Dinner! 2012

[patrickamory]

Finally getting back to Thai food. Pad prik king from David Thompson, here with shell steak instead of pork.

[Hassouni]

It's cold, vile, and disgusting here in DC, so my friend and I conspired to make some kind of nabe (Japanese hot pot) tonight. We decided on sukiyaki. Forgive the picture, I was enjoying dinner too much

Standard fare-beef, tofu, mushrooms, shirataki, negi, napa cabbage, and shungiku.

The friend above just got back from Japan and brought back some chirimenjako, tiny whole dried fish eaten as a sort of furikake, as well as "the world's hottest shichimi togarashi [Japanese 7-spice mix]", both from Kyoto. The shichimi was mindblowing - it had some of the freshest powdered sansho (Sichuan peppercorn) I've ever had.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Hassouni (log)

[Franci]

It's cold, vile, and disgusting here in DC, so my friend and I conspired to make some kind of nabe (Japanese hot pot) tonight.

Here it's not as cold but I would have loved to have your dinner.

We didn't realized that it is Chinese New Year! Got the phone call by the mother in law for greetings

So we had leftovers from the freezer: veal's heart salad (yes, heart again!) with some balsamic glazed onions and steamed chinese flower rolls.

[Norm Matthews]

I am putting together dinner for tonight, around 8pm. Believe me I did not realize today was Chinese New Years either so the Asian foods I planned are purely by coincidence. I am not even sure most of this isn't Japanese and Korean anyway.

Someone on another site posted a recipe for pork dumpling soup and the filling reminded me of what my former MIL put in her Yaki Mandu ( fried won tons) So I decided to give it a try but hold some back to fry. It has shrimp, pork and mushrooms in it. I also made some crab rangoon that actually has crab meat in it. I had planned to make this for a few days but today was the day we all were going to be here at dinner time.

I picked up some Japanese candy for dessert and will do a Korean Spinach dish, bean sprouts and snow peas. Maybe a salad too. Still fluid on the whole final meal.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Here are some shots of dinner tonight

[Hassouni]

Here are some shots of dinner tonight

drool.

[eldereno]

Drooling here, too!!!

[patrickamory]

Had a go at Jun's chicken arroz pollo.

[SobaAddict70]

Prawm -- you've made me want to go visit Eataly later this week to pick up some bottarga.

robirdstx -- holy wow! I love me some good steak pr0n...

Norm -- I want everything on that table.

Every so often, I'll have something completely vegan and gluten-free for dinner, so I can feel virtuous again.

This is, by the way, an updated version of my most searched for/most viewed post on the blog, "Roasted Vegetables with Lemon and Herbs". Someone out there must really like that recipe, because it's garnered over 600 views the last time I checked.

Heirloom potatoes (La Ratte fingerlings, Russian Banana fingerlings, Mountain Rose, Yellow Finn, Purple Peruvians), baby brussel sprouts, black radishes and winter turnips.

Black radishes have, as you might imagine, a black, gnarly peel. They have a mild, sweetish taste with just a little bit of bite that most people commonly associate with radishes.

Most of these potatoes are available at Union Square Greenmarket here in NYC, or online at various seed purveyors. I love La Ratte fingerlings in particular because they have a creamy, almost buttery flavor and texture that really intensifies especially when roasted.

The "dressing" by the way is just lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. If I wanted to vary the dish, I could "Indian-ize" it by replacing the lemon juice with a touch of asafoetida and aamchur.

[Norm Matthews]

Thanks for the comments everyone. SobaAddict, that looks so good. I think I'd have to feel un-virtuous and add some kind of smoked sausage though. LOL

[Norm Matthews]

Yesterdays pork dumpling soup is todays chicken mushroom soup. All the pork dumplings are gone but broth remains. I added some more chicken meat, mushrooms, onion, bok choy stems and Creole seasoning.

[FrogPrincesse]

Last night's dinner, inspired by the low temperatures and rain in San Diego: roasted chicken with Ozette potatoes from my CSA.

I used the method from Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef for the chicken: brown on its side in an oven-proof skillet on the stove, then transfer to the oven and baste a few times.

[SobaAddict70]

Clockwise from right: (1) squid poached in Spanish olive oil, with garlic, lemon and bay leaf; (2) cabbage, braised in French butter and (3) crispy roasted potatoes

[ScottyBoy]

Roommate was asking for meat loaf so. Made the ketchup, some garlic confit mash and caesar salad. I sous vide the little loaf that looks fancy.

[threestars]

Oh my! That looks really great ScottyBoy!

[Keith_W]

A Modernist Chinese New Year dinner. As usual, held at my place.

Since it is the year of the dragon, I carved a dragon's head from a carrot for use as a garnish.

Raw fish salad ("yee sang"). The salmon made up the body of the dragon. The salad base is made of - turnip, radish, yam, carrot, pickled ginger, pomelo, mandarin, sesame seeds, chopped peanut, and coriander. The salad dressing is a simple 1:1 of plum sauce and lime juice with some five spice powder. I was going to make a salt foam to represent clouds, but I ran out of time.

Abalone. The flavours are Chinese but the technique and presentation is Western. The sauce is made from the abalone soaking liquid, dried scallops, dried shiitake mushroom, 1/2 a chicken, 500gm of lean pork, dried mandarin peel, star anise, goji berries, and garlic. After it was heavily reduced, it was thickened with Xanthan gum. The lettuce is normally blanched and arranged around the plate, but I pressed it and cut it into a neat mille-feuille.

Buddha's Delight. I prepared this the traditional way, with no modernist methods at all.

Dongpo Pork. The last time I made this, it took 6 hours to fry, then steam, then braise, then reduce the sauce, then braise again. This time, I modified the recipe for the pressure cooker. Result - dish was ready in an hour.

Herbed tofu. I did not prepare this dish.

"Dragon and phoenix". A traditional dish. The dragon is represented by prawn, and the phoenix by chicken. I did not prepare this dish. Normally, both chicken and prawn are braised and the dish is presented in perfect harmony. My friend did not like my plating suggestion that both the dragon and phoenix should be on the same plate, so he served them seperately.

[nikkib]

I've been Practising the yu sheng service for weeks due to work - chickened out and delegated to a native Chinese speaker when it came down to it though! Do you actually enjoy eating it or is it more symbolic?

[Keith_W]

I love eating it It is tasty, healthy, and a great summer dish.

[FrogPrincesse]

Last night's dinner: Linguine with Clams

Edited January 26, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[ScottyBoy]

Man...I haven't had that in a long time...

[Norm Matthews]

Using up the last of the chicken left from the last few meals, I made martini style chicken breasts with Sugo alla Puttanesca

[Anna N]

Although I follow the Dinner topic with enthusiasm, I rarely post being easily intimidated by the amazing meals and artistic platings. But one can't take without giving back so I will try to post more often as I can't be the only one who has zero talent in plating and photography.

Last night's meal was a simple salad of romaine, tomatoes, and red onion topped with sous-vide chicken thighs and dressed with J. Pepin's creamy mustard dressing:

[SobaAddict70]

scotty -- your rooommate is darned lucky!

keith -- awesome dinner. wish I was there.

anna -- looks great, and I bet that chicken was silken.

princess -- never had cheese with linguine with clams, but now I'm jonesing for some.

mostly leftovers last night, however I bought a mess of carrots from USGM this past weekend and tried making this cooked carrot salad adapted from this Times article. I have to invest in a mandoline, but otherwise turned out all right.

I'm getting a blender this weekend, so potage de Crécy is next on my list.

[percyn]

Fantastic meals all - wish I could teleport to each of your dining tables and join you for dinner

On the more mundane side, here are a couple recent meals on cold rainy evenings:

Pappardelle w/Bolognese

Buccatini w/Bolognese

Shepard's Pie

Artichoke stuffed chicken w/butternut squash

Minced Lamb Samosas (and spring roll)

Trio of Naan Pizzas - Butter chicken, Kheema, Curried Cous Cous and Chic Pea Salad

[MikeHartnett]

In direct reaction to percyn, but really, to everyone: the things eGulleters consider "mundane," 99% of the population would consider an anniversary dinner.