Family Dinner

Hello.  Happy February!  January is over and tomorrow is Groundhog Day, so things are definitely moving in the right direction! 

My daughter-in-law is a wonderful cook specializing in Southeast Asian, specifically Laotian food, so it was with great pleasure that I sat at the table with my son and his family this weekend.  Phet prepared an amazing dinner consisting of foods that she grew up eating.  There was a traditional spicy salad consisting of fresh, raw, green beans, Thai chiles, garlic, fish sauce and shrimp paste which she pounded together with a mortar and pestle to release and marry the flavors.  The result was a salad tasting so fresh, spicy and bright, that I could not get enough of it.   She fried catfish to a golden perfection that was flavored with a little sesame oil and salt and pepper.  Nice and simple, and so good!   There was a stir-fry of shrimp, eggplant. mushrooms and squash cooked with most of the previously mentioned spices with the addition of dried lime leaves.  The dish was succulent and the eggplant and shrimp together made a particularly luscious combination both in taste and texture.  Accompanying all of this food was the traditional sticky rice, which has a light nutty flavor and sticks together nicely in the hand and can be used like bread ( but better ) to pick up the juices on your plate.  It was a truly memorable meal, delighting the senses and nourishing deeply, made all the more special by the wonderful company.  The spicy heat of the meal was the perfect antidote to the 0 degree temperature outdoors!

I'll be cooking again, so I'll have more recipes tomorrow.

xo