Steve Irby

Really nice photo's and the serving pieces are really nice. That hake dish is the bomb.

I debone the thighs myself. I usually pay between $0.99 to $1.09 # for thighs versus $2.50 for skinless. The skin gets nuked for cracklings and fat gets used for matzo balls, confit, top dressing for the dogs, etc. I vacuum bag the bones and freeze until I accumulate enough for stock. A little trick that I saw on a food program years ago was to make a quick slit length wise along the back of the thigh then pinch the meat away from the bone in the center. You then slice/scrap toward the either end.

Dinner last night was a little comfort food french style. Potatoes dauphinois With skin on deboned chicken thighs in a light tarragon cream sauce.

Pretty wet Sunday on the gulf coast so I cooked a couple of butts in the oven instead of the grill.. They became the main course last night with a few appetizers. Shashito peppers, compressed melon with feta and fried green tomatoes with shrimp and remoulade.

Dinner tonight was knoshing a bit of BBQ prepped for Labor Day. A choice beef brisket that was kind of like me - thick through the mid section. The point and unusually plump mid-section lead to a very moist flat. Dinner a few nights ago was eggplant and okra (!) Parmesan.

A couple of quick dishes tonight. Spinach meat balls from the freezer summerized with gremolata. And very ripe plantains with caramelized brown sugar and butter. Topped with Ben & Jerry's ice cream, heavy cream from the ISI whipper, and walnuts.

dcarch, pretty hectic here too. Sunday nights dinner party turned out to be scheduled for next weekend. I sure enjoyed the non-leftovers. Spinach and mushroom fritatta and roasted eggplant pockets with tomato, feta and mint. I grilled some ribs that afternoon for lunch during the week. Monday after work I went through the fridge and prepped a few more items. And although not pictured I sweated down a 2# bag of spinach with butter and garlic. The spinach was cooked al dente and the pan juices became a nice little shooter - it would be a great amuse bouche. I've got to work on keeping my toasted breadcrumbs from sinking. Last but not least a little chicken and rice.

We had BBQ shrimp the other night and had some left-overs. Thinking ahead to the next meal I tired to extract that last little bit of goodness from the shrimp heads. I have a juicer that I inherited from my mom and I used it to squeeze the fat emulsion from the carapace. Definitely liquid gold. More seafood last night. A southern fritto misto. Shrimp, oysters, squash, and vidalia onions.

That is one beautiful dish.

Last nights dinner-blackened chicken thighs with basil avocado cream, new potatoes and tomato/zucchini ribbons. The thighs were deboned, trimmed of excess fat. I nuked the trimmings for cracklings and schmaltz. The first course tonight was from way back in the freezer. Winter squash ravioli with brown butter and sage.

I was pretty damn hungry after skipping dinner last night since I was having an echo-cardiogram and nuclear- isotope-whatever for breakfast/brunch. You would think, for what they charge, that they could at least give you a decent cup of coffee prior to the second trip through the scanner. Although I'll admit that a nice cappuccino would have made it a little harder to stay still. My wife is in rehab from hip replacement surgery and I have lot, figuratively on the plate, so dinner was a vege, heart friendly, affair. Fried green tomatoes and eggplant, served with a dab of remoulade, and kick a** yellow squash salad. The salad included greek olives and olive oil, red onion, bulgarian feta, mint, parsley, and red wine vinegar. And some nice tomatoes as a back stop.

Back to shrimp tonight with green fried tomatoes and a creole remoulade sauce. The remoulade recipe is from Raised on a Roux, http://raisedonaroux.com/remoulade-sauce/ and it's pretty powerful stuff. Definitely a little dab'll do ya. The shrimp between the layers are sliced in half lengthwise to give the tomatoes a little chance to shine.

Beautiful photo. And like posts from huiray I have to do a search for ingredients.

If your looking for stewed okra and tomatoes keep moving. Fresh, tender okra cooked until just "al dente" in pan juices from roasted chicken thighs and homemade Toulouse sausage. Added fresh tomatoes and cooked just long enough to warm but not render to much juice. Served on jasmine rice topped with shrimp, feta, and jalapeno.

Kind of the SV Holy Trinity (IMHO) - pork chop + circulator + grill. Really nice chops seasoned and vacuum bagged over night. Two hours @ 140 in the circulator (Anova) after I got home from work and finished one minute per side on a smoking hot grill. Served with a simple salad topped with Bulgarian feta. 16 oz seemed to be a little excessive. So I trimmed off a little bit of the lean for the dogs.

Shrimp season on the Gulf Coast with boat run shrimp less than 24-hr from net to table. 10# this weekend with the first batch BBQ Cajun style, last night, and boiled shrimp tonight, prepped for the week to come. Charlie the cat is a shrimp fanatic and helped with QA/QC on day 2. He is a real sticker for quality. Coupled with the one for me, one thee rule resulted in a fairly modest inventory for the coming week.. The product with the head on shrimp being prepped for BBQ. Shrimp and new potatoes. The juices are the best element. Day 2 and dutifully performing my food storage chores along with my QA/QC buddy Charlie.

I'll skip the veg's intro - darn tasty ribs

Here's a couple of recent meals that deviated from the summer norm. The first dish was oysters & bacon in heavy cream. The bacon was rendered with vidalia onion, the excess fat drained off, and combined with heavy cream then reduced. Added a pint of oysters and oyster sauce for a quick and easy supper. Supper last night was beef laap or at least my in-the-spirit-of variant. I started by finely mincing beef sirloin and briefly poaching in beef stock. I drained the meat and added red onions, basil, mint, fish sauce, lime juice, a little canola oil, and rooster spice blend from worldspice. I added additional stock to produce a nice wet mix and served as a very refreshing summer salad.

A few dishes from the past week. House ground beef (brisket, round, trimmings and pork fat) combined with spinach, Fulvi romano, pancetta, egg and a little matzo meal then grilled and served with a nice romaine mediterranean'ish salad with Bulgarian feta. A very simple dinner zucchini, onions and mushrooms sauted in sunflower oil with Halloumi. And the start to dinner last night with a killer pork butt smoked with pecan and mesquite.

Great looking rolls served with a burger in a skirt! And that tomato looks like our pit bull's tongue in anticipating of the treat to come.

A tasty morsel that I brought to a KY Derby party. I munched quite a bit as I was prepping so it pretty much became my dinner. Homemade lox cured with a touch of World Spice Kashmir Curry blend served on a dinner plate size Leksand rye crispbread round.

How's this for cooler overload? Right at 30#'s of meat in a 48 qt. ice chest in my homemade SV contraption -15# pork loin, 12# chicken thighs, 2# longaniza and 1# chicken tarragon sausage. 20 thighs were deboned and rolled around the longaniza, 8 thighs were deboned and sandwiched/slabbed around the chicken tarragon and the loin was sectioned to fit in the 12" x 12" vac bags. Sous vide temp of 145 F for 1.5 hours for the chicken and 3 hours for the pork. I pre-heated the water bath and the 1150 watt heater had no problem maintaining the temp. The end game was pork paprikash, chicken with tarragon cream sauce and chicken rolls with a take on Blake and Alison Rushing King Ranch Chicken. No pictures of the final product as things got pretty hectic toward the finale. Pre-bath Off the grill

I hate to preach to the choir but SV and a chamber vacuum sealer are pretty darn indispensable-with the vacuum bagger at the top of the list. Tonight I prepared center cut pork chop's two ways - 5-spice with tangerine and the second with a Cajun rub. Into the old VP-112 then into Anova hot water bath. Chops prepped What you attend to while the SV magic transpires. Magic transpiring The final product(s). Four 5 spice & 2 Cajun. And not for dinner - I'll chill then vacuum bag for later in the week.

I haven't had a dinner post for awhile but tonight I got motivated to break the camera out. It's Cobia (aka ling, lemon fish) season on the gulf coast and I bought really a nice at fillet Maria's Seafood. I also picked up a nice swordfish fillet. A couple of little tweaks with marinades to suit the wife and myself then onto the grill.

A quick supper that hit the spot. Fried green tomatoes, butterflied shrimp, oysters and salad with a tart vinaigrette. The oysters were from the Pass Christian MS and were really tasty.