Dinner! 2012

[Norm Matthews]

Soooooooooo ... those don't seem to be maple leaves. what kind are they?

Actually I don't know. It sprouted from a seed in my front yard. beautiful bright red leaves.

dcarch

It looks like Japanese Red Maple

[rarerollingobject]

Beautiful duck breast, Franci, and patrickamory, that char siu is just about perfect. dcarch, incredible as usual. The crust on those scallops is drool-worthy.

Creola, you had me googling po'boys. I've never fried an oyster..cooking them at all is generally considered sacrilege around these parts, but I think I could come at a po'boy. Are the oysters only JUST fried, so they're still all oceany and briney?

Dinner here was disproportionately delicious for how easy it was..cubes of lamb leg marinated in a mix of peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and white pepper, threaded onto skewers with chunks of cucumber and then grilled for 4 mins each side until charred but still rare, just the way I like it. I saw it on some TV show, and I have to say, it's a keeper for 'brain-dead but hungry' nights.

[dcarch]

rarerollingobject, thanks. You know, after you have done enough cooking for a while, you can basically tell if a recipe is worth your time to try out. I definitely can see your lamb dish is a keeper.

All the dishes were sous vide cooked, using two cookers. The scallops were done at 120F then seared. The red leaves were probably a cross of Japanese maples. There are many Japanese maple trees in my neighborhood. Maple leaves are edible when they are young. For my scallop dish they were very tough, just for seasonal decoration.

dcarch

[Creola]

rarerollingobject your lamb looks delicious. I love peanut sauce with meat. The poboy is a common sandwich here,be it fried oyster,shrimp or fish. Some people do cook them to death and ruin good oysters,I cook mine fast and hot to keep them juicy with only fine crackermeal with cayenne and black pepper and a little salt added. Add a good horseradish mayo and you are set. We bought 2 sacks for my oyster dressing for thanksgiving and my hubby puts them in a ice chest with ice and the plug open and eats on them raw with hot sauce throughout the week.These oysters were so good this was our third poboy since we got the oysters. They are also delicious wrapped in bacon pinned with a toothpick , rolled in flour and fried and served with a red wine sauce. Oyster and bacon, heaven. We also bake them on the halfshell with toppings. We paid $20 for a 40# sack that provided 9 dozen oysters ,really reasonable to have oysters many ways. What do you put on your oysters?

[ScottyBoy]

First run at tamales, have to say they were good! Filling is adobo braised pork and fresh masa with 1/3 bacon fat, 2/3 lard. And some red chili sauce.

[Creola]

First run at tamales, have to say they were good! Filling is adobo braised pork and fresh masa with 1/3 bacon fat, 2/3 lard. And some red chili sauce.

That was a perfect first try ScottyBoy, they look very moist and a good proportion of meat to dough. Dinner for us was leftover rice, ham, add peas and egg and we had fried rice. after all we have been eating it was more than enough.

[dcarch]

Wonderful tamales ScottyBoy. The slight irregularity in shapes makes it that much better, otherwise people will think you bought them from Trader Joe's.

dcarch

[ScottyBoy]

Haha thanks. I mostly worried about the wrapping part but after the first two it was all good.

[munchymom]

Baked chiles rellenos, served with yellow rice, refried beans, and tomato-avocado salad.

[robirdstx]

Everyone's meals look so great, but oh man, I really want some of those tamales, ScottyBoy!

RRO and DCARCH - thanks for the comments on my duck breast. We will be doing it again soon.

Some recent dinners:

Pork Steak smothered with onions and garlic in a red chile sauce and steamed Cauliflower

Pan-seared Lamb Chops and Spiced Potatoes and Onions

Edited November 27, 2012 by robirdstx (log)

[rod rock]

Those lamb chops looks tasty and good combo with spiced potatoes!

[ScottyBoy]

Yea, I need more lamb in my life...

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Soooooooooo ... those don't seem to be maple leaves. what kind are they?

Actually I don't know. It sprouted from a seed in my front yard. beautiful bright red leaves.

dcarch

Japanese maple is the most likely culprit.... Beautiful dish!

[Franci]

I never had tamales... Maybe when I come to the States for Christmas.

We had rabbit and polenta tonight with brased vegetables (I use the tough leaves of salads)

[rotuts]

WoW F. everything you make looks so delicious! esp the fish and that rabbit.

when you try Tamales, make sure you eventually try the 'home-made' versions. that being said, a minor introduction of the field would be TJ's.

that just give you a hint of their greatness. hint. no more!

[Creola]

Baked chiles rellenos, served with yellow rice, refried beans, and tomato-avocado salad.

That relleno looks wonderful, what was the filling and if cheese what type did you use?

[munchymom]

The filling was half low-fat cheddar and half queso fresco. You can see the whole recipe here:

http://goodformeblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/baked-chiles-rellenos.html

[SobaAddict70]

Autumn is in full swing here in NYC, with what feels like the first ghost fingers of winter.

39 F today with a high of 42 in Central Park. Yuck.

Last night:

Roasted carrot, oyster mushroom and crosnes salad

Pasta with pancetta, brussels sprouts, chestnuts and cremini mushrooms

About to leave the office and head home for dinner. Gonna be Indian tonight, I think.

[sharpknife]

Sous vide St. Louis ribs, 48 hours at 147, browned and finished with a sweet BBQ sauce under the broiler for 3 minutes to caramelize.

[sharpknife]

They were plump and juicy and falling off the bone w/ a great mouth feel at 147*. Notice the pink color that you don't normally see in traditional BBQ.

[sharpknife]

Ooops! Sorry the temp should read 136*! I confused it with the turkey I did for TG.

[gdenby]

Sous vide St. Louis ribs, 48 hours at 147, browned and finished with a sweet BBQ sauce under the broiler for 3 minutes to caramelize.

Looks pretty good. Any rub on while in the SV? I've been hesitant to use traditional rubs because I wonder if the prolonged period with salt wouldn't make the final result too salty.

[rotuts]

Im also interested in the 'salt question' for ribs SV > 48 hrs. its easy enough to come up with a batch of rub sans the salt is this avoids the 'corned' quality of salt > 24 hrs.

[Keith_W]

Beautiful ribs you have there, sharpknife! And welcome to eG.

Re: SV with salt. I don't do it. I make up a rub which includes everything except the salt and sugar. Every time I SV meat with salt in it, I find that I lose about 15-20% of the weight of the meat in leached juices, which usually ends up too salty to turn into a sauce. It is then wasted! The meat itself is tender, but takes on a "cured" flavour and texture, a little like charcuterie if you know what I mean.

[Creola]

With the cool front coming through I made a shrimp, crab, okra gumbo and potato salad.