crouching tyler

Don't forget eggs over asparagus.... And I really like Shirred Eggs aka Baked Eggs. It seems to really show off fresh eggs - perhaps because you don't really do anything to them - just crack them into ramekins over a little butter or olive oil (or over a little cream if you want to get fancy) and bake them for 10 or 15 minutes at 375 or so.

Thanks for the suggestion - it was a good way to get started on my resolution to wade into the seafood section of Cradle of Flavor. I made Chuan-chuan ( aka Pan Seared Mackerel with Chiles and Garlic) tonight. Of course, not only did I not use a whole fish, but I didn't use mackerel. Warning - tangent alert. I normally shop for seafood at a great little shop called University Seafood and Poultry - local place, been in business for a long time - decades - probably at least five of them. But, it was a little out of my way tonight, and I was going to drive right past Whole Foods so I caved and went fish shopping at Whole Foods. Now, Whole Foods is not a grocery store I favor. It is huge, crammed full of people just meandering at slowpoke pace all the hell over the aisles, and for whatever reason, every damned interaction I have with staff there goes badly. I once asked someone in the produce department to help me locate scallions (they were crammed on the top shelf - apparently scallions aren't sexy enough to merit front and center) - he proceeded to give me a lecture on the difference between scallions and green onions. I listened patiently (okay, maybe only sort of patiently) and then asked him to just point out the damn things, whichever of the two they had, because while the lecture was informative, it didn't actually get me any closer to putting the damn things in my basket. My interaction at the seafood counter today was typical. I asked him if they had any kingfish or mackerel. He said nope. I asked why? I thought mr. seafood expert might tell whether it was in season, talk to me about west coast seafood availability, suggest a substitution, but he replied "it is not available". Thanks - I got that from your ever so helpful "nope". Anyway, he was of no help at all. So, I just winged it (wung it?) and asked for some snapper instead. He told me that Rock Cod was a pacific snapper, and that was all he had to offer me. And then he proceeded to inform me that the "internet is a great place to find recipes,". Really ? Thanks for the tip. I am sure I am not conveying this accurately, but this is what it boils down to: I get along great with grocers, butchers, produce slingers and wine merchants all over town but every time I talk to the staff at Whole Foods, I find them to be (1) condescending and (B) Not Helpful. I will admit I have a lot to learn, but here is the deal: If you are going to be condescending, you better teach me something or tell me where to find the damn scallions. Okay - Tangent Over. So anyway, I seriously doubt that Rock Cod is an ideal substitute for whole mackerel, but the dish was a total weeknight winner, regardless. It is very similar to a recipe I've made for a long time (secretly known as Kick Ass Sea Bass - although now it is usually Kick Ass Halibut, but that is not nearly as much fun to say). The Kick Ass Fish recipe involves lime, shallot, ginger, soy sauce, cilantro and jalapeno - with the shallots getting nicely crisp and sweet. The Chaun Chaun is two kinds of soy sauce, some sugar, pepper, garlic, lots of ginger, a red onion and some red chiles - and it easy as pie. Comes together very quickly - doesn't stink up the whole house or set off the fire alarm - minimal amounts of choppping, and minimal amounts of shopping as well. Chopping: We had some steamed rice, and Stir Fried Bok Choy with Garlic and Chiles to accompany the fish. On the plate: After dinner we had some Cinnamon Tea ( basically Assam Tea that has been steeped with water that has been boiled and steeped with cinnamon stick). Tasty stuff. The caffeine in the tea can probably account for some of the verbosity and swearing above. So, what did I learn? 1. Even though Whole Foods may be more convenient sometimes, it makes me unhappy - so I should not shop there. 2. I should go ask the seafood guys at Univ. Seafood & Poultry what they can tell me about mackerel. 3. Chaun Chaun (great recipe) vaguely resembles one of my favorite fish recipes. 4. Caffeine after dinner makes me rowdy.

My name is Robin, and I measure when I cook savory things. Because I am still learning, because I am always trying new recipes, and because I have not yet developed that trust that so many of you have for your very accurate eyeballs. I don't measure everything. I can now successfully eyeball onions, garlic, and many other chopped vegetables. I am sure it will come as no surprise, that most of the time, I am following a recipe, too.

All hamburgers/cheeseburgers, for years and years, have quite consistently been topped with: Mayo, double Mustard, and as many pickles as I can pile on. I am open-minded on what sort of cheese. I am not interested in tomatoes, or lettuce, or onions on my burger. But of late, I must admit, things are changing. For example, I now put peanut butter in my burgers. I wonder where I learned that trick?

The mystery ingredient looks like a perfect thin disk of toasted shrimp paste, but that makes absolutely no sense to me. Could it be an equally non-sense thin disk of palm sugar? That is stuck to the lid of the tin it came in?

Unfortunately I do not have photos of my recent exploits into CoF, but it wasn't new recipes so I guess that is fine. It was, however, new quantities. We had our annual summer backyard party this past Saturday. We have a relatively small house (700 sq. ft.) so we try to have a big party in the summer when we can take advantage of the good Seattle summer weather and enjoy the backyard. So, this year, given my recent experiences with satay, I made vast quantities of Beef Satay, Chicken Satay, Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce and Javanese Carrot & Cucumber Pickle. And it turned out great. Super party food - and the subject of rave reviews from guests, as well. The rum punch to wash everything down with was also a hit! I made sure to tell most people that the pickle was spicier than it looked, and the dipping sauce was milder than it looked. As the evening wore on though, the dipping sauce heat quotient kept rising, perhaps due to the chilis infusing the surrounding sauce with more and more heat. Thankfully, we did not run out of rum punch, so we always had a means to quench the fire. There was also a giant pile of Mushroom Peanut Noodles, which helped round out the menu along with Steamed White Rice. My fingernails are still a bit yellow from all the Chicken Satay seasoning paste, and my kitchen is still a bit of a wreck. But I was really pleased with the menu - most of the prep work could be done in advance (not that I started cooking until about noon on Saturday), and it was nice watching people's reactions to the satay. You could tell they were expecting plain boring meat on a stick, and were almost all pleasantly surprised to find out that instead they were getting the equivalent of meat candy (tasty and irresistible, if I do say so myself).

Susan, besides envying your cilantro roots I also covet your access to water spinach – I’ve never seen any around here. Tonight we made stir-fried tamarind shrimp (udang asam), a variation on tuna goreng. The shrimp “must be in the shell” for this recipe, so I was excited to find head-on shrimp at the Mexican grocery (“Una media libra de camarones, por favor.”). Unfortunately, the shrimp turned out mushy. I am not certain whether it was bad shrimp or bad technique, but I suspect the shrimp - they smelled a bit, um, shrimpier than usual. I will try this again if I can find better shrimp. ← Those shrimp are gorgeous - and I don't really like shrimp all that much. I was just talking to someone about my cooking plans and I was telling them how I had already made several of the dishes that I thought of as "easy" - meaning that they were dishes I had eaten, or was familiar with the ingredients or the techiniques. I was talking about what to tackle next, and decided that I should probably focus on some of the seafood dishes - and save some of the longer cooking curry dishes, and braises for this fall/winter. But focusing on the seafood means I need to venture into some unfamiliar territory because: 1. I have yet to cook a whole fish (meaning head to tail in one piece) 2. I have never cooked a crab ( I just had fresh Dungeness Crab (not in a crabcake) for the first time a few weeks ago). 3. I haven't ever really cooked shrimp (mostly because they aren't my favorite food). But I guess that is the point of this whole thing, right? Venturing into new culinary realms?

This place better be open on Sunday. Because now I just want to organize my day around chocolate cake. edit to add: Sunday: 8:00-3:00 brunch! Do you think they serve chocolate cake at brunch?

hmm. Why am I afraid of frying? I think I am scared that the big pan of hot oil might attack me? Okay. Not really. But, I think I have a somewhat irrational fear that I might cause injury to myself, or my house, or my dog, or my dh with the big pan of hot oil. I am somewhat of a klutz, I must admit, and tend to panic in a crisis (something of which I am not proud). As I continue to undertaking frying, and hopefully, continue to avoid frying catastrophes, I am sure my fear of frying will dissipate. Or, much like my fear of flying, I will learn to deal with my fear, and not let it keep me from traveling, either in real or culinary terms (if you can follow all that....).

Upon reading about how the Chow, and Ebb & Flow folks thought the space to small to be profitable, I , too, thought that the space just needed a different sort of restaurant - more casual, high turnover, and good share of take-out. Burgers, burritos, pho, for example. I guess parking isn't great, but if the food is good enough, the people will go there. Or at the very least, I will.

I witnessed this for the first time this weekend. 15 people sitting around a table. 14 of them eating corn using random, typewriter, fresh bite each time, or circles methods. And one person, calmly, beautifully plucking each kernel off, one at a time. I do the typewriter thing, my dh eats corn in a manner that ensures as many "first" bites as possible. And he has now, after repeated exposure to egullet, begun to photograph his corn.

Gado Gado! So much fun to say. Just as much fun to eat. The green beans that I was so sure I had awaiting me in the vegetable drawer had unfortunately disappeared. And my peanut sauce came in a little too far on the crunchy side of the eternal creamy v. crunchy debate. I think I will have conquered my fear of frying by the end of this project, though.

I was away from Cradle of Flavor for almost three weeks (hey, life sometimes interferes with food) but I returned last night. Javanese Friend Rice - Nasi Goreng Chopped Vegetable Salad with Coconut & Lime Leaf Dressing - Urup and, of course, Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce - Sos Kecap Rawit and because a few protein-focused friends were last minute additions to the dinner group, I added a batch of Caramelized Golden Tofu from D. Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Prep for the Urup is on the left. Tofu in the middle. Seasoning paste for Nasi Goreng in top right. Close up of the dressing for the Urup. So, I had some concerns about the Urup. I couldn't figure out how some cabbage, mung beans and green beans coated in a spicy, gooey, coconut dressing could be all that good. Plus, I detest dried coconut flakes, so I had my doubts whether I would enjoy a dressing in which a cup of finely grated Fresh Coconut was considered "essential." It didn't help that it was not until about 2 hours before dinner that I realized I had forgotten to buy a coconut. Thankfully our friend, Jamie, who was joining us for dinner, offered to alter her running route and pick up a coconut from the grocery along the way. Way to save the day, Jamie! So, the dh hacks open the coconut, and we grate madly. And the salad is so much better than I thought it could be. Really good. One of my favorite things about cooking is learning about recipes like this - recipes that rise above the sum of their parts. They transcend their ingredients. I don't love cabbage, am iffy on bean sprouts, had qualms about grated coconut and had two servings of Urup. And am going to have leftovers for lunch today. The team effort Urup - Nasi Goreng - Sos Kecap Rawit, yet to be added to the plate. The Nasi Goreng felt like comfort food to me. Nasi Goreng ( and Mee Goreng) were the first things I ate in Indonesia during my 2 week stay there. And I continued to go back to them frequently while I was there. This was in some part due to the fact that I knew what they were, and I found that I didn't want every single meal to be a total surprise. But, also, the gorengs (as I thought of them) were good! Spicy, easy to eat. It was amazing how fast the gorengs went from new dish to comfort food status. A swath of the mess in the kitchen - the inevitable result of me attempting several new recipes at once. More mess - the blue bit on left of the photo is our friend, Mikael, who washes dishes with an efficiency and vigor that is truly amazing. The mess was totally worth it. edited to add kitchen mess photos.

I was just saying last night to friends that my introduction to Kecap manis has been sufficient to make this book a wild success. I love this stuff. The batch of Sweet Soy Sauce Dipping Sauce I made last night was a bit hotter than previous versions (the chilis were feeling spicy, apparently) - hot enough to give someone the hiccups from heat, which I hadn't ever encountered before last night. So, my lips were on fire for a while. It was a good thing that the hiccuping friend had brought a nice cool bottle of white wine to have with dinner - and cool down lips with.

We share a large box with friends, so we went on a serious veg eating spree tonight (creamed swiss chard with scapes, lettuce and argula salad with baked goat cheese and radishes) and will take the rest with us to eat along the road to San Francisco, and will have next week's share waiting for us when we get back - or at least some of it, hopefully. I know exactly what you mean about trying not to leave Seattle in the summer. This is the only big trip we have planned this summer, and I am so looking forward to just watching my garden grow this whole summer season.

I have to give credit for the photos (and the dishwashing) to Larry (who i think I am supposed to refer to as my dh ? I don't really know what that dh means but I see many people use it to refer to someone whom I presume is some type of significant other. What does dh stand for? - dear heart? designated hitter? dishwashing hunk?). Ok- I'll keep the satay paste in the freezer, and try it out when I get back. Maybe I'll get all scientific and make a fresh batch to use as a control group.

We got our first box of produce from our CSA ( farm ) share yesterday. This is what I had today: Strawberry Shortcake Also in the box, chives, arugula, spinach, garlic scapes, swiss chard, cilantro, and radishes.

Satay is so much more satisfying on the grill, then under a broiler - doubly so in the case of the anemic broiler in our gas oven. And I could eat the Sos Kecap Rawit with a spoon, I tell you - with a spoon. In fact, I just did - with my leftovers. The marinade on that chicken satay really is good stuff. After I made the paste, I realized that I scaled back the amount of chicken I was using, but not scaled back the marinade - so I only put half the marinade on the chicken and the rest went into a small container in the refrigerator. Anybody have any experience with storing seasoning paste? The ingredients are, if my memory serves: coriander fennel lemongrass tumeric garlic galangal ginger shallot palm sugar peanut oil and salt What do you think ? Is it worthwhile to hold on to it, or is it better to just start fresh? Well, of course, it is better to start fresh, but how long do you think you could keep marinade like this around and have it be useful ? So, I am glad to see that so many people have gotten interested in the book and found themselves a copy. I am going on a road trip for the next week or so (Seattle to San Francisco/Marin/Berkeley/Los Altos Hills and back again), and so I am looking forward to coming back to a thread teeming with descriptions of all the Cradle of Flavor cooking that has happened in my absence. Any chance we will see some more food from you soon Mr. C. sapidus or are you going to continue your explorations of the Vietnamese/Thai/Chineses kitchen for a while? chrisamirault - any plans to visit the Cradle of Flavor while you are in Montana ? No, I am not stalking you - I just thought I read something about you going to Montana this week ? EmilyR - what are you going to cook next? Sony, snowangel, Smithy, anzu, Dejah, Pallee, KristiB50 - When do we get to see what you are making from Cradle of Flavor? Sir Fat Guy - any chance we will see you tackle those eggs again ? Oh - one of the really cool tips that came along with this recipe was the use of a stalk of lemongrass as a basting brush. You chop off the very ends of the stalk, peel off the outer layers, and then lightly smash/bruise the bottom end of the lemongrass - and voila, you have yourself a natural, lemongrass basting brush. Of course, every time I used my nifty and frankly, beautiful, lemongrass basting brush to baste the chicken with a little peanut oil, the oil would drip on to the coals, causing a flare up and causing me to freak out a little bit (experienced griller, I am not). I suspect that my grill is too close to my coals (perhaps because I am using a former gas grill as a charcoal grill - gas disconnected, permanently, of course). But that, my Cradle of Flavor friends, is a tangent I don't have time for right now. I have some road trip planning to do. edited to include the big guy.

Dinner Tonight: Chicken Satay - Sate Ayam Stir-Fried Asian Greens with Garlic and Chiles - Tumis Sayur Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce - Sos Kecap Rawit Javanese Cucumber & Carrot Pickle - Acar Timun Steamed Rice - Nasi Putih Chicken was grilled, so I got some char - also got some flames as the lemongrass-peanut oil dripped onto the coals. I thought I had burnt the chicken - Nope. Just right. Lucky me. The greens were bok choy, with the addition of garlic scapes, because I had some in the garden that I needed to use up. Too tired for more details. I'll chime in tomorrow with some reflections on tonight's dinner.

For some reason, I imagine the above list, written out in calligraphy, on fine paper, framed and matted, with a nice line drawing of a pig with pins in his ears and tail, looking sort of sheepish ( not to say the pig looks like a sheep, but that the pig looks embarrassed at having pins in his ears and tail).

My mother makes great cheese toast. I think it is just cheddar cheese on toast, but somehow it just so much better than when I make it. She gets the cheese to seep into the pores of the bread in a way that I cannot replicate. I just chalk it up to the "Mom Factor". It really is wonderful and heartening beyond measure when someone who has been ill returns to health enough to want solid food, or at the very least "real food". I think this is particularly the case among those of us who are, shall we say, food centered. This reminds me that I have been meaning to try toast dope for sometime now. I think I will do that this weekend, in honor of the return to health. A toast to toast. Hmm, I haven't ever thought about the fact that a "toast" is the word we (many Americans, at least) use to describe how we salute an occasion. I am pretty sure that the next time someone raises a glass, and announces a "toast," I am going to picture a slightly square slice of buttered bread with cinnamon sugar on top.

Oh, almost forgot my favorite photo of the evening. Weighing shallots:

Chicken Curry Noodle Soup, Kuala Lumpur Style - Kare Laksa So, I think I am going to invest in a small food processor for spices. I sneezed about 63 times today while my cuisinart blew spice mix out of small cracks and all over the kitchen. So, I finished grinding the spices for the seasoning paste in a mortal and pestle, and then returned things to the cuisinart for turning it into smooth paste. Here's the ground spices: The paste (which is spices + shallots, toasted shrimp paste, and water): The chicken, hanging out in the paste. I cut the lemongrass too short, so my lemongrass knot is disheveled: The finished dish: So, I have made a resolution. I resolve to make the sambal (or whichever condiment I am intending to make) First. So, that I don't repeat the experience of this evening, when the main dish is almost ready, and I am getting hungrier, and just want to sit down and eat instead of delaying the gratification to toast more shrimp paste, chop more shallots etc.... The real resolution should be to really do better planning and chop everything all at once, portioning items for various dishes I go. But, for now, I resolve to make the condiment first. Probably a good idea anyway, so the condiment can hang out, and have its flavors marry or mellow or sharpen or whatever it chooses to do while it is resting and I am off cleavering chicken at the other counter in the kitchen ( I love to cleaver things - so satisfying, and just a little bit exciting). So, forgive the tangent - the point of the story is I got hungry and didn't make sambal. Next time. So - help me with the noodles. The noodles were the weak point of this dish. The broth tasted great - nice little kick at the back of the throat. The chicken was tender and flavorful. I should have gotten the tofu more golden, but as I have alluded, I am wimp when it comes to frying. The lime was a really nice touch on the finished dish. I might have let the simmer get a little too vigorous at one point - the broth looked sort of broken (can a broth break?) towards the end of the cooking. Sometimes, I need to quit trying to do too many things at once, particularly while trying to learn a new recipe (seems obvious, doesn't it?). The noodles were a bit undercooked, and just sort of hum drum. I used the below. I shopped at a new market, and their noodle section was decidedly slim. Later, I picked up these noodles at PCC (organic - oh la la) just for research purposes. I haven't cooked with them yet, but I 'll give them a try next. Oh - the toasted dried shrimp paste - the aroma was completely overpowered by the lovely chicken curry smell that followed closely thereafter.

There are some folks in our neighborhood who seem to get quite a few cherries. Some of them string flashy shiny streamers in their trees, and others use nets during the critical harvest time. There used to be a massive Bing Cherry tree in our backyard that the previous owner of the house said they would pick bushels of cherries from. Unfortunately, it was dying by the time we got the house. Now, there is a 4-foot tall leafy stick that hopefully will turn into a Lapins cherry tree in its place. We also have a very tall Van cherry tree that produces cherries which all split before they ripen - so we just let the birds/squirrels have those.

I see Pizza Pac-Man eating a brontosaurus. And now, I know what I am having for dinner tomorrow night (homemade pizza, not brontosaurus).