Dejah

patrickamory: Just for you!

Patrickamory: There is no comparison between fresh and dried/brined greenpeppercorns. Kim: Baguette is perfect for the Thai broth if there is no rice served. Actually, I prefer baguette. Rareandrollingobject: Duck breasts! I've been reading about them so often, my daughter and her SO finally found some for me in the city. We're going to cook them tonight: pan seared topped with a fermented black bean, ketsup, and hoisin sauce per Jason Santo on Simple Ming. I hope the sauce won't be too heavy for them. So excited to be trying out duck breasts. Having said theat, I hope they turn out as tasty as they did on Ming's show.

Just catching up with your blog, PopsicleToze. I was very interested in reading about your cookbook venture. My daughter "stole" some of my recipes and food pictures and had a cookbook printed up for me this Xmas past. It's a thin volume but is giving me the nudge to start compiling family recipes, anedotes, etc. Thank you for sharing your venture. It'll be very helpful for my "second printing".

Heidi, Not often do I get people saying that they like bitter melon! Yay! Have to admit that most of the "browning" is from the light soy sauce, but I did get good wok hei as I just throughly cleaned and re-seasoned my wok. I took a long time to separate the noodles too, so that really helped in distributing the flavours. Hubby and I enjoy the bitter melon, but the rest of the family prefer oyster sauce, beef, and gai lan.

Sheesh! It's lonely in here... Is it something I cooked? Tonight, Black bean garlic beef and bitter melon on rice noodles (ho fun)

Thanks for all the encouragement. This is a great place, not only to get new cooking ideas, but also for plating. One problem: I find I am always shopping for dishes now!

I wanna do food porn like you guys! I'll have to be happy with my little Pentax for now...maybe forever... Tonight, we had the Grilled lemongrass Lamb Chops with Herbs from Gourmet, September, 2006. It was a nice change from my usual grilled lamb chops with mint sauce, but I will make modifications next time: more lemongrass, cut out cumin, tumeric so the lemongrass would shine thru' more. I keep searching for that intense lemongrass flavour in stir-fries, grilled meats, etc. Will have to make some lemongrass infused oil, I guess.

Another incredible blog off to a flying start! Looking forward to learning lots about you, Louisiana, and the food.

Squid, any part, but especially the tentacles, are great in a curry sauce.

Patrickamory: Your seur rong hai will be the perfect recipe for the new package of fresh green peppercorns from the Asian market! Not sure if I'll be able to handle all those chilis, so maybe I'll scale those down and use more peppercorns. Thanks for posting this dish. I'm always looking for new ideas for the peppercorns.

Cantonese chow mein with squid tentacles, shrimp, and blanched baby Shanghai bok choy.

I'm actually just getting ready to make a spice paste to marinate 8 thick lamb chops It's from Gourmet mag, Sept. 2006. "It's aromatic without being spicy; a touch of the exotic but will please traditonalists too" The paste included sumin, lemongrass (reason for my search),shallots, garlic, ginger, tumeric, cayenne. The paste is cooked, cooled, rubbed onto the chops, covered, and chilled for at least 12 and up to 24 hours before grilling. This will be my first try with this recipe. I also make a Moroccan-style filling for an appetizer with ground lamb in place of ground beef. Instead of rolling them up in phyllo pastry into "cigars", I spread it on flatbread, top with roasted pine nuts and bake in the oven until the flatbread is crusty on the bottom. Sprinkle on chopped fresh mint and cut into slices. Great change from pizza.

Good deal on asparagus during the week, so with the last bundle tonight: Stir-fried with chicken And Thai mussels and clams:

Last of the Chinese eggplant before I shop again. Fushia Dunlop's recipe for Fish Fragrant Eggplant. Tomatoes with no "garden fresh flavour" worked well enough in Beef and Tomato Egg with an added dash of ketsup:

The leaves might be papaya leaves? I picked up a packet that were papaya leaves about a month ago and never did get around to using them. I'll be interested to know how you will use yours.

Supper tonight consisted of leftovers from last night in a different combination. I add some rice noodles and shrimp to the above stir-fried bean sprouts and made summer rolls: Leftover rice, chicken, shirtaki mushrooms from above steamed chicken, plus chopped onion, BBQ pork from the freezer, shrimp, egg became Yangzhou Fried Rice a la Fushia Dunlop.

Beautiful fish cakes and bread, robirdstx! I've only ever made crab cakes once. Now I'll try making the fish ones because of your inspiration. That pizza steel will be one of a kind. Looking forward to pizza!

Reminder to self: " Never check this thread out before breakfast!" I'll have some of everything, please...

Traditional Chinese for supper tonight: Fresh lily bulb soup. Steamed chicken (no bones to accommodate hubby ) with fresh shitaki mushrooms and lap cheung. I miss the more intense flavour of rehydrated mushrooms for this dish, but I thought I'd fresh. Quick stir-fried bean sprouts, shredded carrots, and green onion. Crisp and light to go with the chicken.

Feeling lonesome and needing some help here, People! Made a simple traditional Chinese home-style soup to go with the mish-mash of leftovers that made up "supper": Hairy melon in pork stock with velvet pork meatballs and a stalk of ham choi.

Working down to the bottom of the vegetable crisper! I had a quarter chunk of wintermelon left, so I made simple melon soup with pork stock and ground pork meatballs. The soup and melon tasted a little bitter - not the pleasant cooling taste like bittermelons. I must have kept it too long, but I thought one week was ok. Hubby wanted Kung Po the way we made it when we had the restaurant, so I made it, with dry roasted almonds as I didn't have peanuts. Blanched yu choy was the side, topped with ginger and chopped garlic. To "cook" the topping, I poured smoking hot cooking oil and sesame oil over the lot. Tasty without the raw taste of ginger and garlic.

Pierogi: I wonder if the Chinese meatball method would work to make your extra lean pork meatballs moist? My recipe calls for pork fat, ground pork and lean ground beef. I usually just use lean ground beef, but add cornstarch (or waterchestnut flour and cornstarch)and water to the mix being worked in the KitchenAid. Beat it until "thready". This produces very moist beef balls, usually steamed as a dim sum item.

Blether! I was up at 5 am but hadn't turned on the news or heard about the earthquake when I read your post this morning. I wondered what happened to your kitchen. Glad to know that you're alright. Rarerollingobject: Really like the sounds of your paella. Fennel sausage sounds interesting...homemade? store item? Shelby: Juicy Lucy...was that the name of an animal your hubby bagged? Did you stuff cubes of cheese inside the burger? Certainly would keep it moist. What started as a warmish snow-melting rainy day here on the prairies turned into a nasty March blizzard. I thought of BBQing racks of lamb outback, but was content to sear then roast them in the oven. Whole grain mustard and cumin crusted lamb, "clean-out-the-salad-bowl" stir-fried vegetables, buttered baby taters and sweet potato as sides.

Blether: The two pre-salted roast chickens look great! The skin looks crispy from the air-drying in the fridge? I could just eat that! I have roasted chicken parts with a packaged seasoning for salty chicken. It has 5-spice powder mixed it and is great for making the ginger/oil dip for salty chicken. But, now I must try your method. Your curried chicken drew my attentionas soon as I saw the spice mix. Anything with cumin is alright by me!

Ranch Market was a treat to wake up to! Thanks for producing "Chinese market" envy so early in my day... Pork Sung is shredded cooked and seasoned pork. Great topping for congee in our family. I think a poster here made a sandwich with it. Our kids used to sneak small handfuls and just pop it into their mouths. Chinese sausage: slice it up and stir-fry with veg, in fried rice, deep fried and sliced as appetizer, in sticky rice in bamboo leaves or lotus leaves, or simply lay acouple in with your rice and let them cook at the same time as the rice. The "fat" seeps into the rice to create a lovely flavour, especially on the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot if you're cooking rice on the stove top! Thanks for such a fun blog, P!