Amazing Cambodian Food at Elephant Walk in Boston's South End

My wife and I have been working on a project with our niece to have a meal from each country alphabetically. You can check out our progress on Instagram with the hashtag #a2zdinners. We usually cook the meals ourselves. Cambodian meals are characterized by having a variety of contrasting textures, flavors and temperatures. We decided that if we wanted the authentic experience we would do better to eat out for a change,so we went to lunch at Elephant Walk in Boston's South End. It was a highlight of the project so far, which is saying a lot, since we have made some outstanding meals.

Our niece is gluten free. You would think that would make the project difficult. For most countries it hasn't been a burden at all. In most countries their starch is based on rice, not wheat. This is also true for Cambodia. Elephant Walk was notably careful to label the menu with the items that were gluten free or could be made gluten free. There was good range of choice with more choices on the dinner menu.

The staff was very friendly. If you are a beer fan, they have an outstanding beer menu. We were surprised to see that there was only one other group in the whole place. We can't see why this place wouldn't be packed.

We started out with an appetizer called Nataing. It was ground pork simmered in a thin sauce of coconut milk, garlic, peanuts and probably fish sauce. The gluten free version was served with rice cakes for dipping. The flavor pallet was like a savory Thai iced tea.

There were three soups on the menu that all looked good, so we ordered one of each. Each was excellent, and we all preferred one of the three. There was B'baw Mouan, listed as "the essential Cambodian rice soup." It had a thick rice base, like a potato soup and had chicken, fried garlic, and lime. It also came with cilantro, so if you don't like that, ask them to leave it off. The second soup was Somlah Machou with big shrimp and tomato slices. It was like a Thai Tom Yum soup, but tangier. It was delicious, but even better with a dollop of the red hot sauce our waiter recommended. Finally was the Soupe Phnom-Penh "Kuy Tieu." Our waiter called it the healthiest of soups. It had a slice of pork cutlet, rice noodles and bean sprouts.

 

That might have been enough for lunch, but we had came for variety, so we got two entrees: A chicken dish with a lemon curry sauce called Poulet À La Citronnelle, and a beef dish called Loc Lac. The chicken was served with sautéed vegetables and the beef with a bed of greens. Both were amazing with meat that was melt-in-your-mouth tender. It's hard to imagine better dishes, but our waiter said the non-gluten free version of the Loc Lac was even better.

Since everything was so good, we splurged on dessert. We got a traditional coconut custard and a flourless chocolate cake. Both were rich and tasty. The chocolate tasted like fudge and we tore through it. The custard was notably not overpowered by coconut flavor like we prefer and also had the right silky texture that is so hard to get in restaurant custard.

Overall, Elephant Walk gets five stars from us for both the food and the friendly attentiveness they showed to our gluten free needs. It is a place that deserves to be busier.

Olympics Day 2: Korean Marinated Beef

I enjoyed the Olympic opening ceremonies. My favorite parts were the agrarian village scenes, and of course, Mr. Bean. And now the sports begin. I have watched some cycling, boxing, women's basketball and volleyball. I don't know why volleyball isn't a televised sport all the time. That game was intense.

For lunch, Gail made us Korean Marinated Beef. Instead of fresh ginger, Gail used pickled ginger. That was a great addition, but use half as much if you try it. You might get a more tender result by marinating the beef longer. The sauce had a perfect sweet-salt thing going on. Make sure you serve it with rice to pick up all the extra sauce. By the way, that is a tomato from Gail's garden in the picture.

Korean Marinated Beef
amounts per serving

1 T soy sauce
1 t sugar
½ t sesame oil
2 T minced scallions, white and pale green parts only (reserve dark green parts for garnish)
1 t minced garlic
1 t minced peeled fresh ginger
4 oz flank steak
1 t peanut oil

1. Combine soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, minced scallions, garlic and ginger.
2. Slice meat across grain into very thin slices, no more than 1/8” thick, then cut into bite-sized pieces; marinate in soy sauce mixture at least 15 min.
3. Heat peanut oil in heavy skillet over high heat just until smoking; put on an apron while oil heats since ginger will spatter! Stir-fry meat until cooked through and browned, 3-5 min.
4. Serve immediately, garnished with scallion greens.

With that I had a Korean beer from the Oriental Brewery. Web research suggested that what I drank was called "Blue", but I couldn't tell from the bottle, and the website for Oriental Brewery doesn't even list it. This beer was a disappointment. It was fine for what it was, but that was the closest to Coors that I could imagine. And, that style is not my favorite. They can't all be great.

New Year's Eve Feast from Christmas Leftovers

We had so much food left over from Christmas that the refrigerator was making I'm-going-to-die noises. And yet, Gail and I enjoy making a New Year's Eve dinner. Gail suggested a challenge of nice dishes made from the leftovers. The result was spectacular.

First Course: Pumpkin Soup with Chevre and Goose Cracklins
We started by dressing up the pumpkin soup Gail made for when our daughters came home from school. Pumpkin soup is homey and works for Noele's vegetarian diet. This particular soup used winter squash rather than pumpkin and was mashed rather than pureed.  Gail also used more stock rather than milk, since our daughter Anna doesn't do so well with milk.

To dress it up, we took the skin from a goose we cooked for friends and made cracklins. Cracklins are simple with goose skin because it's so fatty. We cut little pieces and cooked them in a hot pan just like bacon, until crispy, about five minutes. The cracklins and a dollop of soft goat cheese blended perfectly with the soup for a perfect starter. Since Noele joined us for the soup, her portion had crisped up sweet potatoes made from Anna's leftover sweet potato fries.

Gail's Pumpkin Soup

Serves: 1 (1 ½ c)

1 t oil

¼ c sliced onion

2 T sliced celery

2/3 c vegetable stock

1 c peeled chopped pumpkin flesh (or other winter squash)

1/16 t salt

¼ c 1% milk (optional)

1 t dark brown sugar

Freshly ground black pepper

1/16 t nutmeg

1. Remove string and chop celery. Melt butter in heavy soup pot; chop onion while butter heats.

2. Sauté onion and celery until tender.

3. Add stock, pumpkin and salt, simmer until pumpkin is tender, about 15 min.

4. Cool enough to put in food processor; puree.

5. Return to soup pot. Add milk, sugar, pepper and nutmeg.

6. Reheat slowly, being careful that soup does not boil.

Second Course: Nova Scotia Hot Lobster in Portabello Mushroom Caps
I'm a bit surprised, but we had just a little bit of Nova Scotia Hot Lobster left over from Christmas dinner. We also had a package of baby porabello mushroom caps that didn't get used in Noele's risotto. We put the lobster in the mushroom caps and simply baked them. The result was a stuffed mushroom that would have made a star appetizer at any party.

In the background of the picture, you can see the split of Veuve Clicquot that we popped for New Year's Eve. That reminded us of our trip to Reims over the summer when we visited that Champagne cellar.



Third Course: Mashed Potato Pancakes
Leftover mashed potatoes became potato pancakes based on this recipe from cooks.com.  They were a bit too thin to be formed, but dropped into the pan just fine. We left out the green peppers.

This recipe would work well as the base for a seafood cake of any kind by adding drained crab, oysters, or even leftover fish.

Fourth Course: Mushroom Risotto Arancini
Noele's risotto is a big hit at every holiday meal. She made a lot more this year, since we usually run out. But we had leftovers this time. Gail found this recipe for arancini from allrecipes.com. Arancini are deep fried risotto balls. Yes, deep frying risotto is as delicious as it sounds.

We modified the recipe to use the leftover risotto and goat cheese we had on hand. We guessed at two cups of risotto for each dry cup of rice, but the result was slightly too thin to work with. We would have done better with three cups of cooked risotto to one egg.




Fifth Course: Pressed Goose with Potatoes and Black Lava Salt
For our last savory course, we made a casserole from leftover goose and potatoes. The potatoes were originally baked with the goose. We made a layer of potato on the bottom of a generously greased ramekin, and topped that by pressing in about a half cup of leftover chopped goose meat. We topped that with a decoration of potato slices. We were pleasantly surprised by the star decoration the potato made on top of the dish. Before baking, we added a pat of butter and some black lava salt. The salt was a Christmas gift from Noele, and added a little something special to the dish.

We ate the whole meal over about three hours, and this final meat dish added the right savory weight to sate us.

Sixth Course: Chocolate Mousse
For dessert, we made a simple dish of chocolate mouse. The mousse was leftover from a chocolate mousse crepes we had with a Hanukkah dinner earlier in the week. For this dessert, we piped the mouse into a wine goblet and topped it with whipped cream. I had a cherry on mine, mostly to decorate it for the picture. I doesn't seem to have helped much.

This particular mousse came from a recipe on cooks.com. The recipe simply adds instant chocolate pudding to fresh whipped cream. When we first made it, we only had half the required heavy cream. That worked fine for the first day. But after sitting in the fridge for a few days, the instant pudding firmed up a bit too much. It wasn't bad, but it would have been better with either more cream, or a lighter cream in the mix.

Epilogue: Rib Roast Open Faced Sandwich with Peppers
Tonight we made one more leftover meal. We took the last bits of the beautifully dry aged Christmas rib roast and sauteed it to render the remaining fat. We served the meat over toast topped with a milk gravy we made from the drippings, and added a sprinkle of the black lava salt. Gail sauteed some leftover peppers and added them to the side for a light but hearty supper. Cooking the meat this way refreshed it much better than a quick trip through the microwave would have.