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C. sapidus

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Everything posted by C. sapidus

  1. 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.
  2. 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?
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. C. sapidus

    Dinner! 2008

    Leftover pulled pork on a potato roll, topped with Memphis mustard slaw and two kinds of homemade barbecue sauce. One sauce tasted like a bowl of sweet-spicy tomato chilli without meat or kidney beans; the other was a vinegar sauce with dried chiles, salt and pepper, and a hint of brown sugar. More on Behold my butt! (clicky).
  6. We smoked two boneless pork butts for a party this weekend. After tying up the butts, we rubbed them and refrigerated for 24 hours. Our go-to recipe is The Renowned Mr. Brown (click) from Smoke & Spice. Hickory chunks provided the smoke. A brief thunderstorm rolled through around midnight as I fired up the smoker, but otherwise the weather remained calm and cooperative. The WSM held steady between 210F and 240F for 17 hours, requiring only the addition of about 30 hot coals after breakfast and in mid-afternoon. The Redi-Chek thermometer arrived the night before the party (whew). The high and low temperature alarms remained silent while we slept peacefully through the night. As the outside air approached a muggy 100F, we enjoyed air-conditioned comfort while monitoring the meat and smoker temperatures. Props to Marlene and Mike for recommending the Redi-Chek. The butts hit 185F just as guests arrived (whew, again). More guests volunteered for quality control than pork pulling, but many hands still made light work. No one left hungry and we are well-supplied with Snowangel’s “pantry gold”. We served two kinds of barbecue sauce (vaunted vinegar sauce (click) and Kansas City-style struttin' sauce (click)); three kinds of “slaw” (doctored-up “Memphis mustard”, Mrs. C’s Asian-inspired cabbage salad, and Vietnamese pickled bean sprouts), and a variety of bread rolls. The teen and ‘tween boys inhaled pork sandwiches with slaw and barbecue sauce before running off to play. Most of the grownups chose to construct pulled pork banh mi with mayonnaise, Maggi sauce, liver pate, chopped cilantro, thinly-sliced jalapeno chiles, and the pickled bean sprouts. Guests brought prosecco, California syrah, and a rich coffee-flavored tiramisu. Mrs. C concocted Dark & Stormys. Grownups chatted after dinner while a pack of boys soaked each other with waterguns in the front yard. Edited to corral stray words.
  7. Took me a while to translate that. Apologies, thank you, and I hope to hear about your Hanoi holiday.
  8. Whoa, the food at Tabla looks delicious - I just made a mental note to visit during my next NYC trip. Also, I have been looking for an opportunity to try cooking banana leaf-wrapped fish in Parsi green chatni. Your picture may help that dish elbow its way to the front of the line. How did you like it? Looking forward to the barbecue.
  9. Pan-seared tuna steaks, ginger-lime dipping sauce, jasmine rice, and a vegetable garnish plate with lettuce, cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. Boiled gai lan did not make the picture. All from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.
  10. Soba, who will *cue commercial music* for your foodblog? As others have mentioned, the brilliant spring greens shining through your recent meals have been lovely. I visited the Union Square Greenmarket on my last trip to NYC, and it is truly an inspiring place. Thanks also for the clear egg-poaching directions – you have motivated me to give it a try. Blog on, and don’t spare the chlorophyll.
  11. C. sapidus

    Dinner! 2008

    Percy, thanks! The recipe in My Bombay Kitchen listed milk, half-and-half, or coconut milk as options. I thought coconut milk sounded intriguing, so that is what we used.
  12. C. sapidus

    Dinner! 2008

    Discovering an amazing fishmonger this afternoon led to shellfish overload for dinner: seared dry-pack scallops; and crab gratin with coconut milk, cilantro, scallions, and chiles. Cucumbers with lime juice and ginger on the side, and extra lime wedges to squeeze as desired. Boys liked the crab gratin: “It tastes just like crab cakes!”
  13. Ahh, everyone's breakfasts continue to inspire. Scrambled eggs with vaguely Indian seasonings - browned onion, garlic, chiles, chaat masala, garam masala, and cumin seeds, all fried in ghee. Served on toasted potato bread, and topped with coconut chutney and more chiles. Cool cucumbers for contrast.
  14. A recent study found that food transportation (“food miles”) causes a relatively small fraction of food-related greenhouse gas emissions (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 3508-3513). Summary here (clicky) Abstract and article download here (clicky) Methane in cow burps and nitrous oxide from manure decomposition seem to be the main culprits. Eating more plants, less beef, and less dairy reduces greenhouse gas emissions far more effectively than eating locally. Of course, people may choose to eat locally for legitimate reasons unrelated to reducing their “carbon footprint”.
  15. C. sapidus

    GREENS!

    Thank you, Abra! I am happy to share recipes. Bhaji, from My Bombay Kitchen. I added palak shorva / shorba to RecipeGullet (click). Enjoy!
  16. Palak shorva / shorba Serves 4 as Soup. Palak shorva/shorba, adapted from a recipe from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking. Minus the milk, cream, and extra chicken broth, this would probably make a very nice palak paneer. 4 T ghee 2 c yellow onions, thinly-sliced 2 tsp garlic, minced 1 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp each ground cloves, nutmeg, black pepper 4 c chicken broth 1/2 c rice, cooked 1 lb frozen chopped spinach, mustard greens, etc., thawed 1 c milk 1/4 c heavy cream Kosher salt, lemon juice, and thinly-sliced lemon Fry onions and garlic in ghee until golden. Add cumin and stir for a few seconds. Add cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper, and turn off the heat. Blend rice and a cup of broth in the blender until smooth. Add thawed/wilted spinach (and/or other greens), onion mixture, and as much broth as needed to blend to a smooth puree. Add the spinach puree, remaining broth, milk, cream, and salt to a saucepan and heat through. Season as needed with salt, lemon juice, and/or black pepper. Garnish with lemon slices if desired. One may, of course, make this with fresh greens. Mustard greens and spinach make a particularly nice combination. Boil the greens in salted water until tender, shock in cold water, drain well, and then proceed with the recipe. Enjoy! Keywords: Indian, Soup, Vegetables ( RG2128 )
  17. C. sapidus

    GREENS!

    I love greens – Southern, Asian, Indian, they are all good. I recently discovered Swiss chard tacos, from Mexican Everyday: Stir-fried greens are wonderful. Gailan . . . . . . and stir-fried spinach with garlic. My all-time favorites, though, are greens cooked with Indian spices. Bhaji with spinach and mustard greens, from My Bombay Kitchen (plus a bunch of other stuff) . . . . . . a quick bhaji with frozen chopped spinach and coconut chutney . . . . . . and one of my favorites from a recent Indian cooking binge - palak shorva.
  18. Marlene, thank your for the kind words and the thermometer recommendation. I Googled the manual for my thermometer and it turns out that, um, I forgot to hit “reset” after changing batteries. Even so, I may get a new one because it was reading the temperature in our living room as 134F. The evening was warm, but not that warm. I would like to hear more about your butt. Susan, same rub as last time – Southern succor from Smoke & Spice. I know that you are a nekkid butt person, but I love spicy, smoky bark mixed with the tender interior meat. We smoked half of a 14-pound boneless skinless butt (Mrs. C wanted the other half for the crock pot). I suppose that a rub wouldn’t do much for a skin-on butt. You are truly hard-core. As a partial defense for my technological reliance, I offer that 1) I am still new at this, and 2) a remote thermometer reduces the number of times that I must convince the dogs that their help with the smoker is unwelcome. Thai cucumber salad is a great suggestion. We plan to make that in two weeks when we smoke butt for company. I do hope you will be sharing your butts with us.
  19. C. sapidus

    Dinner! 2008

    A not-particularly-good picture of a particularly good pulled pork sandwich, topped with crunchy cabbage-mustard-vinegar slaw. I crowned my second helping with Vietnamese pickled bean sprouts, but my fingers were waaay too messy to take a picture. Leftover pork may become a smoky picadillo de puerco later this week. More porky goodness on Behold my butt! (clicky).
  20. Boneless pork butt smoked overnight in the Bullet for 14 hours. We used a dry rub and mopped with a vinegar-mustard mixture in the last few hours. We will be smoking a butt for company in two weeks, so this was a practice run. The remote thermometer failed, so I used a deep-fry thermometer. Can anyone recommend a good dual-probe remote thermometer? I would love to monitor the temperature of the meat and smoker from a distance. We made two “slaws” – a standard vinegar, mustard, and cabbage slaw, and Vietnamese pickled bean sprouts. I rather liked the sweet-sour crunchy bean sprouts with the pulled pork. Mrs. C had a pulled pork salad. Pork in mid-shred.
  21. C. sapidus

    Dinner! 2008

    nakji, beautiful scallops. Peter, dang, that’s a whole bunch of my favorites in one meal. Prawn, everything looks great, but I would particularly like to try the razor clams. Kim, scaled back or not, that looks good – sorry you couldn’t enjoy fully. isomer, a belated welcome. I hope you continue to remember your camera at dinner time, and share your lovely meals. Tonight Mrs. C made hummus, served over store-bought falafel. She also stir-fried broccoli with black soy sauce. I improvised chicken curry with cinnamon, curry leaves, and a paste of onions, chiles, ginger, and garlic. The sauce was seriously chile-hot, so I toned it down with yogurt. Not bad, but next time I will seed the chiles to get flavor with a more family-friendly level of fire. We are attempting our first overnight butt-smoking. If all goes well, we hope to be munching on pulled pork some time tomorrow afternoon. The bullet is holding steady around 200F at the moment.
  22. Quick weeknight tacos tonight: ribeye coated with a garlicky ancho chile rub, grilled, rested, sliced, and served with roasted Poblano chiles and queso fresco. The grill flared up and the steak was more done than intended, but still remarkably tender. Swiss chard tacos with caramelized onion, queso fresco, and red chile. This was easy and delicious – one of those mostly-vegetable dishes that are completely satisfying.
  23. Susan, thanks so much for your service, both visible and behind the scenes. Through the fascinating array of people that you have talked into doing foodblogs, I have whiled away many happy hours while learning a great deal about the world. I particularly appreciate your help and encouragement when I was fumbling around with my foodblog. I hope that eGullet’s loss will be counterbalanced by your having more time to spend with your family, and more time to discuss butts, Thai food, the cabin, and other favorites.
  24. Gotcha. A fine idea. I like this advice best of all. I hope to try an unattended test run this weekend. If all goes well and no wind is forecast the night before the dinner party, I may take my chances and get a good night's sleep. If wind is forecast, I will probably be the host with the bags under my eyes. Thanks to all for the advice!
  25. dockhl, thank you! Cook away, and please share the fruits of your labors. By the way, I am enjoying all of your recent signature lines. Tonight we made smoked trout salad again, adapted from pla pla lom kwan in Thai Food. We grilled the shallots, garlic, apple eggplants, and ginger (sub for galangal) on the stove top. Store-bought smoked trout, shredded green mango, mint leaves, and Thai basil, with fish sauce and lime juice dressing. We were out of roasted rice powder – I need to make a new batch. I love this salad - salty, sour, and smoky, with a well-balanced medley of strong flavors. Smoked trout salad
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