A Fragrant Chicken and Coconut Curry from Mangalore

I don’t make coconut or coconut milk based Indian curries as often as I make the ones based on yogurt or tomatoes. It wasn’t until recently that I began experimenting with coconut curries, in large part, because my gallbladder seems to tolerate the fat in coconut milk more than it does the fat in dairy products.

And what is strange is this: I adore coconut. When I was a child, a couple of times a year, I would talk my Mom into buying fresh coconuts for me when we saw them in the store so we could crack them open and I could drink the water from inside them and eat the delicious, nut-like meat. I loved any sweet with coconut in it, and when I first tasted Thai food in a good restaurant, it was the coconut curries that beguiled me and drew me into appreciation for the cuisine.

So, why have I basically ignored Indian coconut curries for so long?

Habit, I guess. That is sad to say, but I think it is true.

But, no more. Having discovered I can basically eat coconut milk with relative impunity (my gallbladder has become quite annoying as I wait to have my surgery–it was scheduled for tomorrow, but has been pushed back to next week because my surgeon in the hospital this week), I believe I will be returning to it as a curry sauce base for years to come.

This curry is an adaptation of one I found in Camillia Panjabi’s excellent and beautifully illustrated book, 50 Great Curries of India. The original recipe for Kori Gashi, which is from the port city of Mangalore, which is in the state of Karnataka in the south of India on the western coast, called for freshly made coconut milk, but I substituted Mae Ploy brand canned coconut milk, and I used different types of chili peppers since I have not gotten my hands on any genuine, brilliant red Kashmiri chilies. (To make up for a lack in red coloring, I added a bit of paprika to the curry, purely for its dusty scarlet hue.)

I also used tamarind concentrate instead of the actual fruit as the souring agent in the curry because it is what I had.

But the rest of the curry–the spicing and most of the techniques for putting it together are the same. I did use a few more curry leaves than were called for in Panjabi’s version, because I really love the flavor and aroma they impart, particularly in coconut-based curries. And instead of chicken pieces on the bone, I used boneless skinless breasts cut into chunks, because they are lower in fat and they were what I had in the freezer.

While I am certain that the original recipe as written was even tastier than the version I made, I have to say that this was one of the most fragrant, intensely flavored chicken curries I have had in a long time. I loved the spice mixture and the strong chili flavor was amazing, though balanced by the tang of the tamarind and the musky, pervasive scent of the curry leaves. It also makes a great deal of sauce which is very good poured over rice–in fact, I had some of the curry sauce, sans chicken, draped gracefully over a bowl of basmati rice for lunch this afternoon, and it was very satisfying. Not too filling, but definitely delicious, with a complex bouquet of flavors.

Fragrant Coconut Chicken Curry From Mangalore
Ingredients:

5-15 whole dried red chilies, depending on the heat you want (I used my home grown and dried Thai chilies)
4 heaping teaspoons coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
8 peppercorns
4 cloves
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 inch cube fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
6 large cloves garlic, peeled and cut into slices
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons bright red paprika
2 heaping tablespoons coconut oil or canola oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow or red onions
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cans Mae Ploy coconut milk, shaken before use
1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, (breasts or thighs or a combination) cut into bite sized pieces
15 curry leaves (fresh or frozen)
salt to taste
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves for garnish

Method:

In a small, dry skillet, toast the chilies, stirring constantly for about three minutes. Add the whole spices and the turmeric, and continue stirring and toasting for about another two minutes. Dump the spices on a plate to cool. When they are cool, put them into a spice grinder, blender or mixie, along with the Aleppo pepper flakes, chopped onions, ginger, garlic, turmeric and paprika, and blend to a smooth paste.

Heat the coconut or canola oil in a heavy-bottomed wide skillet, and add the 1 1/2 cups sliced onions. Spread out the onions, sprinkle with salt and cook, stirring constantly until the onions turn a deep golden brown. Add the spice paste and stir well, then add the chicken pieces, and cook, stirring until the pieces begin to brown a bit and spice paste sticks to the pan, browning.

Stir in the coconut milk (reserve the extra half can in case you want more sauce or you want to dilute it a bit–when you are done, however, you can keep it in a closed container in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for several months), scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, making sure to get it all up and mixed in–this is what makes the curry taste so very good.

Add the curry leaves and stir them in well, cover the pot loosely (let a bit of steam escape, in other words), turn heat down to low and simmer until chicken is tender.

Salt to taste and stir in or sprinkle the cilantro over the top for garnish.

A Delicious Vegetarian Curry: Aloo Methi Mattar

Aloo methi is one of my favorite Indian vegetarian dishes. Potatoes are parboiled, then fried in ghee or oil with browned onions, fresh ginger, garlic, chilies, spices and fresh, dried or frozen fenugreek greens. I love aloo methi the way that the earth loves the sky. And I am continually coming up with variations of it, from adding fenugreek greens to my usual saag aloo (potatoes cooked with greens) to aloo methi tamatar, which has tomatoes added.

I think that this version is my favorite so far, and I am very pleased to share it with you. In this recipe, I use tiny fingerling potatoes, parboiled and cut in half with their skins still on, and both fresh (or frozen) fenugreek and dried kasouri methi, and then, at the end, I add a small amount of frozen peas to the pan, so that they just cook to tender-crisp.

The peas pop in your mouth when you chew, sending little shivers of sweetness amidst the spicy potatoes cooked to creamy perfection and the slightly bitter, musky methi greens. And–the color is fantastic–the potatoes are stained yellow with turmeric, there are red flecks of chilies, the methi is deep green, and then, there are the peas–round morsels of brilliant grass green. It is so very, very pretty, and filled with delicious spices and flavors.

As usual, aloo methi mattar is better after a night spent in the refrigerator where the spices can mingle with each other and make great partnerships. It is just that the peas don’t look as pretty after they are heated up, so my feeling is this: if you make it ahead to heat up the next day, add thawed frozen peas right before heating it up. Then, everything will look and taste perfect.

This is great rolled up into fresh chapati, and I bet it would be good wrapped in naan. It is also good paired with a very saucy curry, as it is a fairly dry preparation, sans sauce. I am of the opinion that it would go beautifully with any fairly soupy dal as well.

Aloo Methi Mattar
Ingredients:

5 cloves garlic, peeled
1″ cube fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3 teaspoons coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seed
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes
3 tablespoons ghee or canola oil
2 cups thinly sliced yellow or red onions
1 teaspoon salt
1″ cube fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin julienne strips
2-4 fresh red thai chilies, cut into thin slices
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 pounds fingerling potatoes, skins scrubbed, boiled until tender, drained and cooled and cut in half longitudinally
2 tablespoons dried methi (kasouri methi), soaked in 1/4 cup hot water until soft, then drained and excess water squeezed out
1 teaspoon turmeric
1-1 1/2 cups water, as needed
2 cups fresh or frozen methi greens, chopped (If frozen, thaw and squeeze out excess water)
1/2-3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
salt to taste

Method:

Put the first 6 ingredients in the jar of a blender, spice grinder or mixie, and blend to a spice paste, using a bit of water if necessary to make it smooth. Set aside.

In a wide, heavy-bottomed pan or skillet, heat the ghee or oil over medium high heat and add onions. Stir the onions well, then sprinkle the salt evenly over them, and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions turn golden. Add the julienned ginger and the chili slices and cook for another three minutes until it is the ginger is quite fragrant. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and cook, stirring, until the mustard seeds sputter and pop, and then add the spice paste, potatoes, dried methi and turmeric, and cook, stirring, until the spices start to stick to the bottom of the pan and brown.

Deglaze pan with as little water as possible, (a cup is ideal, but you may need a little more, which is why I have the measure of water being a bit vague) being certain to scrape up all of the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the fresh or frozen methi, and cook, stirring, until the water is boiled away. Add the peas, and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly, until the peas are heated through and everything is mixed together well.

Salt to taste, and serve.

A Sacred Sweet: Kheer

Kheer is the most common name for the many different puddings concocted from condensed milk, sugar and various other ingredients in India, but it is also known by many regional names such as phirni, payasa and kushmanda.

By any name, however, kheer is not only delicious, but is considered to be sacred by many Hindus, not only because it is made of milk–which is a staple food for Indian vegetarians, but because it is also used as an offering in temples, most particularly, in temples devoted to Krishna. One of Krishna’s epithets is Govinda, meaning “one who cares for the cows,” and he is often depicted as a cowherder, playing flute to soothe his charges, and to beguile the Gopis, his female devotees who also tended the cows of their village, Vrindavan.

Since cows are so central to the sacred stories of Krishna, it is unsurprising that offerings to Him made in temples and homes tend to be dairy-based foods, such as kheer. These offerings, after they have been set upon the altar, are later distributed to the worshipers at the temple, or among family members in the home, in essence, sharing the sacred food with each other and God.

I myself am not a practicing Hindu, but I have the utmost respect for the beliefs and practices of Hindus, and I have to admit that every time I taste well-made kheer I can completely understand why it is considered to be sacred.

What is kheer?

Simply said, it is an Indian sweet, rather like a pudding, that is made from milk that has been condensed by the process of reduction. Milk is brought to a frothing boil while being stirred constantly, then the heat is turned down so that the milk boils rapidly, but does not climb the edges of the pot. Stirring all the while, much of the water is evaporated away, until the milk is thickened enough to at least coat as spoon, though in some types of kheer, the milk is condensed further so that it truly is thick and textured much like what we Americans think of as a pudding. In general when making kheer, the volume of milk is reduced to 1/4 of the original measure.

Depending on the recipe, other ingredients are added–sugar is always added, though not as much as one might think, considering the finished flavor of the dessert. Uncooked basmati rice or seviya–a very fine vermicelli noodle–are often added and cooked with the milk. These starchy ingredients do not only add thickness to the finished sweet, they add flavor and texture. Dried fruits such as golden raisins or currants are often added, as well as lightly crushed or thoroughly ground nuts like almonds or pistachios. Cardamom pods are a common flavoring for kheer, as is rosewater and kewra essence.

(Right here, I want to say that kheer, while it is commonly described as being “like an Indian version of rice pudding”, it is nothing like the rice puddings I was served as a child growing up in West Virginia. Those puddings, flavored only with a weak drizzle of vanilla extract and thickened with cornstarch and full of lumpy, sticky rice and black raisins, haunt me to this day. I hated rice pudding as a child; it invariably made me gag for some reason, but I adore kheer. As a rice pudding hater, I am here to say to other rice-pudding haters out there in the world that kheer is not the same thing as your nemesis. It is really amazingly delicious. I promise.)

The kheer that you find in typical Indian restaurants in the United States varies widely in quality and flavor. Most often served cold, though sometimes served warm, I think the most common versions I have had are made with rice, maybe some raisins and sometimes some almonds, flavored only with cardamom pods. Very few restaurants seem to spend the time to reduce the milk very much; many a kheer I have eaten that is more like a milky rice soup than a pudding. This is sad, because while the reduction is primarily done for texture, it also is important for flavor–when milk is reduced properly, it has a very rich, somewhat naturally sweet flavor that is very pleasant and which is totally lacking in milk that is still in its near-native thin state.

The recipe I am presenting here is very similar to the one I watched the mother and aunt of my Pakistani personal chef clients make. I had been invited to an Eid feast, and came over early to help cook, and ended up tending two large pots of milk, once the ladies realized I could be trusted to stand over the steamy milk and stir continually, without my concentration wavering.

This meant that they could work on other dishes while I stirred two pots at once–a long wooden spoon in each hand. It was slow, hot work, but rewarding, because I learned how to make fantastic kheer that is better than what I have ever eaten in a restaurant! (I also got to listen to the ladies sing together, which was also great fun; I did not understand the words, but I could hum along.)

Making kheer, just as making any other Indian sweet, required dedication, patience and a good strong arm. You don’t quite stir the entire time the kheer cooks, but close to it. And you really should pay pretty good attention to the milk–while I can manage to pull up a stool and sit and stir while reading a book in the other hand, you must be careful and not lose track of what the milk is doing. One of the keys to good kheer is being a good observer of what is going on in the pot and when it is time to turn the heat down or add the next ingredient, and when to stir like the dickens and when to stir more languidly.

I want to give a few general tips and warnings before I give the recipe.

First, use the best quality, freshest milk you can afford for kheer. I use only Snowville Creamery milk at home anyway, but even if I didn’t, I’d get it just for this recipe just on principle. When milk is the main ingredient, and is the main flavoring agent, you want it to be really good.

Also, don’t bother using skim milk to make this. I’d hesitate to even bother with two-percent milk. Just go out and buy whole milk to make kheer, and don’t worry about the fat. The end result will be worth it, and frankly, you know that it isn’t going to be a health food in the first place–I mean, it is a dessert, after all–so don’t fret over the fat.

Raw (turbinado) sugar is very good in this recipe, but if you don’t have it around, white sugar is fine. Brown sugar and sugars like jaggery are not good choices because they can sometimes make the milk curdle when they are added. Not only that, but the darker sugars darken the color of the dessert and it should be a pale cream color when it is done.

Also, count the cardamom pods as they go into the pot and remember how many you put in. While it is not necessary to remove them before serving the kheer, I like to take them out, just so my guests don’t have to worry about biting into them. And if you know how many went in the pot, you know how many need to come out, and you won’t spend twenty minutes digging around in the finished kheer with chopsticks, trying to dig out a nonexistent last cardamom pod. (Do you get the idea that I have made this mistake in the past?)

Finally, you need to have a really large pot to make kheer–one that can hold three times as much milk as you start out with. So, drag out your stock pot or the pot you cook pasta in, but only if they have very heavy bottoms on them. Why does the pot need to be big? Well, it needs to be tall, because when you bring your milk to a frothy boil, the bubbles will climb right up the sides of your pot and try to overflow onto the stove and make a big, nasty, stinky mess all over the burners and everything. If your pot is tall, you have plenty of time to see the crisis coming on, and thus, you can turn the heat down fast. This makes the foam instantly collapse upon itself and slide back down into the bottom of the pot where it belongs. Then, you can adjust the temperature so that the milk is boiling rapidly, but not frothing.

Why does the pot need to have a heavy bottom? Because if you don’t have a good, heavy bottom on your pot, you are going to end up scorching your milk, which will not only stick to the bottom of your pot and be the devil itself to clean, it will ruin the flavor of the entire batch of kheer. And who wants to stand over a huge pot of boiling milk, stirring the whole time , only to have it burned not because you were remiss in your stirring duties, but because your pot is too thin and burned the milk up anyway.

This version of kheer has rice, cardamom, rosewater, golden raisins and almonds in it in addition to milk and raw sugar. In the spring or summer, I would garnish it with fresh or crystallized rose petals, but in the fall and winter, I like to use fresh pomegranate seeds. Their brilliant ruby-red color sparkles on the creamy-white kheer, making a lovely contrast. Lightly crushed pistachios would also make a lovely garnish for this dessert.

Most Indian restaurants and households serve kheer in small, shallow bowls, but I like how it looks presented in wine glasses.

It just looks rather elegant when presented in stemware. But, you can serve it however you like–just keep in mind that it is rich and so a little goes a very long way.

Kheer
Ingredients:

2 quarts whole milk
1 cup half and half or light cream
1/4 cup basmati rice
16-20 whole green cardamom pods
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4-1 1/2 teaspoons rosewater (this depends on the strength of your rosewater–I use 1 teaspoon of Cortas in my kheer)
1/2 cup slivered raw almonds lightly toasted, then lightly crushed
fresh pomegranate seeds, rose petals or crushed pistachios as garnish

Method:

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, stir the milk, half-and-half or cream, rice and cardamom pods over high heat. Stirring constantly, bring to a frothing boil, then immediately turn down the heat until the milk boils rapidly, but no longer foams or tries to climb up the sides of the pot and overflow onto the stove top. (This process takes between fifteen and twenty minutes of constant stirring and fairly steady attention. As I said, I pull up a stool in front of the stove and stir with one hand while reading a book in the other, but I always keep one eye on the pot to keep tabs on the progress of the milk mixture.)

Boil the milk, stirring fairly constantly (this means you can stop for a few seconds to turn a page, grab a drink of water or get your kid a cup of juice, but don’t go running off to the bathroom or anything), until it reduces to about half its original volume.

Stir in the sugar and raisins, and turn the heat down so that milk simmers instead of boils, and stir very attentively so as to avoid scorching the milk and ruining the flavor of the kheer. Keep simmering until the milk has reduced to one quarter of its original volume. At this point the rice will be cooked, the raisins will have softened and plumped and the kheer should be fragrant and well-flavored with the cardamom. It should also be easily thick enough to coat a spoon very well–when your draw your finger down the back of the coated spoon, it should leave a clean streak that does not fill itself back in from the rest of the kheer on the spoon.

Remove from the heat and stir to cool the kheer to near room temperature. Then, cover and chill for at least three hours before serving. The kheer will continue to thicken as it chills–when you serve it, this will be a thick, rich, creamy confection.

Just before serving, you can use a pair of chopsticks to pick out the cardamom pods (I leave them in while the kheer cools so that their flavor can continue to be absorbed into the kheer), or you can leave them in. Stir in the rosewater, starting with the smallest amount first, gradually adding more until you have the flavor you want. I don’t like my kheer to be overtly rose-flavored, but I do want a subtle floral fragrance to wend its way over the palate to dance with the sweet citrus scent of the cardamom.

Spoon into whatever serving vessels you desire, and sprinkle each serving with a generous portion of the almonds and whatever other garnishes you choose.

This recipe serves about eight people, more or less.

Fishing for Fish Sauce

Back when I wrote my post about the Thai Pesto Noodles I put together in a successful experiment, one reader commented that I never really explained much about fish sauce, nor mentioned which brand or brands I used at home. And while I did link to a very old post of mine, an exhortation to my readers on the glories of fish sauce, (Don’t Fear The Fish Sauce), that post really didn’t talk about which brands of that umami-laden sauce i used in my own kitchen, or the qualities that I found admirable in a fish sauce.

So, now I am writing just such a post.

I’ve been cooking Thai food for about seventeen or eighteen years now. (Good grief, it really has been that long….dang!) And, in the beginning, when I made my first, very tentative explorations of Thai cuisine, guided by some inadequate cookbooks and a very strong taste memory from the restaurants in Miami that Zak and his family frequented, I pretty much used whatever fish sauce I could get my neophyte’s grubby paws on.

And while I made pretty good Thai food back then, it cannot hold a candle to the dishes I make now; this is in part, because I make my own curry pastes, but it is also because the quality of my ingredients has risen. Many more brands of Thai ingredients are available now than there were nearly twenty years ago, and they are more widely available. Thanks to the Internet, which I lacked back in the day, I can even get fresh lime leaves, galangal, chilies and lemongrass shipped to my doorstep, along with any brand of fish sauce I should care to use.

So, what brands of fish sauce do I prefer, and why?

My number one, all-time favorite all-purpose Thai fish sauce is Golden Boy, which I use for everything. I use it cooked in curries, stir fries and raw in dipping sauces and dressings, and it is always delicious. If you look at the illustration above, you can see that it is a lovely amber color, very clear and light. It also has the freshest, least objectionably “fishy” odor of any fish sauce available in the US, which I find is very helpful when I am teaching Thai cooking to people who have never come across fish sauce as an ingredient before. Don’t get me wrong–Golden Boy, when drizzled into a very hot wok still sends forth a billowing cloud of fish-scented steam, but it isn’t particularly bad. In fact, I think it smells rather good, and most of my dinner guests and family agree.

It also has a very balanced flavor, strong on the umami, not too salty, with a slightly sweet finish. In my experience, Golden Boy is the least salty tasting fish sauce available in the US. There is absolutely no hint of bitterness to it, though I have read reviews which have said so. I have never detected it, and I trust myself to have a pretty darned good sense of taste.

Golden Boy is pretty easily available, at least on the East Coast and in the Midwest, though I have heard that it isn’t as easy to find on the West Coast. However, there are many online grocery stores that stock it, including my personal favorite, Import Food.
Look for the cute little grinning baby boy on the label, cradling a bottle of fish sauce on his lap with one hand and making a thumbs-up sign with his other.

Oh, one more thing–it is a beast to unseal. The plastic shrink seal on the lid is simple, you just cut that like you do any other shrink-plastic seal. It is the seal under the lid that gives some folks fits. It is a solid plastic raised disc that you take a sharp paring knife to, sawing back and forth on it until the disc flies off and you are left with a nice, smooth, small hole in the bottle lid with a fold-down, locking cap to keep the precious stuff from evaporating. (It also keeps any wayward cats who may wander your home from jumping up on the counter and knocking the bottle to the floor where it can spill and they can imbibe until they are soused on fermented fish squeezings.)

I also use Squid Brand which has a stronger, but still pleasant fish flavor, and which is a tiny bit darker in color than Golden Boy. I prefer to use it cooked in curries and soups and some very spicy stir-fried dishes, but I won’t use it raw in dipping sauces and dressings. It is a little more salty than Golden Boy and the more pronounced fish flavor, while it is great in curries, is a little overpowering when used raw.

You can see the true color of Squid Brand by looking at the lightest bit of the bottle in the photograph, just above the label. It is slightly reddish and more of a dark honey color than the more golden amber color of Golden Boy. I suspect it is not aged as long as Golden Boy, but I don’t know that for certain. What I do know, is that squid is not used in making the sauce, any more than babies go into Golden Boy. They both are made with anchovy extract, salt and sugar, though water is listed as the first ingredient in Squid Brand, which makes me think that my assumption that it is not fermented as long as my favorite brand might just be correct.

It is easy to recognize Squid Brand–it not only has a squid right on the green and white label, it also has a cute squid embossed right into the glass of the bottle.

It also opens quite easily, unlike Golden Boy, which requires a steady strong hand and a bit of cutlery and patience. You just tear off the shrink plastic seal and pop the top up and there you are! It also seals up wonderfully well–better than Golden Boy, in fact, such that I might possibly feel safe enough transporting an already opened bottle of it across town in my car.

I doubt it, though. Having once gotten a bit of fish sauce spilled into my first car, I can attest that the smell, which may not be bad in the bottle, is really bad in car upholstery, especially in the summer.

And it doesn’t really ever come out. It fades over time, and you will forget about it, until the next summer, when on the first ninety-five degree day, you open your car door to be attacked and overwhelmed by the unwelcome odor of long dead and unburied wee fishies. (This is why I always tell people that if they want to cook Thai at someone else’s house and they need to take fish sauce, take a new, sealed up bottle and then leave it there. If you can’t do that, I advocate sealing the bottle with duct tape, then wrapping it in plastic, then sealing it up in a big ziplock bag. Even then, I suggest praying to the Kitchen God the entire time you drive, lest any bizarre and unnatural event occur which would release the thrice-sealed fish sauce into your unsuspecting car seats.)

Now, there is a fish sauce I have not tried which I am going to try and find the next time I go to Columbus.

I want to try Tra Chang Golden Label Brand. It is highly rated by Import Food, and so I am curious to see if it is as good as they say, or if I will stick with my Golden Boy.

Now, what brands do I suggest you not use?

Well, in general, let me say this: if it comes in a plastic bottle don’t buy it.

I have tasted fish sauce bottled in plastic that tasted like, well, fishy plastic.

Ick.

Need I say more about that?

Thai Kitchen brand fish sauce, which you can find in many supermarkets, is not one I would recommend. For one thing, it is very expensive for the tiny bottle, and for another, it has a very salty flavor and a very strong fishy smell. I am not certain it is naturally fermented, but it is certainly not worth the amount of money you pay for it in your usual supermarket. It is much better to order a good brand from online or make the effort to shop in an Asian market for your Thai ingredients than to use the overpriced produces from Thai Kitchen. (This goes for everything they make, by the way–their coconut milk is always at least fifty to ninety cents more per can than the better tasting Chaokoh and Mae Ploy I get at the Asian market.)

Thai Kitchen was the very first fish sauce I used, in large part, because it was the only one I could get in West Virginia way back in the dark days before the Internet could bring anything to your doorstep via mail order. And I have to say, while it did make my food taste sort of Thai, it also made it taste very salty, and that was not good. Thai food is about balance in flavor and too salty does not a balanced dish make.

Also, back in the day, I used to use Three Crabs Brand fish sauce, but stopped using it when I discovered Golden Boy. It is okay, but instead of being made with just anchovy extract, salt and sugar like the other brands it also has water, fructose and hydrolyzed wheat protein in it. I suspect that this accounts for the rather odd, slightly too sweet flavor it has which I now find off-putting.

However, I will say that a lot of people love Three Crabs Brand and swear by it, so if you want, try it and see if you like it. To my taste, it is both too salty and too sweet, without enough of the savory, meaty, delicious and addictive umami kick from the fish that is most of the point of fish sauce in the first place.

So there is my little treatise on which brands of fish sauce I prefer to use in my kitchen. They are all Thai–and I have to admit I use them not only in Thai food, but also in my Vietnamese dishes, always to delicious effect.

And, like many other cooks, I have found that sometimes fish sauce can give a lift to dishes from all over the world by giving them a good jolt of umami along with a dash of salt. Soups stews and especially Italian pasta sauces can really benefit from a little shake of fish sauce at some point in the cooking process.

I have yet to try using fish sauce in a dessert, though it may happen some day.

You never know.

Voting on Issue 2 In Ohio

I have long been pondering the case of Issue 2: a ballot initiative meant to make an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which would create a board of professionals appointed by the governor and the legislature, to make policy and oversee the humane treatment of animals in Ohio farms, as well as making and implementing Ohio agricultural policy in general.

This all came about because the representatives of the Humane Society of the United States came to the Ohio Legislature and stated their intention to put up a ballot initiative that would allow the state’s voters to decide on issues such as the size of battery cages for hens in large egg-laying operations and the use of small, confining gestation crates for pregnant sows in large pig farms.

So, in an attempt to forestall the possibility of a ballot initiative being placed before Ohio voters to change agricultural law by the HSUS, a proposal was made and passed by both the Ohio House and Senate and was supported by Governor Strickland, to create a board of 13 unelected bureaucrats who would wield a great deal of power in creating agriculture policy, but which would have seemingly very little legislative or executive branch oversight.

Here is the exact wording of Issue 2 as it will appear on the Ohio ballot on November 3, 2009:

This proposed amendment would:

1. Require the state to create the Livestock Care Standards Board to prescribe standards for
animal care and well-being that endeavor to maintain food safety, encourage locally
grown and raised food, and protect Ohio farms and families.

2. Authorize this bipartisan board of thirteen members to consider factors that include, but
are not limited to, agricultural best management practices for such care and well-being,
biosecurity, disease prevention, animal morbidity and mortality data, food safety
practices, and the protection of local, affordable food supplies for consumers when
establishing and implementing standards.

3. Provide that the board shall be comprised of thirteen Ohio residents including
representatives of Ohio family farms, farming organizations, food safety experts,
veterinarians, consumers, the dean of the agriculture department at an Ohio college or
university and a county humane society representative.

4. Authorize the Ohio department that regulates agriculture to administer and enforce the
standards established by the board, subject to the authority of the General Assembly.

This proposed amendment has been the subject of vigorous debate in both urban and rural communities throughout Ohio–which is a good thing. I believe that voters should -never- consider amending their state’s constitution without a lot of rigorous thought and healthy debate, because amending the constitution is NO SMALL MATTER. The Constitution is -the- guiding legal document for either a country or state, and changes to it should never, ever be taken lightly. Change should come only after thorough investigation of the matter at hand, because once a document such as a state constitution is amended, it is very difficult to change back.

If my Ohio readers don’t want to take my word for it, how about listening to one of our Ohio State Supreme Court Justices on the issue. Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor went on the record to say that Issue 2 is an “inappropriate use” of the Ohio Constitution, and then went on to clarify her position by stating that “the state constitution is a ‘much bigger document’ that should not be amended to include policy decisions, such as livestock care, that are best left to lawmakers.”

The League of Women Voters of Ohio agrees with Justice O’Connor; they voted to not support the passage of Issue 2 on the following grounds: “Passage of Issue 2 would amend the Ohio Constitution to create the Ohio Livestock Standards Board and set forth its composition and duties. The LWV-Ohio board voted to OPPOSE passage of this issue because the amendment contains too much specificity to be in the Ohio Constitution. The League’s opposition is based on its state position that the Ohio Constitution should be a clearly stated body of fundamental principles.”

The Ohio Farmers Union also opposes passage of Issue 2 for similar reasons:

The “Livestock Care Standards Board” would set a dangerous precedent by creating a permanent place for special interests in the constitution. This Board would have unchecked power over all Ohio policies related to animals in agriculture, and could radically shift livestock standards in any direction. Agricultural policy should be determined through an open, democratic process, vested in the state-run department of agriculture, not through a politically appointed board heavily influenced by big industry. Ohioans should reject this proposal to keep integrity in Ohio’s constitution and to keep corporate agribusiness accountable.

The Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association also urges voting against Issue 2 on these grounds:

Issue 2 would create a Livestock Care Standards Board, stacked with Big Ag and factory farm supporters, which would have sweeping authority to make decisions related to farms and food in Ohio that would have the force of law. The Board would have largely unchecked power to override any act by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Assembly.

Issue 2 will create a Livestock Care Standards Board with no accountability to voters. Their decisions will be final. There is no further review or evaluation of the standard, no established forum for public comment, and no ability to appeal their decisions.

So, let me tell you what I think.

I agree with Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor, the League of Women Voters, The Ohio Farmers Union and the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association: farm policy, especially vaguely worded farm policy, should not be written into the Ohio State Constitution.

Policies governing agricultural practices–practices which are changing and evolving over time–should be legislated through the normal, democratic process that includes voter input, debate in both houses of our legislature, and then should be put before the governor to be signed into law and vetoed. That way, the voters, which includes farmers and every Ohioan who cares about the food they eat, the water they drink and the air they breathe, can have a say in what kind of agricultural practices we all find acceptable and healthy.

Issue 2, as written, goes against the principles of democratic lawmaking procedure, as as such, is a bad legal precedent to set.

So, I will be voting against it on November 3, and I ask those of you who care about how laws and policies are made in our state and our country, to do the same.