patrickamory

David Tanis's recipe for a quasi-Provençal potato salad with green beans, anchovies and eggs, from this week's Times.

Wow, fascinating on the rusk, Blether and rotuts. Really tasty looking Shane. Norm, you truly serve a groaning board.

Mmmm love alfredo. And I'm afraid I love real British bangers too. When I go to London now, the sausages have become all upscale and don't include as much (or any) cornmeal.

I just tried making the simple red curry of chicken. Pictures in the Dinner thread. It wasn't so simple since I made the red curry paste they specified, and it's a good one. I didn't have kaffir limes so had to substitute regular lime zest. I roasted the shrimp paste, as I always do. And I used 2/3 of the dried red chiles specified, since my partner can't take the heat. Still a wonderfully balanced paste, and I have about a cup of left in the fridge. The recipe itself is interesting in that omits sugar entirely (so does the following green curry recipe). I followed it in this respect. The result is fresher, more herbal tasting and allows the paste to shine through. The simpler (dry) red curry that I usually make from David Thompson doesn't include the dried spices - this does, and it is a wonderfully complex paste. Great consistency too - at one point I wondered whether I should add liquid, but it came out with precisely the right pasty texture. I seasoned with fish sauce 5 minutes earlier than specified. I was conservative with it - following David Thompson - but should have added the full two tablespoons specified. Again, the lack of palm sugar threw me a bit. Their method of cracking the coconut cream worked, which impressed me - it's hard to crack canned coconut cream. That said, I don't think I'll be using canned cream again anytime soon - the stabilizers add an unwelcome powdery note on the tongue. It is hell to make it fresh, I admit - I'm going to try using frozen coconut meat and will report back on that front. Two successful recipes from this book - I guess I'm keeping it!

Nice soup Blether. Homemade curry paste and red curry of chicken and green beans. More details in the Hot Sour Salty Sweet thread.

Hi Blether - I use a second coffee grinder reserved for grinding spices. The Millser would be perfect for making Indian onion-garlic-ginger pastes, but I just haven't been making so many of those recipes lately. I will have to check out that Marcella recipe!

menuinprogress now THAT is a burger. Absolutely gorgeous & delicious looking. Nice proportions too.

As I understand it, oxtails are essential. I haven't made pho, but when I made bo kho, they added an incredible unctuousness and texture to the stew.

Here's my thing on the Millser, many months after buying it: I don't use it that often. Main reason is that even for small amounts, it wants some liquid to really puree anything, including garlic, even using the smallest bowl. The Millser really seems to be made for making smoothies. For the small quantities I generally need, for example garlic, I find myself mincing it, or if I'm really in a rush, pounding it in the Thai granite mortar & pestle. I really thought I needed this device, and aesthetically and appreciatively I still love it... however it has not found a place in my regular cooking routine. I mainly make Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern and Italian dishes... YMMV.

Schwartz's Smoked Meats - a fifth (or is it sixth?) vote. One of the best restaurants in North America.

Catching up here. First, koubideh kebabs (ground lamb with spices), on the sword-like Persian skewers. We did these under the gas broiler (no grills allowed on the 11th floor). Served with rice and fresh bitter oranges to squeeze: And tonight, frijoles borrachos. This is my third time making these to a friend's family recipe. Beans were Good Mother Stallards from Rancho Gordo. The beer the last two times has been Chimay Grand Reserve (the blue label). This was the first time I had both bacon and chicharron for the base. Along with onions, garlic, roasted peeled polanos and tomatoes. Served with rice, fresh limes, chopped cilantro and El Yucateco green hot sauce. I think it's my best yet:

Soba that looks extremely appetizing. Will you be posting a recipe to your blog?

I have to learn to read more closely. Peeled peas! Wow.

Matthew, that looks terrific... both the tortillas and the filling - great photos too.

I'm going to guess two things: (a) you're really good at plating and presentation and (b) you've got excellent light in your kitchen or dining room.

Interesting - we got shelling peas for the kheema upthread, and we shelled a half pound in about 10 minutes. Just bend the pod toward the curve and the peas pop out. Perhaps yours were picked not quite ripe, or too ripe? Now shelling fava beans the previous week - that took forever!

I'm no BBQ expert but just curious - absolutely nobody here uses bourbon, beer or coke in their sauces?

I was also going to recommend Stilton. If you can find "Stichelton," which is made from unpasteurized milk and homemade rennet, then that's even better. Neals Yard Dairy do an amazing one.

Hi khana_hai, I'm not an expert like posters Jenni or V. gautam, but usually the initial spices are meant to flavor the first ingredient more aggressively, and the latter ingredients more subtly. Subsequent spices - and their preparation - flavor the subsequent ingredients. That said, a lot of Indian recipes specify a tadka with some or all of the initial spices added at the very end as a garnish, which gets you that fresh impact again. Often the tadka echoes the earlier spices rather than replicating them exactly - so whereas the main dish might contain ground mustard seeds, the tadka contains whole ones. And other variations. I hope this helps.

Excellent mkayahara - galangal is one thing there is absolutely no substitute for! And once you've had fresh turmeric, it's impossible to go back to the powdered stuff. And Anna - your food photography is terrific. Care to share any secrets?

Nice-looking ribs Prawncrackers!

mkayahara, you can sub regular ginger for krachai if you need to. Or young ginger.

This is a great, great thread, thanks so much. I love traditional French cooking, and both your choice of dishes and your photography are impeccable. Please continue.

Coming from New England, it was a surprise to find that salt pork is virtually impossible to find in New York City. You are handed fatback, which is not the same thing. (I now make my own salt pork from good quality pork belly, so maybe this was good for me.) Suet is also extremely hard to find here. At East Village Meat Market, the butchers told me they used to sell it for bird feed, but now there's no market for it. At Ottomanelli, if you're lucky, they'll wink at you and grab a big handful from a side of porterhouse. At Florence Meat Market, I was sold beef fat that had nothing to do with kidneys (and had a nasty taste of iron to it when rendered).

Looks amazing as usual Bruce... I've got both Thailand the Beautiful and the Kasma books in my Amazon wishlist now, and I guess I'm keeping Hot Sour Salty Sweet, so room needs to be made on the bookshelf. Blueberries already in season down there huh? I'm used to Maine blueberries, it's a July-August thing... those look wonderful.