These days we are all doing different things to stay sane during COVID. Haynes is exploring new foods and cooking. His latest passion is Southeast Asian food which uniquely blends hot, sour, salty, and sweet and umami flavors. Yum!
But the first challenge is acquiring a small pantry of hard-to-find ingredients. The obvious place to go would be a local Asian market, but our only market is a little too tight to shop during COVID and does not stock some of the ingredients. So, Haynes found a good online source. This website has authentic ingredients, interesting recipes and will even ship fresh produce such as galangal, (Thai ginger), pandan or betel leaves, kaffir limes etc.
Pictured here are two key ingredients, fish and oyster sauces important for Thai, Vietnamese or Malaysian cooking. Fish sauce has now become a favorite for all sorts of things such as salad dressing (makes a nice faux Caesar, if anchovies are too strong for you), stir fries, marinades, and sauces. Fish sauce does not actually impart much fish flavor unless used in large quantities, somehow it just blends into the background adding saltiness and umami.
Like many types of Asian cooking, dishes require a fair bit of preparation and benefit from having all the ingredients prepped in advance, mise en place (see picture).
If this is an interest of yours check out the wonderful and comprehensive cookbook: Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid. There are also recipes easily available on-line.
Here are a few pictures of some of Haynes’ first dishes vegetarian Pad Thai and Massaman Curry with beef.