patrickamory

Catching up here... Tried out Kenji's fried chicken: Served with red peas and parsleyed rice: And southern-style green beans. I didn't have any salt pork or bacon, but I did have some pork belly, so I salted that heavily, fried it in lard, used the lard as the basis for the beans, and then re-added the crispy pork bits at the end with some more salt. It worked well. The next day, not at all chickened out, we had a roast chicken: And the following day, this soffrito was the basis for tagliatelle with dried porcini and sage:

FauxPas please tell us more about the chana masala with cauliflower.

So many incredible meals... Dejah, Tri2Cook, huiray, weinoo (2X) and others too numerous to name. A mish-mash of some stuff I've done since returning from an overseas business trip. Right off the plane and into some unsoaked ayacote negros, cooked with a tiny bit of Bentons bacon (it's so smokey you just need a little bit), serrano chile, onions, Mexican oregano and God knows what else because I was so jetlagged my short-term memory was gone, but it took 3+ hours in the dutch oven on the stovetop: Black as tar, stick blended some into thick mush to make a real sticky mess, served over white rice. I had a hankering for the American spaghetti with meat sauce of my youth (note: not Italian, and not Italian-American either), but also decided that since it's tomato season I needed to make it with fresh tomatoes. Heated a bunch of good plum tomatoes and then put them through the food mill with the coarse attachment. for a nice thick sweet and tart sauce. Browned 1/2 lb ground beef and 1/4 ground pork in small batches in the Griswold No. 10: Really crisped it. Also saved a smattering of the ground beef unbrowned, and didn't brown the beef all the way through (good Kenji tip for juicier chili - it really works). Deglazed with water and didn't clean the pan. Added olive oil and sauted a chopped onion and 3 cloves of Ranch something garlic from Eataly. Deglazed with water again. Place the whole mess in a dutch oven with the tomatoes, salt, lots and lots of black pepper, Greek oregano from the Spice House, about 1/8 can of ancient tomato paste from the fridge (I actually think that stuff gets better the longer it sits open in the fridge - this stuff was almost black), and about 1/4 can of San Marzano to add a little liquid. Brought it to a boil and then simmered for about 60-75 mins. Although I used Afeltra pasta, I didn't attempt to toss in the pot, and served the sauce on top of the pasta like we used to have it when I was a kid: I will admit that the dusting on top is a really good Romano Served with the two necessaries:

OK Norm tell us more about the turkey. Stuffed/unstuffed? Brined/wet or dry? Temps? foil or no foil? I do our Thanksgiving turkey every year and am fascinated by the challenge of trying to make it good. Rarely an easy feat.

liuzhou, I'm dying... over here I think that is generally referred to as Chongqing chicken, and it is one of my favorite things. Now that you've depicted it, I'm going to make it.

OMG Yum!

Anna I feel pretty certain that is superlative mac'n'cheese from that photo.

Double tomatoes

Roast chicken again. The bird comes from Cascun Farms. Cooked over these really sweet little farmstand onions. Served with parsleyed rice.

Ground lamb and chana dal patties stuffed with onion, mint and chiles, served with bhopali rice pilaf with carrots and peas:

Wow, I'm coming up on only 5 years this November. I'm a youngster!

I recently acquired a Griswold No. 10 and am very focused on cast iron cooking right now. Just tried Kenji's crisp skin chicken and vegetables in one skillet. I subbed yellow bell pepper and chopped onion for the brussels sprouts and shallots. For the jus, I realized after defrosting that I had bean broth rather than chicken stock and I'd forgotten to get lemons, so I used the bean broth with a pinch of crumbled Knorr, and used a little Banyuls white wine vinegar as the souring agent. It was delicious! (Note: warning that if you follow Kenji's instructions to the letter, your "ripping hot" skillet may shoot great gouts of hot chicken fat at you when you deglaze it - this happened to me twice.)

Smacked cucumbers Sichuan style, Good Mother Stallards cooked with Benton's slab bacon served with white rice and peas, and a small but very dense roast chicken.

Beef rendang:

Soaked giant white beans with a pinch of baking soda, a whole pasilla chile and a bunch of dill. Sauted chunks of purplish garlic in a ton of olive oil with salt, peppercorns and bay leaves, added beans, soaking liquid with the pasilla, extra dill and a crushed anchovy and cooked for a couple hours. Served with rice and spinach. This was heavenly.

It seems like the prickly ash (Sichuan peppercorns) can't be optional, or the dish is not ma.

I know I keep posting boring-looking pastas but that's what I'm eating. Lidia Bastianich's marinara recipe but secret hint: use Aleppo pepper in place of the usual red chile. Kind of mindblowingly good. I made this 2 days in a row and can't stop thinking about it.

Got a big tin of anchovies in salt rather than the usual anchovies in olive oil. I'd read about it so I was prepared, but why do you have to bone salted anchovies and not anchovies in oil? Whatever, not a big deal, they were lovely... Puttanesca of course.

huiray, you cook a gigantic volume & diverse array of dishes daily. I am impressed.

I quite like Nom Wah. Not everything is great, and there can be huge variation depending on when you go, but when it's good, it's good.

I have to say I love a rare burger with a crispy charred exterior. Appreciate that this may not be what everyone wants.

FauxPas, great idea for a soup. Did you make a separate stock with vegetables that you discarded, or was it a one-step process? BonVivant, you truly live up to your moniker. Also, beautiful dumpling technique.

Thanks tug! Jo bones were edible!

Inspired by tug I made a sardine pasta. My can was King Oscar rather than Cento, and I'd planned to include pine nuts but got befuddled by the pine nut controversy (and blocked by my attempt to buy Italian pignoli in the Bronx by the fact that Nino's on Arthur Avenue was unexpectedly closed on summer Sundays after July 19th, despite their website)... Decided to use dill instead of parsley. Omitted croutons. Green beans on the side.

Weekend brunch is really tough in NYC. If the place is any good, you're facing a wait, a noisy scene, or both. One possibility is Maialino on Gramercy Park - make sure you request a table in the back, in the section well away from the bar, though. [Edit: RESERVE.] A booth at Russ & Daughters Cafe on the Lower East Side is excellent, and they will sit deuces in booths - but the wait can be upwards of two hours at prime weekend times. Barney Greengrass on the Upper West Side moves a bit faster, and is almost as good - you'll want to make sure you're in the back room from a noise perspective. Central Park walk is easy right afterwards. For total peace & quiet and no wait, though also no natural light, you could try Katsu-Hama on 47th Street between Fifth and Madison, for Japanese fried pork cutlets and cabbage with your own sesame sauce that you grind yourself. I don't know whether this counts as brunch. Brooklyn offers more garden-y spots, but the hot ones always have a wait. Until the owner died, I would have strongly recommended Dumont in Williamsburg. Quiet brunch in NYC almost impossible!