By request

fortunatecave wanted recipes so here's the pick of Tuesday's dinner.

Gkoong Dtom Gkati Kamin

1 large stalk lemongrass
250ml coconut milk
10ml peeled and crushed fresh turmeric
4 Thai chillies - crushed
+/-30ml tamariund juice
Palm sugar
salt
350g medium shrimp - peeled, deveined and butterflied
1 shallot chopped fine
3 red or orange serranos or jalapenos cut into slivers
4 kaffir lime leaves cut into slivers

1. Trim the lemon grass and cut on the angle into longish thin ovals.

2. Bring coconut milk to a boil. Add turmeric, crushed chillies and lemon grass. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Season to taste with tamarind, salt and sugar.

3. Increase heat and add shrimp, shallot and 2/3 of the chilli slivers. Cook gently until shrimp are done. Stir in half of the kaffir lime leaves and transfer to serving dish.

4. Garnish with reserved chilli and lime slivers.

Worth quoting

I often criticise the way Thai food is presented in restaurants in the West. So to be more positive here are a few quotes from one of my favourite Thai cookbooks, David Thompson Classic Thai Cuisine.

Usually only one main meal is eaten a day, and this is always accompanied by rice. Everything else Thais eat is either snacks or noodles.

Noodles are traditionally eaten at lunchtime or when one is in a rush or eating alone. They are one of the few foods that are not shared and they are always served with condiments - kreuang brung - that enable the noodles to be seasoned as desired.

A proper meal is inconceivable without [rice]. All other dishes, curries, salads, whatever else are on the table, are called gap khao, with rice. All wet dishes serve to dress and moisten the rice, making it more palatable. All dry dishes add texture, making it more interesting. It is, however, the rice that is being consumed, that is the sustenance. Any other dish, however attractive and delicious, merely acts as a condiment. In a Thai meal, the normal proportion of rice to other dishes is 3:2.

A Thai meal is not just a combination of textures and flavours within one dish, but a compilation of all the dishes to be served. There should be no duplication or repetition, but a balance. Not every dish should be served hot, nor should there be too many curries. Complex dishes should be accompanied by simpler ones so that the palate is not overwhelmed or cloyed. This is indicative of the manner in which Thais approach their food: different contrasting flavours, combined with variously textured garnishes that are then blended with rice. It is the compilation of so many small but powerfully flavoured dishes that entertain the palate and avoid tedious repetition.

No meal is considered complete without the inclusion of either a Nam Prik or a Lon...Nam Priks are always pungent, redolent of roasted kapi (shrimp paste) and hot.... Lons are a much gentler food - pork and prawns for example, simmered in coconut cream, then seasoned with tamarind water, palm sugar and fish sauce. These dips or relishes are always eaten with vegetables - raw, blanched or battered and deep fried - that are normally cut into bite-sized pieces.

X-posted to gastrogasm

It's a rough game

A couple of weeks back I posted about a game I played in Markham. I mentioned that it had been a hard game but I didn't mention that my team mate, David Harris, was stretchered off with what appeared to be concussion. He was treated in the ER and sent home but later that night he had a stroke. Apparently a blood clot had formed in his neck from the bang he'd taken and it shifted and blocked a blood vessel in his brain. He was in the ICU for five days and suffered some short term memory loss. The good news is he's out of hospital and recovering well at home. This game is a bit scary sometimes. I'm playing at Markham again on Sunday for the third time this season. The first time I separated my shoulder and then last time Dave got hurt. Third time lucky?

Election time

We have municipal elections next month so I finally got around to checking out the candidates. There are 38 people running for mayor! As far as I can tell precisely two of them have any chance at all. I shall vote for David Miller, the incumbent, for two main reasons. He plays rugby and the Police Union doesn't like him. I invariably vote for the candidate the Police Union dislikes. The rugby is a bonus. For some reason people don't generally run on party tickets here so sorting out what they actually stand for takes some work. Or it would if the Police Union didn't make it easy.

There are seven people running for councillor in this ward. It's irrelevant. The incumbent is a shoe in which is fine with me. Oddly, I have received precisely no election literature from any of the forty five people who might want my vote.