C. sapidus

Kim – Caramel sauce is good stuff. You can control how sweet by how dark you make the caramel. Nice looking grilled chicken! Liuzhou – Looks like many of our meals, and sounds quite satisfying. Fettucine with pink shrimp sauce – Garlic, tomato paste, and white wine, reduced. Shrimp was cooked in the sauce, and then most of the shrimp were pureed in the blender and added back to thicken the sauce. Finished with cream, S&P, and parsley. Our usual camera-shy salad.

Kim, you are very kind. Patrick and Robirdstx, thanks for the info. dcarch and mm – up to your usual high standard! Quick meal from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen after younger son’s first swim meet of the season. Jasmine rice to sop up the sauce. Mrs. C made salad. Chicken and ginger simmered in caramel sauce

Patrick – How do goat chops compare with lamb or pork? Robirdstx – What’s in your Country Captain? First time making wings on the Big Green Egg. I torched the marinade, unfortunately, but surprisingly the chicken stayed moist. Ah well, I have more wings scheduled for later this week and should get better with practice. There are worse fates than practicing on chicken wings. Star anise wings, marinated with soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, pepper, star anise, and cinnamon. Great flavor, despite poor fire control. Grilled okra and yard-long beans, brushed with sesame oil and sprinkled with S&P. Not bad. Store-bought bread and butter.

Too many beautiful meals to comment on all, but RRO’s squid and Robirstx’s wings called to me. Dinner from 50 Great Curries of India. Slowly brown-frying the onions lent great depth of flavor to the curry and cabbage. Beef curry, Madras style: Brown-fried onions, a fried spice paste, and beef chuck, simmered until tender and then finished with coconut milk. Very popular. Cabbage with spices and tomato: Slowly-fried onions, ginger, and chiles, and then finished with tomato, turmeric, and Kashmiri chile powder. Yellow rice: Basmati rice, soaked and then steamed with cinnamon, bay leaf, black cardamom, clove, and turmeric.

I have very few dislikes, and I will try just about anything. Cicadas, for example, have a lovely nutty taste. That said . . . I have never taken to cantaloupe or honeydew. I can eat them, but find their sickly-sweet taste unappealing. I try honeydew and cantaloupe again every few years. Nope, still not my favorite. I once had kitfo (Ethiopian steak tartare). It tasted delicious, but every few bites I got the “raw meat” willies. Very odd.

Maple Leaf: Had a little maple syrup left over. An ingredient search on CocktailDB led to the Maple Leaf: 1 ½ oz. bourbon (Pikesville rye) ½ oz. maple syrup (less for me) ½ oz. lemon juice Shake & strain A maple-flavored whiskey sour, basically.

Sounds fantastic, Dejah - breakfast and dessert in one. Every once in a while I crave pasta with cream sauce. Usually I make fettuccine Alfredo, but this morning I tried something new. Fettucine al limone: Reduced cream, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and grated Parmesan. Lemony!

Patrick – thank you, and good luck with the whole fish. Baked en papillote is pretty easy. I would have used banana leaves if we had any. We have a decent fishmonger not too far away, but lately the grocery store has carried rather perky red snapper. Stir-fried curry pork with green beans, broccoli with oyster sauce, jasmine rice, eternal cukes. Mrs. C and younger son particularly liked the broccoli.

Clams for me, please! Broiled red snapper: Slashed and marinated with coconut milk, red curry paste, fish sauce, lime leaves and sugar. Baked in foil and garnished with red bell pepper and slivered lime leaves. Bean sprout pork: With garlic, white pepper, sugar, and scallions. Jasmine rice, salad, and eternal cucumbers escaped documentation.

Busboy – I am very sorry for your loss. Words fail. The one time that I met Stephanie, when you hosted that fabulous eGullet crab cake cook-off, it was clear that she was very special (as I am sure you know well). I definitely understand cooking for your loved ones versus just cooking. I hope that you will recapture the spark over time.

You had me convinced already, but that sealed the deal.

Will do. I use the recipe from James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor, so I suppose that would bounce the rendang to the "Cooking with "Cradle of Flavor"" thread: http://forums.egulle...10#entry1420710

Dejah - Your rendang makes me very hungry! I will figure out a way to work potato rendang into one of our holiday meals.

Gorgeous meals, all! More from the Big Green Egg tonight Maple mustard pork chops Maple mustard BBQ sauce, with bacon Asparagus with lemon zest and garlic

Thank you, Keith. No water pan, no mop, just indirect over a pizza stone at 225F, raised the heat to 275F for the last half hour or so. BTW, kudos to all on the Scotch eggs - they look remarkable

Thank you very much, Patrick. Raging River is a commercial rub produced by Dizzy Pig, a local company: http://www.dizzypigb...agingriver.html Magic Dust is Mike Mills' dry rub. We used the remainder from the batch we made for our last pork butt. Recipe here: http://www.food.com/...bbq-rub-373437 Enjoy!

Spare ribs, smoked low and slow on the Big Green Egg. We used Magic Dust on one rack, and Dizzy Pig Raging River on the other. We normally smoke with the Weber Smoky Mountain, but the Big Green Egg held steady at 225F for 6 hours. Cowboy beans and salad for accompaniments. Bark: Moist and juicy!

Cashews instead of peanuts because that is what we had, but otherwise straight from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty - recipe here: http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/cooking/ Edit: It was pretty zippy - much rice was consumed, and a few glasses of milk . . .

Dejah – I may steal your eggplant, it looks fantastic. Tonight’s experiment - stir-frying on the Big Green Egg. Advantages included abundant heat and breezes to carry away the chile fumes. Disadvantages included less than optimal heat control and awkward access to the wok. I think I’ll stick to stir-frying indoors. Gong bao chicken, stir-fried zucchini slivers with garlic, and jasmine rice. We had extra teenaged boys, so Mrs. C made bacon and then fried crescent roll dough in the bacon grease.

Patrick – thanks! The juiciness seems to be typical of the Big Green Egg, probably because it is a ceramic cooker and very well sealed. We went to a Big Green Egg festival, and all of the chicken dishes, ribs, etc. were remarkably juicy and tender. I had the leftovers for lunch today, and I don't think I have ever had such tender chicken with a pronounced smoky grill flavor.

BBQ chicken (gai yang): Cooked at 400F on the Big Green Egg, indirect for 30 minutes and then over the flames to crisp up the skin. I must say – we make this frequently, and the chicken has never been this juicy. Served with sweet chile sauce, coconut rice, salad, and Mrs. C’s grilled pineapple.

Leftover grilled salmon with scrambled eggs. Jarlsberg cheese, shallots, S&P, dusting of cayenne, toasted potato bread

No complaints as he scarfed down seconds. Thanks! My last curry paste looked a little washed out, so this time I added a guajillo chile for color (with flavor as a bonus). Glad to hear that you have power again.

Chris - Huge thanks for recommending this recipe. We made it with beef chuck and eggplant, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Dinner from Thai Food Southern Mussaman curry of beef (geng mussaman neua): This is one of the most delicious curries I have ever made or eaten. Tender beef and eggplant, rich coconut cream and peanuts, sour tamarind, a touch of sweetness, just the right amount of chile heat, and beguiling aromas of ginger, cinnamon, and roasted coconut, cardamom, bay leaves, and cloves. Everything that a curry should be. Steamed eggs: Very nice with the rich, spicy sauce. Jasmine rice, iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes