C. sapidus

Susan, the family did pretty well with the sour orange curry, even though the broth turned out spicier than intended. The boys generally like cabbage in soups, so that helped. A respectable amount of the curry disappeared without major complaints or kudos. I used whole bamboo shoot tips from a jar, boiled in salted water, sliced, and then simmered in the curry for a while. The bamboo shoots had a nice texture and a slight (but not unwelcome) bitter taste. When you have fully recovered, I would love to hear about your “catering” experience. I can’t imaging cooking for more than a hundred hungry teens.

OnigiriFB, you are too kind. Please do come to dinner – I would love to have someone with an experienced palate taste some of our experiments and let me know how they *should* taste.

Dinner from Thai Food: sour orange curry of trout with bamboo shoots, Napa cabbage, and white asparagus (geng som pla) . . . . . . and shrimp simmered in coconut cream (lon gung). Cucumbers and jasmine rice completed the meal.

Elder son was away at basketball camp this week, so we welcomed him home with grilled rib-eye steak, sliced into salad for the grown-ups. For the dressing, we gave cilantro, garlic, palm sugar, white pepper, lemon juice, and fish sauce a whirl in the blender. Leftover rice to fill any lingering empty spots.

So what did you make, Chris? For future such occasions, you may find Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick and Easy Indian Cooking helpful. I particularly recommend her stir-fried green cabbage with fennel seeds; spinach with ginger and green chiles; cauliflower with ginger, garlic, and green chiles; green beans with mushrooms; or new potatoes with cumin. I hope to report on the mushroom curry this week. Stir-fried okra from My Bombay Kitchen or Classic Indian Cooking is also quite satisfying. Quick-cooking masoor dal for protein, and rice pilaf, chutney, and/or raita to round out the meal and you are in business. Mango lassi for dessert if you like. Jumping on djyee100’s taco idea, Rick Bayless has a delicious mushroom taco filling. Mushrooms add a meaty punch to a vegetarian meal.

Looks good, Ce’nedra! Grilled chicken (ga nuong), vegetable garnish plate (dia rau song), ginger-lime dipping sauce (nuoc mam gung), and basmati rice steamed with chicken stock. We marinated boneless skinless chicken thighs in fish sauce, lime juice, black pepper, salt, sugar, and olive oil. Even skinless, the chicken turned out nice and juicy. We cooked for seven, but five diners polished off nearly 15 chicken thighs. Teenage male metabolism at work.

Whoa, crab and chorizo quiche – man, that looks good. Chicken fried rice (in the back) with eternal cucumbers and nahm prik ong – a relish of chiles, shallots, garlic, tomato, and shrimp paste.

Kalyustans has khee lek leaves in brine (click and scroll). Perhaps Austin can find a recipe - he once mentioned khee lek curry in his blog.

Thank you very much, heidih. The Belgian endive was dead-simple – clean, remove outer leaves, slice in half lengthwise, submerge in salted coconut milk, and simmer until tender. A spicy relish contrasts nicely.

Dinner from Thai Food: Southern Muslim chicken (gai goria), steamed eggs (kai neung), and jasmine rice. We also served a relish of garlic and chiles (nahm prik gratiam suk) for dipping assorted vegetables - Belgian endive simmered in coconut milk, eternal cucumbers, iceberg lettuce wedges, and luridly-colored pickled ginger. The chicken was marinated overnight with coconut cream and spices. We made a thick coconut cream curry and repeatedly dipped the chicken in the curry while grilling. Our coating never looked like the picture in the book, but it tasted good anyway. The curry would have been delicious on it own – it seemed a shame to waste it basting the chicken. For the relish, we simmered garlic cloves with palm sugar, salt, lime juice, and water. When the garlic was soft, we pounded it to a paste with reconstituted dried chiles, and then seasoned the relish with tamarind, fish sauce, and the garlic syrup.

Two favorites from Land of Plenty: spicy braised fish with whole garlic (da suan shao yu) and dry-fried green beans (gan ban si ji dou), served with jasmine rice. Butterflied trout, three heads of braised garlic, and a delicious spicy sauce – what’s not to like? I hand-chopped boneless pork rib meat for the green beans – I prefer the texture compared with ground pork.

Thank you, Katie. Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it - shaking beef (click).

No help on before-and-after butt weight, but (heh) I can offer a single data point: 15 pounds of boneless, skinless butt provided pulled pork sandwiches and banh mi for twelve adults, teens, and near-teens with plenty of leftovers. If you have lots of fixings, a half-pound to 3/4 pound of raw meat per person should be sufficient (but go for the high end for "young adults").

Nakji, I am looking forward to your trip, photos, and always-entertaining editorializing. Shaking beef (bo luc lac), store-bought French bread, and eternal cucumbers. We marinated cubed flank steak in oyster sauce and soy sauce, stir-fried the beef with sliced garlic, and then tossed the stir-fry with pineapple, red onion, Thai basil, and a dressing of lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, and bird chiles. The beef was served as a salad with watercress and sliced tomatoes. Recipe from Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Note to self: next time, stir-fry the beef in batches for better browning.

Enthalpy of fusion (Wikipedia). Good luck!

Thank you, Megan. I am so glad that you are finding time to share your cucumber- and pasta-filled meals with us again. One of my friends used to despise cilantro, but has become addicted. There is hope for you yet!

Beautiful dinner, Prawn. I also spent a relaxing Father’s Day afternoon cooking, in our case from My Bombay Kitchen. Bombay curry with chicken and potato: Younger son declared, “I’m in love!” What’s not to love – browned onions, curry leaves, and coconut milk simmered down with a masala of ginger, garlic, dried chiles, peanuts, coriander, cumin, white poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and turmeric. Tamarind extract added just before serving gave the gravy a lovely tang. Basmati rice: Steamed with black peppercorns, cumin, bay leaf, salt, sugar, and ghee. Watercress salad with ginger vinaigrette (back left): Diced green mango and cucumbers provided a lovely variety of textures. Onion kachumbar (back middle): A simple mixture of diced sweet onion, cucumber, chiles, cilantro, lime juice, and salt, this complemented the rich curry nicely. We mixed in the cilantro after the boys took their serving.

Nah, the law-makers could respond by requiring restaurants to broil or pan-fry burgers to shoe leather, avoiding E. coli and PAHs. Veggie burgers would be even safer, of course. Life is full of trade-offs. Burgers don't do much for me, so I don't have a "steak" in this battle, so to speak.

Background: Incomplete combustion creates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a family of chemicals that includes benzo[a]pyrene (BaP). PAHs are clearly associated with carcinogenic effects in experimental animals. Effects in humans are less clear, in part because one cannot ethically experiment on humans with suspected carcinogens. Smoking and proximity to urban automobile traffic are major sources of PAH exposure in humans. Other sources of PAH exposure include off-road diesel engines, burning wood, industrial combustion, and volcanoes. With so many man-made and natural sources, PAHs are ubiquitous in the environment and low-level exposures are unavoidable. Now to your question: Some quick Googling turned up a few articles: Grilling fatty meat, especially grilling to well-done (*shudder*), caused a higher concentration of PAHs in food. Based in this research, I vow not to grill steaks to well-done. (1) Analysis of 200 food items for benzo[a]pyrene and estimation of its intake in an epidemiological study. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2001 May; 39(5): 423-36. (2) Estimating Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: A Comparison of Survey, Biological Monitoring, and Geographic Information System-Based Methods. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention: Vol. 15, 1376-1381, July 2006.

Doc, your latest culinary trip has me fully enthralled (and I still have visions of the chiles and moles from your trip to Mexico). I love the behind-the-scenes photos and the pictures of fruits on the vine (or tree, as the case may be). I also appreciate the evenhanded appraisal of your experiences. Your pictures show that males are well-represented in cooking school and restaurant kitchens, but I had the impression (perhaps incorrect) that women do most of the home cooking in India. Did you catch any discussion about this interesting split? Anyway, your photographic eye is keen as always. As beautiful as many of the finished dishes look, I was particularly drawn to the mise-en-place photos - so much flavor, just waiting to be unleashed.

Still giddy with the excitement of having a local fish market, we had another seafood overload dinner. First, we cut a beautiful tuna loin into steaks. I marinated half with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and oil, and then seared the tuna steaks in a smoking-hot cast-iron pan. Mrs. C crusted the remaining tuna steaks with pecans and egg wash, and seared them in butter. We picked up a few jumbo shrimp, and stir-fried them with chiles, garlic, cayenne, salt, and sugar. We also heated up a decent cream of crab soup from the fish market. Leftover rice, ginger-lime dipping sauce, and a vegetable garnish plate of cucumbers, mint leaves, and Thai basil completed the meal.

I often use lime juice (along with fish sauce, sugar/palm sugar, etc.) to adjust the flavors of coconut milk curries just before serving. It may or may not be traditional, but it tastes good to me and the curry has never curdled. Perhaps that makes me a weirdo, too. insomniac, do you know which curries traditionally use lime juice vs. tamarind vs. something else as last-minute souring agent? Peter, I have eaten many delicious things that look a lot like your picture. Beauty is in the eyes (and tastebuds) of the beholder.

Congratulations on your Blue Star. I hope you get the damage fixed quickly and properly, and enjoy your new stove for many tasty years. What did you do for ventilation?

Beautiful dumplings, Prawn. Two-wok dinner from Land of Plenty: tai bai chicken; stir-fried shiitake mushrooms; stir-fried Swiss chard with garlic; and jasmine rice. We were out of pickled Sichuan or Thai chiles, so I cooked the chicken with pickled Serrano chiles and a bit of dou ban jiang. For whatever reason, the sauce simmered down to a particularly concentrated spicy-numbing glaze with a hint of sweetness. Fat trimmed from the chicken thighs gave the mushrooms nice meaty punch.

OnigiriFB, thank you! Sure, stop in next time you are in the neighborhood, and make whatever you like – I am sure that it will be delicious. Peter, I would love to see your experiments, however brown.