Chris Amirault

Hi everyone, Chufi! Great photos! You should be a food stylist! And sparrowgrass, your diagrams made me laugh out loud! I'm hoping to get to our curry today, though I haven't quite picked out the recipe. First, though, I want to respond to patti's question: Patti, I think that the meat on rib chops will be a bad idea for a curry that's braised for a while. It's likely to get more, and not less, tough as you cook it. The braising class that's going on right now can give you the reasons for why that is. Ok, more in a sec. I'm jazzed!

This is an excellent question! I will check out a few reference texts this weekend and post some answers.

I buy all my Penzeys through mail order (though I'm eager to get to the Boston store sometime), but I place a pretty big order three or four times per year. There are certainly things that I have to get at our local Indian store, and I certainly wouldn't want to call into question the quality of bulk stuff at yours. But I've been very happy with the quality of stuff at Penzeys, which seem to exude the essence of any given spice in ways that other purveyors don't, and I have found that the bulk items at my store vary widely in terms of quality and freshness.

I don't know -- interesting question. I've only ever used leg of lamb, which I love to cut up. I also have few other options.

That is so cool, Johnny! Portland's own Tsukiji market! Thanks for the photos and insights. My grandfather was a Gloucester fisherman and I remember fondly being down at the docks the few times we visited him as the boats came home. It's an amazing thing, taking stuff from the sea.

Like homemade ghee, making your own curry powder from a hand-picked, toasted, and ground spice mixture makes an astonishing difference. Just to pick one ingredient: toasting your own cumin seeds in a dry skillet and grinding them in a coffee mill (used just for this purpose of course!) produces something that is incomparable. I have no connection to Penzeys Spices but have been using them for years and think that they are amazing. And while they make good vindaloo, garam masala, and other curry mixtures in a pinch, you can make your own amazing stuff for very little money. Since proportions are not copyright-able, let's share the different proportions we use for the spice mixtures we find. They will be much, much better, I gar-on-TEE -- oops -- not in the gumbo thread any more -- sorry! I say all of this because truly wonderful homemade lamb curries actually meld the flavor of the curry with the lamb in such a way that many folks who "don't like lamb" often enjoy lamb in these dishes. I guess I'm hoping that a few lamb doubters will take a crack at this cook-off in the hopes of conversion. But, then again, I think lamb is probably my favorite meat, so I'm prejudiced!

I second that recommendation -- and ghee is the easiest thing in the world to make: melt butter, keep at a low heat for a while, filter out the hardened white crud, put in fridge. When I used to work at the first Indian restaurant in RI with a tandoori oven (now, sadly, gone), I would make the ghee sometimes by dumping massive amounts of butter into a huge pot. Very fun!

Plain rice for me. The flavors of the gumbo are so intense that I think you want just that nice rice base. I wouldn't even use stock, myself. Oh, and on the pre-cooked vs cooked-in-the-gumbo chicken discussion, I believe that the texture is the reason to do pre-cooked when you can. The shreds of roasted or boiled chicken absorb the gumbo more, I think, than do chunks cooked in the gumbo. My $.02.

Hard to find, huh? I guess that makes sense, based on my understanding of Japanese cuisine, but it's still a bit surprising. As far as I'm concerned, you certainly can! I do think that very few Indian curries use pork and more use beef, though far fewer than lamb or mutton.

Brushed stainless, thanks for asking!

I'll let you know when it comes. It does look pretty great, and that OXO line has generally been very good.

Indian Lamb Curry: eGullet Recipe Cook-Off IV!

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. For our third Cook-Off, we've chosen Indian lamb curry. Yes, it's true: that's a huge category for a cook-off, and saying "Indian" is about as stupidly broad as saying "American." However, like gumbo, there are some basic elements to most of the many, many permutations of this dish, and several cook-off participants wanted to start cooking Indian at home with several options. So, instead of choosing a specific lamb curry, I thought that having a conversation about those different permutations (like the gumbo okra/roux discussion, say) would be interesting and fun. I also wanted to avoid too particular ingredients that some of our cook-off pals can't get in certain places. A few things that we can discuss, photograph, and share include: -- the spice mixture: If you've never toasted your own spices, then you have a world of aromatic wonder ahead. I'm sure many people can share their ingredients, ratios, and toasting tips for curry powders that will blow away the garbage in your grocery's "spice" aisle. We can also have the ground vs. whole debate, if there are takers! -- the paste: many curry dishes involve frying a blended paste of onion, garlic, and/or ginger, along with the spices, in oil or ghee (clarified butter). I found that learning how to cook that paste -- which requires the same sort of patience demanded by roux -- was the key to making a deep, rich curry. -- accompaniments: rice dishes or bread (I have a pretty good naan recipe that I'd be glad to try out again). Here are a couple of related eGullet threads: lamb kangari a lamb and goat thread If anyone finds more, post 'em! So: find yourself a leg of lamb to bone, sharpen your knives, and get ready to update your spice drawer!

Serendipity intervenes! The eBay seller sent the wrong kettle in a Russell Hobbs box, so I returned it for full refund. Meanwhile, we decided to go with an OXO Uplift Tea Kettle -- again off of eBay. But it has been impossible to find those Russell Hobbs kettles anywhere. The Monas have all been pulled (for good reason, it seems), but most of the rest also seem to have been discontinued. Any ideas on this?

Thank you! This thread was immensely helpful. ← You're welcome! Soot Bull Jeep and Pink's are must-eats, in particular, I think.

Here are a slew of cooks.com recipes on Coca Cola Cake, which has looked interesting whenever I've seen it (never had it though). Anyone tried it?

Now, naming the beet, I could deal with that.

Chicken parm(esan(o)), baby.

Not to sound too PETA-y, but I think that knowing the name of dinner is... onerous. Yeesh.

I'm getting several PM votes for Indian and/or Thai curries (and a suggestion for padt thai). The trick with curry is that there are, of course, a gazillion different curries. Any suggestions for a particular one? I suggested a mussaman/massaman curry, since there are a few recipes on the net and I know of at least two specific ones that are great. Thoughts on a South (or Southeast) Asian curry dish that meets the cook-off criteria?

I posted this thread on LA restaurants during a recent trip, and I think that there are a few that meet your criteria here!

Welcome, kriskitchen, to eGullet! And a welcome member you'll be if you keep up with the great tales and apt metaphors: "cow-flavored nylon" is spot-on. Your and my means of disposal were the same. I distinctly remember, having been caught in the act of improper disposal and told angrily to eat the shite, the horrid taste of napkin-wrapped, pre-chewed cube steak. So, I shed a tear for Ginger. Those who did not die salute you.

Oh, man, oh, man, bad steak. This is a special nightmare for me, because of something that I never see anymore but was ubiquitous in our household growing up: cube steak. This was some appallingly sinewy cut of beef that had been malleted and pierced to "tenderize" it. I still remember getting up and feeling like I had had jaw surgery. Did anyone else eat this strange thing?

I think that Lipton onion soup mix may well be responsible for untold horrors throughout the 60s and 70s....

Today in the car, Andrea asked me, "What was the worst thing your parents cooked at home when you were growing up?" I paused, placed finger to chin, and drew a deep breath. You see, my wonderful mother, who cannot be judged for juggling a teaching job, raising two kids, and running a house, was a cook of limited interest and ability, and she prepared dinner at perhaps the nadir of US home cooking, from about 1963 until I left for college in 1981. In addition, both she (Mainer) and my dad (Nova Scotian) were raised in flavor-free, cook-it-until-way-past-done Yankee households. Finally, as a working mom, she relied on the wave of convenience foods that really took off in the late 60s. That is to say, I ate some really atrocious food growing up. I have so many examples that I will be parceling them out over the life of this thread, but I'll start with a family staple: broccoli. Of course, this is a fine vegetable, at least, when green. In my house growing up, we were regularly served frozen broccoli (already cooked, of course, that) that had been boiled at least half an hour and had thus turned a camouflage gray. Broccoli in this state has the texture of tofu gone wrong, and the flavor and smell revealed that its chemical composition resembled that of elementary school paste. But this is just the tip of the bad food iceberg. Surely your wonderful mom or diligent dad deserve nothing but honor and love. But, surely, too, you must have a few tales from your raisin', eh?