Thai Sticky Rice with Toasted Coconut and Fried Shallots (Page 261)

• Date: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 -- 8:30pm
• Location: Somerville, MA
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Fellow Chefs: Mike, Ronen, and Tim
• Dining Companions: Vero and Marco
• Recipe Rating: B

Mike and I picked this one to go with dinner on Wednesday because at some point we planned on having an Asian themed meal, and we thought this would go well. In the end our meal was not Asian themed, but rather "Mexi-Thai Puree" themed (don't ask me...), but we had this rice anyway. Some people really loved this rice - I think it got several A ratings -- but I was not as impressed. I agree that the coconut flavor was really nice, and the fried shallots were excellent. But the texture of the rice was way off. Instead of coming out sticky and delicious, it was extremely dry. This was almost certainly because the steamer wasn't sealed when we were making the rice. Normally I wouldn't hold an equipment problem against the recipe, but in this case I am not sure how it would have been possible to configure it to avoid this problem. The rice had to be in a sieve, above the water in the pot. In order for the sieve to latch to the bowl, it had to go over the edge, which prevented the steamer from sealing... We also managed to start a small fire with the cheesecloth the rice was resting in, but that's another story. Anyway, if the texture had been better this recipe would definitely be a keeper, but as it was, I wasn't convinced.

I have learned something valuable in the last few days: I am not ready to have children! The first night I had Issy (Mike's cat) she meowed and cried the whole night, from midnight to 8am. I tried to explain to her that I was sleepy and that I have a lot of work to do, but she was not compelled by these arguments. If I ignored her crying and tried to sleep anyway, she would use her little paw to hit me in the head to wake me up. It was a long night. I am definitely not ready to deal on a regular basis with a living thing that cannot be reasoned with. (Now that I think on it though, a baby is not likely to slap me in the head while I am sleeping, so maybe that would be an improvement...). Last night Issy did much better -- she let me sleep from 12:30am to 5:30am before she started hitting me in the head. I think she was just really freaked out the first night about being in a strange place, without either Mike or Tim around. It's my hope that each night she will get more and more comfortable, so I can get more and more sleep! Even when she is being bad, it's hard to get mad at her (ok, I was a little mad the first night) because she is so, so cute. And for a cat she is incredibly affectionate. Today I bought her some cat toys so she has something to play with while I am at work during the day. Hopefully if she plays during the day she will be more interested in sleeping at night!