huiray

dcarch - Fig leaves? Perhaps you could comment further - e.g. why fig leaves, why they were done that way, etc.

I use fresh galangal as needed then freeze the rest. I don't find there to be a significant loss in taste/aroma/whatnot; but the frozen-then-chopped-off-and-thawed piece(s) are MUCH EASIER to slice/cut/mince/whatever. Really fresh galangal does require a very sharp knife and significant elbow grease as it is quite woody and hard - very unlike ginger in that regard - and those who have never experienced fresh galangal might be taken aback by the relative difficulty of processing it. I second the notion of using prepared Thai pastes as something that is quite respectable - and, in this regard, not just the "curry" pastes, but various other ones as well - and there are a number. ETA: When I *do* prepare pastes os this sort from scratch (Thai, Nyonya, Malay, etc) I *do* tend to use a mortar and pestle. The grinding against stone does seem more satisfactory, even if more laborious than whizzing it in some electrical shortcut contraption. Besides, it is also a useful way to work off excess energy, so to speak. :-) It can also be very therapeutic in its own way.

There's always this, which I used the last time I made pad kee mao. :-) I'll be getting holy basil plantlets from one of my favorite vendors at the Farmers' Markets, as I have in the past...or from a certain nursery...in addition to the seeds (both green and red) I will start myself. (I have seeds from Evergreen) Remember that on occasion one *might* be able to get it from Indian groceries, as it is really the same thing as the "holy basil" used in Ayurvedic medicine - called tulsi.

Fresh tamales, from a local Mexican carniceria.** (They make them fresh daily) Chicken w/ green salsa, pork w/ red chili sauce, cheese w/ jalapeños. Some of the stuff for an improvised rice dish with fresh in-store-made chorizo (from the same Mexican carniceria). The sausages smelled wonderful. Cipollini onions, halved; ramp bulbs, halved; fresh portobello mushroom, chopped; chorizo sausage, cut into rounds. Sautéed w. neutral oil & some garlic, rice added, bay leaves, chicken stock, seasoning adjusted, cooked. Purposely made sort-of "wet". A portion on the plate, with sautéed rapini flower stalks/tips and sliced fresh asparagus. ** p.s. Caroled, this is Carniceria Morelos at Allisonville & 96th.

Oops. Plus a generous dose of hot red chilli flakes into the oil with the garlic...can't imagine how I forgot that.

Thanks, Shelby. :-) (wrt the clam pasta) Is it really difficult to get live clams in your area or from some place in the city when you go in?

Cut the roots off and use in Thai cooking, if they are not too woody. If they are, they're not too good for this purpose anymore, however. (Also Vietnamese and Nyonya) (The linked answer set also has stuff about storing them)

Spaghetti [Garofalo] (straight from the cooking pot) tossed in the pan w/ a sauce made with EV olive oil, chopped smashed garlic, chopped hot capocolla (see here), chopped trimmed broccoli rabe, chopped sun-dried tomatoes [bella Sun Luci] w/ all the marinating oil; then just before & with the spaghetti was added in asparagus (from IN) & canned artichoke hearts (drained, halved) and everything tossed/stirred together for a minute or two (fire on) with a bit of the pasta water added in during tossing. Oh, plus black pepper. Heat shut off and covered for 30 sec to a minute before plating.

Aw shuck, Thanks for the Crepes, too kind of you. I know you will enjoy your clam dish too. In fact, I have tended to have around a can or two of commercial white clam sauce (not just canned clams) for pasta – I just checked, and yep, there's a can of De Lallo white clam sauce in there. Not great in the least, but fine for a quick rough-and-ready definitely non-fine-dining meal when I am hankering for pasta with white clam sauce and don't have stuff with me to do it from scratch or am just tired. I used to buy these more frequently than I do now, though. The "brand availability" around my parts seems to have shrunk while the quality of the still-available brands have gone down. I miss the old Progresso glass bottle jars of it as well as the canned ones - before they changed ownership (? I think?) quite a few years ago now, and also changed their recipe, I believe... The old, OLD canned ones were pretty good, then the glass jars, then both went south.

Linguine alle vongole e pomodori.

I don't find the website THAT bad. I merely hovered my cursor above the BIG panel in the middle of the website and noticed that my cursor changes to a hand-symbol — indicating that it is a hyperlink, and simply glancing at the command-line of my browser at the bottom left of the browser interface/page shows where the hyperlink points to. Clicking it then lead one to the various other pages including the menu (in the "kitchen" tab). I don't find this particularly laborious, but that's just me. It simply needs one to be conscious of info that may be embedded and be willing to think a little as one is browsing. Just my 2¢.

Thanks, Smithy. I guess you are heading back to Minnesota? The capocolla was really meant for a sauce w/ broccoli rabe/rapini (which I also picked up) and sun-dried tomatoes, with pasta...but who knows. The Dodge City salame is for chomping on. Truth be told, I've already munched on both. :-) The andouille is for whatever comes to mind, although I doubt I would make a gumbo with it - just not something I would normally do.

Caroled, have you been to Goose the Market?

Saturday 2015-0425. Indy Winter Farmers' Market (last weekend): Hydroponic "Miner's Lettuce" (see below) & Dragon Tongue mustard greens 2 doz farm-fresh chicken eggs 1 doz farm-fresh duck eggs Smallish & still-closed-capped Portobello mushrooms (see below) 2 bunches ramps (see below)(last of the season from this guy) Goose the Market: 2 duck legs Asparagus (from Anderson, IN) Dodge City Salami (see below) [smoking Goose] Hot Capocolla (see below) [smoking Goose] Andouille sausage (one link)** (see below) [smoking Goose] Fresh ground chuck (very good meat) A nice crusty baguette ** The car and house (currently) smelled/smells pleasantly of the sausage...very very nice. The Fresh Market: De Cecco fedelini & angel hair pasta Broccoli rabe (I intend to mate this with the capocolla for pasta) Middleneck clams (currently soaking in salted cool water) Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Miner's lettuce. Ramps & portobella mushrooms. L to R: Hot capocolla, Dodge City salami,¶ Andouille sausage. ¶ I had wanted some Finocchiona salami but they were out of it. (I have bought this at various times over many years at Goose the Market) Their Dodge City salami is close – instead of fennel it uses fennel pollen instead plus some other minor tweaks.

Comfort food. Stew. Oil, garlic, beef shin, salt, stock, water, simmer; daikon, carrots, red & yellow onion, celery, whole cloves, cinnamon/canela stick, simmer. More eaten later w/ rice.

Tonight's version of tôm sốt cà chua (shrimp in tomato sauce). White rice.

How about something like this? (scroll down just a bit) :-) (keep the ricotta dumplings for another time) Or this, which is what I did the last time I had asparagus...i.e. flash stir-fry/sauté, in a very hot pan, very quickly. I like my asparagus crunchy.

Try this, written by a non-farang, for home-cooked Thai food, who has written her book with an eye towards North American audiences too. OTOH there is something to be said about a Westerner interpreting Thai tastes for a Western audience and sensibilities, with the associated resistances to various tastes and flavors that might be appreciated in native Thai audiences but not in non-Thai audiences. Andy Rickert has talked about this aspect of distilling "Thai flavors" to suit a generalized North American palate, which in turn earns him much appreciation from USAmericans who approach such tastes (speaking generally) in the manner he talks about. Did you get any galangal or tamarind? (Just a note...ginger is not an equivalent replacement for galangal, even if many Western authors declare it to be so. It is perhaps best to think of it as a substitute, something that is better than nothing)

Thanks for the Crepes, I enjoyed my F-o-F thoroughly. I agree, it is still the best around, overall. Yes, they were bigger both in bun, fish and cheese years ago...but time moves on and cost moves up if "quality" is to be indefinitely maintained. These were 2 for $4, FWIW. :-) I think the first time I had a F-o-F was at McD in Golders Green in London back in the 70s. I don't clearly remember if they had lettuce and pickle with it there (probably) - but it wouldn't have mattered to my niece anyway as she ALWAYS got a F-o-F when McD was on the menu and ALWAYS just the bun and a bare fish patty, nothing else - and would get quite cross if she somehow wound up with one that had even a smidgen of tartar sauce on it. I preferred to go for the touted Big Macs or Quarterpounders which were much better then than now. Even when I crossed over to the US the Big Macs were pretty good back in the day decades ago. Heh, I did a comparison between the fast food chain fish sandwiches too, a few years back - see here and here. :-D

Soup. Baby bok choy, baby portobella & shiitake mushrooms, chicken broth. Plus two of these...and a small bag of those... All snarfed down rapidly. Yum. Thought of going back for a couple more... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Basil chicken wings. Chicken wings, chopped in two; marinated w/ fish sauce, bit of sugar, oil, lots of ground white pepper, splash of double-fermented soy sauce, small drizzle of dark soy sauce. Stir-fried/sautéed w/ ginger & garlic in peanut oil, chopped shallots, trimmed scallions, sliced hot long green chillies, trimmed Thai basil, extra splash of fish sauce. A little water at the end to generate sauce. White rice.

Pan-fried/seared top sirloin cap, middle cut; fat side down first for a while, then on all other sides. Finished in oven. Seasoned w/ salt & pepper only. Ramp bulbs, sautéed in the fat renderings & pan residues after doing the sirloin. Fingerlings, simply boiled in salted water. Plus Dragon Tongue mustard greens in chicken broth. Sour cream.

Pad woon sen (ผัดวุ้นเส้น). Today's version chez huiray. A quick note to those interested – pad woon sen is the sort of dish that doesn't have a single definitive recipe, although there are commonalities and certain basic ingredients (e.g. vermicelli/cellophane or glass noodles; some sort of meat, various vegetables, garlic, fish sauce...usually eggs but that can also be omitted...). The name of the dish is literally "stir-fried vermicelli/glassnoodles**. It is often whipped up as a dish (maybe less noodles then) to accompany white rice, but is also eaten by itself (maybe more noodles). **and synonyms

mm84321, thanks.

Sorrel soup, in the style of green Ukrainian borscht. Butter, diced onion & carrots, chicken stock, diced potatoes, a few dried bay leaves, salt, chopped red-streaked sorrel, ground black pepper, minced chives & parsley. Dressed w/ more chives & parsley, chopped hard-boiled egg, several dollops of sour cream. Broccolini & quartered fresh baby portobello mushrooms sautéed w/ Arbosana EV olive oil plus butter, salt. ------------------------------------------------ Ramps, sliced - leaves & bulbs & all; sautéed w/ white beech & sliced fresh baby portobello mushrooms; olive oil (Arbosana) & salt; tossed w/ fedelini [De Cecco], a beaten farm-fresh egg added and stirred into the mixture. Plated & dressed w/ chopped parsley. On the way there.

With regards to this earlier post and this one as well, I picked up some small/slender "larger-type green onions" from a large Vietnamese grocery/supermarket (Viet Hua) today. This place has always had these but usually larger (2-3 times as fat & longer, which were also present in the bin today) and labeled as (Mexican) cebollitas - which they probably really are. I use them as substitutes for negi. Other places also sell these "cebollitas" around here. Radtek, perhaps you might have a passing interest in seeing these.