Food for a hot climate, on a cold day

cellophane noodles after soaking

When local vegetables are scarce and the winter grows long, I sometimes turn to Asian cooking. Perhaps just thinking about a hot climate makes me feel better. My favorite two cookbooks along these lines are both by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid and are called Hot Sour Salty Sweet (about Southeast Asia) and Mangoes and Curry Leaves (about the Indian subcontinent). Alford and Duguid also have a relatively new book on cuisine from the outlying provinces of China, but I don't own that one yet.

I have had my eye on Mangoes and Curry Leaves for some time now, but only bought it last week after reading a short story, "Mrs. Sen's" by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story is about the Indian wife of a math professor who is stuck in a university apartment in the United States, far from her home and extended family, with no friends, no children of her own, and little comfort from her husband. Homesick, she puts all her energy into cooking, which the American boy she babysits (who is also the narrator) describes in detail. Not only could I sympathize with Mrs. Sen, I got terribly hungry reading the story and ordered Mangoes and Curry Leaves from my local bookstore the very next day. Next thing you know we're eating yogurt-marinated chicken for dinner, along with a lime-drizzled salad and unripe mango salsa.

Today was a pouring rain day, a Monday, with no lunch handy, and CZ was taking her geometry midterm. Since we'd be home all day, I started some chicken stock, but then decided we also needed something comforting for lunch, so I made Vietnamese chicken soup with greens from Hot Sour Salty Sweet. All this takes that's out of the ordinary is a pack of cellophane noodles, some fish sauce, and a bit of extra time to cook and shred the chicken.

You cook about a pound of chicken (any type, so long as you remove the skin and fat and eventually the bones) in 6 c. broth for thirty minutes, then shred and remove the chicken to soup bowls once it's soft.

Meanwhile soak the cellophane noodles in warm water for twenty minutes and cut them into 2-4" lengths (I soon figured out why 2" was really better--it made them a lot easier to eat with a spoon!).

Chop either bok choy or chard into 1" bits. The recipe says to remove the stems, but I didn't.

Add 3 T. fish sauce, season, and add the noodles and vegetables to the broth. Bring to a boil, stir, and ladle the broth mixture over the chicken.

CZ and I found that salt in both broth and fish sauce was a little too salty for our tastes, but it might be just the thing for someone with a sore throat. In fact, the soup was a bit like a healthier version of the old Campbell's Chicken and Stars that my mom used to give me when I got sick as a child. The noodles are made of mung beans, so they're healthy, too. And if you make your own stock and add some vegetables, you can see how this is a winner for a cold day, a rainy day, exam day, sick day, or any combination thereof!

Chicken soup with greens (in this case, bok choy). You can barely see the noodles, but they're there!

Meanwhile, Bob was giving me funny looks yesterday for what turned out to be an all-vegetarian weekend (he's really a good sport, but I find he sometimes has to supplement dinner with a bowl of cereal), so I think I'll surprise him with some cumin and coriander burgers for dinner tonight, adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves.

Tomorrow will be colder and clear, and we'll be out and about a lot more, so this was a great "inside day" for cooking. Enjoy those days when they come!