C. sapidus

The Cookbooks & References forum has an excellent compendium of cookbook threads (clicky), including two threads on Thai cookbooks. Thai cookbooks, lookiing for the real stuff "Thai Cooking", by David Thompson The two Thai cookbooks that we use the most are David Thompson's authoritative Thai Food and Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook (multiple authors), chock full of enticing pictures and brief but reliable recipes. Kasma Loha-Unchit's site, Thai Food & Travel, has some excellent tutorials and numerous recipes from her excellent but unfortunately out of print cookbooks.

Hi, turando, and welcome! Here are two recipes that we have enjoyed very much. If you try them, please let us know how they turned out for you. Austin's Panang curry with beef (click) Hot and sour prawn soup, from Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook (click) I'm still searching for a green curry that really hits the spot, so I will be interested to see what folks recommend.

dividend, I wish you the best of luck in finding a balance that works for you. When my cooking obsession threatened to interfere with other parts of life, Mrs. C and I worked out a compromise. Monday through Thursday she cooks the protein and starch; I contribute a vegetable or salad. Friday through Sunday I am free to cook to my heart’s content. This arrangement provides me with more time to plan weekend meals. On weeknights, I get my cooking fix without the three-ring circus of producing a full meal before basketball or boy scouts while discussing the day at work, helping children with homework, adjudicating disagreements, planning family activities . . . Um, my family hasn’t quite given up hope that someday I might come to my senses.

Susan, here you go: Fried catfish with chile. Clarias fish is catfish, so this appears to be the same product with a different label.

On merstar’s recommendation I made curried cauliflower soup with coriander chutney (with lime juice instead of lemon juice because that's what we had on hand). The roasted cauliflower tasted delicious but the finished soup seemed a little bland, so I added cayenne, garam masala, and more curry powder. The coriander chutney (subbing coconut milk for yogurt) pulled things together nicely.

faine and scubadoo, thanks for the kind words! Susan, yes to the bird chile sauce. Nuoc cham also hits the spot.

kalypso, enjoy your trip to Veracruz. You make a compelling case for mole de Xico. My book already had an asterisk by the recipe, but I added another. What meat did you grace with your mole?

Some of you (including our boys, unfortunately) may be sick of my fried rice. We usually riff off the recipe in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, as described in my foodblog (clicky). Constants include eggs, scallions, fish sauce, lots of garlic, and either roasted chile paste, red curry paste, or sriracha. Chorizo, if we have any, is a lovely (if nontraditional) addition. If the fridge fails to yield leftover meat or fish, we usually stir-fry a batch of salt and pepper shrimp. For example: The accompaniments are half the fun. Apparently on this particular evening cleaning out the fridge yielded Thai basil, cilantro, cucumbers, lime wedges, tomatoes, and shredded green mango. Nasi goreng is always welcome . . . . . . as is curry fried rice with fish fillets, bacon, and coconut milk . . . . . . and crab fried rice is wonderful when we are feeling extravagant: Hey, I resemble that remark. Five-spice chicken fried rice: Fish fried rice with chorizo: Bacon fried rice with Poblano chiles, orange bell peppers, and roasted chile paste: Ancho chile shrimp fried rice with roasted Portobello mushrooms. And finally, this is what happens when I am waiting for a dishwasher repairman:

Have you ever tried this soup with blood orange juice? I'm thinking strictly from a color viewpoint. ← I have not tried blood oranges, but they would probably suit this soup nicely. I will make a note for next time, whenever that might be . . . Tonight I made pumpkin soup (click) from Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago. This is a savory soup with chicken stock, coconut milk, onions, garlic, lots of green herbs, and a shot of hot sauce. Instead of using cilantro, we made a batch of "green seasoning" (clicky) a paste of garlic and fresh chives, thyme, oregano, parsley, and “shado beni” (culantro or sawtooth coriander). This takes me closer to my goal: reproducing a hauntingly delicious pumpkin soup that we enjoyed in Barbados. Not there yet, but closer.

Indian cuisine is wildly diverse. Can you give some examples of what you are interested in? The following thread has several annotated lists of recommendations that you might find helpful: Indian cookbooks, how many do you own? (click). I only have a few Indian cookbooks, but I can second the recommendation for Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Cooking. We have also been delighted with Niloufer Ichaporia King’s book of Parsi recipes, My Bombay Kitchen.

We invited an allegedly chile-loving guest to dinner tonight. The plan was to get KFC for the children and their friends, and to make a full-on Thai dinner for the grownups. I spent the afternoon happily chopping chiles, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, etc., grinding curry paste, cracking coconut cream . . . The guest never showed up. With plenty of food for the smaller-than-planned crowd, we decided to skip KFC and invite the boys and their friend to share the Thai meal. I issued copious warnings to mix everything, especially the curry, with plenty of rice. Younger son immediately filled half of his plate with Panang curry, added a small spoonful of rice, and dug in. He looked as if he had eaten high-level radioactive waste. After dinner, one of our neighbors stopped by to take younger son to a movie. She tried some of the Panang curry and loved it. Her husband likes spicy food even more than she does. Apparently we are inviting the wrong people to dinner. Anyway, here is the meal. Austin’s Panang curry with beef (clicky): This started out sneaky-hot, and then rapidly dispensed with the subterfuge. Terrific flavor, but unfortunately too much chile heat for most of the family. My favorite of the meal, though. A finishing shot of tamarind added a subtle tang. Garlic-black bean pan-fried fish fillets, from Dancing Shrimp. The fish is deep-fried until partially cooked and then finished with a sauce of ginger, cilantro stems, salted black beans, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, a little roasted chile powder, and a whole head of garlic. Plate-licking good, this was the crowd favorite tonight. Hot and sour shrimp salad with roasted chile sauce, also from Dancing Shrimp. Barely-poached shrimp tossed with lemongrass, shallots, mint, sawtooth coriander, and one of my all-time favorite dressings – lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, bird chile rounds, and roasted chile paste. Relish of garlic and chiles, from Thai Food. This turned out to be superfluous because no one felt a need to make tonight’s meal *more* piquant. I’ll keep it around to perk up any humdrum weeknight meals. Grandma prepared a salad plate of cucumbers, iceberg lettuce, yard-long beans, cilantro, and Thai basil. Mrs. C drove kids around all afternoon and made the rice. Edited to add a picture of the leftovers, which made a lovely breakfast with leftover turmeric rice.

I have become quite fond of cheap bamboo spoons. Two are P-shaped, and fit nicely into a wok or curved sauteuse. Two are flat with squared off ends, good for scraping fond from flat-bottomed pans. The bamboo spoons have survived many trips through the dishwasher, and can be replaced easily if they crack. I have a heavy wooden spoon with a bowl and squared-off end, perfect for making (and tasting) mole. I used to use it frequently, but it seems too nice to cook with so it has migrated to the bottom of the wooden spoon and wok utensil drawer. Wooden spoons give Mrs. C the willies, so she uses silicone or plastic.

I googled some random recipes, and lemon juice seems to be the most common acid added to sweet potato soup. Other recipes included sherry, yogurt, and/or sour cream. Bourbon and orange juice consort nicely with sweet potatoes, and tamarind might be interesting. Bittman has a sweet potato soup recipe with curry powder and apricots, which sounds fun. Please do report if any of these suggestions are helpful (or if they are disastrous, but that would be a different thread ).

What does "bougie" mean? ← Pretentious; excessively aspiring (clicky). Derived from bourgeois.

Corn chowder with leeks and potatoes, from Vegetables Everyday. Thinly-sliced leeks sauteed in butter and simmered with corn kernels, diced potatoes, milk, and corn broth (made by simmering the stripped corncobs in water). Buzzed with a stick blender (leaving some texture) and finished with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Turned out very nicely, and I look forward to making this soup with fresh corn next summer.

We feed canned green beans to our dogs to maintain their weight. Consequently, our boys consider canned green beans to be dog food. You can imagine the results when friends invited us for dinner and served nicely-sauteed fresh green beans. Son: “What is this?” Me: “Green beans.” Son: “But that’s dog food!” Me: We have a temporary teenaged daughter for the next few months. She has many fine qualities, but canned corn is the only vegetable that she eats without drama. Makes me appreciate our boys’ progress.

I just read through this thread and it looks like you had some great food. I was particularly taken with the tom ka kha gai at Lotus of Siam: That's just how I love this soup -- with a roasted chile paste oil slick floating on rich, fragrant coconut milk.

Our high school chemistry class made esters with n-butyric acid (clicky), the compound that gives rancid butter its distinctive foul odor. The rancid butter stench traveled from the chemistry lab, down the stairwell, and into the cafeteria. This made lunch period pretty unpleasant for a few days each year. Amazingly, butyric acid esters have lovely, fruity aromas. Ahh, fun with chemistry. I had the dubious pleasure of smelling n-butyric acid once before high school. We moved when I was in middle school, and the previous homeowner had forgotten to empty the butter tray before turning off the refrigerator. The house must have remained empty for many weeks because opening the refrigerator door released a memorable stench. I seriously doubt that anyone not afflicted with anosmia would have eaten that particular stick of butter.

Carrot soup with orange and ginger. Good stuff.

I made cream of curried pea soup tonight. Frozen peas, curry powder, chicken stock and thinly-sliced onion, carrot, celery, potato, and garlic. Simmer until tender, buzz with a stick blender, and add cream. Perfect for dosing children with extra vegetables on a weeknight.

Sounds like a wonderful trip, thanks for documenting. I particularly enjoyed the abundant greens . . . . . . floating market . . . . . . chiles, of course . . . . . . rice paddy in the mist . . . . . . geometric fish . . . . . . and gorgeous scallops . . . . . . and of course I would love to have tried all of the food. Just curious -- did you try the horseshoe crabs?

Lovely albondigas, Kalypso. Manchamanteles in progress. This is the same Rick Bayless recipe we made upthread, but simplified. The previous batch, with fried plantains and a mix of ancho and pasilla chiles, turned out much better. Still, not bad, and I like the mix of pork shoulder, chicken, chorizo, and pineapple with spicy-sweet mole. We sprinkled thinly-sliced pickled jalapenos over the manachamanteles before serving.

Any port in a storm, but Sriracha has a fair amount of sugar and water so you may need to make some adjustments elsewhere.

Yup, that's the one, and I admire your finesse. Thanks for the kind words, bloosquirrel, and I hope the recipe turns out well for you. If you like cooking Sichuan food, I strongly recommend Fuchsia Dunlop's book. Do you have a good source for Sichuan peppercorns?

I am certainly not Mr. Oseland, but I would not make rendang in a crock pot or pressure cooker because those items of cookware are sealed to retain moisture. Rendang tastes so flavorful because the slow, open simmering evaporates all of the water from coconut milk, allowing the meat to brown in a rich mixture of coconut oil, coconut milk solids, and curry paste. A pressure cooker or crock pot might work for stews or curries where evaporation is not needed to concentrate flavors.