Recipe Market Place
“If a pot is cooking, a friendship will stay warm.”
- Arabic Proverb
Sharing a meal with anyone can create a bond, large or small, that may be fleeting, but often times can last a lifetime. Preparing, cooking and eating food is all a part of this bonding experience. And as the above quote suggests, it is food and a meal that can build lasting friendships and healthy communities.
Because of the important connection that food can create between all of us, reap/sow has created the Recipe Marketplace. The Recipe Marketplace will allow people from around the world to share recipes and stories about the food that is meaningful in their own life and the life of their community. These recipes need not be elaborate, but merely something that you are excited to share.
Every dish has a story, whether it regards origin, composition, or personal connection. It is our hope that this will be a forum for sharing these stories and recognizing the amazing impact of food on our lives. Food is a powerful social force. In recognition of this significance, we hope that conscientious (but not exclusive) use of local, organic, and fair trade products will be apparent in your recipes.
We hope that people will share their recipes and by doing so create new connections with people who also have a passion for cooking food that has been nourished by healthy people, healthy land and healthy communities.
In order to submit a recipe, please send a title, a one sentence descriptive blurb, a paragraph or two describing its significance and the recipe to rnemec@thefoodproject.org. Photos, poems, and other forms of expression are also great additions to submitted recipes.
We look forward to your recipes and we hope that the Recipe Marketplace will create new friendships and keep the old ones on the burner.
Pad Thai ala Local Vegetables
Where I come from, we don’t have access to many local vegetables. Some people are even surprised when they here that farmer’s markets exist there. The precious few fresh vegetables we get each year are made all the more delicious for their rarity, however. In Fairbanks, Alaska, only a short distance south of the artic circle, the harvesting season is a mere one (maybe one and a half) months long. It’s those short weeks that remind me of my love for cooking (and eating) each year. From the most simple to the most exotic dish, fresh local vegetables transform a meal from simple sustenance to epicurean delight.
This is especially true of one of my favorite creations, pad thai. Not only is it flavorful and exotic but it is fully within anyone’s culinary capabilities to prepare. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced the joy of finding that one of your favorite eat-out treats is something you can create in your own kitchen, but I’ve found it to be both a gastronomic (and financial) pleasure. The wonder doesn’t stop there. Pad thai isn’t only an unusual and fun eatable to spice up your Tuesday evening, it can also be an experiment in combining foreign and the most deliciously local foods. I’ve found that the secret to amazing pad thai is as simple as a well spent visit to my local farmer’s market. The addition of a newly harvested treat gives pad thai a refreshing and delicious flavor. Once you’ve cooked your noodles, mixed your sauce, sautéed a bit of chicken or tofu and scrambled a few eggs, all that is left to do is add your favorite locally grown vegetables.
Directions
Noodles:
Boil water, turn off heat and add noodles.
Soak the noodles only until they are slightly chewy and then quickly drain and rinse with cold water.
Set aside for later.
Sauce:
1/2 cup fish sauce
1 tsp spoon soy sauce
1 tsp spoon brown sugar
1 tbl spoon tamarind paste
chopped fresh basil, garlic and cilantro to taste
1/2 cup crushed raw peanuts
It is best to prepare the sauce before beginning the vegetables and other ingredients.
Stir above ingredients together, leaving some peanuts aside to sprinkle on top of the finished pad thai.
Vegetables/ tofu/ chicken/ eggs:
2-3 eggs
Scramble these and set aside
Dice chicken or tofu, whichever you prefer and sautee with a little garlic and basil
Set aside
Now comes the fun part! It’s time to prepare the vegetables. My favorite veggies to use are tomatoes, carrots, snow peas, green onions, onions, yellow squash, and zuccini. Dice each to nice bite size bits.
In a wok (or frying pan) sautee the carrots, onions, yellow squash and zuccini in a small amount of oil. I like to add a little sauce at this point to give them some color.
After the harder vegetables have been cooked to a soft (but not too soft) consistency, add the tofu/chicken, eggs and noodles to the wok. Pour the remaining sauce in as well and cook until hot.
When this mixture is hot enough to serve, turn off the burner and add the tomatoes, snow peas and green onions. This will be enough to warm them, but not cook them so much that they loose any flavor or color.
To serve, place the pad thai on a plate, garnish with the chopped peanuts that were set aside, a slice of lime and any vegetables that didn’t make it into the pot.
Voila! Delicious pad thai!
This is my favorite pad thai recipe and I hope you’ll try it out, but the beauty of pad thai is there’s no right way to make it. Change up the proportions of fish sauce, soy sauce and herbs, add shrimp or scallops if you like, use any vegetables that catch your fancy. I hope you’ll take this recipe and make it your own, tailor it so that it’s perfect for you and reflects the local foods that you love! Enjoy!!!