C. sapidus

Karen: Thank you for asking thought-provoking questions. It grieves me to think that your ex has tainted your devotion to preparing food for those that you love. It is easy to say that his actions should not reflect upon you, but I realize that feelings do not necessarily follow the same timetable as understanding. Our family cooking patterns have changed dramatically over the years. Initially, my wife and I shared the cooking pretty evenly. While I was in grad school and the boys entered our lives, she became the primary cook. Lately, we have switched roles and I make most of our meals. We share cleanup duties. I cook to please the family and any guests that show up at dinner time. Cooking for others provides a great deal of satisfaction, but does impose some constraints. I try to foster appreciation for (or at least tolerance of) the foods that I love, but I would be mortified to make a meal that no one else enjoyed. Honesty compels me to admit that I also cook for selfish reasons – cooking is a fascinating lifelong experiment. Fortunately, our family members (and most of our friends) are willing research subjects.

Susan: Each shrimp dish spent about four minutes in the wok. I made the shrimp with garlic sauce for younger son – it had no heat, but the chicken broth, rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper, garlic, ginger, and scallions gave it a pleasant flavor. The sauce for the chile shrimp had a nice mix of hot, salty, and aromatic, with a meaty fullness from the chile bean sauce (toban djan) and just enough sugar to round out the flavor. You can probably guess which one I liked best. Quote from Mrs. C while “deveining”: “Boy, some of these shrimp are really full of sh*t.” By the way, your potstickers are things of beauty. Edit: verb-noun agreement. Yeesh!

Tonight we made two shrimp dishes from Breath of a Wok: Millie Chan’s chile shrimp (left) and shrimp with garlic sauce (right). I liked the chile shrimp best, of course.

Daniel: Where ya been, man? Blether: Welcome to Dinner! I look forward to seeing more of your cooking. Marlene: You have been busy in the kitchen. Beautiful biscuits! We made shrimp two ways: Millie Chan’s chili shrimp (left); and shrimp with garlic sauce (right); both from Breath of a Wok. Chili bean sauce, ginger, chilies, and scallions gave the chile shrimp a particularly nice flavor. Mrs. C. made basmati rice and roasted asparagus with lime juice. Edited 'cuz sometimes I don't talk good.

Ooh, I would love that dinner. The fermented soybean stuff that looks like baby poop is one of my favorite ingredients, especially with veggies. Ok, you are very convincing - garlicky roast chicken is penciled in for Sunday.

Yesterday we visited friends for fondue. I made baklava for dessert, but only four pieces survived the evening – elder son ate about seven pieces by himself. No pictures, unfortunately. Tonight we made spicy fish curry with coconut milk (pa sousi haeng), sauteed bay scallops with garlic and parsley, stir-fried Napa cabbage, and jasmine rice. More about the fish curry in Thai cooking at home (click),

Tonight we made spicy fish curry with coconut milk (pa sousi haeng), from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. This is a dry curry from Laos and NE Thailand. The spice paste contained dried chiles, shallots, and scallion bulbs, and we finished the dish with Kaffir lime leaves and chopped scallion greens. The scallions gave the curry a refreshing and unusual flavor – we will definitely make this again. ETA: With minor modifications, this recipe should also work nicely with shrimp, scallops, chicken . . .

Though I'm not Doddie, I hope you'll allow me to recommend Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan of New York's Cendrillon restaurant. I've heard nothing but rave reviews about this cookbook and am really looking forward to attending to a cooking workshop tomorrow evening with the author. ← Joie: Thank you for the recommendation. I have added Memories of Philippine Kitchens to my ever-expanding list of books to get. Lucky you to be attending the cooking workshop, too.

Doddie: I am so glad to see you blogging and I hope that you wake up headache-free. Philippine (Filipino?) food sounds delicious, and I look forward to learning more about it this week. I am also a big fan of Korean food, but I have not (yet) cooked any at home. Can you recommend an English language cookbook on Filipino or Korean food? That is a priceless picture of your handsome boys in their impregnable pillow fortress. Have they taken an interest in cooking? Are cooking duties divided by gender in Korea or the Philippines? I couldn’t tell from the picture - is your stove gas, electric, or something else? The one Korean restaurant in town closed a few years ago. The food was really good, but finishing the generous portions was nearly impossible. This was a problem because the owner became visibly upset if customers asked for a doggie bag (“I carried that rice back from Korea by hand. It will not taste good tomorrow, you should eat it now”). Was that a quirk of the owner, did we run afoul of a cultural taboo? I know, I'm asking a lot of questions - please answer if you get a chance, but don't if you don't.

Joisey and ludka: Thanks for the tip about when to salt mushrooms -- I did not know that. For hongos al vapor, the goal is to steam the mushrooms in their own juices, so salting at the beginning makes sense (hongos al vapor = steamed mushrooms). Now I’m curious – next time, I’ll try salting at the end (hongos no vapor?).

To use up mushrooms languishing in the fridge, I made an unusual breakfast: hongos al vapor (adapted from Diana Kennedy). I sauteed Shiitake and trumpet mushrooms with cilantro, garlic, shallots, and Thai chilies, steamed the mushrooms in their own juices, and topped everything with feta cheese and a squeeze of lime. I left the mushrooms fairly intact, but one can also cook them down to essence of mushroom.

Save a few mushrooms for hongos al vapor from Diana Kennedy’s Art of Mexican Cooking. Chop and saute white onion, garlic, and chiles. Add mushrooms, salt, and epazote (or cilantro), cover, and cook until the mushrooms are tender. Eat as a side dish, add to soup, or reduce the liquid and use as a taco or omelet filling. ETA: Thanks for reminding me to use the mushrooms in the fridge -- I made hongos al vapor for Breakfast! (clickety).

Way, way, way too many incredible dinners upon which to comment (‘cept I have to give props to Shaya’s tangerine peel beef and LMF’s gorgeous HSSS banquet). We made spicy tamarind shrimp; salmon soup with tomato, dill, and garlic; and jasmine rice. Da boyz finished all of the cukes before picture time. This week has been a relatively bereft of cooking, so it was nice to get back in the kitchen. Details on Vietnamese Food (clickety).

Mmm, fire and ice. Funny – I have been using a similar flavor mixture in omelets lately (subtract sherry, add Sriracha, shallots, garlic, chiles . . .). Still, hoisin and 5-spice powder are the main flavors.

jmolinari: Dinner looks delicious, and I’m glad you found the time to make Vietnamese food. What kind of curry powder did you use? Last night we made salmon soup with tomato, dill, and garlic (canh rieu ca) and shrimp in spicy tamarind sauce (tom rang me) from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. We polished off two pounds of shrimp and most of the soup, even though the boys were “not hungry”. With tamarind ice cubes in the freezer, preparing the shrimp was quick ‘n easy. The soup was OK – I’ll try it again this summer when we have good tomatoes. Oddly, minced garlic is tossed in just before the soup is served rather than being sauteed with the onions. Jasmine rice on the side and added to the soup.

Nakji: This is a pleasant but unexpected surprise – I thought you were traveling south down the coast. Wow, what a trip. I have to echo johnnyd – thank you so much for showing us a part of the world that I am unlikely to see in person. Your sense of adventure is rivaled only by your sense of humor, and the pictures do a wonderful job of capturing the ambience. The food that you were served has been absolutely fascinating, delicious, and often unexpected (chayote, for example – I often do a quick Mexican chayote stir-fry with SE Asian dinners). The picture of the skeptical girls is priceless. The “lake fish fried with spices” looks especially good. Can you guess how they made it and what spices they used?

I hope you are right - following Doddie around for a week in the kitchen would be very edutaining (entercational?)

Great idea - I'll try that. Absolutely - thank you very much.RDaneel: Good luck with your decision, and thanks for letting me *borrow* your thread temporarily.

RDaneel: Thank you! D&R sounds perfect for fixing the blade.

Bob: Thanks! I respect your opinion and appreciate your willingness to help others with knife questions, both here and on knife forums. Nice Mongolian beef the other night, too. Interesting – Korin claimed that the Ittosai blade was harder than that of the Hattori HD (63 vs. 61 Rockwell units, if I recall). Yes - I have read Chad’s sharpening course a few times and sharpened most of our knives with an EdgePro. I wonder if I contributed to the problem by putting a 10/15 bevel on the Hattori. What angles do you recommend for the primary bevel and back bevel on a gyuto? That would be great - I have never repaired a chip before, so I would appreciate the name of a good sharpener in PA.

Susan was wonderfully supportive when I did the foodblog, even though she was clearly squeezing in her administrative duties between life’s other demands. For purely selfish reasons, I hope that Susan can find the time to once again brighten the pages of eGullet with her elegant meals.

Nishla: Your flavor combinations sound wonderful, especially the chili and the spinach salad. Did you add anything sweet to the salad, or was it good as is? Marlene: Apparently, your have put your free time to good use, overcoming your bread challenges and making Asian food that looks absolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing.

This may be too late to help RDaneel choose knives, but perhaps others are facing similar decisions. As of a month age, these were our main knives (from back to front): Chicago Cutlery paring knife Tojiro DP 150 mm honesuki (chicken boning knife) Chicago Cutlery 250 mm slicer Ittosai Kotetsu 180 mm gyuto (Mrs. C’s main knife) Hattori HD 240 mm gyuto (my main knife) Heavy cleaver I badly chipped the blade on the Hattori gyuto by doing something stupid. We replaced the damaged gyuto and the Chicago Cutlery paring knife and slicer with the following (back to front): Hiromoto AS 270 mm sujihiki: I wanted a long knife that would slice meat thinly without sawing back and forth. Our old slicer dulled very quickly, so I wanted a blade that would hold its edge. I also wanted to try a high-carbon blade with stainless cladding. Ryusen Blazen 240 mm gyuto: I loved the Hattori's handle and ergonomics, and the Ryusen is configured similarly. I hope that the powdered steel blade is more resistant to chipping, but I also plan to be more careful with it. Tojiro DP 90 mm paring knife: a petty seems unwieldy for paring and peeling. The Tojiro DP line provides a lot of bang for the buck, and offers one of the few Western-style paring knives with Japanese steel. We used the new knives for the first time tonight, and they were delightful right out of the box. The package from Japanese Chef’s Knife showed up in 3 days – amazing! We will probably keep the Chicago Cutlery boning knife to do stupid things like chopping up blocks of tamarind (note evidence of learning behavior ). When I get time, I’ll probably play with the chipped gyuto to see if I can make it useful. Edited to explain why we chose each knife.

This started out as a Yunnanese stir-fry and morphed into something else. Thinly sliced pork loin, marinated with soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch, stir-fried with tomatoes, red bell peppers, and Poblano chiles, and then finished with sesame oil. Marinating the pork with cornstarch produces a plush texture, a nice contrast against the still-firm peppers. For the second batch, I added a few bruised Thai chiles for heat. This was a nice way to stretch meat – a pound of pork loin will probably make two meals. After picture time, I jazzed up my portion with hosin sauce and Sriracha. Corn on the cob, cukes, and basmati rice on the side.

Yes, I make jasmine rice on the stovetop, but Mrs. C makes basmati if she is on rice duty. I bought some sticky rice to try this weekend (I hope).