C. sapidus

Kim Shook: mmm, five-spice chicken. Daniel, looks delicious, especially the pork. I have not tried bluefish ceviche – how did you like it compared with other fish? Crying tiger with nam jim gaew, som tum Issan, sticky rice, and eternal cucumbers. The boys each polished off a strip steak; Mrs. C and I split one between us. More on Thai Cooking at Home (clicky). Note the paper plate – our crappy Whirlpool dishwasher died for the fifth and last time in its accursed two-year existence. It is probably repairable (again), but we are tired of the routine. Any company that releases such lousy products will get no more of our business.

Crying tiger (sua rong hai) with “crying tiger sauce” (nam jim gaew). We grilled strip steaks after marinating for an hour with soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, and a little sugar. The nam jim gaew was a mixture of soy sauce, roasted chile powder, roasted rice powder, sugar, scallions, lime juice, and pak chee farang. For som tum Issan, the cheap shredder that we found at the Asian market is the bomb for making long strands of green papaya. Boston lettuce leaves for scooping everything up; sticky rice and cucumbers to round out the meal. We soaked the sticky rice all day, rinsed well, and lined a steamer basket with cheesecloth, and steamed the rice for 30 minutes. We then sprayed the rice with water, steamed for five more minutes, and repeated the cycle of spraying and steaming a total of three times. When the rice was done, we turned off the heat, opened the steamer to release excess steam, and then closed the lid to keep the rice warm. The sticky rice turned out particularly well using this method, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. Crying tiger, som tum Issan

Thank you very much, JimH. The salsa was simple – tomatillos, garlic, and chile de arbol, all dry-roasted on a comal, blended to a rough puree, and finished with salt and minced white onion. Mildly spicy, tangy, and complemented the carnitas very nicely.

Yes, this had been delightful. Thank you so much for the tour of your beautiful city. Way back towards the beginning, I was struck by “dobry den” – almost identical to the Russian “good morning”, but without using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Beautiful tacos! I have a particular hankering for ChefCrash’s chorizo tacos, menuinprogress’ shrimp tacos, . . . OK, I want to try everyone's tacos. Our tacofest started with jicama, orange, and cucumber salad: Portobello mushrooms with rajas of chile Poblano and red bell pepper: Pork carnitas, guacamole, and chile de arbol salsa with tomatillos:

Kim, no roasting - we stir-fried raw cauliflower until well-browned, and then steamed it with a little water. Recipe here (clicky). Your dinner sounds delicious - tomato sauce with sausage and roasted garlic on anything are two of my favorites.

Grilled swordfish steaks; new potatoes with cumin; and cauliflower with ginger, garlic, and chiles. All from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking. Lots of cumin cayenne, and garam masala.

Apparently, lovely steaks appear like wildflowers after a spring rain. Yum! Another dinner from My Bombay Kitchen: “Parsi carnitas”; stir-fried long beans with cucumber and coconut; seared ginger raita; and basmati rice. For the “carnitas”, the masala included dried chiles, cumin, garlic, ginger, and hoisin sauce. Cooked slowly like rendang, the chunks of pork shoulder turned out tender, crusty, and delicious. For the raita, we started by mixing Fage yogurt with minced raw ginger. Next, we sizzled julienned ginger, curry leaves, Thai chile, and brown mustard seeds in hot oil, folded everything together, and then let the flavors mature for an hour or so. Easy to make, and definitely worth making again. The boys liked everything. Either their palates are maturing, or they have become inured to my experiments. Mwahahaha!

Looks good, David. Thai dinner tonight: Issan-style grilled chicken with a sweet-sour-spicy dipping sauce; green papaya salad; and jasmine rice. Details on Thai Cooking at Home.

Athena1963, sorry I don't know the answer to your question. Gai yang (grilled chicken) with dipping sauce, som tum Thai (green papaya salad), and jasmine rice, from Crying Tiger. Sticky rice would have been more traditional. We marinated the chicken in oyster sauce, lemongrass, garlic, black pepper, salt, sugar, and soy sauce. Elder son (the soy sauce lover) said it was his favorite chicken ever. The dipping sauce included sugar, rice vinegar, water, garlic, and Thai bird chiles, all cooked down to a sticky syrup. I made the som tum fairly mild, and left out the chopped dried shrimp – otherwise, I would have been the only one eating it.

Now that is spooky - we are planning a butt-smoking party (date to be determined), and I was just thinking how nicely Thai cucumber salad would taste with smoky pork. I have it written down and everything. Somewhere.

Another Parsi meal from My Bombay Kitchen: shrimp patia, masur dal, and basmati rice. Onions, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, and a spice paste of garlic, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric gave the patia a lovely mix of flavors. The shrimp were stir-fried separately with a rub of cayenne, turmeric, and salt, and then folded into the sauce. Tamarind, lime juice, and palm sugar added a sweet-sour tang at the finish. Noses ran liberally at dinner, so next time I will reduce the heat a bit. The boys requested “American” food for an upcoming meal, which led to a debate about whether pizza was American or not.

Hi, Kim! Fascinating how each blog reflects the personality of the blogger – yours is warm, welcoming, and full of fun and enthusiasm. “Utensil forest” is my new favorite phrase, and Mrs. C requests as many pug action photos as possible. Blog on!

This is what happens when I play with my food – leftovers turn into Mexi-Thai-Parsi eggs. Despite probably offending cooks from around the globe, this was pretty darn tasty. First, I sauteed onions, Thai bird chiles, roasted Poblano chile matchsticks, ginger, and garlic in ghee. When everything was soft, I added nahm prik pao and fish sauce to taste. Next, I whisked together eggs, fish sauce, ghee, and sour cream, added the onion concoction, and scrambled the egg mixture very slowly. For garnish, I sizzled slivers of ginger, Thai chiles, and Poblano chiles in a little oil. Enjoyed with leftover dal and basmati rice. I'm back to work next week, so back to coffee for breakfast.

We cooked from My Bombay Kitchen tonight: tilapia fillets rubbed in turmeric, cayenne, and salt and then fried in oil and ghee; stir-fried okra with bird chiles, cilantro, and ginger-garlic paste; and a simple pulao with basmati rice, home-made chicken stock, bay leaf, peppercorns, and more ginger-garlic paste. Eternal cucumbers and a jar of shredded mango chutney on the side. The masala seafood was ridiculously easy and very popular.

PercyN, I liked the akuri very much. Your gorgeous pictures motivated me to try this dish and learn more about Parsi food in general (a work in progress), so I owe you thanks for both. Your version of akuri with tomatoes is definitely on my list.

Thanks, Kim! Creamy scrambled eggs topped with minced Thai chiles, from My Bombay Kitchen. I liked the contrast of creamy eggs against sharp chile heat. Eggs, ghee, and half-and-half, whisked together and heated very slowly while continuously and gently scraping the saucepan bottom with a silicone spatula. To protect delicate sensibilities, the guacamole comported somewhat more closely with tradition – garlic, chiles shallot, cilantro, lime juice, sun-dried tomatoes, and sour cream, topped with roasted Poblano chiles. Whole-wheat tortilla, heated over direct flame.

Kim, beautiful bread, and so many of your salads sound so satisfying. Many limes and cloves of garlic contributed to tonight’s Mexican dinner: butterflied rainbow trout with lime-chile-tomatillo sauce; quick-fried baby zucchini with toasted garlic and lime; and store-bought bread. More on Making Mexican at Home.

Tonight we made pescado en chile limon from Zarela’s Veracruz. For the sauce, we blended boiled tomatillos, jalapenos, garlic, shallots, flat-leaf parsley, and a half-cup of lime juice. We fried butterflied rainbow trout in olive oil until partly cooked, poured off the oil, added the chile limon, cooked the trout through, and finished the sauce with a little butter. Accompanied by calabacitas al mojo de ajo, originally from Authentic Mexican. I should be able to make this in my sleep, but I added the toasted garlic slices too early and they lost crispness. Pescado en chile limon, calabacitas al mojo de ajo

Parsi scrambled eggs (akuri/akoori) on a warm whole-wheat tortilla. I used Pasteurized eggs, scrambled to not-quite-done. This was worth making just for the heavenly aroma of onions, ginger, garlic, and cilantro frying in ghee. PercyN posted a similar recipe (click), with the addition of tomato. Akuri (akoori)

Emily -- Thanks! A little googling turned up a recipe: Parsi-style braised greens. I hope you like it (and do try it with ghee instead of oil ).

Braised spinach (bharji), adapted from My Bombay Kitchen. Flavored with ginger-garlic paste, onion, chiles, cayenne, turmeric, and ghee, and served with coconut chutney, this tasted considerably better than it looked.

Sorry, Chris. Does it help to think of blue cheese as queso fresco's funky older brother?

We arrive at complication from opposite directions. I seek the simplest effective solution, and view complication as a necessity rather than a goal. Oddly, we both wind up taking on complicated cooking projects. I do draw the line at charcuterie, with one exception – I would love to make a good, crumbly Mexican chorizo that does not involve a meat grinder, “good mold”, or botulism. Any suggestions? I am particularly struck by the remarkable light in your food pictures. Daylight or artificial? Any photography/equipment tips that you care to share? That is an amazing kitchen for an apartment. Glad you didn’t burn it down. Thanks to you, I am now hankering for a Manhattan. Unfortunately it is way too early and I am “working” on taxes. Your blog is great fun, and I look forward to enjoying more of your self-induced complications this week.

When life hands you avocados, make guacamole! With a kitchen full of odds and ends, the guac included three kinds of chiles, garlic, shallot, cilantro, lime juice, and (purists avert your eyes) sun-dried tomatoes, smoked paprika, and blue cheese. I quite liked the sun-dried tomato texture and blue cheese tang.