Weekend Trip: Philadelphia

For years my friend Patty has been inviting me to visit her home in Philadelphia.

This past weekend a bunch of friends and I hopped on Eastern Bus on the Lower East Side of New York City.  

A 7pm bus got us there in time for our 9 o'clock dinner reservation.

We sampled 20 or so tapas style dishes for a delicious meal at Chifa, one of four
restaurants owned by Garces Brothers.

The next morning after a brisk walk by the Delaware River all of us started cooking
and then sat down to a three hour brunch including scrambled eggs with truffles and gruyere, mimosas, fresh-picked strawberries from a local farm and a few side dishes.

Farmers Market: What to do with Asparagus

There's an abundance of fresh, crisp asparagus in the market now, since it's in season.

A quick and easy preparation is as follows:

1. Simply shave the bottom of the stalks. 
2. Fill a half cup cold water or just touching the bottom of pan and let the asparagus blanch for 7 minutes with healthy sprinkle of salt. 
3. Serve at room temp with French vinaigrette. 
4. Using a small bottle, add 3 tbsps of Dijon mustard, 2 diced shallots, 2 cloves crushed minced garlic, 1/8 cup champagne vinegar, salt, fresh crushed pepper and 1/4 cup of good olive oil. 
5. Close lid tight. Shake well. 

For a light dinner, I serve with lamb meat balls with yogurt, cumin sauce, and a baguette.

When my friend James Oseland from Saveur Magazine comes into my studio for lunch, he does something even easier, just squeezing half a lemon and crushed pepper with olive oil over the cooked asparagus.

May Says Flowers

May is the month where enormous quantities of flowers pour into the market. Peonies come in beautiful powdery light pink or Paper Whites with a hint of red in the middle. For Chinese wedding couples, it is the velvety red color that is bursting and cheerful.

A bunch of beautiful peonies as the centerpiece brightens your dinner tables. 



Get up early one morning and head to the flower market or have your caterer/florist to do some nice simple elegant floral arrangements. There are plenty of spring blossoms. It can be quince or cherry blossoms. You can make a nice statement in the entranceway to greet your guests with tall
magnolia branches.

Events: Do Your Own Decorating

Martha Stewart, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel: are they too much alike? You can do your own decor for your party depending on your heart's desires...there are a lots of fabrics, color schemes and curios in your home or your neighborhood.

South Asian Station by Saffron59

Recently we did an opening for Cirque du Soleil with 1500-2000 guests for dinner; their theme was Thai, Turkish and Indian. It was staged at a nightclub four stories high. We focused on each station with the colors we like to decorate with, using the flowers behind these countries. In our neighborhood hardware store, and fabric store, there were inexpensive lamps, platters and textiles that perfectly fit the theme without ending up with a Martha Stewart cookie-cutter look.

Think about your next fun party...make it festive, colorful and full of zest...stage your own creation...

Testimonial: Marla's Wedding

After planning with the bride and groom for a year, last week we catered the winter wedding of their dreams. It's very rewarding to receive nice note such as this upon returning to the office in the morning.

Dear Leili and the crew:

Thank you so much for your work at the wedding this weekend. Your food was exquisite and tasted fantastic. I had so many positive comments about the food from guests. I am so sorry I wasn't able to get a moment to thank you in person-- its my one regret of the
evening. Please let me know if there are any specific wedding websites or magazines for which I can write a (very positive) review or testimonial for Saffron 59, this went well beyond my expectations and I would love to help spread the word.

I am fairly certain Dante, our photographer has photos of the appetizers and main course if you would be interested in these.

Many many thanks,
-Marla

Recipe: Stone Crabs

There is now abundance of these stone crabs in New York City, no need to fly to California or Florida. Simply steam them for seven minutes and make a nice dipping sauce with a touch of salt, chopped red birds eye chiles minced with a squeeze of lime juice, mix in a few tablespoons of water and Nuoc Mam (fish sauce). If you have sprigs of cilantro handy chop them in. 

How to check if they are fresh? Simply turn the crabs upside down and check for freshness by their movements and no tiny bubbles being blown out from their head. After purchasing, keep in brown bags away and hold in fridge until ready for steaming. Yum!

Bravo Auguste!

Photos: Peter Cuce
 

I was at a fashion show at Asia Society last week and discovered this young talented Indonesian designer, Auguste Soesastro. Mr. Soesastro debuted his first Kraton collection with the influences from his heritage, arts and culture of Indonesia. 

Kraton specializes in high-end luxury fabric with a classic cut. The superb tailoring techniques and the uniqueness of incorporating Eastern and Western influences, using batik (hand dyed) fabric with light wool textile.

Gazing at the runway gave me such fond memories of the time I spent in Indonesia while I was living in Asia for four years. Incredible, amazing artisans this country offer such as Mr. Soesastro, he was born in Jakarta, to Dutch Indonesian parents.

He spent a few years in Paris and studied fashion, interned at some of the major haute couture houses and moved to New York to work for Ralph Rucci, an American couturier. This talented designer is definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Paprika Adds Spice to Your Life: Hungarian Oxtail Stew

Colorful, delicious, flavorful spices that add zests to your life! 

Paprika, is one that has a wonderful flavor to create a marinade for a nice piece of meat, fish or in dressings. 

Recently my Hungarian sweetheart and I had 16 of my loved ones over and cooked up a huge pot of his native oxtail stew with celeric root, turnip, carrots, onion, celery and few chunks of savoy cabbage.

Simple brown the oxtail and add in the vegetable with a few tablespoons of red colorful Hungarian paprika and one spoon of spicy hot paprika.

Let it cook for two hour and half in simmer while you are surfing in Facebook or cleaning those picture files that have been slowing your computer.

This makes a delicious meal accompanied with some egg noodles. With this cold winter weather, open an inexpensive full bodied Burgundy or Rioja.

Enjoy and cozy up with your favorite friends.

Travel: Spice Souk by The Arabian Gulf

Every year in October, while booking all the holiday functions for my catering company, Saffron 59, I start getting restless at the same time to book a flight to Asia to visit the orphanage I sponsor in Burma. As a certified travel agent, I have to figure out routes to avoid crowded flights with different destinations to Asia during this time of the year. 

This trip, I experienced from the sublime to the ridiculous; by stopping over in the Middle East, in a country with the tallest towers in the world being built - Dubai, who are planning to air condition their beach when the temp hits 50 degrees Celsius in the summer. However, this is also a country with old-style values; the bustling ancient markets start at dusk with fish arriving from the gulf and spices trading with the neighboring countries of Iran, Oman and even India.

Visiting the aromatic spice souk, with canvas bags full of saffron colored turmeric, from roots to black
salt; strolling by the creek puts me back a few centuries. I imagine witnessing the traders auctioning off
their commodities and now the ridiculous part of this trip would be to Myanmar, where I will be spending the next two weeks, a country that turns on the electricity only from 6-9 pm daily and the internet is almost non existent.

The Taj - My Culinary Experience

Over the last few days while listening to the tragedy unfold in Mumbai, my heart empathized with the families of the victims and to those who lost their lives. It was at the Taj Hotel Mumbai, the Gate of India, where I received my apprenticeship in southern Indian cooking with a young bright chef Vikram. 

A few years back after one of my group culinary trips, I took a detour and spent five days at this beautiful colonial hotel overlooking the Malabar Sea.

Late every afternoon, after the lunch crowd consisting mostly of international guests dispersed, chef Vikram would bring out tastings of delicious varieties of regional curries, piping hot naan and parathas fresh from the tandoor oven. I would then select a few of these dishes for him to teach me after the hectic lunch hour. The kitchen staff worked long shifts. After lunch, the staff was busy preparing for the dinner menu for the hundreds of guests that come through the Tanjore. This was the time when Vikram took me for a tour of the bustling market to shop and visit stalls from cookware and spices. Coincidentally, the market was located right near the train station where many lost their lives in the beginning of the attacks. 

Keeping track of last week’s horrific events, I could not help thinking of my wonderful culinary experiences with the kitchen crew at Tanjore Restaurant and how this event has transformed the gentility of the people who were passionate about their work and food. Writing this blog brings my senses to the smell of delicious fish curry with sounds of popping mustard seeds and hot chapattis in Vikram’s kitchen. I am sure there will be many fruitful stories like mine to share with great memories of this colonial landmark and that our stories overcome the calamities that enveloped the Taj last week. 

** update August 20,2014- The Taj Hotel Mumbai has totally revamped with all new and modern  restaurants.

Here is a simple vegetarian dish I learned from Chef Vikram

Okra with Curry Leaves

1 pound fresh okra topped and bottomed

10 curry leaves

4 dried red peppers

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

4 red Serrano chilies sliced thin lengthwise

and cut into 1/8-inch slices

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon kosher salt.

Set a wok over a medium heat. Add the oil, toss in the mustard seeds, red peppers and curry leaves cook until the seeds start to pop. Add onion and green chili and sauté until tender.

Turn the flame to high and add the okra, add some water or vegetable stock, stirring constantly for two –three minutes, add spices and continue cooking until okra browns (about 10 minutes).

salt to taste.

Note:You can substitute Asian Long Beans, Cauliflower or String beans.

Curry leaves :

Grown on small trees, the soft leaves are stripped from the short sprigs, use fresh or dried, just sizzle in hot oil to reveal its clear spicy flavor,then add to a finished vegetable dish, great to jazz up seared salmon or red snapper.

  ** update August 20,2014- The Taj Hotel Mumbai has totally revamped with all new and modern  restaurants.

Holiday Cocktail Party Ideas

A cocktail party should be fun and festive; it can be as simple or complex as you wish to make it.

Make a quick list- how many guests will be attending? YOU DO NOT want to be working at your party. It's wise to have someone there to give you a hand but not your friend or family members.

It is great to mix guests with different backgrounds and interests, you will be playing the host. Have a caterer and combo of your own signature dish you are best at with flavorful spices. And do one or two fun delicious cocktails to get your guests buzzing and have a fabulous time.

Here is one of the easy delicious recipes from my kitchen.

Seafood Ceviche (you can do this ahead of time and mix it an hour before the guests arrive

1 lb of #36 shrimp (deveined and shelled)
1 lb. of bay scallops
1 lb. filet of sole- sliced thin pieces
1 sliced serrano chile, minced
6 juice of limes
salt and pepper
1 minced red onion, minced
1 mango- peeled and diced into small pieces
1 asian pear- peeled and diced small pieces
2 cloves of garlic

Prepare all these ingredients, put aside all the seafood on bed of ice. mix all the seafood ingredients with lime juice one hour before guests arrive and then toss with the rest of ingredients. add salt and pepper to taste. served with toasted tortillas or point toast......

Exchanging Culture on Your Travel

Over the years of my travel, whether on yoga retreat in the mountains of Oaxaca or in Petra, Jordan, my most satisfying experiences have involved exchanging knowledge with or cooking and marketing with the people of the country. In Bali, I rented a house in Ubud in the middle of a rice field from a family that owns two restaurants catering to the tourist in town. I showed them how to make spicy marinara sauce so that they don't have to buy expensive Ragu bottles from supermarkets.

In the morning, take I took a ride on their jeep to the market and afterward we would cook in their kitchen, to create some Ikan Bilis, a traditional fish curry made of candle nuts, along with all styles of Satay sauces.

So on your next travel, take a class, and go right into the kitchen if one of the meals you had wows you; don’t be shy to volunteer and get your hands dirty.

Family: My Niece Samantha

Six weeks ago I became an aunt again to my niece Samantha..

With Asian tradition for a month old baby, one gets to introduce family and friends by giving lavish banquet meals.

My brother and I decided to do a BBQ with all kinds of seafood and quality cuts of meat from Pino Prime meat on Sullivan St,  New York City. It was a nice Sunday in mid August, good times partying by the pool, and not having my catering staff involved after they have catered four weddings recently.

Large Tiger prawns, succulent diver scallops. Dry aged steak, Kobe rib eye.  

Where can you go wrong? No need to be a pro to cook this. Simply marinate with some nice dry rub spices with the large scallops, my friend Daniel snipped fresh thyme from the garden, crushed garlic and white wine for a marinade.

Carol made amazing berry compote with kaffir lime leaves and peppercorn syrup to end the meal.

We opened some nice Prosecco to start, Malbec and Riesling as well.

Berries, Berries, Berries

This season there has been an abundance of berries. I just came 

back from my godmother's beach house and she had blueberry 

and blackberry patches growing in her garden. So plump and 

luscious, she simply made them into jam.

Our kitchen here in Saffron 59 has been making warm berry cobbler with lemon zests, crisp toppings, and if you want to be a little fancy, add simple syrup with slivers of kaffir lime leaves, fresh lemongrass slices, assorted crushed colorful pepper corns, fragrant star anise and a cinnamon stick while the syrup is hot.

With flavors ranging from mildly sweet to tart and tangy, fresh berries are simply delicious 

on their own.

Recipe: Soft Shell Crab with Tamarind Glaze

Soft shell crab is in season!

Now is the time for soft shell crab! It's easy to make, delicious, and a fast dish for the summer. The best soft shell crab usually comes from Maryland and is only $3-$5 a piece from your local seafood market and is seasonal and fresh. You can lightly sear it with butter and garlic or olive oil, or you can use my signature dish we feature at Saffron 59. It is one of the traditional recipes that I made while I lived in Saigon, Vietnam.

Recipe

To prepare the crab, simply remove the gill and the claws. Then egg wash- flour, beaten egg

add panko crust then sear each side for 2 minutes

For the sauce,

small chunk of dried tamarind, soaked with 1/2 cup of warm water

then you squeeze the pulp and seeds out to get the juice (set aside)

brown the shallots and add the tamarind juice

season with fish sauce, sugar, salt and pepper

bring to a boil

Spoon the sauce over the crab then garnish with fresh slivers of scallion and enjoy!

Travel: Affordable Eastern Europe

Before our busy season starts in June, with all the weddings we have here at Saffron 59, I took a two week trip to visit close family in Budapest, Hungary with a side trip to Transylvania, Romania. It was a fruitful and relaxing trip, with its wonderful eco-tourism, affordable and clean accommodations with local families, and the fresh, seasonal vegetables we had from the remote farmland and mountainous region of the Eastern Carpathian.

During my trip to Hungary, I tasted many Tokaji wines, proclaimed to be "the king of wines" by Louis XIV of France. Named from the region it hails f

rom, Tokaji-Hegyalja in Hungary, this region is known for producing sweet, flavorful wines because the grapes have been affected by noble rot- which is what occurs when the weather is wet and begins to rot the grapes. When picked at the perfect timing, the grapes produce a fine and concentrated sweet wine. With over 700 vineyards in that region alone producing this wine, I highly recommend tasting it at your local wine shop.

In Budapest, I stayed at the Lanchid 19, known for being a "hip", boutique hotel. With its affordable $139 a night rooms, modern design, and great location over-looking the Danube river, it was the perfect accommodation to top off my trip.

Then, on my trip to Romania, we went to Transylvania and saw the house where Dracula was born. This mountainous area, made famous by the book Dracula by acclaimed author Bram Stoker, has now become the setting for many horror and vampire movies because of the eerie, gothic feel of the area and is now an excellent tourist location.

Update on Burma

Morning offering for the nuns at the Shwen Dagon Pagoda

Dear friends,

I would like to thank you all for your calls and emails about my family and the orphanage in Yangon. I was about to prepare a note to update some of you on the progress we have made with the orphanage that I have been supporting for eight years, and then devastation that hit Yangon area last Saturday, and it is deeply sad that the orphanage is severely damaged.

Last nite, I heard from my friend Kit Young, who runs the music school, Gitameit . She wrote to me that she will drive over with the American consulate jeep to check on the orphanage and some of my family members today. And here is her note below to those that wrote to me about contribution.

Gitameit has turned into a disaster relief organization. The musicians and I drove to outlying townships today. In our Gitameit Center backyard alone and - the hindu temple ceremony hall - there are 800 people camped out with less than satisfactory sanitation, diminishing clean water supply and very little else than rice porridge in the last two days.

The Karen Women's Group will assess the most urgent needs of families there and tell us tomorrow. The Myanmar Red Cross was in today - but does not have enough supplies of rice orwater and needs donations.

The regime is busy chopping up fallen trees on roads - beginning to work on electric poles - in rich areas of town. Survival for the poor or communication with citizenry is not their fault. They even neglect their own... As I passed some soldiers cutting trees yesterday, I asked if they'd eaten breakfast. Of course not! So, I went back home to get them some bread.

There is a big issue of Myanmar gov't wanting supplies but not relief personnel to come into the country. After today's slight confrontation with this Shwebaukan thug trying to control things, I understand why.

We've identified these communities linked to us already - around 3000+ people. We figure we will need to raise at least $150,000 in the coming weeks - just to keep these communities afloat until some of the markets get up and running. We will try to put progress reports up on the Gitameit website, there is paypal system at http://www.foundationburma.org the Foundation for the People of Burma website –thank you so much for your support, Kit.

p.s. the contribution to the orphanage and the cyclone victim checks are written out to Friend without borders, 59 fourth avenue, New York, NY 10003..att: irene khin wong…I will wire the fund directly to kit.

Asian Heritage Month

It is Asian Heritage Month, we are celebrating the diverse culture and achievements of Asians who play a vital role in the unique and our society and the role they play in this wonderful country of ours. It is to recognize the important contributions of Asian Community and its present significance to this country.

There will be enormous interesting events from food demo to performances covering from Asia Society to University of Toronto with music from the Philippines to Indian.http://www.flickr.com/photos/saffron59/

Thingyan Water Festival: Time to Purify

Happy Thingyan! Wash it all out, may the water clean all bad spirits within us and bring peace, prosperity for whole year!

People in Myanmar, also Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, celebrate Thingyan Water Festival every month of Tagu, which means the first month of the 12 months of Myanmar Calendar. I remember the streets are full of people pouring and sprinkling water on each other to purify the bad, evil spirits. Young and old, man and woman, everyone is out to celebrate the Water Festival and welcome the new year in hope of prosperity and happiness to come.

This time of year, I celebrate Thingyan Festival with Ginger Salad, it is one of my favorite, fresh and tasty salad from Burma...

Burmese Ginger Salad (Jin Thoke)

SERVES 4

Some recipes for this salad call for bottled pickled sliced ginger, but the homemade version tastes much fresher. Although it takes two days to make, little hands-on effort is required. We recommend using young ginger, which has very thin, delicate skin and is more succulent than mature ginger. Young ginger is easiest to find in markets during the spring; if it's not available, use the smaller knobs of only very fresh, plump mature ginger.

3" piece young ginger, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
Salt
Juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp. channa dal (hulled split dried small chickpeas)
1⁄2 cup peanut oil
10 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1⁄2 tsp. fish saucehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/saffron59/
1⁄4 cup peeled, roasted, unsalted peanuts
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
4 green bird's-eye chiles, stemmed

1. Toss ginger and 1 tsp. salt together in a medium glass or ceramic bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours, stirring every 8 hours. Rinse ginger, drain well, and put into a clean glass or ceramic bowl. Add lime juice and mix with your fingers until ginger is well coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours, stirring every 8 hours. Soak chickpeas in a small bowl of water for 8 hours.

2. Drain ginger, then slice into long thin strips. Put ginger into a clean medium glass or ceramic bowl and set aside. Drain chickpeas, thoroughly dry with paper towels, and set aside.

3. Heat oil in a wok or a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and fry, stirring constantly with a slotted spoon, until lightly golden and crisp, 6–8 minutes. Transfer shallots with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Fry garlic in the hot oil, stirring constantly, until just beginning to turn golden around the edges, 1–2 minutes, then transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry chickpeas in the hot oil, stirring constantly, until golden, 4–5 minutes, then transfer to paper towels to drain, setting wok with oil aside. Set shallots, ginger, and chickpeas aside separately to cool completely.

4. Add fish sauce, peanuts, sesame seeds, and fresh chiles to bowl with ginger. Add fried shallots, garlic, and chickpeas and 2 tsp. of the frying oil, season to taste with salt, and toss well. Adjust seasonings. Serve at room temperature.