Franci

Tonight we had spaghetti col sugo finto, " fake sauce" And a salad of spinach, confit tomatoes, croutons of a quick zucchini bread a made from the inside of the dolma from yesterday, olives de nyons and 21 months aged Comte. Tell me I can find at least 18 months old Comte in the US...I have a serious addiction and when I was in NY over Christmas I was able to find only the 12 months one.

I like a lot "Ris e erborin", rice and parsley in the tradition from Lombardy (with beef stock, rice cooked in the stock, potatoes and finely chopped parsley) Minestrone with rice, to serve lukewarm or cold, you can also pour in a bowl when hot and unmold in a plate. It's great in the summer. Minestra con i grattini (with are like little pasta crumbles you can make in a mixer) Pasta e patate in the Neapolitan style Meatballs soup with wild chicory Fish soups with all the Italian regional variations but I also like cataplana style or bouillabaisse

Ann_T, your pictures are so beautiful! Lovely meal. Rotuts, these ribs are very little effort and everybody found them delicious. It's a J. Mclagan's recipe. Season the ribs with salt, pepper and little 5 spices. Cook on a tray, over a roasting tin with some water, covered with foil (for 1 1/2 hours at 160 C). Meanwhile make the glaze. Soak 50 g tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup boiling water, let sit for half an hour. Add 90 g brown sugar, 2 tbsp fish sauce, juice of half a lime and some fresh grated ginger, plus some hot pepper if you like. Simmer 10 minutes. Pass through a coarse sieve and discard solids, let cool. When the ribs are cooked, turn on the broiler and bush with the glaze, let it cooked until nicely glazed.

Tonight we had tamarind glazed lamb riblets and zucchini dolma.

Dry the peel for Chinese recipes

I also tried this one! Very nice. I don't like mayo based potato salads and made it different times in last couple years.

Liuzhou, thanks for sharing your recipe. We usually have crab shanghainese style, steamed with vinegar, tons of sugar and ginger. Need to introduce some variety! Mm, what a beautiful salmon. Thanks Soba, I'll go and check the USGM thread! RRO, i love your dinner and I went to buy more eggplants... Tonight we had a very simple, satisfying meal, at least for me. Very Mediterranean. Couscous with vegetables, some deep fried friggitelli and zucchini, a little piece of sea bass, some black olives from Nyons, more fava pate' from a couple days ago, abundantly drizzled with lemon juice and good Apulian oil

Ah, Andie, do you use dry unsweetened coconut for your coconut milk? That's how I've done so far. Thanks

Shel, glad you liked your almond milk! Andiesenji, nice tool! Good to know you can buy at Costco. You are the queen of gadgets to me. You also have a Thermomix, right? How does this soymilk maker perform compared to a Thermomix (or a Vitamix) in these situations? I need to buy all my kitchen appliances soon and I need some smart thinking. I don't want to buy too many gadgets at the same time.

Liuzhou, we would have really liked your crab and clams. How do you stir fry them? So, full of spring your dishes, Soba! I hope you are going to give me tips on where is best to buy in USGM, we are moving back in Sept/Oct to Brooklyn. Yesterday night we had Beef carpaccio Celeriac Rosti with tzaziki and Turkish fava beans with dill. Plus a salad not pictured and some toasted garlicky bread previous nights. No fancy food, pretty basic food potatoes croquettes friggitelli and some fried mackerel (oh, this was terrible, how I miss good Cornish mackerel ). Not sure if friggitelli are the same as pimentos de padron, think so. I grew up eating them. Some left over polenta and oyester mushrooms (which my 2 years old daughter loves!) pork skewers and some roasted eggplants. Wanted to do the miso spread, Prawncrackers reminded me of this tasty dish, but was running short of time...next time.

I soak almonds (which I've already peeled) overnight with a bit of salt (2 cups almonds and 1 teaspoon salt). In the morning, I rinse them, then put in the blender with some lukewarm water and blend. Let it sit for half an hour. Drain and repeat. Take the almond meal and put back in the blender with more lukewarm water blend, let sit for a bit and drain. Of course the first milk is thicker. You can decide if you want to blend them together or keep them separated for different uses. I use 1 liter water in total for 2 cups almonds.

Thank you, Rotuts! Heidi, yes, I made the chutney following this recipe, which I already tried in the past and remembered as delicious, substituting this time loquats for mango. For 1 kg gross weight of loquats I scaled to 75%. The only advice I have is that I kept the pot covered and I should have thought loquats release more water than mango and by the 30 minutes it was too runny. So I had to keep on the stove on high other 5 minutes to thicken. Keep in mind if you don't want to overcook. Otherwise it's a lovely recipe. I also omitted the raisins and added just a bit more sugar.

Dcarch, you even have a fish shaped chopping board! Don't tell me you carved that yourself... Keith, my husband and I were admiring your steak selection! Nickrey, did you like it? How does a dehydrated meringue taste? No, they are cooked! Tonight we had duck confit, black rice, roasted sweet potatoes, loquat chutney and some coco plats.

very nice, Frogprincess. Love all of your dinners, especially the crayfish boil and I really like lamb, too bad both my children don't like it as much as me. Hurray, I'm referring to the bottled chilli sauce. Temperature here are still mild, so, still in time for a polenta dish. We had polenta and coniglio alla bergamasca. Being Bergamo my mother's hometown.

Baselerd, that pork neck looks so inviting! RRO, I'm also curious of your preferred ways to enjoy Koon Yick. I brought back a bottle from HK. Actually guys, any good idea for a simple XO sauce dish? Yesterday night we had our fill of fruit de mer Oysters with sauce mignonette crevettes grises And mussels plus a plate of crudite'.

Keith, your char siew looks so good, and I'm sure the chicken is really succulent. I've seen Food canon cooks his hainanese chicken sous vide. We have just come back from Singapore and, of course, I immediately tried to replicate with the traditional method HCR, not successfully I'm afraid. Still have in mind the perfect cooked chicken at Tian Tian's stall. How is that sauce made btw, I tried Food's Canon but didn't feel was the same. As soon as we move in September I'll finally buy a sous vide set! Thanks mm84321 and Frogprincess for you kind words Yesterday pictures were taken with a terrible light. I made duck in plum sauce from Sunflower food galore. She has always trustworthy recipes, too bad she stopped blogging. Served with more sauce on the side Then I had some chestnut pure in the freezer and wanted to do something with it. I thought of making spaetzle to go with the duck but it started as a disaster. the spaetzle were too mushy. So I put them in the oven, under the broiler, dotted with demi sel and as soon I had some crunch I turned them around. Much, much better, very nice chestnut flavor and I liked them with the sauce. And as greens we had Ottolenghi's string beans and coco plats with hazelnut and orange zest

Here in France is customary butterflied but I usually buy one piece (all thing divided lengthwise) asking the butcher to leave it as it is

Tonight we had a salad of artichokes and bottarga peas with chorizo and some affettati: bresaola, coppa and prosciutto

I'm curious if any of you use black sesame powder in savory dishes. I use it in the most traditional, Chinese ways: like Tang Yuan (the glutinous rice balls) or for pots de creme or for baking. So, I'm wondering what do you do with it.

Guys, I've not posted on the dinner thread for a long time, but I'm truly enjoying your dinners! I'm a little lazy at the moment and I wish I could just take out some your wonderful meals

Love the idea of these fritters!

Thanks guys, I already heard of that place and I meant to go there. I'd love to have a good Chinese cleaver! I think I'll check on Vietnamese food blogs for tips on food.

Hi, I hope somebody can give me some suggestions here. We are going to be leaving in about 3 weeks for a cruise starting in HK and ending in Singapore, we are stopping also in Vietnam (Ha Long Bay, Chan May, Ho Chi Min City). We are going to have a couple days extra in HK and Singapore. Are there any kitchen tools that you think are particularly worthy to bring back because hard to find, interesting, useful...also food that are legal to bring back to Europe? Like good fish sauces or shrimp pastes. Names and addresses would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks, Linda. I never had cod tripe before so I'm not 100% I cooked it right. The sauce was very nice and rich (like when you cook pork rind), the tripe was soft and maybe I would have liked a little more bite, not sure if it's supposed to be like that or I simply cooked it too long (one hour total). Would I cook it again? Yes. My husband didn't realized it was cod tripe, he thought it was an eggplant sauce!

Budelline di stocco. Cod tripe. These have been soaked. In Liguria at the market I was able to find them already soaked. I cooked them very simply with a little bit of onion, stock, bay leaf and saffron. Roasted peppers at the end. The sauce becomes very gelatinous.