Dinner! 2012

[patrickamory]

An old standby... spaghetti with tuna, from Marcella Hazan.

[FrogPrincesse]

Grilled ribeye; polenta gratin with mushroom "Bolognese" from Think Like a Chef by Tom Colicchio.

[SobaAddict70]

Variations on a theme tonight...

Shaved asparagus salad with Cara Cara oranges and roasted shallots

Shrimp, asparagus, orange zest

[ambra]

I just have to ask....how did you shave the asparagus? Do you just have really thick asparagus where you live? and did you then cook it or is it raw? It's an incredible idea. Bravo.

[SobaAddict70]

I just have to ask....how did you shave the asparagus? Do you just have really thick asparagus where you live? and did you then cook it or is it raw? It's an incredible idea. Bravo.

yes, with a vegetable peeler.

it's raw, not cooked. the dressing consists of a 1:1:1/2 mixture of olive oil, white wine vinegar and honey, with salt, pepper and chives. the shallots were roasted in a similarly proportioned mixture of olive oil and sherry vinegar. it takes about 20 minutes to make, including prep.

[Paul Bacino]

This is Four cheese Mac( or clean out the frig cheese)--White Vermont Chedder, guyere, Fontina, Emmentaler ( SP ?) on them all this AM--Tpped with Panko

and some simple Crab Cakes with Mash Potato ( makes them a bit creamy )

[patrickamory]

Per request, here's how we made Batmanglij's sggplant khoresh recipe (khoresh e-bademjan)

1/4 cup ghee

2 pounds boneless chicken thighs

4 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp turmeric - fresh grated if possible

1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon

1 tsp good saffron - that's 3 grams - finely ground and dissolved in 4 tbs rose water

6 canned tomatoes, chopped - we used Danicoop San Marzanos

1 cup sultana raisins (sub for unripe grapes)

1/4 cup lime juice

9 slim eggplants - these are the long slim eggplants you find in Asian markets

1 egg white

Batmanglij's recipe calls for a Dutch oven. We used an unglazed tagine instead.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a pan, heat 3 tbs ghee over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, onion and garlic. Move to tagine, add salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon and saffron-rose water, and slowly bring to low simmer over heat tamer on medium heat. Add tomatoes, raisins, lime juice. Cover & simmer over low heat for half an hour.

Peel eggplant and slice into halves, soak in salted water for 20 minutes and pat dry (don't rub). Brush eggplants with egg white. Heat 3 tbs ghee in a heavy pan on medium heat till very hot. Brown eggplants on all sides, and drain on plate lined with paper towels.

Add eggplants to the top of the tagine mixture, cover and continue simmering over low heat for 45 minutes. Check for doneness on the eggplant - continue if necessary till eggplant is cooked and tender. Adjust salt and lime juice if needed. Serve.

Edited April 7, 2012 by patrickamory (log)

[Paul Bacino]

Butter Poach Morel/Foie Gras/Veal Reduction Sauce

[robirdstx]

Pizza Night!

My pie - sausage, mushroom, black olive, onion and extra cheese.

DH had pepperoni, sausage, onion and jalapeno on his pie.

The pies, using Reinhart's Americana dough recipe, cooked in about 4 1/2 minutes on our steel. The steel was preheated on the top rack for over an hour at 500 degrees F; then the heat was switched to broil when the pies were ready to go in.

[ChrisTaylor]

That is some amazing-looking pizza.

[SobaAddict70]

Mostly leftovers, but there was also this:

Butter-poached kale and spinach, with poached farm egg, cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

[C. sapidus]

Beautiful spring meal, Soba

Patrickamory – A belated but heartfelt shout-out for your gorgeous Thai meal

RareRO – “salad of afterthought”

Mixed pasta with spicy sausage sauce, an old favorite from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen. Sausage, garlic, tomatoes, cayenne, and grated Parmesan – simple, full of flavor, and capable of satisfying large, hungry teenage boys. Served with bread and salad.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Simple trout maito here, with gold rice cooked in boullion and shredded wild mushrooms, and romanesco. Method for the trout detailed here. (click)

[Todd in Chicago]

I just have to ask....how did you shave the asparagus? Do you just have really thick asparagus where you live? and did you then cook it or is it raw? It's an incredible idea. Bravo.

Give it a try. I tried it several years ago and now my wife will not eat asparagus any other way.

Todd in Chicago

P.S. I also use a vegetable peeler and yes, you cannot but the pencil thin variety or you'll end up with nothing!

[Todd in Chicago]

Todd, Thompson gives the Thai for heavenly beef as "neua sawarn". Here's how I made it.

- 1 lb beef (Thompson calls for rump, I used a heavily marbled cut I got in Chinatown that was simply marked "steak" - it resembles what the Koreans use for bulgogi and galbi, so it may have been sirloin or from the rib), cut into 1/2" strips

- 1 tbs chopped coriander (cilantro) roots (use 1 1/2 tbs chopped stems and leaves if roots not available, but try to get cilantro with roots attached - it makes a difference)

- large pinch of salt (I go heavy here)

- 2 tbs chopped garlic

- 15 white peppercorns

- 4 tbs palm sugar

- 3 tbs light soy sauce

- 2 tbs coriander seeds, lightly crushed

- vegetable oil - enough for deep-frying

Slice the beef. Pound the coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns into a paste with your mortar and pestle. Mix paste thoroughly with palm sugar and soy sauce in a large bowl. Add beef and rub the marinade into it thoroughly with your hands. Marinate for 3 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge, turning periodically.

Press the crushed coriander seeds into the marinated beef.

Preheat oven to warm. Place the beef strips on racks over trays to catch any drippings, and dry the beef until almost all the moisture (but not all) has left it. That was about 3 hours in my oven at this time of year.

Bring vegetable oil to 325-350 F in a deep pot. Deep-fry beef strips in batches. Maybe about 30 seconds per batch, or to taste.

Remove beef from oil to plates lined with paper towels.

Serve with chili garlic sauce, nam pla prik, and sweet Thai chili sauce.

Thanks Patrick, I'll have to give it a shot, looks YUM! Love it......package marked "Steak"...LOL.

Todd In Chicago

[Paul Bacino]

I prefer the POINT-- for brisket!!

Now I/We only like a little smoke, then in the oven to finish.

[patrickamory]

robirdstx Beautiful pizza. Do you use a pizza stone?

Made my first dish with homemade preserved lemons last night. Moroccan in inspiration but modern in execution (although mostly cooked in the tagine).

Chervil chicken with preserved lemons:

I browned the chicken in an All-Clad pan and deglazed with white wine. The chicken then cooks slowly in the tagine with zest of lemon orange in addition to the preserved lemons. At the end, you remove the chicken and whisk the sauce with crème fraîche - I wonder whether this was really necessary - it added a certain creaminess that might not have been needed. Still tasty though. The finishing touch, which really makes the dish, is a gremolata of raw minced garlic, fresh chervil, fresh thyme, and more orange and lemon zest - it makes the flavors brighter and they really pop.

No dried spices at all. An interesting recipe - I plan to play around with it. It was entirely consumed almost instantly - eight chicken thighs for two people!

[ddelima]

Warm Arugula Salad with Liquid Center Egg and Sous Vide Chicken Breast. Chicken breast was seasoned with salt and pepper, rolled in a plastic wrap and cooked SV for 64.5C/35 min. Then finished until crispy on the outside on a pan with duck fat, butter, one glove of garlic and thyme. The eggs were cooked SV for 62C/30 min following the Modernist Cuisine - volume 5 recipe. After SV the eggs were soaked for 12hs in a beet juice and red port wine.

Taste wise it turned out just the way I wanted but the eggs did not keep the nice color from the reed beet juice and port wine although the taste stayed. My mistake is that I tried to reheat the peeled eggs on a SV bath before serving, and that discolored them. Oh well, next time I know they need to be reheated with the peel still on. Here is the eggs right after peeling, before reheating:

Edited April 8, 2012 by Xilimmns (log)

[Paul Bacino]

An Easter Tradition!!

Meat and Cheese!!

[Shelby]

An Easter Tradition!!

Meat and Cheese!!

YUM. Now THAT'S my kind of Easter dinner!

[robirdstx]

That is some amazing-looking pizza.

Chris - Thank you!

robirdstx Beautiful pizza. Do you use a pizza stone?

Patrick - Thank you, we now use a 1/4 inch steel plate. Much better results than when we were using a stone.

Easter Dinner

Grilled Lamb Rib Chops, Gratin Dauphinois, and Steamed Broccoli

[David Ross]

A little bit different take on Steak with Green Peppercorn Sauce.

Filet, Red Miso Butter Sauce, Sweet and Sour Pickled Green Peppercorns-

[SobaAddict70]

oh wow, patrick, that looks divine.

ditto for paul bacino's shells.

tonight:

Fromage blanc, poached farm egg and slow-roasted Campari tomatoes

Carrot pasta, with shiitake mushrooms, spinach and slow-roasted Campari tomatoes

Pan-seared scallops, green garlic pesto

Edited April 9, 2012 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[kayb]

RRO – when you do your BBQ tour, let me know. I’ll join you for the NC section! That is actually something that I’d love to do, too. I was raised on central NC BBQ, but I have absolutely no prejudices about BBQ – I love it all: beef, pork, chicken, sauce/no sauce/tomato-based sauce, NC, TX, SC!

...

Not to go off-topic, but I think it would be great if a few eGulleters could get together and do a BBQ crawl. I signed up for a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) judging class next week, just for fun and would love to sample BBQ from various regions.

Happy to rent a luxury coach for the roadtrip.

Y'all come on to Memphis and Little Rock and points in between. I will SHOW you barbecue.

[ambra]

Thanks Soba!