C. sapidus

And here's my problem with all these open-ended statements. It's not a win-win policy for everyone. What about the farmers who are raising the meat/poulty what have you? What happens to their income. What happens to the factory farms - a reduction of 10% in their profit margin leads to what? More beef/poultry in even less space and even more inhumanely raised animals/birds to make up for the lost profit? What happens to restaurants? Do some of them close and their already poorly paid staff find themselves jobless? And on and on it goes. Saying that change is inevitable is a truism. Change usually benefits some and hurts others – the automobile hurt buggy whip manufacturers, and the internet is hurting newspaper sales. Rarely does the opportunity arise to create a “win-win policy for everyone”, but we can decide whether to take an active or passive role in shaping the future. I do expect people to continue to eat at restaurants regardless. It would be lovely if we could predict future consequences with precision. Many try and most fail. Certainly, attempting to predict the range of outcomes increases our odds of avoiding catastrophic consequences.

Oh, and ditto the love for Pantainorasingh nam prik pow. I also keep a jar or Maesri brand around for its in-your-face heat and tamarind tang. Either brand enhances Thai fried rice and stir-fries, and I just discovered how nam prik pao does wonderful things for Thai soups. Just put a dollop of nam prik pow in the soup bowl and ladle in the soup. Yum.

Wow, that looks like a wonderful feast, MizD! The fish is particularly beautiful, as is the lonely salad roll. It looks like you got a nice, uniform shred on your papaya – what device did you end up using?

Coconut chicken soup (tom kha gai), seasoned with fish sauce, lime juice, and chile jam. This was leftover from last night’s Thai Cooking at Home (click).

Damn! I bought some fresh grachai this week and didn't have the opportunity to use it so i froze it thinking it would be fine ← SuzanneW, I used thawed grachai in tonight's curry. It did have a watery, mushy texture when thawed. Tasted fine in a cooked dish, but I'm not sure how it would work in a salad. Tonight's dinner was from Thai Food except for the salad. The preliminaries: the Preethi did a great job of making a smooth curry paste. I added a few tablespoons of water to release the blades. Waaaaay easier than a mortar and pestle (which I still prefer for small jobs like the shrimp paste relish). The extra water evaporated when we fried the paste. Shrimp paste relish (nahm prik gapi): This turned out to be a fascinating exercise, following the flavors as they evolved from a mixture of roasted shrimp paste, garlic, and salt ( ) through the addition of crushed bird chiles ( ), and the final balancing with palm sugar and lime juice ( ). Despite its dodgy appearance, it added a lovely depth of flavor to the curry. I was the only fan of this relish, unfortunately. Stir-fried pork curry with green beans (pat prik king): I prefer long beans with this dish, but unfortunately none were available so we used green beans. Chicken and galangal soup (tom kha gai) with oyster mushrooms: I followed the recipe in Thai Food, giving the soup the barest whiff of bruised bird chiles. Each diner could add commercial chile jam or a mix of bruised chiles, cilantro, fish sauce, and lime juice to their bowls as desired. I adore the droplets of chile oil on tom kha gai – the contrast between chile spice and coconut milk richness was one of the things that first hooked me on Thai food. Spicy prawn salad (yaam goong), from Delightful Thai Cooking. Mrs. C and Grandma C did a great job on this. Yes I know we had Thai salad for dinner last night. What can I say – Thai salads are a force for good in the universe.

Hey, LMF, long time no see. The crispy bits are "Hormel Real Bacon Bits", a last-minute attempt to interest da boyz in Brussels sprouts. Their response was underwhelming, if I recall. Real bacon would be better, but bacon flavor suited the recipe nicely.

Blue crab "mustard", which is actually the crab's hepatopancreas . . . From blue crab info - click and scroll for more. I have heard natives resort to trickery to entice non-natives to try this delicious treat. "Um, yeah, they injected mustard under each crab's shell. Try it!" Mrs. C, a midwesterner, tried crab mustard without hesitation - one of the many reasons I knew she was special. Edited to subdue a stray parenthesis.

It pains me greatly to pay three bucks for a few sprigs of perennial herbs such as thyme, oregano, rosemary, or chives. For the same three bucks I can buy a plant and grow an unlimited supply of such herbs, needing only small patch of sunny, well-drained soil (or even a sunny window). We lack such a patch of dirt at present, and our sunny windows are taken up with other plants, so I grit my teeth and pay the three bucks. Pisses me off, though.

Sounds like you are doing your part to keep Minnesota warm, and of course obscene amounts of Thai basil are just barely enough. We have Thai dinner planned for tomorrow, and coconut milk will be involved. Yep, da boyz missed out. Sounds like they had a great time, though. Keep warm!

Beautiful, Prawncrackers! My CNY plans involve checking this thread frequently and gazing covetously all of the delectable food. Last night we steamed skin-on striped bass fillets with fermented black beans, scallions, and ginger. The texture was beautifully light and delicate, and the fish looked pretty in its pool of dark-soy-tinted sauce. Probably the best texture I have achieved with striped bass, which can become mushy. Unfortunately, I was feeling way too lousy for pictures. Sorry.

Sounds good, Dejah! I hope to get a coconut milk fix this weekend. Tonight we grilled and rested two NY strip steaks. One we left naked for the carnivores. The other steak we sliced thinly and sauteed briefly with garlic, palm sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, and black pepper. We then tossed the meat and sauce with lettuce, shallots, cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, mint, cilantro, chiles, and roasted rice powder. The boys missed out – they were off snow tubing. Thai beef salad (yam nuea), grilled NY strip steak

Dejah, best wishes for avoiding any more road bumps and toe stubs. The scale of your operation boggles my mind, because feeding 15 or 20 people is a major operation for us. I suppose your restaurant experience comes in very handy at such times. Who do you have signed up to take pictures?

Bella S.F., for the frijoles charros we simmered the following mixture for about three hours: 1 pound of pinto beans, 1 ½ minced white onions, a head of minced garlic, 2 chiles de arbol, a pound of smoked pork neck, 2 bay leaves, 3 whole allspice, and ground black pepper. When the beans were nearly soft, we fried and added smoked bacon, chorizo, and the remaining half onion, minced, along with chopped up pickled jalapenos and a few dry-roasted cherry tomatoes (pureed and strained). Simmer for another hour or so, or until the beans are soft and then salt to taste. If you Google “frijoles charros”, you will see that recipe is pretty flexible so add what you like. I expect that leftover tinga poblana would be a wonderful addition. Pickapeppa sauce mixed with Jamaican Hellfire Sauce is the ultimate accompaniment for jerk chicken or Jamaican beef patties.

Thank you, Mike. The ribs were the best so far! I still find it amazing that a hunk of meat can be that juicy after cooking for six hours.

I love this salad, too! It's so crunchy and delicious! I like it even more with a squirt of fresh lime and some chopped cilantro mixed in at the end. I can never get enough cilantro. ← Lime and cilantro sound like wonderful additions - I have scribbled a note in the margins of the recipe.

Kim, thank you very much. No need to PM the recipe – Molly Stevens has it on her web site: Molly Stevens Cooks: World’s Best Braised Green Cabbage. The braise takes a while, but the recipe is easy - probably a good way to settle the cabbage issue once and for all. I love blue cheese in salad with a fruity vinaigrette. Did you cook the fennel, or is it raw? Ann_T, thanks! What an odd coincidence that you posted your lovely duck as I was answering Kim. A sadly defunct local restaurant used to offer a wonderful salad with duck, blue cheese, and a fruity vinaigrette. I have seen pre-cooked duck breast in the grocery store, but I have never seen cook-your-own duck offered locally.

Ann_T, you make so much beautiful food, but your pizza and baguette in particular jumped off the page. Prawncrackers, your prawn curry is gorgeous. That does it; I need a coconut milk fix next week. The boys made deli sandwiches for Sunday night dinner. They offered a choice of roast beef, turkey, or ham, with horseradish sauce, mayo, mustard, and/or onions fried with Elder son’s “secret ingredients.” Mrs. C and Grandma C made borscht – intensely beet-red, and one of the best I have ever eaten (including two trips to Russia). Today we fired up the bullet and smoked Apple City pork back ribs and BBQ sauce (from Peace, Love, and Barbecue), and smoked sweet potatoes with orange pecan butter (from Smoke & Spice). We also made cowboy beans (frijoles charros, from Seasons of My Heart), and world’s best braised cabbage (from All About Braising). The frijoles were amazing – bacon and chorizo, together at last! Everyone loved the smoked sweet potatoes, too. We were out of carrots, but cherry tomatoes substituted nicely in the braised cabbage.

Yesterday we rubbed pork back ribs with “magic dust” dry rub from Peace, Love, and Barbecue. This morning we fired up the bullet with the Minion method, using hickory for smoke wood. Despite single-digit temperatures early on, the bullet held steady between 225 and 240 F in a light breeze. We started misting the ribs with apple juice when they were about half-way done, and pulled the ribs after about six hours. The book had a nice tip - pull the ribs when bending the rack causes the meat to pull from the bone. The ribs turned out tender, smoky, spicy, and very juicy. We served them with Apple City barbecue sauce on the side. Cowboy beans, smoked sweet potatoes, and braised cabbage are lurking in the background. Apple City pork back ribs

Yes, I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for inviting us into your lives, sharing your kitchen and family, and giving us a wonderful snapshot of New England in winter. Best of luck with your writing endeavors, and I look forward to your cookbook. Please do keep us up to date on Oliver’s progress as it relates to food. Nicely done! I suppose that King Arthur Flour will be open in summer, too.

Sorry to hear that you are feeling down mrsadm, but it does sound like it could be the winter blues. Perhaps a vacation in the tropics would help? Failures can be more instructive (if less fun) than successes, if you can figure and correct out the cause. All else equal, the more you cook the better you get. Despite limited time available for cooking, you said yourself that you have learned a lot. Perhaps your expectations have temporarily outrun your progress? If that is the case, all you need is time. When you make a recipe that doesn’t turn out, is it by an author that you trust or is it from an untested cookbook? If the latter, a dish that doesn’t taste good could just be a bad recipe. If you find a cookbook with recipes that turn out well for you, consider exploring that cookbook further rather than jumping to an untested cookbook. I like to learn an author’s quirks so I can adapt the recipes to our tastes. For example, I love cooking from All About Braising but have learned to increase the spicing and reduce the braising temperature. Making the same recipe repeatedly would drive me nuts, but you would certainly become proficient at it. If you decide to make a favorite dish over and over again, what about trying different recipes for it? That way, you would be able to compare and contrast different approaches. Good luck!

Is calamansi the same as calamondin? If so, Four Winds Growers sells a wide variety of dwarf citrus plants. We have mail-ordered from there several times, and the plants have been very healthy. Calamondin at Four Winds Growers.

Before calories or cholesterol mattered, I used to make fettucine Alfredo at least weekly. Scrounging around for a bite, I was surprised to see heavy cream and parmigiano reggiano in the refrigerator. No fettuccine, so I used angel hair pasta and Marcella Hazan’s recipe from The Classic Italian Cookbook. Served with extra parmesan sprinkled on. Yum.

We made this the other night. It is truly delicious, and does taste remarkably like grapefruit juice. This was nice, in a "put hair on your chest" sort of way.

Wow. That is awfully funny. I urge any young folks considering marriage to discuss this sort of incompatibility before taking an irrevocable step. Hubby has other redeeming qualities, presumably? Your son looks like a bright, lively child, and you have done a wonderful job of engaging his interest in the kitchen. I completely understand dialing back culinary endeavors for family. I just learned how to make tortillas, so I hope to somehow interest our boys in the production process. This has been fascinating so far. Keep up the good work!

OliverN, your caramel pork looks great, nice and crispy. Presumably all listed on your Master List of Things to Do and Not Do. By the way, your feast gave me a hankering for Vietnamese food, which let to tonight’s dinner: Minced pork and shrimp with lemongrass and shrimp sauce (thit heo xao mam ruoc), crunchy pickled bean sprout salad (dua gia), and jasmine rice. Grandma C prepared a vegetable garnish plate (dia rau song). Everything was from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. The vegetable garnish plate made the meal, releasing intoxicating aromas of basil, mint, and cilantro on contact with hot, caramel-crispy bits of pork and shrimp. We chopped pork shoulder with a cleaver, and prefer the texture of chopped meat to that of ground meat. The bean sprout salad included scallions and slivered carrots, quickly pickled in a mixture of sugar, salt, rice vinegar, and water. It disappeared quickly, and was much less labor-intensive than other quick pickles. I can see it turning up regularly at mealtime.