Pho Shizzle my Nizzle

Today marks the official end of the first week of our new regiment; we are tracking our weight change every Monday morning, but today I skipped stepping on the scale because I was running late for work. I think I may have lost a pound or so but I have noticed a dramatic improvement on the way I feel, particularly in my elevated energy levels. There may have been a day or two this week that I didn't have any coffee and to be honest, I didn't miss it. I suppose it's now time to be a little more pro-active and finally commit to a gym membership. I'll report on that later this week.

I have been thinking about what to write regarding food... although we did have some interesting meals this weekend (I experimented with curry for the first time) I thought I'd open the dialogue about how we could all play a part in reducing overall food waste. I could bore you with the statistics on how much food the US throws away every year, but I think it's more poignant to think about what each of us can do every day on a household basis.

Personally, I try to use every bit of every vegetable or protein in some form or another. The last meal that I blogged about was the roast chicken and brussels sprouts. The bird was pretty large so Carey and I only ate a little more than 1/2 of the breast. The remaining white meat was sliced thinly and used on a salad with roasted beets, braised beet greens, romaine, and a lime-cilantro vinaigrette (if only I had some goat cheese!). The dark meat was pulled from the bone and used in a curry chicken salad with almonds which will be great in lettuce wraps. The best part, for me, is what was done with the carcass, neck and wings (more on this in just a minute).

If you were to look in my freezer, you will find a huge case of Salmon which I've talked about already, some frozen herbs from our garden last summer, a few miscellaneous goodies, and most importantly a container of vegetable scraps that I collect nearly every night. I'm talking about fennel tops, kale stems, onion and carrot peels, garlic skins, etc. You name it, I save it (probably my depression-era grandparents' influence). I'm the same way with inedible chicken bits; I keep the necks, spines, wing tips and bones in a bag in the freezer and when I have enough scraps... it's time to make a stock (I do the same thing with seafood scraps - shrimp shells and fish heads, tails and fins are great to make a base for cioppino or chowder). Because we always buy chicken whole, I can usually save enough chicken bits to have a good base every week. I use the stock nearly every day in cooking. If your 'recipe' calls for water - use the stock and I promise you that your rices, potatoes and pastas will be taken to another level.

One of my personal hobbies is to attempt to replicate things I eat (and love) without a recipe by memory; one of these things is the Pho at Tram's Kitchen in Lawrenceville. Tram's is a little hole-in-the-wall with what I consider to have the best Asian food in Pittsburgh. Don't get me wrong - I love Nicky's Thai Kitchen on the North Side, but Tram's delivers on the flavors that I would expect to taste on the streets of Hanoi. This brings me to tonight's dinner - Shrimp and Shiitake Mushroom Pho.

I used the chicken stock as a base and just winged it... it was good, but certainly not close to Tram's masterpiece. Here's how I did it:

• Heat stock in pot with shrimp shells
• Add stems of basil
• Add Chinese five-spice, Asian chili paste, a little rice vinegar and soy sauce, cook to infuse shrimp flavor then strain and place back on heat.
  
• Boil rice noodles in water (separate pot) until tender, rinse and and put in the bottom of serving bowls
• Add reconstituted shiitake mushrooms (and the mushroom water), shrimp, sliced scallion and a bit of cilantro to strained broth, leave on heat until the shrimp are just cooked; it should only take a few minutes
  
• Serve over rice noodles
• Top with thai basil, bean sprouts and a wedge of lime

Because everything smelled so good and I was freaking starving, I didn't take the time to set up the bowl for the picture so you really can't see the huge chunks of mushroom and shrimp. Take it from me, though, it was a really hearty, earthy and FAST dinner that anyone could make... just be sure to have that stock ready and finish your plate!

“It cannot be denied that an improved system of practical domestic cookery, and a better knowledge of its first principles, are still much needed in this country; where, from ignorance, or from mismanagement in their preparation, the daily waste of excellent provisions almost exceeds belief.” -Eliza Acton (1845)