World Culinary Odyssey - Our Fourth Journey

Last Wednesday evening marked our fourth World Culinary Odyssey event for this year's Vermont Festival of the Arts. Our traveling companions, all "seasoned travelers", gave us license to create an itinerary that would be a Grand Tour of Southeast Asia. Featured this evening were recipes from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Since all attendees were repeat guests of many years, we challenged ourselves to deliver new and unique dishes which none of them had experienced before! Thanks again to Gaylord Farm for this week's outstanding CSA basket used in the preparation of this menu!

Without further ado, here's the evening's menu:

Soup Course

Tomato Egg Drop Soup (Vietnam): French, Chinese and Southeast Asian influences...all in one dish! Heirloom tomatoes flavored with galangal and kaffir lime leaf; fresh, local eggs (from Donald Terry...) add a creamy richness

Salad Course

Pomelo Salad (Thailand): Pomelo were in short supply at the market, so we substituted pink grapefruit, and mixed it with steamed shrimp, crab meat, shallots, garlic, roasted peanuts, mint leaves, cilantro, spring onions, red chilies and shredded coconut; dressed with fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar; very refreshing and palate-cleansing...

Main Course

Trout with Spinach (Thailand): Fresh trout fillets baked in a rich sauce of coconut milk, lime juice and palm sugar; top the fillets with a mixture of braised spinach, lemongrass, ginger and garlic; finish with the baking sauce to create an aromatic and flavorful party for your palate...

Beef Rendang (Indonesia/Malaysia): Every grandmother in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore has her own recipe for this classic dish; our recipe is somewhere in-between the styles of Indonesia and Malaysia; cubed beef slowly simmered to tenderness in a paste of coconut milk, onions, garlic, red chilies, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, lemon rind, palm sugar, shredded coconut and tamarind paste (did we forget anything???); rich and spicy comfort food...

Cauliflower and Green Beans (Thailand): Fresh veggies stir-fried with garlic, turmeric and fish sauce; garnished with spring onions and a drizzle of lime juice for added zest; OK, we should have used snake beans, but they were also in short supply and the green beans looked great!

Steamed Jasmine Rice

Dessert Course

Homemade Selections du Jour: Lime souffle cake, Belgian bliss or espresso semifreddo; freshly-brewed coffee or tea

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Stay tuned for our next adventure!