C. sapidus

Salad week continues: make-your-own grilled shrimp salad, served with coconut rice. Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, and thinly-sliced shallots comprised the basic salad. The boys topped the basic salad with ranch dressing and ate their shrimp separately. The grownups added shrimp, chiles, and mint leaves to the salad, and tossed everything with a blender dressing of lemon juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, and lemon grass.

Happy birthday, Susan! I'll take a big ol' slice of that blueberry pie, please (but make mine warm, even if it is runnier that way).

Shelby and Megan, thanks for the kind words! FauxPas, that looks like a lovely summer meal – welcome to Dinner! I hope you will continue sharing your meals, virtually anyway.

I see that everyone kept cooking beautiful meals these past weeks. We had delightful vacation – the Black Hills, Yellowstone, rodeos, horses, welcoming hosts, and delightful company. I did miss the dogs, fish sauce, and green things. Consequently, I plan a week of salads. Tonight we grilled strip steaks for the boys, and concocted a more-or-less Thai steak salad for the grownups. The salad dressing is a repeat favorite -- lemon juice, fish sauce, cilantro, garlic, chiles, palm sugar, and white pepper, all whizzed up in the blender. Jasmine rice on the side.

Breakfast.

judiu: Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds delicious. alanamoana: Here you go - stir-fried green cabbage with fennel seed (click), from Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick and Easy Indian Cooking. I had plans for dinner tonight - pollo en escabeche, salad with chipotle-balsamic vinaigrette - but I was stuck at the office until 8:00 PM. Ugh.

Doddie and Kim, thanks! Keema with peas, stir-fried cabbage with fennel seeds, frozen peas, eternal cucumbers, and jasmine rice. Boys approved of the keema, and everyone fought for the cabbage (note to self: double the recipe next time). The aroma of frying onions, garlic, ginger, cumin, and fennel seeds is a positive force in the universe.

Regulars may be sick of hearing about our favorite recipe for wings: grilled five-spice chicken from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table (clicky). With suitable adjustments in cooking time, the recipe works nicely for wings, thighs, or drumsticks. The key is to grill the chicken over medium to low-medium heat. Marinating overnight yields down-to-the-bone flavor, but a shorter marinating time still yields tasty chicken. Slashing the wings is a good idea if you choose not to marinate overnight. Picture and description (click) from the Vietnamese Food thread.

Tonight we made cashew cream chicken and tomato rice from My Bombay Kitchen, accompanied by stir-fried okra, bean sprouts, and eternal cucumbers. Making the cashew cream sauce suffused the kitchen with the wonderful aroma of onions, cardamom, cloves, dried chiles, and true cinnamon frying in ghee. With a cup and a half of cashews ground with dried chiles, cream, and spicy chicken stock, the sauce turned out gorgeously rich. I’m having salad for lunch tomorrow. Probably the next day, too.

Thanks! It was crab meat in “mock frog salad” (click and scroll) from Thai Food.

Chris, we use a pump like that (with a reservoir attached) to clean up small mercury spills in the labs. One other way to generate vacuum is to attach an aspirator (click) to your faucet.

David, thank you very much for your kind words. Your own joy of cooking shows not only in your lovely and inventive meals, but even more so in your eagerness to answer questions and share your extensive knowledge. Yes, that was ground pork with the noodles. Based on your description of razor clams, I need to see if they are available around here. Anyway, tonight we made Mom Leuang Neuang’s famous satay from Thai Food This is probably my favorite satay. We made half with chicken breast and half with beef filet (which was on sale). Cucumber salad and nuoc cham from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Bean sprouts, mint leaves, Thai basil, more cucumbers, and jasmine rice.

Chuu chii curry with bay scallops. Thai pomelo salad with shrimp. Beef rendang. Jasmine rice. Hot fudge sundae with whipped cream. Everything washed down with Blue Ridge porter and Vietnamese coffee. There might be leftovers.

Kim – You are very kind. I hope all is well with Otis – those furry critters do weasel their way into your heart. Dan dan noodles from Land of Plenty. Stir-fried baby bok choy with garlic and chiles; stir-fried bean sprouts with scallions, both from Cradle of Flavor.

OnigiriFB, thank you, and enjoy your steak salad. Hmm, we might be the only ones enjoying your nam prick pla too. I made nam prik gapi once, and thought it brilliant, but the rest of the family politely (or perhaps not so politely) declined.

*sound of crickets chirping* Peter’s latest trip inspired tonight’s dinner: crying tiger (sua rong hai) from Crying Tiger. We grilled ribeye steaks after marinating in soy sauce, minced garlic, and black pepper. Salad of lettuce, cucumbers, mint leaves, and flat-leaf coriander. Served with sticky rice and nam jim gaew, a salty-spicy mixture of soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, roasted chile powder, roasted rice powder, and thinly-sliced scallions and flat-leaf coriander. Thai salads are one of my favorite things about summer.

Peter, I am not sure which I enjoy more – the markets, the food, or perhaps the puns, scattered through the narrative like [pick your metaphor, depending how you feel about puns]. Outstanding! Edited to be less cheeky.

Chad, I would love your opinion on a knife question. I will be giving a chef’s knife as a gift. The recipient has worked in professional kitchens, mostly on the pastry side. She loved my Ryusen Blazen, but prefers German knives for their durability. One key requirement – she needs to chop up huge blocks of chocolate with the knife. 1) Would you recommend a German or a Japanese knife? 2) Any particular brand? Thanks so much, and good luck with the tome – I will be boosting your Amazon ranking shortly.

Shaya, that looks like a glorious meal. Thanks for sharing!

Browsing the cook-offs, I realized that I had not posted a few "meat on a stick" meals. I hope y'all don't mind a little self-plagiarizing. Mom Leaung Neuang’s ’s famous satay, from Thai Food. Strip steak marinated with coconut cream, turmeric, sweetened condensed milk, fish sauce, bourbon, and a paste of shallots and roasted peanuts, cumin, and coriander seed. We sprinkled on the excess marinade while the satay was on the grill. This was one of my favorite satays ever. Beef satay, from Cradle of Flavor. This is a family favorite, and we have made it several times. Garlic chicken tikka kebabs. We marinated cubed chicken breast overnight in garlic paste, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and ground cardamom, coriander, cumin, black pepper, and garam masala. The kebabs were grilled and finished with a glaze of melted ghee, lemon juice, dried fenugreek leaves, black salt, cumin, and chaat masala. Anyone else cooked meat on a stick lately?

Short answer: too busy/lazy for an extra trip to the Latino market. Longer answer: before I had ready access to crumbly queso, I used feta as a substitute. Over time, I grew to like the combination of feta and Mexican flavors. Best answer: I conducted further research at breakfast, and the crab tasted better without cheese, anyway.

tri2cook and lisa2k, y’all are too kind. RAHiggins1 – mmm, looks good. How did you make the shrimp curry? Two kinds of tacos tonight – hashed crab with capers (click), and Swiss chard with onions. Toasted chile guajillo salsa, crumbled feta cheese, and setas a la vinagreta (shiitake mushrooms with carrots in herbed vinaigrette).

Hashed crab with capers (salpicon de jaiba con alcaparras), from Zarela’s Veracruz. This is like crab tacos a la Veracruzana, with tomatoes, onion, bay leaves, pickled jalapenos, and capers in the sauce. Served with a squeeze of lime, crumbled feta cheese, and salsa roja de chile guajillo asado, from Mexican Everyday.

Penzey's The Spice House Kalyustan's

Beautiful pizzas, Shelby – I’ll take a slice with razor clams, please. Barbecued ribs with an ancho rub, and side dishes from Smoke & Spice - buttermilk biscuits, smoked Portobello mushroom salad, and smoked sweet potatoes with orange-walnut butter. More about the ribs on Pork Ribs – Baby Back and Spare (clicky).