C. sapidus

Kalypso, carne de res con col sounds like a perfect weeknight meal, so I have penciled it in for next week. Thanks for the tip! Boys gave tonight’s meal 10’s across the board, scores normally reserved for steak night. The pork and frijole recipes were from Mexican Everyday. Puerco a la Mexicana: Pork tenderloin cubes browned and then cooked to tender rosy-pink in a sauce of tomatoes, white onions, garlic, roasted Poblano chile strips, beef broth, and cilantro. Yum. Frijoles charros rapidos: Crisp-fried bacon, garlic, tomatoes, roasted Poblano chile strips, and ancho chile powder, simmered with canned black beans and finished with cilantro. More yum. Mrs. C sauteed corn with onions and Rotel, and steamed orzo in vegetable broth (the latter not pictured but quite good).

So, Peter, are you stirring up trouble in Thailand again? I’m not much of a revolutionary, but I would consider becoming one for the food alone. Who are we demonstrating against, and where do I sign up? You showed the golden-grilled chicken and mentioned the North East, and I immediately began getting sharp larb cravings. Thank you for satisfying those cravings, pictorially anyway. Your photo and written essays are always appreciated. Thanks!

Nickrey, I was already craving mole and then you post those enchiladas. Cruel and unfair. Dinner from Monisha Bharadwaj’s The Indian Spice Kitchen. Minced lamb with green peas (kheema mutter) This recipe included two unusual (to me, anyway) features: caramelizing a small amount of sugar before frying the whole spices; and the inclusion of star anise. Otherwise, this was a pretty standard (and quite delicious) kheema, with golden-fried onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, cayenne, whole black peppercorns, turmeric, garam masala, and cilantro. Carrot-flavored rice with cashews (gajar ka pulao) Mrs. C fried basmati rice with cassia cinnamon, whole cloves, and black peppercorns; added grated carrots, and cashews; and then steamed the rice until fluffy.

You are all making particularly beautiful meals lately. My brother ate with us last night, and he helped us make choo chee shrimp curry; corn and shiitake mushroom soup; and jasmine rice. We gave him all the leftovers, so unfortunately no pictures. Tonight we made: Fried grated coconut with beef (serundeng daging), dry-fried with coconut milk, ground garlic and shallots, tamarind, palm sugar, coriander, and bay leaves. Coconut rice (nasi lemak), served with fried egg, fried shallots, sliced cucumbers, and slivered Thai chiles. Mrs. C made delicious corn fritters with the corn pulp left over from yesterday’s soup.

kayb – mmm, roasted carrots (not to slight the meatballs). Coriander seed or leaf? Caribbean dinner tonight: Jamaican goat (lamb) curry: Cubed lamb shank marinated with fresh thyme, allspice, curry powder, and chopped chives, garlic, and a Scotch bonnet chile. Fry onions, garlic, ginger, fresh thyme, and curry powder; brown the meat, then add coconut milk, chicken stock, and the shank bone. Simmer the curry until the lamb can be easily cut with a dull spoon. Another good ‘un from Curry Cuisine. Pigeon peas and rice with chopped bell peppers, onions, garlic, fresh thyme, half a Scotch bonnet chile, and fried salt pork. Recipe from Sweet Hands. Fried plantains with crema: Da boyz dont especially dig this, so more for Mrs. C and me.

Shells with sausage, cream, and tomato, plus parsley, S&P and grated parmesan cheese. A favorite from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. Braised red cabbage with onion, olive oil, garlic, chicken stock, parsley, and raspberry balsamic vinegar.

For homemade curry pastes, typical ratios seem to be about 1 cup of massaman curry paste to 3 cups of coconut milk. Commercial curry paste may be saltier (go easy on the fish sauce at first) and more concentrated (so you may want to use a bit less paste). Commercial curry paste cans or (better) tubs should include a suggested ratio that you can use. The problem with adding curry paste to taste is that frying the curry paste in cracked coconut cream is typically one of the first steps. Frying the paste mellows and improves the flavor, so simply adding more curry paste later would not be ideal. What you can do, however, is add coconut milk towards the end to modify intensity (especially that of the chile heat). Remember that the final adjustment of salty, sweet, and sour (typically with fish sauce, palm sugar, and tamarind juice) is a key step in Thai curries. Good luck!

Pad ped moo paa (spicy pork), served with jasmine rice and jicama. Another weeknight gem from Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook. Fry red curry paste in oil, mix in thinly-sliced pork loin, canned green peppercorns, fish sauce, palm sugar, and lots of sliced chiles (I used a mix of jalapeno and ancho chiles). Cook everything gently until the pork is just done, adjust seasoning, top with coconut cream, serve and enjoy.

According to Lange's Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 15th Ed., acetic acid is zeotropic with water, so you should be able to separate the two by fractional distillation. That would have to be experimentally determined. If your kitchen includes a still with a condensing column, you would concentrate the acid more quickly and efficiently. The problem is that you will not boil off water only. Some of the acetic acid will evaporate, too (hence the famous fumes). Raoult's Law may be relevant, if you are more interested in chemistry than chutney. Good luck! (edited to clarify)

Wow, gorgeous food everyone! Fettucine Alfredo is one of my major weaknesses. South Indian tamarind fish curry: Tangy tamarind and tomato sauce, seasoned with onions, garlic, curry leaves, fenugreek, turmeric, and cayenne. Served with plain basmati rice. Recipe from Curry Cuisine, of which I am becoming quite fond. Peas and carrots with cumin: This was the highlight of the meal for me, and the boys couldn’t get enough. Onions fried slooooowly until nut brown. Added chopped garlic, ginger, and chiles, and then sloooowly fried the sauce with cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Recipe from Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India, another source of much pleasure.

Beef was supposed to marinate for "a few hours", but after delays picking up Mrs. C at the airport, I probably marinated the beef for a little over an hour.

Thank you very much. I have never been to Mexico, but here are a few threads on Mexican cookbooks: Looking for a 2nd Mexican cookbook Mexican and Diana Kennedy Diana Kennedy Cookbooks Mexican Cookbooks: Kennedy or Bayless? And if you speak Spanish (I don't, unfortunately): Enciclopedico de gastronomia Mexicana DK does Oaxaca Enjoy!

We welcomed Mrs. C back with a simple meal (believe it or not) mostly from David Thompson’s Thai Food. Soup of minced pork and scallions: Super-simple and quite good. Chicken stock, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, minced pork, oyster mushrooms, and sliced scallions, finished with cilantro and white pepper. Stir-fried beef with spices: Strips of sirloin marinated with fish sauce, cumin, and coriander, and then stir-fried with roasted chile paste, fried shallots, chile powder, white pepper. Cucumber salad (from Cracking the Coconut): Cukes and minced scallions tossed with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Edited to eliminate redundancy eliminate redundancy.

David, how did you make the spicy pickled cucumbers? Just the boys and I tonight, so we enjoyed a simple, bacon-laden dinner. Spaghetti alla carbonara (Bittman’s recipe); green beans with bacon, onion, and parsley; and bread.

Chris, good luck with your lime tree. We keep ours in a cold sun room and treat it with benign neglect, letting the soil get quite dry before waterings. The tree even tolerated being covered in drywall and tile dust during our renovation this summer. During the growing season, we occasionally add some liquid fertilizer when we water the plant. We have not yet seen fruits on the lime tree, but a Meyer lemon (treated similarly) fruited for us. Friends have a lime tree that thrives in a south-facing corner window. Lots of light and not too much water seem to be the keys to a happy lime plant.

I use coconut milk (Chaokoh, usually) more often, because coconut cream seems to have more additives and preservatives.

Thanks, Kim, and sorry about the rice. Looks like you manage just fine without it, though. Suddenly, I have a hankering for lobster rolls . . . mgaretz, orange honey mustard port wine glaze sounds delicious. In my continuing quest to avoid the grocery store and snow-crazed food hoarders, I cleaned out the pantry for a kinda-sorta-subcontinental meal. I had stocked up on frozen shrimp when they were on sale, and finished the last of the shrimp tonight. Pity, I love shrimp. Pakistani shrimp curry: The sauce was fragrant with onions, garlic, ginger, cumin, and ground coriander; rich with tomato and coconut milk; and spicy with black pepper and cayenne. Just before serving we folded in chopped chiles and cilantro for a fresh, green jolt of fragrance and chile heat. Green peas pulao: Cumin, green cardamom, stick cinnamon, cloves, a bay leaf, and chopped onion fried in ghee. Peas briefly sauteed, and then everything steamed with soaked basmati rice. Naan: Store-bought, baked, and rubbed with ghee. Boys made monstrous Indian tacos, and awarded 8s and 9s for the meal.

Snowed in today, so I improvised a scary-looking green soup from leftover bhaji (spinach and fenugreek greens braised with tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, chiles, and turmeric). I started by frying onions, garlic, cumin, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper in ghee (quoth elder son, “Hey, Pop, smells good.”). Added the leftover greens, chicken broth, and coconut milk; heated through; buzzed everything with a stick blender; and finished with lemon juice. Elder son, not a big fan of spinach, came back for seconds.

Shrimp were stir-fried with garlic and black mustard seeds, and then simmered in a sauce of coconut milk, tomato paste, garam masala, cumin, chiles, cayenne, chopped cilantro, and lemon juice. Basmati rice was fried in ghee with onion, peppercorns, and a bay leaf, and then steamed with garlic-ginger enhanced chicken stock. Stir-fried shrimp in aromatic tomato-cream sauce (ghagari jhinga); pulao; eternal cucumbers

Hi, Pamela2! Beautiful chicken, and welcome to Dinner! We made a batch of salsa roja (fried New Mexico chiles with roasted tomatillos and garlic), and then baked chicken thighs with the salsa roja and diced nectarines. We removed the chicken when done, defatted the sauce, and then mashed up the nectarines and boiled down the sauce with a little honey. Definitely worth making again. Served with arroz blanco (pilaf-style rice with white onion, garlic, chicken stock, chopped parsley, and roasted Poblano chile rajas). Mrs. C tossed raw kohlrabi slices with mirin, honey, salt, and probably other stuff. Delicious, crunchy, and tangy. Chicken baked with salsa roja and nectarines; arroz blanco; and kohlrabi

Yellow mole with chicken, green beans, and potatoes (mole amarillo con ejotes y papas). Shortcut recipe based on one in Mexican Everyday. The broth contained toasted guajillo chiles, tomatoes, white onion, garlic, cumin, canela, allspice, Mexican oregano, and chicken stock, thickened with masa harina. Served with Gulf coast-style white rice pilaf (arroz blanco), made with jasmine rice, white onion, garlic, and chicken stock. Yellow mole with chicken, green beans, and potatoes

If your fish sauce is over a year old, you aren’t using enough fish sauce. Formation of crystals means that the salt is dropping out of solution. I have had this happen, and if you add fish sauce to taste when you do your final seasoning, the slightly higher concentration of salt don't seem to affect the flavor of cooked dishes. I do choose lower-salt brands of fish sauce so that I can enjoy more of the addictive funky-fishy flavor without oversalting.

Culture clash dinner: Cari ga: Vietnamese chicken curry with sweet potatoes and carrots. The gravy, rich with coconut milk and fragrant with shallots, garlic, lime leaves and lemongrass, somehow reminded Mrs. C of a korma. The chicken was rubbed with curry powder, salt, and sugar before browning. This recipe, from Curry Cuisine, will definitely be made again. Ghee rice: Basmati rice, steamed and tossed with ghee and salt. Ghee was probably overkill since the curry sauce was so rich. Spinach with brown butter and walnuts: Leftover from earlier in the week. A little salt brought out the brown butter flavor nicely.

I did this the other day, totally by accident. I dumped too many mushrooms in the pan and watched them swim in their own liquid, but kept cooking them down until the liquid disappeared and the mushrooms browned. I was quite surprised to see the mushrooms turn out so nicely, and I am even more surprised that it took centuries for this method to be documented. We were just talking about that this evening. I think that dry-cooking mushrooms yields more of a roasty flavor, but I have never compared the two methods side by side.

Chorizo omelet