patrickamory

I use dried shrimp a fair amount - I do think they add depth, but it's hard to find ones that don't have a certain "fishy" aroma. This does tend to dissipate a bit in cooking.

Giant white beans with Italian sausage and leeks.

I could be snarky and write: "Wasn't this battle won in 2005?" and mean it

scubadoo care to share the recipe for the lamb and bean stew? Looks marvelous. I did something I've been planning to do for years - got an insert for the Weber with a round hole for the wok. This was up at the BF's mom's place and we had to get a new carbon steel wok and season it, which I foolishly did inside and set off the house fire alarms. I made dry-fried green beans and chicken with sichuan peppercorns. I definitely did not achieve wok hei, - counterintuitively (for me an inexperienced idiot) the Cantonese double-handled wok is much harder to toss or even to approach with the bare hands. I need to develop better technique with the wok scoop, or else try a northern wok with a long handle. I foolishly thought at the higher heat I could stir-fry larger quantities of ingredients at once - I was doubling the recipes. I should have kept to the Grace Young recommendations of small quantities in batches. And I think I need to get the wok and probably the grill much hotter. Nonetheless the results were tasty. Any tips much appreciated - I want to learn!

Note the immature eggs in the silkie that liuzhou posted. I came across some of those in an old stewing fowl that I bought from a Chinese market in Flushing - really had me guessing until I figure it out!

mm that sounds fantastic. Where do you source your hay?

Red-braised pork with jasmine rice, and celery stir-fried with ground beef and sichuan pickled chillis.

p.s. plus serious amounts of black pepper.

Impromptu tagine. I marinated chicken thighs at room temp in salt, ras-el-hanout and olive oil. Meanwhile, sautéed shallots, garlic, celery and carrots in the Rifi with even more olive oil. Added chicken and a mixture of a small amount of crushed tomatoes with tomato paste and water, brought to a boil, and then simmered covered for an hour or longer.

Thanks dcarch! Yum Ranz and liuzhou (and everyone else). Pasta e fagioli

Shelby - here is a link to my tamale experiences via Diana Kennedy (plus a little help from my friends)...

Somehow the argument in that Dave Arnold article seems unlikely to me. But then I own a jiggler type PC (Presto), so what do I know!

Mmmm Jamaican patties huiray that place looks like a winner. Wonderful-looking salsa Shelby and the enchiladas too - I keep meaning to make more Mexican food, I went through a serious tamales phase a few years back but they do take time (and require real manteca IMO). Dejah I'm really enjoying your steamed Asian whole fish dishes. I can smell them from here. And - just lovely meals everyone.

rotuts I put those in there for you, and the celery for Kim (I think)!

Gulyas:

Giant white bean salad with marinated chicken thighs cooked at 400F on a sheet pan.

This is great… I've seen mantis shrimp live in Flushing markets - man are they unsettling creatures. What do they taste like? How do the fisherman know which ones are well behaved and which ones will destroy one another? The ones I saw definitely looked hostile to the max.

That is an incredible piece of salmon mm. Paul I echo your comment on Anna's potato and egg salad. I returned to Kenji's five-ingredient Colombian pressure-cooker stew, which I had over three days. On the second and then the third day of reheating, I made adjustments, completely against the spirit of the original dish, which resulted in something incredible (and I don't know whether or not it's repeatable, and whether or not the nights in the refrigerator were significant to the final result): Day 2: add several squirts of fish sauce and a whole habanero chile (just sitting in the pot) Day 3: add several pinches of Mexican oregano, several pinches of Aleppo pepper, 2 good anchovies, and reheat in the oven covered at 300F. Remove from oven stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, eviscerating and spreading the whole habanero in the process, as well as the anchovies which have entirely disappeared into the mix. Cook some more, stir vigorously again, remove bones gristle and bay leaf, and serve over rice with some lemons or limes to squeeze.

Shelby, your meals always exude tastiness (of course) but also a home-cooked goodness and hospitality. I KNOW that I would feel enveloped by warmth in your household. I can practically the smell the delicious food coming off the screen.

Maybe someone else has mentioned it, but check out Kasma's site at thaifoodandtravel.com. Covers the basics. And gives the best brand recommendations for people living in North America. Getting the right ingredients is key, of course, but also remember to taste constantly. Many Thai dishes emphasize strong flavors but the key to success is balance - hot, salty, sour, sweet. The adjusting of seasonings is critical to getting each dish right. Don't buy pre-prepared pastes. Pound your own. It's time-consuming and a lot of work, but the work is worth it. And as you pound each ingredient into the paste, the taste and aroma teach you how Thai flavors are built. If you want to save time, a southern Indian wet grinder will work too. Or if you don't have that, you can use a food processor. But a real granite Thai mortar and pestle is like nothing else (and versatile for many other cuisines). Btw - a "Lao" style clay mortar with a wooden pestle is also worth investing in for salads. Cheap and also useful for other cuisines. Plus both implements look great! As a general rule, add half the fish sauce in the recipe, and then adjust the flavor at the end. The salty is the easiest thing to tweak but only if you've undersalted. I'm a big fan of both Su Mei-Yu and David Thompson's books for general approach, even if both get a bit wordy and philosophical. I learned a tremendous amount from each of them. Plus the photography in the Thompson book is the most mouth-watering food photography in the world. And finally, cracking coconut cream is never easy. Just learn to accept that part! And because I can't resist adding more… try to avoid canned coconut milk. Go the extra mile and learn how to squeeze it out from fresh coconuts. Or if that's too much work (which is understandable), then get frozen grated coconut and make your coconut milk and cream out of that. The difference from canned is remarkable. Also: always useful to coconut oil and rendered pork fat (good lard) on hand. Enjoy!!!

So much tasty food depicted in the past few days! Thanks for the Crepes: exactly right, finocchiona is a sort of Tuscan salami made with fennel seeds. One of my favorite pieces of Italian charcuterie. Here is a link: http://www.creminelli.com/finocchiona-italian-salami-1.html

Despite my aversion to anything that remotely reminds me of peanut butter, I took the plunge and started using peanut oil for various dishes. And - oddly enough - I like it!

Spring spread for an afternoon on the terrace. Cheeses from Murray's included Greensward, Pico, Banded Cheddar, a blue whose name I can't recall, and Challerhocker. About a pound of thinly sliced 24-month old prosciutto di Parma. Sliced finocchiona. Sichuan smacked cucumbers. Flageolet and arugula salad. Bread, crackers. Not shown: royal corona beans cooked Tuscan-style in earthenware with olive oil, sage, garlic, oregano and tomato; cashews; four types of olives.

Echoing Hassouni and Mitch: just live with it. You've done so for nine years! I deep-fry, wok-cook, do long slow braises, roast chile peppers and just about everything else known to man in a NYC apartment kitchen with no hood. It's a non-windowed pass-through kitchen that goes to the bathroom corridor at one end, and the dining nook off the living room at the other. I do everything that Hassouni describes, and just accept the fact that my place is going to smell like cooking food most of the time… really, there are worse things in life!

Flageolets with arugula, pancetta, mint and Meyer lemon dressing - sorry for poor photo