kayb

The recipe is from Camellia Panjabi's excellent 50 Great Curries of India. A nearly identical recipe is here: fish in coconut milk (clicky). Enjoy! ← Thanks. I'll be giving that a try.

Could you direct me to the fish molee recipe, please?

From a pie-crust novice: when one uses dried beans or rice as weights when pre-baking a pie crust, can said beans/rice still be cooked as normal? Or should they be set aside and designated as "pie-crust-baking weights"?

And can you share a recipe for that, please?

Scuppernongs -- wild white muscadines. There is no better jelly. Looks like apple, tastes sort of grape-y. And wild blackberries; smaller and tarter and much more blackberry-y than the cultivated variety. Incredible with sweetened creme fraiche, over shortbread. Does fishing count? My very favorite is bream. I can eat a half-dozen fresh-caught, pan-fried ones, about 3/4 of a pound whole, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 pound dressed (including bone).

One more. I'm moving, and friends gave me a cookbook (recipes from the Florida Keys and Caribbean, can't remember the name and it's not close by) as a going-away gift. Something else to pack! But that's cool.

After 10 years of living in Japan, I've never seen a baked or fried maki zushi. Ever. That doesn't mean they don't exist, but I wonder where you've had them. My rule is "Anything fried is good!" ← It was in what our Japanese hosts had described as a "traditional" Japanese restaruant in Kyoto, in the Arishiayama area. Sorry, but that's the best I can do; don't remember, and don't seem to have written down the name of the restaurant. Lots of tempura everything; maybe that was their schtick. Damn fine food, though. Most of the sushi I had there was nigiri.

When I've visited Japan, I was surprised to learn that (a) the traditional Japanese sushi very rarely includes rolls, and (b) when it does, they're generally baked or fried. So I'd say you could. I'd still be nervous, though; one only has to experience food poisoning once to go WAY out of one's way to avoid it again.

Low Country Boil. Fresh Gulf shrimp I brought home from vacation, new potatos, fresh corn on the cob, a quinoa salad with feta and cherry tomatos, Asian slaw, and a cheesecake someone brought. One of these days, I'll get my camera back from my kid and practice food photography. These photos on this and other threads are to die for!

Most meats and veggies, no matter the spices, benefit from being mixed with leftover (or made for the purpose) croquettes with mashed potatos and fried. Most anything Asian goes into stirfry or fried rice. Many leftover garden veggies (usually lightly steamed or blanched, seasoned only lightly with salt and butter and maybe a little pepper or tarragon in their original state) go into a plastic container in my freezer which, when it's full, is my timer on when to make either gazpacho or vegetable beef soup, depending on the time of year.

Cut into 1 1/2 inch or so chunks, blanch or steam until crisp-tender, and douse in ice water; drain. Boil fresh English or small green peas for about 2 minutes and treat the same way. Toss cold veggies in a viniagrette of your choosing (I generally use red wine vinegar and EVOO, but balsamic or lemon juice will work, serve over sliced tomatos and top with grated Parmesan. I've added any number of things to this -- sliced mushrooms, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, diced cooked chicken, water chestnuts, shrimp, depending on what I had and whether I wanted a side salad or a light entree. The other is a sandwich on good crusty sourdough, with roasted asparagus, the cheese of your choice, shaved ham or pepper roast beef, and Dijon mustard. Sauteed in a little EVOO and finished with a shot of sesame oil and soy sauce and a bare sprinkle of sugar. (Green beans and broccoli are both good like this, too.) Steamed and topped with melted butter and a sprinkle of tarragon. Steamed and drizzled with hollandaise or orange dijon sauce. I don't recall that I've ever met an asparagus spear I didn't love.

Will be in Nashville in July. I can't wait. My kids will be up there next weekend, and I'm sending them on a recon mission. The only problem I see is trying to try too many of the cocktails in one visit.

Fried rice, from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, with fresh English peas, carrots, shallots, water chestnuts, and salad shrimp. I seasoned with organic (gluten-free) soy sauce, because one child who loves fried rice has a gluten allergy. Is it just this brand, or is the gluten-free variety much milder and sweeter than regular soy sauce? Today I'm making gyoza, to cook later in the week with the leftover rice. And one of these days I'll rescue my camera from my child and start taking food pictures.

I bought four more yesterday.

Last post for today: I just can't resist. This is a true Southern dish, one familiar from my childhood: Squirrel and dumplings. Cut squirrel bite-sized chunks. Boil the carcass with salt, pepper, onions, garlic to make broth, strain, and keep warm. Roll squirrel bites in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, saute over medium-high heat until golden brown. Add water, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes or so. Make your favorite dumpling dough -- I tend to use regular pie crust dough, although you could certainly make spaetzle. Bring squirrel broth to a boil over medium-high heat, and poach dumplings. Add cooked dumplings to squirrel in saute pan, and add enough broth to make a creamy gravy to cover. You can also use the same preparation with rabbit. It would probably work with venison, although I've never tried that. Serve with fresh biscuits, butter and sorghum molasses, and you have a genuine West Tennessee hills dinner.

My probable favorite wild duck recipe is simply the breasts. Having friends' boys who hunt, they keep me supplied. Here's the simple braised version: Soak fresh duck breasts in brine for 4-6 hours prior to cooking. Drain and rinse. Roll in flour seasoned with salt and pepper; brown in butter and olive oil, and then pour red wine in the saute pan to about half the thickness of the breasts. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, turning every 15 minutes or so, until wine is almost evaporated. Add beef stock to about 1/4 depth of breasts; simmer another 15 minutes. Remove breasts to warmed serving platter, increase heat and reduce sauce to a consistency to your liking. Slice duck breasts and spoon sauce over. I serve these with roasted sweet potato wedges (tossed in olive oil, brown sugar, paprika and cayenne) and whatever green vegetable strikes my fancy that evening. And because I'm near Stuttgart, Arkansas, the duck-hunting capital or the world, here's the World Championship Duck Gumbo Cookoff recipe. I replace the okra with celery because, much as I love fried okra, I don't like it in a soup or stew. Broth: 5 to 6 ducks 2 large yellow onions, diced 2 large bell peppers, diced 1 clove garlic, minced 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 2 bay leaves Water, to cover the ducks Roux: 1/2 pound bacon 3/4 cup all-purpose flour Vegetable oil (if needed) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper Gumbo: Reserved duck broth 1 large yellow onion, chopped 1 large bell pepper, chopped 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, drained Salt and pepper 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 2 tablespoons mango-tamarind spicy Jamaican pepper sauce (recommended: Pick-a-Peppa brand) 1 large package smoked pork sausage, diced and browned Reserved chopped duck meat 1/2 cup finely chopped reserved bacon 1 package frozen okra, cooked to package directions, drained 1 pound raw shrimp, cut into small pieces 2 tablespoons gumbo file White rice and French bread, as accompaniment Directions Broth: To a large stockpot, add the ducks, onions, bell peppers, garlic, bouillon, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and enough water to cover the ducks. Bring to a boil and cook the ducks for about 1 hour, until tender. Remove ducks and pull the breast meat from the bones and chop them into small pieces - use only the breast meat and discard the rest of the bird or save for another use. Strain the broth and save. Set aside the chopped duck breast and broth to use later. Roux: In a large, deep, black skillet or kettle, fry the bacon and sausage. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pan. (Here’s where I added the saute-the-veggies step.) To the hot bacon grease, slowly add the flour, if the mixture is of a paste consistency, add more bacon grease or oil until it’s loose and easy to stir. Stirring constantly, flour-grease mixture should cook on medium heat until a dark caramel color is obtained. Add the salt and pepper and stir. As soon as the salt and pepper are stirred into the roux, add the remaining ingredients to make the gumbo. To the hot roux, add broth, then the onions, peppers and tomatoes. Add the seasonings. Then add sausage, duck, bacon pieces and okra. Next add the shrimp, cook until shrimp is pink. Finally, add the gumbo file and stir. Let gumbo simmer for about 1 hour. The longer it simmers, the better it gets. Serve over white rice with hot French bread.

There's Hobo Mondays on the Thursday Night Smackdown blog (www.thursdaynightsmackdown.com), where the challenge is to make dinner for two for less than $5. There's usually one or two conditions -- last month it was "no pasta," this month it will be "chickpeas, but not hummus." She also does the title of her blog as a contest, in which one Thursday a month she'll give a theme and competitors are to employ a theme, use a cookbook, and follow the recipe exactly. Good way to plug your favorite cookbooks; I've picked up a couple based on that. Plus, she's hysterically funny.

A couple of posters have mentioned yeast and/or potato doughnuts. Here's my mother's recipe. I have never made these on my own, but I fondly remember waking up on Saturday mornings to the smell of doughnuts frying. Potato Doughnuts 2 cups milk, 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup mashed potatos 2 pkgs yeast 1/4 cup water 3 eggs 1 tsp lemon flavoring 1 tsp cinnamon 8 cups flour (I presume self-rising, as I don't remember Mama cooking much with all-purpose) Fry in three pounds shortening. Glaze with 1 1/2 boxes powdered sugar This is the recipe exactly as written on a dog-eared, grease-spotted index card. Obviously she left out some steps. It seems that I recall her making up the batter and letting it rise; and I'm guessing that she used 1/4 cup warm water to soak the yeast and activate it. I don't recall the lemon flavoring, nor the cinnamon, for that matter, but they wouldn't taste much in that volume of batter anyway. She would roll out the batter in batches and cut the doughnuts out with a doughnut cutter, and would fry the holes separately because I begged for them. I think the glaze was powdered sugar and milk, although it could have been powdered sugar and water. And it seems that this recipe made five or six dozen. I remember vividly that they were the best doughnuts I ever ate, bar none.

I will have to construct this from memory, as my father used to cook pork shoulders, ribs and chickens with this method of barbecue (altering the times as needed for doneness). It involved an on-the-ground barbecue pit, but could, I suspect, be done with a smoker; I have his sheet-metal pit he fabricated (he was a welder) with 2-foot by 3-foot expanded metal racks for grilling and turning. The rack rests about 20 inches above the coals. The second rack is used to put on top of the meat, extended handles on each side grasped (arms crossed first) by one person on each side, so the meat can be flipped. It has a thermometer in the lid so one could keep track of the inside temperature, and the temperature was regulated by removing the "door" on one end and shoveling in coals from a hickory wood fire kept burning nearby for that purpose. The racks would accommodate four shoulders, and that is usually what we would cook as we only did this for a BIG crowd or for church events, etc. I've done it on a smaller scale with one shoulder, and it should work just fine with butts by adjusting the time. You can also adjust the time and do chicken halves or quarters, or ribs. Put two or three shovelsful of coals into the pit, and monitor until the temperature is steady at 180 degrees. You may have to add more coals, or remove some coals, to get the temperature steady. When it is, put the plain, unrubbed, unbrined shoulders on the rack, fat side down; cover, keep the temp at 180 for two hours. Flip the rack, and baste the shoulders (a cotton dish mop is the best implement for this) with a sauce made of corn oil, cider vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and paprika (and, I suppose, anything else you've a mind to put in it; I think one could do a great Cuban style barbecue by adding lime and upping the garlic) in proportions to your liking. From this point, the shoulders should be flipped and basted hourly. Temperature should stay at 180 for the first six hours; 200 for the next four; 220 for the next four; and 250 for the final two to three, to put a nice deep crust on it. It's done when the bone wiggles freely. Remove, pull, and serve with a tomato-pepper based sauce. (When we'd do four shoulders, we'd use an ice chest to pull it in; kept it warm until it was served.) Wear heavy rubber gloves; should be pulled by hand while hot; with four shoulders, it'd take all day to pull it with forks. Our classic sides were potato salad, roast corn on the cob, baked beans, yellow coleslaw made with oil, vinegar, onion, bell pepper, carrots, celery seed, dry mustard and turmeric at least two days in advance. Gallons of iced tea and fresh lemonade (the family was generally teetotalling; I've supplemented that with an ice chest full of cold beer), and a couple of freezers of homemade ice cream. In the back yard, under the maple trees. For pork shoulders, due to the time involved, we'd generally start them about 8 p.m. to serve them at noon the next day. The helpful way to do this is with shifts of folks, else the two who cook are not worth much the next day. Daddy always took the first and last shift, to monitor progress. The "graveyard" shift always involved numerous thermoses of coffee to help stay awake. It freezes well, particularly if you have a vacuum sealer. Few memories of my growing up are as fond as that one.

Lord. That sounds SO good. I'm going shopping for Splendid Soups, this afternoon.

I am SO making this this weekend!

I vacation every year at Orange Beach, AL, in the same condo complex. I drive, so equipment is not so much a problem; I do always take (a) my coffee grinder, (b) my French press, © assorted spices including shrimp boil seasoning, and (d) my big stockpot for boiling shrimp. (I have learned I can pack the grinder, the French press, and a baggie of coffee beans all down inside the stockpot. Rubber bands looped around the handles on the pot and the handle on top of the lid holds it all together. If flying, you could put it all in a box and either check it or carry it on (probably carry-on given they charge you $15 a pop for checked bags now, the dogs, and how many clothes do you need at the beach anyway?). I stop on my way to the condo and buy groceries -- granola, berries and vanilla yogurt with a loaf of decent bread is good enough for breakfast. (If it's several of us, I get bacon and eggs and cook a big breakfast one morning.) Deli meats, cheese, crackers, fresh veggies, dips, chps, fruit, etc. for lunch. A bag of rice. Corn and potatos and andouille sausage for the shrimp boil. Dinner is always fresh seafood, because it's so good; I generally do a shrimp boil at least a couple of nights, with extra shrimp (though it's hard to have extra shrimp when you love them as much as my crowd and I do). I'll use the extra shrimp chopped up in a curry sauce (you can get good curry sauce at a lot of delis now) over grouper, or just marinated in lime and cilantro as an "add" to lunch. Many fresh seafood markets will also have prepared gumbo that's a good "add" to broiled grouper. You can jury-rig a steamer in your stock pot and cook lots of other fresh seafood, and sauces as simple as butter or olive oil, lime and cilantro are the only accompaniment it needs. Oh, and beer. Lots of very cold beer. Beer and a shopping bag of books and a week of sun. I'm going April 27. Can't wait.

Sign me up for the Shameless Self-Promotion list. My blog started in January and swiftly became a cooking blog to reflect an avocation that's becoming increasingly important to me. I'm strictly an amateur cook, but I've spent the last six months or so expanding my culinary horizons. I've chronicled those adventures at http://kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com, where I occasionally rant about politics and try to gin up a laugh or two at the same time I share some enjoyable times in my kitchen. A lot of my inspiration comes from http://thursdaynightsmackdown.com, which is possibly the funniest food blog I've ever read.

52 on the shelf, plus 2 e-books, plus my own digital compendium of recipes I've collected and filed away from various websites and friends. Plus at least two that I can't find right now, so I think I must have loaned them out. Plus an Essential Bartender's Guide. So that's what, 57? I don't feel nearly as profligate now. I think I'd best go buy cookbooks. I have a 40-percent-off coupon from Borders.....

This has been my year to try new ingredients, new dishes, and new techniques. I've had some spectacular failures (we won't talk about the mung beans in coconut milk....), but I've also had some huge successes. I think my two favorites to date are Carbonnades a la Flamande, and Linguine with Squash, Bacon and Goat Cheese. Here are the links to my blog posts for each: http://kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com/2009...on-a-snowy-day/ And the linguine.... http://kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com/2009...this-right-now/ (also posted on the foodbuzz blog site) Almost makes me wish it'd be cold again, so I could make the carbonnades a la flamande again.