C. sapidus

Happy birthday, Marlene! Rocky: Whoa, that asparagus and BBQ pork look scrumptious. Tracey: Beautiful! Tonight we made curry fried rice with fish and bacon, starting from a recipe in Crying Tiger. Curry powder and coconut milk flavored the rice nicely, and I stir-fried the fish fillets in bacon grease with a little light soy sauce. Although I forgot to garnish with cilantro, Mrs. C declared it “the best fried rice ever.” She worked late, so I think she was just hungry. Elder son learned to cook real bacon in the cast iron skillet. He is used to microwave bacon, so he griped about everything until he tried a piece of golden crispy goodness – then he didn’t want to share.

In Malaysian and Indonesian cooking, candlenuts are used to thicken and flavor delectable spice pastes. Sounds like a good excuse to make beef rendang (click for recipe) or to run out and get Cradle of Flavor by James Oseland. ETA: Oh, and I forgot about shrimp sambal (sambal udang) - pictorial recipe in my foodblog.

Takadi: We have made canh a few times, but I would love to hear more about your grandmother's "infinite combinations", and the other things that she makes. You may already know this, but Andrea Nguyen's site Viet World Kitchen (click) has a lot of recipes if you want to surprise your grandmother when she returns from California.

Grilled chicken (ga nuong) and grilled zucchini from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, with nuoc cham and rice. Details on Dinner! (click).

Tracey, that looks beautiful! Tonight we made grilled chicken (ga nuong) and grilled zucchini from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Nuoc cham dipping sauce and basmati rice on the side. The marinade contains fish sauce, lime juice, black pepper, sugar, salt, and oil – same marinade for the chicken and the zucchini. I used skin-on chicken thighs, removed the bone, grilled over medium, and then raised the heat to crisp up the skin. This is an easy family favorite. Mrs. C and I enjoyed the gorgeous evening with a glass of wine while dinner was cooking.

Susan, that sounds delicious - and I'm guessing pretty spicy, with the Thai bird chiles. The adult members of our household would love it, but unfortunately our boys would shun the cilantro.

Tonight we stir-fried prik king curry with shrimp, flounder, and yard-long beans, from Crying Tiger. Jasmine rice and eternal cucumbers on the side. Details on Thai cooking at home (click).

More from Crying Tiger: stir-fried prik king curry with seafood and yard-long beans (prik king pad talay). This was a nice way to use up odd lots of shrimp and a lonely flounder fillet in the freezer. The curry paste had dried chiles, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and shrimp paste. This was quite good for a first-time attempt, but next time I will fry the curry a little longer to mellow the shrimp paste.

That looks beautiful. Do you mind describing how you cooked your duck (so to speak)?

Irishgirl: Thank you for your kind words. I loved the layers of chile flavors in the water-boiled beef: dried chiles in the veggie stir-frying oil; chile-bean paste for more flavor/color/heat; and then the crispy chopped chiles added at the end. This dish made me think of Mexican mole – totally different flavors and techniques, but the same idea. Land of Plenty is a wonderful book. Yes, you have to get it. LMF: Gorgeous strawberries, and my salivary glands shorted out my brain at “chorizo crusted . . .” Last night’s dinner was crying tiger, sticky rice, and crying tiger sauce, served over butter lettuce, thinly-sliced eternal cucumbers, mint, and Thai basil. The marinated porterhouse steak was particularly delicious. No pictures, but details on Thai cooking at home (click).

Tonight we made our first meal from Crying Tiger by Supatra Johnson: crying tiger (sua rong hai); crying tiger sauce (nam jin gaew); salad of lettuce, basil, mint, and cucumbers; and sticky rice. Porterhouse steaks emerged juicy and flavorful from the grill after marinating in soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, and salt. The crying tiger sauce was spicy, salty, sour, aromatic, and delicious – made from soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, roasted chile powder, roasted rice powder, scallions, and cilantro. We had an unexpected dinner guest, so no pictures (and no leftovers). Ms. Johnson hails from Issan (northeast Thailand), and many of the recipes are from that region. The author takes an easygoing approach to ingredients, providing recipes to make curry pastes from scratch while approving the use of pre-made pastes. I look forward to trying other recipes from this book.

Ouch, that triggered a painful memory. Similar situation, a friend’s mother made eggs for breakfast. I took a bite – bleagh, soap! I tried another bite – eurgh, more soap! Fortunately, his mother noticed my marked lack of enthusiasm and spared me any further discomfort. I suppose that I could have used bad language, since my mouth was pre-washed.

Hiroyuki: Thank you so much for sharing this week. Japanese cooking is one of the few Asian cuisines that I have yet to explore, but you have inspired me to change that. Especially for weeknight cooking, I like the idea of simple, tasty, healthy food, and I know that our boys love Japanese flavors. Gochisousama deshita. Best wishes to you and your family, and you have earned a well-deserved rest after entertaining and educating us this week.

Susan, I’m with you on the spicy breakfast (no surprise, I expect). Yesterday’s breakfast was leftover Sichuan water-boiled beef (link), in which your prik kii nu featured prominently (thanks again, by the way).

Alinka: It is so nice to see you posting your beautiful photographs again. This morning I reheated Sichuan boiled beef, adding a little extra chile oil for flavor.

Tonight I made Sichuan water-boiled beef (shui zhu niu rou) – clickety. Definitely took more than an hour. Gastro888: Ben types faster than me, and his suggestions are better, too. Are raw or boiled/steamed vegetables an option as your second or third dish? What about eating your main meal at lunch, and cooking rice and vegetables with a little pork for dinner? How do you feel about soup and rice for dinner - something like Napa cabbage and shrimp soup? I ate a lot of quick veggie dinners when I was single. Also, a lot of frozen pizza.

I would love to taste little ms foodie’s artichokes and Meredithla’s shrimp and potstickers. Inspired by Peter Green's pictures from Chengdu (click), I made Sichuan “water-boiled beef” (shui zhu niu rou) from Land of Plenty. Wow, this was fiendishly hot and numbing (in a good way ). Dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorns – stir-fried, chopped, and sprinkled over the dish with sizzling oil . . . . . . mixed up and ready to serve . . . . . . and plated with jasmine rice. I know what I’m having for breakfast (oh wait, that’s a different thread ).

Susan, thank you for the link (and the cooking tip). Good luck finding your cord, and we will look forward to seeing your dinners. Ah, grilling season, predecessor to tomato and corn season.

Pontormo: That compote sounds delicious, and we have missed your posts. Ann_T: I would be a regular if you served those beautiful silly toffee squares at your “diner”. Tracey: Char siu and pineapple – yum! We cleaned out the fridge with bacon fried rice, cooked in bacon grease. I also stir-fried shiitake and oyster mushrooms with bacon, garlic, ginger, and dried chile flakes, finished with chicken stock, pepper, and scallions.

Dinner from Hunan, courtesy of Fuchsia Dunlop: beef with cumin (zi ran niu rou); and hand-torn cabbage with vinegar (shou si bao cai). Details on Dinner! (click)

Thanks, Marlene. Hunan beef with cumin (click), from the Boston Globe.

Meredithla: Wow, you are a talented cake illustrator. I have been on a black bean kick lately, so I would love to see your black bean chicken. Tonight we had beef with cumin, hand-torn cabbage with vinegar (both from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook), and jasmine rice. Thinly sliced flank steak was marinated, “velveted”, and stir-fried with ginger, garlic, chiles, chile flakes, and cumin, and then finished with scallions and sesame oil. The beef turned out tender, fragrant, and spicy - definitely worth making again.

Lisa1349: Thank you! I described how we make fried rice in my foodblog (clickety). Ingredients vary with the contents of the fridge, but the key is to keep the wok hot. For the batch upthread, I used chopped bacon ends instead of peanut oil for the cooking fat (and bonus crispy pork bits).

Dang, Marlene, I was coveting the pork chops, and then you unveiled the bread pudding. Not fair! Meredithla - That is a fun cake - did you make it? I hope your full house recovers quickly. Happy birthday, Klary! Your birthday cake is so beautiful, it deserves a second viewing. Tonight we grilled five-spice chicken wings. A blustery wind cooled one end of the grill so much that the first wings were done about 15 minutes before the last. We ate in stages. We also red-braised Portobello mushrooms with ginger, scallions, bacon ends, chicken stock, dark soy, and sesame oil. Next time I will reduce the sauce further to concentrate the flavors. The boys dutifully tried the mushrooms; elder son declared that he would rather eat slugs. I told him that could be arranged.

Rancho Gordo types faster, but I have a link: Penzeys (click) carries both kinds of oregano.