ as described by Barbara Hansen in The Taste of Southeast Asia.. Sorry, folks, but the transcription of the recipe I got did not include amounts.
For the sauce:
Coconut milk
1 tablespoon vinegar
Crushed garlic
Cornstarch
Mix the coconut milk, vinegar and water, add the garlic, then thicken with cornstarch to taste.
For the main dish:
Eggplant
White vinegar
Crushed garlic
Chopped parsley
Simmer the eggplant in water, then add vinegar and garlic. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with sauce.