C. sapidus

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).

Allright, Susan! I like your picture – it’s got that depth-of-field thing going on. Cucumber salad and ribs sounds like a great combination. I’m glad to hear that country-style ribs work in this recipe. I’ve had problems finding pork riblets, but mostly I’ve had problems finding the time to cook anything other than quick stir-fries. The boys’ basketball season ended tonight, so I have cooking plans for the rest of this week (after which track season starts, but only on weekends until daylight savings time kicks in). That’s awesome that the folks in your Asian market are looking out for you. Did you use jasmine rice?

Fresh turmeric is easy to chop or grate, although it stains like the dickens – our food processor and cutting board have a permanent orange tinge. In Cradle of Flavor, James Oseland calls for fresh or ground turmermeric in several recipes. One would be hard-pressed to taste the difference between fresh or ground in a highly seasoned curry, but perhaps one could distinguish the difference in a more delicately seasoned dish. Have fun with your turmeric, and please do report back.

Lots of information about choosing and caring for woks on the China and Chinese Cuisine forum: Chinese woks and cleavers (click). We have a 14-inch spun carbon steel wok with 20 years of seasoning and a dangerously loose handle. It probably cost less than $20 USD. I just ordered a cast iron wok from the Wok Shop (click). I hope that it will be $17 USD well spent. Properly seasoned, a carbon steel wok is extremely non-stick and enables you to sear food properly. Nonstick coatings inhibit searing; they also break down and release fumes at the high temperatures necessary for stir-frying properly. If you have an electric stove, a flat-bottomed wok will heat up more quickly.

I had a similar experience, described here (click) (scroll past the picture of caramel chicken). I will leave it to the sugar experts to explain why this happens (or if you like I could make up something that sounds fairly plausible ). It may not be "right", but I prefer to start with dry sugar when making caramel. Dissolving the sugar in water before evaporating all of the water seems overly complicated; perhaps it is necessary if you want to make a very light caramel. And do be careful when adding water to hot caramel.

. . . very much like dishes I've had at Grand Sichuan here in New York. ← Michael: I appreciate the feedback - we do not have any local Sichuan restaurants, so I’m glad to hear that our gan ban ji at least looks plausible. Not long ago, I saw ma la something on the menu at a local Chinese-American restaurant. When I asked if they use Sichuan peppercorns, the server looked surprised, grinned, and said “no”. We have not visited NYC in ages, but Grand Sichuan is on the list for our next trip.

Ah Leung: I respect your ability to draw connections between a railroad track, a highway overpass, and the history of China, North America, and your family. Beautiful. Thank you for this week. I have enjoyed the mouth-watering food, your quirky sense of humor, the history and culture, and of course your wonderful pictures and pictorials. What you have taught us about Chinese food and culture encourages me to learn more. I wish you good health and good fortune in pursuit of your dreams.

Ooh, those soups sound delicious. I love spicy citrusy coconut milk soups, and Mrs. C licks the plate whenever we have peanut sauce. I love our local Asian market, but after seeing yours I have serious Asian market envy. I would love to have that variety of seafood available – we can’t even get head-on shrimp around here. Re narcissus/paperwhites/daffodils: all belong to the genus Narcissus. Paperwhites usually refer to the overpoweringly fragrant types forced into flowering during the winter. Common English names for Narcissus include daffodil and jonquil. To keep it food-related: don't eat Narcissus because they contain toxic calcium oxalate. Awesome blog - I will be very sorry to see this end.

You made "summer" roll in -50C weather? ← Ah Leung: I'm sitting in front of my computer, flipping through a thesaurus for the proper superlatives to describe Dejah's amazing display of food, while you give her a hard time. I hope this means that I get invited over for dinner before you do.

Chef Bradley: That's some good looking chile with all the fixings and then some. Ann_T: I was trying to pick which picture to copy and couldn’t – both look absolutely fantastic. We had Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan ban ji); boiled salted cabbage with ginger-lime dipping sauce; cukes; and basmati rice. More on Chinese eats at home (click).