C. sapidus

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.

Ann_T, your biscuits are as beautiful as ever. Bacon, cheddar, and chives sounds like a delicious combination. Home with a hankering for shrimp fried rice, I stir-fried shrimp with garlic, Thai chiles, chile-tamarind paste, sugar, and salt. Similar seasonings for the fried rice, plus onion, ginger, peas, scallions, cilantro, and fish sauce. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and lime wedges on the side. Good fuel for shoveling the driveway.

Interesting – I usually crumble the chiles pretty small, but I have not tried leaving larger pieces. We substitute pasilla and ancho chiles pretty freely, depending on availability and whether we want a sharper or sweeter flavor. Recent meals, part three: Mexican (and sorta-Mexican) breakfasts. Camarones con huevos (this one was actually from a recipe): My first successful corn tortillas, made from masa harina, with a concoction of eggs and chipotles in adobo: Huevos con chorizo: Papas chirionas – I love the deep flavor of chile pasilla, so this is one of my favorites: Bricklayer’s eggs (huevos al albanil) – more chile pasillas, and one of my absolute favorite things to eat in any category. Huevos rancheros, usually with chile Poblano rajas (the last picture was one of my first eGullet posts)

Two of my oldest cookbooks, surprisingly clean after 20 years: The Art of Mexican Cooking (appropriately chile-stained) and a special two-volume paperback version of Joy of Cooking.

Shelby, those are sure purty quesadillas! monavano, nice! All About Braising dinner tonight: Goan chicken with cilantro, mint, and ginger; and creamy braised Brussels sprouts. Jasmine rice and eternal cucumbers completed the meal. The family voted the Goan chicken (particularly the sauce) their new favorite.

HappyLab, that sounds delicious. I would love to try that if we see monkfish at the store. We found two more favorites tonight - Goan chicken and creamy braised Brussels sprouts. The family declared the Goan chicken their favorite home-cooked chicken of all time. Adults adored the creamy braised Brussels sprouts; the boys were tolerant. For the chicken, we skinned and marinated thighs with cilantro, mint, ginger, garlic, chile, salt, and olive oil. After browning the chicken we deglazed the pan with rum, and then braised the thighs with chicken stock and the remaining marinade. When the chicken was cooked through we reduced the sauce with sour cream. The sauce was incredible. Goan chicken The Brussels sprouts were chopped into small wedges, browned in butter, braised with heavy cream, and finished with white pepper and lemon juice. They turned out sweet, tender, and delicious. Creamy braised Brussels sprouts

menuinprogress, your tortilla soup looks beautiful. Those are limes and pasilla chiles floating in the soup, yes? Have you tried toasting or frying the pasilla chiles until they crumble into smaller pieces?

faine, thank you very much. Mexican Everyday includes a recipe for Oaxacan yellow mole. We made and enjoyed it - description on the dinner thread (click). Googling turned up a similar recipe for after-school mole amarillo (click). This is remarkably quick and easy for a mole. Diana Kennedy and Susana Trilling have more elaborate recipes, should you so desire. Oaxacan yellow mole (mole amarillo)

Funny, our burners spend most of their time on very high or very low, only occasionally stopping in the middle. High heat for searing, stir-frying, dry-roasting, boiling water, etc. Low heat for simmering, braising, cooking rice. Medium heat? Hmm, I’d have to think about that.

nakji – Wow, what a feast! Please do tell how you made those delicious dishes, especially the eggplant and fish. And, um, invite me next time? Spinach with garlic and soy sauce is wonderful, isn’t it?

Try this: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/0081878 shel ← I did, first thing. The article is available to subscribers only, unless you can read the teeny-tiny font in the thumbnails. ← Click the link above, and then click on "Read the article in your browser." Worked for me.

Thanks, Susan. I'm guessing that you would enjoy the Poblano beef tips (probably suitable for venison, too). Thank you very much! How do you make your tortilla soup?

Recent meals, part two. On weeknights, we often turn to Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday, a cookbook that provides a lot of shortcut recipes that still taste good. Some examples: Crock-pot pork with potatoes and chile guajillo sauce, corn tortillas: Ancho-rubbed flank steak with onions and plantains (this was really good), arroz rojo: Pescado a la Veracruzana; arroz blanco with chile Poblano rajas; guacamole: Pescado al mojo de ajo, ejotes con tocino: Jicama and romaine lettuce salad with lime-cilantro dressing. This makes regular appearances at the dinner table. Green pipian with fish fillets

To feed four, Thompson recommends rice and four dishes – soup, salad, relish (with accompaniments), and a curry (possibly with a side dish). You may want to check out the relish section of Thai Food. Cucumber relish (classified as a side dish, despite the name), accompanies curries nicely. You can slice the cucumbers and make the syrup ahead of time, and mix everything together at the last minute. Good luck with your crowd, and please do let us know how it goes. I haven’t made Thai food for nearly a month. Must do something about that.

Kim Shook, beautiful dinners, and thanks for your earlier admiration of my butt. Whatever you are doing with your new camera seems to be working –your pictures here and on the breakfast thread are lovely. Grandma C made dinner tonight - roast chicken legs, dilled potatoes, and peas. Good stuff!

Ann_T, it has been too long, but I am so glad to see you posting again. We have missed your thoughtful comments and lovingly prepared meals. Speaking of which, those spot prawns look like they would hit the, um, spot. Best of luck with the new camera.

I have not tried the braised halibut recipe, but you should have nothing to worry about. Bone-in fish steaks are more forgiving than fillets. forever_young_ca did report successful results: FYI - you can search the thread using the “search topic” box in the lower left corner of the screen. Thank you very much.

Two more for me. Peace, Love, and Barbecue, by Mike Mills (to accompany the new Weber bullet) Mexican Family Favorites, by Maria Teresa Bermudez (on Jaymes' recommendation)

Prawncrackers, good to have you back, you have eaten very well these past weeks. I’ll have one of each, please (and perhaps seconds on dessert). PercyN, ditto Klary’s comment and question. We planned to make chipotle shrimp for dinner. With no chipotles in the pantry, we improvised a delicious but probably irreproducible sauce from canned salsas, chipotle powder, copious garlic slivers, black pepper, and Mexican oregano. Unfortunately, the shrimp turned out a bit chewy. Still, not bad over leftover rice. We also made pureed hearts of palm soup (clicky), served with leftover rice or pasta. Eternal cucumbers, of course. Upwards of fifteen garlic cloves sacrificed their lives for tonight’s dinner.

Inspired by everyone's lovely and varied creations, we rekindled our search for good soup that can be made start to finish on a weeknight. Tonight, we added one to our (very short) list: pureed hearts of palm soup, from Zarela’s Veracruz. This was simple to make and very popular with the family. We chopped and sauteed garlic, canned hearts of palm, and three bunches worth of scallion whites, and then pureed everything in a blender. We mixed the puree with chicken stock (we added a bay leaf), warmed everything through, and adjusted seasoning. Before serving, we stirred in three bunches of chopped scallion greens. Leftover rice and small pasta shells were available to be mixed in as desired. Pureed hearts of palm soup (crema de palmitos)

Thanks, Marlene. I think you will like the shallots. I should make your delicious short ribs while Grandma Mrs. C is visiting.

Mexican green rice (arroz verde). To maximize parsliferousness, replace all green leafy ingredients with parsley, and then double the amount of green stuff. Absolutely include roasted and peeled Poblano chiles. Fish with garlic and lime (pescado al mojo de ajo). Some recipes call for parsley, some call for cilantro, some call for a mix. Your choice.

Chicken and ginger simmered in caramel sauce; braised shallot confit; jasmine rice; eternal cucumbers.

And yet another vegetable - braised shallot confit. My one bit of advice: double the recipe. The sauce, a syrupy reduction of butter, cognac, red wine, fresh thyme, and S&P - let’s just say that plates and pots were licked. Thoroughly. Hey, it's winter - is no one else braising?

Bella S.F., thank you for the kind words, and I am so glad that you liked the tinga poblana. I am pretty certain that we added all of the broth, but we did make the tinga in a wide saute pan. Perhaps that facilitated evaporation. Eliza, that sounds delicious, and congratulations on the hangover. See Say It Not So Loud for tips on reducing the consequences of your next successful party. Tonight we made seared rare tuna salad with chayote slaw, served over romaine lettuce and topped with roasted garlic and balsamic vinegar dressing and cilantro. Mrs. C made arroz blanco. A quick and easy dinner from Mexican Everyday.