Dinner! 2003

[Louisa Chu]

Yesterday, dinner was leftover stuffed veal. Dessert a cake called a JAMAÏQUE/JAMAICA - very thin layers of chocolate biscuit sponge cake sprinkled with coconut, almonds and pistachios layered with a coconut mousse at the bottom, some slivers of pineapple soaked in coconut liqueur and rum, a layer of mango-passion fruit mousse and topped with a passion fruit seeded glaze.

Tonight's dinner, CUISSES DE LAPIN MIJOTÉES AUX CARROTTES FONDANTES/RABBIT LEGS SIMMERED WITH TENDER CARROTS with FLAN DE POMMES DE TERRE/POTATO FLAN. Dessert, leftover cake.

[SobaAddict70]

Loufood, what...no wine?

Seriously, what do the students drink to accompany all that delish food?

SA

[SobaAddict70]

Couscous with 1) takeout Chinese chicken and black bean sauce, and 2) tuna/anchovy marinara sauce (basically your standard Pomi tomatoes cooked down until its a thick jammy substance, along with 1 can of Starkist tuna, a couple of anchovy fillets, some EVOO, some caramelized onions, a pinch of red pepper flakes, a little kosher salt, a little dried oregano, and a little cracked black pepper).

Green tea, fruit.

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I didn't feel like schlepping outside to get pasta, and I had a pot of leftover couscous from over the weekend, so I figured one starch is as good as another. This was couscous cooked with half chicken stock and half water, with a little OO.

Not all of my dinners equal a dislike of Con-Agra.

SA

[Wilfrid]

Vegetable soup with the last bits of Sunday's guinea fowl lurking in it too.

[Liza]

Pasta with a July 2002 tomato sauce, absolutely summer in a bowl all over again.

Roasted squash soup with garam masala and a little coconut milk. Drizzled with fig vinegar.

Chocolate pot de creme.

[Adam Balic]

Made Curried Parsnip, Apple and Mussel soup last night at a friends home. Was very good, so I will commit the full recipe to egullet before I forget what I did

Gently saute a large shallot finely chopped (1/2 cup ) until golden, but not browning in butter/oil.

Add teaspoon of mild Indian curry powder (any mild curry you like really, I used a commercial brand, but added a little cumin and cinnamon). Should not be too stongly flavoured as curry taste should be in the background. Add 1/4 teaspoon of tumeric, continue cooking for a minute to release curry flavours.

Add two cups of very finely grated parsnip and two cups of very finely grated apple. I used Bramley apples, but any high acid apple would be fine (eg. Granny Smiths). Acid content of apples is important to balance out sweetness of the parsnip and coconut cream. Cook until apple breaks down to pulp, add water if starting to stick.

Add three cups of coconut cream. Cook on highish heat until coconut cream cracks. Examine colour at this point should be a light golden yellow from tumeric. Add more if not so, but be careful as tumeric can taste bitter and in this case only the colour is wanted not the flavour. Soup could be blended and strained at this point, but shouldn't need it. Add one cup of finely chopped coriander leaves to soup.

While this is occuring steam some very small potatos. I used new potatos, which where too watery for my taste. Better to use one of the small bananna varieties such as Pink Fir Apples, as these have a good nutty flavour and the skin (oh yes, leave skins on) pops nicely under the pressure of you teeth. Add potatos to soup.

In last five minutes of cooking steam open mussels in a little water. Pick out mussels from shells. Reserve a few in shells per person. Add mussels to soup, add small volumes of mussel liquor to soup until soup is the thickness of pouring cream. However, check for salt content of mussel liquor, if very salty add only small amount and thin soup with water.

Eat with good bread.

n.b. Soup should be light golden yellow, flecked with green from coriander and droplets of coconut oil that have taken up chlorophil from coriander, Mussels should add golded orange colour of the flesh (if you are lucky) and blue and pearl of the shells. Very pretty.

Coriander should be added only in the last five mintues or it looses the bright green colour and turns drab. If coriander is a problem flavour then tarrogan or chervil could be used (rather less of the former).

Edited January 16, 2003 by Adam Balic (log)

[Jinmyo]

I've got a slab of this German bacon called shinkenspeck, cured with juniper berries. Very nice. I rendered a few pounds of lardons and used the fat to saute, put the lardons in the sauce.

Ziti with a porcini and tomato sauce with bacon, Macedonian and chorizo sausage meat plated with a dollop of cold ricotta with snipped chives.

Haricot verts, blanched, sauteed with shaved poblano chiles. Dusted with fresh grated pamesan.

Red and green bell pepper frittata.

Sicilian black olives with pepperoncino.

Small salad of microgreens and grilled shrimp with basil and mint oils.

[Priscilla]

Little smoked salmon sandwiches, cream cheese, very thin purple onion, very thin tomato, on very good light German rye. American paddlefish caviar, melted butter, Frenchy-French baguette from the Vietnamese baker. Paddlefish caviar verdict: Not bad. Mild, mild mild mild, which can go too far, but is better than half-gone-off too-strong rancidity. Course, just about anything is better than half-gone-off too-strong rancidity, ain't it?

Nice bottle of Piper Heidseick brut, in the weird-ass whole-bottle red shrink-wrap.

[pixelchef]

Arugula, Roquefort, Asian Pear, Spiced Walnut salad / Honey-Citrus Vinaigrette.

Parsnip & Pancetta Tagliatelle

(Parsnips, Pancetta, Garlic, Onion, Fresh Basil, with peppered Tagliatelle in a butter-Parmesan sauce.)

[Stephanie]

I had a butternut squash half left over from Sunday's dinner, so I made a vegetable stew (recipe courtesy of Epicurious). I'd pre-roasted the squash a few days prior, and I sauteed it in olive oil with onion and a little salt. Then, I added mushrooms and a combination of vegetable broth mixed with a little flour. Finally, I put in chopped red chard and let it cook just long enough for the chard to wilt. The stew was served with tri-color couscous that had fresh parsley added to it. It was nice and hearty for a cold winter's night, but a little bland--I had to perk it up with Tabasco.

[FoodMan]

Beef and Potatoes...in the form of home made gnochi served with slow braised beef in barolo. Perfect comfort food for the cold weather.

For dessert I made Alton Brown's cheescake

FM

Edited January 17, 2003 by FoodMan (log)

[Priscilla]

Surprisingly nice fresh Alaskan cod suggested Icelandic fish cakes. Duly prepared. Forwent the trad boiled-potato accompaniment on account of the late hour and having excellent rye bread in the bread box. Jim Dixon's Italo-PNW Roasted Cauliflower. The other trad accompaniment, melted Lurpak, was not forgone.

[Jaymes]

Carnitas de puerco

Charro beans

Pico de gallo con aguacate

Tortillas

[jaybee]

A humungous broiled hamburger made from 2/3 ground chuck and 1/3 ground brisket, with sliced onion and root beer in a frosted mug. What was it someone said about simplicity?

[Kim WB]

Beef and Potatoes...in the form of home made gnochi served with slow braised beef in barolo. Perfect comfort food for the cold weather.

For dessert I made Alton Brown's cheescake

FM

where is the braised borolo recipe from?

[Jaymes]

A humungous broiled hamburger made from 2/3 ground chuck and 1/3 ground brisket, with sliced onion and root beer in a frosted mug.  What was it someone said about simplicity?

Thou art the very soul.

[FoodMan]

where is the braised borolo recipe from?

The braised beef in Barolo is from Mario Batali's first book "Simple Italian Food" the basic gnochi recipe is from the same book as well.

FM

[CathyL]

Chicken roasted with citrus, garlic & cumin from Bobby Flay's recipe in the NY Times this week. (Cluck.) Very flavorful.

I could have left it in the oven another 10 minutes or so. And next time I'll ignore Bobby's don't-bother advice about trussing: the citrus wedges kept falling out of the cavity while the bird was breast down for browning.

[La Niña]

Rib lamb chops marinated in red wine, onion, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, oregano, thyme, then broiled close to the flame, 4 minutes on a side.

Potatoes sauteed with garlic, parsley, olive oil, and a bit of cumin

Green salad with ginger dressing

challah (not home made)

Sour cream pound cake glazed with chocolate ganache with kirsch-laden rasberry sauce on the side

[FoodMan]

Yesterday I made another fantastic cold weather delight; "Tortellini in sweet onion Lambrusco broth". It is another recipe from Batali's great "Simple Italian Food". Homemade Tortellini filled with chicken, mortadella, Proscuitto Di Parma, and Grana cheese cooked in a rich chicken broth with sweet Lambrusco onions (chopped red onions, sugar and red Lambrusco cooked together until it resembles a marmalade).

For dessert we had Pate a Choux puffs stuffed with chocolate mousse.

FM

[Jinmyo]

FoodMan, excuse my ignorance for I have neither read Mario's book nor do I know much of Italian wines. But I assume you mean onions cooked in Lambrusco red wine? Or is is there a similiarly named red onion?

In any case, a very nice meal.

[FoodMan]

FoodMan, excuse my ignorance for I have neither read Mario's book nor do I know much of Italian wines. But I assume you mean onions cooked in Lambrusco red wine? Or is is there a similiarly named red onion?

In any case, a very nice meal.

You are correct Jin, it is red onions cooked in red Lambrusco wine and sugar.

FM

[col klink]

A little late, but Wednesday night I pan seared frenched duck breasts in duck fat with roasted baby reds (in duck fat, yeah!) and roasted broccoli. The breasts were served on top of a fresh rhubarb, maple and duck stock sauce.

[NeroW]

Tenderloin, bearnaise, and "bistro" fries. And wine. And apple pie with cheddar cheese. Celebrating boyfriend's successful rock and roll gig and my acceptance to French culinary school. For breakfast, had tenderloin again. And Bloody Marys. And pie. Will sleep now.

[torakris]

Spent yesterday morning at Yokohama's china town and then spent the afternoon driving to Narita (Tokyo's airport) and back to drop off my Aunt who had been visiting for 3 weeks. Got home tired and not really hungry so I ripped open a bag of tortilla chips, placed them in two dishes, grated cheddar cheese over them and popped them in the micromave for 40 seconds. Poured a bowl of salsa while I was sauteeing some cocktail sausages, then placed them along with ketchup and mustard on the table in the living room and we all sat down to watch cartoon network.

My kid's were in heaven!!

This week it is time to get to some serious food!