Chris Amirault

Tandoori chicken is made for legs and thighs.

What about groundnut stew? It's a West African peanut and chicken stew that's hard to do wrong, and it's a great example of the whole being larger than the sum of the parts. It also has the "Cool!" (yeah, I know, or "Yuck!") factor of putting a typically sweet item into a savory dish. And it's easy as pie: 1. onion, garlic, ginger saute; 2. tomato paste and peanut butter (crunchy is fine) 3. chicken stock and spices (chile, pinch of curry, black pepper, salt, cinnamon...) 4. cut up vegetables, tubers, and greens 5. chicken

See, that's the thing. I love that hidden door. Because when your average home cook gets a chance to learn about something, the chemistry and alchemy that comes from devotion to a task, anatomy lesson; botany 268; one step further - I love that! ← I get the sense that Moulton loves it, too: she seems to get a twinkle in her eye when opening those doors on TV, and I have the same sense in reading this book. Of course, since she'll be here for a Spotlight Conversation shortly, we can ask her about those hidden doors!

Kenji, check this thread out, for starters. Also, tell me why you want to do whole dishes? If your kid is healthy and normal, that 30-minute attention span business is going to hold true for a while! I have an eight year old who helps on specific things in the kitchen, and she gets more and more responsibility as she matures. Meat ball rolling, stirring, measuring, even some knife work are all part of her repertoire now. However, she doesn't often oversee a whole dish for the reason listed above.

I can think of a few guys around here who would volunteer to give that cookbook a happy home.

Sides, ladies?

Oh, come on: even a six-second dunk with a fresh Oreo is gonna leave some of that brown dusty crumb floating on the top like an oil spill. Or do you only dunk with your cookies in cheesecloth?

I've never heard of cranberry sausages. Can you say a bit about what's in 'em? Fresh or dried cranberries? Type of meat?

The well-bred Ms. McArthur is right: dunking is lousy. Not only do you ruin the dunked item but it also compromises the liquid. Who wants to have their lovely glass of milk corrupted by cruddy crumbs?

Well, not everyone's so sanguine about the future of aquaculture: click here and here.

But I'll bet that no enemy combatants have ever thrown the "jump onto the cutting board" move on Besh. So there's that.

Maybe it was Christopher Kimball done stole yer saffron, man.

To Jason's point about cost and value (from about.com):

Like JohnL, I use Penzey's Indian Mogra cream saffron, which costs $10.95 per gram. Jason, if I'm reading your post correctly, your saffron costs $10/OUNCE, or about 35 cents per gram (since 1 oz = 28.35 grams -- thank you, gourmetsleuth). I'm a bit perplexed.

I believe you mean caldo verde, sin?

How much ginger juice can one get out of, say, 1 lb of grated ginger?

What a fantastic post, sazji! Thanks. I was surprised to read that there was no word for lime in Greek until recently. What is the neologism?

I agree that CMC is a PITA, Susan -- but her orange chili oil is always in our cupboard. It's perfect for a quick and easy cold noodle dish.

Just got a Kenmore Ultra Seal-n-Save, which is currently on sale for $60 from $100. (Click here for information.) Seems to be working just fine, and the bags are cheaper, retail, than the equivalent FoodSaver bags.

butcher-packer.com has the best price, $1.50 per pound (vs $8.99 per pound at sausage maker). please remember that you are using sodium nitrite (#1) and for dry-cured sausage sodium nitrate (#2). always follow instructions and warnings with this stuff. salt peter (potassium nitrate) has not been used for a long time in this country. ← Thanks, Michael -- and my duh. I knew this, but my fingers did not; they wanted to type the Britishism "-petre" I think. Here's a live link to the Butcher and Packer website, where a pound each of DC #1 and #2 costs $10, including shipping (and on which you can also pick up a copy of Charcuterie for $25).

Hmmm, Ellen, Freud would have something to say about your soaking that book, in the bathroom no less. I agree that glossy coffee-table is a screaming warning sign, particularly if "fusion" is in the title!

Just to clarify, what I meant above was the following: 1c/1c simple syrup that has a good inch or so of ginger grated into it to steep hot for 5-10 minutes and then left to cool. Strain when you're ready to use it, or not. If you toss in some sliced pieces too, one is left not only with the syrup but also with candied ginger, btw. Sam's right: even if you do a cold steep with the ginger, the flavor rounds out pretty quickly. So, to get the bite, you need a bit of fresh ginger muddled in. My first batch went moldy on the counter after about a week or so, and the rest have been in the fridge. Oh, also, for those who aren't mojito'ed to death, a long sprig of mint makes a nice garnish.

Although I am quite married these days, if I brought a woman back to my swinging bachelor pad, and she did this, she would find herself on the curb in very short order. ← Yes, she'd have done something very bad indeed, very bad. Deserving of a good firm spanking, I'd say.

You'd have to get some anchos (easy enough), but this recipe will show off those chipotles very nicely.

Well, after a busy holiday week-plus, I've used every item in this Sitram Profisserie set except the steamer, most several times, and I'm in love. The quality is as good as the couple of pieces of All-Clad that I have, and it's much more useful than the Calphalon: I find it hard to see against that charcoal grey and not being able to toss them into the dishwasher is a PITA. The handles on the Sitram are fantastic, fat, light, and cool on the pans and very usefully designed on the stock pot (they're wide enough for me to grab the entire pot with one hand while I pour, scrub, you name it). I've not used most of the other stuff in this list, so I can't compare to other things very readily, but I'm amazed at the differences in simple cooking tasks using these pans. I can tell already that my beaten-up non-stick Calphalon is going to get a lot less use; I can fry and egg or sausage in these pans with less heat and no sticking, something I can't say with that non-stick anymore. I have a crappy electric stove (for another two weeks only, I'm happy to say) and the responsiveness and both high and low ends is far, far greater than I've had before. I know that's all just common sense, but I really have found that these basic differences have transformed my experience in the kitchen. Finally, the price is fantastic: less than $25 per pan/pot, and that's not counting the covers and steamer. Whatever price Amazon offers on All-Clad or Calphalon, you're not likely to beat that.