Cashew chicken

Southern food writer John T. Edge looks at the cashew chicken phenomenon in Springfield, Missouri.

Its incarnation - "deep-fried chicken chunks in a brown slurry of soy sauce, oyster sauce and stock, scattered with green onions and halved cashews" - frightens me actually. I can imagine the chicken goop, for lack of a better word, and remain grateful to know true Chinese food.

The version from Kylie Kwong's "Simple Chinese Cooking," for example, is more healthful and tastes much cleaner:

Stir-Fried Chicken Fillets with Cashews

1 lb. 10 oz. chicken thigh fillets, cut into 1-inch slices
1 medium cucumber
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup unsalted and roasted cashew nuts, about 5 oz.
6 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 Tbsp. Shao Hsing wine or dry sherry
2 tsp. sea salt
3/4 cup finely sliced scallions

marinade:
2 Tbsp. Shao Hsing wine or dry sherry
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. cold water
1 tsp. sea salt

Combine chicken with marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cut cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Place cucumber cut-side down on a chopping board, finely slice on the diagonal and set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp. of the oil in a hot wok until the surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated chicken and stir-fry for 1 minute. Remove from wok with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add remaining chicken and stir-fry for 1 minute, remove from wok and set aside.

Add remaining oil to the hot wok, stir in nuts and garlic and stir-fry on medium heat for 30 seconds, stirring constantly to ensure garlic does not burn. Immediately return chicken to the wok and increase heat to high. Pour in wine or sherry and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Add salt and continue to stir-fry for a further 30 seconds or until chicken is lightly browned and just cooked through. Lastly, add reserved cucumber and stir-fry for 10 seconds.

Arrange chicken on a platter, garnish with scallions. Makes 4 servings.

The White House cooks

The New York Times, offers insight on the eating habits of Pres. and Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia and Sasha.

"White House officials say the focus on healthy living will be a significant item on Mrs. Obama's agenda... As the nation battles an obesity epidemic and a hard-to-break taste for oversweetened and oversalted dishes, her message is clear: Fresh, nutritious foods are not delicacies to be savored by the wealthy, but critical components of the diets of ordinary and struggling families..."

At some point, I will have to try the recipe from White House chef Cristeta Comerford:

No Cream Creamed Spinach

2 lbs. baby spinach, washed and cleaned
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 shallots, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Blanch half a pound of spinach in salted, boiling water. Immediately, "shock" the blanched spinach in a bowl of iced water. Drain and squeeze out the excess water. Puree in a blender. Set aside.

In a large skillet, sweat the shallots and garlic until translucent. Add the rest of the spinach leaves. Toss and sauté until wilted. Fold in the spinach puree. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Makes 6 servings.

Why ask why?

"I forget what we ate, except for the end of the meal. It was a big round peach pie, still warm from Old Mary's oven and the ride over the desert. It was deep, with lots of juice, and bursting with ripe peaches picked that noon. Royal Albertas, Father said they were. The crust was the most perfect I have ever tasted, except perhaps once upstairs at Simpson's in London, on a hot plum tart.

"And there was a quart mason jar, the old-fashioned bluish kind like Mexican glass, full of cream. It was still cold, probably because we all knew the stream it had lain in, Old Mary's stream.

"Father cut the pie in three pieces and put them on white soup plates in front of us, and then spooned out the thick cream. We ate with spoons too, blissful after the forks we were learning to use with Mother.

"And we ate the whole pie, and all the cream. We can't remember if we gave any to the shadowy old man who sold water... and then drove on sleepily toward Los Angeles, and none of us said anything about it for many years, but it was one of the best meals we ever ate...

"I suppose that happens at least once to every human. I hope so.

"Now the hills are cut through with superhighways, and I can't say whether we sat that night in Mint Canyon or Bouquet, and the three of us are in some ways even more than twenty-five years older than we were then. And still the warm round peach pie and the cool yellow cream we ate together that August night live in our hearts' palates, succulent, secret, delicious."

M.F.K. Fisher, writing about peach pie in "The Gastronomical Me."

To taste

A brother offers my mother Indian food left over from his take-out lunch: tandoori chicken, chickpea curry, naan. They are items she seldom eats, prepared in ways with which she is not entirely familiar.

"Try it," he says. "It's different. You might like it."

"Taste it," my mother says, correcting his Cantonese. "With food, the word is taste."

It is a small distinction, I realize, between trying something and tasting something. But it is an important one. It is the same subtle distinction perhaps between seeing and knowing, between hearing and listening. "Taste it," she says.

Sir Duke

"I accept this in memory of my mother. I know that Lula Mae is smiling right now. Mr. President, I know that if she were here, she'd say, 'Let me give him a peach cobbler.' She would say peach cobbler."

Stevie Wonder at the White House, on receiving the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from Pres. Obama.

In the Sunday paper

The San Francisco Chronicle writes of Bill Niman, co-founder of Niman Ranch, subsumed in January by its primary investor, Chicago-based Natural Food Holdings LLC.

Theirs is an engaging piece on the "idealist, whose mission was to change the way people eat and encourage them to think ethically about their food."

Dessert in the desert

Years ago, I learned the difference between "dessert" and "desert," and how to not mistake one spelling for the other.

"Dessert," the teacher reminded us, "has two S's, for sugar and spice (and everything nice). Desert, on the other hand, has just one S. It is all sand."

a.k.a. Hope Hill

A visit to Death Valley, a first visit, requires good preparation.

This means packing food, for walks through sand dunes and salt formations, for hikes through Mosaic, Golden and Titus canyons, for surfaces 282 feet below sea level and 11,049 feet above.

On the list:

Cranberry Bread

Scharffen Berger Chocolates

Cherry-Cabernet Brownies

HobNobs

Raspberry Newtons

Dried Mango Slices

Sun-Maid Raisins

Honey-Roasted Peanuts

Pink Peanut M&Ms

Mandarin Oranges

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

For a national park where daytime temperatures top 100 degrees F in the summer, this also means packing water. Lots and lots of water.

The mood hits

For this recipe alone, I keep boxes of brownie mix in the kitchen cupboard. Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, Pillsbury et al. Whatever was on sale. They are generally my sister's friends, not mine.

Though it calls for dried cherries, I have also used raisins or dried cranberries in the past. They work equally well. Though it calls for Cabernet Sauvignon, I have also used Merlot in the past. The flavor of the fruit intensifies in the red wine.

Cherry-cabernet brownies. I will make a batch for myself. If the mood hits, I might even share.

Cherry-Cabernet Brownies

1 cup dried cherries
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
1 21-ounce package brownie mix
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup canola oil

In a small saucepan, combine the cherries with the Cabernet Sauvignon and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let stand 1/2 an hour to 1 hour. Drain the cherries; reserve the soaking liquid.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use nonstick spray on a 9- by 13-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine the brownie mix, eggs, oil, cherries and 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid. Stir until well blended. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. Bake 27 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting. Makes 16 to 20 servings.

Benefits of braise

As soon as I finish leftovers in the fridge and freezer, as soon as I can wrap my brain around cooking again, I will have to braise something. Anything.

On www.culinate.com, Kurt Michael Friese talks of the benefits of braise, offering food ideas and tips on technique.

He likes to finish his dishes in the oven. I tend to continue mine on the stovetop, over low heat. This lets me tuck back into the kitchen in the afternoon, easily lift the pot cover, and gently stir the meat and vegetables.

The stirring, mind you, does not necessarily help with the cooking process. It does, however, allow me an occasional early taste.

Humble pie

Pres. Obama apologized. In interviews with major networks, he took the blame for two tax-plagued appointees, Nancy Killefer and former senator Tom Daschle, both of whom had withdrawn their names from consideration for White House posts.

"I've got to own up to my mistake," Obama told NBC News, "which is that ultimately it's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules, you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes."

Wow, a chief executive who can actually be contrite. I am impressed. Is that what we would call humble pie?

Excess fruit

One day, I swear, I will come up with a good food idea, too, something noble and selfless that benefits the community.

For now, I will admire Asiya Wadud and the work she and her friends do with Forage Oakland.

My mother cooks

The menu at my mother's house tonight to jump start the Lunar New Year, our third celebratory meal this week:



Shark's Fin Soup

Poached Whole Chicken with Minced Ginger and Scallion

Crisp Roast Pork

Steamed Whole Fish Topped with Slivers of Ginger and Scallion

Pig's Feet Braised with Bean Curd

Shrimp Stir-fried with Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Cauliflower, Carrots and Water Chestnuts

Shiitake Mushrooms Braised with Slices of Sea Cucumber

Stir-fried Chopped Oysters, Chinese Sausage, Celery, Carrots and Scallions Served with Lettuce Leaves

Vermicelli Stir-fried with Slivers of Barbecued Pork, Egg and Scallion

For dessert: oranges and tangerines

Eating Chinese

Lunar New Year celebrations are as much about food as they are about family. They center on traditional dishes such as whole fish, chicken, lettuce, and oysters, eaten to ensure luck and prosperity.

These help with meal preparations and inspire me to go again to China someday:

"Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China," by Jen Lin-Liu

Raised in San Diego, Jen Lin-Liu does not develop a strong interest in Chinese food until she goes to Beijing as a Fulbright scholar. There, she writes reviews, practices her Mandarin and enrolls in cooking school.

In "Serve the People," Lin-Liu recalls experiences eating in both dive-y and dazzling restaurants. She relays the basics, for instance, of noodle-making and noodle-cooking. She handles issues of identity with spunk and humor.



"My China: A Feast for All the Senses," by Kylie Kwong

Lin-Liu learns to cook in Beijing. But Kylie Kwong is already a chef in her native Australia when she ventures to China. She has opened a popular restaurant, Billy Kwong, in Sydney and written cookbooks.

On her trip, she visits her ancestral village, the birthplace of her great-grandfather in 1853, as well as major cities Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. She goes farther afield, too, to Yunnan province and Tibet.

The observations she makes in "My China" are fascinating. Simon Griffiths' color photos of the people Kwong meets and the foods they eat enhance the narrative. More than 80 recipes also make the book practical.

"Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China," by Fuchsia Dunlop

Like Lin-Liu, Fuchsia Dunlop has taken cooking courses in China. The London resident is the first foreigner to train at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. Like Kwong, she has published a couple of books.

In "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper," Dunlop offers a look back at her career thus far. She writes, for example, of encounters in Chengdu markets. She becomes increasingly omnivorous, unfazed by the ingredients and work generally involved in creating good meals.

Though the women arrive in China under different circumstances and travel for different reasons, they share a love for the country and its food - how to cook it properly and eat it joyously. Fortune indeed for the coming year.

Colbert is cool

On Tuesday, Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander read "Praise Song for the Day," her inaugural poem. She was delicate and deliberate.

The next night, on "The Colbert Report," Comedy Central icon Stephen Colbert offered his own verse for the historic occasion:

"Hickory dickory dock
We elected a guy named Barack."

I rolled. I hate to say it, but his seems equally effective.

Hope

Among the best paragraphs in Pres. Obama's inaugural address:

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

Among the best photos of the day, from Getty Images:



And so I remain awed by the achievement of a junior senator from Illinois, and fascinated by the family that surrounds him.

Inauguration Day pie

Or, in this case, Boston cream pie. That, I have decided, will be the Inauguration Day pie. We ate it all through college on the East Coast: dessert following Saturday night meals in the Ratty. It was the only reason to tolerate the turkey tet.

Boston cream pie. It reminds me of the people I met from across the country: black girls and guys from Florida and New Jersey, white guys from Mississippi, Japanese Americans from Hawaii, friends I made at school 3,000 miles from home. So many times, we talked and laughed in the dining hall.

It is fitting then, I think, as we welcome a new American president - one whose experiences and aspirations mirror our own, whose rhetoric and demeanor we greatly admire - to get to enjoy pie so good it is actually cake. Chocolate frosting, sweet cream, and soft, spongy cake. I will eat a slice with my morning coffee and turn on the television. I might even have seconds.