Dinner! 2012

[robirdstx]

robirdstx – I just realized I was licking my fingers while looking at your ribs.

So many delicious looking meals from everyone!

Inspired by Franci's carrots, I made a Peas and Carrot dish based on a Jacque Pepin recipe I found on foodandwine.com.

I paired it with a Pan Fried Tilapia fillet,

topped with sauteed mushrooms, browned butter and chopped parsley.

Edited October 3, 2012 by robirdstx (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Tuesday night dinner:

Bucatini con la bottarga

Gently warm some olive oil and add some slivered garlic and a pinch of red chile pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes, then stir in cooked pasta, chopped Italian parsley, mullet bottarga and julienned lemon zest. Serve at once.

tonight:

Chanterelle and fried herb salad, with farm egg fried in olive oil

The herbs (oregano, sage, chives) were dipped in an egg white wash (2 egg whites, 6 tablespoons cold water), then flash fried in olive oil. If you skip this step, the herbs will burn.

The mushrooms were sautéed in olive oil with chopped garlic, sea salt, black pepper and thyme. The egg was cooked using José Andres' method that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Squid, honey ham, Austrian potatoes

Austrian potatoes are an heirloom cultivar of fingerling potatoes. They were peeled, then briefly simmered in water, then sliced into irregularly-shaped (although similarly sized) pieces, then fried in olive oil with onion, sea salt and black pepper.

The squid was poached in olive oil, with orange zest, bay leaf, red onion, garlic, sea salt and red chile pepper.

Canadian turbot, carrot confit

Don't be fooled by this pic. Those carrots are as soft as butter and were first simmered, then baked at 275 F for 3 hours in a mixture of olive oil, fresh-squeezed orange juice, orange zest, cumin, cayenne pepper, sea salt and garlic. Delfino cilantro to finish. It's JGV's recipe, from his restaurant JoJo: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/04/dining/the-word-chefs-can-t-resist-confit.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Edited October 4, 2012 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[C. sapidus]

Patrick – Thank you. Beautiful beans!

Dejah – Belated kudos on a gorgeous chicken

dcarch – Thank you, too. Your meal is stunning, and I laughed out loud at the bean sprouts

Soba – Both meals look delicious

Salad with garden tomatoes, cukes, lettuce, scallions, and a dressing of roasted garlic, roasted chile, olive oil, and sherry vinegar.

Veal and sweet potatoes in pasilla-honey sauce: Roasted garlic, chipotles in adobo, cumin, black pepper, oregano, and chicken stock, simmered slowly with the meat and cubed sweet potatoes, and garnished with white onion and cilantro.

Arroz blanco: Pilaf-style jasmine rice with white onion, garlic, flat-leaf parsley, and chicken stock

[Paul Bacino]

Rotuts,

I have my fair share of Corningware, my Italian Grandmother baked most everything in the stuff. I'm sure it was purchased because of price and durability way back when, I have a good amount of other baking vessels but this stuff always

helpsbring back fond family memories.

Cheers Bro

Doc Paully

[rotuts]

SV CkBr (145 3 hours) stuffed with salami/mortadella/swisscheese Mashed Potatoes. Green Onion sometimes counts for the Veg.

[patrickamory]

An adaptation of Madhur Jaffrey's green beans with two mustards, an interesting fusion-y dish from Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook. One of the mustards is dijon (here Irish mustard), mixed with lemon juice (lime in my case), salt, pepper and chile powder.

The other mustard is whole yellow mustard seeds, which are popped tadka style in olive oil (!) along with slivers of garlic. The garlicky mustardy oil is then mixed in with the lemon-mustard sauce to produce a dressing, which you ladle over steamed green beans and serve as a cold salad.

My other innovation was to add chunks of ham (in this case Black Forest ham from Schaller & Weber). This was one of my father's favorite dishes and always makes me think of him, especially because I own his copy of the cookbook and it always falls open to this page.

And served with more leftovers of janeer's incredible baked beans, I highly recommend this, it just keeps improving in the fridge too!

[mm84321]

Sea urchin

Their juice is reserved. 2/3 is mixed with some of the reserved tongues, skim milk, and emulsified with a small amount of butter.

The other 1/3 is mixed with a small amount of foie gras to create a vinaigrette.

Black bass. It is poached gently in fish stock.

Baby fennel is shaved, and the trimmings are kept to infuse fish stock with a touch of Ricard. This is the base of the fennel glaçage that will nap the bass.

Potatoes are sliced and cooked boulangere style with thyme and garlic. They are then added to a marinade of olive oil, more garlic and thyme. Sliced onions are blanched, and also added to this marinade.

The bass is sprinkled with fennel seeds and fronds.

[BKYLN]

The herbs (oregano, sage, chives) were dipped in an egg white wash (2 egg whites, 6 tablespoons cold water), then flash fried in olive oil. If you skip this step, the herbs will burn.

No, they won't. You can flash-fry any herb without that nonsense.

-a pro

[SobaAddict70]

The herbs (oregano, sage, chives) were dipped in an egg white wash (2 egg whites, 6 tablespoons cold water), then flash fried in olive oil. If you skip this step, the herbs will burn.

No, they won't. You can flash-fry any herb without that nonsense.

-a pro

Maybe they will, and maybe they won't.

I'll go with the method that works for me though, thanks.

[mm84321]

Pigeon, chartreuse of vegetables and foie gras

Pommes gaufrettes

[C. sapidus]

Still on a Mexican jag . . .

Chileatole rojo de pollo with potato and green beans, simmered in a puree of toasted chile ancho, fried white onion and garlic, and chicken stock.

Arroz verde al Poblano: Jasmine rice fried with white onion, and garlic, and then cooked with a puree of Poblano chiles (simmered in chicken stock) and a hefty bunch of cilantro.

[David Ross]

Flemmish Beef Stew. The flavor was good, but next time I'll use Guiness Stout in this stew as I prefer the stronger flavor over Belgian-style Ales.

[rotuts]

that looks so delicious and its not even SousVide!

care to share the Rx?

[Franci]

Nice meals!!!

Tonight we had clams, more thai style

and grilled calamari with sumac and romanesco cauliflower, plus some jasmine rice

[patrickamory]

Pasta with hen-of-the-woods picked from my mother-in-law's front yard this morning (thieves have already made off with most of it). The cheese is aged gouda.

[ScottyBoy]

(thieves have already made off with most of it)

[Kim Shook]

dcarch – But I bet MY stir fry didn’t make you spontaneously burst into happy laughter, did it? Actually, if you added some char siu to those bean sprouts it would look just like the roast pork bean sprout dish that I used to get at our old favorite Chinese restaurant. Made me hungry and nostalgic!

Elise – thank you for the quiche info! Do I just sub an equal amount of the crème fraiche for the cream I normally use? I’ll be trying that soon!

Stash – the squid, ham and potato dish looks particularly lovely and delicious!

Patrick – those baked beans look so wonderful!

mm – your pommes gaufrettes are just astonishingly beautiful and perfect!

Bruce – that is some gorgeous green rice! I’m a fool for rice, you know, and you always make it so beautifully.

I’m still traveling back and forth to NC to visit my grandmother. She’s doing very well, is hoping to be home before Christmas and is being VERY realistic about how much help she’ll need at home. All good news. Next week, I’ll be adding a trip to northern VA for a couple of days for a gathering of some high school friends. This week will be all at home, so I’m hoping to get to cook a lot more!

Dinner last night – I found some half smokes at Kroger and made chili for DC chili dogs. Half smokes off the grill:

Properly carbonized! With chili and caramelized onions and succotash:

I also served an ‘Asian salad’:

Napa cabbage, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, almonds and fried noodles with a ‘copycat’ version of Applebee’s dressing. It was actually very good. Applebee’s Oriental Chicken salad is the only thing that I ever order there when someone else insists on going there.

[David Ross]

that looks so delicious and its not even SousVide!

care to share the Rx?

Thanks. It's the same basic recipe I always follow for braising beef-coat with flour, saute until deep brown, deglaze, add aromatics and liquid, then braise, covered, in a low oven.

For this recipe I cut beef chuck into thick, 2" slabs-about 2 lbs. worth of meat. Then seasoned with salt and pepper and coated in 2 tbsp. flour. (Reserve the leftover flour for thickening the braising liquid).

Sear the beef in a mix of butter and oil until deeply browned. (I use a LeCreuset deep casserole dish). Remove the beef then add more butter and olive oil and put in about 2 cups sliced yellow onions. Saute the onions until tender, not caramelized. Add 1-2 cloves garlic, 1 bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme and some dried parsley. Add back the flour and stir, then deglaze with a bottle of dark stout beer. Add in 1 tbsp. molasses, (to add a sweet note to the bitter ale). Then add about 1 cup of beef stock.

Cover and braise in the oven at about 300 temp for about 4 hours. Gently remove the beef chunks and strain the sauce back into the pot. Return the beef chunks and keep warm until service. At this point you can also put the beef in a separate container and refrigerate overnight. Then refrigerate the sauce until cold, skim off the top layer of fat, and combine with the beef on day two and heat through.

Once the beef is ready for service, add in about 1 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar. It really gives a flavor boost and accents the sweet and sour in the stew.

[patrickamory]

The half-smokes look incredible, Kim!

Today, I made hzrt8w's fascinating stir-fried chicken with lemongrass and fermented black beans, an ethnic Vietnamese dish from Vietnam. The picture doesn't doesn't do it justice - it's redolent of cracked white peppercorns, fish sauce and fermented beans, and very easy to prepare - I really recommend this.

Edited October 8, 2012 by patrickamory (log)

[ScottyBoy]

Just something fun list night. A more refined version of an amuse I've done. Soft cooked quail egg, dried iberico ham, fried onion cream and chives.

[patrickamory]

Umm... I meant an ethnic Chinese dish from Vietnam

[FrogPrincesse]

Elise – thank you for the quiche info! Do I just sub an equal amount of the crème fraiche for the cream I normally use? I’ll be trying that soon!

That's right. I used 1 cup of crème fraîche (250 mL) and 2 eggs (+ s&p and a pinch of nutmeg). Add a little bit of heavy cream to the crème fraîche if it's very thick.

[Mjx]

Recently, my boyfriend and a friend of his bought and shared half a pig, which was delivered portioned (including some as ground meat, sausage, and liver pate), and featured at dinner several dinners and lunches running (it gets dark pretty early now, so the images aren't all one might wish).

Tenderloin:

Medallions with borlotti and caramelized onions:

A stir-fry of pork, shitake, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and ginger:

Liver pate with black pepper and citric acid:

Then, we kind of needed a break from pork.

Roast chicken:

Soup made with the leftover roast chicken, and broth made from a mixed bag of meaty lamb, venison, chicken and pheasant bones:

And yesterday, salmon marinated in lime juice and cloves, with rucola and baked beans (the latter may seem a little odd with salmon, but worked really well):

[naguere]

Lovey post Mjx. That salmon , golden .

What brand were the beans?.

Succulent .

[Shelby]

Just something fun list night. A more refined version of an amuse I've done. Soft cooked quail egg, dried iberico ham, fried onion cream and chives.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the piggy dishes! Where did you get those?