patrickamory

Hi rotuts, What are the names of the two Indian groceries in Waltham? Curious to check them out. Thanks.

Not to mention a killer butcher counter, huge selection of pastas, and Danicoop tomatoes. I'm a believer, despite the PITA aspects.

With full respect to the professionals who really do wear down their edges, and the hobbyists who enjoy sharpening for its own sake (and I totally get the sexiness) - I agree with weinoo that what is usually needed for most home cooks is honing - restoring the edge.

huiray - thanks, yes, that was me - I'll check this one out!

Prawncrackers - wow, I'm full of admiration. Will definitely try this myself. huiray, it's a Persian dish that my partner adapted for the pressure cooker. Here's the recipe in his own words: Fry an onion in bottom of pressure cooker, then stack 3-4 lamb shoulder steaks, de-seeded lemon wedges from two small or one large lemon, and spread 3-4 beets peeled and sliced across the top. Pour 2-3 cups pomegranate juice plus 3/4c cup water. Cover aAd cook at pressure (with top rocking) for 15 minutes and do fast de-pressurization (or braise on top of stove until lamb is tender). add 1tbsp rosewater mixed with 1/4tsp ground saffron, and spread over the top after you take the lid off but before serving. Sprinkle dried mint or freshly chopped mint across the top before serving. The tahdig is rice crust.

Prawncrackers, as always that looks incredibly delicious. Did you have to kill the eels? Did you have to skin them alive as Richard Olney does in The Good Cook series?

Beet, pomegranate and lamb stew, with tahdig:

How does the Perfex compare?

J Sheekey

Habaneros have wildly variable heat content in my experience. Out of this batch I tested a small piece of one raw and it was only mildly spicy; worried, I tried a piece of another and my heart was instantly racing, sweat starting out of my forehead, endorphins flowing!

Yep I know that store huiray - they may indeed have had it sometimes, just not at the times of year when I've checked. I'll look again when this supply runs out!

I just made Chris's Inner Beauty recipe too - something I've been planning to do for ages. I didn't have enough habaneros so I filled out the mix with some bird chiles and cayenne peppers: Here are all the ingredients, ready to go on the stove: I didn't have curry powder so added some of my own garam masala, plus a heaping teaspoon of ground turmeric and a generous microplane of fresh turmeric root. I used sherry vinegar in place of the palm vinegar. And I added some pimenton de la vera for smokiness and depth. (I was a bit taken aback by how much smoke it added - just a tiny pinch.) My mango was a little short of ripe. Otherwise I think my setup mirrored Chris's pretty closely. I seem to have maxed out my eG filesize limit so I can't post the pics of the finished product, but it was strangely much browner than Chris and &roid's versions. Maybe because my habaneros were mostly green? But the flavor is a knockout - caramel-y, smoky, deep & hot. Not far from what I recall of the original, one of my favorite hot sauces. I'll be using this all over the place. Really easy to make too - people should go for it.

Calamansi are impossible to find here in New York so I was thrilled when Jaymes offered to send me a box free from her garden in Texas. They arrived safely yesterday: Green calamansi are the unripe food, frequently used in Filipino cooking (they can ripen to orange). They are a highly unusual blend of sweet and sour flavors and can be eaten whole like kumquats. I admit to devouring 8 or 9 of this way! Tonight I made a simple and classic pinoy dish, grilled tilapia with calamansi. I was unable to find whole tilapia unfortunately, but my local fishmonger had good quality fillets. Brushed with coconut oil, broiled close to the element for about 5 minutes a side, with fresh calamansi juice squeezed on immediately before serving. I also made a fish sauce and calamansi dipping sauce, a simple sawsawan known as patis, using Red Boat fish sauce. The patis was delicious, but the dish didn't need it - the combination of simple grilled tilapia and fresh calamansi was heavenly. More to come.

huiray - thanks for the links, those books look extremely intriguing. I'm ordering.

Fryer's Delight for fish and chips, in Theobald's Road. Ba Shan or Bar Shu for Sichuan or Hunanese in Chinatown - unfortunately there is a spice level, but man are these places good, especially Ba Shan. Bam-bou for upscale Vietnamese at the bottom of Charlotte Street. The Cow near Westbourne Grove - sit in the pub downstairs and have oysters with Guiness or kedgeree. (Don't eat in the restaurant upstairs.) Dock Kitchen near Ladbroke Grove / Kensal Road - fantastic grilled north African / Mediterranean food with a South Asian influence. The Painted Heron - upscale Indian in a nice corner of Chelsea at the end of Cheyne Walk. Actually truly excellent. Alounak - superior Persian BYOB in Westbourne Grove, between Notting Hill and Bayswater. They make the flat bread (sangak) in seconds in the concave tandoor oven as you walk in. Guinea Grill - in Mayfair, a classic old place for steaks and especially steak-and-kidney pies. Might be at the upper end of the price range. I love this restaurant. St John - if you steer clear of the wine list, I think you could get out of here for under £50 per head - and it's one of the best restaurants in the world if you go to the original Smithfield location. I'm sure you're aware of the style and ambience - if not, google it.

Here's Marcella Hazan's recommendation, and it works perfectly here in New York where we have intensely humid summers: Wrap your parmigiano completely in wax paper, then wrap that in aluminum foil. Put that in the fridge. It seems to keep forever. If it dries out too much, then wrap it in cheesecloth soaked in water, then layers of wax paper and aluminum foil as above, for two days, and it will be back to normal. Return it to just wax paper and foil.

huiray - well Dunlop has written a Sichuanese and Hunanese cookbook. I also cook from Grace Young, but her focus is technique rather than cuisine, albeit with a focus on Cantonese. The English-language Chinese cookbooks I remember using back in the '80s were not great. I'd be very eager to get recommendations for guidance in the other cuisines of the country!

I think that as the seasoning builds, your wok will get more and more nonstick. I recommend cleaning it while it's still hot, with just hot water and a paper towel. Directly after you dump the final contents on to a plate. If you use a bamboo wok brush, be gentle - it can remove quite a bit of seasoning.

That is a work of art. Gorgeous! Like annabelle I prefer a gas stove. I like being able to judge the heat by looking. It does look like it needs a bit of work.

Thanks Anna, yes, it was. Incredibly rich from the egg white and corn starch batter. I used the green-capped oelek sambal sauce as a substitute for pickled Sichuan chiles based on internet recommendations. I'm definitely going to seek out the real thing next time - I suspect it will add a subtlety currently lacking from the dish (though it was still yummy).

Chicken with vinegar (cu liu ji) from Land of Plenty.

Ashen - good point. I used regular tamarind paste (though actually I probably put in almost twice the recommended amount - I find that the tamarind I can get here is rarely sour enough). But it's a seafood dish from Kerala, so one would expect kodampoli to be used. I have some and will try that next time!

Grace Young in The Breath of a Wok gives some seriously well thought out advice on how to get as close as possible to wok hei on a Western stove. She recommends a flat-bottomed cast-iron wok, properly seasoned, used on a gas stove. Her tips include preheating to the right degree, the usual swirling technique for liquids, never cooking more than 12 oz. of meat at a time (and letting it sear for 30 secs, stir for 20 secs, sear for 30 secs), and making sure to thoroughly dry all vegetables. And more. I'm sure you're never going to do as well as a wok burner outside, or a Weber with the circular cut-out hole in the grill for a round-bottom wok to sit in. But then again, wok hei is a Cantonese concept (or so Young argues) - Fuchsia Dunlop doesn't ever refer to it in her Sichuanese book that I can find. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of the hottest heat imaginable for stir-fries, but I feel like I've gotten some great results following Young's recommendations for technique. This book is indispensable.

Hi all - the malabar shrimp curry is from Camilla Panjabi's book, and there appears to be an adaptation of it here. I squeezed the milk out of frozen coconut chunks, thawed and thrown in the food processor with a cup of warm water. I substituted a full teaspoon of grated fresh turmeric for the powder, and added it with the garlic and ginger. And I used coconut oil throughout rather than peanut or vegetable oil. Served over basmati rice with lime pickle and mango chutney on the side. dcarch, the light source is an under-counter halogen strip - I always have to correct the color balance but this is easy since you taught me to shoot in RAW in the shutterbug thread

Malabar shrimp curry