patrickamory

Hi Percyn - we grind the saffron in a spice grinder, but you need to add a sugar cube to keep it weighed down. It takes a while, and you need to grind a lot of saffron at one time - 5-10 grams. You can do a smaller quantity but it's more difficult to reduce it to powder. (You don't use all the saffron at once of course - you can mix the remainder with rosewater and keep it in the fridge and use it as you need it.) For cookbooks, check out Najmieh Batmanglij's Food Of Life. There's a new anniversary edition and it's terrific. Beautiful as well.

Wow, nice homemade pita robirdstx! Persian food again - fava bean khoresh. Fava beans, freshly shelled: Dill, chopped with sea salt: Saffron mixed with rosewater and verjus (you must use copious quantities of good saffron, and really get the threads pulverized - not easy): The requisite tahdig (note: I will be very disappointed if people only comment on the tahdig): The rest of the basmati rice: And the khoresh, which contains whole chicken thighs slowly braised in the stew, along with eggs on top added at the very end:

Wow. Those dishes look amazing. I have this book in my to-sell pile (I found it too basic for Thai after Su-mei Yoo and David Thompson), but maybe I'll pull it back out and try some stuff.

I really like the Spice House too. I have a Penzey's near me and for the few spices that I don't get from my local Asian grocers, I generally choose to mail order from The Spice House over buying from Penzey's - not that Penzey's is bad, but The Spice House seems fresher. I recommend their paprikas particularly.

In general for Thai brands and ingredients I recommend checking out Kasma Loha-unchit's site - her recommendations are really spot-on, and have greatly improved my Thai cooking: http://thaifoodandtravel.com/brands.html http://thaifoodandtravel.com/ingredients.html The shrimp paste she recommends has a green dancing shrimp on the plastic jar. The name is not translated from Thai script. I'm not sure whether you can order it online, but have a look around. On a related note: from an old eGullet cook-off or tutorial, there's a note to always roast Thai shrimp paste for 5 minutes in a preheated 450F oven in loosely wrapped tinfoil. I always do this now, and it never fails to improve it - it's rounder, warmer, nuttier.

Mouthwatering, Shane! The most delicious looking meal out of a host of delicious looking meals - the summer seems to be bringing out the best in eGulleteers

Bruce is that Chiang Mai dipping sauce a nahm prik? or something else? And you know what my next question will be... which cookbook??

Fantastic meals as usual everyone. liuzhou: that looks like a dish I might try. What cut of beef did you use? mgaretz: OMG those ribs! unbelievable.

Hill Country's juicy brisket is really good, and their sausages come from Kreuz in Lockhart. I've never gone to the actual restaurant, because the vibe looks absolutely awful, but they deliver to my address I quite like the ribs at Rack N Soul, and they beat some southern contenders at the Big Apple BBQ a couple years ago, a slip-up I'm sure on the part of the visitors. But the absolute best is Fette Sau in Williamsburg... vaut le détour

Prawncrackers normally I'm against doing anything with lobster other than steaming it with saltwater and some seaweed, but that looks and sounds incredible.

I once bought a Salmanazar of Veuve Clicquot for a special New Year's event. It was difficult to wrangle. I believe that Elizabeth David stuck to her own measurement terminology because she didn't want you to be precise - she wanted you to go by your sense of smell, taste and experience.

I actually think many foods taste better warm, or even at room temperature, than hot. (That said, I'm not into plated or paletted foods, and can't stand dots and drizzles on the plate - it doesn't do anything for me aesthetically, and tends to add little to the taste.)

We have a gas broiler... it's fantastic for strip steaks. Much preferred to stovetop methods. (We don't have an outside grill - NYC 11th-floor apartment-related.)

Beautiful pork chops Kim.

Thanks Bruce. I do use Kasma's website as a reference for information, techniques, ingredients and occasionally recipes, but I've yet to pick up either of her books. I do have them on my list, but I'm running out of space for cookbooks!

Bruce, the crispy tamarind bay scallops look lovely. David Thompson? I made Boston-style baked beans. It was a weeklong process. Recipe devised from several John Thorne recipes, mainly because I didn't have the right ingredients to make any single one of them. This is mainly a combination of his "Up-North Beans" and his "Downeast Baked Beans" from Serious Pig. First, we made salt pork by taking pork belly from Eataly and soaking it in a brine of salt and brown sugar for four days: We fortunately have lots of extra in the freezer for summer chowder. Next we soaked Rancho Gordo's EXCELLENT Jacob's Cattle beans overnight: And then put them in the dutch oven and boiled and simmered them with their soaking liquid "until a sharp breath will split the skin of a bean" (this direction has got to come from one of the old recipes Thorne researched), and drained them, reserving the cooking liquid: Meanwhile, boiling water gets poured over the salt pork pieces and left to soak for a few minutes, then drained. The next step is to combine the beans with the salt pork, along with molasses, rum, mustard powder, salt and pepper, and then add back enough bean liquid to be visible through the beans, and bake for 5 1/2 hours at 250 degrees. Every so often you have to check that there's still a minimum of liquid, and add back bean liquid as necessary, moving on to water once the bean liquid has run out; here's a shot partway through the baking process: And at the end:

Boring looking, but it was delicious. Stracciatelle made from scratch, according to the David Tanis recipe in the Times from April (while the broth was from Marcella Hazan). I didn't quite get "little rags," more like little clumps. Possibly because I didn't stir vigorously enough, possibly because I substituted grana padano for parmigiano-reggiano.

Despite the intense heat and humidity in NYC, we have been cooking as if it's midwinter - or at best early spring: - Friday: roast chicken with rice and spinach - Saturday: beans borrachos with rice and sautéd fiddleheads, followed by red-braised pork - Sunday: dry-rubbed pork chops with rice and spinach, also started making salt pork - Monday: making chicken stock for stracciatelle Alas, on the 11th floor, even with an outdoor space, we cannot grill

I'm making salt pork today. Recipe from John Thorne, Serious Pig. I intend to use it in chowders and baked beans. Excited!

Two courses (partly because the second one was going to overwhelm anything that accompanied it). First was sautéd fiddlehead ferns - sadly not photographe, because they're so photogenic. And rice with beans borrachos (made with Good Mother Stallards and Chimay Grande Reserve): Second was red-braised pork:

Nice tadig Hassouni. We've been travelling a lot so have not had as much time to cook. Recent dinners have included Applegate hot dogs and roast chicken. However I did make a Madhur Jaffrey beef kheema with peas, one of my favorite simple North Indian dishes. Served with ginger and chile pickle, mango chutney and lime pickle... the best accompaniment is Jaffrey's tomato chutney but we had finished that off some time ago. (edited several times because I can't get the colors right on the photo!)

I've never eaten there, but Barbetta is supposed to be a classic. More upscale. A little south of there is Supreme Macaroni Company, which dates back to the 30s (at least), and was a classic old-school place back in the '90s. Have not been there since. UPDATE: it's closed, and the building was demolished. And for new Italian, there's Esca, a Batali joint I have not yet visited, but which gets good reviews.

Norm - the smoker and the BBQ are a mouthwatering combination (yes, a smoker can make my mouth water) Hassouni - love the tahdig! So that's an Iraqi rendition? Adam's family is Jewish Persian but with roots in Baghdad as well, so he carries both traditions with him. Tonight we made a tahdig in the tagine, on the assumption that in the past they might have been done in earthenware. It didn't come out in one nice piece, but it was crunchy and more like the ones you get in restaurants - with the seasoning of the seasoned tagine clay permeating the crust and the rice.

The tahdigs look too sexy! I'm going to stop posting photos of them... it's the khoreshes that are really more interesting... especially with sour plums in season right now...

Veal khoresh with sour green plums and herbs. Plus the requisite tahdig, this time made with a mixture of ghee and goat butter.