Grub

Salmon "Wellington" with a simple white sauce & asparagus: I love salmon, and this has recently become my favorite way of cooking it... Place the fillet on some puff pastry, season with salt and pepper (and in this case, some grated orange zest that I had in the freezer -- I was amazed by how potent that stuff remained even after months in the freezer...), drop some spinach on top, brush the pastry with egg was and fold it up. Brush the outside with more eggwash, and bake for 20 min on 475 or so -- until nice and golden brown. The moisture from the spinach makes it impossible for the fish to dry out. The sauce was knocked together on the go with some blond roux I had in the freezer, some milk, cayenne pepper and a dash of Worshestershire sauce -- and a daub of butter. I've done this as individual serving pieces, but it's just that much easier to do a single, large piece -- and it looks kinda cool to:

Wow, dude... This looks amazing.

Grilled, peppercorn encrusted fillet mignon with caramelized shallots, on a demiglace chipotle peppercorn-sauce, with steamed baby carrots with a touch of dill, and a baked potato (not shown). Carrots were done in a tinfoil pouch on the grill, along with the steak, with some salt, a touch of dill, and butter. Turned out great. But, my food porn isn't making too much progress -- I'm not even the Larry Flynn of food porn; I'm more on the level of drawing obscene pictures in the stalls of a public bathroom. And I'm feeling like an old fart too -- these newfangled digital cameras suck. I want the manual focus and control of my old Pentax MX, dagnabbit. Damn thing focused on the carrots instead of the steak. Shite & onions. I figured plating the sauce first, and leaving the steak on it would look better, than spooning the sauce over the steak -- I wanted to show off the beautiful grillmarks and all. Then of course, I covered them up with the shallots anyhow... Doh. And yeah, I've got no idea what I was doing with the carrots. Put the baked tater on a sideplate, to not crowd the plate -- but I just didn't know what to do with the little orange things. Man... This is hard. Tasted great tho.

I've done some simple raitas, but don't know enough about it to call myself familiar with it, mind you... The thing about multiple dishes is, I try to keep things uncomplicated if at all possible; the path of least possible stress. Generally, I'll just do some papadums and chutneys as hors d'oeuvres while cooking -- or, depending on who's showing up, encourage them to bring something :) Man, thems some wild colors -- very cool that they're natural...

Okay, very cool. I've experimented with adding turmeric, as well as onions and scallions to my rice, but that's about it. On one occasion, I simply added some yellow food coloring, and had people insisting that the rice tasted differently -- it didn't, and once I told them I hadn't added anything but color, they agreed that maybe it did taste like normal rice after all... This showed me how much appearances affects taste. Now, I've got few clues as to what aromatics to add to rice. Lets say I'm making rice for the Pork Vindaloo (not the one in this recipe, but the latest -- heh, I've thrown away the recipe for this one) -- what would be good aromatics to add to rice for that dish? My natural inclination would just be to go with plain white rice, and dump the curry on top of it. Since the Vindaloo has such an immensely great taste, it wouldn't occur to me, that flavored rice could add something to it, you know? If I could create rice that brings something additional to that plate, I think that might be amazing...

Thanks a bunch for all the good words -- that write-up took WAY too long... Gah. Waaza, okay I'll make sure not to roast the aniseed the next time. And if I make chances, I'll be sure to make a note of it in this thread. I don't have any really heave pans unfortunately, so I'll probably be stuck with the wok for now. The patting down you describe for the marinade is exactly what I did. Next, well I think something rice would be good, but tomato based chicken is worth looking at... But after thinking about this for a while, I realized that there were two dishes that I remember from England, that I'd like to become more familiar with, are Madras and Phal. Now, Madras was the penultimate curry on the strength-chart (Mild, medium, Madras, Vindaloo), and I obviously realize that the strength of the curry really has nothing to do with this. I've learned that about Vindaloo, of course. But I'd still like to learn what a Madras curry really is -- if it should be a particular meat, like Vindaloo, etc. Phal is something I never heard about while living in Manchester, but I had it in Wokingham, and it was even spicier than Vindaloo (as served in Manchester, that is). I had been to this place (Wokingham) with a dude and we had the Vindaloo, which was VERY spicy. Next time we went there, he had the Vindaloo, but warned me to not try it since it was very spicy that night (he got there before me) and I poo-poo'ed him, and was about to order the Vindaloo -- but then I was told that this dish Phal was even stronger than the Vindaloo, so I promptly ordered it. It damn near killed me. Okay, I wasn't in "training" like when I was in college. But this stuff was really, really lethal... HOWEVER, the important thing was, it was also extremely good. It was too strong for me to eat more than 1/3 of it -- and even doing that, was damn near torture. But I did it, cos it just tasted excellent. Now, if Phal is like the Vindaloo, hopefully, the extreme spiciness isn't actually a proper a part of the dish, and I might be able to recreate it, and eat it, without the extreme heat. So that'd be an awesome thing to learn. -------------------- Milagai -- okay that makes perfect sense. "Ghaaaaat!!" is almost exactly what I said, when I smelled it Episure -- aaaaugh. ::groan:: Okay, okay. There's this little town, and a frog walks into a bank. He walks up to a teller's window where a young lady sporting a nametag, "Patricia Wack" smiles, greets the frog and asks him how she can help him. The frog tells her his name is Kermit Jagger -- and yes, he IS related, Mick Jagger is his father -- and that he is looking for a temporary loan because he is about to take some friends on a holiday, and his father isn't around, so he can't get his hands on any cash right now. She asks him how much he is looking for, and he says he needs 30,000 Pounds. Whoa, she says, that's quite a lot -- even with a famous father, we'd expect some kind of collateral for that. The frog says sure, and very carefully, places a small, exquisitely decorated porcelain elephant on the counter. Oh! says she. This is most unusual -- I shall have to talk to the bank's manager. Excuse me, Sir, I'll be right back! The frog nods and smiles. So the teller walks into the manager's office and tells her story, shaking her head in puzzlement and amazement -- but the manager nods appreciatively, and seems to regard the matter as a fairly normal affair. Her explanation coming to and end, she says, "This is really quite strange, don't you think, sir?" -- holding out the little elephant -- "I mean, this is his collateral? What IS this thing, anway?!" The manager smiles and replies, . . . WAIT FOR IT... . . . "It's a knick-nack, Paddy Wack. Give the frog his loan. His father is a Rolling Stone." ::rim shot:: HA!

PORK VINDALOO: From a recipe by eGullet member Waaza. This is the best Vindaloo I've ever tasted in my life. And I've eaten a lot of Vindaloos in my days -- mostly in Indian restaurants in England. I've been on a long quest to try reproduce the taste of those things -- but this one surpassed it, easily. I'm not beating my drum or anything -- it's Waaza's recipe that did it... For anyone who might be interested, I created a monstrous, and detailed write-up of the cooking process, with pictures galore, over on the India forum. You can find it here.

INTRODUCTION (FYI, this is a continuation of this thread and also this one.) Man, this is gonna be a lot of work... I apologize for the length of this post, but to do this recipe full justice, I see no other way to handle this, except trying to pass on all the details... If it is a long read, have sympathy with me -- cause it surely will take me more time to type this up, than for you to read it. Well, if you haven't read the two preceding threads, I've been trying to figure out how cook a popular Indian dish named Vindaloo. In Britain, this is an insanely spicy curry devoured partially due to a drunken machismo after a night in the pub ("Ach bugger all this -- Oi! Ye wankers up fer a Vindy?! Enkerlan, Enkerlan, Enkerlaaaaan!!" Sorry, I digress) but also because it is a really tasty meal. Needless to say, there are differences in authenticity and regions etc., but I won't get into that here. I never ever thought I'd be able to say this, but I liked the Vindaloo I cooked last night even better than what I ate in my college years in England. And obviously, I've gotta give credit to Waaza for the recipe, as well as all the rest of the information he's offered up in the previous threads. Thanks dude, thanks a bunch! For reference, you'll find Waaza's recipe in this link. I've typed up my own recipe, formatted according to my own preferences (which I do for most things I cook), but since he asks that we only copy the recipe in its entirety, I won't share mine. Besides, I still wouldn't cook this dish without all the footnotes of Waaza's original recipe, so I strongly suggest you stick to that, if you want to cook this amazing dish. THE MARINADE Now then, lets' get on with it... First off, the spices: whole peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, crushed red chili peppers and mustard seeds (clockwise). The recipe called for 6-10 chilis, and I know what kind of a crowd I cook for, so I went with 10. Normally, I'd be prone to use considerably more, but I have far too much respect for the recipe, and was very determined to follow it as close as I could. (And by respect, I mean that I had all faith that this recipe would produce a great meal as it was -- but if I had found that I wanted it to be even stronger, I would certainly add more, the next time I cooked it. In this case however, 10 chilis happened to be just perfect for my taste. I've eaten far spicier food than this, but I think it would be a detriment to the taste of this dish, if it was any hotter). For some reason, I added the star aniseed segment at this point, rather than after the roasting process (along with the garam masala), as the recipe called for. I don't know why I did this -- maybe it was a brainfart, or for some reason, I just made a spur-of-the-moment decision that the aniseed should be roasted too. I don't know if this is a good or a bad idea. Also, I diced the star aniseed up before adding it, which the recipe doesn't mention. (Waaza, what do you think, should I have roasted the aniseed or not? I did roast it in the previous recipe I used, but I have no idea how aniseed really reacts to roasting, to be honest.) Star aniseed is extremely potent, and it completely ruined a dish I once made that called for a whole star aniseed, so only using a single segment is the right thing -- it might be possible to use two or three even, because there was no taste of aniseed in the final dish. Of course, Indian food tends to blend all the spices together, as opposed to Thai food. Okay, I chucked these bad boys in a dry wok (no oil) over medium heat: This mixture was supposed to be roasted until it started smoking, but after nearly ten minutes and no smoke, I increased the heat to "high." (I use an electric stove, so I think the heat doesn't conduct as well as a gas stove.) I added the cracked fenugreek seeds just as the smoke started, and immediately took the wok off the heat. This seems to have done the trick. The colors seem to be just about right, although the mustard seeds (I think) are fairly dark, so maybe I made a mistake in increasing the heat after all. It was hard to tell from the aroma, since I used a lot of chilis (in fact, once it started smoking, I put my head directly over the wok and took a deep sniff -- BAD mistake! Whoa, what a rush -- my nostrils felt like the smoke stacks at Chernobyl.) These spices won't all roast up at the same time, so I don't think there's any other way to do this, other than roasting them individually, which would be pretty damn tedious. Okay, so I dumped it into the mortar. I'm giving you a wide shot of it here, so you can see what type it is (I think Waaza asked about it in an earlier thread?) -- it's a Thai wok, of the type that Jamie Oliver uses. It's a big one, about 45 lb. but I love it. People tend to shy away from using something this big and heavy but in my opinion, unless you're a gym rat, a tiny bit of manual labor is good for ya. Besides, this is Kalifoornya, and I don't want the Gubernator to be calling a girlie-man or nuthen. Sorry, I'm delirious. This is hard work. Here's good stuff all ground up. The plutonium aroma I experienced earlier was gone at this point, and there was just a dark, roasted type of smell to it. I'm not entirely confident if I roasted it too hard or not. But I think I'll try to be more patient the next time. Next, I added the garlic and ginger. The ginger (right) was frozen (I find it keeps much longer this way) and grated with a micro-plane, which makes it extremely "frizzy" and voluminous, so it looks like there's a LOT more of it, than there really is. The garlic was run through a press (I always prefer to do this, than chopping it, since I figure that chopping it leaves a lot of yummy garlic juice on the cutting board). The final two ingredients in the marinade were the oil and vinegar. I used a simple rice vinegar. Here's the pork. The color looks a little weird in this picture -- I tried fiddling with it in Photoshop, but couldn't seem to get it to look right. But I'm sure it didn't look quite like that. By the way, instead of leaving it in the fridge overnight, I used this vacuum box, and marinated it for about three hours (in the fridge). I figure this is every bit as good as a 24-hour soak, because the meat really soaks up the liquid. Added the marinade. It doesn't completely cover the meat like the recipe calls for, but I think it's okay, since I normally give the box a good shake every hour or so. If it truly is imperative that the marinade should cover the meat, I think more liquid needs to be added -- I don't know if more vinegar should be used, or something else. (Part of the reason why the marinade doesn't completely cover it, is that I used slightly more meat than the recipe called for, but I'm fairly certain that even if I had used the proportions described, it would still not have covered it.) THE COOKING PROCESS Okay, that's the marinade portion taken care of. Onwards onto the cooking process... Since I'm scaling the recipe up a little bit, I'm using three onions rather than the two it calls for. Besides, one of them is really small. I'm using a mandolin with a really narrow "teeth" setting -- pretty darn close to 3mm. Of course, this only cuts it into 3mm slices, so I'll have to dice it with a knife -- but I've gotta do that with the bits that the mandolin can't get to anyhow. Okay, all done. Not perfect 3mm dice, but this should be more than good enough. It renders down a LOT in the cooking process. And into the wok. I never measure the amount of oil I use -- I'm not sure if that's terribly important -- maybe I should? I was pretty generous, though. I like to use peanut oil, since it has a high smoke point -- even if this isn't cooked at a high temperature. I don't know if some other oil would be better? I really took my time, and probably spent closer to 30 than 20 minutes. The color looked good to me, but I was a little shocked to see how oily it ended up after it rendered down. Maybe I used too much oil, but I'm not sure. The final result didn't taste oily. Pork added. It released a lot of liquid right off the bat, which makes me think the vacuum marinade box did its job pretty well. Only a few minutes later, even more liquid was released. Notice that it has already started to take on a slightly darker color. By the end of the cooking process, it will be a whole lot darker. As you can see, there's not much marinade left. When I was cooking this, one of my guests smelled it and asked me -- in the tone of a child making a hopeful plea -- "are you gonna add this to the wok?" and when I replied that yes, I would -- there was much joy and excitement. Heheh. Here we are, at "Bhuna, stage #1" -- the liquid has been cooked off (well, most of it). I added the marinade, and "Bhuna'ed" it once more. Since there was so little marinade left behind, it didn't take very long, though. For the third Bhuna stage, I added an entire cup of water, even though the recipe just called for "a little." I don't think this would be of detriment to the recipe, though, since it just prolongs the Bhuna stage, which I think just intensifies the flavor. I might be wrong. (Waaza, am I correct in assuming this? Oh and hey, I know that Bhuna refers to the method, but what is the literal meaning of this word?) On the home stretch, now: I added enough water to cover the meat: The recipe suggests simmering this while covered, for one hour (and then uncovered for 10 minutes, or until the sauce reaches the desired thickness) -- but after half an hour, I decided that the liquid was evaporating too slowly, so I decided to leave the lid off. It started to take on a darker color, but the evaporation processes was going so slow it would probably take more than twice as long as it was supposed to, so I increased the heat slightly... This is the last picture I have before plating, and from the color, I'm fairly certain it was taken just before I plated it. (Cooking can be a demanding task on its own; it's easy enough to forget ingredients or steps... Now, add in taking pictures, trying to think about how to best document the process, figuring out exactly at what stage I should take a picture, and how to take it so that it best describes what is going on -- and avoid getting steam on the camera lens, covering the camera with oil or grease, or dropping the thing on the floor, or in the wok -- is quite the challenge... Sometimes, I feel like I'm a lobotomized gerbil struggling with quantum mechanics. Or something.) Finally, ta-dah! The finished product. Sadly, I added way too much cilantro (and didn't chop it finely enough, either), so you can't really see it all that well. Argh! Freakin' bummer, to shoot a crummy picture of plate, after all this -- but then again, I seem to have a natural knack for doing this... FINAL THOUGHTS Unbelievable. Sometimes I adjust the sizes to make sure I've got leftovers, and I did that last night -- but there wasn't a morsel left. All gone. This would normally make me feel pretty happy, or proud. But I'm actually slightly annoyed, because I was just looking forward to eating those leftovers that much. Not to blow my own horn, but I've made a few decent meals in my time (for an unschooled amateur, at least), and even a few really good ones -- and just a handful that have resulted in genuine raves. This was one of them -- and I'm not abashed to say this, since the reason for it isn't my cooking, but the recipe itself. Waaza, btw, my guests told me to thank you! They went nuts over this meal -- even one dude that I know the food was a little too spicy for (I would normally have adjusted the heat down for him, but I was so excited about making this meal that I just forgot. Shoot). Improvements: I can't think of anything to suggest that would improve this recipe. I wouldn't mind trying a little more or a little less of some of the ingredients, just to see what happens to the end result, but most likely, the next time I cook this I will probably try to follow the recipe just as closely as I did this first time. Maybe the third or fourth time, I'll try to experiment with something, just a little. Mistakes: -- While not exactly a mistake, I did marinate the meat in a vacuum box for three hours, rather than the recommended 24 hours, but I don't think this made any difference. -- I did end up crushing and roasting the star aniseed, which isn't in the recipe -- but again, I'm not sure if that had any effect. -- I might have roasted the spices too much, or over too high heat. I'll try to be more patient the next time around. -- The cooking process is done over medium heat, so constant attention wasn't needed, but I could probably have stirred the pot a little more frequently. Nothing was burned, but on occasion, things would thicken up a bit at the bottom. This may or may not be a good thing. There certainly wasn't any burnt flavor to it. If it did affect the flavor, it might have made it deeper, or darker. -- I didn't chop the cilantro (coriander leaves) as fine as I should have. -- I take pride in cooking for the crowd, so I always tweak things to accommodate individual tastes, but this time I forgot that one guest had a slightly lesser threshold for spiciness -- he still loved it and devoured it, but since I'm sure this would have tasted just as good (or damn near) to the rest of us, I would have toned down the spiciness, had I remembered. -- And I took another crummy shot of the plate. Something never change. Well, that's it. Not that I'm a Vindaloo guru or anything, but I think I've come a long way. Thanks again, Waaza. To recap, here are the tree resulting dishes from my Vindaloo journey... First attempt: Second attempt: Third attempt: And no points for guessing which of these recipes I'll be using, from now on. Man, looking at this made me realize that the third recipe didn't use any tomato sauce at all -- and I was really concerned about that: I was worried that it wouldn't look as nice, without the red tomato coloring! Man, wouldya just look at that dark brown, beautiful color! Ah, I'm drooling again now...

Wahahahaha!! I'm envisioning a bad scene of a drunk cook poking around in the coals with a coathanger, spilling his beer and cursing, because more strips of juicy, marinated flank steak keep falling in... Thank you!

I had a chance to try it tonight. Got a lot of pictures, and just a few comments, but too tired to sort it out right now. It was absolutely superb. The cooking process took quite some time (I would have started early, but wanted my guests to see the whole thing, since they're very interested in Indian cuisine), so we all got a little inebriated -- and not to equate this with a Rusholme curry, but I think that helped really get people raving. It was absolutely fantastic. I mean, the last one I made was good, but this was in an entirely different league. Normally, I love it when people eat everything -- I like having leftovers, but then again, it's nice if you cook something so good, that people eat everything, and you have no leftovers -- it's a compliment, sorta... Well I made far too much food this time, to ensure I'd have lots of leftovers. But damnit, they ate everything -- I didn't need a compliment on this one; I knew it was fantastic. I wanted some damn leftovers, hehehe. I'll try to get the pictures up tomorrow. Dude, that was excellent! If you have any other recipies to share, I'd really like to hear 'em!

Bul Go Ki; Korean Fire Beef -- with sticky fried rice and julienned-ish English cucumber. Flank steak cut into thin slices against the grain and marinated in soy sauce, sesame seed oil, toasted sesame seeds, pepper, rive vinegar, garlic, brown sugar and some cayenne pepper. Very simple and really tasty, very rich. One caveat: make a bit extra, because you'll inevitably lose a few strips when you BBQ 'em (and have a beer nearby to console yerself, because it's a rather traumatic thing to behold). Source: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/ko...00/rec0044.html Source: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/ko...00/rec0045.html

AlexP, I don't think you're pedantic, but I thought that if any of her two cooks failed to support her it would be Katsuji. I mean, from the footage, it looked like he was gleefully hoping that she'd be eliminated, and that he was outright sabotaging her... I did catch the last episode, and it was one of the better ones that I've seen so far. The women clearly did better than the two guys -- if I'd caught a few more episodes, and seen similar performances, maybe it wouldn't look so peculiar. I mean, out of nine guys and three gals, eight guys are gone -- where'd they find those dudes? At the drive-through window at KFC? I'm thinking, this is like wrestling. Now, they'll throw a twist at us and have two women eliminated -- leaving Katsuji and Katie, and everyone will think Katsuji will win -- but then a counter-twist, and Katie steals the win at the last moment From PBS.org, the viewer predictions for a winner goes like so: Autumn: 32% Sara: 14% Katie: 6% Katsuji: 3% This show would be far more interesting if they got a 1-hour slot -- provided they used the extra time to focus on cooking. And I also think PBS breaking the series up with a fundraiser did it a major disservice.

I think that's a completely valid observation -- except if this was the ground for JP's dismission, then it should have been the Chef of that team that should have gotten axed. Because, just as the final product is more important than what happens behind closed dores, the leader of the team is ultimate responsible for that final product. I definitely don't think that she should have gotten axed, because she did a better leadership job -- I'm just saying that if the quality of the food is what got JP axed, they axed the peon, when the boss was the responsible person... It seemed like a bit of a "heads I win, tails you lose" thing going on between the two teams.

Whoa! I just read that. That is an amazing story -- I would be proud to know an upstanding guy like that. The shows I've caught so far, he never seemed to come across as a very likeable character. But if his bio is accurate, he must be a helluva guy...

I just saw the Chef Michelle Bernstein show, and felt kinda ambivalent about it. Maybe I've just happened to catch only the episodes where this happened, but there seemed to be a contrived focus on the female contestants. The three female contestants are mostly commented on as a group, rather than individuals. Imagine if there were three black contestants, and they were constantly grouped together like this -- it's like "hey, lets give the darkies a hand, they did such a good job!" In this episode, they split the six contestants up into two groups, where one contestant would take the role as the chef, and the two others to follow that chef's lead. And of course -- one group was lead by a female contestant (leading two males), and the other lead by a male contestant (leading two females). Cooking Under Fire? Sod that, this show oughta be called Gender Cooking Competition. --- spoilers below --- Now, the female lead team clearly seemed to be ahead. The chef appeared in charge, and pretty bossy -- which I'm sure is appropriate. The male lead team floundered because the chef seemed to want to take a more democratic approach to things. Both teams had some disasters, or near-disasters, but pulled things off in the end. The final verdict was that the female chef had done superbly, because she had taken the lead and been in charge. The male chef had done poorly because he hadn't -- except towards the end when it seemed they were heading for disaster, which was a good thing. Surprisingly, the second team's food was judged to be the best, but that was mostly because the first team had strayed from the south Florida theme. This was blamed on the Latino male cook, since several dishes had a Latin flavor -- and although the Chef had proudly created a Kentucky twist to the main dish, this wasn't brought up. The other guy on the female-lead team was surprisingly brought up to the front, along with the male Chef from the other team -- everyone expected the two leaders to be the ones who'd go up against each others. The male cook from team one got the axe, because he had been too much of a follower. This seemed weird to me -- of course he had to be a follower -- his Chef took completely charge and bossed them both around. The other guy didn't follow her lead as much, and she had to be on his back quite a lot (in fact, when a shot showed her telling him quite sternly to do as she wanted, because she wasn't going to go home today, they cut to a candid shot of him telling the camera "like hell you aren't going home today!") So they penalized the guy for following his boss' orders. On the male lead team, it was commented that the two cooks constantly questioned their Chef's decisions, and put it down to his lack of leadership. How can you penalize someone for not taking charge, when the boss IS taking charge -- yet have no complaints when a subordinate becomes insubordinate due to lack of leadership? In the latter case, you have two wrongs. In the first, you have two rights. I'm sure the editing might create a different picture from what really goes on in the kitchen. But that's the final product: what you see in on the screen. It didn't make much sense to me.

Although I'm happy enough with my cooking skills (mind you, I always hope to improve them), I'll readily admit that my knowledge is nowhere good enough to properly evaluate the ability of any of the Food Network chefs... Thus, to me, they don't appear to be one-note hacks, but I completely accept that to many eGulleteers, they may appear to be so. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think they are super-chefs, and I think (or hope) that I would appreciate it, and enjoy it, if they did hire someone with better skills and knowledge. But having said that, I agree with the earlier post about Julia Childs not considering herself a Chef. Being the best chef doesn't make you the best teacher. I completely share everyone's dislike of the "The secrets of ..." shows, the "So-and-so uncovered/unwrapped" and Rachel Ray -- especially the $40 a day series. I don't give a damn how a fucking Twinkie is made. I wish they'd stick to cooking, and edumacating people...

Those two dudes were probably one of the better choices, I guess -- it all depends on how their on-screen prescence and chemistry/shtick holds up. I didn't see all the episodes, but Deborah barely registered on the radar as far as I'm concerned -- just a generic, black woman -- kinda like Hans just being a white guy; no schtick or "angle." (Or was Hans the frizzy-haired goofy dude?)

Woah, that's a really detailed recipe; looks very good. I'll report back when I've had a chance to try it out. It seems very interesting. I'm particularly curious about the abscence of any tomato sauce, especially considering the long cooking process. I should think this would make the gravy entirely different from any vindaloo I've made, or eaten -- not that this would necessarily be a bad thing, of course. Very interesting. Not sure when I'll have a chance to try it -- I've been wanting to modify the one I've tried a few times, but next chance when I do a vindaloo, I'll try this recipe. Thanks.

Man, oh man, I'm just feeling confused here... I'm really grateful for the comments and advice -- I'm sure I'll learn from it all, once I've figured out how to absorb it all. But right now, I'm kinda perplexed about vinegar, sour stuff, tomatoes and things. I mean, I don't know enough about this to really stand up for a specific way to cook this -- everyone who has commented on this thread seems to be more knowledgeable than myself. I'm going to go along with Episure's comments about parboiled and browned potatoes -- I don't know if that's authentic or not, but I love potatoes.

Whaaaaa...? Now I'm seriously getting a little confused -- tomatoes aren't authentic for a vindaloo?! I mean, tomatoes contribute a LOT to the flavor (let alone the color) of this dish -- whether vindaloo should be cooked with fenugreek seeds or not, pork, chicken, shrimp, or potatoes seems nearly irrelevant, if tomatoes are optional, and unauthentic...? Obviously, not all Indian dishes use tomato for their sause, but I always figured that vindaloo did? It seems like such a significant item in the recipe -- how come you didn't mention this earlier, in the first thread, Waaza? I'm kinda bewildered now; it feels like I'm trying to understand the finer points of Hollandaise, only to be told to leave out the egg yolks, or something... Oh well... I'll try another vindaloo this weekend if everything works out. I'll keep the fenugreek seeds (roasted) -- as well as the tomato sauce. And will make sure to cook it nice and slow. And yeah, no panch poran. I'll let ya know how it works out.

See the holes in the raw burgers. By the time they are cooked, the burger has shrunk enough that the hole is really more of an indent. Has no one ever heard of this before? I'd swear that over the course of more years on eGullet than I remember that someone else did this... ← I've learned to make burger patties thinner in the middle -- even if it's just a matter of giving em a bit of a squeeze with your thumb -- because that'll ensure the middle gets cooked before the outer regions dry out or get overly crispy. Creating an all-out hole in the burger is a very logical extension. The torus shape should ensure even cooking. Of course, you'd have to be careful not to make the hole too big, which might jeopardize the structural integrity of the patty. Dang clever.

Never got up the nerve to do it, but I became obsessed with trying to steal a big promotional poster for this thing from a place near work when teaching a class... "No, the application layer goes on top of the guaccamole! You're thinking of the sour cream! Concentrate!!" I'm so glad there are other computer nerds out there who had the same thoughts. Methinks this is the closest I ever got to taking an interest in fast food.

Okay, this makes a bit more sense -- this is a two-way causality, rather than a direct cause... Ie., you may as well conclude that obesity causes diet soda drinking, as diet soda causing obesity -- or that Jenny Craigh causes obesity... Edit: Doh. What Tommy said.

Anzu, okay I'll hold off on the panch poran for the Vindaloo -- I didn't realize you were just talking generically, about trying spices, rather than specifically for the Vindaloo. I use a Thai style mortar and pestle (same thing as Jamie Oliver) for grinding spices. I guess next time, I'll grind the star aniseed- cumin- coriander- and fenugreek seeds more fully before I add the ginger, garlic and chilies. And yeah, I realize panch poran is spelled different ways -- and that just like garam masala, there are probably different ways to create the mixture. Re. raw cashews -- the book really does call for raw cashews. The recipe has you cook the mixture afterwards of course, but it specifically says raw cashew pieces. I wanna make more Vindaloo myself now, but I figure I may be close to causing an anti-Vindaloo riot if I keep at it Helenjp, glad you liked it. If you want to share your Vindaloo experiences, that'd be awesome too. Gauam, I've cooked a few Indian meals, but have very little experience with panch poran. I love the taste of though, so if you have any recipes to share, please do so! Edit: I tried roasting some fenugreek seeds, and they definitely take on a bitter and unpleasant taste. However, unroasted, they have very little taste at all, so I think I'll leave them off completely, from my Vindaloo recipe from now on...

I'm pretty sure Cincinnati style = cinnamon. I've never been big on cinnamon myself, but I love Cincinnati style chili... It's amazing how seemingly odd combinations like that can taste so good (at least to some people). Awesome pictures on this page...