C. sapidus

Susan: Thanks! I like Ms. Dunlop's latest book a lot, and I also liked her previous book on Sichuan. The three recipes we have tried from the new book have turned out wonderfully. Yes, we tasted Tuesday’s dinner. I cooked the meat a bit too long, but the flavors of the sauce were amazing. I like the way that Ms. Dunlop gives directions. Rather than giving cooking times, she typically gives endpoints like “stir-fry over medium heat until it smells wonderful”, or “cook over a high flame until the liquid is nearly gone”. The author also writes more freely in this cookbook. Most recipes have an associated story, many offer fascinating cultural background, and several are hilarious. Ms. Dunlop seems to like her veggies, and includes a wealth of varied vegetable dishes. Many of the meat recipes do involve a deep-frying step, though. If you are a big fan of Sichuan peppercorns, you may prefer Ms. Dunlop’s Sichuan cookbook because few of the Hunanese recipes use Sichuan peppercorns. I highly recommend either of Ms. Dunlop’s cookbooks.

Doddie: I would love to dig in to your steak and sprouts! Tryingsomethingnew: Mmm, shaking beef. Percyn: Quite the meatfest – everything looks good, especially the yakitori. Except for the soup, tonight’s dinner was from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Hunan cookbook: dry-braised rainbow trout; stir-fried bell peppers with black beans and garlic; root vegetable soup; and jasmine rice. Details on Chinese eats at home. Mrs. C made the soup from beets, carrots, turnips, slaw, rice vinegar, dill, and vegetable stock. The boys inhaled two bowls each, with a dollop of sour cream.

Kinda quiet around here – is everyone still recovering from CNY? Tonight we cooked our first meal from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. The fish was delish – rainbow trout fried and then braised with chile bean paste, chile flakes, ginger, garlic, vinegar, dark soy and a cup of chicken stock, all cooked down to a glaze and finished with Thai basil, scallions, and sesame oil. Mrs. C would been satisfied with the stir-fried bell peppers, flavored with garlic, salted black beans, vinegar, chicken stock, and sesame oil. While cooking dinner, I enjoyed the intoxicating aroma of beef braising slowly with ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and chiles. That will be Tuesday night’s dinner. The soup was delicious, but not Chinese. Tangerine Island dry-braised fish (ju shou gan shao yu); stir-fried peppers with black beans and garlic (dou chi chao la jiao); beet, carrot, and turnip soup; and jasmine rice.

Wow, delicious dinners and fun experiments with ham. Ling, would you use Leporati parma all of the time, or do you think that different types of ham would work better with different dishes? We made Thai red curry with bay scallops. This was my favorite red curry so far, and bay scallops stand up to strong flavors better than regular scallops. The boys snacked on a very spicy salsa while I cooked dinner, and then they scarfed down the red curry with no complaints. Life is good! More information on Thai Cooking at Home (clickety).

Tonight’s dinner was unusual for me. Not the meal itself, but how the meal came about. Mrs. C accidentally thawed a bag of bay scallops and I had leftover red curry paste in the fridge. A little googling turned up this recipe (clickety), which looked perfect. This was my best red curry so far. I added mace and white pepper to the red curry paste from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. Vigorously frying the curry paste for about five minutes in cracked coconut cream mellowed the raw flavors into a seamless whole. Previous red curries had been a bit light, but caramelizing the palm sugar (per Gabriel Lewis’ suggestion) deepened the color and flavor. After adjusting the seasoning with fish sauce and Chinkiang vinegar, I added the scallops and cooked them until barely done. A pot full of red curry with bay scallops.

And the last of the brunch leftovers bite the dust: huevos rancheros redux (with requisite runny yolk photo).

Two new ones: Crying Tiger: Thai Recipes from the Heart by Supatra Johnson Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop

We have the opposite problem - our kitchen and dining room are open to each other, and no one ever leaves. We can't get them out if we try. It must have something to do with the layout of the rooms. I do understand wanting to maintain nice old floors.

People arriving late: Informal meals are so much less stressful. We put the food out when it is ready and let guests serve themselves. If people arrive early, we usually put them to work. If people arrive late, they may miss out on the good stuff. Either way, no problem. We always assume that the number of guests is an approximation. If extra people show up, we break out the cheap folding chairs and card tables. If fewer people show up, more leftovers for us. Again, no problem. I do understand that your guests may expect a more refined experience, dining with the founder of the eGullet Society and all. Getting crumbs on the floor: You have a dog, put him to work! I spilled rice on the floor at a recent party. The dogs were locked in the bedroom because several guests had toddlers. We released the hounds, they made short work of the rice, and then we returned the dogs to the bedroom. Easy peasy.

Gabriel: I do like your idea of reducing the cooking time for chicken. I am pretty comfortable with how long to cook meat in stir-fries, but I definitely have room for improvement when cooking meat in liquid. I usually use chicken thighs, which have a wider window than chicken breasts. Thanks for the tip about caramelizing palm sugar for fried curries. I have not tried that yet, but I usually have a jar of Vietnamese caramel sauce, which should have a similar effect. Coconut sticky rice and mangos sounds delicious. We have found good mangoes in the store recently, but the boys eat them pretty quickly. What kind of crab did you use in your curry?

Percy: Looks delicious as always. We had leftover sauce and roasted Poblano chile rajas from yesterday’s brunch, so I made huevos rancheros with feta cheese and oregano. Slapdash plating, but good eats.

It's called fish fragrant because that particular sauce/aroma is generally used for fish dishes, Dejah-Mui. ← Really? I wouldn't have thought that - with the Sichuan chili bean paste, vinegar, etc? ← I have read two explanations for fish-fragrant. Fuchsia Dunlop says that the combination of flavors was “thought to have originated in traditional Sichuanese fish cooking.” Barbara Tropp speculates that yu hsiang (fish fragrant) derives from the Yu (Chialing) River of Sichuan and the Hsiang River of Hunan; therefore “fish fragrant” should be translated as Sichuan-Hunan. Me, I’m staying out of it. And yes, Dejah, with all due respect, you probably should be embarrassed to ask me about anything to do with the Chinese language. I have made Ms. Dunlop’s fish braised in chili bean sauce (dou ban xian yu). The sauce includes chile bean paste and Chinkiang vinegar, along with ginger, garlic, stock, sugar, soy, and scallions. It was delicious, by the way.

Alinka: Welcome back! David Ross: Beautiful fish, and welcome to Dinner! What a fascinating combination – Asian flavors using mostly non-Asian ingredients.For dinner, I scrounged leftovers from today’s brunch. First, I heated up potato rendang. O, for a lute of fire to sing its praises (I stole that line from Henry Mitchell, late garden writer extraordinaire). To make the rendang, we reduced coconut milk, Thai and Holland chiles, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, shallots, garlic, turmeric, and basil from this . . . . . . to this, adding fingerling potatoes along the way. I also had a plate of Mrs. C’s brunchy dishes - devilled eggs (curry and pesto), savory bread pudding (ham, cheese, and apples), and a blueberry-maple bread pudding. For the brunch, we also served Thai red curry with shrimp, huevos rancheros with roasted Poblano chiles, grilled five-spice chicken, grilled veggie kebabs, and various store-bought accompaniments. Guests brought Russian blini, Russian salad, and monkey bread. The five-spice chicken and red curry disappeared completely, so no pictures (someone really should develop a five-spice chicken perfume). I have leftover sauce to make huevos rancheros this week. The party was a lot of fun, and no one left hungry.

Heh, fits of madness – I resemble that remark. Interesting – I also like eggplants soft, but Mrs. C has a strong aversion to mushy anything so we keep the eggplants firm. I like your idea of adjusting cooking times for different ingredients, though. One of the things that I find most difficult is getting multiple ingredients to the desired state of doneness. I probably got the idea of using lime juice from a green curry recipe. I have also tried Chinkiang vinegar, which is not traditional but has a mellow taste that works nicely. I usually start by adjusting the saltiness with fish sauce. If the curry still needs something, I will try adding a touch of sour (lime juice or vinegar) and/or sweet (sugar or palm sugar).I am aiming for the point where the curry’s flavor seems more rich and complex, but before the sweet or sour taste is perceptible as such. This is mostly trial and error, so I often do a better job with leftovers because I have had a chance to practice. We have a Preethi Chefpro Plus heavy duty mixer grinder. The current price is $175 USD at Perfect Peninsula, Inc. The Preethi quickly makes a smooth paste from tough ingredients like chiles, lemongrass, and galangal. Perhaps the spice paste is not as smooth as one made in a mortar, but the process is substantially faster. For example, yesterday I made a very large volume of spice paste for potato rendang. Using the Preethi took five or ten minutes; using the mortar would have taken more than an hour. Without this time savings, curry paste would simply not be an option on weeknights.The Preethi is very powerful, so it does have one drawback – it only works when the jar is filled about half-way or more. Otherwise, the blades immediately fling everything against the walls of the jar. For small to medium volumes, the food processor or mortar works better. The mortar is most efficient for small jobs like grinding dry spices or mashing chiles and garlic for nuoc cham.

Gabriel: We are getting ready to host a brunch party for 25 people today, so I will respond at greater length this evening. I have not seen vacuum-packed coconut milk locally, but I'll keep an eye out when we go to some of the larger Asian markets in the DC area. I am jealous that you have one of Kasma Loha-Unchit's cookbooks. I missed my opportunity to buy them when they were in print, and they are now selling for some ridiculously high cost.

Yay, Ann_T is back! I love the swirls on top of the brownies, and the light shining through the crusty, hole-y sourdough bread. That burger looks like it required a knife and fork!

First meal I cooked: I invited her on a walk in the woods with our dogs and got us utterly lost. We emerged from the wood hours later in the next county. A nice gentleman drove us many miles back to my car. When we arrived home I jazzed up a frozen pizza, probably with garlic, chiles, oregano, fresh basil, tomatoes, and feta cheese. First meal she cooked: I got lost driving to her apartment (are you noticing a trend?) and showed up grievously late. She was remarkably gracious, and served spaghetti with Vienna sausages. I think the Vienna sausages were a test – apparently, I passed. Clearly, food did not form the basis of our relationship. And yes, she gives me directions whenever I drive anywhere (even if I am driving home from work). I suppose that I earned it.

Shalmanese: I can state with absolute certainty that I did not eat breakfasts that nice when I was in college. Leftovers for breakfast; all leftovers are not created equal, and Thai red curry is at least first among equals. I took the day off to run errands and work on the car (why yes, I do live an exciting life, why do you ask?). On the way home, I picked up some Thai basil. One of my favorite things in life is when fresh basil hits hot curry, and the intermingled aromas rise up to smack you in the face like a warm, wet, anise-scented towel.

Marlene: . . . <speechless> . . . Last night: Sichuan braised chicken with chestnuts. Tonight I made red chicken curry with Thai eggplants and slivered red bell peppers . . . . . . and Mrs. C made edamame with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

All of this delicious Thai food upthread inspired me to make the “quick” red chicken curry (gaeng ped gai from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. We made the curry paste in the Preethi grinder, adding a little of the chile soaking water to thin the paste. Without mechanical assistance, curry paste isn’t happening on a weeknight. Fry the paste in thick coconut cream, add the chicken, toss to coat, and cook for a few minutes over high heat. Add the remaining coconut milk and quartered Thai eggplants, and simmer for a bit. Add torn lime leaves and fish sauce, and simmer some more. Just before serving, add slivered red bell peppers (or even better, red chiles). Adjust the seasoning with fish sauce, a touch of sugar, and lime juice. No basil in the house, so we garnished with cilantro. I will try to pick up some fresh basil for tomorrow’s leftovers. The flavors were light but delicious. Next time I’ll use more curry paste.

Braised chicken with chestnuts (ban li shao ji), from Land of Plenty. I took inspiration from Sheetz’ version, and added a little toban djan for extra flavor. I would have liked to reduce the sauce a bit further, but hungry boys returned from swim team practice ready to eat (and eat, and eat . . .). Three pounds of chicken disappeared, somehow.

Way too much garlic - what's that?

Markk: Thanks for the information about organic tilapia. I will keep an eye out for it. More information about organic tilapia (click) from Aquaculture Production Technology. Becca Porter: Nice dinner, and beautiful baguettes! We started with a family favorite: Vietnamese Napa cabbage and shrimp soup (canh cai kim chi nau tom). Jasmine rice is a nice addition at the table. The main course was stir-fried beef with chiles and basil and more chiles (neua pat bai grapao). More information on Thai cooking at home, where you will also find Gabriel Lewis’ excellent pictorial tutorial on using a mortar and pestle to prepare Thai curry pastes.

Gabriel: What an outstanding pictorial! Yes, I have wrestled with a few of those. That is an excellent suggestion - I'll try that next time. Looks delicious! Jmolinari:I have tried that, and it seems to work pretty well. The mortar gives the best texture, but we usually take shortcuts on weeknights. Either way, making your own paste is a big step up from using canned curry paste.Tonight we made stir-fried beef with chiles and basil (neua pat bai grapao), from David Thompson's Thai Food. Recipes in the "snacks and street food" section feed one person, so we scaled up. Last time I quadrupled the soy and dark soy – big mistake. This time, I barely doubled the salty ingredients. The fiery-red spice paste had nine garlic cloves, four long red chiles, and five bird chiles (we used the food processor). A little sugar moderated the heat, and lots of basil provided a wonderful fragrance.

. . . and the lizard shall dwell with the duck . . . Wonderful blog, MizDucky. Thanks a bunch, and best wishes for the future. Take a well-deserved break, catch your breath, and then please continue to delight us with your posts.