C. sapidus

Percyn and NancyH, those are inspirational breakfasts. Curried tuna sandwiches on toasted multigrain English muffins. Onions, garlic, ginger, cilantro, curry powder, and thinly-sliced Serrano chile provided the flavor.

I still think that a laboratory hot plate with magnetic stir bar would be quite useful in the kitchen.

Hot fudge? Baklava? Coffee? Anyway, thanks for the kind words, Marcia. MiFi, beautiful sausage and 'kraut.

Crab fried rice (kao pad bpoo), from Dancing Shrimp. The recipe only called for a cup of crab meat, but crab meat comes in pound containers. Oh, well. We stir-fried generous quantities of garlic and crab paste, added the rice, fried the eggs, and finished with scallions, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and white pepper. Served with cucumbers, lime wedges, and Thai chiles in fish sauce (prik nahm bplah). From the other night: improvised green curry with chicken and mushrooms; stir-fried gai lan with garlic and oyster sauce; jasmine rice; and cucumbers.

We turned leftover green curry paste into a quick sorta-Thai meal: green curry with chicken, mushrooms, and Thai basil; stir-fried gai lan with garlic and oyster sauce; eternal cucumbers; and jasmine rice.

Lordy, Erin, can you ever tell a tale. How can I follow that? (and the soup looks gorgeous). Conchiglie with sausage and cream sauce (conchiglie con il sugo per la gramigna): The Classic Italian Cookbook, p. 104. I had my doubts about this dish, particularly while pouring heavy cream into a saucepan of sausage frying in butter, oil, and rendered sausage grease. Not to worry. When the small amount of ultra-rich sauce was tossed with pasta and parmigiano, the results tasted deceptively light. Hey, cardiologists need work, too. The boys could not stop eating this pasta and singing its praises. Elder son finished two heaping plates full, occasionally lying down to digest before reviving to eat more. I remember being able to eat like that while remaining rail-thin. Sigh. Chicken fricassee with green peppers and tomatoes (pollo alla cacciatore): The Classic Italian Cookbook, p. 299. Also quite popular, and definitely worth making again. Just the boys and I, so vegetables were notably lacking in tonight's meal. The Classic Italian Cookbook was one of my first purchases when I started cooking, but the book sat largely untouched for *cough, cough* years. Apparently, learning that Italian differed significantly from Italian-American came as quite a shock way back when, so I redirected my cooking explorations elsewhere. Props to Erin for triggering a much-delayed exploration of Italian cooking.

Thanks! Here is an article and the recipe from The Washington Post -- click and scroll

Sichuan tonight, from Land of Plenty: Xie Laoban’s dan dan spaghetti; dry-fried eggplant with green bell pepper and sesame oil; eternal cucumbers.

What kind of chiles did you use? ← We used three serrano chiles, which provided a nice glow without making the sauce too fiery for younger son.

Shaya, thank you for the kind words way upthread. We have missed your meals and the progress of your young sous chefs. Everyone has posted a ton of gorgeous meals lately. Arnab’s Aunt’s chicken curry: (click for recipe). The boys raved about this. Fry a cinnamon stick in oil and then brown chicken thighs with a paste of onions, ginger, garlic, and chiles. Add water, braise until done, remove chicken, and reduce sauce to desired consistency over high heat. Pullao with carrots and peas: Fry cumin, black cardamom, onions, and ginger. Add chiles, carrots, peas, and garam masala. Mix in yogurt, add basmati rice and soaking water, and steam until done. Garnish with cilantro.

Salmon poached in green curry sauce with baby eggplants and Thai basil (gkaeng kiow wahn bplah salmon): Recipe from Dancing Shrimp; green curry paste from It Rains Fishes, and props to djyee100 for inspiring me to try this. Chunks of raw salmon are placed in a heated tureen, covered with boiling curry, and then poached for a few minutes. This yields a remarkably delicate texture and flavor. Thai eggplants, Thai lime leaves, Thai basil, slivered chiles, peas (no pea eggplants to be found), fish sauce, and palm sugar rounded out the flavors. Served with jasmine rice and eternal cucumbers.

Peppered shrimp (camarones a la pimienta), with slivered onions and Serrano chiles, garlic, lots of black pepper, and a finishing shot of mayonnaise. Medium-low heat and short cooking time kept the shrimp tender and juicy. Zarela's Veracruz falls open to this page. White rice pilaf (arroz blanco), with chopped parsley and cilantro, onions, garlic, chicken broth, and peas. Hard to believe that no one has been Making Mexican at Home since last April.

Makes perfect sense to me. Expectations strongly influence perceived value. Oh my, indeed. That is exactly the burger that I would have chosen, because roasted poblanos make everything better. Beautiful photography, wonderful writing, and you look very happy. I can't wait to read more.

Wow, what beautiful meals – those mussels, the tom yam goong, ong choy, and especially that gorgeous green curry. I had hoped to make that green curry tonight, but events intervened. Anyway, we did make smoked trout salad from Thai Food, one of our favorite salads. Grilled, peeled, and sliced shallots, garlic, apple eggplants, ginger (sub for galangal), and red chiles. Shredded green mango, Thai basil, mint, and roasted rice powder, tossed with a dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, and a little sugar. We rounded out the meal with leftover penne pasta with red bell peppers and bacon.

With parent-teacher conferences scheduled for Tuesday evening, we jumped the gun and enjoyed Sunday dinner with Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. Fricaseed chicken wings (ali di pollo in fricassea, page 196): We doubled the recipe and our boys couldn’t get enough. Tender butter-browned chicken, mushrooms, pearl onions, and a delicious sauce of reduced milk, finished with lemon juice. Yum. Slow-browned carrots and endive (carote e belga in padella, page 255). This dish wrung an incredible amount of flavor from four ingredients (carrots, Belgian endive, butter, salt). The secret is time – the carrots were slowly browned in butter for more than an hour. Penne with peppers and bacon (penne con pepperoni e pancetta affumicata, page 133). Butter, onions, bacon, red bell pepper, s&p, grated parmigiano-reggiano. Not bad. We probably went through a month’s worth of butter with this meal. Good thing we only cook like this once a week. Edit: typo

Erin, I was not eating analytically but I expect that the anchovies in this recipe are like fish sauce in a Thai curry – not noticed specifically, but missed if absent. If a substitute was needed, I would try a similarly fishy-salty product, perhaps even fish sauce. You could argue that fish sauce has historical legitimacy props on the Apennine peninsula. Anyway, I would be shocked to hear that Japan lacked some sort of salty fish product. Regarding rosemary – a little googling suggests that rosemary may need supplemental lighting when grown indoors. Looking forward to your next adventure.

Sichuan tonight: red-braised beef with daikon radish (hong shao niu rou); dry-fried green beans (gan bian si ji dou); spicy cucumber salad (qiang huang gua); and jasmine rice. All from Land of Plenty.

I hope that Charles can occasionally tear himself away from the bosom of his family to compose his typically witty and erudite posts. Also, props to Busboy (and Mrs. Busboy) for graciously hosting What makes a perfect crabcake? (click), a delicious and delightful evening. My favorite line from his write-up: Such writing should not be wasted on politicians.

Laura, thank you! The mushrooms are from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen (page 132). Here is a link: penne with mushroom sauce (click).

Erin: Thanks! I always feel like I have enjoyed a well-written short story after following your cooking adventures. Please do continue. Dejah: Thank you! This was my first time cooking monkfish, and I have only tried lobster a few times, so I am not the most authoritative source. That said, monkfish does have a dense, shellfish-like texture, but the flavor is clearly fish rather than shellfish. What fascinated me was watching the monkfish fillets visibly shorten when they hit the hot pan.

Monkfish fillets in red wine (filetti di pesce al vino rosso) Penne with mushroom sauce (penne col sugo di funghi coltivati): The boys, formerly mushroom-haters, loved this. Thinly-sliced Portobello mushrooms were cooked down with butter and olive oil, and then cooked down again with white wine, anchovies, tomatoes, and parsley. White sunflower bread (gone before dinner), and buttered peas with parsley and tarragon.

I hope you don’t mind if I borrow your rather clever idea of adding protein to a vegetable stir-fry for a quick, well-balanced weeknight meal. So, what did you do with the rest of your farmer’s market haul? Ong choy has to be used pretty quickly, does it not?

Chicken stir-fried with lemongrass and chile (ga xao xa ot), from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Deboned chicken thigh chunks, marinated with curry powder, salt, and sugar, browned with red bell pepper, shallots, lemongrass, and chiles, and then simmered with a little coconut milk. Stir-fried broccolini with shiitake mushrooms: glazed with oyster sauce, soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, sugar, sesame oil, and vegetable stock. Recipe adapted from Vegetables Everyday, so not specifically Vietnamese. Jasmine rice, sliced cucumbers, and chopped cilantro at the table. Edit: forgot red bell pepper

Lots of beautiful meals, but a special shout-out for petite tete de chou’s pizza. Dang. Parsi dinner from My Bombay Kitchen: Green curry (lili kari): marinate stewing veal with ginger-garlic paste. Grind cashews, cilantro, chiles, cumin, turmeric, and ginger-garlic paste to a smooth masala. Sizzle cloves and curry leaves, fry thinly-sliced onions, and brown the veal. Fry the masala, add coconut milk and quartered potatoes, and simmer until the meat and potatoes are tender. Serve with a squeeze of lime. Our cilantro-averse boys loved this dish. Sauteed okra (tarela bhida): with onion, chiles, and ginger-garlic paste. Mrs. C has gone from an okraphobe to an okraphile. Onion kachumbar: diced sweet onion, cucumber, and tomato, minced chiles, and lime juice. The crunchy tang complemented the curry nicely. Basmati rice with cumin and ghee

V. gautam, someone else may need to try your experiment -- I don’t recall seeing caul fat at the store. Kasma’s hot-and-sour shrimp salad with roasted chile paste, lemongrass, and mint (plah gkoong). Brining the shrimp before blanching for maybe 30 seconds yielded a tender, snappy texture. This made a zippy lunch with leftover rice and coconut chicken soup (“improved” with more fish sauce and roasted chile paste).