A Fresh Start

Drum in the New Year!

Fish symbolizes abundance in the Asian culture. To start the New Year with fish on a family gathering table is required. Plus, the holiday feasts create the need for unclogging the butter and the saturated fat from your system before your heart stops pumping. Let us get our flow back.

One of my aunts, whom I had mentioned in the last blog entry, has lived in New Orleans for close to 40 years. You may wonder how did she get there. During the early 1970s there were needs for nurses, doctors and engineers in the US and she got recruited. A fresh start in a foreign land, would you have refused? With 2 pieces of luggage and $2000 in their pocket, my aunt and her husband arrived in Kansas City. She worked while her husband bussed tables.
After my uncle got accepted to the Tulane Law school in 1973 they arrived in New Orleans. She worked, raised her son, went to more schooling, graduated as an anesthesiologist and has lived in New Orleans since then. With so much energy and determination in her veins, I wonder if she can be still in her retirement...
 

New Year is a new beginning. My aunt and her husband started their retirement this year...another page has turned. While visiting her she gave us a feel good feast...She is a health and homegrown devotee, similar to my mom. Her neighbor had gone fishing in the gulf and came back with 30 black drum fish. Drum is a fish that can handle both fresh and salt water, abundant in the Gulf and bay. My aunt got a hold of about 5 of them. She stuffed them with lemongrass and oven roasted them. She grows Thai herbs and lime in her backyard. I suppose New Orleans weather is perfect for tropical plants.
I was the saucier for the dish (usually that's my job in the family). This sauce is a typical Thai sauce to accompany seafood.

Here is how:
Depending on the size of the fish, stuff them with fresh lemongrass, wrap in foil and roast them @ 375 degree for at least 45 min.
The sauce:
Grind: 10 Thai bird eye chili (Prik kee Nu) and 4 large Garlic clove in a mortar and pestle. (Grind in the food processor if mortar and pestle are not available)
Add 1/4 cup of lime juice, 1/4 cup of fish sauce
1/4 cup of chopped Fresh Coriander
A pinch of sugar

In addition to fish, my aunt made a roasted chicken salad. She had to work, go to school, and raise a child. Who would know better than my aunt that...simple is not enough, it has to be quick and full flavored as well.
You can roast your own chicken or get them from the grocery store.
Here is how:
1 roasted chicken, pulled to bite size
4 stalks of julienned lemongrass
4 bulbs of julienned Shallots
1/4 cup Toasted rice powder

1/4 cup of Laotian mint

Flavoring with Fish sauce (Nam Pla), Lime, sugar, chili powder
Add 1/4 cup of coriander leaves (Pak chee) before serving
Mix together and serve with green salad and rice.

Larb Roasted Chicken

Note that there is no oil, butter or bacon involved with the above recipe.
To the new beginning, Happy New Year everyone!

Cheers,
Teera