Dinner! 2012

[Paul Bacino]

Lamb Chops!!

[judiu]

Grilled Delmonico steak (with a little bit of goat milk butter), sugar snap peas, and shaved rutabagas with butter and black pepper.

It took a bit of time to slice the rutabagas (I used a vegetable peeler) but this was a good way to prepare them (recipe from Food & Wine).

I still have two more giant rutabagas from my CSA to use! Not sure what to do with them next. It's a good thing that they keep for a long time.

My FAVORITE veg! (Well, it's a toss-up between rutabaga, brussel sprouts, sauteed cabbage, cauliflower, sugarsnap peas, snow peas, aw, hell, let's just say I LOVE me some veggies! But mashed rutabaga is delightful, especially on a Holiday table) I've never tried it shaved, but I expect I could eat a pretty large quantity of it!

[EnriqueB]

patrickamory: Love the tahdigs, had never seen them, so had to google them. Also nice Pasta e Faglioli, which is one of my favourite comfort foods.

mm84321: wowowoow! As usual. How do you cook your peas to keep them so green?

Xilimmns: Your rice looks spanish, though I've never seen such variation here ;-)

rarerollingobject: Nice stuffed squid! What type of "morcilla" are you using, we have a good number of different ones around here.

Kim: That buttermilk roll looks just perfect.

David Ross: The smoked scallops dish is beautiful and succulent. I'd love to have a smoker...

avaserfi: What an original variation of porcetta! I've tried porcetta sous-vide following Serious Eats, but this extra twist is a wonderful idea.

And some of my latest dinners:

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Papardelle au vongole (plus shrimps)

Fava beans, fresh onions, serrano ham, sea scallops sous vide:

Presa ibérica sous-vide with raf tomatoes: You may have Angus and Wagyu, but in Spain we have our ibérico pork! This is a tender cut called "presa" which is wondefully marbled and cooks nicely sous-vide at 55ºC, then seared. Doesn't need much more, so we just had it with tomatoes dressed with arbequina extra virigin olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Edited May 8, 2012 by EnriqueB (log)

[eldereno]

Kim, wonderful meal. That cake looks so light..mouthwatering.

I made morcilla-stuffed squid with a spicy tomato and chilli sauce. No joke, people - this has to be one of the best things I've made in ages. I couldn't get over how delicious this was, though it helped that I started with VERY good morcilla.

And a simple green salad of mache.

Morcilla is not something I think I can source locally but that sure does look delicious. What do you think might make a good substitution?

[Kim Shook]

Kate – gorgeous squid! I’ve never cooked squid – too timid, but I love it. And I had to Google Morcilla, too .

mm84321 – your food is just stunning! The peas in their pod are just gallery-worthy!

KA – I wish I’d thought to make s’mores with those giant marshmallows. I bought a bag of them a few weeks ago and they just disappeared. I couldn’t possibly have eaten an entire bag of gigantic marshmallows, could I? Naw. Must have evaporated.

dcarch – thank you so much for your kind words to us all. I, too, love to see what everyone cooks and don’t find anything uninteresting. This thread has encouraged me to enjoy what I can manage, to cook things I never thought I could cook and to try foods that I’d never heard of before eGullet.

PC – those shrimp are fantastic. I want a big pile of those and some bread to clean my plate with for dinner!

Sunday was my mother’s birthday. She requested antipasto and chocolate mousse cheesecake. I started with the idea and just ended up buying what looked good, so it didn’t turn out to be classic antipasto! More like Italian-Southern American antipasto !

Cheese biscuits left from Friday:

Olives and pickles:

Vegetables w/ roasted garlic aioli:

The stinky stuff – smoked oysters, anchovies and pate:

The main attraction:

Meats, cheese, hearts of palm, marinated artichoke hearts, figs, tomatoes.

Dessert:

Last night’s dinner was leftovers and tonight’s will be too! I’m longing for Chinese!

[eldereno]

Lovely spread, Kim. Wish someone would prepare that for me sometime!!!!

[StevenC]

I made ravioli last week stuffed with some peppery rocket and sheep ricotta, and tossed with a pesto I ground at the table with toasted pistachios, marjoram, pecorino romano, a bit of pistachio oil, and olive oil. Sort of Liguria-meets-Sicily.

[goodkidwe]

Ibérico Ham with Green Salad

Turbot Poached with Garden Pea Nage and Lemon Thyme

Ricotta Gnocchi with Violet Artichokes

Langoustine with Cauliflowers, Raisins and Green Almonds

I love love love to eat them. Good looking, low calorie, looking tasty. LOVE IT!

[Hassouni]

When I said it was tadig time, I meant it.

Behold: timman w murgat shijar, or, rice and zucchini stew, in Iraqi Arabic. (Of course in Iraq the Persian "tadig" is known as "hakkaaka")

(Note to self, use a thicker-bottomed pot next time to prevent localized scorching!)

The stew was made according to a recipe from Nawal Nasrallah's masterful treatise on Iraqi cuisine, Delights from the Garden of Eden. Boneless, relatively lean lamb cubes browned, and removed from the pot, onions added to soften and deglaze the fond, a sprinkle of curry powder, add the meat back in and add water and braise till mostly done. At that point, add pre-cooked chana dal, zucchini, tomato paste, bayleaf, and allspice, and cook till lovely.

Delicious!

[menuinprogress]

These tadigs are starting to get into my head. I need to make one!

[Hassouni]

Be warned that it takes a lot of experience and repetition to get good results. Rice is so finicky!

Oh, and you can't set out to just make tadig, you have to make a lot of rice too, as I think the weight of the rice on top has a lot to do with it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

PC – those shrimp are fantastic. I want a big pile of those and some bread to clean my plate with for dinner!

They're incredibly easy to make, Kim - just butter and aliño, which is similar to chimichurri. The kind I use is a paste of red onion, shallot, garlic, cilantro, parsely, basil, and cumin. Hot pan and olive oil, toss in the aliño, then the shrimp, and cook until they're just pink and curled up.

[mm84321]

mm84321: wowowoow! As usual. How do you cook your peas to keep them so green?

Thanks. The peas are blanched in boiling, heavily salted water, then shocked in ice. Rewarmed with a light chicken stock and glazed in butter.

[mm84321]

mm84321: wowowoow! As usual. How do you cook your peas to keep them so green?

Thanks. The peas are blanched in boiling, heavily salted water, then shocked in ice. Rewarmed with a light chicken stock and glazed in butter.

Thanks! Very short time blanch, I understand, for the vivid green? One minute or so?

Peas need about 3-4, depending on size. Favas 1-2.

Edited May 9, 2012 by mm84321 (log)

[EnriqueB]

Peas need about 3-4, depending on size. Favas 1-2.

I normally use a bit longer times, so I was not getting the same nice colours. Thanks!

[Kim Shook]

Donna – well, my dear, you are only about an hour up the road – come on down and I’ll be happy to put it all out for you!

Hassouni – gorgeous meal!

PC – thank you! I’m printing out your notes about the shrimp and will be trying it soon!

For dinner last night I repurposed some leftovers from Sunday’s birthday celebration:

Ham and cheese in an omelet, chopped salad from the raw vegetables and pate with toasted baguettes. The chopped salad turned out especially nice:

[EnriqueB]

Picture attachments from my last post were lost somehow... New trial:

Papardelle al vongole (plus shrimps)

Fava (or are they called broad?) beans, fresh onions, serrano ham, sea scallops sous vide:

Presa ibérica sous-vide with raf tomatoes: You may have Angus and Wagyu, but in Spain we have our ibérico pork! This is a tender cut called "presa" which is wondefully marbled and cooks nicely sous-vide at 55ºC, then seared. Doesn't need much more, so we just had it with tomatoes dressed with arbequina extra virigin olive oil and sherry vinegar.

(edited to correct pictures)

Edited May 9, 2012 by EnriqueB (log)

[Norm Matthews]

I recently moved and immediately afterwards ordered a good quality BBQ smoker. It was delivered yesterday. Like a cast iron skillet, it needed seasoning which I did last night. Today I smoked a slab of spare ribs. Here is a pic. of dinner: The ribs, black bean, tomato and corn salsa, BBQ beans and roasted new potatoes. Not pictured is Spumoni ice cream for dessert.

The smoker in action

and the ribs

Edited May 9, 2012 by Norm Matthews (log)

[mm84321]

Maquereaux au vin blanc

[avaserfi]

hot broccoli custard, chipotle roll-up, cheddar crisp

[patrickamory]

Norm - the smoker and the BBQ are a mouthwatering combination (yes, a smoker can make my mouth water)

Hassouni - love the tahdig! So that's an Iraqi rendition? Adam's family is Jewish Persian but with roots in Baghdad as well, so he carries both traditions with him.

Tonight we made a tahdig in the tagine, on the assumption that in the past they might have been done in earthenware. It didn't come out in one nice piece, but it was crunchy and more like the ones you get in restaurants - with the seasoning of the seasoned tagine clay permeating the crust and the rice.

[Hassouni]

As far as I can tell, there's no difference in properly made rice between Iraq and Iran, only in our house we often use a shortcut method for rice (absorption rather than parboiling, draining, steaming, etc), which still gets a crust (as seen), but I think the orthodox approach yields consistently better results.

[C. sapidus]

Such a nice variety of lovely meals!

Peas, peppers, and prosciutto sauce with cream and parmesan, tossed with penne pasta. Sauteed zucchini rounds with onions. Younger son liked the zucchini better than the pasta (which had “weird flavors”).

[pastameshugana]

Peas, peppers, and prosciutto sauce with cream and parmesan, tossed with penne pasta. Sauteed zucchini rounds with onions...

Beautiful!

[kayb]

Lord have mercy. What marvelous meals!

Norm, love the smoker set-up. I want a small smoker; thinking I may make the plunge this year.

Avarserfi, I'm intrigued by the broccoli custard. It looks lovely. Did it taste as good as it looks?

mm, please enlighten me on the maquereaux au vin blanc. I'm not certain what I'm looking at (but it's lovely!)

Kim, your mom and I could easily be dining partners. I love an antipasto main course!

Enrique, one of my goals is to visit Spain, just for the Iberico pork. That looks luscious.

It's been another heavy work week, so I cooked only twice:

Sous vide ribs, glazed with barbecue sauce and seared in the oven.

Chicken tenders, coated with a chili-powder-based dry rub, wrapped in bacon, sprinkled with brown sugar, baked. They were excellent (as were the ribs).

Edited to boldface the names.

Edited May 12, 2012 by kayb (log)