Let’s Talk Food: Christmas is this week

This Friday is Christmas Day. You’ve already done all the holiday baking and can spend this week distributing your goodies to special friends.

Evonne Morken, 84, of Spring Grove, Minn., asked her local paper to send her any unwanted fruitcakes, as she loves to eat them all year. She received 23 fruitcakes, froze them and was able to enjoy fruitcake until October.

If you received a fruitcake this Christmas and would like Evonne to enjoy it, ship it to: Food Network Magazine, Project Fruitcake, 300 W. 57th St., 35th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019. The network will make sure she gets enough fruitcake throughout 2016. Any extra fruitcake will be donated to the Foodbank in New York.

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My childhood memories of Christmas morning include the excitement of opening presents. After cleaning up the mess of ripped Christmas wrap and ribbons, my father usually cooked us a hardy breakfast of eggs. For dinner, we usually had a traditional Christmas dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, vegetables and dessert.

It is interesting that today, with our busy lives, according to the Food Network Magazine, Chinese food is the Christmas Day favorite, and orders spike 152 percent on Dec. 25. It also could be that Chinese restaurants are some of the few restaurants that are open Christmas Day. As I mentioned in a recent column about my visit to Sapporo, Japan, the favorite Christmas dinner option there is ordering a Christmas package from Kentucky Fried Chicken, which also is open on Christmas Day.

For us, it is always another country’s food that the younger generation selects. Last year, we had a Mexican Christmas and this year we are leaning toward doing Thai food or maybe a Southern Christmas.

Thai food is a popular food, and can be found in most major cities around the world. The complexity of sweet, sour, salty and spicy pleases many palates.

A popular appetizer when you go to someone’s home in Northern Thailand might be this minced pork dip, served with steamed or boiled vegetables, with the carrots or radishes beautifully carved to look like flowers, as well as steamed sticky rice.

Minced Pork Northern Style Nam Prik Ong

(Literally translated nam means fish, prik means peppers, ong means pork)

Serves: 8

10 ounces ground pork

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 shallots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)

4 green onions, chopped

1 cup coriander or Chinese parsley, chopped

Paste:

Place in a mortar and pestle and pound until a smooth paste forms:

1 teaspoon salt

12 dried, red chilies, seeds removed and soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, then finely chopped

2 tablespoons Chinese parsley

5 shallots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

Add:

2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

Pound well to combine. Spoon the paste into a bowl. Place in mortar:

6 tablespoons water

Spoon the water into another bowl.

Place vegetable oil into a wok, heat over low heat and fry shallots and garlic until they are brown and crispy.

Remove them from the pan and put them onto a piece of paper towel to drain.

Fry the ground pork for about three minutes until it is cooked.

Add the paste and fry for another three minutes.

Add the fish sauce and water and cook for about one minute.

Turn off the heat and serve garnished with the crispy shallots and garlic, green onions and Chinese parsley.

Serve with a selection of vegetables and sticky rice.

Vegetables can be carrots, cucumber, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage or sweet peppers. To steam sticky rice: Purchase Thai sticky rice, which is different in appearance from the Japanese mochi rice, soak overnight in water, place in dishtowel and steam for 10-15 minutes. Check to be sure the rice is cooked and steam longer if necessary.

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A great Thai salad is a spicy glass noodle salad.

Spicy Glass Noodle Salad (Yam Wun Sen)

Serves: 4

1 cup or 3 1/2 ounces glass noodles, soaked in water for 10 minutes and then cut into 6-inch lengths

1/2 cup ground pork boiled in coconut milk until fully cooked (Reserve 4 tablespoons of coconut milk after cooking pork)

5 cloves garlic, crushed

3 shallots, sliced

10 or less small red chilies, seeds and membranes removed, thinly sliced

1/2 cup Chinese celery (optional since you might not find it unless you have it in your garden)

3 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 tomato, cut in half lengthways, and then thinly sliced

1/2 cup Chinese parsley

Place the glass noodles into boiling water and leave for one minute, drain. Transfer the noodles into a bowl of cold water and leave for one minute.

Strain the glass noodles and put them into a serving bowl with the pork, water, garlic, onions, chilies, Chinese celery, fish sauce, lime juice and tomato. Mix thoroughly and check for seasoning.

Serve garnished with boiled shrimp and Chinese parsley leaves.

Our main dishes would be pad Thai, pumpkin curry and cashew chicken.

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Merry Christmas to all my faithful readers. Have a wonderful holiday.

Email me at audreywilson 808@gmail.com if you have questions.