James Elkins

"Ingredients aren't authentic. For dry sherry use Shaoxing wine, available in any Chinese market. (Does not taste like sherry. For vinegar use rice vinegar. (Do not use cider vinegar. Do not use ketchup or Worcestershire sauce. I am not a fanatic for accuracy, but why adulterate some ingredients and not others? This is a mixture of Chinese-Americ..."

Jun 7, 2010 on Food.com

"I just had this recipe in Chongqing. The ingredients are about right, but the fish is literally completely invisible, drowned and sunken at the bottom of a big bowl of chillies, with a good one-half inch of flaming red oil on top of the broth. You have to dig to find it. That's a Chongqing custom. It makes a spectacular dish!"

Jun 7, 2010 on Food.com

"Recipe is good, but be careful of the spices: chili powder, paprika, and saffron are hard to balance. I'd recommend a little paprika, more saffron, and add the basil and chili at the end to make sure it's the way you like it. My tongue, at least, was baffled by the battle between paprika, basil, and saffron."

Dec 21, 2008 on Food.com

"Excellent dish. The crucial thing is not to cover the ingredients; we used 1/4 cup olive oil, and then, five minutes later, 1/2 cup of champagne. It bubbled up over the ingredients, turning yellow with saffron. We didn't add water, so some of the potatoes and fish steamed rather than boiled."

Mar 30, 2008 on Food.com

"I agree with the first review; this is a wonderful dish. And I really appreciate the specificity of the ingredient: pimenton de la vera is utterly delicious, and the garlic and orange "stuffing" is tremendous. I used three times the amount of garlic. I would also recommend making double the pimenton and saffron mixture; heat some so it releases it..."

Jan 17, 2008 on Food.com

"I thought I should add something a little more positive. Kumys (to give it the spelling closest to the Cyrillic is also a national dish in Kyrgyzstan. There, it is served with sheep's meat (cut into large pieces, bone on and a clear dill soup with oil. Kumys can be astonishing: it's like hard cider mixed with milk (and maybe a bit of vinegar. B..."

Jun 20, 2007 on Food.com

"Excellent, simple soup. Another celeriac soup recipe on Recipezaar is served cold, with buttermilk; you could do the same with this for leftovers. We reserved some cubes of celeriac to give the soup additional texture, and we omitted the butter. We garnished the soup with very thinly sliced scallions, a dash of cumin, and a sprinkle of black peppe..."

Dec 31, 2006 on Food.com

"Very good recipe; the whole family liked it. There coulde be more ginger and garlic -- we used 7T and 4 cloves -- and the soy could be dark soy, because this is a variation on a Chinese dish which would me made with dark soy.Great with sushi rice."

Dec 31, 2006 on Food.com

"This is a wonderful recipe, but it needs a warning: 5T of ginger and 5 cloves of garlic is intense for people who aren't prepared for it. And what in the world is "nummus"? It must be one of the rarest words in the world. Googe says it's a kind of Roman coin, and then the third Google entry is... this recipe!"

Dec 30, 2006 on Food.com

"Good; but there's another version in which the chicken is stir-fried first with ginger and scallions--then you add soy and sugar and boil them down to a sticky paste. Afterward the broth and other ingredients are added. That gives it "zing.""

Apr 17, 2004 on Food.com