Dinner! 2012

[ScottyBoy]

Thanks all! Picture was actually taken from my "loft" where I sleep and such. I litterally sleep in my kitchen

It's 1600 square feet divided into two spaces. The other I have started to set up as a dining room with a large table.

They are local squab from Mendocino.

Waiting on my dinner guests to get back to me with some pictures, I was a bit busy feeding the 14 of them...

[Shelby]

Thanks all! Picture was actually taken from my "loft" where I sleep and such. I litterally sleep in my kitchen

It's 1600 square feet divided into two spaces. The other I have started to set up as a dining room with a large table.

They are local squab from Mendocino.

Waiting on my dinner guests to get back to me with some pictures, I was a bit busy feeding the 14 of them...

Awesome set-up! I can't wait to see the finished version.

[mm84321]

Lamb head wrapped in cabbage with shallots and mustard greens

[Paul Bacino]

Walleye Nuggets.. that's for Dinner

[robirdstx]

Last night's dinner was a variation on Country Captain, made with boneless chicken breasts and thighs and red bell, poblano, and jalapeno peppers.

[Paul Bacino]

Finished Walleye Nuggets

Home-made Toasted Bread Crumbs.. seasoned with Salt ,Pepper, Cayenne,Paprika,Italian seasoning and Grana Padana

[ChrisTaylor]

Not dinner as such. More of a trial for next week's dinner party. Popcorn crocodile using Jamie Oliver's recipe for alligator. It works.

[heidih]

Not dinner as such. More of a trial for next week's dinner party. Popcorn crocodile using Jamie Oliver's recipe for alligator. It works.

Looks good Chris. Somewhere here people were wondering about the actual taste and texture of the croc/'gator - so if you can please elaborate.

[ChrisTaylor]

I was using tail fillet. In the case of crocodile, at least, I believe that this is the 'best' cut in the sense that it's tender. The flavour and texture? Mild fish notes, more than a hint of lean supermarket (as opposed to, say, some fatty rare breed stuff) pork and/or chicken. Texture of well-done chicken breast with the odd bit of what I guess is connective tissue. Very, very, very easy to turn into inedible leather.

I haven't tasted alligator, but from what I've read it's much the same.

[FrogPrincesse]

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

[FrogPrincesse]

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

[FrogPrincesse]

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

[Kim Shook]

Dinner last night was leftovers from a spaghetti dinner that we had the night before at a local restaurant. There was an enormous amount leftover, so I added some cheese and sauce and made baked spaghetti:

This is a perfect example of the ridiculous portions served at restaurants. We both ate as much as we could the first night (admittedly, with me, that wasn’t very much) and the leftovers still filled a 2-quart casserole. We could have easily fed 6, possibly 8, people with that. Guess what’s for dinner tonight ?

There was also some of our starter left over. It was a baked feta, tomato and basil dish which I just served with some crusty bread:

[patrickamory]

Popcorn croc! Awesome!

We had guests last night so I went to town a bit. After cheese and olives we had an eclectic meal consisting of the following.

Okra with two mustard seeds:

This is one of my favorite Mahur Jaffrey dishes. It's a Bengali preparation. Okra when sauteed rather than boiled has a lovely texture and a meaty flavor.

The spices involve turmeric. I use fresh grated turmeric rather than the dried called for in the recipe, and increase the amount accordingly. I'm still getting used to the wonder that is fresh turmeric:

In addition to the turmeric, there are ground black and yellow mustard seeds in a proportion of about 3:1, red chile powder, two fresh hot green chiles, salt, and kalonji (the latter is used to flavor the oil for the initial browning, the rest are dissolved in water for the simmering phase):

And the final product:

Although the other main dish was to be Indian, I had leftover white cannelinis from my soaking yesterday and it seemed a shame to let them go to waste, so I made the Algerian dersa recipe for the third time this week. I really had time to let it cook this time and the beans became perfectly creamy. Every time I use the tagine it seems to get a little better. Here's the sauce reducing before the beans are added - it consists of a half-cup of olive oil, two minced garlic cloves, and equal amounts ground toasted cumin, ground cinnamon, red chile powder and sweet paprika, plus water and tomato paste:

Again I served this with the two harissas, the "real" canned harissa from Tunisa, and what I call the "Portlandia" harissa in an upscale jar, which is really more of a spread. Both great in their own way.

Basmati rice of course:

And the piece de resistance, a Mughal dish, fragrant chicken braised in yogurt. This is one of my favorite Julie Sahni recipes, but it takes so long to prepare that I rarely make it for guests. The recipe isn't complicated, but the first stage takes at least 45 minutes, and then it needs another 45 minutes to cook and another hour (at least) to rest while the flavors knit. It's truly magnificent - I recommend this so strongly.

The sauce consists of onions and garlic slowly caramelized and oil, plus some dry spices which are quickly fried with the cooked onion-garlic mixture: red chile powder, my homemade garam masala, ground coriander seed, toasted ground Indian white poppy seeds (which are delightfully nutty - worth going out of your way to get), and finally a mixture of yogurt and sour cream. This is then cooked and then pureed in the food processor. Meanwhile, you brown the chicken pieces in a lot of ghee, add the onion-yogurt mixture, and cook very slowly for a long time.

Other condiments included a homemade ginger-chile pickle that incorporates ajwain, a sort of dried Indian oregano with considerably more skunky flavor, mango chutney, and lime pickle.

We had M&Ms for dessert - nobody had room for anything else.

[percyn]

Patrick,

Nice Bhindi (okra) and chicken. If you find the texture of the okra to be a little al dente, you can pop them in the microwave for 30 sec before you saute them.

[Jmahl]

For Dinner, lamb two ways - we came across some very nice shoulder lamb chops and I wanted to make cuchifrito de cordero or lamb braised with lemon and spanish pimenton (paprika)so after trimming out the bones and starting the stew I had all the bones and bits left over so

I decided to make what I have called bone soup which is a lamb soup made with all of the bones and bits with a lot of the veggies that were languishing in the frig. Everyone was happy with the result.

Added a good red wine, a small salad and mango sorbet for dessert - that was dinner - lamb two ways.

[Kim Shook]

Patrick – I’m quite sure that I’ve never seen fresh turmeric! That is amazing.

Jmahl – gorgeous lamb! Mr. Kim is planning on smoking some for Easter, but I’m not sure that I can wait that long!

Dinner tonight:

Pot Roast w/ caramelized onion gravy from Eating Well magazine. This was a slow cooker recipe and turned out very well – tender and very flavorful from the balsamic vinegar, onions and coffee. It needed a bit of salt and perhaps some herbiness. I’ll work on that for leftovers tomorrow! We also had buttered egg noodles, leftover cauliflower and broccoli gratin and Cheddar and chive biscuits:

These were great and we had 4 left, so I’m thinking pot roast sandwiches tomorrow!

[rarerollingobject]

patrickamory - looks incredible. I so love okra.

Kim Shook - very nice biscuits, lady! I can't ever get my scones to rise like that.

Dinner here - since I've moved to a quite Italian part of Sydney, I've been exploring all the incredible butcher shops and delis..this is suckling pig, marinated by the butcher in garlic, rosemary, fennel and lemon.

Quick roast in the oven and ahhh..pork fat bliss.

[Rico]

Kim, pot roast sandwiches on those biscuits? Do we get a photo of that, too? It's becoming unhealthy how vicariously I eat through this thread ...

Speaking of which, RRO:

this is suckling pig, marinated by the butcher in garlic, rosemary, fennel and lemon.

I will be completely honest - that looks like something I would most thoroughly enjoy eating.

Made some spaghetti and meatballs yesterday - the wife likes the thick tomato sauce like she grew up with, so I didn't get to get too creative with the sauce. Ground the meat (50/50 pork butt/beef chuck) with caramelized onions, garlic, parsley, and other somesuch before browning. For a simple meal, these turned out nicely.

If you're wondering, it was not actually overexposed in real life - that's just the hastily taken photo.

Edited for punctuation.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Rico (log)

[robirdstx]

For a quick meal over the weekend, we pulled some shredded pork from the freezer and warmed it up in some tomatillo sauce for Pork Tacos,

served on warm corn tortillas with shredded cabbage, chopped onion, cilantro and extra tomatillo sauce.

[Shelby]

Kim, pot roast sandwiches on those biscuits? Do we get a photo of that, too? It's becoming unhealthy how vicariously I eat through this thread ...

Speaking of which, RRO:

this is suckling pig, marinated by the butcher in garlic, rosemary, fennel and lemon.

I will be completely honest - that looks like something I would most thoroughly enjoy eating.

Made some spaghetti and meatballs yesterday - the wife likes the thick tomato sauce like she grew up with, so I didn't get to get too creative with the sauce. Ground the meat (50/50 pork butt/beef chuck) with caramelized onions, garlic, parsley, and other somesuch before browning. For a simple meal, these turned out nicely.

If you're wondering, it was not actually overexposed in real life - that's just the hastily taken photo.

Edited for punctuation.

I could eat that every day of my life.

[gfweb]

Nice! Gonna give classes?

[Paul Bacino]

Seared Sea Scallops, Bacon Tweel, sous vide Egg Potato and asparagus with Bacon mushroom asparagus

[C. sapidus]

lochaven – Thank you, I will pass along to Mrs. C – she was the tortilla lady.

Paul – Lovely collection of flavors on that plate!

Mrs. C picked up some beautiful galangal

So I had to make tom kha gai (coconut chicken soup, a.k.a. “boiled galangal soup”).

Napa cabbage with fermented soybean paste and jasmine rice

[kayb]

Godalmighty, but I love Tom kha gai. Have never attempted it at home.

Edited March 6, 2012 by kayb (log)