Two oriental lanterns won in September Draw

The winners in the August draw (ending 1st September) were Emma Wallace from Orpington and Jaye Dixon from Botley. Both have won oriental silk lanterns from our stock range. The next round of the Prize Draw is now open and the closing date is the 1st October 2008.

On a related note, we've had quite a few people enter the draw having previously removed themselves from the mailing list. As email is the only way we contact winners this is probably not the best idea and certainly isn't in the spirit of the thing. As past entrants will no doubt testify, we don't use entrants email address for anything other than passing on news of the competition and any special offers we may be running at the time. If entrants remove themselves from our mailing list we cannot add them back in. Unless they opt back in we have no way of contacting them - the postal service isn't an option with 100s of entrants each month. So if you do enter, and we hope you do, please bear this in mind.

One final 'housekeeping' note, this is the last month we'll be giving away two lanterns. From October it will just be the one based on the random draw.

However, we will be introducing a poll which will provide an alternative opportunity to get hold of Indochine lanterns - more of which later.

Chinese Lanterns won in August 2008 prize draw

The latest round ending 1st August was won by Kandy Jones from Gosport and Janet Sykes from Honley near Huddersfield. The latter won for being the first to enter choosing what subsequently proved to be the favourite choice in the round and the former for simply having her number come up in the random number draw after all duplicate and otherwise spoiled entries were removed from the tally. The next round in our free entry prize draw is already underway and the draw will take place on 1st September 2008.

Shed a little light on the matter.

It's sometimes difficult to know what you're going to get when you buy from a web site. If you're a recent owner of an Indochine lantern, please spare a few moments to share your feedback with others who may be thinking of buying from us. It may be all the encouragement they need.

Tamarind Water

Sometimes called Tamarind purée. To make this soak a ping-pong ball sized piece of Tamarind pulp (with all it's seeds) in 120ml of hot water, or 3 tbsp in 225ml of hot water, until soft.Squeeze the pulp repeatedly with your fingers to dissolve it and then pour the lot into a strainer, forcing the liquid through with the back of a spoon. Discard the fibrous material and just use the thick liquid.



It's a right palaver but worth the effort for the taste it adds. But because it takes some effort, I tend to make up a whole 'brick' of the stuff in one go and use ice-cube freezer bags to store the surplus in the freezer for later.

Phad Thai recipe

This Phad Thai (Phat Thai) recipe comes from one of my favourite books on asian cooking. It's South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden. Elizabeth David, no less, is quoted as saying that it's "a book every serious cook should possess". A great recommendation.



The particular version in Brissenden's book is Sen Chan Phat Thai which owes it's name to the use of Chantaburi Noodles, but she suggests using Thai sen lek noodles, available as A Grade Banh Pho imported from Thailand and available in Asian speciality food shops. Noodles, either in soup or fried are the standard lunch dish of urban Thailand. Most are close to the Chinese prototypes from which they are derived. Phat Thai (Padh Thai) however, contains flavours that are characteristically Thai.


Ingredients
250g (9oz) narrow dried rice noodles
4 cloves of garlic
5 tbsp vegetable oil
4 large raw prawns, shelled de-veined but tails left on
3 shallots
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
100g (3 and a half oz) hard white beancurd, cut into very small dice
2 eggs
2 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp tamarind water
2 tbsp dried shrimp washed well and then ground
2 cups beansprouts, tailed and washed
half cup of Chinese leeks or garlic chives cut into 2.5cm / 1inch pieces
half a cup of roasted peanuts, very roughly ground.

Garnish
about 20 leaves of Indian or Asian Pennywort (bua bok; Centella Asiatica) oe 1-2 leaves of slightly bitter lettuce such as Italian endive or tree lettuce or mignonette lettuce.
half a cup of beansprouts
a few spring onion/scallion curls
half a cup of roasted and very roughly ground peanuts.
1 lime cut into wedges the Thai way.

As with most stir fried food you need to have all your ingredients prepared first. This fast paced cooking method doesn't allow for mid-term preparation. So have all your ingredients in separate little bowls arranged around the cooking area.

Soak the noodles in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly then cut into manageable lengths with scissors (about 3 cuts across should be enough). Smash and chop 1 clove of garlic, heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok on medium heat and fry until yellow. Add the fresh prawns and stir-fry unti they are cooked. Remove and keep warm. In a mortar or food processor attachment mash the rest of the garlic, the shallots and the chilli flakes into a fine paste.

From this point on the cooking will be more easily done in two batches in order to allow plenty of room in the wok for tossing.

Add two more tablespoons of oil to the wok and when it is hot put in half the garlic, chilli and shallot paste and stir-fry, turning constantly to avoid sticking and to ensure everything is well mixed and oiled. Push the noodles to one side of the wok. Add a little more oil if necessary, add half the beancurd and stir-fry for a minute. Push this aside in the pan also. Break one egg into the wok and pierce its yolk. When the egg starts to set on the bottom, stir and scramble it lightly with the edge of the spatula. return the noodles and the beancurd to the centre of the pan and continue stirring until everything is mixed together well.

Turning the heat down a little, add half the fish sauce, sugar and tamarind water and toss everything together until the sugar has dissolved. Add the dried shrimp, 1 cup of beansprouts and half of the chinese leaks. Taste and adjust the flavours to your liking then turn off the heat and stir in half a cup of the roasted peanuts.

Place in a bowl and keep aside while you cook a second batch. After doing this add the first batch to the pan for a final stir and warming, then dish everything up on to one side of a serving platter. Arrange the prawns on top or on the outer edge. Arrange the pennywort or bitter lettuce leaves, a handful of washed beansprouts, a few spring onion curls and the remainder of the roughly ground peanuts decoratively in separate mounds on the other side of the dish. Add attractively cut wedges of lime for individual diners to squeeze over the noodles to their taste and have on the table a bowl of fish sauce with finley sliced rounds of small red chillies in it (Nam Pla Phrik), one of the chilli flakes (Phrik Pon) and one of white sugar so that each person amy adjust the seasoning as desired.

Banana Flower recipe

Variously described as Banana Flower or Banana Blossom, this salad recipe comes from the Cuisine of Cambodia by Nusara Thaitawat a beautifully presented book with stunning photography by Somkid Chaijitvanit and Yingyong Un-anongrak. Unfortunately it's currently out of print, otherwise I'd post link to buy it.


Nhoam Tra - Yaung Chek Banana Flower Salad


Ingredients
200g of banana flower/blossom, thinly sliced
100g cabbage and/or carrot, grated (optional)
100g of shredded pre-cooked chicken (boiled)
a third of a cup of dried shrimps, soaked, drained and pounded coarsely*
a third of a cup of peanuts, roasted, skinned and pounded coarsely
half a cup of Chi (chee)

Dressing
2tbsp Fish sauce
2tbsp sugar
1 and a half tbsp lime juice
1-2 birds-eye chillies

The Chi mentioned in the ingredients list is a mix of five herbs: Chi Ang-Kam (mint), Chi Ta-Puo (a.k.a. Ma-Luong), Chi Neang Vorng (basil) Chi Saing-Hum (a.k.a. Porng-Tea-Kaun) and Chi Ma-Hao (Pennywort/Fishwort), with the mint and Basil being the most important. Which is lucky as the other three can still be a little difficult to track down outside Asia. Although they are increasingly available in Asian speciality stores. Ideally you would mix equal quantities of the five with the basil and mint being left whole while the longer leaves are included chopped. Pictures of the various salad herbs can be found at satrey khmer.

Discard the hard pink outer cover of the Banana Blossom. Slice the blossom horizontally into thin strips and then immediately rinse in diluted lime juice to prevent them turning black. The pollen will usually float to the surface and should be spooned out and discarded.

The addition of grated carrot or cabbage is not absolutely authentic but many Cambodian families and restaurants do add it to give a splash of extra colour to the dish.

Toss the banana blossom, cabbage/carrot and dried shrimps, roasted peanuts and Chi together and add the dressing immediately before serving.

To make the dressing pound the garlic and chili with a pestle and mortar. If you like it hot add two or more chillies, then the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.

*Dried shrimps, a core ingredient, must always be washed and soaked for about 15 minutes before being ground in either a clay mortar or electric mixer.

July 2008 Prize Draw

Winners in the latest round of the Indochine silk lantern draw ending 1st July 2008 were Melanie Daniels from Doncaster and Victor Curtis from Dulcote. 556 people entered the draw and no one left empty handed; everyone entering was offered a 20% discount voucher off all our stock lanterns.