C. sapidus

Tonight we made a grilled beef salad (nahm dtok, modified from Thai Food). The recipe called for a dressing of equal parts lime juice and fish sauce, with a pinch each of sugar and roasted chile powder. This makes a salty, mouth-puckeringly sour dressing. We increased the sugar and chiles and added garlic, moving the dressing closer to a Vietnamese nuoc cham. We also added tomatoes from our garden. Sometimes, personal preference wins out over authenticity.

Mexican oregano, ground cayenne and chipotle pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns seem to disappear most quickly at our house. When we get on a rib kick, the dry rib rub devours large bags of paprika. Of course dried chiles disappear the fastest of all, if you wish to count them as spices.

I can personally attest that slicing bananas onto cereal goes back at least as far as the mid-1960s. My father changed breakfast cereals over the years, but always sliced bananas or peaches over his cereal. I don't eat breakfast cereal any more, but sliced bananas on Total or Product 19 is pretty ultimate.

I love monavano’s meatballs and prawncrackers’ crab linguine. Eskay - congratulations on the roast chicken! Tonight we enjoyed fried egg soup with pork, Napa cabbage, scallions, lots of fish sauce, and fried onions and garlic (from True Thai). Stir-fried flounder with chile-tamarind paste, thinly-sliced rhizome (krachai), Thai basil, kaffir lime leaves, and plenty more fish sauce. Pretty spicy, so the jasmine rice came in handy.

Thank you, Misa. Breakfast isn’t usually that extravagant. Percy- mmm, sausage and eggs. Bill, that yolk looks decadent. Did you marinate the eggs after peeling them? A jar of chipotle paste caught my eye, so I beat three eggs with ground chipotle, cumin, smoked paprika, and salt. After sauteeing the chipotle paste in butter, I made the omelet in the flavored butter, sprinkled on Mexican oregano and garnished with cilantro and feta cheese. Next time I will make a drizzling sauce with chipotle paste, butter, and lime juice. Double-chipotle omelet

Thai tonight: “barbecued” chicken thighs (actually baked and then grilled); cucumber salad with tamarind and garden tomatoes; and coconut rice. The boys and a visiting friend scarfed it all down enthusiastically. More on Thai cooking at home.

Hear, hear! (and thanks ) Tonight we cooked from Thailand the Beautiful: “barbecued” chicken (gai yang); Northeast cucumber salad (tam taeng); and coconut rice. The mouth-watering chicken marinade contained garlic, ginger, white pepper, cilantro, Shaoxing wine, fish sauce, soy sauce, and coconut milk. We baked the chicken at 350F and crisped up the skin on a hot grill. Not really barbecue, but quite delicious. The cucumber salad had the usual ingredients (garlic, Thai chiles, fish sauce, sugar) with an interesting twist – it was soured with tamarind rather than lime juice.

We have a Preethi ChefPro Plus. It does a fine job of grinding Thai curry pastes smoothly as long as you make a large batch. It is too powerful for small batches, and immediately flings the ingredients against the walls of the blender jar. The juice extractor is an amazing thing. We use it to make freezer jam. Do NOT use the Preethi to make Mexican hot chocolate (trust me on this - I am still finding chocolate spots on the ceiling). I have not had much luck grinding dry spices with the Preethi - a whirly-blade coffee grinder seems to do a better job for the small batches that we typically make. The Preethi may do better on larger batches of dried spices, but we have not yet had cause to try that. Good luck!

Jensen - Aww, what a nice thing to say. Your eG contributions are too valuable, so don't die any time soon, OK? I did learn one thing, though – buy plantains early (or find a better source). One plantain was nicely black and ripe; the other was too hard and starchy to be used. Sorry, no openings - we have three pooches now, which is one too many. Besides, they get Iams Active Maturity, probably not what you are looking for.

Tonight’s dinner: grilled flank steak with garlicky ancho chile rub; grilled plantains and red onions with tomatillo-chipotle salsa; and cukes. We set out bowls of extra tomatillo-chipotle salsa for spooning over anything that stood still long enough. For the salsa, we browned tomatillos and garlic on a dry skillet, and then tossed them in a blender with chipotles in adobo and salt. Good stuff – maybe we’ll add some cilantro next time. The rub contained chopped garlic, brown sugar, Mexican oregano, cumin, S&P, ancho chile powder, chipotle powder, and paprika. It was supposed to be all ancho powder but I ran out and improvised. Laid on thickly, it made a spicy-sweet-aromatic crusty mixture with the meaty juices.

Glowing fruit and a 20-minute Chinese feast – nice! Tonight was our first Sichuan meal in a while: spicy braised rainbow trout with whole garlic; and stir-fried spinach with chile and Sichuan peppercorn. Rice and cukes rounded out the meal. Yes, all those roundish objects are whole garlic cloves, three whole heads of garlic fried in their skins and then peeled and braised with the fish. Everything disappeared quickly. More on Chinese eats at home (clicky).

Dinner from Land of Plenty: spicy braised rainbow trout with whole garlic (da suan shao yu); stir-fried spinach with chile and Sichuan pepper; rice and cucumbers. The trout was slashed and marinated in salt and Shaoxing wine while prepping the other ingredients. We separated three heads of garlic and fried the cloves until soft, and then fried the trout until the skin tightened. After cleaning the wok, we braised the fish and garlic in a sauce of toban djan, ginger, chicken stock, dark soy, and sugar. When the fish and garlic when done, we reduced and thickened the sauce, then finished with sliced scallions and Chinkiang vinegar. The fish was lovely, and the sauce had complex flavors and plenty of heat. Best of all, the boys approved. Spicy rainbow trout braised with whole garlic

If you like Thai salads, make green papaya salad (som tam or som dtam).

Marcia – Thank you very much, and best wishes for your relocation. May you have graceful movers and well-labeled boxes. Brenda and Jamie Lee – Thanks for the kind words. AllanSantos – Welcome to dinner, the ceviche looks particularly nice. We just returned from Wisconsin for a family reunion and 80th birthday party. For fifty hungry guests, Mrs. C made her ever-popular cabbage salad. I made five-spice chicken wings and hjshorter’s delicious cilantro-peanut sauce (click). Thanks for posting the recipe, Heather – folks raved about the sauce. We used freshly-picked mint from the hosts' garden. The hosts provided brats, burgers, ribs, beer, pesto salad . . . . SIL made the birthday carrot cake with lemon-cream cheese icing, beautifully decorated with flowers from the garden. Forgot to take pictures, of course.

No posts since yesterday, how unusual. Tonight we made chicken in southern-style red curry, served with basmati rice, cucumbers, and garden tomatoes. Wow, this was freaking delicious. Details on Thai Cooking at Home.

Like Heidih, we try to buy just enough produce to last a week at most. Shaking excess water from scallions and cilantro seems to greatly prolong their life. Onions, shallots, and garlic last indefinitely in a wicker basket above the fridge, and even ginger remains good a week up there. Best of all, they don’t take up valuable fridge real estate. Dejah, we store kaffir lime leaves in the freezer, stacked and tightly wrapped in a plastic bag. Of course, the best place to store kaffir lime leaves is on your own tree.

Elie (FoodMan): Wow, that looks like a delicious meal. Dan: Thank you so much for the picture of sawtooth herb. Our Asian market carries it (unmarked, of course), so with your ID I can now start using it. Tonight we made chicken in southern-style red curry, from True Thai. The coconut milk-based curry included sliced chicken thighs, kaffir lime leaves, halved Serrano chiles, palm sugar, fish sauce, and generous amounts of Thai basil. With lots of turmeric, this tasted like a cross between an Indian curry and a Thai red curry. Absolutely delicious. The curry paste was relatively simple (probably an oxymoron ), containing dried red chiles (guajillos and a small hot Indian variety), lemon grass, galangal, garlic, shallots, and lots of turmeric. The recipe includes an interesting technique: ingredients were briefly pounded in the mortar to break down the fibers, and then finished in the food processor. This worked nicely. I also discovered why the red curry paste that I made a while ago lacked heat. I have two bags of guajillo chiles, one labeled (in very small letters) “mild” and the other labeled “medium”. Apparently, I used the mild guajillo chiles last time. With the medium guajillo chiles, tonight’s curry had just the right amount of kick. I should get a kitchen scale to facilitate converting from Mexican guajillo chiles to the smaller Thai phrik haeng. Chicken in southern-style red curry (Kaeng phed kai meng dai)

Can't beat good garden tomatoes! Do try pickled scallions if you can find them - they add a nice tangy crunch. For this morning's breakfast, I had pickled scallions over leftover rice with chile-tamarind paste and fried shallots. Oddly delicious. Good save! I am so glad that you liked the "recipe".

Work interfered with ambitious dinner plans, so we had self-service eggs with bacon. Mine was scrambled eggs with chorizo, chile-tamarind paste, pickled scallions, chopped yellow tomato, fish sauce, Serrano chiles, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. Tangy and aromatic, with varied textures and complex heat – quite satisfying. Eternal cukes, of course. We also cooked yard-long beans Vietnamese-style: blanched and stir-fried with garlic, beaten egg, fish sauce, and sugar, and then covered and steamed until tender. The boys approved moderately.

Chile-tamarind sauce This was inspired by a recipe in Victor Sodsook's True Thai, but I fiddled with the ingredients and proportions. Use this sauce on seafood – fried fish, shrimp, even crab cakes. 2 T oil 1 head (not clove, head) garlic, peeled and finely chopped or smashed to paste in a mortar 2 T chile-tamarind paste (nahm phrik pao) - more if you are feeling reckless 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped 6 scallions, cut into short sections 2 T palm sugar 1/4 c chicken stock, preferably Asian-style 1 T fish sauce cilantro and/or basil (to taste) Heat a wok or saucepan to medium-high, swirl in the oil, and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the chile-tamarind paste and stir-fry briefly (um, make sure you have a good hood fan). Add the chicken stock and palm sugar and stir-fry until the sugar dissolves. Add the bell peppers and scallions and stir-fry briefly. Add the fish sauce, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat when the texture and soupiness are to your liking. Let the sauce cool a bit and adjust the sweet-salty balance with sugar and/or fish sauce. Garnish with cilantro and/or Thai basil. Keywords: Thai, Hot and Spicy, Sauce ( RG2019 )

Sentiamo: OK, I’m asking three months late, but would you mind sharing the recipe for your “best in the world” sate sauce? Tonight we made fish with fresh tomato sauce (ca chien sot chuan got), from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Pan-fried tilapia fillets, topped with a cornstarch-thickened sauce of shallots, garlic, pickled scallions, fish sauce, chicken stock, sugar, and chopped yellow tomatoes, with cilantro and slivered scallions for garnish. Not bad, but I would not make this again unless I could find excellent tomatoes. I would also punch up the chiles and fish sauce a bit – the sauce was surprisingly tame until I added more fish sauce and some chile-tamarind paste the next morning. ETA: follow-up.

Monavano, I can wait for fall, but your minestrone looks great. Jensen, roasted Poblanos are one of my favorite things on earth. Yum. Brenda, welcome to the larb club! Vietnamese tonight – tilapia fillets with fresh tomato sauce. Pickings were slim at the farmer’s market (too much rain lately), but I found some decent-looking yellow tomatoes. As I was finishing the sauce, Mrs. C walked in from the back yard with two stunningly beautiful tomatoes. The sauce would have been much better with the backyard tomatoes, but the fish turned out beautifully tender. If we make this again, I will season the fish with salt and pepper before frying. And check for ripe tomatoes. ETA: A dash of fish sauce and a healthy dab of chile-tamarind paste brightened up the leftovers considerably for breakfast. Served with corn, jasmine rice, cukes (disappeared before dinner), and the stunning garden tomatoes.

First of all, thanks to the gracious hosts, efficient organizers, and delightful guests. We had a wonderful time. Charles, I enjoyed both of your crab cakes and sauces even though they were competing with your ice cream and Mrs. Busboy’s delicious peach crisp. The mango sauce was particularly swell, so thanks for posting the recipe. I have never eaten so many delicious and varied crab cakes before, so picking a favorite would be like asking whether I prefer to breathe in or breathe out. By my usual criteria, bavila’s crab cakes scored highly because they had the biggest hunks of crab (and sauteing in butter didn’t hurt, either). Heather’s cilantro-peanut sauce deserves special mention – I could eat that every day of the week (and since she posted the recipe, probably will ). I will try to get Mrs. C to codify her never-the-same-way-twice salad, perhaps this evening. I am a relative newbie at making crab cakes, so both of my versions were straight out of John Shields’ Chesapeake Bay Cooking (click for web links): Gertie's Crab Cakes (clicky) (which did have a hint of Penzey’s Old Bay clone, plus a little smoked paprika). These held together nicely despite very little filler, causing a shift of allegiance from my previous method . . . . . . . Faidley's World-Famous Crab Cakes (clicky). These have a bit more filler than Gertie’s, but I wanted to be sure that at least one batch of crab cakes did not fall apart. For the tartar sauce (recipe in Faidley’s link), I made my first-ever batch of homemade mayonnaise, with The Way to Cook guiding me through the process uneventfully. I did tart up the tartar sauce a bit, adding chopped cornichons, capers, and chives. The chile-tamarind sauce started from a recipe in Victor Sodsook's True Thai, but I have fiddled with it enough to post here: 2-3 Tablespoons oil 1 head (not clove – head) garlic, peeled and finely chopped or mashed in a mortar 2-3 Tablespoons chile-tamarind paste (or more if you are feeling reckless) 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped 6 scallions, cut into short sections 2 Tablespoons palm sugar ¼ cup chicken stock, preferably Asian-style 1-2 Tablespoons fish sauce cilantro and/or Thai basil to taste Heat a wok to medium-high, swirl in the oil, and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the chile-tamarind paste and stir-fry briefly (um, make sure you have a good hood fan). Add the chicken stock and palm sugar and stir-fry until the sugar dissolves. Add the bell peppers and scallions and stir-fry briefly. Add the fish sauce, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat when the texture and soupiness are to your liking. Let the sauce cool a bit, then adjust the sweet-salty balance with sugar and/or fish sauce. Garnish with cilantro and/or Thai basil. Yes, do let's do this again.

Brenda, your soup looks terrific! The boys love soup, so I should really get better at making it. Probably a good cold-weather project. You are talking about the kimchi, right?

I have always enjoyed your posts, so I am looking forward to this foodblog. I hope you don’t mind my asking a food-related library question. While checking out our library’s cookbook section, I noted a comprehensive mixture of new and classic European and American regional cookbooks, a fair number of Japanese, Mexican, and Indian cookbooks, and a large section aimed at special diets. In contrast, the coverage of China and “elsewhere in Asia/Pacific” was paltry and outdated. It appears that the library bought a bunch of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean cookbooks 15 years ago. Presumably, no one could find suitable ingredients locally so few borrowed the books. We now have an Asian grocery in town, so I would like to gently suggest that interest in Chinese and SE Asian cookbooks may have increased. To whom would one make such a suggestion most effectively? Oh, and I do hope we will see a tutorial on toast dope preparation. Blog on!