Cooking at Home: Asian
Eating out is quite expensive in the Netherlands (just a wonton noodle soup can cost US$15), so I've made just about every meal since moving into my apartment. Luckily, there's a very good selection of Asian groceries here. In fact, I've come across four Asian markets around the center of Eindhoven! I've mainly been going to two: Sin Wah Supermarkt at Kleine Berg 65, and Amazing Oriental, part of a nationwide chain of supermarkets, behind the Philips Stadium at Langdonkenstraat 7. Amazing Oriental is a pretty big stand-alone store, as you can see below.
These stores not only have standards like Kikkoman soy sauce (which you can also find in the mainstream Albert Heijn supermarkets), but also spices for Indonesian food, different eggplants including the "pea eggplant" (which I learned about in my Chiang Mai cooking class here), even the wood bark for Laotian food. So I stocked up on staples, including Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, Sichuan peppercorns, this wonderfully fragrant ground chili (front, middle), and 梅干菜 (meigan cai, dried and pickled mustard leaves).
With these in my cupboard, I made red braised beef with potatoes and daikon (you need to go to one of the outdoor produce markets for daikon; the Asian markets and Albert Heijn don't carry it). And I also experimented with wontons, using a recipe from Epicurious/Gourmet magazine. I would never have thought of it on my own, but the chopped cilantro stems add great texture and flavor. Now, funny enough, I have yet to find ground pork anywhere, only a half-and-half combination of pork and beef. Sort of surprising for a country that loves to eat sausages and all kinds of pork deli meats.
I think the dish I am most proud of so far is the beef larb I made, with the recipe I learned in my Luang Prabang cooking class (review here). Since I have yet to procure a microwave, I've taken to making a lot of dishes that can be eaten cold. I couldn't find kaffir lime leaves, but shallots and lemongrass were easy to find in the Asian markets, and I was even able to find the very important roasted rice powder. I was only able to find already-seasoned rice powder which the instructions say you can just add straight to ground meat and get larb, but I still added all of the other fresh seasonings (this is where the cilantro leaves ended up, sans stems) minus additional chili powder. Boy did it still come out spicy! But eaten together with cool cucumber, this was a savory and refreshing meal.
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Recipe: Beef Larb made in Europe
Adapted from a recipe from Tamnak Lao cooking class, adjusted to increase portion size (makes about 6 portions), to account for availability of ingredients (some added, some subtracted), and to simplify instructions
400g ground beef, lean
1/2 bouillon cube
Juice from 1 lime
6 tbsp hot water
2 spring onions
4 shallots
4 garlic cloves, sliced or diced
1 bunch of coriander, finely chopped
4 stalks lemongrass, thinly chopped (white part only)
1 packet of seasoned roasted rice powder
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 cucumber and/or several lettuce leaves
1 bunch of mint
1. Put beef, bouillon cube, half of the lime juice, and water in a cold wok
2. Place over low heat and keep stirring until the meat is cooked through
3. While the beef is cooking, prepare the spring onion, shallots, garlic, coriander, and lemongrass, and put in one bowl.
4. When the beef is cooked, remove from heat and add the ingredients from the bowl in step #3.
5. Add the rice powder, fish sauce, and remaining lime juice. Stir.
6. Serve with sliced cucumber and/or lettuce leaves. Tear leaves of mint and sprinkle on top for garnish.
Good hot, room temperature, or cold.
