crouching tyler

One more photo from last night's Eggplant Curry. This is the curry simmering in my trusty cast-iron pot. I love the color of yellow curry - so rich and warm. It is not all that dissimilar to the color of the paint on my bedroom walls.

markemorse - I made tempeh for the first time in my life last night, and here you are - with your beautiful photographs of your golden, succulent tempeh. Here is what my first attempt at tempeh looked like - a bit less photogenic, but damn tasty stuff, all the same. In my return (dare I say my triumphant return) to CoF, I made: Asiah's Eggplant Curry - Kari Terung Garlic-Marinated Tempeh - Tempe Goreng, Steamed Rice - Nasi Putih Soy Sauce, Chile, and Lime Dipping Sauce - Sos Chili Padi I say "triumphant" because it all tasted so damn good. The Tempeh, just out of the package: Tempeh, frying: Action shot of Frying Tempeh: Tempeh, hanging out with friends - Rice and Eggplant Curry I was happy to learn that I like Tempeh (good thing, as there are two more Tempeh recipes in CoF). DH, sadly, does not love tempeh. He said he was expecting Tofu, and the texture difference threw him off. It is all about texture with the dh (whereas I only object to one food on the basis of texture - cottage cheese - gack). I found I liked the slightly crunchy, chewy nuttiness of Tempeh. The Eggplant Curry was fabulous. This is not surprising. I followed Mr. Oseland's directions carefully. I am learning that if I do what Mr. Oseland's clear directions in CoF say to do, I will be rewarded with flavor-full, beautiful, complex dishes that make me very very happy. I also usually make a grand mess of the kitchen, but I have no one but myself to blame there. The eggplant probably could have been a shade firmer, but the curry tasted so damn good - particularly when sloshed over a pile of rice, and with some Sos Chili Padi drizzled on top. Eggplant Curry Close-Up - This is for all you Eggplant Phobics. Tell me, markemorse, does tempeh keep and reheat well, or is it best fried up right on the spot?

Perhaps towards the end of its life, the paper bag will become some postcards, sent on to several destinations.... For those who are plagued by leaving their resuable bags at home/in the car/in the closet, here are the bags that helped me break that frustrating habit. They roll up, ever so nicely, are super light, and so I just chuck them back in my purse after I unload them. Voila! Envirosax.

Holy Cow! 12 recipes in 14 days - I think you deserve the CoF Lemongrass Star Award (newly created by me, just now - take some of the outer leaves of the lemongrass and weave them together in the shape of star - now hang it on your refrigerator (or nestle into a pot of coconut rice). That is some strong work!

I can't wait either! I like making the flavoring pastes too - It is so satisfying - measuring and adding each ingredient in turn. For some reason, making flavoring pastes feels scientific, but with the benefit of intoxicating aromas.

I just wanted to thank all the recent contributors to this thread. I just spent a little over a week in Phoenix and almost everywhere I ate was based on suggestions from this thread. My dh and I were all set to spend a lovely fall week's vacation in New York, but my mother-in-law had a fall, in which she fractured her arm. A few days later we found that she has also sustained some bruising and bleeding in the brain (subdural hematoma, for the medically inclined). She was helicoptered from her home in Yuma to Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix on Monday, Oct. 12th. The dh and I canceled our trip to NY and flew down to Phoenix on short notice the next day. The great news is that my mother-in-law is recovering very well. She'll have a few weeks of rehab to get her strength back, but she is already returning to her chatty, fun, loving self. None of us (me, dh, father-in-law, various brother-in-laws) had spent any time in Phoenix, and so whenever visiting hours ended, or we got evicted from her room by doctors, we would take a look at the restaurant recommendations here, and go off in search of lunch or dinner. It was such a relief to not have to make any decisions, and even more of a relief to not endure any awful meals. Spending a week as a visitor in a hospital is exhausting, for no good reason. A friend who sent us a restaurant recommendation said, "The english comfort themselves with a cup of tea, I do so with a good meal,". Thanks for helping us find a bit of comfort in food, while in Phoenix. The restaurants we where ate: Barrio - Super close to the hospital. My father-in-law loved this place. Great guacamole, pork tacos, and enchilades with mole negro. Cowboy Ciao - I had my doubts (Scottsdale isn't quite my style), but the tuna was good, and the chopped salad was good enough to worth attempting to recreate at home. Pane Bianco / Lux Coffee - We had sandwiches here twice, for lunch - and I was overjoyed to find a really really good Americano at Lux. The traffic was not good, but the sandwiches were so worth it. Perfect balance of bread and ingredients. Copper Star Coffee - Within reasonable distance of the hospital - good coffee and great brownies. This is where we were when my mother-in-law called to tell us that she had pulled out her own feeding tube (brave, stubborn woman). She had gotten tired of waiting for the doctor's permission so she took matters into her own hands. Thankfully, it turned out for the best. Matt's Big Breakfast - The BLT made my day. That place was a little slice of sunshine. Father-in-law ate every last bite of his bowl of chili. Lola - Another restaurant we hit twice. We went to Lola twice - early in the week when my mother-in-law's condition hadn't yet entered the recovery phase. We had some seriously emotional conversations here over perfect olives, jamon, manchego, a much needed glass of red wine in my case, and some seriously intense chocolate dessert. The details of the food are mostly lost in the haze of emotional intensity, but I remember enjoying it and marveling at the amount of olive oil I had consumed. Kohnies - My dh and I had breakfast here one morning - This place reminded me so much of so many little places in Miami. I had a spot-on breakfast sandwich. Loved the cloth tablecloth and napkin to go with the plastic table. Loved the personality of the people even more. Please accept my sincere thanks. It seems very minor, but the suggestions here provided a small measure of relief in a very stressful time. -Robin

Tap tap tap, indeed. Life has been distracting me from Cradle of Flavor, lately, and that is probably going to be the state of affairs for another couple of weeks. So, I will have to content myself with following along for a while. I continue to appreciate the vibrant colors present in all these dishes. It really makes the food leap off the screen, so to speak. I notice quite a few of us seem to plate our dishes on platters with warm, rich yellow tones - it somehow conveys the warmth (both heat and spice) that I associate with the cuisine(s) quite well.

This sounds and looks so good. I might have to move it up in the rotation, leapfrogging past my planned eggplant extravaganza.

I'd second that. You could also play with the spicing if you make it at home. One piece of advice. As the cajeta cooks down, it gets kind of splattery, so I like to use an oversized pot for the cooking, say one that is only 1/4 full to start with. Andrew ← Ditto. Although, in my experience, it took quite a bit longer than the time indicated in the Rick Bayless recipe. But, I am prone to over-stirring, so that is probably my fault. Tasty tasty stuff. I used it in a Tres Leches cake, and the leftovers were added to our coffee for a week of so - heavenly, I tell you.

How can a dish of brown gooey (and I mean that in a good way) noodles look so good? And that chile omelet may appear on my table tomorrow around brunch time... The food looks great - thanks for keeping the thread alive! I keep saying I am going to dive back into Cradle of Flavor soon soon soon, but one thing or another has kept that from happening. One of those things is a tasty Indonesian restaurant a five minute drive from my house.

I am leaning towards the eggplant curry and maybe some of the plantain dishes sometime this week? And maybe, after that the Stir Fried Egg Noodles with Shrimp. I have been inundated with tomatoes lately, and tomatoes are noticeably lacking in Cradle of Flavor. So, I have been a little distracted by the Seattle end of summer produce explosion. I think with the arrival of Fall (and the concomitant end of my CSA vegetable box), I will be able to return to a more consistent schedule. I want to make sure that I have a good balance of dishes - so that I don't end up with all the big intensive, expensive dishes at the end of the project. By the way, I have made 24% of the recipes in Cradle of Flavor (21 of 86). Woo Hoo. It is a nice point - I have made some progress, but still have lots of good food adventures ahead!

The liquid is tumeric-laced coconut milk/water - and that grey orb must be one of the inside bits of one of the green beans (Romano Beans). The Green Beans in Coconut Milk recipe is from Cradle of Flavor - note that the dish tasted good, I just didn't present or photograph it well, at all. Slightly better pictures available at the Cooking From Cradle of Flavor thread. I hope that my dh doesn't see that picture of Frito Pie. Every once in a while, in a fit of nostalgia he makes "Suzy Salad" - which involves fritos, ground beef, iceberg lettuce, velveta and rotelle. Actually, it sort of tastes good - in a salty crunchy sort of way. And I bet I can get a really grusome photo of it. It is too wrong if I end up being inspired by this thread.

I tried to take advantage of the last days of summer in Seattle, and did a bit of Cradle of Flavor cooking for some friends. Hmm, I think I need to make Celebration Rice in a larger pot if I am going to get all those aromatics fully immersed in the rice. The reason dh took this photo was the lovely butter yellow hue of the liquid surrounding the daun pandan leaves. Unfortunately, that mellowed tumeric hue doesn't come through in the photo. But it does come through, in the photo of the final dish. Celebration Yellow Rice ~ Nasi Kuning We also had some Green Beans with Coconut Milk ~ Sambal Goreng Buncis, using Romano Beans from the garden. I was skeptical of how well these softened beans would go over but everyone liked them - even the dh, who can be suspicious of fruit or vegetables of a "squishy" texture. And, the star of the show was the Javanese Grilled Chicken ~ Ayam Panggang Jawa. As has been mentioned before, this is a great dish for entertaining, since the majority of the prep is done ahead of time, including 3/4 of the cooking. As you can see, our chicken got quite a char on it (okay, perhaps burnt is a better word). I am blaming it on the grill (not the griller). That is my story and I am sticking to it. A plate full of food: I meant to make a dipping sauce or sambal, but was having too much fun chatting, and also came to the realization that gin and tonics may not be a good combination with chopping chiles. Oh, and we started things off by snacking on some Fried Okra - totally not a Cradle of Flavor recipe - but I had seen some great looking okra, and it seemed to somehow fit. The last lonely okra (I wonder what the plural of "okra" is - maybe "okra"?)...

Shiny food ain't pretty. Sometimes, it tastes really good though.

Nyonya-Style Spiced Fried Chicken - Inche Kabin Nyonya Dipping Sauce Steamed Rice - Nasi Putih Javanese Cucumber & Carrot Pickle - Acar Timun and Roma Beans (from my garden) and Yellow Wax Beans with Butter and Basil. I bought a mini-food processor, that became tumeric stained on its first use, of course. Very convenient little appliance though. It made quick work of the spice mix for the spiced fried chicken. Spices after grinding: Spices with shallots added: First batch of Nyonya-Style Spiced Fried Chicken: A plate full of chicken: The chicken was fried, spicy and fabulous, if I do say so myself. This was my second experience with frying chicken, and with Mr. Oseland's ever reliable advice, it was a smooth, stress-free process. One question remains though: For how many more days is my house going to smell like fried chicken?

Cucumber sandwiches Dates stuffed with cheese Farmer's lunch/Ploughman's lunch: pickles, cheese, apples, mustards, and bread Prosciutto and cantelope Marinated (okay, perhaps more dressed than marinated) vegetables

Since the recipe index is available for all and sundry to see, let me know if there are any special requests - something you want to see prepared. Perhaps, we can even arrange a mini-cookoff, of sorts? As for my plans, I think I might make one of the fried chicken dishes this week. The Nyonya style fried chicken sounds heavenly from C. Sapidus' description.

Mark, Below is a list of the the recipes, but to summarize - I would say there are at least 30 recipes (out of 86 total) that are primarily veg and fish/shellfish. The reason I have this list is because I have a spreadsheet to track my progress. So, it seems like a good number would work for your friend, particularly since they eat seafood. Obviously, any spelling errors are mine. So far, I have made 16 of the 86 recipes (19%), at least once. The recipes I've made are in bold. Cradle of Flavor, Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, by James Oseland Recipe Index: CONDIMENTS: SAMBALS, DIPPING SAUCES, DRESSINGS & PICKLES Javanese Sambal Nyona Sambal Lemongrass & Shallot Sambal Green Mango Sambal Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce Nyona Dipping Sauce Soy Sauce, Chile & Lime Dipping Sauce Sweet & Sour Chile Dipping Sauce Javanese Peanut Sauce Sweet & Sour Cucumber & Carrot Pickle w/Tumeric Javanese Cucumber & Carrot Pickle South Indian-Style Eggplant Pickle Malaysian Spiced Pineapple Pickle STREET FOODS Beef Satay Chicken Satay Shrimp Satay Gado Gado Chopped Veg. Salad w/Coconut & Lime Leaf Dressing Crisp Jicama & Pineapple Salad Fried Sweet Plantains Bean Sprout & Potato Fritters RICE & NOODLES Steamed Rice Lemongrass Scented Coconut Rice Celebration Yellow Rice Spiced Nyona Rice Javanese Fried Rice Herbal Rice Salad Stir Fried Chinese Egg Noodle w/ Shrimp & Asian Greens Penang-Style Stir-Fried Kuey Teow Noodles Chicken Curry Noodle Soup, Kuala Lumpur Style VEGETABLES Stir Fried Asian Greens w/ Garlic & Chiles Stir Fried Bean Sprouts w/ Chinese Chives Sauteed Cabbage w/Ginger & Crispy Indian Lentils Braised Cabbage w/ Dried Shrimp Stir Fried Water Spinach, Nyona Style Green Beans with Coconut Milk Ching Lee's Braised Lemongrass Long Beans Rohati's Crisp-Fried Potatoes w/Chile & Shallot Sambal Potato Rendang Fern Curry wth Shrimp Asiah's Eggplant Curry FISH & SHELLFISH Fragrant Fish Stew w/Lime & Lemon Basil Spice Braised Tuna Padang Fish Curry Hot & Sour Fish Stew w/Bamboo Shoots Indian-Style Fish Stew w/Okra Pan-Seared Mackerel w/Chiles & Garlic Pan-Seared Tamarind Tuna Grilled Whole Fish w/Lemon Basil & Chiles Nyona Shrimp Curry w/Fresh Pineapple & Tomatoes Stir-Fried Shirmp Sambal Black Pepper Crab POULTRY The Soto King's Chicken Soup Javanese Chicken Curry Chicken Rendang w/Cinnamon & Star Anise Nyona Chicken & Potato Stew Mien's Garlic Fried Chicken Nyona-Style Spiced Fried Chicken Kevin's Spiced Roast Chicken w/Potatoes, Penang Style Javanese Grilled Chicken Grilled Coconut Chicken w/Lemon Basil Nyona Duck Soup w/Salted Mustard Greens BEEF, GOAT & PORK (FOODS OF CELEBRATION) Beef Rendang Spiced Braised Nyona Pork Malaccan Beef & Vegetable Stew Javanese Spice Oxtail Stew Achenese Goat Curry TEMPEH, TOFU & EGGS Garlic-Marinated Tempeh Tempeh Sambal w/Lemon Basil Carmelized Tempeh w/Chiles Tofu & Summer Vegetables in Coconut Milk Twice-Cooked Tofu w/Coriander Fried Eggs w/Garlic, Shallots, Chiles & Ginger Kopi Tiam Soft-Boiled Eggs Chile Omelet SWEETS & BEVERAGES Indonesian Spice Cake Nutmeg Tea Cookies Purple Rice Pudding w/Coconut Milk Sweet Spice Mung Bean Porridge Plantains w/Coconut Milk & Palm Sugar Sweet Rice Dumplings w/Palm Sugar & Coconut Cinnamon Tea Hawker's Tea Warm Spiced Limeade Lime-Cordial Syrup Singapore Slings

I am not sure the bread needs to be homemade. Some of the best sandwiches are those made by others (as in "Here you go, my dear, I just made you a sandwich"), and sometimes others make sandwiches on basic store-bought bread. Drat - I just got mayonnaise on my keyboard. Anyway, good bread definitely takes a tomato sandwiches a little closer to transcendental, but I think of it more as a bonus than a necessity.

Usually, you can count on a summer Seattle afternoon to be sunny and warmish - perfect for catching up with friends over dinner on the patio - an ideal situation to show off all your summer produce. But then, every once in a while, you wake up and the morning is grey, cool, 60 degrees - definitely fleece-wearing weather.and the forecasts is cloudy, and showers. Do you just keep with your planned menu of summer produce delights but perhaps plan to relocate to the indoors? Just past out the fleeces and dine al fresco anyway? OR do you tweak the menu a bit, maybe a gratin instead of a quick saute, and rethink things to accommodate the weather and its attendant mood? Me, I am sticking with summer vegetables galore, postponing the indoor v. outdoor dining table decision until the last minute and peering at the sky every couple of minutes. How do you deal with Mother Nature on her indecisive days?

I heard a rumor that Moxie had been purchased by one of the big soda companies and was going to be discontinued. Just a rumor. But I am glad to see that Moxie is still available and being appreciated in new and novel ways. The scenery is lovely, and the food looks terrific - so different from what I am eating, and yet so tempting - which pretty much sums up what I love about foodblogs, now that I think about it.

I second that. It just sounds right.

In particular, if I were departing these green shores, I would avail myself of fish tacos before I left.

I am headed out to Manzanita next weekend. There will be a group of about 5 to 7 women, and one newborn (Book Club goes to the Beach!). I might be the only food obsessed person in the group. But nonetheless, this thread gets me in the right frame of mind. Anywhere in particular that I should know about in Manzanita, and thereabouts? Good coffee recommendations would be appreciated? I am going to see if I can get myself and companions to Jetty Fishery. Sometimes it is quite treacherous traveling with the non-food obsessed. My dh never fails to make fun of me for "the list" I bring on most trips - the list which almost never fails to lead us to great food. edited for the usual brainlessness

Regarding my mackerel questions: Now that I think about it, I am sure Mr. Oseland would tell me to go to one of the Asian groceries and talk to them about mackerel. So, maybe I'll do that too. And I should probably go reread the section on ingredients in Cradle of Flavor - the answers might already be there. Just in case I haven't actually articulated my question yet, the question is: What do I substitute for Spanish Mackerel (aka Kingfish) here in the Pacific NW, in the summer?