Steve Irby

Braised lamb shank over mashed potatoes with turnips, carrots glazed with bourbon honey and cornbread. I browned the lamb shank in a cast iron dutch oven then deglazed the pan and cooked in a pressure cooker. The PC really elevates the quality of the stock. It was a bit of a hike but I took the photo at the table.

Nope I just cook and plate the meals there. I guess I'm a one trick pony with the photography. I shoot on auto and the photos look better under the incandescent light of the vent hood than room fluorescents.

Nope, I just take poor quality photos.

Mussels with homemade chorizo. Mussels are a little bit of a hit and miss on the Gulf Coast. I went to Joe Patti Seafood (Pensacola FL) looking for oysters but they were not available so took a chance on mussel's. They were in great shape with only one cull out of two pounds.

Ann-T- great looking meals. It's real easy to hit the like button but there is no love button and the greek style lamb shanks are speaking to me. What's the scoop item on the chicken dumpling photo? I'm up for multiple starches at every meal. Anna N - I'm pretty sure your photo skills are doing justice. Those SV potatoes and chicken dish look great. And thank you for your posts and comments reinforcing the reason for this thread. huiray - It would be hard to comment on all your prolific posts across the boards but the sockeye salmon dish looks great and doable. Tonight's supper. Pan seared rib-eye with bearnaise sauce, celeriac puree and asparagus. The rib-eye hit the scales at 1.8# so it was broken down to dinner size portions. The celeriac was cooked with a little rice ( http://food52.com/blog/5293-michel-guerard-s-celeriac-puree) with a little more enrichment from butter and cream. The best ever. I finished the bearnaise sauce with the pan drippins after the steak rested and it was awful tasty.

Spare rib gumbo with tasso, andouille, mulberry smoked bacon and shrimp. Separated and seared the ribs then cooked in the pressure cooker to make a stock. While the ribs were cooking prepped the vegetables for the roux and after the stock was ready made a fairly dark roux. After the meats were added let it cook for an hour or so and left overnight. Added the shrimp tonight when I reheated the gumbo and served over rice.

I make cornbread just like my mom taught me. She was from a very poor family and they would have cornbread for breakfast because they couldn't afford flour. It was just four ingredients- cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs and baking soda plus a little salt. Later on the basic recipe became Martha White Self Rising Cornmeal (With Hot Rize!), eggs and buttermilk cooked in cast iron pan with a lot of bacon renderings. For a small batch about 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 egg and enough buttermilk to make a very loose batter. It should almost self-level when it's poured in the pan. Preheat a cast iron skillet\muffin pan\sticks with a generous dose of bacon renderings in a 450 degree oven. When the drippins start to smoke pour the excess grease into the batter and then pour the batter into the skillets and cook until browned. I've attached a photo of some cornbread from a few weeks ago using the same cast iron pans that I will pass onto the next generation.

Another south meets north. Lobster and tasso chowder. Pretty tasty but I can't believe I still screw up the plating.

Sorry it's taken so long to reply but we're a little spacey around here. The ribs were pulled when the temp was <130 F which I determined by spot checking with an instant read thermometer. The smoker temp was probably around 200 F peak. I think I may have smoked them about 2 hours. Pecan is in the hickory family but has a sweeter finish. I use pecan with chicken and salmon a lot and it does not overpower the food.

Nope, it's cornbread "sticks" from a Lodge cast iron pattern. Preheated to 450 degrees with a lot of bacon drippings.

Great posts over the past few days. Tonight was a southern style supper with a little Italian influence. Speckled butter beans cooked with garlic, rosemary and quanciale served over cornbread with a side of kale.

Great post's to all over the past couple of week's. Paul Bacino - great photo of the tomato and pepper soup. Just getting back into the swing of things after a couple of weeks out of town and a very disagreeable intestinal virus. Last nights dinner was a quick salad, potatoes anna and paneed chicken thighs.

patrickamory - Great photo of the red braised pork. The glaze looks perfect. Prawncrackers - Nice medley of dinners. Every meal looks so tasty. The miso eggplant and karaage chicken are killer. mm84321 - Beautiful ( actually incredible) meals. Who do you source the game birds from? And in the reference to whiskey - what side of the pond? I'm sure it's top shelf regardless. Your prepare meals that are why out of my realm but the take away is your attention to detail. After the mm homage last night's therapy session was southern focused. Buttermilk corn bread prepped in three different skillets with cheddar cheese and fresh corn. The pans were brought up to temp (~410f) with lots of bacon drippins before the batter was added to ensure a nice crust. Dinner was grilled pork chops with mashed potatoes & shiitake currant gravy, sliced tomatoes and old school sweet pickles. In the spirit of Frank Stitt I prepared an amuse of garlic mashed potatoes, topped with glazed pink eyed peas,sour cream, tasso and green onion.

Here's a few photo's from last year for 72 hour beef short ribs. Out of the circulator. Left uncovered in the refrigerator to cool and dry the surface so smoke would adhere. Then into the weber kettle over indirect heat with lots of pecan wood. Then finish with a quick char in cast iron. And a photo from a second batch photographed by a friend.

Whoops, I used chicken legs, not thighs

Deboned sausage stuffed chicken thighs and scotch eggs that I prepared for a friends naturalization party. I made 18 of each along with six pork butts and a large orzo and feta salad.

basquecook - I just checked my calendar and I have a slot available next labor day! If there is anything left in the Bronx let me know and I'll pick it up. What a spread.

mm84321 - Beautiful bird. Thanks for the description for your cooking technique. If I can find a smallish chicken at the farmers market I will give it try. Baselerd - Another great looking dish. The rutabaga-miso looks very interesting as does the coconut mousse. Is the mousse savory or sweet? rotuts - The bacon wrapped legs are meant to be a fun dish. They are quite meaty with the addition of the lean pork sausage stuffing. I can skin and debone chicken legs in about 30-40 seconds so it goes pretty quickly and economically.

Yep, I deep fry them to crisp up the bacon. Here's a photo from the previous batch.

I have been prepping some food for my friends 60th birthday next weekend. I use a Weber kettle and cooked two butts yesterday and two today. Dinner tonight was a little poaching from the grill. Dry rub pork butts smoked with pecan wood and grilled for ~12 hours. Ten hours over the grill and then about two hours in foil to relax. I also prepped 17 chicken legs (drumsticks) that I skinned, deboned, stuffed with sausage, "meat glued" some bacon, and cooked sous vide. Definitely a separate post.

Prawncrackers - I hit like but I should post love. Great shots for the progression of the dinner. It's sometimes difficult for the viewer to get a sense of scale for the plated dish. The eel looks huge against the knife but plated it comes into perspective. Obviously I've seen more moray's on TV than for eel's for dinner. And mm84321- you should be ashamed of yourself for making me scale up a dish from the diameter of peppercorns.

Baselerd - Forget the description - That photograph is perfect.

Beautiful photo of your baking. How about a minor variation. I've been using a recipe for cornetti by Carol Field from her book the Italian Baker for many years. The end result is always fantastic but the path varies slightly every time depending on home kitchen variables. The main concern is to allow adequate time for the dough to rest and remain chilled and elastic.

Great post by all over the past week. It's been a pretty tough week or two with my job so we're keeping it simple. In the south dinner was the big meal at noon and supper was leftovers. Tonight's meal qualifies as supper as it uses leftovers from previous meals and mystery finds from the freezer. Navy beans with lamb, pork and ham cooked with rosemary, garlic, onions etc. Served with pasta and wilted mixed green medley. Finished with a glug of good olive oil and aleppo pepper. After a week of dining on fast food (or slow and sloppy) it hit the spot.

mm84321 - Your killing me. gfweb - Your killing me too. When I fly the choice is between pretzels or peanuts.