patrickamory

Welcome back rro! Feels like it's been a while.

Roasted and peeled yellow bell peppers. Seeded and carefully saved the juices from inside, which went into a vinaigrette made around a pounded garlic clove. The roasted peeled peppers were sliced and laid out on romaine with Ortiz anchoas a l'antigua, fresh sage and hyssop, to form a summer salad. (This recipe is adapted from Richard Olney): Summer version of Marcella Hazan's pasta with tuna sauce. Fifel puma added with the tomatoes; olive oil instead of butter at the end, plus dill as well as parsley.

David great to see someone trying a Southern orange curry! Rarely encountered. I've tried them myself. Agreed that it is an acquired taste. I suspect absolutely the freshest seafood is a must for these. I need to return to it. Where did get the recipe, if I may ask? I've tried the Thompson ones.

I find that Whole Foods produce often looks better than it tastes - however I'm sure that a WF in California has better fruit and vegetables than one in NYC. Soba, that Puerto Rican place looks amazing. I'm letting my prejudices show but I would have expected better in New York than in SF… that said, when my favorite Dominican spot in Manhattan closed a few years back, I haven't found anything better to replace it.

CatPoet I am loving your posts. Older Swedish dishes are wonderful (I love Janssons frestelse). The cider can chicken looks terrific. Care to share a recipe?

Such a great thread - eGullet at its best. Incredible assortment of fast and interesting responses to the challenge. (I'm bummed the aspic got nixed though! Second choice for me would be huiray's succulent looking treat… and I wouldn't omit the chilli.)

So jealous, of everything. (Though I don't need to be in the ferry building ever again. If ever there was ever a need for a personal shopper...)

Mmm that looks good Steve. Soaked cannellini beans overnight, then cooked them for 3 hours in a 250 degree oven with sweated onions, garlic, hyssop, sage, fifel chuma and a pinch of pimentón. Drained, boiled down the liquid with some smashed beans, re-added the beans, another 30 minutes in the oven, left to cool, and served in a salad of romaine, dill, parsley, sage and hyssop with some lemon juice, chopped onion and some of the thickened liquid. Followed by spaghetti with a simple tomato and anchovy sauce, kind of a summer puttanesca.

Wow the tomatoes and the peaches look to die for.

Wow mm that paella looks perfect - especially for the summer! Yum.

Great news!

Wow… all the fat phobia in the comments...

oh my that cobbler looks perfect. my fave place in SF is not Filipino or Vietnamese. maybe boring especially if you don't drink (can't remember). it's fish, and very old school, and not Tadich or Swans. I will PM - I've posted about it here often enough before.

oh man SO JEALOUS basquecook! we may have discussed but have you been to White Rose System in Linden?

Amazing pics and narrative, please keep it coming Soba! (And I have a place to recommend if you are looking for recommendations.. but I sense you have your own journey planner…)

Great-looking meals, Ann (pie, especially!), huiray, scubadoo (no need to be ashamed about that photo), CatPoet (what could be better than Kung Pao meets biryani), and I'm sure everyone else!

Well, #1, he's in asking about an inland area, and #2, the closest body of water we're talking about is the Gulf of Maine, the most overfished body of water on the planet. So, yeah. Ask the natives an honest question, get an honest answer. Only the shellfish still live here, with small exceptions. (See the thread about Maine shrimp for even more depressing news.) For the rest, adamr's answer is 100% correct.

One of my favorite things on earth. I used to love the ones at the newsstand on Avenue A just north of 7th St. Don't know if they're still any good. [Also - amazing to see the history in the earlier posts in the thread… people MapQuesting to find distances! Long shuttered restaurants!]

Kim beautiful pie. nakji yes I did use real barberries - we're lucky enough to have Middle Eastern specialty store within walking distance. Zereshk! But you can sub currants. So far as the ancho issue goes, can you find any Mexican dried chile? Pasilla, guajillo, cascabel? I wonder how it would work with those bright red dried Sichuan chiles… I understand that they are not as fiery as one might expect (I could be totally wrong about that). Japanese mild dried red chiles might work too.

Inspired by Soba's recent posts I returned to Ottolenghi's Jerusalem for this meal. First I made filfel chuma (also known as pilpelshuma), a Libyan Jewish hot sauce. (May I point out that Ottolenghi's instruction to "soak the ancho chile in boiling water for 30 minutes" is very unclear - it could mean that you should pour boiling water over the chile and let it sit off the heat for 30 mins, or it could mean boil the chile for 30 minutes. It means the former.) See here for Soba's step-by-step instructions. Taking a visual cue from him, I cut down the quantities of cayenne and sweet paprika by about half. I also left the caraway seeds whole and halved the quantity of garlic per his recommendation. It's a crazy-great sweet and bitter relish, somewhat like harissa, but drier: I then made Palestinian fried tomatoes with garlic, again taking Soba's lead - cooking the crushed garlic cloves, and subbing filfel chuma for the fresh chile. I had to fry in batches with a fairly large skillet - you really need your largest sauté pan for this. Perfect summer dish, and I was even able to find worthy heirlooms at Eataly (since USGM is closed on Sundays): Finally, the well-known chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom. This really is a perfect dish. I got it better this time than the first time - maybe better chicken, but also high-quality Ceylonese cinnamon from The Spice House, which I'm now certain is the right kind of cinnamon for this dish: Thanks for all the tips and inspiration Soba!

Simple weekday meals, part infinite: lamb loin chops marinated in Julia's spice marinade, seared and then finished in a 400 degree oven. Served with lemon, deglazed pan juices and rice.

The fried tomatoes look delicious - added to my list.

Paul Bacino corona beans? Never heard of them - they look yummy. Will seek them out. Purcell Mountain seems to have them too.

Sookha kheema:

90% of my kitchen utensils are wood. I have a huge variety of wooden spoons and wooden spatulas/scrapers in different sizes. I just love the way it feels in my hands and the way it integrates with the ingredients and the surfaces of the pots. About the only time I use a metal spoon for stirring is in high-heat wok cooking. A metal ladle when needed. Slotted spoons and spiders for draining. For the rest - wood.