patrickamory

It does seem that McDonalds has declined in quality over the past 20-30 years. I wonder whether it would be possible to reverse-engineer a Big Mac, fries, hamburger, McChicken and Filet-O-Fish circa say 1980?

Shop to a list. It's key. I waste so much less. (Which doesn't mean you shouldn't succumb to the impulse when you come across something unexpectedly fresh or rare.) Also: DON'T SHOP WHEN HUNGRY!

So long as the spices are cooked it appears not to be a problem. So the main issue is probably fresh-ground black peppercorns from India (where all of mine come from), used as a finishing spice on your food at the table. Not that I've ever contracted salmonella!

I don't think so.

Thanks Jaymes! I'll try it next summer. Inside won't work because there's no room that gets enough sun.

Just watched the spicy food episode. Interesting - I always thought that the truly spicy cuisine came from Hunan Province, whereas Sichuan chillis are milder and usually coupled with Sichuan peppercorns for the ma-la effect. None of that gets mentioned though. Definitely some great wok and cleaver skills on display. (I see why you're annoyed with his Chinese pronunciation liuzhou.)

Calamansi is impossible to find in New York as well!

Wash it if it seems like it needs washing! You can usually smell or see any offending bits. I mostly don't. (gfweb, have you really lost respect for James Beard, Marcella Hazan and Harold McGee?)

re: "curry powder": Most real Indian recipes call for the addition of different spices, whole, crushed, ground, roasted or not, at different points in the recipe. Some might be fried whole at the start to flavor the oil. Others might be ground and sautéed lightly. Still others are only added after the addition of liquid and are in effect boiled or braised. And as discussed in another thread, there may be a final garnish with a number of spices quickly fried in oil separately and added to the finished dish - this is called a tadka, tarka, chaunk or various other names. re: garam masala: This is a medley of spices mainly used in Delhi and Bengal and other northern areas of India and Pakistan and neighboring countries, generally containing cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom, cumin, coriander seed, peppercorns, cloves and other spices. There are an infinite number of recipes for garam masala - traditionally each family had its own - and there are regional variations as well. Sometimes the spices are roasted; sometimes they are not. They are always ground, and are generally added in small amounts as an aromatic garnish toward the end of the cooking or just before serving.

Late summer salad - roasted and peeled some heirloom sweet peppers, dressed with olive oil, salt, pepper and basil from the garden.

Bruce - thanks - 'nother Dunlop question, I believe those fish-fragrant recipes call for pickled Sichuan chilli paste? Have you actually been able to obtain this product, or do you just use chilli bean paste (which is what I did)?

Fascinating topic, and I agree with most of what has been said. I'd say Wonder Bread is an indispensable accompaniment to real Texas barbecue (long smoked brisket and other beef cuts, little to no sauce). I wouldn't want an organic replacement to it. Similarly, I'd want Pepperidge Farm toasted white bread with my BLT (and though I regularly use Kosher or sea salts, I'd want to salt the tomatoes with iodized salt). I prefer hot dogs from outside of New York to be dressed with French's yellow mustard, and those from within it to have whatever the standard brown mustard is here (similar to Gulden's). I like a Martin's potato roll or similar soft white roll on my hamburger. The greatest offense to the simple burger perpetrated by upscale restaurants is the "brioche" bun, its dry flakiness completely unsuited to holding the burger together.' I love organic breads, exotic mustards, and brioche - but Bill Klapp could not be more right - the attempts to graft these on to traditional foods, especially popular American dishes - generally don't work. It's not a question of nostalgia - it's a question of taste! YMMV

Bruce, I'm guessing those are both the Dunlop recipes? The fish-fragrant eggplant is to die for. I had less luck with the dry-fried beef slivers, but will give it another go now that I'm getting the hang of true dry-frying.

liuzhou thanks for the tahini and hummus pictorial. really useful.

Hi Kenneth, though I wrote "even better" I have to admit I've never used the frozen milk. If it works for you, I'm sure it's great!

Yup Kenneth you can get the chunks at Kalustyan! In the freezer next to the shredded bags (they keep moving stuff around, but the last time I was there they were in the second room, make a left, freezers on the right, bottom shelf). I think it's about $3.99 per large-ish bag, which should produce about the equivalent of 1-1 1/2 cans if you milk it right. (They leave the brownish interior skin on the chunks - not an issue for Thai savory dishes. Possibly an issue for desserts where you might want the pure white color.) Syzygies I have not been to Thailand, but I have had luck with making coconut cream and milk from fresh coconuts in New York. I'm sure they can't compare to what one can find in Southeast Asia, but so long as the coconuts weren't rotted, I got better than I've had from any source including frozen. But for a lot more work & a lot more risk (both financial & labor-wise).

The cream from the canned milk is very hard to "crack" due to the stabilizers, there's all that starchy stuff in there. I've sometimes had luck with the Aroy-D brand, but it's varied from can to can. You can be frying it for an hour and the oil won't separate from the solids. I'd follow Kenneth's suggestion and find frozen milk, or even better, frozen chunks of coconut - there are Indian brands with large chunks of frozen coconut, no additives (you don't want the grated kind). You'll have to throw it in the processor with warm water and milk it, but it's worth it... second only to fresh coconut, which is so much more work, and a good chance (at least in the US Northeast) that you get a rotten coconut that you only identify after you hammer it open. Bags of frozen chunks! They're the best!

So no cooking? Sliced thin, salted, and eaten raw? This is for the regular green beans with the large beans in the pods?

This is a great thread! Thanks Panaderia, really fascinating!

It is the curse of NYC dining. There was a recent article, I think in the Times, pointing to research showing that people chew faster and eat more quickly in noisy settings, which of course enables restaurants to turn tables faster and make more money. People also consume more alcohol in those settings - I know I do, it's one way to deal with the pounding chaos around you - and that is where the biggest profit margins are. Sadly some of the restaurants serving the best food in New York these days have reflective surfaces, no carpeting, tables very close together, and loud music. The recent trend is also not to take reservations. So incredibly frustrating.

Ann - yum. And what are southern style simmered green beans? I'm intrigued.

Aha, I know that island! Well done, I'm sure it was an amazing time!

I wonder whether it would be more appropriate to use ghee than butter? If so, what proportion of ghee to the recommended amount of butter?

I filled out the survey - note that it forces you to choose one of the named options even when you want to fill out Other, so twice I had to pick one of the checkboxes and then point out that I wasn't actually selecting it under Other. What struck me was the lack of Mediterranean flavor combinations... lemon, thyme, olive oil, rosemary...

Drunken beans: