patrickamory

I only have coffee in the morning. That's all I can face. I don't get hungry until at least an hour after I wake up. Occasionally I eat a bagel at my desk, but usually lunch is the first meal of the day for me on weekdays. I love eating breakfast on weekends, but it's usually at "brunch" times - 1 or 2 PM at the earliest, having woken between noon and 1.

Yellow (Thai-Indian style) curry of chicken tonight, from David Thompson. I'd previously tried Victor Sodsook's recipe and it did not come out right. This was fantastic, though it took a full two days. The chicken had to be marinated in coconut cream, garlic and ginger overnight; the potatoes needed to steep in water for hours; the coconuts had to be cracked, grated and milked; the paste had to be pounded. Totally worth it. No Madras curry powder or similar pre-packaged ingredients here (as in Sodsook's version, and I think even in Su-mei Yoo's). The "Indian" element comes purely from fresh chopped turmeric, roasted ground coriander seeds (a Thai spice as well), and a little bit of grated nutmeg. Those are deep-fried shallots on top.

Further to the above, a couple of pictures of the coconut cream in the skillet, and then the cream starting to crack... this cream cracked extremely fast, it was about 3-4 minutes. I've had it take 15-20.

Frst of all, to those who doubt: I think you absolutely need to use coconut cream, not just coconut oil, for any Thai curry that calls for it (some call for simple frying in oil - some for boiling). It's the combination of the oil and the milk solids that gives it that incredible silky texture. I don't think you can ever properly "crack" canned coconut cream. I've tried. Really, this is your best bet...:

2008 Gevrey-Chambertin A.C. Vieilles Vignes (Roy Marc) Savory & James Fino

Huh. Wow. I'd never thought of this. It's like tipping sushi chefs. I've heard it's normal, but I'm always afraid of offending them by doing so.

The mapo doufu at Chengdu Heaven is to die for. (I wasn't so crazy about the dan dan noodles.) And then you can sample the other amazing places in Golden Mall, such as Xi'an Famous Foods. Love Szechuan Gourmet on 39th when it's on - but it's always waxed and waned, I assume with changeovers of chefs. (The guy who owns it is Cantonese, not Sichuanese, according to a colleague of my mother's from Sichuan. Doesn't mean he can't own a great Sichuan restaurant of course.)

Wow, looks amazing. What did you make with them? I tried brined green peppercorns for the first time last night in a jungle curry - well rinsed they were actually excellent. Can't imagine how great the fresh ones are though. Edit: just found a place that sells piper nigrum plants via mail order. I may try to grow one this summer. It seems like it's not necessarily easy to get them to produce peppercorns however.

Really? 15-25 minutes for stone-ground grits? I mean, I like some chew. That's not a problem. What am I doing wrong?

Dejah - you got fresh green peppercorns? So jealous! I used dried ones as per the recipe... but really want the fresh ones both for this and for David Thompson's curry of boneless pork shin with fresh green peppercorns, which really has me stumped at the moment (I just bought a jar of pickled brined ones, but I just know that no matter what I do it won't be right for the dish).

Pork rinds were supermarket. Bird chiles were all green - I definitely agree there's a difference. I use a mixture in my prik namm pla (which accompanied this - I use quite a bit of lime juice).

Thanks so much Jenni - headed to Amazon right now (and elsewhere if I can't find them there).

Hollandaise sauce? It's a pretty great version too.

I made a seur rong hai that somehow turned out celestial. I've made this dish a few times before but never nailed it quite like tonight. I used 25 bird chiles in the Cracking The Coconut recipe - and somehow the result was not quite like anything I've tasted before - sweet, salty, hot, for sure, but with the earthy sharp undertone of the cracked green peppercorns and an overwhelming umami mouth-blossom that was just over the top. This photo is of a version I made a month or two ago - the coriander garnish was properly (coarsely) chopped and mixed with crushed pork rinds for this version. It was so good i somehow didn't have time to take a photo before it was all gone. (edit - ah, here's a better picture:)

Thanks Jenni. I've just realized that you've answered some questions from the Regional Indian thread over here. Below is a photo of a spinach pachadi I made from the Kaimal book, right after adding the tadka and before serving.

Jenni, any recommendations for regional Indian cookbooks would be really useful. I have "Curried Favors" by Maya Kaimal, which includes a lot of Keralan (Keralite? Malayali? not sure of the correct adjective) recipes. But I've been wondering how authentic it is even compared to Jaffrey, since for example it recommends tamarind as a souring agent in fish curries whereas Jaffrey actually tells you to go out and find kodampuli. I also have Camille Panjabi's book, which ranges all over India, but haven't actually cooked from it. My go-to's remain Madhur Jaffrey and Julie Sahni, probably like many of us. I owned Yamuna Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine for a while, but never enjoyed anything I made from it. Any other suggestions greatly appreciated!

Tadka! That was the word I was looking for. Thank you! Wikipedia has it listed under chaunk.

The Korean BBQ places near me in Manhattan are open 24-7.

It's the Radiohead model.

Jenni - incredible post! Worth archiving. Blown away by the breadth of your knowledge, thank you so much. To anyone interested in an introduction to Indian regional cuisine, I'd recommend searching out Madhur Jaffrey's 'A Taste Of India,' which has been out of print for some time. It surveys Indian cuisine by region, explains ingredients, traditions and culture, and is beautifully illustrated. It doesn't contain a ton of recipes, but all of the ones I've tried - bar none -have turned out well, and they are extremely varied. (Just read the recipe thoroughly in advance, and beware the dreaded "Jaffrey surprise" of a complex sub-recipe on a different page referenced halfway through.)

All fish - not just shellfish. Freshness if paramount. (Dried, salted etc. fishes obviously excluded.) Agreed that dried mint has special uses in Middle Eastern food - for example stuffed grape leave, and ghormeh sabzi.

I agree, there's something weird about nuggets. I think Jamie Oliver had a TV show about this for kids in the South or something - some truly disgusting footage. I have no idea what relation his demonstration has to McDonald's claim that their nuggets are now all "white meat" - whatever that means. I admit I'm still happy to scarf 10 of them down on occasion, dowsed in sweet'n'sour or BBQ sauce. I always feel slightly disgusted afterwards.

I'm reading Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink; Barbara Kafka's The Opinionated Palate, and Fuschia Dunlop's Land of Plenty.

I love Marmite. But disregard my taste for it, which many find odd - my boyfriend and others loved a chili I made where it was a secret ingredient. The recipe was, more or less, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's chili on Serious Eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/01/how-to-make-the-best-chili-ever-recipe-super-bowl.html Intellectually I prefer a purer chili - the sort that John Thorne describes in the "Bowl of Texas Red' chapter in Serious Eats. The three ingredients - dried chiles, beef, and fat. But Kenji's chili was absolutely killer. I recommend giving it a try.

Thanks andiesenji. I'm going to try your method when I get my next Anson Mills shipment.