Midweek Check-in

+ lemongrass and pound cake experiments + Makrut-infused Vodka + Santa Cruz sandwiches with a view + Labor Day Menu shortlist

Hello everyone,

Huzzah! It’s been six months since premium paid subscriptions launched. Many of you have been very generous in adding wind to my sails. I thank you for your kind encouragement.

Follow-ups: Lemongrass and Pound Cake Experiments

When I flaunted my homegrown lemongrass a couple weeks ago, I realized that some of you may have been skeptical about cultivating your own or finding decent stalks to root! Maia reported that she bought a lemongrass stalk from Safeway (a chain supermarket) and skeptically stuck it in water to root. After a week or so, it sprouted rootlets(!!!); Maia will be planting it sooner than later.

• Supermarket lemongrass is a hit or miss thing so look often.

• If the lemongrass looks crummy, ask the produce person for better stalks.

It’s been 2 weeks since I plucked this stalk (below), and now it’s ready to go into the ground! (Though it could sit longer in water and grow a scrubby beard of roots too.) Lemongrass is hearty. I need to add that to the tips for growing your own.

On Sunday, soon after I sent out the newsletter, Jan in Europe — where it was raining quite a bit, stayed indoors and baked up a storm, including the food processor/blender pound cake. He posted it to Instagram. Jan used demerara sugar and explains why it was a little darker than mine. He used the last of his frozen lemongrass for the syrup too!

(Top left) Jan's demerara pound cake. Top right and lower left and right are my half-batch bakes. Note the color difference between white sugar and 20% brown sugar mixed in.

I also played with the sugar by combining 1:4 brown sugar with white sugar in the pound cake recipe. Because I had already baked two full pound cakes, I baked a half cake (we can only gift and eat so much) in a disposable foil loaf pan. The bake time was 40 instead of 55 minutes and you can see that it was a shortie.

The tunnel-ish holes could be due to heat conduction in the pan. I sometimes tap the pan on the counter before baking and I didn’t do that. I also used all-purpose flour so perhaps there was too much gluten. The holes were not pretty but the flavor with brown sugar had a delicious deeper flavor.

Three takeaways:

1. Blending different kinds of sugar is fine so long as you weigh ingredients to end up with total amount a recipe calls for.

2. Half batch cooking is great for experimentation and for small households. Scale down cooking time and sometimes cookware too. I often do half batches when I develop recipes before scaling up to a full batch.

3. Tap the filled pan before baking.

Have you baked the easy lemon scented food processor/blender pound cake yet? Share your tweaks in last Sunday’s recipe dispatch.

Makrut-Infused Vodka

Last week, Kate reminded me of a great Makrut lime-infused vodka recipe. She tweaked my recipe for this Makrut Mule. Follow Kate’s brilliant lead. The Makrut-infused vodka recipe includes 3 cocktail recipes too.

If you don’t have a tree, the leaves are sold at many markets catering to Southeast Asian cuisines. I’ve also seen them sold by Jacob’s Farm at regular supermarkets.

Pricey Great Sandwiches: Seabright Deli

There’s a small deli in Santa Cruz that’s controversial, despite its terrific sandwiches. The controversy floating on Facebook and in conversations I’ve had with folks lies in the prices charged at Seabright Deli. The sandwiches are huge and made with meats and condiments prepared in house. There’s a tight small menu and there are no substitutions. Three Hispanic men staff the counter to build the sandwiches with professional care. What are the prices? $15-16 each.

Last Friday, we got the Beach Bum (NY-style pastrami with thousand island and saeurkraut) and Giant Dipper (a French-style dip with mushroom and provolone). The sandwiches were big and messy but held together in your hands. Most importantly, they were remarkably good. We ate the sandwiches up with the excuse that we could walk to the beach afterwards. The lunch and afternoon was our TGIF celebration.

Sandwiches are funny because people don’t like to spend money on them. In Vietnam, there are cheap, okay banh mi and there are more expensive, well crafted banh mi.

Similarly in Santa Cruz, there are popular $10 sandwich spots that turn out soulless concoctions, prepared with commercially-made sliced deli meats and frozen fried chicken steaks.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are $18 sandwiches prepared with rustic artisanal bread that is meant for dipping in olive oil or hot soup, not holding a sandwich together (which they don’t do well).

Next time when you’re in the mood, Seabright deli sandwiches hit the sweet spot. Consider this: pack some cut-up fruit and a choice beverage, pick up sandwiches from the deli, then walk 5 minutes to East Cliff and Seabright State Beach. Look for an open bench or head to the sand. There’s your ocean view lunch spot. It’ll be free to boot.

Labor Day Menu Shortlist

I’m sure you have your menu already for this weekend — the last summery hurrah in the U.S. Might I suggest the following:

• Thai Black Pepper Chicken Skewers — Zippy and very easy.

• Lazy-Day Ceasar Salad — Yes, I use fish sauce.

• Cucumber, Kale and Spiced Cashew Salad — In Ever-Green Vietnamese on page 181 and here.

• Lemongrass Pork Skewers Dinner — It’s easy, all outdoors and delicious.

• Anything dressed with the Nuoc Cham Vinaigrette including my latest experiment, which included cherry tomatoes, watermelon, sliced plums, and thinly sliced shallot with a shower of chopped peanuts.

There’s also a strong vote for the turmeric grilled chicken!