C. sapidus

Great idea, count me in (I already have a pretty good start).

Stephanie: Thanks! Chimichurri on steak looks delicious, and I love roasted Vidalia onions. Shaya: So would one serve strangolapreti to the local, um, preti (probably displaying my ignorance of Italian)? Your little guy is making remarkably sophisticated food, he must have a good teacher! Perhaps some day, but right now they are not interested delaying gratification for very long (although they have learned that real bacon is better than pre-cooked). Kim: No more Mexican food for you, young lady – I don’t want to read about you in the papers. Klary: Now that you mention it, one of your potato-chorizo creations may have been running through my subconscious when I picked that recipe. That, and the fact that we had some chorizo to use up. Tonight we made red-braised tilapia . . . . . . and stir-fried baby bok choy with black beans and garlic. Basmati rice and cukes on the side. Details on Chinese Eats at Home (click).

Prawncrackers: Your mum’s “usual” looks great! Tonight we made red-braised tilapia and stir-fried baby bok choy and bell peppers with black beans and garlic. Both dishes were based on recipes in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. We usually have a hard time finding whole fish, but the local Latino Market carries whole, scaled, and cleaned tilapia. We fried the fish until golden, stir-fried garlic, ginger, chopped salted chiles, and toban djan, and then braised the fish with chicken stock, vinegar, soy sauce, and black soy sauce. When the fish was done, we boiled down the sauce and finished it with slivered scallions, sliced red bell peppers, and sesame oil. The sauce was quite spicy-salty, but perfect with rice. A friend of our younger son ate dinner with us and scarfed down the fish quite readily. Red-braised tilapia Baby bok choy and red bell peppers with black beans and garlic

Shaya: Thanks! Chufi: The beef noodles, the walnut-red pepper paste, and the tahini eggplant look particularly delectable. Heck, any of your pictures would ably grace a cookbook. Kim Shook: Let me get this right – you are beating yourself up for being tired after feeding 70 people very nice food while returning to work and recovering from surgery? Tonight we filled flour tortillas with papas y chorizo and guacamole picado, both from Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. I jazzed up the potatoes with roasted tomato and Hatch chile rajas. Toppings included feta cheese, more Hatch chiles, and Frontera chipotle-garlic salsa. The boys loved it – perhaps we are making inroads with the boys and Mexican food.

Wow, that’s an envy-inspiring dinner in the PNW. You folks set a high standard! Stephanie: Beautiful carnitas! Aww, thanks Wendy. Inspired by Yunnermeier’s Malaysian blog, we made spiced braised Nyonya pork (seh bak); Javanese cucumber and carrot pickle (acar timun); and Nyonya sambal (sambal belacan); all from Cradle of Flavor. Shallots, galangal, Chinkiang vinegar, and black soy mingled with whole cinnamon, star anise, and cloves, while big cubes of Boston butt slowly braised to create an incredible sauce. Plates were licked, and rightly so. I hurried the final reduction to have dinner on the table before the boys’ bedtime. Next time I will allow an extra hour and trim less of the internal fat. Like rendang, this dish is ready in its own good time.

Great job, Peter! I enjoyed this very much, even if I did not pester you with questions. Best to you and your delightful family.

PercyN: I hope your back is better - your breakfast contributions have been greatly missed. Hi, my name is Bruce and I am a red curry scrambled egg addict. This morning I made the curry paste from ginger, shallots, garlic, chiles, cilantro stems, lime zest, and shrimp paste. Pounded to a “rustic” paste in the mortar (in other words, I was too hungry/lazy to make a fine paste). The hunk of palm sugar in the lower left corner gets caramelized when frying the paste. I cracked the coconut milk and fried the paste until it smelled delicious. Next, I added palm sugar and fried until the sugar caramelized and the curry paste darkened. I then lowered the heat, adjusted the seasoning with fish sauce, and scrambled the eggs very slowly, mixing in Thai basil towards the end. Plated and topped with chorizo (fried separately), Thai basil, and several squeezes of lime. This is so freaking good - I plead guilty to committing Thai-Mexican fusion, but man is it worth it.

I prefer jasmine rice, but my wife prefers basmati. We buy both, and whoever is on rice duty that night gets to choose. You are absolutely right that basmati makes the best fried rice. We also keep a small bag of sticky rice around for certain Lao or Issan dishes. Growing up, if we had rice it was probably Uncle Ben’s. I will be interested to hear whether fond memories of Mom’s rice affect current preferences.

Attached and pre-sliced would be even better. Beautiful! Yep, same thing happened in our family. I'm so glad you liked the recipe - I always worry that someone will take my recommendation and be disappointed. I would like to try it with purple perilla, but I suspect that I will also prefer the Thai basil.

Yep, all that and then some. I found your visit to Sichuan particularly fascinating and inspirational, but that's my bias when it comes to Chinese food. I will certainly re-read this thread from time to time, both for the mouth-watering food and for your droll writing. Thanks also to Scud, Serena, and Yoonhi for being remarkably tolerant travelling companions.

Wendy: Out of all your lovely meals, mango shallot sauce and chorizo-shrimp cakes really stood up and begged for notice. Ann_T: Thank you! Shaya: When your little guy goes to college, you will have to send him off with an induction burner, chef’s knife, pasta maker . . . We adapted nasi goreng (Javanese fried rice), skipping the fried egg and using up leftover char siu pork. Younger son politely objected to my cucumber decoration, pointing out that the cukes would have been better as a cool contrast rather than warmed by the rice. He has a point.

Yes, but the Maryland Direct Farm Market Association (click) has a listing that is more comprehensive and (in our experience) more accurate. We have visited two farms in Frederick County: Glade-Link Farms (delicious strawberries); and Pryor’s Orchard (amazing pick-your-own blueberries and transcendent direct-market apples). Whether it is worth it probably depends how far you have to drive, how much fruit you eat, and what you have available at your local farmer’s markets. For us, it is absolutely worth it for the amazing fruit rather than for the savings. We don’t can either – we make fruit crisps or crumbles with any extra. With our fruitivorous boys, extra fruit doesn't happen very often.

So many mouth-watering suggestions. I need to remember this thread the next time we make burgers. If you want to try something a bit wacky, how about banh mi toppings for the burgers: carrot-daikon pickle (clickety), liver pate, mayo, Maggi seasoning, thinly sliced jalapeno chiles, thinly sliced cucumbers, and/or cilantro. I have never tried this, but it should work (I hope).

Thanks, Susan. Yep, for a buck fifty I'd skip the cooking, too. I have the book, and that recipe is on my list. I forgot about using the stems - I should have done that tonight.

DanielM: That’s a beautiful first post – welcome to Dinner! Our dinner was from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. More information on Vietnamese Food (clickety). Char siu pork (thit xa xiu) Banh mi with char siu and liver pate Spinach stir-fried with garlic ETA: pate!

Tonight's dinner was from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Char siu pork (thit xa xiu) We cut a pork shoulder into strips and marinated it for 8 hours in garlic, five-spice powder, hoisin sauce, honey, sugar, Shaoxing wine, soy, dark soy, and sesame oil. We cooked half of the pork in the oven and half on the grill. Both were delicious, but grilled was better. Basting the pork in its marinade yielded a fragrant, caramelized glaze. Banh mi We assembled our own sandwiches from char siu pork, liver pate, carrot-daikon pickle, mayo, Maggi Seasoning, cilantro, and thinly-sliced jalapeno chiles and/or cucumbers. Spinach stir-fried with garlic This had a delicious flavoring sauce of oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and oil, thickened with cornstarch slurry.

Klary: Wow, that looks delicious. If you are looking for healthy eats, with judicious selection Asian food seems to maximize (flavor+nutrition)/(calories+fat). From Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Steamed chicken with chopped salted chiles; stir-fried green beans with ground pork and preserved mustard greens; and jasmine rice. The chicken was OK, but I liked the green beans a lot. More on Chinese Eats at Home. I brought home a case of twelve fragrant Mexican mangos from the Indian market. The boys have already devoured half of the mangos. OK, maybe I helped a little.

Dejah: Welcome back – you have been missed! Tonight we made steamed chicken with chopped salted chiles (duo la jiao zheng ji) and stir-fried green beans with ground pork and preserved mustard greens, both from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. This was the first time we used Hunanese chopped salted chiles (duo la jiao), from a batch we made a couple of weeks ago. The chicken was OK, but probably not worth making again – it tasted of chiles and not much else. I liked the stir-fried green beans with preserved mustard greens. We messed with the recipe, substituting green beans for green peppers, and chorizo for pork, salt, and chile flakes. Good stuff, and definitely worth making again (perhaps even making properly).

David Thompson suggests making prawn (shrimp) stock by simmering the shells and "especially the flavoursome prawn heads" for 15-20 minutes. You can use the stock to make tom yam goong (hot and sour prawn soup). If I recall correctly, some Chinese and Vietnamese stir-fries call for whole, head-on shrimp.

Yes, Moe's plate for me, too. I hadn’t cooked for a few days. To stave off withdrawal symptoms I turned some fridge odds and ends into red curry scrambled eggs with hoisin peanut sauce. Ah, I feel better now.

Yunnermeier: Thank you for a delightful week. Your luscious pictures have me dreaming of Malaysian food, too. I hope to break out Cradle of Flavor this weekend – spiced braised Nyonya pork, sambal belacan, Javanese cucumber and carrot pickle, and warm spiced limeade are sure looking good. Best wishes in your culinary and romantic endeavors.

We always have a supply of Memphis rib rub, from Steven Raichlen's Barbecue Bible. A very similar recipe is available here (click). Besides being great on ribs, it makes a nice marinade for grilled chicken. Just mix the rib rub with oil and lime juice and marinate the chicken in a ziploc bag.

I can hear it now - "That's different."

PercyN: I’m guessing (Dianne, please speak up if I’m wrong!) that she made Andrea Nguyen’s garlicky oven-roasted chicken (click for recipe). I agree that the chicken looks gorgeous, as does the rhubarb/strawberry cake. Tracey: I hope the stomach bug has, um, passed, but that is too funny (in a, y’know, sympathetic, laughing-with-you kinda way).

Ann_T: Beautiful Greek ribs, and grilled Italian sausage is my absolute favorite fair food. Marcia: It looks like you have become quite proficient with your new grill – nice dinners! Tonight was a two-wok dinner: one wok for Thai chicken with lemongrass (click); and the other wok for chorizo-garlic fried rice. Cukes, red bell peppers, and lime slices served on the side.