corax

i see your point. maybe just a marinade for a couple of hours? let us know what you discover!

the photos alone are worth checking this page http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/12/chinese-roast-duck.html but the recipe looks useful as well. these versions http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultry/r/crispyroastduck.htm http://www.chinesefoodrecipes.net/cantonese-roast-duck.php suggest maltose as a possible substitute for honey in the basting sauce. has anyone used rice syrup for this? that might be tasty too.

this was supposed to be in response to FAITH's post about mediaeval arab cooking ...

wow! do you have the specific book in mind already? i'd like to know more about this ...

fantastic. and right there on amazon. why didn't i think of that! thanks kerry!

i'm grateful that 8 years later, we're still posting on this thread. i remember when this chutney recipe was first, first posted. good to see that people are still appreciating suvir's wonderful contributions to this board. here's my question for the cognoscenti: does anyone know where to buy curry trees in the US? i live in south florida, and could probably grow one in my back yard. the aroma of freshly-picked curry leaves is almost too ecstatic to bear ... i would love to be able to have them every day.

good luck katie -- hope it all goes well

are we really sure the teflon [etc] interiors are safe? with all the recent brouhaha over BPA, and considering the sustained high heat involved here, i confess i worry. if i could find a zojirushi [or other brand] that did not have the non-stick lining, i would buy it in a minute. i drink tea pretty constantly throughout the day, and could use such a hot-water source ready to hand. not to mention for the coffee-drinkers in the house, for making soups, etc etc. for electric kettles i have used the BODUM MINI-IBIS http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006F2M1 which works superbly well and dependably, and is not terribly expensive; but again there's the plastic issue. i switched to the CHEF'S CHOICE 677 http://www.amazon.com/Chef/dp/B0000E5IN3/ and had two or three of these, but [a] they tend to break, and the newer models have a nasty plastic smell [from the lid] that just would not go away, even with repeated boiling [with vinegar water, baking soda water, etc]. my mother bought a CUISINART KUA-17 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004S9CZ/ which as expected is durable, hardworking, and fast; but the lid is directly *under* the handle, which can lead to steam-scalding of the fingers. my most recent foray into this arena was for the BREVILLE SK500XL http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A790X6/ and this has been the most satisfactory so far. auto-shut-off; cordless from the base; stainless steel inside and out; 1500 watts, thus as fast as you can get in the USA; 'factory' flavor rinses out after a few vinegar-water boils; nary a problem despite constant daily use for months. so the breville is the one i recommend, based on the experiences above.

thanks to you both for the receeps. mmmmmmm,jaddarah! corax

elie, bill, thanks for posting pics of your finished products. my mouth is watering just looking at them now! i would be interested to know the recipes each of you used -- how, e.g., they differed from the one suvir posted waaay at the top of this thread. [bill notes in his latest post that he had to improvise on his proportions, but that's natural with such recipes isn't it -- it honors their elastic nature.] i'm wondering how far traditional middle-eastern cooking [as opposed to postmodern fusion cuisines] might tweak this very basic dish. has anyone, for example, heard of traditional levantine cooks using a broth [say chicken broth] to cook the lentils and rice in, rather than plain water? corax

LOL! yep -- he had it all ... right from the start. but i guess it just goes to show you what a dish of this stuff can do to someone who's sufficiently hungry ... both my grandfather and my father craved it [and made it themselves if they couldn't coax anyone else to do it for them LOL] -- i myself didn't come round to loving it until i became an adult. i think that had to do with precisely the aesthetic issue you mentioned earlier ...

well, as baklava jenny said, it's not the most beautiful dish visually. claudia roden, in one of her cookbooks, tells how her aunt would serve it and say apologetically, 'excuse the food of the poor!' -- to which her guests would reply, 'keep your food of kings, and give us imjaddarah every day!' [LOL] that said, i do think of it as kitchen food -- am always surprised when a restaurant offers it on the menu. but when done right, it is just delicious, isn't it? i'm also told that this is the 'red porridge' that jacob is said in the bible to have cooked for esau, for which the latter sold his birthright. i'm not surprised that you have a recipe that names it as egyptian; i'm sure it's prepared all through the levant. and for that matter, almost every culture has some beans-n-rice dish. how did the ancients figure out about assembling the 8 essential amino acids from their non-meat foods? it's remarkable, i think.

MANY thanks to all of you who rallied round. i couldn't be more pleased. and i now know that xmas dinner will be a resounding success! all the best to all of you, and bon appetit, corax

many years ago -- certainly over twenty, and very likely over thirty -- there was a recipe in the NY TIMES for roasting prime ribs of beef. the column was, as i recall, either james beard's or craig claiborne's. and indeed i think the headline said something like 'readers recall old recipe,' i.e. this was already an old-timer when the copy i saw was published. it was at least the second time, then, that it had been run in the TIMES, and i think it was being offered again at that point due to popular demand. i have searched and searched -- not only my own files, but all over egullet and indeed the internet -- with no success. can anyone help me reconstruct this recipe? i'd very much like to use it for xmas eve dinner. i'll tell you what i remember about it. one preheats the oven to X degrees, puts in the roast, cooks it either at that or a lower temperature for a certain period of time, and then TURNS THE OVEN OFF completely, without opening the door. one then leaves the roast IN the oven, door closed, for Y minutes per pound. [and i think, but can't swear to it, that one coats the whole roast with flour before it goes into the oven.] when the meat comes out, it's absolutely exquisite. and i remember having done this several times, years ago, and being *really* pleased with the results each time. so imagine my despair not to be able to find it now! i have used meat-thermometer versions etc, but with far less success. if anyone can who remembers this recipe can supply me with it once again, i will be profoundly grateful.

I've always known this as Mujaddarah. Where (geographically) does 'Im Jaddara' come from? I believe it is the same thing.. slight variation. It is from Lebanon. ← an interesting riff on imjaddarah, also lebanese, is called 'imdardarah,' and is made by substituting burghul for rice.