C. sapidus

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.

Hiroyuki: First and foremost, best wishes to your wife. Thank you for blogging under very difficult circumstances. I love learning about the similarities and differences in our lives, and of course seeing your delicious (and very healthy) meals. By an odd coincidence, I also had pickled vegetables for breakfast this morning. My sister spent a year in Kyoto and Tokyo when she was in college. She was fascinated by the Japanese use of space, and you have already shown some excellent examples (your ultra-efficient refrigerator and the beautiful open wooden ceiling at the restaurant, for instance). My sister organized a Japanese meal for our family when she returned home. She ordered the food from a local restaurant and presented the meal as traditionally as possible. I remember sitting on the floor around the coffee table and enjoying green tea, miso soup, seaweed salad, sushi, and rice. That was my first exposure to Japanese food (probably somewhat Americanized), and I have enjoyed it ever since. Your blog is wonderful and fascinating, and I am looking forward to the rest of this week with you and your family. Kudos on the ingenious recycling of milk cartons, too.

Yunnermeier: What a nice thing to say! Most mornings I just grab something out of the fridge – this AM it was spicy pickled green beans.

Tonight we had friends over for dinner. I made red curry with shrimp and bay scallops; salt and pepper shrimp; bell peppers with black bean and garlic; and jasmine rice. Mrs. C julienned eggplant and baked it with Old Bay seasoning – they looked like eggplant French fries. The boys helped thaw the scallops and peel the shrimp. Our friends brought a bottle of mead, which served as a delicious after-dinner drink. It was a delightful evening, and no leftovers whatsoever. No plated pictures, but here is a hurried snap of the red curry . . . . . . and the bell peppers.

Penzeys

Wow, kudos for the beautiful meals upthread. Both boys had sports tonight, so Mrs. C whipped up dinner. She marinated and broiled ribeye steaks, and heated up leftover pasta with bacon and microwave mashed potatoes. Cucumbers and green salad on the side (and, following Marlene’s example, out of the picture). Elder son insisted that I take a picture of his plate (I would explode if I ate that much).

Beautiful pancakes all around! I made fried rice for breakfast this morning. The aroma drew older son away from his brand new video game, so I had to share. Bacon ends for grease and flavor; ginger, garlic, and scallions for aroma; Thai chiles and roasted chile paste for heat; fish sauce for salt; slivered Poblano chile and orange bell pepper for crunch; and an egg to hold everything together. The produce drawer is now empty, so it’s time to put together a grocery list.

I have the book, but we do not (yet) have a real smoker. The Jamisons take a purist approach to smoking, so I will probably not use the book until we have the proper equipment. We have been approximating with a propane grill, smoke pellets, etc. I have my eye on a Weber Smoky Mountain, though, so I will be reading this thread with considerable interest. The Jamisons' book came out in 1994, so that could also be a factor in lack of responses. Is Smoke & Spice still in print? Barbecue tradition is probably a factor. We are on the northern fringes of barbecue country. There are a number of chains in town, but trailer smokers appear in parking lots and at outdoor events during warm-weather weekends.

Thanks, Marlene - I feel much better now. Cinnamon buns for me, please. Oh, my, what an incredible spread!

Octaveman: Thanks! I think you will like the book.

This morning, I cut my finger drying a sharp knife. No big deal, it was a clean cut that opened up a flap of skin. I won’t say never again, because I know that I will. With my freshly-cut finger, I ordered stuffed jalapeno peppers for lunch. The stuffed jalapenos came with stems still attached. Did I use a knife and fork to remove the stems? Of course not, I twisted the stem off with my fingers. Specifically, the finger with the fresh cut . . . Yowza, jalapeno juice in a fresh cut - never again.

Liuyang black bean chicken (liu yang dou chi ji), from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. More information on the Dinner! thread, post #19725 (clickety).

Liuyang black bean chicken (liu yang dou chi ji), from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. Yes, those are garlic cloves – a whole head’s worth. Ginger coins, salted black beans, chili flakes, Shaoxing wine, rice vinegar, light soy, and sesame oil rounded out the flavors. Chunks of chicken thighs were deep-fried twice until juicy and crisp. I can’t wait to make this again, but I kept thinking that it would be even better with roasted, ground Sichuan peppercorns. Mrs. C roasted yellow sweet potatoes in foil and served them with melted butter and brown sugar. Yum!

Octaveman: Thanks! After all of the time that you spend helping people with knife questions, how could I not share the recipe? From Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (eGullet-friendly link) via feast with bron: farmhouse stir-fried pork with green peppers (click). If you are looking for a cookbook that is chock-full of recipes for flavor-packed Chinese food, I highly recommend either (or both ) of Ms. Dunlop's books.

takadi: What type of cooking do you plan to do for the rest of your life? Mostly Asian? Braises? Sautees? Sauces and sauce reductions? Pasta? Fried chicken? Confections? Stovetop smoking? Roasting a turkey? If you know what type of tasks you want to do, you can choose the most efficient combination of cookware to accomplish those tasks.Also, how many people will you be cooking for (for the rest of your life)? A non-stick omelet pan is nice to have if you make omelets. I would not worry about a lifetime wok, though. My first wok lasted about 25 years, but at 20 bucks a pop, I don’t mind buying a new wok every quarter century or so. Sam Kinsey frequently makes a very good point: a $200 USD piece of cookware that will last a lifetime is a better value than a $1,500 USD computer that you will replace in five years. Jennifer: A pow wok has a straight handle and deep sides. It is designed for tossing food over a high flame. Here is an example of a pow wok at The Wok Shop (click).

Tonight we made something resembling Fuchsia Dunlop’s farmhouse stir-fried pork with Poblano and Anaheim chiles. Quick, tasty, and perfect for a busy weeknight. Jasmine rice and cucumbers on the side.

Tonight we made (with a few substitutions) Fuchsia Dunlop’s farmhouse stir-fried pork with green peppers. We marinated lean pork in Shaoxing wine, dark soy, and light soy, and stir-fried the pork with Poblano and Anaheim chiles, bacon ends, sliced garlic, and salted black beans. Quick and easy, popular with the family, and I am developing a fondness for salted black beans. Farmhouse stir-fried pork with green peppers (nong jia chao rou)

"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." - William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice “Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.” - Jack Handey

Oh, that sounds really, really good.

Last night Mrs. C requested Tangerine Island dry-braised fish (ju zhou gan shao yu) with skin-on steelhead trout fillets. We made this once before with rainbow trout. We enjoyed the dish both times, but I preferred the rainbow trout version (steelhead tastes like salmon, which is not my favorite). I want to try this recipe with whole fish but our local selection is pretty limited.

Shaya: I see that you like your steaks still mooing and oh, that gratin! Marlene: I don’t see any broccoli on your plate to accompany the perfectly-cooked meat and potatoes. Meredithla: Mmm, crispy chicken skin, and the bread salad sounds delish. Tonight we dry-braised steelhead trout, adapted from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. The recipe calls for whole fish, but skin-on fillets work nicely. Chile bean paste, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, dark soy, chile flakes, and a cup of chicken broth are reduced to intensely-flavored oil (delicious over rice), and then finished with scallions, Thai basil, and a drizzle of sesame oil. One of younger son’s friends, a “picky eater”, stayed over for dinner and had several helpings of fish. Mrs. C sliced cucumbers, cooked coconut rice, and made a green salad with pear vinaigrette. She also baked a scrumptious strawberry rhubarb pie with cinnamon and a hint of cayenne. Apparently she has fond memories of eating fresh fruit sprinkled with chiles in Mexico.

Thank you, and likewise! Our 2-BR house is pretty crowded, but there is a nice, empty fixer-upper next door. I’m sure that you could make rhubarb pie there, and we would hardly be good neighbors if we didn’t volunteer for taste-testing. Let the record show that I am willing to trade breakfast for pie, especially yours.

Oh. My. Goodness. I want that market. Thank you for a) taking the trip b) taking prolific and mouth-watering photos c) writing with wit and insight, and d) posting all of this, especially while on the road. So, is the scud named after the missile or the chile? Heh - you don't sound very sorry.