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This recipe shows that you don’t have to have every spice under the sun to cook a good Indian curry. Nor do you need to be a connoisseur of Indian cuisine. Contrary to popular belief, making an authentic curry is actually pretty easy, especially if you keep the ingredients simple and use a few shortcuts.

For instance, I adore using freshly ground spices but don’t always have them on hand, so I keep a basic stock of ground spices at the ready. For this curry, apart from essentials like cumin, coriander and chili, I used the classic Indian spice mix garam masala, a flavorful blend of aromatic spices which added a warmness and slight sweetness to the dish.

In addition to the spices, I simply added canned tomatoes and coconut milk, as well as spinach, onion and garlic bought at a nearby farmer’s produce stall, plus a couple of fresh fish fillets procured from our local fishmonger, and a lemon from our own tree. Regional and seasonal food at its best!

Fish, Spinach and Tomato Curry

Serves 2

• 2 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 cup chopped canned tomatoes
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 2 cups washed, drained and roughly chopped fresh spinach
• 2 x 6 oz (180g) firm white fish fillets (such as snapper, cod or haddock)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

HEAT the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes. ADD the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then add the cumin, coriander and chili and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. ADD the tomatoes, coconut milk, garam masala and salt and bring to a boil. REDUCE the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. WHILE the curry simmers, bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. STIR in the rice and keep stirring until the water returns to a boil. COVER the pot with a tight-fitting lid, reduce the heat to very low, and simmer the rice gently for 15 minutes. ADD the spinach to the curry and cook, covered, for 4 minutes, then add the fish and spoon the sauce over the fillets. COVER with a lid, and simmer for another 7 minutes. STIR in the lemon juice and serve on a bed of the rice.

A favorite comfort food from my childhood is chawan mushi, an elegant, Japanese style steamed egg custard. (The name literally means something like “steamed in a teacup.”) I first encountered this dish at home at the breakfast table, when my mother would sometimes have a little fun and make chawan mushi instead of the usual fried or scrambled eggs. Silky and light, it melted in the mouth…I instantly loved it. Finding it at breakfast in the morning was always a happy, festive start to the day.

There are beautiful lidded cups that are designed specifically for cooking and serving chawan mushi. I own several and love them dearly, but you don’t necessarily have to use them…you can also use teacups or personal sized ramekins. My ever resourceful Taiwanese mom would simply add her egg mixture to a small rice bowl, cover it with a saucer, and then pop everything into a covered wok with a small amount of water on the bottom to steam. The resulting product always turned out beautifully.

As an adult, I still have a soft spot for chawan mushi, and find that it makes a stylish appetizer or light meal. I also think it would be just the thing to eat after a night of drinking or overindulging. Whenever you decide to eat it, whether it’s for a festive breakfast, a fun meal starter or something to pamper your post-party stomach…chawan mushi is easy to make and the perfect comfort food in a cup.

Chawan Mushi/Steamed Japanese Egg Custard

(Serves 2-3, depending on what cups you are using)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups dashi stock
• 1 tablespoon light colored Japanese style soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon mirin

(Note: To make dashi stock—Take a 6-inch piece of kombu (dried sea kelp), wipe clean with a damp towel, and make a few cuts along the edges with scissors (This will extract more flavor from the kelp…more surface area exposed = more flavor). Add kombu to 5 cups of water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Just before it reaches a boil, remove the kombu and add 2.5 cups of dried bonito flakes. Turn off the heat and let sit for about 6 minutes or until the flakes sink to the bottom. Strain into a bowl through a piece of cheesecloth. The dashi stock is now ready to use or freeze (will keep in the freezer for about a month). You can also use instant dashi powder to make the stock.)

Filling:

• 1 sliced shiitake mushroom (fresh or rehydrated)
• 2-3 asparagus spears, sliced into pieces about 2 inches long.
• 2-3 shrimp, cleaned, deveined and with tail left on

(Note: Feel free to go ahead and change the filling ingredients according to your preference. Just be sure to limit it to no more than three, or it will overwhelm the delicate flavor of the custard. You could try water chestnuts, tofu, small cubes of chicken, crabmeat, baby corn…anything you think of or have on hand. Just go for it and have fun creating your own unique combination.)

Garnish:

• Mitsuba (Japanese parsley) or if not available, flat leaf parsley or cilantro

Equipment:

• A pot with steamer basket
• Cheesecloth or fine strainer
• 2-3 chawan mushi cups (or teacups/small ramekins and aluminum foil)

Directions:

Fill pot about halfway with water and bring to a boil.

Combine egg, dashi stock, soy sauce and mirin in a bowl and with smooth strokes, gently beat with chopsticks. Try not to create too much froth, because you don’t want a lot of air bubbles in your custard.

Strain egg mixture through cheesecloth or strainer.

Divide egg mixture among the chawan mushi cups.

Add a few slices of mushroom, one shrimp, and an asparagus piece (using an end piece that includes the pointy tip looks best) to each cup. Cover with lids if using chawan mushi cups, or cover with foil if using the ramekins or teacups.

When water in pot reaches a boil, place cups into steamer basket. Steam on high heat for 2 minutes, then reduce heat to low for another 10-12 minutes.

Test the surface with toothpick or skewer to check doneness…some clear liquid should form on top when prodded. Custard should be smooth and soft but not super firm. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look completely gelled, it is supposed to be a silken consistency. If it looks underdone, just keep on the steamer and re-cover, checking back at 1-2 minute intervals until it reaches the desired consistency. I have an old gas stove that is sometimes difficult to control accurately, so for me, there is a lot of “check and see” to this…sometimes that means an extra minute or two, sometimes it means an extra 10. Just make sure the flame isn’t too high or custard is not cooked for too long or it will get tough and unattractive.

When the custard looks done, remove from steamer, garnish surface with a leaf of parsley or mitsuba, and serve immediately. (Or for you Flickr addicts, that means immediately after you take all your photographs…you know what I’m talking about.)

Grab a spoon and enjoy!

I started the New Year with an evil flu that drained me of energy, appetite and enthusiasm for pretty much everything, including food. Unable to stomach much of anything, I was uninspired until I remembered the ultimate Asian comfort food…rice congee.

Also known as rice gruel, jook, mueh, or xifan, it is all basically the same watery rice porridge, served plain with various meats and pickles on the side or with different flavors, condiments and ingredients mixed in. Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Korean, and Russian cuisines all have their own versions. In my own Taiwanese American family, it was (and is) a common breakfast food or light meal.

Congee is so simple to make that it was one of the first foods my mom allowed me to cook on my own as a child. It is a dish almost impossible to mess up.

Method 1: Add cooked rice to a larger amount of water or broth, and simmer until the liquid is reduced and the rice is soft and the consistency of oatmeal. This is a great way to use up leftover rice, and was my mother’s usual method when I was growing up because in our household, we almost always had leftover rice.

Method 2: If you don’t have any cooked rice handy, start with uncooked rice and an even larger quantity of liquid such as 6-8 cups of water or broth to 1 cup of rice, You can vary this ratio according to your own preference and what works for you…when I consulted a friend who also comes from a Taiwanese family, she unhesitatingly recited her mother’s formula: “10 to 1!”

A third method is to simply use your electric rice cooker…a lot of rice cookers these days have a congee/porridge setting built right in!

Inspired by the “cháo” I like to order from a local Vietnamese restaurant, I decided to make a gingery chicken congee to battle my cold. It truly was the perfect food to heal both mind and body.

Easy Ginger Chicken Rice Porridge (6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1-2 tablespoons minced ginger root (adjust to taste)
• 1 cup shredded, cooked chicken (I poached mine)
• Chopped scallions or other herbs for garnish

Directions:

Add cooked rice to 4 cups of chicken broth, along with the minced ginger root. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the liquid is reduced and the rice is soft and about the consistency of oatmeal. (There should still be some liquid covering the rice, but just a little.) Mix in the cooked, shredded chicken and chopped scallions and serve hot.

Basic Rice Porridge (6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked short grain white rice
• 6-8 cups water or broth (though my friend insists on 10 cups)

Directions:

Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Drain water. Add the six cups of water to the rice, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot.

(Option: Add uncooked pieces of sweet potato during the cooking process to make sweet potato rice)

Enjoy, and stay healthy!

There are certain foods that I detested eating as a child, but now thoroughly enjoy as an adult. Anchovies and olives are two foods that spring to mind — so do mushrooms. But although my appreciation for mushrooms might have been somewhat belated, I’ve been making up for my missed mushroom years and I’m now fascinated with fungi!

What enamors me most about mushrooms is their wonderful earthy flavor, delightful ‘meaty’ texture, and extraordinary versatility. I’m also enchanted by the culinary contradiction that mushrooms are such a prized food in so many cultures, yet they’re not plants (in the sense that they don’t need the sun to survive and grow), they’re actually organisms that live in or on other organisms — in other words, parasites.

Mushrooms have been revered by Mediterranean home cooks for centuries. Italians are well known for their fondness of fungi, and hunting for wild mushrooms is still a common practice in many parts of Italy. To bring out the best in fresh mushrooms, such as porcini or cremini, Italians often pair them with simple ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper — demonstrating, as with most things in life, that simple is best. Mushrooms are also used to enhance the flavor of many classic Italian dishes including pastas and risottos, and they make the perfect topping for pizza and bruschetta.

Spaniards too, have discovered the magic of mushrooms, and they’re enjoyed in dishes ranging from tapas (Champiñones al ajillo, or garlic mushrooms, is a popular tapas dish) to hearty stews and rice dishes.

The French make memorable meals from mushrooms teamed with eggs including mushroom-filled omelets, crepes and quiches, and eat them fresh in salads, cooked in soups and casseroles, or stuffed and baked.

Asian cooks have their own repertoire of mushroom specialties. Fresh and dried mushrooms such as shiitake, enoki and oyster are used whole or sliced in stir-fries, braises, curries and noodle dishes. They’re also enjoyed in soups such as Tom Yam Hed (Thai spicy sour Mushroom soup), and make a great addition to Laksa (Malaysian noodle soup). Sliced mushrooms are also a common addition to the delicate clear soups of Japan, and they’re often added to miso soup for flavor and texture.

Miso soup with mushrooms is a definite favorite in our household too. Sometimes we might just scatter some thinly sliced fresh mushrooms into a bowl of miso soup. Other times we might turn the miso soup into a full meal — such as in the recipe below — by adding soba noodles, grated fresh ginger, bite-size vegetable pieces, and mushrooms. We typically use dried mushrooms (reconstituted in hot water) for this noodle broth, because they have a firmer texture and more full-bodied flavor than fresh mushrooms. But thickly sliced fresh mushrooms (shiitake or button) still work really well.

Mushroom Miso Broth with Soba Noodles

Serves 2

• 7 dried shiitake mushrooms (available at Asian grocery stores)
• 5 1/2 cups dashi stock
• 1 carrot – peeled and sliced thinly on diagonal
• 1 scallion (spring onion) – sliced on diagonal
• 1/2 small eggplant (aubergine) – cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup roughly chopped bok choy
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 3 1/2 oz (100g) dried soba noodles
• 1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon miso

SOAK the mushrooms in boiling water while you prepare the ingredients. PLACE the stock in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. ADD the carrot, ginger and soy sauce, and simmer for 2 minutes. ADD the scallion, eggplant, bok choy and noodles and simmer for 3 minutes. DRAIN the reconstituted mushrooms, squeeze the excess moisture from them, slice, and add to the broth. ADD the miso and stir to dissolve without bringing to the boil. SERVE in bowls.

Variation: Silken tofu, cut into small cubes, makes a great addition to this soup.

If this post has put you in the mood for mushrooms, here are some more mushroom recipes (and recipes that include mushrooms as a prominent ingredient) from my website:

Miso Soup with Tofu and Mushroom
Beef and Mushroom Lasagna
Ham, Mushroom and Tomato Pizza
Mushroom, Bacon and Walnut risotto
Champiñones al ajillo
Mushroom Bruschetta
Singapore Noodles
Marinated Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry