C. sapidus

Megan: I greatly enjoyed your previous foodblog and your trip reports, so I am looking forward to this week very much. We have missed you on the dinner thread lately, though. I used to visit Manhattan once or twice a year, but we haven’t made it up there since the boys entered our lives. One of my favorite NYC activities was to wander around lower Manhattan, taking pictures and stopping to eat whatever looked interesting. I look forward to seeing the city through your eyes, and you are off to a great start. Happy blogging!

insomniac: Thank you very much. Actually, in reducing the sauce I over-cooked the shrimp a little. I should have added the sauce earlier or pulled out the shrimp before reducing the sauce. Not all mistakes show up in the picture. Eh, that's the tradeoff - I love trying new recipes, but know full well that we can make a dish better the second or third time. ETA: I agree with you about tamarind, it adds such a complex tart flavor. Andrea Nguyen describes a handy method for making tamarind water – simmer a block of tamarind pulp in water, mash up, press through a strainer once or twice, and freeze in an ice tray. When it freezes, store the tamarind ice cubes in a freezer bag. Each ice cube should be about two tablespoons. We have a tray in the freezer now, so I see more tamarind in our future.

Doddie: Mmm, tomatoes and fish sauce – yum! The chicken adobo looks good, too. Beware the power of the humble cucumber . . . From Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Napa cabbage and shrimp soup again (canh cai kim chi nau tom) . . . . . . and shrimp in spicy tamarind sauce (tom rang me), with jasmine rice and cukes. More info here (click).

More from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: shrimp in spicy tamarind sauce (tom rang me); and Napa cabbage and shrimp soup (canh cai kim chi nau tom). Side dishes were jasmine rice and cucumbers. The soup is a family favorite, and the shrimp may be a new one. The shrimp was stir-fried with shallots and garlic, and then finished with a sauce of tamarind, fish sauce, Sriracha, and sugar. Simple and delicious. Napa cabbage and shrimp soup (canh cai kim chi nau tom) Shrimp in spicy tamarind sauce (tom rang me)

We make rice in a saucepan on the stove, and probably eat rice with half of our meals. I value counter space more than the few minutes we would save using a rice cooker. If a future renovation yields a pantry full of electrical outlets, a rice cooker will be plugged into one of those outlets.

Sure, come on over – as long as you share in the cooking. Thank you! We found top sirloin on sale, so that's what we used. I'm, um, frugal when it comes to meat. I found Modern Art of Chinese Cooking on Amazon for $10 USD – used hardcover in good shape. Just think how much gas $$ you would save shopping online, compared with a trip to Winnipeg. I read about Barbara Tropp's death when I was researching Chinese cookbooks on eGullet. It seemed sad at the time, but the loss seems even sharper now that I have a greater appreciation for her work. Oh, I definitely crave curry – usually Thai or Indian, but the boys seem to do better with the more gently-flavored Vietnamese curries. If I had the time and the calories to burn, we would eat a lot of curries.

You could be right - I'll give it a try next time.

Shaya: Thanks! Even though the snapper was frozen, I liked the firm texture. I hope to find some fresh snapper this summer for comparison. I hope you feel better soon. Dianne: Curry paste sounds good! We made stir-fried tangy beef with carrots and yard-long beans from Barbara Tropp’s Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (with a spoonful of sambal oleek for me). More information here (click). Edited for manners.

We peel cukes before making one of the many Asian cucumber salads. Typically, the cucumbers would be peeled, seeded, and sliced thinly or julienned. Thirty cukes would make an awful lot of cucumber salad, though.

Dejah: Wow, you should go to Winnipeg more often (for our viewing pleasure, of course ). Tonight’s dinner was stir-fried tangy beef with carrots and yard-long beans, our first recipe from Barbara Tropp’s Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. I like the clarity of Ms. Tropp’s instructions. We doubled the recipe and substituted top sirloin and palm sugar for flank steak and brown sugar. Prepping the veggies took a while, but the beef was very tender and I loved the mixture of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, palm sugar, rice wine, and sesame oil. A spoonful of sambal oleek gave my serving a little more kick. A definite make-again.

Nishla: Your mapo dofu looks delicious. I can see how red bell peppers would add a sweet crunch. What kind of tofu did you use? Marcia: Nice looking dinners - I hope you can soon start kicking back at life. The baked acorn squash with maple, cinnamon, and butter sounds especially good – a vegetable and dessert, all in one. Not the most photogenic dish, but we made Vietnamese chicken, lemongrass, and potato curry (ca-ri ga). Leftovers were wonderful for breakfast with a little sambal oleek and fish sauce. More info here (click). To accompany, Mrs. C. made a salad and roasted asparagus with Poblano chiles and red bell peppers. Jasmine rice.

Judith: That Indian-style seafood chowder looks scrumptious. I have added it to my ever-growing must-make list. I’m glad that you were feeling well enough to enjoy it. Susan, Pam, and Judith: Thanks to all of you for sharing a soupy and delightful week, with nature’s bitter cold outside and the warmth of hearth and home inside. Get well or stay well, as the case may be.

Funny, I did sort of the opposite - I added the potatoes early to be sure they were done, but the chicken thighs took longer than expected to cook through. I kept the curry on a low simmer, so the chicken stayed juicy and the potatoes remained intact.

Hmm, am I the only one cooking Vietnamese food? Anyway, tonight we made chicken, lemongrass, and potato curry from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Saute a paste of lemongrass, ginger and onion before adding curry powder and chile flakes. When the spices release their flavors, add skinless bone-in chicken thighs, coconut milk, salt, and black pepper. Simmer for a while before adding cubed potatoes. When the potatoes are tender and the flavors meld, serve with lime wedges. Despite similarities to a Thai or Indian curry, this dish’s flavors were more subtle (and kid-friendly, an important factor at our house). We also had a tossed salad on the side. Into the Vietnamese Kitchen has clear, concise instructions with just the right amount of detail. As an example, the ingredients list specifies Three stalks of lemongrass yielded much less than 2/3 cup chopped, so I knew to add more lemongrass. This probably explains why the lemongrass flavor has been overly subtle in recipes that I have made from other cookbooks. Ca-ri ga with jasmine rice and roasted asparagus, bell peppers, and Poblano chiles ETA: a little sambal oleek and fish sauce made the leftovers really sing at breakfast.

Dangit, Susan, that looks really good! Our boys don't have their "kaosoi legs" yet, and coconut milk isn't very WW-friendly, so we will need to find guests willing to be the subject of a kaosoi experiment. Hmm, I wonder what my bro is up to - he doesn't mind being a guinea pig, especially for Thai food . . . So, do tell about your fondness for kao soi (beyond the fact that it looks delicious, of course). Pam: Um, perhaps a meteorological Freudian slip? After this winter, I hope you get more than an 8-10 minutes of summer. And thanks for the tutorial - your dinner looks delicious.

Susan: We're waiting . . . (tap tap tap). If you can, please include pictures of how you make kao soi - I would truly love to learn. By the way, thanks to all of you for making our morning's temperature of 0 degrees F (-18 degrees C) seem balmy. Keep up the good work!

Judith: Ooh, that sounds really good! I have wanted to try snapper for a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to see frozen snapper fillets in the store last night. We pan-seared the fillets and topped them with sauteed red onion, ginger, garlic, and chilies, with a glaze of soy sauce, black soy, black pepper, Chinkiang vinegar, and a pinch of sugar. This has become our go-to recipe for fish (chuan-chuan, from James Oseland’s Cradle of Flavor). We also stir-fried Napa cabbage with chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, and sesame oil, a variation of a recipe from Land of Plenty. Simple and good.

Pepper and salt shrimp with Thai basil; stir-fried cabbage with edamame and oyster sauce; cucumbers; and rice. Edited to add basil.

Hydrogen is like electricity - it is a energy carrier, not an energy source. You must generate electricity before making hydrogen. That electricity must be generated from a primary energy source - coal, gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, . . .

Dejah: I can see why #36 was popular. Good luck with Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, and Curry Cuisine sounds like fun. Please post your thoughts after you get a chance to cook from your new books. Looking forward to your pork belly, too!

Capriotada (Mexican rum-spiked bread pudding) with dried fruit, nuts, and feta cheese. The syrup had anise, allspice, cinnamon, apple juice, and brown sugar. Me ‘n the boys expect insulin shock to kick in shortly.

Planting a fruit tree is the most CO2-friendly food-related action that you could possibly take. Wood locks up CO2 until the tree dies and decomposes, returning CO2 to the atmosphere. Of course, planting a fruit tree is not exactly cooking, and hard to do in an apartment. Based on our energy bills, cooking is a relatively small contributor to energy usage. Commuting to work and heating, cooling, and lighting the house typically uses a lot more energy than cooking. Rather than changing cooking methods, you can probably reduce CO2 emissions more effectively by moving closer to work (or carpooling, taking public transportation, etc.), adjusting your home thermostat, and installing compact fluorescent lighting. Cooking with electricity generated by generated by wind, solar, or nuclear power plants results in very low CO2 emissions. Some utilities allow consumers to choose the source of their energy (often at somewhat increased cost). Of cooking methods, induction probably uses energy most efficiently. Interesting question!

Oh. My. Goodness. Wow. Mmm. That looks like an incredible array of food. And yes, I am now curious about what Masaman curry ice cream tastes like. Did you use a base of milk or coconut milk?

Omelet filling: garlic, shallots, chilies, lemongrass, basil, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and green curry paste, sauteed until soft. Topping: hoisin sauce, Sriracha, chile oil, and basil chiffonnade. Not my best job of omelet-flipping, but nice flavors.

Fried Rice Friday: eggs, leftovers, and remainders (rice, bacon, Thai basil, chicken, green curry paste, scallions and garlic). Lime wedges, cukes, and Sriracha at the table, and tart, crisp apples on the side. Yum, and an empty fridge.