patrickamory

This is pretty much exactly what I did, and below is how it turned out.

More Persian cooking. A potato kuku (sort like a frittata): Mixture for lamb meatballs, with ground lamb, onions, chickpea flour, ground cardamom, saffron in rosewater, salt and pepper: Tahdig, made with kaffir lime leaf: Finished gondi (meatball soup), soup made from lamb bones, turmeric, onions, and ghee:

Ponte's is not much good these days. Bamonte's in Williamsburg is pretty tasty if you order right. Same for Ecco on Chambers Street. I enjoyed Parm fine but it's definitely an evolution from the classic, and the same goes for the rest of your suggestions (I haven't been to Piccolo Angolo for 10 years, so I can't speak authoritatively on that one). Have not been lucky enough to eat at Torrisi yet. And underrated, forgotten place is Marchi on East 31 Street. Literally lost in the mists of time. They only serve one meal, and it's been the same since 1925 or whenever they opened. About six courses, starting with crudités, through cold cuts, a salad of tuna with capers and chopped celery, homemade lasagna, fish, chicken, and desert made out of these rather tasty deep-fried lemon crostoli with powdered sugar. It's spread among several rooms of old attached townhouses, and though it can comfortably seat maybe 250 people, you might be the only ones there. I think the food & the experience are great, but not everyone may agree. Not expensive at all for what it is. Ask for James, and get him to tell you his stories of his acting career in heavy metal videos, etc.

Yum Bruce. Sodsook recipe?

SobaAddict - were you inspired by David Tanis's article on stracciatella in this Wednesday's Times?

Really enjoying FrogPrincesse's delmonico steak and Kim's lamb... not to mention Kim's mother's potato salad. I'm a bit behind here, but we had Persian food three nights ago. The jujeh still on their sword-like skewers: Another tahdig (of course!), but prepared by a slightly different method: Side dish was simple - leeks with butter and chervil: The kebabs on the plate with the lovely fluffy rice: (My involvement in the cooking was strictly limited to the leeks.)

Thanks guys! I'm going to take rro's advice. Already pounded the cutlets. Filling will be red miso paste, chopped apple eggplants and possibly some thai basil (might use it to season the outside instead).

I realize that to most people thinly sliced chicken breasts are "Chicken," but I mainly cook whole birds or bone-in thighs. I bought these by mistake, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them that won't dry them out. Any recommendations? They are decent quality - Murray's. I know I'll be serving them with a side-dish of chickpea and preserved lemon tagine.

Ah, got it. Thanks andie.

So seabream, how did it go with the Mussaman? Have you made it yet? We're all waiting with bated breath!

As long as the liquid doesn't smell like furniture polish, you are good to go. I believe someone asked in another thread, "But what if your furniture polish smells like lemon?" Mine smelled lemony but not "off". They were definitely fine.

robirdstx Beautiful pizza. Do you use a pizza stone? Made my first dish with homemade preserved lemons last night. Moroccan in inspiration but modern in execution (although mostly cooked in the tagine). Chervil chicken with preserved lemons: I browned the chicken in an All-Clad pan and deglazed with white wine. The chicken then cooks slowly in the tagine with zest of lemon orange in addition to the preserved lemons. At the end, you remove the chicken and whisk the sauce with crème fraîche - I wonder whether this was really necessary - it added a certain creaminess that might not have been needed. Still tasty though. The finishing touch, which really makes the dish, is a gremolata of raw minced garlic, fresh chervil, fresh thyme, and more orange and lemon zest - it makes the flavors brighter and they really pop. No dried spices at all. An interesting recipe - I plan to play around with it. It was entirely consumed almost instantly - eight chicken thighs for two people!

From my first batch! They turned out good. I'm going to use them to make an adaptation of this recipe.

Per request, here's how we made Batmanglij's sggplant khoresh recipe (khoresh e-bademjan) 1/4 cup ghee 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs 4 medium onions, thinly sliced 2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 1 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper 1 tsp turmeric - fresh grated if possible 1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon 1 tsp good saffron - that's 3 grams - finely ground and dissolved in 4 tbs rose water 6 canned tomatoes, chopped - we used Danicoop San Marzanos 1 cup sultana raisins (sub for unripe grapes) 1/4 cup lime juice 9 slim eggplants - these are the long slim eggplants you find in Asian markets 1 egg white Batmanglij's recipe calls for a Dutch oven. We used an unglazed tagine instead. Preheat oven to 350F. In a pan, heat 3 tbs ghee over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, onion and garlic. Move to tagine, add salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon and saffron-rose water, and slowly bring to low simmer over heat tamer on medium heat. Add tomatoes, raisins, lime juice. Cover & simmer over low heat for half an hour. Peel eggplant and slice into halves, soak in salted water for 20 minutes and pat dry (don't rub). Brush eggplants with egg white. Heat 3 tbs ghee in a heavy pan on medium heat till very hot. Brown eggplants on all sides, and drain on plate lined with paper towels. Add eggplants to the top of the tagine mixture, cover and continue simmering over low heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness on the eggplant - continue if necessary till eggplant is cooked and tender. Adjust salt and lime juice if needed. Serve.

I'm sure it will be delicious. Remember your flavor balancing at the end... only add half the fish sauce it calls for and adjust just before serving. Keep us posted!

An old standby... spaghetti with tuna, from Marcella Hazan.

Todd, Thompson gives the Thai for heavenly beef as "neua sawarn". Here's how I made it. - 1 lb beef (Thompson calls for rump, I used a heavily marbled cut I got in Chinatown that was simply marked "steak" - it resembles what the Koreans use for bulgogi and galbi, so it may have been sirloin or from the rib), cut into 1/2" strips - 1 tbs chopped coriander (cilantro) roots (use 1 1/2 tbs chopped stems and leaves if roots not available, but try to get cilantro with roots attached - it makes a difference) - large pinch of salt (I go heavy here) - 2 tbs chopped garlic - 15 white peppercorns - 4 tbs palm sugar - 3 tbs light soy sauce - 2 tbs coriander seeds, lightly crushed - vegetable oil - enough for deep-frying Slice the beef. Pound the coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns into a paste with your mortar and pestle. Mix paste thoroughly with palm sugar and soy sauce in a large bowl. Add beef and rub the marinade into it thoroughly with your hands. Marinate for 3 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge, turning periodically. Press the crushed coriander seeds into the marinated beef. Preheat oven to warm. Place the beef strips on racks over trays to catch any drippings, and dry the beef until almost all the moisture (but not all) has left it. That was about 3 hours in my oven at this time of year. Bring vegetable oil to 325-350 F in a deep pot. Deep-fry beef strips in batches. Maybe about 30 seconds per batch, or to taste. Remove beef from oil to plates lined with paper towels. Serve with chili garlic sauce, nam pla prik, and sweet Thai chili sauce.

Hi guys, The heavenly beef comes from David Thompson's Thai food, and the eggplant khoresh from the new edition (25th anniversary edition) of The Food Of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij (confusingly the old edition was called The New Food of Life). The recipe was not in the first edition. Batmanglij re-created it from descriptions of a dish dating from around 1400. Obviously the tomatoes are a more recent addition. Glad people are enjoying the meals.

Wow, you're going for the Mussaman? One of the more ambitious curries! I've never made that one. 3 cups of cream is a lot of cream. Three coconuts yielded just over a cup of cream this time. But as I say, it varies a lot - coconuts have different amounts of meat inside, and the meat is more or less creamy (i.e. infused with coconut oil). Usually one coconut yields about 3/4 cup of cream, in my experience. You have to allow for the possibility that some of the coconuts will be bad, so overbuy. I bought 4 coconuts for this recipe, and 1 was bad. You will often have lots of milk left over, especially from the second pressing. But again, it depends. The recipes often tell you to reserve the milk and moisten the curry as it cooks. You have to play it by ear. Depending on the consistency of the paste, and depending on the quantity of the meat and vegetables, you may end up using quite a bit more milk. Some curries are supposed to be almost like soup, with a nice sheen of coconut oil floating on top. I've never tried freezing my coconut milk. I'd look to see what Kasma has to say. I have bought frozen shredded coconut for southern Indian dishes and it was nothing special. But at least you'd be avoiding the floury, gloppy texture of the canned stuff.

See pictures of last night's meal in the Dinner thread. That pork curry is sublime. And if you can do the extracting of the coconut milk, fairly straightforward as Thai dishes go - the paste is pretty simple. Holy basil you can never count on, even here. The one place I know in Manhattan that has it often sells out. And other places mis-label Thai basil as holy basil - they are so completely different in reality! If you grow it successfully, let me know. That would be the ticket, because it really lasts for such a short period after it's been picked.

Dry red curry of pork shin with green peppercorns: Heavenly beef:

Hi seabream, Some random answers to recent questions: - we dried the beef in the oven for about 3 hours at the "warm" setting - peeling the coconuts: just make sure the shell is off, the brown part of the skin doesn't make a difference - warm water and two milking stages makes for better cream and milk than your suggested alternative - hard to specify how much cream or milk a coconut will give off, too many variables. I suggest getting at least 1 more coconut than you need (assuming all the coconuts are good -of the 4 we got yesterday, one was off) Glad to hear the pomelo dish turned out well! There's nothing like fresh kaffir lime leaves. The fragrance is like nothing else. We were fortunate in finding tons of fresh holy basil yesterday. Used two bunches in tonight's pork curry, which was perfect. A couple of tips I noticed were buried in the introductions to the curry sections in David Thompson, don't know whether you noticed, but they are intrinsic to getting the dishes right: - only put in half of Thompson's specified amount of fish sauce. then taste at the end. add more fish sauce to balance if necessary (and of course any of the other ingredients, but if you've added too much fish sauce, it's almost impossible to correct) - for any curry calling for dry spices, only put in half of Thompson's specified amount, and make sure the paste isn't too dry and roasted smelling - "un-Thai" as he puts it - add more if it seems right You can re-read those sections several times, profitably, and I do, frequently. Tonight's meal was a success. I'll post pictures in the Dinner thread tomorrow.

My partner who is of Persian descent made an eggplant khoresh tonight. Absolutely delicious! He made it in the tagine and I think that worked perfectly - the Persians apparently historically used a tagine-like clay pot for cooking. The khoresh starts with onions sauteed in ghee, and also contains chicken thighs, tomatoes, an entire teaspoon of ground saffron dissolved in rosewater, caramelized eggplant, cinnamon, golden raisins, barberries and lime juice: Of course no Persian meal would be complete without a tahdig:

Never been able to find those in NYC. I soak brined green peppercorns thoroughly in fresh water and use more of them. They're pretty good, but I'm sure they don't come close to the real thing. Some pictures from tonight's prep. The beef strips marinating in a mixture of light soy sauce and palm sugar mixed with a paste made of garlic, salt, coriander roots and white peppercorns: The simple but unusual curry paste, made out of de-seeded soaked dried red chiles, salt, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, coriander root, roasted coriander seed and roasted cumin: Photos of the finished meal will go in the Dinner thread tomorrow.

I'm planning a Thai meal mainly out of David Thompson for tomorrow: - shrimp paste relish (nahm prik gapi) with raw vegetables, page 191 - pork and green peppercorn curry, page 454 - heavenly beef, page 505 I'm pounding the paste for the highly unusual pork curry (recommended, especially if you can find boneless pork shin) this afternoon. I'll also be marinating the beef today and drying it in the oven. Tomorrow afternoon my partner will undertake the dirty work of preparing the coconuts. Tomorrow night I'll deep fry the beef, make the actual curry, and make the relish which is easy to prepare. It will be served with raw apple eggplants, raw snake beans and raw carrots. There will be nam pla prik as well as roasted red chile flakes for the curry, and Victor Sodsook's sweet and spicy dipping sauce for the beef. Jasmine rice.