The King of Fruits

I can't convince myself it looks like food and not a dissection project.

I have been in Singapore since July 24 for a math program at the university here. I've really been enjoying the food, and I think I've gotten a lot of great ideas I can take home. I hope to write a post about my overall food experiences here, but right now, I am just going to tell you about my experience tonight with the "king of fruits," durian.

Durian is a famous tropical fruit. It seems to be very popular in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Here is its wikipedia page in case you want more information and some better pictures. It is large and formidably spiky, but the most distinctive thing about durian is its smell. Before I came here, I had heard of durian and knew that it was famously stinky, but I had never smelled it. Walking along the sidewalk in Chinatown, I caught a whiff of something and immediately knew it was durian. Durian is a good reminder that our ancestors spent a lot of time starving. It's notobvious that it is edible. Durian is not permitted in most buildings or transport in Singapore, so procuring a durian immediately decreases your range. Consequently, I had not tried it until today.

Durian does not smell that bad to me, at least in an open area. It doesn't smell like something good to eat, but I was under the impression that it smelled like a rotting corpse, which is not the case. It reminds me of pineapple that went seriously funky. Tropical but feety. I have had the experience of being on a subway train with a durian, so I know that in a confined space, it's pretty overwhelming. Given my fairly mild reaction to the smell, I expected that I would not mind durian, and possibly even like it. I was also going into the experience thinking of durian as a cheese. I have heard people describe it as cheeselike. I thought that if I didn't think of it as a fruit, the fact that it was unlike most other fruits would be less offensive. All in all, I was confident that I could take it.

Durian is available at many price points. The stand I went to tonight sold the same amount of durian for prices ranging from S$1-S$25. In retrospect, perhaps this was bad advice, but I had heard that it was important to try good durian and that there was a strong positive correlation between price and quality. I was told that if I tried a bad one I would never want to try it again. So I went with a midrange durian, marked at S$12 but sold for S$8. (To put this in perspective, I usually spend about S$4 for a nice lunch and a drink in the student canteen at the university, so S$8 is not insignificant.) I was given a bag and went off in search of a place where I could eat it without bothering anyone.

I ended up sitting on a ledge near the Chinatown MRT station. I carefully opened the package and attempted to pick up the first piece. The texture was not anything like I expected. More than anything, it reminded me of ripe, room-temperature Camembert. Undaunted, I licked what I could get off my fingers. The taste was a lot like sharp roasted onion or garlic. I like Camembert and roasted onion, but I did not like durian. It was almost like as the fruit approached my mouth, there was this revulsion I had to overcome to get it in. I think the smell influences the taste in a negative way, and the texture doesn't help at all. I tried to get a few bites down, but I gave up pretty early. An older man sitting near me was clearly amused by the "white girl trying durian for the first time" show and asked if I liked it. I replied that it wasn't my thing, and he told me that only Asians and Australians like it. Europeans don't like it at all. I tried to offer him the rest since the thought of trying any more was quite unpleasant. He refused it several times and told me I should give it to someone in my hotel (where it is not allowed), so I gave up and threw it away when I was out of eyeshot.

I now think that perhaps I should have tried cheaper durian, not just because then I would have spent less on something I didn't enjoy, but because perhaps more expensive durian is also softer and more pungent. Maybe cheap durian is harder and less distinctive, and I think I would have done better with a less flavorful specimen. But I'm not going to test that theory.

After ditching the durian, I quickly upgraded to a coconut, my king of fruit.

My hero!

Grilled potato salad

I don't mind being the vegetarian at the barbecue. There are a lot of good veggie burgers (I'm partial to the spicy black bean ones) that make for quick, easy additions to the grill that I can enjoy when everyone else is eating burgers. But grilling is a great technique, and I feel like I shouldn't always be stuck with processed patties and the occasional grilled peppers on top. Last Friday, some friends invited us over to grill burgers for dinner. They had a bean burger in the freezer already, so I was covered, but I asked them to pick up some potatoes and tomatoes for a salad I had envisioned. We didn't have quite enough charcoal, and we started late, so we didn't get everything quite grilled to perfection, but I think this salad has serious potential. It's simple, but the nice grilled flavors from the potatoes and tomatoes are awesome. I'm sure it would be good with roasted veggies too, but there's something about cooking outside in 95-degree heat that makes food taste better.

Grilled potato salad

4 large baking potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (I made wedges, but I think slices will work better next time)

4 tomatoes, cut into four wedges each

Canola oil for greasing the grill

1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives

Juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, or more to taste

1 tbsp olive oil, or more to taste

Salt and pepper

Prepare the grill. Parboil the potato slices by heating up a big pot of water and boiling them until they are a bit firmer than you'd like, four minutes or so. Toss with some canola oil. Grease the grate of the grill with canola oil and place potato slices in a single layer on the grill. Cook until potatoes have nice grill marks on the grill side, then flip them over and cook on the other side. Grills vary a lot, so I won't give a time recommendation. Remove potatoes from grill, cut into bite-size chunks, and place in a large bowl.

When potatoes have finished grilling, place tomatoes on the grill, cut side touching the grate. Cook until they start to get some nice shriveling action going, then turn so the other cut side is down. When tomatoes are done, cut each wedge in half and add to the bowl with the potatoes. Add olives, lemon juice, rosemary, olive oil, and salt and pepper, all to taste. Eat warm while grilling whatever else is for dinner.

Peach pie

We're back! We were in France and Germany again for a month this year. Then we got back to Texas, almost immediately flew to San Francisco for Jon's brother's wedding, and just got back here on the fourth. We are still settling in and getting re-adjusted to Houston. I started a short summer teaching stint on Tuesday, so we will get a lot of Jon recipes in the next couple weeks. I hope to do a post soon about the good stuff we ate in France, but for now, here's a great American dessert.

When I was a kid, my family had two or three peach trees, two apple trees, and a pear tree that produced copious amounts of fruit in the summer. My mom would put up tons of applesauce and peach jam, but the pies were the best. She made dozens of them every summer and froze them. When a family moved into the neighborhood or a friend had a baby, got sick, or had a death in the family, she would take a pie over. We also ate a lot ourselves throughout the year.

This week, perfect, ripe peaches from Fairfield, Texas were only 0.88/pound, so I decided to make a pie. They had been pretty picked over and a lot of them were bruised or squished, but I knew they would make a great pie. So often, the peaches we get at the store are hard and flavorless, so I'll take a squishy, oozy, delicious one over those any day. I didn't get back from the store with my peaches until 9 pm, but they were so ripe I knew they wouldn't wait, so I whipped up a late-night pie.

The remains of the peaches we used plus some we didn't end up needing.

Peach pie
You can also make this with partially thawed frozen peaches. Let them sit in the sugar-flour mixture a little longer and add about 20 minutes to the baking time.

8 generous cups sliced ripe peaches (about 11 medium peaches), no need to peel unless you're picky or the skin is clearly damaged or undesirable
1/4 cup flour
Scant 1/2 cup sugar
2 pie crusts
1 tbsp almond milk
Sugar and cinnamon for dusting the top

Put sliced peaches into a large bowl. Sprinkle flour and sugar on top and stir together. Let sit while you run to the store because you realize you forgot the flour (or at least 20 minutes). Transfer one crust to the deepest pie dish you have. Spoon peaches into crust. Top with 2nd pie crust. Trim around edges and crimp if you're fancy like that. If you've got extra crust, you can roll it out and cut it into shapes. (I put "E+J" on the top, but I didn't realize how large the E had been when I cut out the J, so I look very egotistical.) Brush the top with almond milk and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Slash some vents in the top to let the hot air out. Here is the pie before baking.

Place pie on a baking sheet to catch any bubbling juices that might otherwise fall to the bottom of your oven and burn. This is very important because it will happen. Put foil around the edges of the pie, leaving a hole in the middle, so the edges won't burn. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 20 more minutes, until crust looks done. We were too tired to eat any pie when it came out, and it looked like there was no danger of it burning, so I turned the oven off and left the pie in it until the morning. It made a great breakfast!

Watermelon-feta salad

I threw this together to balance out the heaviness of the fried potatoes I made for breakfast this morning, and I think this would be a great dish to serve if you were hosting a summer brunch. The sweet watermelon and salty feta are a winning combination, and the fresh herbs really make it pop.

Watermelon-feta salad
Serves 1.

1 1/2 cups watermelon chunks
1/2 cup large chunks of cucumber
2 tbsp feta, crumbled
2 tsp fresh mint, minced
1 tsp fresh oregano, minced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix.

Amaranth-kale griddle cakes

I recently bought whole amaranth for the first time. It is a small grain that reminds me a lot of quinoa. I ate some just as the whole grain, but I also saw this recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman and wanted to try it out. Next time I will probably double the amount of kale I use, and I'll add more salt. Those changes are reflected in the recipe. This recipe was quite nice. The amaranth has a lot of texture, which is really nice and chewy in these cakes. And you know how I feel about kale. This is a perfect "breakfast-for-dinner" food. Not sweet like a lot of breakfast-for-dinners are but still good with maple syrup. Many different things could be subbed for the kale, or you can omit it altogether. I think peas or sweet potatoes would be particularly good.

Amaranth-kale griddle cakes
1 egg
1 cup chopped sauteed kale
1 cup cooked amaranth*
1/4 tsp salt
Black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp almond milk
1 tbsp fresh thyme

Using a fork, beat egg slightly. Beat in kale. Stir in amaranth, salt, and pepper. Stir in flour and baking powder. Add almond milk and try to make the mixture into a stiff batter. You may need to add a bit more almond milk. Stir in the thyme.

Heat a nonstick crepe pan over medium until it is hot. Plop the amount of batter you want down on the pan. Cook, turning once or twice, until both sides are lightly browned. Serve plain or with maple syrup or yogurt or a giant serving of kale.

*Cook amaranth like quinoa: Cover in twice its volume of water, bring to a boil, and let simmer until grain is done, about 15 minutes. Drain if necessary. I think 1 cup dry amaranth probably gives about 2 1/2 cups cooked, but don't hold me to it.

What I ate for dinner last night

This is just a quick meal I made with some stuff I had in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. Since Jon has left and I will be out of town for a lot of the summer, I have been trying to eat through a lot of the food we've accumulated. I call it the freezer/pantry reduction diet. So this is what I had for dinner last night. The seasonings are Indian, but I don't know that the ingredients are particularly authentic. That didn't bother me, though. It was delicious over basmati rice. I tried to figure out a short, descriptive name for this but failed.

Indian-spiced chickpea, sweet potato, tofu skins, and kale stir-fry-ish thing

Vegetable oil for sauteing
1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp amchoor powder, optional
1/2 tsp kalonji, optional
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes
4 oz tofu skins, cut into thin strips
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 bunch kale, washed, large stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds and let them pop for about 45 seconds. (This can be slightly dangerous and is not advised for children or the shirtless.) Lower the heat to medium, add the cumin seeds, and let them sizzle for about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the spices, the onion, and the sweet potato. Stir to coat vegetables with oil and spices. Pour about 1/4 cup water into skillet to deglaze and put the cover on to let the sweet potato steam. Check on it periodically, push it around a little, and add more water if the pan gets dry and the spices start to stick.

When the sweet potato is tender, add the tofu skins and chickpeas and cook until heated through. Add the kale and cover the pan to let it steam. Check after a couple minutes and push it around a little to help it wilt. When the kale has wilted, remove pan from heat and serve.

Chickpea-artichoke salad

Why yes, when I'm in my office, I do eat my lunch off of an old frisbee that a dog chewed on, decreasing its flyability but not affecting its plate-ishness.

This is a salad in the style of egg salad or tuna salad, not a green salad or even a lentil salad. And it is also the answer to a prayer. OK, maybe it's not that dramatic, but I've been looking for a good savory sandwich spread. Sandwiches are a cheap, easy lunch to throw together in the morning, but as a vegetarian, I often feel limited to peanut butter and jelly. While it's good once in a while, I find that I don't really like sweet lunches. Egg salad and pimento cheese are also good sandwich spreads, but they can be pretty heavy, and the calories add up quickly. (I don't count or try to limit my calories, but I also don't like to throw them around like they're nothing, and eating pimento cheese for lunch every day adds up.) I felt like chickpeas should be an integral part of my ideal sandwich spread, but I couldn't figure out what would go with them. Mashed up chickpeas and mayo just didn't sound appealing. Then this month's Vegetarian Times had the answer: Chunky chickpea-artichoke salad. It's made with jarred or canned artichoke hearts, and the artichoke texture really makes the whole mixture remind me of tuna salad. (I don't eat much tuna salad these days, so take it with a grain of salt.) I used chickpeas I had cooked because I think the texture would be too mushy using canned chickpeas.

I like to eat it on homemade pumpernickel bread with sprouts and/or lettuce. Relatedly, if anyone has a really good pumpernickel recipe for a bread machine, I'd love to try it. The one I'm using has a great flavor but is very short and dense. I know a high-rye bread is not going to rise like a wheat bread, but I'd like a little more rise without sacrificing flavor or too much texture. I tried adding more yeast and a little gluten, but it didn't do much good.

When I'm not eating my food off a frisbee, I sometimes use a paper towel from the bathroom.

I think I have found my lunch solution for the days when I don't have leftovers. Yippee!

Chickpea-artichoke salad
adapted from Vegetarian Times
This recipe is vegan if you use a vegan mayonnaise replacement.

1 16-oz jar artichoke hearts packed in water, drained
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 15-oz can)
1/4 cup chopped green onions, green and white parts, plus a little more of the green parts for garnish
1/4 cup chopped cornichons or other slightly sweet pickles
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper (I omitted it because peppers are kind of expensive at the supermarket right now, but they'd probably be good)
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay*
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Combine all ingredients (except green onion garnish) and pulse in food processor until desired texture has been reached. Serve like you would tuna salad. Garnish with remaining green parts of green onion if desired.

*I had never heard of Old Bay seasoning, so I just sprinkled various spices I thought would be good in: black pepper, marjoram, tarragon, dill, thyme, oregano. I plan on playing with the spices to vary the salad a little each time. I think a lot of different spices and spice combinations could be used to good effect. Next time I might try smoked paprika, garlic powder, and cumin.