C. sapidus

Steamed fish with fried garlic and ginger (bplah neung gkratiem jiow, from Dancing Shrimp). Topped with slivered chiles and a mixture of fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. The most time-consuming step was chopping a whole head of garlic. I could see this becoming a go-to fish recipe for weeknights. Stir-fried mushrooms, snow peas, and Napa cabbage (pad pak). We stir-fried the mushrooms in the scented oil from frying garlic and ginger, added the other vegetables, and finished the dish with fish sauce and fermented soybean paste (Snowangel’s “baby poop sauce” ). Served with jasmine rice. Our carnivorous boys awarded 7 out of 10 points for the fish and greens.

menuinprogress, beautiful steak! How did you like the channa ni dar? jfrater, all-you-can-eat rabbits at our house (self-service, of course ). Jstern35, nice first post, welcome to Dinner! We have some of those 20-year-old plates, too, same pattern. While dinner was cooking, the combined aroma of onions, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, coconut, and fennel frying in ghee made a meal in itself. Ground beef koftae in spicy yogurt sauce. Cumin, coriander, ginger, garam masala, cayenne, cilantro, yogurt, and mustard oil in the koftae, and another paragraph’s worth of spices in the sauce. The sauce was boiled down until the beef browned at the end – reminiscent of a shortcut rendang, albeit with quite different spices. Stir-fried Savoy cabbage with fennel seeds. We make this frequently, for good reason. I didn’t notice a difference between Savoy cabbage and regular green cabbage in this recipe. Fresh red chutney, with almonds, red chiles, red bell pepper, garlic, mint, lemon juice, and dill. Basmati rice with whole spices, including green and black cardamom, bay leaves, cumin, cinnamon, and cloves.

Usually, whatever we are having for dinner. Light and fruity seems to work better than heavy and oaky or tannic. Cheap and Chilean sounds just fine. Old thread discussing Marcella cookbooks (clicky). The Classic Italian Cookbook, has a lot of, well, classic recipes -- the kind with name recognition. Saturday with Marcella, a light meal before meeting friends downtown. On the first Saturday of the month, the many quirky shops on the main drag stay open late and offer wine tastings, hot chocolate, cheese samples, occasional outbreaks of doo-wop, and free drinks. I had a martini and a Manhattan, gratis. Conchiglie con pepperoni verdi, rossi e gialli alla panna (shells with green, red, and yellow peppers and cream, from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen): Fry onions in butter and olive oil, add peppers, and saute until soft. Add heavy cream, cook down, and finish with s&p. Grated parmesan added after the picture. Before inhaling the pasta, the boys carefully picked out all of the lovingly-sauteed peppers. Quoth elder son: “It would be OK with me if we had pasta every night.” French beans with bacon and onion: Not from Marcella, but justifiably popular. Edited to eliminate repetitive redundancy.

Huevos more-or-less a la Mexicana, with roasted Poblano chiles and Pecorino romano cheese, garnished with cilantro and served on a buttered English muffin.

shalmanese: In addition to gautam’s fine suggestions, you might try playing with Kasma Loha-unchit’s flavor-balancing exercise (click). If that doesn’t do the trick, you can mash in other herbs and aromatics such as garlic, cilantro roots, flat-leaf coriander, scallions, white peppercorns, etc. Roasted rice powder adds a nutty flavor - are you using any in your salads? To add complexity or tone down the more aggressive flavors you can substitute salt, shrimp paste, or dried prawns for some of the fish sauce; rice vinegar or tamarind water for some of the lime juice; and/or reconstituted dried chiles or nahm prik pao for some of the Thai chiles. Diluting the dressing with water could help, too. Good luck, and please report if any of these suggestions work for you. Tonight’s dinner courtesy of Thai Food: Gai yang (grilled chicken): Marinating all day with mashed garlic, cilantro stems, white peppercorns, and palm sugar yielded tasty, crisp-skinned chicken. Yeah, we make this pretty often on weeknights. Dtam so moo (pomelo salad): I have been waiting for pomelos to appear so that I could try this recipe. Pomelo supremes, sliced lemongrass and apple eggplants, poached shrimp, blanched long beans, and a dressing of mashed garlic, Thai chiles, crab paste, fish sauce, lime juice, and palm sugar. Hung kao man gati (coconut rice): Always popular with the boys. Cucumbers and sliced Napa cabbage on the side.

When you say "straight edge", are you referring to the blade profile? If so, many gyutos (including ours) have a pretty straight edge. I use a 240 mm gyuto for chopping vegetables, and definitely prefer the longer blade. The gyuto shape also seems more flexible than that of a nakiri, although the wide blade of a nakiri could be more efficient at scooping up diced onions and such. No worries about sharpening Japanese knives on the Edge Pro. With Chad’s course as guidance, we put a 10/15 bevel on our gyutos, sujihiki, and paring knives, and a 20 degree chisel edge on the honesuki. Be brave, and do use blue painter’s tape to protect the finish. I break out the Edge Pro a few times a year, and touch up the edge with a ceramic “steel” every day or so. Good luck!

kalypso, thank you for the information and kind words. I look forward to seeing what you make next. Pollo deshebrado a la Nortena (shredded chicken with tomatoes, from Authentic Mexican): We poached chicken thighs with onion, bay leaves, Mexican oregano, and thyme, let the chicken cool in the broth, and then deboned and shredded the meat. We tossed the chicken with a sauce of fried onion, garlic, chiles, tomatoes, scallions, and reduced chicken broth. Very popular served on warm flour tortillas with leftover salsa de chile pasilla. As a bonus, we now have several cups of flavorful chicken broth in the freezer. Ensalada de pina, jicama, y aguacate (pineapple, jicama, and avocado salad, from Seasons of My Heart): Tossed with red onions, crunchy pecan halves, cubed cream cheese, and a dressing of pineapple juice, cider vinegar, olive oil, and cilantro. Quite popular with the grown-ups.

kalypso, wow, that feast looks amazing. Did the chile paste flavor penetrate into the turkey, or was that job left for the incredible-looking jugo? For tonight’s comparatively modest dinner, the chileajo and arroz blanco were from Susanna Trilling’s Seasons of My Heart. Chileajo de puerco (pork with chile garlic sauce): We made pork stock with cubed pork shoulder, the shoulder bone, and aromatics. The sauce included chiles costenos, tomatoes, tomatillos, sesame seeds, garlic, cumin, thyme, and Mexican oregano, all blended, strained, and thinned with pork stock. Mrs. C pointed out that chiles costenos have a flavor reminiscent of Tabasco sauce (but without the overpowering taste of vinegar, thankfully). Arroz blanco con platanos fritos (White rice with fried plantains): Pork stock, onions, garlic, and flat-leaf parsley (subbed for mint). Plantains were on the starchy side, unfortunately, but otherwise the rice was a big hit. Green beans with bacon and onion: Not particularly Mexican, but we used white onions and blanched the green beans in the pork stock. Elder son gave this an 8.5, an unusually high score for a vegetable.

kalypso, any Thanksgiving cooking news to report? Every year the arrival of cold weather makes me crave Mexican food. Tonight's dinner, served with warm flour tortillas, tasted better than it looked. Papas chirrionas (from The Art of Mexican Cooking): Basically, spicy hash browns with egg. We blended toasted chile pasilla, roasted tomatillos, and garlic to a chunky sauce, fried the sauce with the browned onions and potatoes, stirred in beaten eggs, and finished with Mexican oregano and (in our case) grated parmigiano reggiano. Salsa de chile pasilla (from Seasons of My Heart): Tomatillos, garlic, and chile pasilla de Oaxaca, toasted on a comal and blended with a little water to a chunky salsa. Chile pasilla de Oaxaca is smoke-dried like chile chipotle, and we scored a bag from Sweet Freedom Farm (clicky). This salsa will probably show up again this week. Calabacitas al mojo de ajo (from Authentic Mexican): Sauteed zucchini with toasted garlic slices, finished with lime juice, Mexican oregano, and flat-leaf parsley. I could make a meal of the butter-browned garlic chips. For dessert, Mrs. C and the boys made a delicious apple and raspberry pie, served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Bourbon sweet potatoes with bourbon-cointreaux-orange bitters-orange sauce. Like having a two-martini lunch, but for breakfast. I left the last, lonely piece of apple pie for the family to fight over.

Shelby, thanks! Good luck getting un-rutted. Parmhero, beautiful! PercyN, that salad does sound amazing. I look forward to seeing you decipher it. Tonight’s dinner is over on the even quieter Thai cooking at home thread (clicky).

Pan-seared sea scallops with choo chee curry (gkaeng choo chee hoi shel): I “borrowed” this from djyee100 upthread. We served this with coconut cream on the side. This relatively simple curry had a ton of flavor, but I will use less palm sugar next time. The dry-pack scallops remained tender while searing nicely in a cast-iron pan. Stir-fried eggplant with chiles and Thai basil (pad makeua yao): We grilled the eggplant for smoky flavor, and stir-fried with crumbled sausage to add texture and porky goodness. Another Kasma recipe. Prawn and lemongrass relish (nahm prik dtakrai): Garlic, dried shrimp, lemongrass, and bird chiles, ground together and finished with blanched shrimp, palm sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. Delicious when first made, this consorted nicely with cucumbers and rice. From Thai Food. Eternal cucumbers and jasmine rice.

Hmm, an international culinary forum and I’m the only one having dinner. From My Bombay Kitchen: grilled steak with pomegranate molasses and Parsi garam masala; okra sauteed in ghee with onion, chiles, and cilantro; cucumber raita with shallots, chiles, and mint; and tomato rice. The beef marinade added a fragrant, spicy tang, but I should have pulled the steaks a bit earlier. I would like to try this marinade with lamb tenderloins, but none were available today.

We have made both of these before: Napa cabbage and shrimp soup (canh cai kim chi nau tom) and garlicky oven-roasted chicken (ga ro-ti). The soup recipe calls for flavoring the broth with sauteed onion, fish sauce, and dried shrimp. We simmered shrimp shells in the broth, which added a nice overlay of fresh shrimp flavor.

Indian last night, served with crusty bread: Gingery cauliflower soup: Sauteed onion, ginger, and garlic, seasoned with aromatic spices, simmered with cauliflower florets, cubed potatoes, and homemade chicken stock, pureed with a stick blender, and then finished with a little heavy cream. We will make this again and again. ”Delicious chicken bits”: Marinated chunks of chicken breast with ajwan seeds, cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, black pepper, paprika, turmeric, salt, and a little oil. Stir-fried to sear and then baked until done. I took the picture at breakfast – this looked better the night before.

For the veggies, what about a weed whacker in a clean, lidded plastic trash can?

I tried this tonight. We had two boneless ribeyes, probably two inches thick at the minimum (six bucks a pound at Costco). We cooked one in a cast iron skillet, the other in a copper sauteuse. The cast iron ran a bit hot, but the copper pan maintained a steady low-medium. Since the “steaks” were so thick, we finished them in a 170F oven for about 15 minutes. Call us philistines if you must, but the whole family preferred our usual approach: briefly marinate steak with soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper; sear over a hot grill; and finish in a cool oven. We enjoyed the experiment, though, and to be fair, little remained of 4.5 pounds of ribeye.

This lovely paragraph deserves to be reproduced. My strongest travel memories are not monuments or museums, but small illustrations of daily life. For instance, I always associate Siberia with the aroma of freshly-baked fruit pastries mingling with diesel fumes and wafting through our hotel window, open in December for temperature control. Erin, we like to pair tangy carrots (nice browning on yours, btw) with something rich and creamy.

Marcella seems very anti-fennel with regards to sausage. I'm not against fennel myself, in fact, I enjoy it in sausages, but she says it's inauthentic. Are you pro-fennel, or against? ← I favor fennel, especially in Indian food. Since Marcella is so adamantly anti-fennel, I was curious to try the recipe as directed. To my taste buds (probably somewhat chile-scorched), the presence or absence of fennel did not alter my enjoyment of the dish. Caveat: I am not particularly knowledgeable about Italian cooking. Furthermore, when cooking my ultimate goal is enjoyment rather than authenticity (ignoring the long and often interesting discussion of what is authentic). That said, authenticity can provide valuable insights along the path to enjoyment, and often turns out to be the final destination. Good luck tackling fish.

Nakji, I hope that every day, in every way, you are getting better and better. Another Tuesday, another meal from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. Conchiglie col sugo di salsicce, panna e pomodoro [did I get that right?] (shells with sausages, cream, and tomato, p. 137). I must have made this frequently years ago, because the book splits to the binding at this page. We used Johnsonville mild Italian sausage, which helpfully lists “spice” as one of the ingredients, although I did not notice any fennel seeds or flavor. Grated parmigiano-reggiano not shown, but sprinkled on at the table. Carote in scapece (sauteed carrots with vinegar and oregano, p. 254). We made this first, and left it out for snacking before dinner. Good stuff. Belga alla moda del radicchio di Treviso (grilled Belgian endive, p. 249). Olive oil, pepper, salt, and delicious blackened leaf tips courtesy of the broiler. Yum.

I can’t imagine garlic shriveling at our house. We go through several heads in a typical week. How would you have used garlic if it had been available? The steak looks great, and I look forward to trying the method. Thanks for taking the time to document.

Good luck with the pre-holiday diet. Which Rick Bayless book(s) do you prefer? I have not cooked Zarela’s roast turkey, but I would be very interested to hear your evaluation if you try it. We made mostly Mexican food for our holiday dinner last year. It went over well, but this year we will probably try something different.

Gorgeous meals, Prawncrackers, thanks for sharing. Dinner from My Bombay Kitchen: Goan fish curry made with coconut milk, fried onion, curry leaves, tamarind, and a masala of garlic, dried chiles, coriander, cumin, black peppercorns, and turmeric. Just before serving, we added chunks of fish and cooked until barely done. Oh, man, that was good. Served with basmati rice pullao and stir-fried Swiss chard with ginger. Swiss chard is one of the few greens that the boys like.

Spicy basil chicken (gai pad gka-prow); stir-fried baby bok choy with garlic and oyster sauce; steamed jasmine rice. All from It Rains Fishes. Hot and sour shrimp soup (tom yam goong), from Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook. So far, this is my favorite version of this soup.

Thanks, Kalypso. I need to try mole verde next time I get a free weekend. For an informal chile cook-off, we made Rick Bayless’ traditional variation of manchamanteles de cerdo y pollo (simple red mole with meat, fowl, and fruit) from Authentic Mexican. Manchamanteles (“tablecloth stainer”) is usually listed as one of the seven moles of Oaxaca. I couldn't resist making a dish that promised to stain tablecloths. Chorizo sausage, pork shoulder, and chicken thighs provided a variety of meaty flavors. The delicious sauce contained ancho and pasilla chiles (toasted and soaked), onions and garlic (browned), peanuts and almonds (toasted), cloves, canela, and black peppercorns (ground) and bread, all smoothly pureed in the Preethi before straining. We fried the sauce to deepen the flavor and release the fond, thinned the sauce with water, and then added the pork. While the pork simmered we fried chorizo sausage, browned chunks of chicken thigh meat, and deglazed the frying pan with some of the simmering sauce. When the pork was tender we added the chicken and chorizo, and then finished with a sweet-sour combination of cider vinegar, fried plantains, and cubed pineapple. Multiple cycles of browning and deglazing gave the sauce a lot of depth. Generous salting is often necessary to coax out the complex flavors of a mole, and that was the case today. We will definitely make this again. None of the manchamanteles survived, so unfortunately no pictures.