Coconut-Lime Cornmeal Pudding

We need a new word for fusion...the good kind. Fusion cooking is forced. It’s mango salsa on your spaghetti. Or a sushi casserole. No no no. 

But mixing cultures and cuisines can also create some really great dishes. The question is: what makes one dish a revelation and another just plain revolting? 

It’s a delicate line and I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules about it. For me, it’s a gut feeling. Does it feel contrived, like a mix-and-match experiment? Scrap. Does it feel fresh and interesting? Keep going. 

It helps to look at cultures that created their own cuisines by mishmashing others. Think: Hawaiian spam musubi (canned meat from soldier rations + sushi), or Vietnamese banh mi (French pate and baguettes meets Vietnamese herbs and pickles).

More Macau specialties from my 2006 trip: almond cookies and super-moist beef jerky

Macau is a striking example of authentic fusion cuisine. I visited in 2006, knowing little about its background. Long story short, Macau is an island 40 miles from Hong Kong. It was colonized by the Portuguese 400 years ago. Today, it’s a special administrative zone of China and the only place where you can legally gamble in the country. All of these influences -- Portugal + China + Las Vegas -- make for some really interesting cuisine. 

Here’s an example of a dish that doesn’t seem all that “fusiony” but actually has a lot of history to it. This coconut lime pudding doesn’t have cornstarch, like you’d expect from a pudding. It’s actually thickened with egg and cornmeal, similar to papas de carolo or cornmeal pudding. The coconut makes it more suited to Asian tastes. 

When I was in Macao, I had this flavored with ginger. But here I added lime instead. Not because I was trying to be clever and fusiony. But because it was good. 

RECIPE 

1 ¼ cup milk (regular, soy, almond) 
Scant ½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely-ground cornmeal
½ cup coconut milk
4 egg yolks
Zest of two limes
Shredded coconut for garnish 

In a saucepan, add almond milk and sugar. Simmer on medium until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool at least 5 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, coconut milk, and egg yolks. Whip with a fork until frothy. Place saucepan with almond milk back onto heat and whisk cornmeal mixture slowly over medium heat until thickened, about 10 minutes. Maintain a low simmer, increasing or reducing heat as necessary. When ready, stir in zest of two limes, reserving some for garnish. 

Spoon into individual cups or one large bowl. Chill until set, at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, top with shredded coconut and lime zest. 

TIPS & TRICKS

• When you’re dealing with eggs, milk, and something with a light color and subtle flavor, you really need to keep an eye on your heat. Avoid scorching by going slow and steady. If the mixture starts bubbling furiously, turn down the heat and let the pot cool off-heat before returning to the burner. 

• Other fun variations … Add in place of the lime zest: lemon zest, orange zest, grated ginger; Steep with the milk and sugar: pinch of cinnamon, dark rum

Papaya Lime Sorbet

Papaya and lime. They're more than nice pairings... they complete each other. 

Papaya is a subtle, low-acid fruit. It's floral, but not as insistent as lychee. It's tropical, but not as overt as mango. And so lime strengthens its lines, like a few swipes of makeup that enhances the beauty that's already there. 

RECIPE: 

Freeze 1 1/2 cups of papaya and half a banana (or, if you're like me, just keep a bunch of frozen fruit in the freezer for sorbet and smoothies). Blend in a Vitamix with one glug of almond milk, 1 teaspoon of honey and the juice of 1 lime. If the mixture isn't blending, add more almond milk.

Slow Cooker Bang Bang Chicken with Lime, Lemongrass & Chilis

This is *not* the bang bang sauce from Cheesecake Factory -- a calorie-bomb of coconut curry and peanut sauce (I mean, it probably tastes amazing). 

This is the Laotian Bang Bang sauce -- a funky, fiery, sweet/tangy/spicy mix. Ie: a slow cooker friend.  

In my experience, the best slow cooker recipes are deeply, aggressively flavored (see also this miso ginger garlic chicken). Slow cookers get a bad reputation because they remind people of dull stewy mush. 

But that's why you fight against the murky "brown" flavor with brightness. In Laotian cuisine, bang bang is typically eaten with sticky rice (the way fries are eaten with ketchup). The same idea applies here: you want to match a tender, blank-slate food (slow-cooked chicken, sticky rice), with something that awakens the palate. Now you have the best of both worlds -- something soft and pillowy with something sharp and vibrant. 

My preparation includes two ingredients that aren't in classic bang bang sauce: gochujang and black bean sauce. I did this because slow-cooker sauces need to be thick. They'll get watered down a lot as the chicken cooks (such are modern chickens, very watery). Both sauces are thick, fermented and funky, and serve as the foundation for the more ephemeral top notes of this dish (ginger, lime, etc). 

So, to review: Laotian bang bang: wakes you up. Cheesecake Factory bang bag: knock you out. 

RECIPE: 
Skin an entire whole chicken (I do this because the fat doesn't have anywhere to go in a slow cooker. Since the slow-cooker is a pro at keeping meat tender, don't worry about going skinless!). 

In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons gochujang, 2 tablespoons of black bean sauce, 1 teaspoon chopped chili peppers (Thai chilis, piri-piri, whatever you have), 5 cloves of chopped garlic, 2 tablespoons chopped ginger, 1 tablespoon chili oil, 1 chopped lemongrass stalk (or 1/2 teaspoon of dried lemongrass), 1 tablespoon palm sugar, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, 1 pinch of dried ginger, 1 pinch of dried galangal (or just more ginger if you can't get this), 1 pinch of cardamom. Add enough water to mix, but not too much. 

Place chicken in slow cooker and pour sauce over chicken, making sure to get every crevice. Add one diced lime. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours. Serve with sticky rice and Thai basil.