sovay: (Claude Rains)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2013-04-24 01:49 am

I'm very good with pain

Most of today was exhaustion and laundry. (That sounds a lot like Boober. Remind me to rewatch Fraggle Rock.) I wrote a little about politics and worked some of my job and did not think I had the wherewithal to go anywhere. Then in the late afternoon I called [livejournal.com profile] rushthatspeaks just as they were preparing to e-mail me and they came over with a car and the day got a lot better. The Michaels in Porter Square has, improbably, an excellent aisle of stuff for professional cake decorating. I bought a box of picture hangers from Tags and we went home to make gadon tahu (coriander-and-cumin-spiced tofu with coconut cream steamed in banana leaves) out of Andrea Nguyen's amazing Asian Tofu (2012). We had no kaffir lime leaves, but we chopped Quorn into the tofu mash for extra protein and results fed me, Rush, and [livejournal.com profile] gaudior more than satisfactorily. I keep calling Nguyen's recipes amazing, but I think that is really their proper epithet. We were dubious about the spice proportions as we were mixing them: too much coriander, too little cumin, too little pepper, too much salt. The garlic and the shallot seemed fine, but we'd have used more palm sugar. And then somehow it cooked out beautifully, not at all insipid and not overspiced. We used fresh ginger and a little cider vinegar to substitute for the brightness of the red chili we had to leave out and kept the sriracha on the table just in case. The banana leaves themselves are part of the flavor, tea-smelling without bitterness (or caffeine); I recognized it from sticky rice in dim sum restaurants. They turn a deep, translucent green when steamed. Honestly, thawing and cutting the leaves into the correct size for folding into little tamale-packets was the fiddliest part of the preparation. From start to finish, including the steaming, maybe forty-five minutes? I love Nguyen's book so much.

The rest of this post is a placeholder for me talking about Lexx (1997–2002). Rush showed me the first two episodes of the third season tonight. It came up in conversation; somebody thought to check Netflix. Before playing the first one, they warned me that I would hate it: that it takes a second viewing (sometimes of the same episode) for a person to develop any kind of taste for the show and their only explanation for this phenomenon is that in between the two experiences the brain must grow an extra lobe or something in order to process the indescribable weirdness that is any given episode of Lexx.

I loved the first episode I saw, but I also love Barbarella (1968) and M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract and there is nothing wrong at all with Nigel Bennett in a long black coat with a lip ring, I am just saying.

I loved the second episode, too.

[identity profile] xjenavivex.livejournal.com 2013-04-25 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
You have me wondering about where I would find those leaves around here. I imaagine there are a few places I could try. The bamboo steamer sounds interesting since it adds aroma to the meal. Thank you again for sharing your adventures in cooking. I am going to see if our library has that book. If it doesn't, then it is going on my wish list. I want to learn how to do more things with tofu, so this is perfect.

ETA Oh my gosh! My local branch has it! This is awesome. Thank you so much.
Edited 2013-04-25 13:59 (UTC)

[identity profile] xjenavivex.livejournal.com 2013-04-25 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I definitely will. I would like them to get Fabio Viviani's new book, but so far they are 2 for 3.