Hypobloggia

Only two posts in the last two months! It has been quite a time! To catch up, here are a few of the things that happened, with pictures :)

It all started on the 3rd of August, when my brother Colm, and my daughter Aisling showed up on our doorstep. Apparently, I was the only person on the planet who was unaware of the visit!
Here they are with Maggie:

Maggie, Laura, and Becky did a triathlon

We took our visitors to the Iowa State Fair. They got to line up to see the Butter Cow, eat incredibly unhealthy food, and admire some very expensive agricultural machinery.

We also went to the Adel Sweetcorn Festival. There wasn't much in the was of exciting machinery, but the food was better.

There was the Magic Sample Sunday at Prairieland Herbs.

There were two other visits of family from Ireland (these I did know about), completing what will go down in history as III11(The Irish Invasion of Iowa '11). My wonderful niece, Claire, called in on her way to Australia, and my parents came over too.

Some more random pics: The epitome of Iowa - corn and sky.

And pretty wildflowers.

Oh, and I did a fun photography workshop!

My First Magazine Cover!

Last month's Radish Magazine featured an article on violet jelly, written by Maggie, and included two of my photographs - including the cover! Very pleased :)

Violet Jelly

I have been doing some photographs to illustrate a magazine article on violet jelly that Maggie is currently writing. I enjoy food photography, and this afternoon's session was most interesting and educational :)

The lighting for these images was a large north-facing window camera left, and a couple of reflectors camera right for fill.

Hotpot 2

[Part One]

In this installment, I'm going to show you the basic ingredients for hot pot, or at least some of the more "exotic" items that you'll have to get at your local Asian supermarket. Please feel free to download the pictures to use as a shopping list if you like.

First, the ingredients that go to make your sauce in your bowl:

Asian Barbecue Sauce. This is a fish-based mild BBQ sauce.

Black Bean Garlic Sauce. Another very mild sauce.

Ground Chili Paste. Be warned: this one is HOT!!

Soy Sauce. We got this brand because of the handy dispenser bottle, but there are better ones on the market.

Sesame Oil.

Here are some of the sauce fixin's with some ingredients that go into the broth. Eggs - the yolk goes into the sauce, the white can be cooked in the broth. Scallions (green onions), chopped up can go either in the  sauce or into the broth. Napa cabbage (on the right) gets popped into the broth.

The next items are cooked in the broth:

Fish Cake. There are several kinds available.

Shrimp Balls.

Cuttlefish Balls.

Noodles. Almost any type of noodle can be used - we like to use these yam noodles, which come in little bundles, and are very easy to pick up with chopsticks.

Shabu-shabu beef. This is very thinly-sliced tender beef that cooks in under a minute. Shabu-shabu (しゃぶしゃぶ) is the name given to a Japanese version of hotpot, it translates as "swish swish", replicating the sound made by the broth in the pot.

Shrimps. The larger the better, and the more the merrier!

These are just a few of the huge range of goodies that can go into hot pot. Regional and seasonal variations, and personal preferences can all decide what makes up this wonderful dish.

Hotpot 1

Hotpot. Vietnamese Fire Pot. Steamboat. Asian Fondue. These are just a few of the names by which this delightful culinary experience is known. There are countless variations of the basic formula found all over Asia. The recipe we use was given to us by a Hungarian who got it from a Chinese Cambodian, so it must be right.

Basically, it's a type of stew, cooked in a pot (we use an electric skillet) in the centre of the table. Each diner takes morsels from this pot and dips them in a sauce in his/her bowl. Everyone makes their own sauce according to their individual tastes.

I intend, over a series of Blog posts, to show you how we do it, including photos of the main ingredients, so that you can go to your local Asian supermarket and make your own. For today, however, I'll just post a couple of taster pictures - enjoy!

The table set for a hotpot meal. In the foreground are the sauce ingredients, a plate with three kinds of tofu, and eggs.

In the background is a bowl of bundled yam noodles, while in the foreground are beef (cut very thin, it cooks in less than a minute), green onions, and shrimps.

I should add that of all things that I have photographed, hotpot is one of the most difficult and challenging, firstly because of the "normal" difficulties of food photography, composition, lighting, etc.,

and also because I always have an irresistible urge to throw (well, put) down my camera and eat. And eat...

[Part Two]

Say "Cheese!"

Lots of fun classes happen down at Prairieland Herbs, but probably the funnest of them all, and certainly one of the most popular, is the "Make Your Own Mozzarella Cheese" class, which is taught by Cathy Lafrenz of Miss Effie's Country Flowers and Garden Stuff. Nine students attended the class, and all were delighted with their experience, and looking forward to enjoying their own mozzarella!

Cathy introduces the basics of cheesemaking.

 Waiting for the alchemy to happen....

Three Course Kebab Dinner

I'd been wanting to do this for a while - a three course meal with kebabs for each course. It seemed like a fun idea, and as my friends who frequent the Iowa State Fair assure me - "food on a stick has no calories". I finally got round to doing it last night, when our good friend and food critic, Linda, came to dinner.

The appetizer was a selection of cheeses - I used Cheddar, Münster, Havarti, and Gouda for a nice variety of colours, textures and flavours. These were put on the skewers with grapes and tomato, and presented on a bed of lettuce garnished with slices of orange and red onion. This was served with Maggie's banana chutney, and raspberry preserve.

The main course was very traditional - cubed beef (marinaded in a blend of oils, with vinegar, onion, garlic and pepper), shrimps, green peppers, new potatoes, cherry tomatoes, baby bella and button mushrooms, red and white onion, all cooked on the barbeque and served on a bed of rice.

For dessert we had fruit salad on a stick - strawberries, kiwi fruit orange, apple, grapes, and cantaloupe. These were just drizzled with a little honey and lemon juice.

The meal was easy to do, and great fun, and we have only just started exploring the endless varieties of delicious (and calorie-free :-p ) goodness that kebabs provide. We're already looking forward to our next supper on a stick.

Day 126

Iowa pork chops, done on the barbeque. Delicious!!! 

Day 118

We went morel hunting this evening, in an event organized by Dallas County Conservation in Kuehn Conservation Area. After a slow start, we bagged a nice baker's dozen, including this beauty! It was a beautiful evening, and we had great fun even without the 'shrooms. I wonder what's for supper?

Day 107

It's a beautiful day, and we're going to do hotpot! I am going to try to photograph the process (if I don't get too distracted by its deliciousness, or the good company we'll have) to do as a step-by-step tutorial on Blog. Here are some of the goodies on my impromptu "shooting table".

Day 106

Another asparagus picture - this time the vegetable after which my cat is named. This delectable bunch came from Blue Gate Farm, their first crop of the year. It was delicious!

Day 94

Happy Easter! This is my idea of Easter bliss - Cadbury's Mini Eggs from both sides of the Atlantic, dark and milk chocolate - utterly yummy!

Day 80

We visited some friends in southern Iowa today, and had a great lunch of hotpot and this - chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and strawberries.

Day 75

Another taste of Ireland - a Club Milk, a delightful chocolate-covered bit of heaven, the perfect complement to a cup of coffee.

Day 74

Tayto Crisps! What Irish expats the world over miss most about Ireland. "Potato chips" (insert bad American accent here) are a pale imitation of this most Irish of snacks. I'm lucky to have great family and friends in the Old Sod who send some over to me :) But I only have two packs left...

Day 71

Another view of one of my favourite kitchen tools, our Penzey's Spices pepper mill. Penzey's Extra Bold Tellicherry Black Peppercorns are the best on the planet, and this is about the only mill for them. It is truly amazing!

Day 66

Here's our first "solo flight" venture at Cambodian Fire Pot. It looked great, smelled fabulous, and tasted delicious! we're very very happy with it, and looking forward already to our next one!

Day 65

One of my favouritest meals is Maggie's home made pizza! This particular specimen of cheezilicious delight has her magnificent mozzarella on. I could write on at great length, waxing lyrical on this delectable feast, but I'm going to eat it instead.

Day 62

Another big haul of exotic goodies from the Asian Supermarket, this time the shop in the East Village in Des Moines. It's really whetting my appetite for hotpot and other dishes. (We also got a stack of ramen)

Day 59

This has just been the most amazing day! I had a really good Website meeting, the Super Duper Hooper Shoot, and learned how to make Cambodian firepot - all on the day of the Snow Moon. And now relaxing with Maggie and enjoying a glass of wine. It doesn't get much better than this! 
(My picture is of some of the ingredients we got at the asian supermarket in Ames for our hotpot. There's fishcake, barbeque sauce, black bean sauce, several kinds of tofu, soy sauce, sesame oil, and loads of other goodies. BTW, the firepot was out of this world!)