C. sapidus

I made chayote al vapor for a potluck yesterday. Simple and delicious, just chayote, serrano chile, salt, and cilantro. To make a more substantial (and spicy!) lunch from the leftovers I sauteed white onion, chorizo, and pickled jalapenos, tossed in the chayote, and finished with feta cheese, fish sauce, and Mexican oregano.

Spicy soft-scrambled eggs with onion, garlic, chile serrano, pickled jalapeno, tomato paste, and feta cheese. Served with toasted rye bread. Egg and tomato tastes good but rarely looks appealing.

Sometimes it is fun to start with what's in the refrigerator and improvise an Indian-ish curry. This one started with a wet spice paste of ginger, garlic, and red and green chiles, pureed with chicken stock and fried in ghee. Added dried fenugreek leaves, turmeric, and every ground dry spice beginning with the letter "C" (canela, cardamom, cumin, coriander, cloves, and cayenne). Seemed a little thick so I added coconut cream with chopped fresh spinach. Finished with cubed zucchini and feta cheese.

Shrimp and zucchini al mojo de ajo: Saute garlic and onion, blend with chicken stock. Sear shrimp in the garlicky oil and remove. Sear zucchini, add cilantro, Mexican oregano, and the garlic puree, and cook down. Add shrimp and leftover walleye, finish with lime juice, and serve over leftover green rice. Pretty tasty for a night when neither of us had planned a meal.

Hope you like the rice, @YvetteMT First time making bulgogi. Marinated thinly-sliced NY strip steak with soy sauce, honey, toasted sesame oil, black pepper, and blended Asian pear, garlic, ginger, and onion. Grilled over charcoal, and served in lettuce leaves with soybean paste dipping sauce (fermented soybean paste [doenjang], gochujang, garlic, scallion, honey, toasted sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds). Spicy cucumber salad on the side, with garlic, scallion, thinly-sliced onion, soy sauce, hot chile flakes, honey, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Quite nice.

Yes, char on the gas burner, wrap in a kitchen towel to steam, and the skin rubs off pretty easily.

Welcome! I can't help you with baking, but I expect others here can and will.

Huachingo a la Veracruzana, but made with fresh walleye rather than red snapper. Saute white onion, garlic, flat-leaf parsley, and piquillo peppers. Add crushed tomato, S&P, chopped green olives, sliced jalapenos en escabeche, and some of the chile vinegar. When the sauce is cooked down, add the walleye fillets, poach in the sauce, and top with capers. Walleye was from a local fish market. Mrs. C grew up eating freshly-caught walleye, and approved. Looks like we will be sending more business their way. Arroz Poblano: roast Poblano chiles and blend with white onion, garlic, spinach, flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, and Mrs. C's freshly made chicken stock. Fry the rice, add puree, and then cook the rice in chicken stock. A favorite.

Shrimp and spinach curry with onion, ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, green cardamom, dried fenugreek leaves, garam masala, ground coriander, ghee, and yogurt, finished with a tadka of paprika and dried chiles sauteed in butter. Recipe is for saag paneer, but shrimp substitutes nicely. I cooked this while Mrs. C was out of town - she says that spinach curries remind her of things she cleaned up when she worked as a nurse.

Sauteed onion, garlic, zucchini, and roasted chile Poblano mixed with leftover chuu chee bay scallop curry from last night. I enjoyed the vegetable-enhanced version more than the original.

Chuu chii curry bay scallops. Red curry paste was half commercial and half homemade (I was missing some key ingredients). Made with cooked-down coconut cream, so very rich. Fried rice with shiitake mushrooms and roasted Poblano chile.

Yes, chopping with a cleaver takes longer but I do prefer the texture. Using pre-ground meat is faster, and still yields a delicious meal when time is tight. Life is full of choices.

Improvised catfish curry with zucchini, shiitake mushrooms, red and yellow bell peppers, and leftover sweet potato. Curry paste was shallots, garlic, long red chiles, frozen lemongrass, ginger, shrimp paste, and lime zest, with ground coriander, cumin, and turmeric. Sauce was coconut milk seasoned with tamarind, fish sauce, brown sugar, and Thai basil. Outcome seemed shaky but it turned out well in the end.

David Thompson says that sticky rice is best soaked for several hours (typically overnight), but in a pinch you can soak sticky rice in warm water for 30 minutes. I have not tried this so I have no opinion.

This meal was in the "slap it together quickly" category. Not sure we even have any sticky rice in the house. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I enjoy sticky rice but make it rarely, probably because it is more of a production.