Dinner Diaries

Became a member of eGullet yesterday! It's an awful name, and the logo is just terrible, but it's a good little community of food-geeks. A couple of people there recommended the Pork Store Cafe for brunch and it did not disappoint - the poached eggs were succulent, the pork chops were well browned and tasty... but nothing touches the biscuits (light, crumbly but not too much so, moist enough to eat even without butter) or the hash browns (the grated potato kind, with a loose light texture that belies the quantity of fat that probably goes into making it).

Ah Biryani. Today's choice - the Sofiani Biryani, from Prashad, because I seem to have lost Mom's recipe. Biryani is quite simple overall - it's a closed casserole of rice and meat. The rice - boil in copious salted water, with black cumin, cloves, cinnamon, green and black cardamon. This isn't anything like the regular white rice recipe - you bring the water to a boil, add the spices, add the rice, and cook for just 7 minutes. Then drain the rice (I lost some of the cumin, but it was no great loss) and run some cold water through the rice to stop it from cooking any further. The chicken - in around 1/2 cup of ghee, in an ovenproof dutch oven, at medium heat fry an onion (sliced) till golden, with the same spices used for the rice. Add the meat (2-3 lbs, should form one layer in the dish) and fry a bit. Add 1/4 cup of garlic and ginger pastes, 2 tbsps of red chilli powder. Stir, fry a bit, till the moisture is all evaporated. Add a cup of yogurt, and about a teaspoon of saffron that's been soaked in some warm milk. Salt to taste. Following the recipe, I added water and proceeded to cook till about 3/4 done - but I believe this is a mistake, and the rice should just be added at this point. First sprinkle the chicken with cilantro and mint, then spread half the rice over it. Sprinkle more cilantro and mint over the rice, add some more saffron mixed with yoghurt and milk (make it pretty thin, so it easily mixes with the rice. If you feel like it, add some raisins at this point) Then cover with the remaining rice. Cover with a tight fitting lid. I made a stiff dough of whole wheat and white flours and water and ran this over the lip of the dutch over before pressing in the lid, to make an extra tight seal.
Then - into the oven at 375 degrees for 40 -50 minutes. Open, break the seal, eat!
Thoughts - the breast meat, particularly, was a bit dry. As I suggested, I think the pre-cooking of the meat isn't necessary at all. Otherwise, this is a very light, fragrant biryani, not especially spicy, but over all, quite delicious. The consistency of the rice is quite perfect - in fact, this might be a way to make rice like Chellokababi...
Naan. First time making it... 4 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup water, 1 egg, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp milk, 3 tbsp yoghurt, salt to taste, oil to soften the dough. Knead till smooth, let rest for 2 hours, divide up into 6 balls, let rest for 5 minutes, flatten and bake on stone at 475 degrees (rather than the 375 degrees in the recipe).
Results - the bread still started getting crisp too soon, at 4 minutes, while it was still not dark brown on the bottom. Next time, I'll crank it up to 550 degrees, see if that helps. Also a bit lacking in the flavor department, a full tablespoon of salt next time, and perhaps black sesame like The Dhaba...
And Prawns, in a spicy ajwain flavored tomato sauce.
Connie made shrikhand - yoghurt reduced by straining it through muslin, mixed with sugar (1/2 cup for 3 lbs of yoghurt), saffron and green cardamon powder. Garnished with chopped pistachios. Connie's worked this out for the american palate, and I'm inclined to agree, though I like it a bit sweeter.
And fruit and cheese - not an Indian tradition, but perhaps it should be!

Simple salad, of a Nicoise nature. Baby spinach, oven roasted potatoes (little reds, drizzled with olive oil, crushed garlic, thyme, marjoram, and copious kosher salt), green beans (boiled and marinated in lime and olive oil with a little fresh tarragon), cherry tomatoes (almost as sweet as cherries...), slices of boiled egg (extra large, simmered for 12 minutes), anchovies (salt packed - filleted, soaked in milk to reduce the fishiness) and with a little vinaigrette of white vinegar, olive oil and mustard. Topped with a little more kosher salt and fresh pepper.
Thoughts - I love a simple salad. The pleasure in it is all in the combinations - anchovy and potato? egg and spinach? Just get it on the fork... I was amazed at the difference that Kosher salt makes, though. It was my first time using it... it's a very satisfying saltiness, and it clung to the roasting potatoes, rendering a very satifying potato skin. Can't wait to try it on steak... Perhaps tri-tip? Another ingredient I've never tried to cook with...

Pho Nam - this time the El Camino version, in Sunnyvale. I really like the pho there now - the saltiness of the stock has grown on me. Everytime I go to India I find the food just a bit salty, and then I get used to it... Maybe all those meals of forgetting to put salt in the food has finally got me trained to like less salt ... or maybe Americans just eat less salt in their food (and more on our snacks) than the rest of the world. The best part of the pho here, though, has to be the meat. Their cuts are just so pretty!

The Dhaba. It isn't a dhaba, really - it's more place to get a homey meal at a reasonable price. Dhabas in India are basically truck stop restaurants, but they invariably have brilliant flavors at very low prices, because they survive on their reputations and the competition is cutthroat. The dishes at "The Dhaba" can be categorized in 2 groups - those prepared to order and those that are served, cafetaria style, from vats behind the counter. Overall, the former (basically the parathas, nan and bhatura) have some of the spark of food from a real dhaba, the latter have a homey charm, but are often flawed - besides being lukewarm, the spices are often unbalanced. The vegetables are usually pleasantly overcooked. Overall, though I like the food, especially as an antidote to the Swagat swill. Even so, I usually stick to the parathas, hot off the griddle, and I usually ask for a second helping of pickle to go with it...
One really great idea they have is putting black sesame in the nan. I actually don't have a nan recipe, but I do have a good one for khameeri roti, so I'll have to try it in that...
Also, I tried their batata vada (potato fritter) which just made me miss the real thing more. I'll get to that as soon as I figure out how to make the pav to put it in.

Sa Wooei (use the link, it has some good reviews, as well as details about what to order that we gratefully used). We did takeout, and we asked them to make all the dishes mild, so it wasn't a fair trial - but it was still extremely tasty - the mild Tom Yum Gai was just about the best I've ever had - 2 different kinds of mushrooms, 2 different kinds of ginger/galangal root, lemon grass, and who knows what other magic... Every dish showed a lot of potential. This is definitely a place I should return to - we have to experience it in its glory.

Penne with Broccoli. 3 anchovies, salt packed, rinse off the salt, fillet, and soak in water for a few minutes, then cut roughly. Add to hot olive oil, stir, then add broccoli and cover. Splash with white wine, when wine is all evaporated and broccoli is dark green (it takes a couple of minutes) add a touch of the pasta water, then the penne. Sprinkle with a pinch of red peppers, serve immediately.
Thoughts - anchovy's just a slight flavor component in this dish - just a slight salty smokiness, which is just perfect offsetting the slight sweet of the broccoli. It's a useful trick, in all sorts of food from potatoes to hamburger (which I've heard works well, but I haven't actually tried it myself).

Dinner - Addis. We had lamb sauted with onions, beef in berber sauce, lentils in berber sauce, and collards. The collards were a hit, as they always are. The other dishes were pretty standard. The Hakim stout was rather sweet, which I liked with the meal. Connie thought it was a bit greasier than Cafe Colucci, and I'd have to agree. Was it better? It's been far too long since I've been to Cafe Colucci, I'll have to eat there again soon before I can render my verdict...

Lunch - Jasmine Tea House. I'm no authority on Mandarin food. In fact, I'm not an authority on food at all, and nor am I aiming to be, I'm just trying to be a more thoughtful consumer and chef. But this was very good, refined eating, at a neighborhood eatery well beloved, and frequented by the neighborhood. And ex-prez Bill Clinton, so the story goes.
We started off with tea, of course. A Jasmine Tea, but made unique by the addition of a darker tea, (to my palate) semi-fermented... The duck soup was mellow, nourishing. The dried strands of duck unnecessary... but I could see that they might have complaints without it. The julienned zucchinis, carrots and snow peas were appropriately crunchy. We enjoyed the green onion pancake, and both Connie and I thought it was the most refined version we'd eaten. It was also the smallest, and that might have contributed to the impression. We had ribs (less overpoweringly flavored than the color would suggest, gently meaty), Mandarin Clay Pot (actually metal, one of the few versions that actually brought a myriad flavors together into any sort of coherent whole), braised eel (tiny eels in a slightly sweet sauce) and Mandarin Lamb (with caramel and black bean (?) flavors, the strongest flavored of the dishes).
On the whole, a meal happily devoid of unnecessary red chillies, devoted to balanced, subtle flavors.

Tonight was our first time making Mexican food. We looked to Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz for our education, since we have no experience cooking it at all (other than mangled quesedillas in college) and since Rick Bayless is just so hard to watch. The book - "The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking" (though ours is the first edition, from 1967) - appears to be the work of a dedicated, thoughtful cook, noting what she thought was important, often what her interlocutor, possibly a friend, possibly a nopales vendor at the market, thought was important. She is never clearer than she should be, and that is a virtue.
The menu - Chicken adobo, Nopales con queso, Flan. We decided to eat bread instead of the more traditional tortillas, considering that we had freshly baked bread available, and bread has been in Mexico almost as long as corn has been in Italy...
Connie made the chicken adobo, which in Ortiz' version has a sauce flavored primarily with ancho chillies. Anchos are an almost purple chili, thick and lush and glistening in their dried state. Trimmed and resuscitated for an hour in warm water, they have a spicy smoky scent. The chicken is pretty easy, altogether. Pan fry the chicken (Connie used thighs) in olive oil till brown, then take them out of the pan. Make a paste of onions, garlic, ancho chillies and the water they were soaking in (Connie added some guajillo chiles), spices and a tomato, use this to pick up the brownings from the chicken, cook a bit, add some chicken stock, return the chicken and simmer for an hour. Pretty standard.
I made the nopales, the "paddle" of a kind of cactus. They came with the spines, so I used a knife to clean them pretty thoroughly, cutting off all the "eyes". I trimmed the edges, since they seemed to be mostly "eyes". It was pretty easy, the only hard parts were where the nopales where slighly hollow and I couldn't get the spines by just skimming my knife over the surface. When I sliced it, it looked like it had just a little bit of gooey sap, much like an okra. The recipe was also rather like an okra dish my mother used to make - finely chopped onions, green chillies (in this case serranos), saute slightly, add nopales and epazote (I used fresh rather than dry, but it worked I think), saute till cooked. The recipe called for (and I added) cream cheese in dollops at the end - in my view this overpowered the dish, but it was still quite good.
Flan. Ah flan. One of the three recipes that didn't turn out quite as well when you cut to 1/4. Possibly the problem was that we didn't reduce the cooking time... at all. Oops.We also discovered that I like my caramel rather more bitter than Connie does... oops again. Still, two out of three isn't bad.
At the recommendation of our green grocer at the Milk Pail, where we were buying our nopales, we bought some of the nopales fruit as well. It's a refreshing treat - light, with components of watermelon, kiwi, and asian pear. It does have disconcertingly large seeds, but we just ate them. So far I don't appear to be sprouting cacti...
Thoughts - chicken fat doesn't help the adobo any - after browning the chicken, toss the fat, but keep the brownings, of course. In fact, only minimal oil is necessary for the browning anyway. Also, I would like to try a thicker sauce. Less stock, less tomato (just the flesh), more reduction.
The Nopales - it wouldn't be "con queso" any more, but I still think just some caramelized onions (and serranos and epazote) are all it needs. I'd just have to find a different name.
The Flan - Connie found a good recipe in Bittman...

Dim sum!
I have to remember the name of my favorite sweet dim sum... It's something like tong yuen. These are the steamed black sesame dumpling - boiled, actually, and rolled in peanut dust. We went to Joy Luck Place, where one of the managers was kind enough to help us figure out where it was on the menu, so we could order it again without quite as much difficulty as we had this time. Joy Luck place, in my opinion, is in contention for the best place to go to dim sum on the peninsula. It's a close battle with Koi Palace... I just think Koi Palace is too big, the crowds too thick, the wait too insanely long. Joy has all the accessibility of a neighborhood place, while still being large enough offer a wide variety and have it all be piping hot. Tried a new dish today - the fried puff paste dusted/encrusted with sugar was a treat. Otherwise, it was mostly the usual - we started with deep fried taro, which they gussied up with a large prawn - the barbeque pork buns are subtle, and carmelized oniony, the dough sponge cake light. The ground beef wrapped in noodle, often rendered an inedible coagulated mass, is here delicate but still coherent. Lo Mai Gai, the sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, are rather small, but bursting with flavor.
Thoughts - I need to get myself some of those plastic squeeze bottles for dropping sauces onto things.
Also, I wonder what is responsible for the texture of those fried taro dumplings. A french croquette with that coating would be sensational I think...

I like to cook... but I love baking bread. Today I got to indulge in the baking... I used a recipe for Pane di Terni, from Carol Field's classic, The Italian Baker. Last night I put together the biga - a soft dough with just a 1/4 tsp of yeast for 750 g of flour. I left this in a sealed rising container overnight, and it more than tripled in volume. This morning I mixed 1/2 tsp of yeast, 500 g of flour (I used a mix of regular whole wheat and what King Arthur Flours sells as "Italian" flour, instead of the whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached regular flour combination that Field calls for), the recommended flour and 3 tsp of salt. I also spiked it with a tablespoon of diastatic malt, since this is supposed to be a golden crusty bread, and the malt helps with that...
The apartment was rather hot today, so over the 3 hours it took us for brunch the dough rose to more than triple, becoming rather spongy. When I turned it out onto my duly floured surface, though, it formed a skin nicely, and showed nice gluten development. I actually weighed out 4 parts, and shaped them into round loaves. That's when this got interesting - I had to put them skin side down on well floured parchment paper for the second rise. While they were rising, following the instructions, I dimpled them - quite aggressively, as I'd seen bakers do it at the local Forno in Rome. The dough took it in its stride. 2 hours later the dough was beautifully risen, soft and blistered. Cranked up the oven to 400, and... tragedy! The 4 loaves are large enough that they don't all fit!
I baked them in 2 shifts... the second set was a bit overproofed, but still did pretty well.
I sprinkled a bunch of semolina (didn't have any corn meal) on a peel, then inverted the risen loaves onto the peel. I sprayed the loaves thoroughly with water before they went into the oven, then a couple of times once they were in.
Results - 4 loaves, nicely crusty, deep golden brown (malt worked), with just slightly moist interiors. They do taste a little yeasty, probably because of the excessive rise this morning. The crumb is fascinating - large holes, where I'd dimpled, and where the crust blistered, intermingled with small yeast crumb. It appears to be a nice way to cheat if you don't have the time for sourdough... or if you like the look of sourdough, but not the sour flavor.

Gnocchi! It's really not so hard. But you have to do all the steps right.
First - the ratio. I use Mario's grandmother's recipe - 500, 100, 1. At least, that's what I remember, and it works pretty well. That's 500 grams of potato, 100 g flour, 1 egg.
Start with the potato. It's got to be a starchy potato, hopefully a dry old idaho russet type potato or 2. Boil them to just about cooked. Then rice it, while it is still hot. I haven't had good results with anything but a ricer. This is a good example of a ricer. Nice thing about a ricer - you don't need to peel potatoes before using it.
Now you should have a mound of steaming hot but rather dry riced potato. Make a well in the mound, and add the flour. Then make a well in the flour, and add the egg.
With a fork, quickly beat the egg into the flour, then mix in the potato. Switch to a dough scraper, and bring the dough together, then knead gently with your hands, dusting the outside gently with a little flour.
Now cut the dough into 4 parts. Roll each part into a 1/2 inch thick dowel, then cut 1/2 inch pieces off of it and shape. I think they're perfectly beautiful as is, but if you want a more conventional turn, roll the little dumplings off the tines of a fork, so they get little indentations. Supposedly they help the sauce hold on to the gnocchi that little bit better.
And finally, the to cook them - bring a bunch of water to a boil, salt, drop in the gnocchi. They're done about 20 seconds after the last one rises off the bottom to the bubbling surface.
Good gnocchi have a little chew, are mostly soft, and are not in the least sticky.
To sauce - a little browned butter with sage is terrific. Radicchio and pancetta work really well. Or use up that left over sausage sauce...
UPDATE: the ratio that mario uses is 500/150/1, that is, 150 grams of flour. Experiment...

Saravana Bhavan for dinner. They have udipi food down to a science. The only flaw I've ever experienced there is a Medhu Vada being cold... and they promptly replaced it. Tried the mithai (desserts) today... they're really an afterthought; not bad for being such, but Rajjot is much better. Still, Kaju Katali.... mmm.

Wednesday dinner - Meat and potatoes. And corn. And salad. And finished up with pineapple. Connie cooked, and had most of it done before I got home... Roast potatoes, Idaho russets, open cooked in the oven have a more dense texture than foil wrapped, which is something I decided I liked. The salad was a simple cherry tomato and diced fresh mozzarella thing, fresh basil and olive oil. The mozzarella was flawed, but in an interesting way. It was from Belfiore, who do a remarkably good ricotta... but their mozzarella just doesn't seem to have been pulled tight enough, and ends up soggy... but at the same time creamy. I'll have to find something more interesting to do with this.
The steak - Connie used the cooking technique from Bittman - Heat a skillet to the point of being ridiculously hot and smoking, sprinkle on some salt, cook the New York strip for a couple or so minutes each side. The steak was a little bit thick for this technique, and our exhaust system a little weak. Looking past the slightly burnt crust, though, you get a very primal (and if you let your meat rest for 10+ minutes off the heat) brilliantly tender and flavorful dinner. Mark Bittman recommends the recipe for cuts less than 1 inch thick, and I'm inclined to agree. For thicker, I think a finish in the oven would work better.

Lunch yesterday - Hunan Gourmet. I went with my co-workers, and we have finally achieved the critical mass required to intimidate the table into accepting more challenging dishes. Hence - Beef tendon, pork stomach. In addition to which some more interesting (i.e. without counterpart on the "english" menu) pork dishes, some (five-spice?) pressed tofu, beef with tofu, very smokey ribs and even a very creditable kung-pao.
But was it good? I had on good reference that the pork would be, and it was. Every approach, including the ribs was a winner. The pork stomach I remembered from the boston trip (with chives and mushroom) had a better match than the mainly chilli flake flavor it was overpowered by here. The tendon was a revelation, smooth, not chewy in the least... in itself made the lunch worth it.
And then there was dessert - tapioca balls in a light custard. Oddly enough, it was a throwback to my own childhood, when "sago" or "saboodana" kheer was a favorite of mine. :: sigh :: This version had a touch of pineapple, which was a bit too nouveau for me, but seemed to be well appreciated. At least they avoided cooking the pineapple, which could lead to an awful bitter flavor. (As I can attest from a failed experiment in making pinapple profiteroles in Guyana)

My recipe for pasta with sausage.
Get a saute pan very hot. Add in 1 pound of sausage, peeled out of casings, some combination of hot italian and mild italian. (I like the variations in flavor).
Add some olive oil to the sausage, and brown thoroughly.
Finely dice a red onion. Fine slice a couple of cloves of garlic. Add to the sausages in the pan. Salt and stir. Some of the moisture from the onions will be exuded, let this evaporate.
Add about 3/4 cup of red wine. Keep at moderate heat, let the wine evaporate slowly. Wait till the oil separates out slighly from the sauce.
Add some dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in a little tepid water for about 30 min. Add in the water with it, of course, and then stir and wait till the oil separates out from the sauce.
Add in 1/2 cup of milk. Stir and let the moisture evaporate, till once again the oil begins to separate out from the sauce.
Add in 1 (14 oz) can of tomatoes. Add in a pinch of chili flakes. Simmer till relatively dry.
This isn't as much a red sauce as it is a brown sauce. I (possibly heretically) serve this with Penne, Bucatini (Perciatelli) or gnocchi. This night it was the Perciatelli.
What I like about this is sauce (besides the flavor) is the technique. It is really important to get the sauce dry at the end of each stage, and it needs to be stirred so that it browns and cooks thoroughly, but doesn't stick. It's pretty much the same technique used in kadhai cooking in India.

Dinner - Ribs. Pork loin back ribs. Connie used a rub from Mark Bittman. An hour and a half in the oven at 300, followed bya few minutes at 500 to finish them off. A touch of barbeque sauce on the fingers would've been nice... as it was, I thought they were very good. Preceded by some deep fried beans (in chick pea flour this time - Connie liked it better, I thought regular flour brought out the flavor of the beans better... and accompanied by arugula, cherry tomatoes, and Acme's Pain Au Levain.
Dessert? Pineapple! Maui organic, flown in from Hawaii. Not exactly in keeping with the "eat local" philosophy? Pish, it was worth it. Still not quite as good as one eaten in Guyana, it was still delicious. And it even came with directions on how to cut it.

Dinner - Pasta with Maitake mushrooms. The pasta - 200g flour italian flour (or 180g all purpose unbleached), 2 eggs. Combine in cuisinart, or as i did today, take 220 g of flour, make a mound, make a hollow in the center of the mound, drop the eggs in the hollow, and with a fork beat the flour into the eggs till you get just as much as you need. Personally, I think the cuisinart works just as well, but there are days you want to get your hands dirty.
I use a kitchenaid attachment to roll out the dough, and to cut it into shape (cutting goes a lot easier if you let the rolled sheets dry a little first). Toss with flour to stop the noodles sticking to each other.
The maitakes - heat up half a stick of butter, let it foam and the foam recede, and let it gently start to brown. Then toss in finely diced red onion, salt and pepper, and saute till they lose their raw flavor, then add the maitakes, coarse chopped. Drop the pasta in salted boiling water, and pretty much as soon as they rise to the surface, drop 1/4 cup of the pasta water into the maitakes and drain the pasta. Toss the pasta with the maitakes.
Wine - we had a bottle that had started to go bad. This was the first time that I'd had a wine that had just started to go bad, and it was actually an interesting smell. It was a chardonnay, and it had a smell that was slighly rotten. We went to the wheel and Connie thought it smelt like rotten cabbage, which would mean the presence of methyl mercaptan. I wasn't quite sure - rotten cabbage that had been aged in oak barrels, maybe. My guess is that it had a lot of sulphites, and was allowed to get somewhat hot, which caused the dimethyl disulphides to revert to methyl mercaptan. It was really intersting, because this was one case where the cork gave no clue about the wine being bad. The smell got worse as the wine warmed in the glass.
Thoughts on the meal - the maitake's were brilliant. We'd been told they'd be strong, which is why I went with the red onions, but the saute made them actually quite mild. The raw mushrooms had a strong blue cheesy odor, cooked they mellowed to a slighly footsy odor, with a spicy (almost garlic) aftertaste. Next time I'll probably go with shallots instead of onions to interfere less with the mushroom flavor. I rolled the pasta only out to #5 this time, and I think that's better than the #6 or #7 I usually do - it's just too easy to overcook thinner pasta, and the mouthfeel of #5 is just as delicate.

Dinner - Bruschetta, Frito Misto and Pasta with scallops. 2 different kinds of bruschetta - fava bean (Peeled favas, pancetta and chopped red onion, sliced potato) on thick slices of bread and anchovy (anchovies, cilantro, mint and garlic) on thinner pieces. Frito misto was of artichokes, beans and prawns. I tossed the bay scallops with a little garlic and chili and cilantro in oil before mixing in the Spaghettini. Would have been better if I'd remembered the toasted breadcrumbs I think... (recipe from Marcella Hazan).
Thoughts - The frito misto was dry; altogether, the meal was rather dry except for the Rosso di Montalcino till the Spaghettini was out. Should have put together some sort of dip for the Fried stuff, or at least lemons to squeeze on them. Liked the bruschetta though, could make a lunch of that.
Dessert - Cherry tart from Masse's. That cherry and almond combination is terrific... And beautiful. Have to figure out the secret of that almond cream.

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Connie made this, so little to say, except the usual... brown your meat well and you're half way there. The recipe from Cook's Illustrated focussed on this, involving not one but 2 browning steps - an initial fry and a final broil. Add to this soft, well roasted garlic cloves (yes, 40 of them... some were mashed for the sauce, some served whole with the chicken) and we have a winner...

From the recent past - Goat with coconut and fennel. That's fresh coconut and dried fennel. The fennel, added just at the end, complemented the sweet coconut surprisingly well - a very fragrant dinner with white rice. Recipe from Prashad, one of my two favorite Indian food cookbooks. The other is Rasachandrika. Sadly, neither one available here...
Thoughts - Frozen coconut available here (usually of Philippine origin) is a bit too coarse, next time I'll try tossing it in the cuisinart. And if that fails, I'll have to turn to coconut milk... Also, it really doesn't work to do cook it in a pot, something wok-like (a kadhai) would have done much better. As it was I had to cook it for quite a while to get the gravy to an acceptably dry and concentrated state.

Correction - Added links to places where you can buy the 2 cookbooks. At the very least, you can see what they look like.

From the department of Modern Miracles - Glad FreshProtect Bags. They deserve their own award in the Produce without Preservatives Hall of fame... They work. Keep strawberries fresh in the fridge for a week? Check. Asparagus? check. Leafy greens? As long as you don't crush them below the strawberries and asparagus...

Wow it's been a long time since I've blogged. Been a bit sick, and frankly, a bit scared of all the catching up. So let's just pretend I didn't eat much that was interesting over the last few days.
Tonight was Pizza - pretty good pizza too, based on the recipe in "Artisan Baking" which is just the perfect book for baking bread in America... I tried 2 recipes in India, though, and they flopped terribly. Something to do with the gluten, I kept saying to myself. A couple things that didn't work today - I used Italian flour (7% protein instead of the more usual 12%) so the pizza was more cakey, and I didn't wrap with plastic wrap during the rise, so the skin dried, and then cracked. Three - the Safeway was out of fresh Mozzarella, so I used regular dried (strained?). But it still was pretty damn good pizza... Nice bubbly high edges, fresh tomato, a crust that was cooked but not crisp...

Sunday lunch - Zaftig's. Pastrami Sandwitch (nice), Matzoh ball soup (standard issue). But how good can it be if they serve (horrors) pork?

Continuing with the catch up -
Saturday dinner - Brown Sugar.
What makes good Thai food good? Not having been to Thailand, nor having had a first hand account from a Thai person, I couldn't say. I can tell that a restaurant is trying, because I can tell how much work it would take to cook something, and I think I can tell the difference between obvious technique and basic skills and more specialized craftsmanship. Add the occasional eye opening combination of flavors, and you certainly have a solid restaurant, whether or not it's in fact completely representative of the cuisine it claims to represent.
We had 2 appetizers, the Tofu Triangles and Steamed Mussels. The Tofu was piping hot, and full of soy goodness. The sweet sauce it came with was almost unnecessary. The mussels on the half shell were steamed in a very fragrant mix of onions, bell peppers, chili peppers and some (presumably Thai) spice. The mussels were a little too firm, and I'm not sure what to think of mussels on the half shell except that they were probably purchases frozen that way, but I was willing to forgive all for the flavor. For dinner we had pad thai (pretty standard... I'm not such a big fan), the chili fish (a whole striped bass, vertebra removed, breaded and fried with a spicy chilli-basil "braise") and the "Siamese Twins" (chicken, shrimp and pineapple, hot and sour sauce, served in a pineapple).
And we topped it off with two desserts - the mango with sticky rice (is it my imagination or have the mangos in America been reaching near Indian standards recently?) and Fried Icecream. I was told they did a really good crust on the icecream... and it's true, it's the best I've had. Very fine, very crisp. Almost seemed to have a sugar glaze on it...

Saturday lunch - Mr Bartleys. Avoid the award winning Frappe. At least the strawberry, which is way too sweet. French fries - if you're in the mood. Likewise, the onion shoestrings. This place is known for it's burger - and a damn fine burger it is.
On the face of it, they do everything wrong. They make thick patties... fist sized balls of meat more like. They use a griddle, rather than a grill. They put a weight on it. Just goes to show that it's not the rules that make the cook.
The meat is in balls, all right - but not tight balls. They appear to have been seasoned only very slightly. The chef places 6 on the griddle, packed just so close, and puts a weight on top of them. All the weight appears to do is flatten out the bottom surface, ensuring beautiful brown-ness. No haphazard squeezing here. Beautiful deep brown. Flip, brown the other side (again with weight), and voila. And yes (!) they do serve a medium rare burger.

Friday dinner - A meal worth the one and a half hours it took us to drive 20 miles to chinatown. The scene - once again, Ocean Wealth. You'd think we'd find a different place, but we looked around, and eventually ended back here.
Fortunately for us, we had to wait 10 minutes for a table. And while we were waiting, the aquariums spun their marketing magic (apparently this was the first restaurant in Boston to have them - they still have the widest variety that we saw). And so it happened that we ate fresh abalone (steamed, sadly slightly overcooked, but still delicious with a light soy and scallion dressing). And the lobsters (again disappointing). A whole steamed fish (the pretty fish in the back... don't know what it was, but it was brilliant). Ducks feet with sea cucumber and mushrooms (I thought it was very good but apparently fish stomach with goose feet are much much better). And the piece de resistance... vietnamese crab steamed on top of sticky rice. Experience the crab - first the torso, with a fine crab flavor. Then a claw, sweet, just a touch briny. Then - and this is the point - eat the mustard from the shell. The slow steaming over the cooking rice cooks it perfectly.
Finished off with a bowl of red bean soup, of course. Served here with a dollop of coconut milk.

Friday lunch - the Lemon Tree. Saving grace - was near campus. If you can, hold out for one of the Thai place in the city... See Saturday night.

Thursday dinner - this was in 2 parts.
First, we stopped at the Union Oyster House, on the Freedom Trail. Pale Ale and Oysters. You can savor every bit of these oysters, too... they're not a hasty (and rather expensive) swallow. Blue points and Cherrystones (A clam, but still very good). My favorite way to eat them - just a little squeeze of lemon.
Then, walking a little further along the Freedom Trail, we dined at Monica's. The key at this little place is to stick with the Pasta. Handmade, perfectly cooked, slightly oversauced but hey... it's very good sauce, and who made it a crime to sop it up with your bread. Pizza - well, what were we doing ordering pizza from a place that didn't specialize in it. I've read though, that this place is part of a family business that includes a Pizzeria. I hope their pizza isn't baked to a cracker. Thin crust pizza isn't supposed to be crisp... I quote - "The Pizza must have the following characteristics: not crusty, well done, and fragrant, with the border high and soft." from the Pizzaiolo's Ten Commandments. Now, I understand that's just the Neapolitan Pizza, and there are other takes on it. And there is a place in Rome (Pizzeria da Baffetto) that does make a rather crisp pizza. But... they transcend the rules.
Rather a harsh tirade, but I did rather like Monica's. Just avoid the pizza, and stick with the superlative pasta. We tried the Pasta Puttanesca, which had the requisite big punchy flavors and a cut of pasta I'd never seen before. The gnocchi was acceptable, which is high praise in the sticky world of gnocchi (500g of russet potato, riced hot, mixed with 1 cup of flour and 1 egg... how hard is it, really?) and the bolognese sauce it came in had a nice deep flavor...

Then, the next day, Thursday for lunch, we visited a branch of that New England institution - Legal Seafood. Justly famous for it's clam chowder, and I hope it's not famous for its Maryland crab cakes. Which... aren't. Still, clam chowder. Mostly, it's good because it doesn't taste like "clam juice", the evil byproduct of canned/bottled clams. But wait... there's a secret. Pork fat. Yes, it's the same secret... aside from deep frying, pork fat is probably the most common secret out there. But it's a good secret... Also, they thicken with cream, rather than the more gummy overcooked potatoes. The potatoes are there, of course, but in balance...

And what a trip it was.
Wednesday night, our first mean in Boston. But not just Boston, in fact (as Molto mights) more specifically, Boston's chinatown. And even more specifically, the Ocean Wealth Restaurant, home of the 3 for $10 lobster. That might indicate a place on the Red Lobster edge of fine dining, but fear not for your intrepid diner. This is in fact a very good, well priced meal. Not inherently brilliant, but reflecting in the glow of excellent recipes. Of that, not so much this night... for that I had to wait 2 days. Our first time, though, we had the famed lobster - disappointing, small (which I wouldn't have minded), but apparently cooked together with another order which meant that we couldn't really find all parts of our 3 lobsters, but worse, that the temperature dropped too far in the cooking, resulting in muddy ginger/green onion flavors. You get what you pay for. The highlight, though, was the deep fried soft shell crab, spiced with a fine dice of garlic and chillies... And in between - diced pigs stomach sauted with chives and mushrooms (intriguing texture, mostly, from the stomach), deep fried calamari and spare ribs (yes, in one dish) and "pretty shrimp" a homestyle and rather dish of prawns sauteed in soy sauce to a brown glaze. Yes, they were pretty.