Corn and Zucchini Simmered in Coconut Milk with Thai Basil

I kind of like ingredient-hunting through recipes. It’s become a fun, new hobby of mine when I have an ingredient and can’t decide how to use it. I start looking through the indexes of cookbooks, searching for whatever the ingredient of the day is, in hopes of finding some interesting dish in which it’s used. When I decided to make Thai style crab cakes the other day, I used some Thai basil from the farmers’ market. After making the crab cakes, there was still a lot remaining of the very generous bunch I had received. So, off on my ingredient-hunt I went. My first stop was the index of Local Flavors, and under Thai Basil, it reads 'see basil.' And, under basil, I found this dish, and the hunt was over in record time. In creating this dish, Deborah Madison was inspired by the flavor of Thai basil, rather than Italian basil, with corn and zucchini, and then decided to add coconut milk and tofu. I think that she had a fantastic idea.

Cubed tofu was dried and then browned in a skillet with zucchini chunks. Fresh corn was cut from four ears, and the corn milk was pressed from the cobs with the back of a knife. All of that was added to the skillet along with chopped green onions, some Thai chiles, and chopped cilantro and Thai basil leaves. Coconut milk was added, and it simmered for just a few minutes, and dinner was ready. This simple stew was served with white, long-grain rice.

Everything about the dish was very fresh-tasting, and even though it was all about the Thai basil for me, I wouldn’t skip this if you don’t have any on hand. You could go with all cilantro or even try it with Italian basil. Corn, zucchini, tofu, and coconut milk are all a little mild in the flavor department, but they go together very well. In fact, there was something very comfort food-like about that combination. It’s the green onion, chiles, and herbs that livened things up and gave the dish great character. All together, it was a dish that seemed like an old friend even though this was the first time we’d experienced it.

Thai Style Crab Cakes

I’ve made crab cakes many times in the past. I’ve made different sizes and mixed up the ingredients in small ways, but nothing really new and different in any significant way ever happened with my approach. Then, I saw Mark Bittman’s NY Times article about Thai style crab cakes, and there was a new and different twist that I simply had to try. His idea was to mimic Thai fish cakes that use pureed fish as a binder, but he used shrimp instead of fish for a better melding of flavors with crab. A few more ingredients common in Thai cuisine were added, and he had a new kind of crab cake. I had prepared a shopping list with this recipe in mind, and we stopped off at the farmers’ market before going to the grocery store. I was excited to find locally grown Thai chiles and Thai basil to use in the crab cakes.

For one pound of lump crab meat, six medium, raw shrimp were pureed in a food processor. The pureed shrimp were added to a mixing bowl with a little fish sauce, one egg, some chopped green onions, cilantro leaves, a seeded and chopped Thai chile or two, minced fresh ginger, chopped Thai basil, and the crab. This was carefully mixed together while trying not to break up the crab too much. Two to three tablespoons of fresh bread crumbs were to be added, and I think I used even less than that. The shrimp and egg held the mixture together very well, and the breadcrumbs were almost unnecessary. The cakes were formed and refrigerated for 30 minutes or so and then were dredged in flour before being fried for a few minutes on each side.

In the article, Bittman suggested serving the cakes with a dipping sauce of fish or soy sauce with lime juice, etc. or possibly with a mayonnaise mixed with fish sauce. I stirred together a quick sauce with mayonnaise, fish sauce, lime juice, and chopped Thai basil. These crab cakes were fantastic with a little dollop of that on top, but they were so full of flavor, they were also great all by themselves. I’m definitely hanging on to this recipe and foresee cute, little, mini versions of these cakes being served at upcoming holiday parties.