C. sapidus

Simple feta cheese omelet

Shaking beef (bo luc lac) - NY strip seared with garlic, oyster sauce, and soy sauce, then tossed with the dressing (lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, bird chiles), pineapple, shallot, and Thai basil. Served over red-leaf lettuce and garden tomatoes. Mrs. C brought freshly-picked strawberries from Wisconsin. We ate what we could eat, and then she made a strawberry-blueberry crisp

Seared scallops with mushrooms and sweet potato. Welcome home meal for Mrs. C. Mushrooms were dry-fried to concentrate the flavor. Scallops were seared with butter and rosemary in a cast iron pan. Deglazed the pan with port and heavy cream to make the sauce. Sweet potatoes were cubed, boiled, and whipped with butter and heavy cream. Haven't seared scallops for a while so a test batch was necessary.

Stir-fried cabbage with onion, fennel seed, cumin seed, and sesame seed, seasoned with cayenne, garam masala, and lemon juice. I like the texture of thicker cabbage slices. Veggie dinner but I snacked on smoked herring with wasabi hot sauce earlier.

Fried potatoes with a blended pasilla and guajillo chile sauce (toasted chiles, roasted garlic, and garden tomatoes), finished with egg, Mexican oregano, and grated Parmesan cheese. Fried plantains, over-ripe and burned, just how we like them. 🙂

Thanks! Not really a recipe, just Thai/Vietnamese-inspired cucumber salad that was missing a few ingredients that would have made it better (sliced shallot, rice vinegar, cilantro, maybe slivered ginger). If I recall: Peel (optional), seed, and slice an appropriate number of cucumbers (one for me) Slice a chile or two of your preferred heat level (I used a bird chile; serrano or jalapeno also works) Mix lime juice and sugar "to taste" (I used white sugar, palm or brown sugar also works). You can also dilute with a little water if desired. Add salt or fish sauce "to taste" Mix everything together and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Adjust seasoning "to taste" (noticing a theme? ) End result should have chile heat to taste, salt to taste, and balanced sweet sour (you guessed it) to taste. You can make the flavor "cleaner" with salt and white sugar, or a mix of lime juice and rice vinegar. If you want more funky use fish sauce for salt and sweeten with palm/brown sugar. Cilantro and sliced shallots would have improved the salad, but I was out. I will happily eat leftovers the next day. I hope that helps?

Coconut and chicken stock soup with bay scallops and sockeye salmon, simmered with ginger (sub for galangal), lime zest (sub for lime leaves), lemongrass, shallots, and bird chiles, and then finished with roasted chile paste, fish sauce, lime juice, and Thai basil. Cucumber salad.

Roasted chile Poblano and scrambled eggs, with garlic, Habanero chile, and cilantro

Quoting Molly Stevens again: "At its most basic, braising refers to tucking a few ingredients into a heavy pot with a bit of liquid, covering the pot tightly, and letting everything simmer peacefully until tender and intensely flavored." Food is typically browned (lid off) before the braise.

In 'All About Braising', Molly Stevens says this about the size of a braising pot: "The food should fit without a lot of extra space in the bottom of the pot or headroom above. The better the fit, the closer the sauce is to the main ingredient, and the better the flavor in the end." So, what @blue_dolphin said. 🙂

Ribs with a dry rub, mopped with apple juice. Practicing BBQ for when the boys are home next week. 🙂 Mustardy coleslaw with onions and Anaheim chiles Grilled pineapple dipped in butter, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar

We have city tap water that comes from a mix of surface water sources. They had marginal results with metals leaching from pipes some years ago but seem to have the pH under control now. At a previous job I did a lot of drinking water testing for lead and copper. The main (heh) problem was that when people learned we were doing water testing they stopped using the water fountains, which meant the water sat in the copper pipes longer, which caused previously OK fountains to exceed the copper limit. Eventually the water provider improved their pH management. We have a particulate filter where the water enters the house, and this thread reminded me it was due for a change so I changed it this morning. 🙂

Kudos analytical chemistry at home. 😃 Might want to check the expiration date on your test strips, though.

Caldo de mariscos with halibut and Dungeness crab. Toasted guajillo chiles, sauteed onion and garlic, and crushed tomato, all blended, strained, and then sauteed. Simmered with chicken and lobster stock, potatoes, long beans, and epazote. Thai basil and a squeeze of lime in the bowl. I am trying to use up the Dungeness crab meat, which is all claw meat and little stringy bits. We can get far, far better blue crab meat locally. Anyway, I would have used shrimp but shockingly, we were out.

^ Yum Shiitake mushroom and Poblano chile tacos with onion, garlic, Habanero chiles, cumin, black pepper, cilantro, a splash or half-and-half, and feta cheese. Hit the spot.

Welcome, Roshani! I look forward to hearing about Sri Lankan food, or whatever else you like to cook.

Clean-out-the-fridge fried rice with chorizo, long beans, Shiitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, Anaheim and habanero chiles, white onion, garlic, fish sauce, and an egg, topped with leftover quick-pickled bean sprouts and carrots. The only thing there wasn't much of was . . . rice!

Interesting. The US EPA Maximum Contaminant Level for cadmium in drinking water is 0.005 milligrams per liter (5 parts per billion). National primary drinking water regulations: US Environmental Protection Agency Community water systems are required to test drinking water for a variety of contaminants and report results annually. More than 90% of US residents get their water from community water systems. Water quality in private wells is not federally regulated.

Bo kho banh mi sounds heavenly. We usually make char siu banh mi, which younger son consistently requests for his birthday meal.

Bo kho, probably my favorite stew ever. Started by toasting whole spices for 5-spice powder. Gosh the kitchen smelled nice. Bo kho ingredients. Beef chuck, star anise, Thai basil, and carrots not pictured. Bo kho and jasmine rice Quick-pickled bean sprouts and carrots with cilantro.

This makes sense. Tap water is disinfected, not sterilized. Generally people build up some degree of tolerance to whatever microbes live in their local water supply.

Dungeness crab-stuffed Poblano chiles. Roasted Poblano chiles stuffed with sauteed red bell and Anaheim peppers, shallot, mayo, and smoked paprika, and then baked. Topped with Panko and Old Bay in melted butter and then broiled. Not bad, but we can get better blue crab meat locally.

Soft-scrambled egg tacos with chorizo, guacamole, and leftover cucumber salad, and a splash of Tapatio.

Coho salmon and long bean gkaprow with bird chiles, long red chiles, shallot, Thai basil, cilantro, fish sauce, black soy sauce, and white pepper. Spicy! Microwave quinoa and brown rice to go with. Cucumber salad with white vinegar, lime juice, sugar, shallot, and sliced chile serrano. Salt rather than fish sauce gives this version a very clean taste.

Welcome! I will be interested to hear about your mobile cooking experiences. Others here, notably @Smithy, have some background in that area. Our kids built us a camper van with a small kitchen unit. Despite a couple of cross-country trips we have yet to use much except the fridge. Perhaps that will change this summer.