Kalahari Pulled Beef

For this week's special, the Thai beef challenge takes us to southern Africa and the Kalahari Desert. I have previously blogged on beef from the region but this week's focus is on the Desert culture itself.

The Kalahari is a vast arid area located in the southwest part of Botswana, the northwest of South Africa and the eastern part of Namibia. Although rainfall is scarce, the region is surprisingly green owing to subterranean water which seeps in from rivers emptying into the desert from the north. The green, mostly scrub brush, supports an amazing variety of wild life with herds of giraffe, springbok, wildebeest, and zebra together with birds like ostrich as well as smaller game like wild boar.

The Kalahari is the traditional home of the Basarwa (or San) people, more familiarly (and pejoratively) known as the Bushmen. The San were the indigenous people of the region and survived for thousands of years hunting and gathering in the bountiful desert. Unfortunately, today the culture of the San, like so many other aboriginal people in America, Australia  and elsewhere, has been almost completely destroyed from a combination of government confiscation of their land and resettlement in villages. Here, cut off from their traditions, their spirit atrophies and they descend into the familiar pattern of alcoholism and abuse so pervasive in indigenous communities elsewhere.

But despite all this, two of their culinary influences have been adopted throughout the region: biltong and seswaa, the latter being what I call Kalahari Pulled Beef. Biltong is dried meat; the San would hang meat from a successful hunt to dry, both to preserve it and to make it easier to carry back to the group campsite. Upon arrival at the campsite, assuming water was available, the dried meat would be boiled, sometimes for hours, until it literally fell apart. The result was seswaa.

When I first encountered seswaa, I scoffed at the idea of boiling meat until it fell apart; the concept was somehow offensive to my notions of flavor retention. I was sure the meat would be overcooked and tasteless. I was wrong; it was delicious and to this day I cannot explain why the flavor is so well retained.

In any event, this week's Friday special is Kalahari Pulled Beef. Our version is made with fresh (not dried) beef to which I have added an onion, a little garlic and seasonings and then boiled until it falls apart -- in the true style of the Basarwa.

Tilapia Flambeed in Sang Som

The continuing cool weather has played havoc with my sinuses so for this Friday I was searching for something simple and quick, but elegant and delicious. Perhaps nothing fills those specs better than tilapia (pla nihn) flambeed in Sang Som. This dish was first offered at the old New York Bistro and was my attempt to use all local ingredients to create a true haute cuisine expeerience.

A fillet of tilapia is first gently sauteed in butter and oil, then flambeed with local Sang Som rum. Finally, the dish is finished with a light butter sauce and served with a mound of fried rice and a green salad. Simple. Quick. Elegant. Delicious. 150B.

Come on out and try it!

Coming to Terms with Thai Beef - Part Two

The beef stroganoff of Friday before last was so well received that I sold out leaving some customers feeling rather disappointed. In an attempt to remedy this, stroganoff will be back on Friday hopefully better than ever. Yes, as before, we will be using local beef from the market and I thought I would share with my readers some of the prep that goes onto making our beef so tasty.

Now in Europe and America, stroganoff is made with fairly tender beef; not so with our local beef. But all one has to do is make a few adjustments and the outcome is in my opinion even better than Western beef.

First, the beef is aged, unwrapped or hung, in the fridge for as long as possible, but a minimum of two days. This dries the meat out a bit and makes it easier to see and work with. After aging, any silver skin, excess fat or gristle is trimmed out as much as possible and the meat cut into strips.

The next step is an idea incorporated from Thai cooking: I "dehd diow" the meat. This simply means putting the strips of beef in the sun for one day in much the same way one would make South African biltong or North American jerky. This step dries the meat out in preparation for the actual cooking.

We begin the cooking by browning the meat, which is why the dehd diow is so important; wet beef will not brown. Poorly browned meat will affect the taste and color of the final result. After browning, the met is set aside and seasoned. Meanwhile, in the same pan, we brown our onions until they are golden, using the moisture in the onions to scrape up all the coagulated juices. Finally, we add back our beef and some liquid (wine, stock, water etc.). Cover and let cook slowly until tender. This could take as much as two or three hours. Patience is the key.

To finish we add a flour and butter roux and some sauteed mushrooms and cook only until the flavors blend and the sauce thickens. Sour cream is added at the end for additional flavor and texture. Et voila! The best Beef Stroganoff this side of Vladivostok.

Liver and the Russian Tea Room

Growing up, I hated liver. Normally my mother's cooking was superb, but I guess no one can get it right all of the time, not even her. Her liver was sufficient reason for an impromptu fast; 'sorry Mom can't eat tonight, going swimming tomorrow'. Never mind the logic, any reason not to eat shoe leather which tasted and smelled like it had already walked a thousand miles.

But then fast forward about fifteen liver-less years away from New York and I found myself working back in the City; in midtown Manhattan. One day, a colleague suggested we take lunch at the Russian Tea Room, one of the most famous eateries in town. The RTR is down the street from the renowned Carnegie Hall and is one of those places frequented by actors, musicians and celebrities.A place where the cast of a new Broadway show would go to await the morning papers and the make or break reviews.

Although I was almost a native New Yorker, I had never eaten in the Tea Room and was excited to do some possible celebrity watching. I was not disappointed, for as soon as we walked in, there were three or four faces I immediately recognized seated in the plush red upholstered booths. The walls were adorned with photos of stars of screen and stage and I suddenly felt that this was a really cool place to be.

But then we were seated and the menu came out; my reverie instantly vanished as I tried suppress a gasp at the prices. It would take about two or three month to recover from this one meal. Not to worry, said my friend who could see my distress, the special of the day is always reasonably priced. The special of the day, of course, was LIVER! So now, the choice was simple: go bankrupt or eat liver; I chose the latter.

Mind you, this was not my mother's liver. This was calves liver sauteed in butter with onions and new potatoes. But to me at the time, liver was liver and I hated it all. It could not be rehabilitated; it could never be made palatable. I am not only not embarrassed, but happy to say that I was dead wrong.To this day that meal ranks as one of the best I have ever had. And of course since then I have been a devotee of liver.

I know I can never duplicate the succulence of RTR liver but this Friday 19 February 2016 we will be serving beef liver with bacon, onions and baked potato with sour cream. I can personally attest that liver is one of those things one either likes or hates. But if you are in the latter category, come on by and give us a try. Maybe Milford's Corner will become your Russian Tea Room.

Coming to Terms with Thai Beef

 Ever since I've been in Thailand my Western friends and acquaintances have had nothing good to say about Thai beef. There seem to be three major criticisms: first, it is sold too fresh. Due to the traditional lack of refrigeration, Thai beef is not aged but tends to be sold on the day of slaughter; sometimes it is still warm and twitching. Second, the butchering tends to be random; the cuts we are familiar with in the West are generally not recognizable. And third, of course, it is chewy. All of these criticisms are valid.  However, I believe there are things one can do to make Thai beef not only more palatable but positively delicious.

My home sits in the middle of the rice paddy. These days, development is coming to the area but has not yet quite arrive. So in the meantime, what used to be rice paddy is being used by cattle to graze. They eat good grass (and other stuff like my mangoes) and look strong and healthy. This led me to think that maybe we are getting spoiled. Beef from home is grain fed, marbled and super tender. That’s what we are used to and that’s what we demand. But what about good grass fed beef; that which most of the world eats? Maybe we simply have to treat it a little differently. Ok, it will never taste quite like home, but it is good, fresh and flavorful. So in pursuit of these ideas I am undertaking the challenge of coming to terms with Thai beef.

Last Friday’s special was the first salvo in the mission: roast beef au jus. There were certainly a few tricks involved in preparing it, including meat selection, aging, trimming, and final cooking procedures. Most important of all though was patience; some things just take time and you cannot rush mother nature. I must say however that I thought the roast beef came out rather well as did my customers for there was none left. In fact, I thought it surpassed imported beef in terms of taste and overall flavor.

The special for Friday 12 February 2016 (after 1700hrs) will be a continuation of the challenge, this time with beef stroganoff. This is a dish I have never prepared with any beef, so it will be a bit more of a challenge than it might otherwise be.

Come on out and judge for yourself!

Veal Scallopini

Once in awhile one of my customers makes a recommendation. Again and again and again. So, out of respect for his good taste and judgment (and persistence), this week's special is one that I could no longer resist.

Mind you, it is a wonderful dish: scallops of veal dusted and fried to perfection; topped with olives and mushrooms in a demi glaze sauce served over tagliatelle. All for only 190B.

So come on out tomorrow and let us know if it was a good recommendation.

Ahan Bohran

I like to watch old Thai movies; those made in the day when actors really looked Thai and when the location scenes of Bangkok and rural Thailand were prior to the age of concrete and plastic. But most of all, I like the classic, simple but elegant storylines in those old movies.

Since food is such an integral part of Thai life, there is always a scene in these movies involving a meal. But rarely is it clear exactly what the characters supposed to be eating. So for many years now I've been on a quest to discover what might be considered traditional Thai food: ahan bohran.

Now in Isan things have not changed that much. It is still very much the food of the field, stream and rice paddy: hardy peasant food. But in the central part of the country, fields and streams have given way to housing estates, factories, and high rises. Traditional ways and, along with them, traditional foods, have as a consequence, virtually disappeared.

Lest we forget, at Milford's Corner this Friday, 22 January we will feature a traditional Thai dish I call Fish in Tamarind Sauce. This dish has strips of tilapia lightly floured and deep fried to a golden brown then mixed with vegetable, cashews, and a tamarind-based sweet and sour sauce. I have to confess it is one of my personal favorites. So come on out and enjoy it after 6 on Friday. See you then.