C. sapidus

Not much cooking this week. One night we ate dinner at the Greek festival: gyros, spanakopita, roast chicken, dolmades, fries, ouzo, Greek wine, and baklava or Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. Another night the boys had KFC (their favorite) while the grownups went to a nicely-catered business meeting, with mushroom potstickers, deep-fried artichokes, bite-sized beef Wellington, salmon with cucumber scales, fruit, cheese, and free beer and wine. With an opportunity to cook on Friday, we made a simple stir-fry of pork, wax beans, and chayote, seasoned with fish sauce, salt, sugar, and lots of garlic. Mrs. C declared it Wisconsin food because everything was white. I also made saag paneer (spinach curry with fresh cheese). I would love to make something like the palak paneer served at Siddhartha, a long-gone and much-missed Indian restaurant. The saag paneer had onions, ginger, garlic, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, coriander seed, garam masala, and a little yogurt, topped with chile-infused butter. It tasted entirely better than it looked.

Don’t do what we did after inviting a food professional (okay, not a chef, but y’know) to dinner: cook several untested recipes from an untested cookbook. Um, not sure what I was thinking, except I didn’t quite realize the guest’s background when planning the meal. Fortunately, everything turned out nicely, but it was more of a white-knuckle dinner than usual. SIL was a pastry chef, but she is family so we just make our usual meals when she visits. In general, going with what you know and avoiding direct competition/comparison with your guest’s specialty seems like the best strategy.

I talked to Mrs. C about how she cooked the walleye, and apparently I had it all wrong. She soaked the fillets in milk, tossed them in a plastic bag with flour, panko, salt, and pepper, and then pan-fried them in browned butter. My go-to recipes for fish are pescado al mojo de ajo and chuan-chuan, so Wisconsin-style fish is a new thing for me.

Yunnermeier: Your last blog was so much fun, it is delightful to have you blogging again. I am especially interested to see how different foods fit into your life in Malaysia – which dishes are everyday home foods and which dishes you eat at restaurants, night markets, or on special occasions. Did night markets develop to avoid the daytime heat, or is there another reason? Your pictures and descriptions are definitely inspiring – I want to make a Malaysian dinner soon. I have only made a few Malaysian dishes so far, but I love the wonderful combinations of spices and chiles. Based on your pictures and descriptions so far, I have added ikan bakar, sambal belacan, and kai lan to my list. Keep those inspirations coming!

SeaGal: Thanks! We used grocery store "French bread". I prefer crusty mini-baguettes, but younger son has some loose teeth so we went with a softer bread.

My wife is a Cheesehead (and I use that term with great affection), so eating fish is one of the great pleasures of visiting the Wisconsin relatives. She is particularly fond of walleye, but we rarely see any in Maryland. Last week she found walleye fillets in the grocery store and recreated the taste of home (click). I’m pretty sure that she dredged the fillets in flour, salt, and pepper, and then shallow-fried them in a cast iron skillet. They were delicious, and our boys absolutely inhaled them. I am more familiar with saltwater fish, so this got me wondering: how do folks in Wisconsin (and presumably neighboring states) make fish taste so gosh-darned good? What kinds of fish do you favor? How do you prepare and cook them? For fried fish, what coatings do you use? What about you Minnesotans and others blessed with abundant cold-water lake fish? Please help a walleye-lover in crab country!

Tonight’s dinner: grilled lemongrass beef skewers (thit bo nuong xa); banh mi; daikon-carrot pickle (do chua), and spicy hoisin-peanut sauce from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. More on Dinner!

Kim: Can one make fried orzo? Looking forward to hearing about your feast. Ann_T: Mint sauce on lamb sounds delicious. Shaya: All of your dinners look good, but I adore salad with blue cheese and crunchy toasted almonds. Klary: That is a picture-perfect picture, especially the glowing roast potatoes. Tonight we made beef sate, banh mi, daikon-carrot pickle, and spicy hoisin-peanut sauce from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I kept the grill medium-low to avoid overcooking the strips of flank steak. The picture is a bit dark, but the beef turned out tender with a nice crust. After taking the picture, I poured peanut sauce on my banh mi. Sacrilege perhaps, but worth it.

Doubly honored, then - I always wanted to be Spiderman

rarerollingobject: Wow, that looks and sounds fantastic (and I am deeply honored, thank you). I must have missed the thit heo bam, I would like to try that.

Wendy: Was the pepper-coriander paste from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet? I have used that one on chicken, but not on fish. SeaGal: Yum, pho! I have never had pho ga – only beef, meatballs, or various tendony bits. Mrs. C loves walleye and found some at the store. While the boys and I were at swim practice, she prepared a Monday night fish fry, Wisconsin style.

Doddie: Domestic Hubby did a great job on the eggs and buttermilk biscuits. Mother’s Day breakfast: bricklayer’s eggs (huevos al albanil), guacamole, and coffee.

Ann_T: Thanks for the shrimp recipe. Prawncrackers: I love your Spanish dim sum (or is it Chinese tapas?). Klary: Congratulations on the gnocci, they look great! Of course, I have only had gnocci once in a restaurant (but I quite liked them). We made lettuce-wrapped tamarind shrimp with jasmine rice and cukes.

Ann_T: Boy, have we missed your posts - the flaky pot pie crust, the professional-looking Danish, the solidified swirls on the maple walnut fudge, and those wonderful prawns, ready to be cooked. How did you make the garlic prawns?

Marcia: That looks like a classic summer dinner. Tonight we had culture-clash fried rice. We fried Mexican chorizo in the wok, stir-fried chunks of ocean perch with soy sauce in the rendered fat, and then mixed in garlic, Thai chile paste, an egg, and scallions. Limes and eternal cukes on the side, and cold Blue Ridge Porter on the porch. After dinner we wandered the neighborhood with a visiting dog, enjoying the delicious aromas of honeysuckle and black locust that wafted by on the warm spring breezes.

Here are a few resources that you may find helpful: Best Thai brands - Kasma Loha-unchit Vietnamese herb primer - Andrea Nguyen ETA: A pictorial guide to Chinese cooking ingredients - our very own Ah Leung

Dockhl: Great minds, eh? Tracey: Too funny! We grilled five-spice chicken wings (again), stir-fried long beans with black beans and garlic, and served cukes, jasmine rice, and tossed salad with vinaigrette. This should be the last batch of wings for a while – we finally used up a 10-pound bag.

rarerollingobject: Ga kho is wonderful stuff, isn’t it? guppymo: Thanks for providing that beef soup recipe. I made it tonight (with a few substitutions) and the family loved it. I posted a picture on the Dinner! thread (click).

Prawncrackers: I love the crust on your lamb. I made guppymo's beef soup tonight, substituting tomato paste for tomatoes and using angel hair pasta for noodles. This was good and quick as advertised – I look forward to trying it during tomato season. Sides included stir-fried potato slivers with chiles and Sichuan peppercorns (basically, Sichuan hash browns), cukes, and tossed salad with ginger-mustard vinaigrette.

What a run of beautiful dinners! Tonight we enjoyed tinga Poblana from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. This was a smoky dry stew of pork, potatoes, and tomatoes with chorizo sausage, chipotles in adobo, onions, garlic, and oregano, topped with queso fresco and avocadoes. We will definitely make this again. Unpictured sides included eternal cucumbers, jasmine rice, and tossed salad with mustard and shallot vinaigrette. Tinga Poblana

Rather than lazy, I prefer the term efficient. But yeah, I am as efficient as the next person, and I know exactly what you mean about cleanup. For small jobs – grinding a few teaspoons of dry spices or mashing up garlic and chiles for nuoc cham - a granite mortar is way easier to clean than the food processor. Besides, a granite mortar has a certain functional beauty.

Hi, Klary: I am so glad to see you blogging. I always admire and enjoy your beautifully prepared and photographed meals, and your dauntless and adventurous spirit in the kitchen has been quite inspirational to me. Your Indonesian meal looks scrumptious. Perhaps some folks can nail a curry the first time, but with so many variables most of us have to practice a time or two. The good news is that you can do amazing things just before serving with a shot of fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, and/or sambal oleek. The bad news is that this final, careful adjustment usually takes place under pressure from a hungry mob. If you have any leftovers, try playing with the seasonings – you may be able to surprise Dennis. Is your mortar made of marble? Have you ever tried using a heavy granite mortar to pound curry pastes and spices? Advance congratulations to you and Dennis on your anniversary. Can we assume that the celebration will involve food and drink? Bring on a week of delicious food and beautiful photography – the more rhubarb, the better. I have every confidence that you will manage any kitchen adventures with aplomb. Interesting that your rats have an appreciation for fine foods – perhaps they got it from their owner?

Prasantrin: Beautiful picture! Alinka: What a pleasant surprise. I made red curry scrambled eggs with bamboo shoots, cilantro, and Thai basil. I fried canned curry paste in coconut cream and seasoned with fish sauce, palm sugar, and white pepper. Sides included cucumbers, coffee, and azaleas in bloom. Yep, savory breakfast for me, too.

Are you thinking of this link: The Company Cookbook?

Christian: Wow, what a spread! Your red curry looks delicious. We made curry fried rice (click) with fish fillets, bacon, and coconut milk, based on a recipe (kao pad pong karee) in Supatra Johnson’s Crying Tiger.