Jason Perlow

The shrimp tacos were a total unplanned "chopped" mixed basket of stuff sitting in the fridge thing, I was amazed I could pull it off.

Lots of noshing tonight, leftovers and dips, but two notable standouts, an insalata caprese, eaten early in the evening, and a late night improvised tacquito of leftover shrimp from NYE, fresh made avocado salsa and melted pepper jack.

Are we talking about a Mexican-style Picadillo, or a Caribbean/Puerto Rican/Cuban/Latino style one? The two taste very different in my opinion. I happen to be partial to Daisy Martinez's recipe, which is of the Caribbean variety. !It requires Achiote Oil and Sofrito to make, all of which you can find the recipes for on her website. You also need Alcaparrado, which is a Goya product of capers mixed with green olives with pimentos.

Actually, today we did the reverse. When opening a an old bottle of balsamic vinegar today, the cork crumbled. So we decanted the vinegar into a new bottle with a fresh cork and what was left over was a big glop of mother. We had some wine from thanksgiving sitting in the fridge (a drinkable chardonnay) so we put that into new vinegar bottles and added some of the mother to each, in a cool part of our pantry with the tops open. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks if those bottles turn into vinegar.

Eggplant and Shrimp with Garlic/Basil/Chili Oyster Sauce

Eggplant and Shrimp with Garlic/Chili/Basil Oyster Sauce

This one we made over the weekend. Local Florida shrimp, cooked in Louisiana shrimp boil. Asian-style Peanut/Soy/Fish Sauce/Chile/Rice Vinegar salad dressing, mixed with rice noodles. This is one with Costco scallops, seared, done a few weeks ago. Straightforward vinaigrette. And a chicken larb done in a similar timeframe, I think back in November.

If it does I've been cooking myself a lot lately.

If that usurps the popularity of the sous vide and modernism threads I might not be so upset.

Since moving to South Florida I have been getting a lot of exposure to Peruvian cuisine, and I am now a Ceviche-holic. Ceviche goes so well with the warm weather and since it is essentially all protein and vegetables it's not particularly fattening either. So you can eat a ton of the stuff. This is a shrimp ceviche I ate last week. "Leche Del Tigre" a glass of highly chile and black pepper-laced "ceviche juice" coupled with pieces of seafood and fish cooked in ceviche. This is said to be an aphrodisiac. Choros a la Chalaca. A ceviche-style dressing for Mussels, although the shellfish itself is cooked by sauteeing. Peru and South American countries aren't the only ones with Ceviche. On the Pacific coast of Mexico, in Mazatlan, which is a city known for its shrimp fleet, the "Aguachile" style of ceviche is popular and abundant. This is also cooked with lime juice, but has a more fresh green Serrano chile pepper focus (the other, much more explosive one they use is called the Chiletecpin) as well as a cilantro-heavy flavor. The one shown above was eaten at "El Shrimp Bucket" one of the oldest operating restaurants in Mazatlan. Ceviche is also popular in other areas of Central America and the Caribbean so there is a huge variety of types. I would like to hear your recipes and do's and don'ts, as I have never cooked ceviche before, but I have access to really good local fresh shrimp at good prices and I would like to try.

The Kachin beef, is that like a larb?

I hope it was a Bar Mitzvah.

Tried "Lap Cheong" of various kinds? A classic add-in. Lap Cheong and Char Siu, absolutely

Superior Soy is a type of high grade soy sauce that is used in a lot of Cantonese fried noodle dishes. It has a deeper flavor. It comes in light and dark versions. I'm not sure of the manufacturing process but there's a page here

Noodle Salad w/Shrimp & Asian Peanut Dressing

We haven't killed our rice cooker yet, we've had it probably 10 years. Knock on wood. It's a pretty cheap model, no fuzzy logic or anything like that. Yeah the mix ins are great. We frequently throw in chicken stock, curry pastes, sofritos, spice mixes, herbs, various different things. Helps break up the monotony.

Also, any Chinese or Asian stir fry dish can be served atop alternative hi protein whole grains, not just brown rices. We've done this a LOT in our house using quinoa or the whole grain mixes you can buy at Whole Foods and other health food stores. There's a lot of photos on my blog and in my flickr feed with stuff done this way. Wheat Berries, Kamut, lots of stuff out there adapts very well to Chinese cooking and other cuisines that are rice dependent. This is a stir fry served over barley grains This is an "Egg Beater" egg foo young (griddle fried with only a small amount of oil) over Quinoa Shrimp and Tofu in Hot Bean Sauce served over a Korean-style grain/bean mix.

Like brown rices they are whole grain unhulled rices. So you have to cook them longer just like brown rices.

I personally do not feel there is a big difference without the sugar. However I have had various places make it with the splenda as if they were making it with the sugar. Some places, like Versailles in Miami, will do this if I say "Con Splenda" because I guess they have a lot of customers that need to cut down on sugar now. Others will just give me the packets to add. It does kind of taste like a thinned out lungo. Stronger than Americano, not as thick as a lungo, with no discernable crema, at least in most places I've had it. The lack of crema could be that they are pulling shots on espresso machines without using actual espresso grinds. But I could be wrong.

Just because you are diabetic doesn't mean "no rice". We cook the same rice dishes in our house but with brown rice, and higher protein to carb content in the dishes overall and portion control. There are some very good Asian type brown rices available now, including jasmines and other long grains. Also black and red rices. There are other whole grains that can be completely substituted for rice in rice dishes too. There are even really good brown rice noodles you can buy as well.

Yeah, I read this, but as I limit my sugar intake I have them either make it with splenda or I just say "sin azucar" and add the sweetener afterwards.

A couple I have missed posting: Shrimp with Chives in XO sauce with Brown Rice Noodles in Superior Soy. BBQ Pork Loin fried brown rice with Shiitake and Gailan w/Oyster Sauce Another variation with shrimp This was an eggplant and shrimp curry dish with Chinese pressed tofu, with a Malaysian Chinese type curry

Magnificent.

In my travels to Miami over the years and living in Florida since the summer I've had the pleasure of drinking "Cuban Coffees" or Cuban Shots at various latino eateries. I'm trying to figure out exactly how these are made. They aren't true Italian-style straight up espresso shots, they seem to be in between those and a lungo. If you ask for a "double" cuban shot you usually get about 8 ounces of very strong coffee, with no crema in it. Unless you ask "sin azucar", they are usually by default pretty sweet. The coffee used is typically Pilon or Bustelo (Both made by Rowland Coffee Roasters in Miami, which isnt an espresso grind as far as I can tell, although it says "espresso coffee" on the can) but I have seen other types of commercial coffees used. What's the process?

I'm antisocial and hate people. I'm equal opportunity in hating all nationalities and cultures.