[Priscilla]

I am (perhaps inordinately) interested in what folks cook in their own kitchens.  I can pretty much WEAR OUT those who cross my purview quizzing them on the subject; not everyone is renewedly galvanized by the Search for Ingredients as I am, it seems, or, has even a superficial interest in those beatifying moments when raw materials and inspiration converge serendipitously.

Would it be of interest to anyone else to have an eGullet topic here in Cooking about what we cooked for dinner?

I am edified by the restaurant discourse, and of course home cooking finds its way into many posts already, I know I know I know, but what I am imagining would be a quotidian communal journal-type chronicle documenting what eGulletaires COOKED, for DINNER.

Fancy, homely, good, not-so-good, hardcore full-on from scratch, or delicately supported by convenience foods.  And then of course whether the sponge gets run through the dishwasher after cleanup, or not.

What do you all think?  And, what did you cook for dinner?

Priscilla

[Liza]

This will be boring if I post ....because (as posted elsewhere) my husband works at a farmer's market and brings home fresh stuff all the time. Tonight it's whole trout we'll stuff with garlic and thyme; baby arugula salad; and roasted potatoes.

[Wilfrid]

It won't bore me, Liza.  Priscilla, I think this is a very good idea - I would have been to shy to start it off.  Let's go.

Monday night, braised some lamb shanks in red wine and onions with bayleaves.  Made an utterly dreadful mint sauce, which I threw away.  First time I've had a problem with mint sauce; either I needed to soak the mint in the liquid overnight, or this was just leathery, inedible mint.

Last night, I had a very sizeable lamb shank left over.  Took the meat off the bone and sliced it, and made an ersatz cross between a Turkish and an Indian dish by frying chopped onions in butter and oil, adding the lamb slices, covering it with yoghurt, but then spicing it with fresh ground garam masala.  Would have suited being wrapped in pita bread, but I ate it with rice.  A little rich, but the meat was very tender.

Come on everyone, don't be bashful.

[Jinmyo]

Well, lunch is my dinner.

Yesterday I finished some braised short ribs. I added some whacks of celery to it as I reheated it in the oven. Caramelized some onion, then mixed in some mashed potaoes and roasted garlic. Ladled a bit of sauce in the bottom of large bowls, mounded the potaoes in the centre, crumbled a bit of Stilton on top. Arranged bits of meat and celery around that. Leftovers.

Today it was thick rice noodles with dried shrimp with shoyu and ponzu, garnished with garlic chives; mounds of wilted baby spinach with minced shallots and a bit of sesame oil, garnished with gomasio; centre cut pork loin chops grilled after a dry rub of ancho and pasilla chiles, togarashi, cracked pepper then finished in the oven; kimchee.

[Adam_Balic]

Monday - grilled wild boar loin (marinated in Fino Sherry, garlic and olive oil), mashed potato with lots of Burro di Parma and petit pois.

Tues. - pasta with ricotta/leek/smoked bacon/vermouth/chilie sauce. Parmesan microplaned on top.

Wed.- five dry Martini's (+five olives) and three pints of ale. Deep fried Haggis from Chippy with Sweet chilie sauce.

Thurs. - Hungover, don't care for food today. Had have a Charantais melon, nice, but still hungover.
Will have a medicinal drink later and consider something.

[yvonne johnson]

Feeling under the weather after only 5 martinis and 3 pints. Wuss.  By the way, are the chippers serving the sweet chilli sauce? --haggis and chilli sauce sounds cosmopolitan for Scotland, mind you the curry sauce with chips is an old favorite--or was that something you added at home?

[tommy]

the last thing to come off of my stove top was duck ravioli.  the rest of the week has been pretty much (delivery) pizza and meatball heros.  decidedly unexciting.

[Adam_Balic]

Nah, the sweet chilie sauce is my own discovery. I am very proud of having discovered the combination. "Fushion" cuisine at its best!

I was mixing the Martini's, so they were very large O.K. It was the rotten Belhaven that gave me the hangover.

[tony h]

Last Friday I tried to make "risotto gewurtzamier" - simple plain risotto flavoured with raw white wine.  Absolutley disgusting.  Started "Room 101" post on the UK & now everyone's off to Cornwall.  I've only just learned about the responsibilities about starting a post.

Saturday - rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis.  False alarm but very very worried.  Dinner cancelled.

Sunday - is a blur

Monday - had Saturday's beef joint to roast but instead diced it and cooked it in port & ginger.  Served with yorkshire pud.

Tuesday - partner cooked

Wednesday - twice cooked souffle with pan roasted tuna & salad.  Souffle was a dry run for weekend as have veggie for dinner.

Tonight - eating at friends.

This Weekend - veggie for dinner plus stock making (must rem to hide bones before guests arrive).

[Wilfrid]

You had me going there, Macrosan.  And I like to see people owning up to their disasters already.  

Last night, mortadella on a roll, then a vast portion of an expensive Swiss cheese bought from Artisanal.  Spanser Roterli (check spelling?).  Looks like reblochon, runs off the plate like vacherin, but has a kick like epoisses.  Good stuff, with pieces of fresh baguette and a few Maille cornichons.  Not drinking, because head already dulled by cold symptoms.  Will have to drink tonight, as I am dining with acquaintances, some of whom I know to be thirsty types.

[Jinmyo]

Get well, Wilfrid. Throw a twist of lemon peel into appropriate drinks as a nod to vitamin C.

I'm in the process of making lunch. Grilled ribeye (resting, soon to be sliced sashimi thin) tossed with grilled white onion. Garnished with red chile threads (Korean chiles roasted, pressed into a dry mass, cut thread thin, very hot). Frites (chips, fries, whatever) with what will soon become mayonnaise. Lots and lots of frites. Lots and lots of salt.

[Jim Dixon]

Monday...baked cod filets with faux troisgros (see sorrel thread for details), semi-succotash of fava beans, potato, roasted cherry tomato

Tuesday...tried to deal with leftovers by layering sliced baguette with simple tomato sauce, youngish pecorino, sliced hard-boiled eggs (from Easter...our kids are grown and nearly out of the house, we don't celebrate Easter, but my wife and her sister still made 2 dz colored eggs), and some mascarpone into a torta of sorts...not too bad. Also roasted some lamb shoulder chops with cracked pepper, coarse salt, and preserved lemon.

Wednesday...rubbed a pork tenderloin with a spice blend called Love Dog my mom brought back from Arizona (mix of chile, coriander, ginger, and some others...too spicy for her, not spicy enough for me), cooked it in convection oven. Served with roasted cauliflower and salad that included arugula from the volunteers in my garden and something called salad cress (also known as pepper grass...looks a bit like parsley, has a nice peppery flavor...planted it last fall, but wet winter kept it from doing much until recently)

tonight...roasted chicken with herbs and garlic (I like to shove it under the skin)

[Rachel Perlow]

Last night's dinner came out pretty good. I had a piece of london broil marinated in teriyaki in the freezer, so that was defrosted in the fridge for a couple days. I actually cooked it perfectly medium rare. I was so proud of myself because I usually overcook it. With this I served mashed potatoes with garlic and celeriac, and roasted cauliflower. All very beige, but delicious.

This was my first time ever eating or cooking celery root, and I should have put the mash through the food mill rather than hand mashed, as the celeriac stayed a little rough. FYI, I made these completely non-dairy as dairy has been bothering Jason lately. I put the cubed Yukon Gold potatoes in the pot of cold water, added three peeled garlic cloves and the peeled and diced celeriac (after being peeled it was about the size of a small potato, but added enough of its flavor). This was set on the stove (covered until it boiled) over high heat for about 20-25 minutes. Drained and put back in the pot, I added Don Alfonso extra virgin olive oil that I think we bought from Jim Dixon, and stock from some leftover chinese veggie soup (any stock will do). Salt & pepper and yum!

The roasted cauliflower was fabulous as usual. This time I made a huge head of it (took up two half-sheet pans) and it still wasn't enough!

[Priscilla]

Last evening I served pasta with Bolognese sauce, sauce made hewing pretty closely to Marcella Hazan’s instructions in her first book, and also a very nice salad of BEAUTIFUL greenleaf from an organic grower at the farmer’s market.

A few fresh favas with sea salt and olive oil so that my Consort (OK, as Tommy said hilariously elsewhere, now I've offended mySELF) would have something to look at and eat beforehand--a partial appeasement.  He doesn't consider pasta a proper meal, all by itself.  (Per consort, I think for me it’s going to have to be My Old Man, or something, you know, like the Hippies used to say.  Hey, isn’t there an applicable Cockney rhyming slang?  I know Trouble and Strife….)

Tonight, (at this point in the a.m., anyways) my plan is to sorta riff on Wilfrid’s leftover-lamb thing from the other night and mustard and panko and sauté nice slices of already-roasted still-pink lamb.  On more of the greenleaf.

If including prep music would not go amiss:  Zombies Greatest Hits last evening…you know, it’s good to remind oneself every now and then that Rod Argent WROTE those fantastic songs.  Most times it is pleasant and so very easy to just lose oneself in the cloud of Colin Blunstone’s ethereal vocals and the aforementioned R. Argent’s keyboard, oh, let’s call ‘em stylings.  

Priscilla

[Malawry]

Monday night, we had pasta with some fake-chicken strips I was trying out (too highly seasoned) and a mixed green salad with roasted asparagus, pear and a mustard vinaigrette.

Tuesday night, I ate tomato soup with some Breton whole wheat crackers crumbled up in it, and lemon sorbet. I was having dental issues.

Last night we ate out at a tapas place that was fairly unsatisfying (Toro Tapas in Shirlington, VA, for those in the DC area) (I wanted to eat at Carlyle Grand, for the record). Olives with manchego, plantain strips fried into chips with salsa, garlic shrimp, salmon in a saffron sauce, and a vegetarian quesadilla. We shared all of these, except the olives which my partner doesn't care for.

Tonight, we'll make a vegetarian taco salad since we need a fast dinner. Chips, salad veggies, cheese, sour cream, salsa, a cooked bean-tomato mixture. I may skip the chips due to my teeth. And Friday we are having a friend over...I'll make roasted herb-crusted salmon, roasted asparagus with lemon zest and sea salt, and some ultracreamy potatoes au gratin for dinner. I'll probably serve the rest of the lemon sorbet and maybe purchase some cookies to go with it for dessert.

[Wilfrid]

Zombies, Priscilla.  Good call.  I have been listening to an import double CD of bits and pieces by various members of Split Enz and Crowded House, and there is a wonderful version of 'She's Not There' sung by Neil Finn.  I also happened to hear 'Time of the Season' (the original) while nursing a guinness in Milano's on a Saturday afternoon.  Unjustly neglected band, and Blunstone was a wonderful singer.

[col klink]

Monday: Caesar salad from scratch. I liked the mix of roasted garlic and fresh garlic but the Aviator Ale mustard was a little too much. Otherwise a fine salad with plenty of anchovies.

Tuesday: Went out for sushi, you can read about it here.

Wednesday: Again went out, but to a revamped Mexican joint that used to have the best burritos in town (Seattle) and luckily that didn't muck too much with them.

Tonight I'll be cooking, but I'm not sure what yet.

[SobaAddict70]

Sunday -- pumpkin and wild mushroom flan; roast chicken glazed with lemon, honey and cardamom; spiced apple butter; steamed asparagus; herbed roasted potatoes; apple tarte tatin.

Monday -- roasted some carrots and used those with chopped leeks, onions, diced potato and one diced apple along with a strong roasted vegetable stock for a cream of vegetable soup; chopped some brussel sprouts and pan-sauteed them with some olive oil, shallots, garlic, two or three anchovy fillets and some hot pepper flakes, then tossed the entire mix with some penne, topped it off with a little fried herbed breadcrumbs.  Can't wait for summer, when tomatoes are in season -- I'm a pasta freak myself.  

Tuesday -- "Ready - to - Eat" which is this little store that sells catered food in the West Village.  Beef stew, roast lamb with braised fennel, pan-glazed carrots with lemon and butter, sauteed collard greens with roast garlic, mashed potatoes, peach mousse, and white chocolate/cranberry cookies for dessert; Pellegrino and Chinese tea afterwards

Last night -- didn't feel like cooking, so had sushi from one of the myriad Japanese places in my neighborhood (midtown Manhattan).

Thinking of going to Sugiyama in the next two weeks -- have to introduce the concept of kaiseki cuisine to my boyfriend.

Dinner tonight at Po in the West Village.  Report to follow...

[Wilfrid]

This is an appetizing thread!  I never would have thought the idea of a brussel sprout pasta dish would make me hungry, but Soba Addict did it!

[Jim Dixon]

I also chop brussels sprouts, but usually just season with garlic and lemon juice...next time I'm doing the anchovey and red pepper, too.

Rachel...it's more of a cold weather thing, but celeriac, potatoes, and leeks cooked in chicken stock make a great soup. Judith doesn't care much for dairy either, so I divide it after the vegetables are cooked (and roughly mashed in the stock), serve hers plain, and add creme fraiche to mine.

Wednesday night chicken update....I had thawed a roasting chicken (a bit older and bigger than a 'fryer'), and planned to slather on a mixture of dried herbs. But I was out, so made a paste of cracked pepper, coarse salt, garlic, olive oil, and the smoked Spanish paprika called pimenton. Rubbed it under the skin and all over. Did a sort of pasta risotto (discussed in another thread) by frying some orzo in olive oil...it browns quickly, so you have to watch it closely...adding onion, chicken stock, tomato sauce, sherry. Finished this with pecorino.

Jim

[Jinmyo]

Today, farfalle in a basic fresh tomato sauce with slab bacon, panchetta, Italian sausage, wilted spinach. Garnished with ricotta. Cumin crusted pork tenderloin.

[Charlene Leonard]

This is fascinating stuff, I have wonderful visions of you all eating these delicious sounding meals all over the world.
this is what i had...
Monday - sardine fillets stuffed with pinenuts, fennel, breadcrumbs and herbs with pancetta wrapped around them served with a green salad

Tues - needed to used up some veggies from my organic box so made a veg curry with potatoes, aubergines, peppers  onions and tomatoes.  made a yoghurt dip with the cucumber

Wed - bought some Hake, which I've never cooked before decided to pan fry it in some butter and then finish it off in the oven.  made a salsa verde and served it with mashed potatoes.

Thurs - steak and frites

tonight - pizza and will try to do something with the globe artichokes I got yesterday.

[SobaAddict70]

I prefer to de-leaf each and every brussel sprout in the container, so that the sauce consists of the anchovy/shallot/garlic/hot red pepper paste, olive oil and brussel sprout leaves.  Then I take the core of each sprout and chop that finely.  Proportions vary according to taste, but here's the rule -- for each container of brussel sprouts (1 container will make enough sauce for 4 people (or 2 with hearty appetites)), add 2 anchovy fillets packed in olive oil, 1 clove of garlic (more garlic if you like), minced shallots, and a pinch of red pepper flakes (how much or how little to add depends on how spicy you like things).  Be sure to saute the shallots FIRST, then add the garlic till lightly browned, then add the anchovy -- saute for a few minutes or until the anchovy disintegrates into the mix; this along with good olive oil, will form the base for your sauce.  Add the red pepper anytime, earlier on will cause the pepper to mellow out, later makes it sharper.  After a minute, then add the brussel sprouts and if you like 2 T. of cold water to thin the sauce out.  Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until the sprouts have turned a bright green and the core/leaves are tender, at which point you can toss cooked, al dente, drained pasta (I prefer conchiglie or penne rigate) into the sauce.

For fried bread crumbs -- to 6 T. of good olive oil, add 2 split garlic cloves and 1 fillet of oil-packed anchovy, saute until the anchovy disintegrates and discard the garlic; add half a loaf of slightly stale Italian bread, which you have broken up into crumbs and fry until the crumbs are a light toasty brown, taking care not to burn them or let them absorb too much oil.  A second or two before you take them off the heat, add as much minced Italian parsley as you like, and toss together.  This will make about 1/3 to 1/2 c. of herbed bread crumbs, suitable for use as topping pasta or vegetable dishes in the same manner that you would use cheese.

[SobaAddict70]

Tonight -- going to use leftover chicken from Sunday night's dinner party, along with some ginger/scallions/garlic, toasted sesame seeds, dried orange peel and a star anise for some fragrant fried rice; what I call Japanese omelet which is essentially an omelet cooked in layers with sheets of nori separating the layers, then rolled up and sliced (like a jelly roll, only much better); and steamed veggies.  I think this time I'll shred the omelet instead of slicing it into rounds.

[Wilfrid]

Liza.  Hunters and Collectors.

And do you know that a whole fresh chicken will set you back all of $2.70 in my part of town?  I jointed it for Sunday dinner, then used Poumiane's recipe for chicken with loads of garlic.  His timing was inadequate, the whole cloves needed longer to soften, but I ended up with a nice stack of seasoned chicken pieces, scattered with garlic cloves to suck, surrounded by unidentified salad leaves.  Cheese to follow of course (pont l'eveque and spanser roterli), and a medoc cru bourgeois.

[SobaAddict70]

I find that if you use a Cornish game hen or one of those Perdue pop up timer roasters, it works wonders.

Gotta love modern tech.

[Jinmyo]

Lai fun (thick rice noodles) in mushroom consommé with sliced hua mushrooms; warm salad of agé (deep-fried) tofu triangles with pickled mango, bamboo shoots, and banana blossoms with togarashi and lime; steamed and sautéed Shanghai bok choy, yau choy, juk gai choy with peanuts and crushed red peppercorns.

[Liza]

Banana blossoms? Tell me more, please.

[Jinmyo]

Banana flowers. You can find them (sorta) fresh in some Asian, particularly Viet, stores. Or certainly tinned.

They're bananas before they become bananas. Banana fetuses. :wow: So they're kind of fleshy. Very interesting shapes and contours. Quite big too. Much fun to sort through with a knife to make appropriate pieces.

[Wilfrid]

This is the eGullet thread which makes me hungry!

Last night, took the reserved breast meat from a chicken cooked with many garlic cloves - already well flavored.  Sauteed some thickly sliced portobello mushrooms with chopped shallots.  Added red wine, boiled, and let it simmer until the mushrooms were tender.  Stirred in the chicken meat.  Seasoning, a little rosemary (dry unfortunately).  Resulting ragout consumed with a green salad (some crusty bread or mashed potatoes would have helped mop up the sauce).