Much as I have a particular soft spot for food magazines, I hardly ever buy them in Singapore partly because they cost an arm and a leg but also because I have issues of delicious and donna hay magazines delivered to my sister’s place in Melbourne on a regular basis.
When I do feel the rare urge to splurge on them however, I almost always find myself handing over a copy of bon appetit to the cashier before happily skipping home to devour it alongside a cup of tea. I can never resist their gorgeous covers-be it whether they feature a slice of cake, a juicy burger or generous scoops of ice cream complete with fudge sauce (oh, be still my heart)- the really well written and light hearted columns that sit within and the helpful prep school feature that covers tips and techniques pertaining to recipes in the issue.
But what I especially love about this magazine is the R.S.V.P section; a segment that features particular recipes from restaurants that the readers have wrote in to request for. You never really know what you’re gonna get with each issue and it never disappoints, always featuring such a unpredictable mix of recipes from a smorgasbord of restaurants.
It was in this particular feature of the December 2008 issue that I chanced upon a recipe for edamame pan fried with garlic, ginger, a soy mixture and chili. And given how much i adore edamame, I couldn’t go past it and had to whip it up mid day instead serving it as an appetitizer that it’s more apt for.
I must say I’m really glad I tried the recipe out although it took considerable more effort than the usual boiling, draining and salting act I do with my bag of frozen soy beans.
Lightly coated in a slightly salty and sweet sauce, it made for a really good albeit messy mid day snack, a really nice change from my usual fix of edamame. While I’m happy to go back to having my seemingly more boring way of cooking edamame for a really quick and fuss free nibble, I certainly wouldn’t pass this up alongside a bowl of steaming hot white rice.
So that’s one recipe that I’ve tabbed to try from my beloved stash of bon appetite down, just about thirty more to go!
Wok-Fried Edamame with Garlic and Chilies [adapted from bon appetit's December '08 issue]
Ingredients
250g unshelled frozen edamame
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp fish sauce †
1 chili padi, deseeded and thinly sliced ††
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn oil
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
A bit of corn starch
- Cook the edamame, still frozen, in a large pot of salted boiling water till tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the soy sauce, fish sauce, corn starch, chili and sesame oil together and set aside.
- Heat the corn oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Fry the minced garlic and ginger till lightly browned and fragrant. Add the edamame and stir to heat through. Add the soy mixture, stirring to coat the edamame evenly and till heated through. Remove from heat and serve warm. Serves 2 for a light snack
† The original recipe called for 1 tsp of oyster sauce which I didn’t have. Shocking, I know. So I used fish sauce instead and threw in a little corn starch to thicken the mixture up. The fish sauce worked really well with the other Asian flavours in this dish, giving it a slightly saltish tang.
†† I used a chili padi in place of the red jalapeno chile the recipe worked for. It gave the dish a slight hint of heat which I really liked. Just make sure you deseed the chili throughly or you’ll be crying into your food.
