C. sapidus

Russian Imperial Stout has high alcohol and is awesome. There are some excellent commercial varieties available. We brewed it a couple of times following Charlie Parpazian's recipe, and it was sublime. We gave away cases as presents for the holidays (with "Ivan the Terribly Stout" labels).

tejon: I trust your self-knowledge. Of course, you did mention power tools in your blog title. This could indicate some confusion Bruce

It looks like male and female food preferences differ statistically rather than absolutely. No surprise there. Excluding the ability to bear children, most male-female dichotomies resemble overlapping bell curves. So far, dark beer seems to be the only guy bastion. Any porter- and stout-swilling women around? Has anyone suggested competitive chili tolerance as a guy thing? This probably varies more by culture than gender, though. Mark me down for quiche, dark beer, and chilies. Bruce

My wife gave me a pi plate for the holidays. She made shepherd's pie in it tonight, although I'm not sure if she was aware of the significance. maggiethecat: Pi is irregular, not infinite. Sorry, trying to qualify as a SSB Bruce

Wendy: We are asymptotically approaching the finish of a remodel after gutting our kitchen to the studs and subfloor, so I speak from some experience when wishing you the best of luck. We used the Ikea planning software, read a bunch of books, and we are quite happy with the outcome. By great good fortune our stepson, a former high-end cabinet maker and mechanical engineering student, was available to install the cabinets and add a number of semi-custom details. We did the demolition, drywall, and painting ourselves, and hired out for electrical, plumbing, and flooring. If you are interested, we have some pictures at this link. There are some excellent kitchen designers out there, but finding a good one is difficult without a recommendation. With your cooking experience and knowledge of kitchens, many kitchen designers may not be able to offer you any more than your landscape designer did. The GardenWeb Kitchen Forum has some incredibly helpful folks who live and breathe kitchen design. One of the books highly recommended there (unfortunately out of print): Robin Murrell: Small Kitchens: Making Every Inch Count We read several kitchen design books, and found helpful information in all. Some books addressed design philosophy and practice, some provided ideas, and others helped identify things that we did not want. Here are a few books that might be useful even if you hire a kitchen designer: Donald Silvers: Kitchen Design with Cooking in Mind Johnny Grey: Kitchen Culture Jan Weimer: Kitchen Redos, Revamps, Remodels, and Replacements Without Murder, Suicide, or Divorce. Martin and Richard Edic: Kitchens That Work: The Practical Guide to Creating a Great Kitchen. Susan Maney: The Smart Approach to Kitchen Design. Dream Kitchens: Recipes and Ideas for Modern Kitchens. Good luck!

LindaK: Thanks! If you are making a big pot of pasta, you can use the rear 22K burner without blocking your other burners. For our high-heat cooking, I want the 22K burner in front so I can keep a close eye on the food. The best configuration depends on how you will use the range. Bruce

I have no basis for comparing residential and commercial equipment, but we have been incredibly happy with our 6-burner Blue Star cook top. The simmer on every burner can be adjusted so low that we rarely need the dedicated simmer burner. My favorite feature is the removable center of each grate, leaving a secure wok holder. No more wok rings - yay! Here is a halfway decent picture of our setup: If you get a Blue Star, you may want to look at your cooking habits and consider a custom burner configuration. With the benefit of hindsight, we would have been better off with both 22K-BTU burners on the front corners and the simmer in the middle back. You probably already know this, but you need a good hood if you get a high-BTU range. Our 42-inch hood pulls 600 cfm, and we still occasionally set off the smoke detector (usually operator error). If you want to complicate your decision even more, check out the GardenWeb threads on induction burners.

echocolate: Thanks for the kind words. There are a number of mail-order places that sell canned and fresh Thai goods. Thai Table.com Thai Grocer.com Temple of Thai Grocery Thai You can also grow a dwarf kaffir lime tree if you have a sunny window. Four Winds Growers has a good reputation: Good luck! Bruce

For those keeping score at home, this my follow-up attempt to make green curry paste from scratch. After some especially helpful advice from Austin, I pounded about 10 hot bird peppers to smithereens in the mortar, and then mixed them with the previously-made (but bland) green curry paste. Result: success! Using the upgraded paste, I made green curry with beef and Anaheim chili strips. Coconut jasmine rice accompanied the dish nicely. This was by far the best green curry that I have ever eaten. Here is what it looked like (please ignore my lack of food photography skills). Unfortunately, pixels don't transmit taste, which was abundant. Of course, I have no idea what green curry tastes like in Thailand, and our travel budget will probably prevent me from knowing for some time. I can say that the green curry was better than any I have ever had in the U.S., and the results definitely justified the effort. Now we need to invite some folks over that will appreciate the unique and potent combination of flavors. Thanks again for the helpful advice. So, who's next? Bruce

lesfen: welcome to the happy world of gyro-lovers. Gyros, carrot cake, and baklava from a Greek deli served as primary sustenance for a few summers when I was balancing summer classes and work. Wonderful stuff, but unfortunately no good local purveyors where I live now. Yesterday, I had a rare lunch at home and experimented with a new version of Alfredo sauce. I usually follow Marcella Hazen’s approach, letting the heat of the pasta melt the butter, and then adding parmesan with nutmeg and just enough cream for the sauce to stick to the pasta. After reading the food smells thread, I was looking for an excuse to sauté garlic in butter. Accordingly, I used the garlic-infused butter in the Alfredo sauce. Yummy! Angel hair pasta works well when you are in a hurry. Bruce

Perhaps I missed it, but no one has mentioned my very favorite saliva-inducing aroma: steamed blue crabs with a hint of Old Bay (see handle). Of course, this leads to one of my least-favorite smells: crab-filled dumpster in July. Besides the perennial favorites mentioned previously, other delicious aromas include: The deep, rich, mysterious scent of dried ancho and pasilla chiles. Open a bag, inhale deeply -- ahhh, heaven. Roasted fresh Poblano chilies (a theme emerging, perhaps?) Lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, chilies, shallots, fish sauce, and coconut milk. A salty ocean breeze plus just about any other scent, including dead fish. Even better, a salty ocean breeze, plus tonic, plus gin. Penzeys spice stores, with the myriad gallon-sized glass jars of spices to shake and sniff. Mexican oregano -- wonderful stuff. There are very few food scents that I actively dislike, but Marmite is one of them. When we were kids, anyone who lost in P-I-G (a shorter variant of H-O-R-S-E) had a choice of two tortures: a rap on the knuckles with a block of wood; or eating Marmite. No one ever chose Marmite. DW, unfortunately, is afflicted with an affinity for the yeast-flavored industrial waste. Bruce

Austin: Thanks for the advice on the curry paste. Based on your recipe for kaeng som, I probably used the right kind of chilies, just not enough of them. I may pound some more chilies into the existing pastes, or maybe just start over with a different recipe. This summer, I will be able to use homegrown Thai Hot Dragon chilies. They are prolific and very hot. Awesome web site, by the way. Bruce

Chad - Thanks for the recommendation on the Hattori HD and the steeling advice. Does a rolled edge feel like a burr? One side of the chef's knife felt like it had a burr, so I ran it over the steel a few times and it felt much smoother. I'll be chopping up some veggies tomorrow, so we will see how the edge holds up.

OK, I made the green curry paste from scratch. It was OK. One of the problems is that Ms. Ang was not terribly clear on the type of chilies to be used. I made the first half of the batch with green Thai chilies, but they lacked heat. Have you ever heard of mild bird chilies? For the second batch, I used some red bird chilies, about double the amount. The color was wrong, but at least the chilies contained some capsaicin. What kind of chili is typically used for Thai curries? I have started testing the chilies beforehand, but this is a no-win proposition. If the chilies are mild, then the curry paste will be lacking. If the chilies contain the proper amount of heat, then I will be running for some yogurt. My other question is about use of the mortar and pestle. Ours has a 6" inside diameter (8" outside diameter). After pounding for a fairly short time, the paste liquefied but "chunks" of chilies remained. Is this proper? Should I chop up the chilies into smaller pieces before adding them to the morter, or should I just keep pounding away until all recognizable bits have been obliterated? Anyway, I used the homemade paste to make shrimp with green curry. It was quite mild, but very pleasantly flavored. I added strips of poblano chilies when stir-frying the shallots. I love poblanos, and their rich flavor goes wonderfully with coconut milk. Sort of a Thai-Mexican fusion thing. The small amount of leftovers will make a nice breakfast. Bruce

I’ll second (third, fourth, twentieth) praise for the Edge Pro and for Chad’s sharpening tutorial. Reading the tutorial provided the impetus to sharpen our 20-year old Chicago Cutlery assortment, and the difference is amazing. Unfortunately, the knives aren’t holding their edge terribly well. After a week of fairly intensive home cooking, the chef's knife feels like it needs to be sharpened again. I use a chef’s knife 90% of the time, so if we have any money left over after tax season this may be a good time to upgrade. I’ve been doing a little research, and a 240 mm gyuto seems like just the thing. Hattori HD, Ryusen Blazen, or Tojiro Powdered Steel look pretty sweet, but I need to find a place that I can try them out in person. Anyone know of any good knife stores in the Washington DC area? Bruce

Susan: congrats on gaining approval from Teenage Daughter. We had a similar experience with a friend’s TD and dum aloo (potato-tomato curry from India). TD was reputed to be a very picky eater, but she had seconds and thirds of the dum aloo, then insisted on taking the leftovers home. People who like my cooking are far more likely to be invited back. Bruce

I’m really glad that the Susans revived this thread. I adore Thai food, so I've been drooling on my keyboard (that explains any typos). This week I have been cooking from Eng Tie Ang’s Delightful Thai Cooking. I never get a chance to take pictures of weekday meals, but described the results on the “What’s for Dinner?” thread. To recap: Spicy fried rice (twice) – excellent! Pork with red curry – sabotaged by my too-mild homemade red curry paste Tonight I made green curry with beef, and it was delicious. The curry paste was from a can, and I substituted lime zest + lime juice for kaffir lime leaves. It didn’t matter a bit – the curry was really good. I must be getting better at adjusting the seasonings just before serving. The boys had hamburgers, rice-a-roni, and pickled beets. Elder son was brave and asked for a small sample of the green curry, heavily diluted with rice. Some time this weekend I’ll make green curry with shrimp (the final dish in the series). Schedule willing, I’ll break in the new mortar and pestle on some green curry paste. So far, Eng Tie Ang is batting .750 (3 for 4). Not bad for a ballplayer or a cookbook, especially since the one miss was my fault.

Pistachio shortbread is yummy. The recipe uses lemon zest and semolina flour: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/109498

Hmm, I love fish sauce, cilantro, dill, etc., but I'm not crazy about raw beef. I had kitfo once (Ethiopian steak tartare). It was pretty tasty, but every few bites I would remember that I was eating raw meat. Urg. My favorite vindaloo recipe uses mustard oil, which has an unpleasant, penetrating, stink-up-your-house aroma. You heat up the oil to remove this “fragrance”. Unfortunately, the stench transfers itself to your house, where it remains like an unevictable house guest. I need to figure out a way to de-gas the mustard oil on the grill.

hwilson41 - I stand corrected. I have had some killer crabs in Virginia. The C&W line is great, too

This thread inspired me to make some standard breakfast fare. In our house, DW usually makes the “regular” food, while I usually make the more exotic dishes. Apparently, somewhere along the line I mentally reversed the directions for making omelets and scrambled eggs. I had been cooking scrambled eggs quickly over high heat, and cooking omelets slowly over low heat. I can hear all of you thinking “Duh”. Anyway, it turns out that the correct method works much better (all together, “Duh”). I made nice, soft, plain scrambled eggs for grandma and younger son. Then, I tried two batches of omelets. One had feta cheese with sautéed Poblano peppers, garlic, and chives. The other had Poblano peppers, garlic, and fresh basil. Can you tell that I love Poblano peppers? I followed Julia Child’s instructions for banging on the skillet handle to flip the omelet. Although clouting cookware is great fun, I need to gauge impact strength better. One of the omelets flipped quite nicely, but the other half-cleared the pan. Even the flying omelet was quite tasty, though.

Maybe this is a Maryland thing, but once you have had real crab cakes you will never willingly eat crab-flavored hush puppies. Big lumps of sweet backfin crab meat, lightly seasoned, with just enough filling to keep it from falling apart. Dang, I made myself hungry. Definitely home-grown tomatoes, picked fresh off the vine. Freshly-ground coffee (Peet’s is wonderful, but others are, too). Freshly-ground black pepper. Home-made sate sauce. Good Ethiopian food, especially the injera.

athinaeos: Absolutely, we are treated to wonderful Russian cooking, and lots of it. Our boys are from Russia, so blinis, pastry-wrapped meats, and Russian salad are special treats for them. A running joke is the time that we were invited over for “dessert”, which consisted of a seven-course meal. Oh, and the desserts are to die for, especially the fruit pies and Russian chocolates.

Yup, when DW is away I revert to bachelor fare: Mexican veggie and egg dishes, fettuccine Alfredo, and frozen thin-crust pizza with lots of added garlic, chilies, ‘shrooms, feta, and Mexican oregano. Favorite one-dish meals include huevos al albanil (bricklayer's eggs) or chayote, zucchini, or mushrooms al vapor (with serranos, garlic, cilantro, lime, and feta) a la Diane Kennedy. Sometimes I just cook the same old stuff with more chilies. Sometimes I’ll have an all-Haagen-Dasz dinner, usually coffee or dulce de leche. It is probably good that DW doesn't go away very often Occasionally, I will devote a day to time-consuming but delectable dishes like baklava, Oaxacan moles, papas chirrionas, dum aloo, or vindaloo. If I make a special dish, I’ll save some for DW. Oh, and I'll enjoy a bottle of red wine. DW loves red wine but it gives her a miserable migraine. It isn't really fair of me to enjoy a luscious zinfandel or shiraz when she can't.

eipi10: Interesting, I had never heard of black salt (kala namak). Googling indicates that it is unrefined and includes sodium sulfate and other oxygenated sulfur salts. This apparently yields eau de sulfur upon dissolving. Yup, I guess that would taste (or smell) different. Some of the web sites caution against eating too much black salt (true for plain salt too, I guess).