Dinner! 2003

[torakris]

Soba nice to see you cooking again!

Sounds great.

Tuesday night:

spent all day on the phone and had no time to plan dinner,

made quick pork tenderloin "satay". blanched green beans, bamboo shoots, cut up cucumbers and tomatoes put everything on a huge platter and covered it with my Thai style peanut sauce.

Japanese rice

Dessert:

ice cream

[=Mark]

First post here, came up with a killer squash recipe:

Cut an acorn squash in half and remove seeds. Place halves cut side down in a cassarole. Pour a half cup of water and a half cup of dry sherry into cassarole, cover and put in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then flip the halves over. Sprinkle fresh grated black pepper and grated cinnamon into halves along with a tablespoon of unsalted butter. Re-cover and bake another 30 minutes. Simple.

Voila!

[Jinmyo]

Roasted Yukon gold potatoes with ancho, rosemary, and other seasonings.

Slow roasted plum tomatoes with chevré.

Lime sauerkraut with chopped Chinese celery.

Roasted white and red onion gratin with grilled lamb chops.

Frittata with asparagus, poblano, cubanelle, and red peppers.

And Jinmyo, I need to stop reading your posts to this thread during lunch! Drool.

If you don't mind, could you elaborate a bit for me on the onion gratin?

Sure, NeroW.

Very roughly chopped white and red onions. Toss with melted butter and olive oil, salt and pepper, a bit of balsamico, slide into shallow casseroles. Add about three knobs of butter for each casserole, cover with fresh large breadcrumbs. Roast in a convection oven at 350 for an hour and forty-five minutes.

If you want to, remove, add some shavings of gruyere, under salamander or broiler to brown the cheese. Some fresh tarragon is nice.

Leftovers are nice layered into roast beef sandwiches with Dijon and diced tomatoes.

[torakris]

Weds dinner:

ended up being totally different then what was planned, but thus is life!

soft shell tacos

ground chicken seasoned with chilli powder, cumin, garlic and lime juice

wrapped in tortillas with cheddar, guacamole and pico de gallo

dessert:

1 gorgeous pineapple!

[nerissa]

Tagiatelle with parsnips, proscuitto, spinach. Grated parmasean at the end.

For dessert: purchased mint chocolate chip ice cream.

[FoodMan]

Chicken medallions, breaded with polenta and pan fried in some butter and olive oil. Served with corn mash and green tomato relish.

Dessert: Creme Brulee Tart bought from a pastry shop.

FM

[SobaAddict70]

Tuesday:

Steak au poivre

Brown rice

Steamed broccoli (lime butter)

Poland Spring

nectarines

---------

Tonight (Wednesday):

broiled boneless skinless chicken breasts, rubbed with EVOO and lime butter, smothered with diced yellow and Italian sweet peppers

couscous

steamed broccoli (almond oil and kosher salt)

Poland Spring

Cinnamon ice cream with leftover baked apples

cheers,

Soba

[torakris]

Thursday night:

my 33rd birthday dinner made my....

ME!

Morrocan tangine of chicken with tomatoes and honey

served on a bed of couscous with a side of seasoned yogurt

Eggplants in a spicy honey sauce

turnip and orange salad

dessert:

my two favorite ingredients combined into one!

coconut and raspberry cupcakes

EDIT: all the recipes except the cupcakes (from Donna Hay) were from the new Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.

Edited March 27, 2003 by torakris (log)

[Sandra Levine]

Skate with brown butter, capers

Roasted parsnip batonettes

Baby bok choy with butter and cheese (from From Amaranth to Zucchini)

Salad

Rice Pudding

Edited March 28, 2003 by Sandra Levine (log)

[nerissa]

Chapatis (big flour mess )

Masoor Dal Hyberdaad style with zuchinni

Red chile pickle.

Edited March 28, 2003 by nerissa (log)

[Suzanne F]

Tuesday: Cast-Iron-Pan-Grilled Rib steak rubbed with olive oil and herbs; couscous with feta; salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Wednesday: Roasted D'Artagnan Organic Chicken basted with butter, chipotle paste, lime juice, and Mexican oregano; Posole and corn kernels (both canned ) heated in chicken jus; salad of the usual suspects.

Thursday, in honor of Torakris's birthday (although I didn't know until later): Pork Tonkatsu (Kikkoman sauce), steamed white rice, stir-fried shiitakes and bok choy with ginger, garlic, soy, and a touch of red pepper flakes, more g-d salad. At least I don't have to make the salad every night.

[torakris]

Tuesday:  Cast-Iron-Pan-Grilled Rib steak rubbed with olive oil and herbs; couscous with feta; salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Wednesday: Roasted D'Artagnan Organic Chicken basted with butter, chipotle paste, lime juice, and Mexican oregano; Posole and corn kernels (both canned  ) heated in chicken jus; salad of the usual suspects.

Thursday, in honor of Torakris's birthday (although I didn't know until later):  Pork Tonkatsu (Kikkoman sauce), steamed white rice, stir-fried shiitakes and bok choy with ginger, garlic, soy, and a touch of red pepper flakes, more g-d salad.  At least I don't have to make the salad every night. 

Suzanne, canned corn is okay, according to the things that should be banned thread!

It is fine to use kikkoman's sauce on my birthday, but on Jinny's birthday it had better be homemade!

[SFJoe]

served over butternut squash puree with wild mushrooms, topped with black trumpet mushrooms.

trumpet mushrooms weren't washed enough.  the "crunch" wasn't all that bad.

Tommy,

Where'd you get the blacks?

[IrishCream]

Last night: Jaymes' Carnitas with corn tortillas and home-made Pico de Gallo....heaven. Dessert: Dream Bars

[NeroW]

Friday

For a male friend with a 2-month-old, stuck at home with "The Little" as he calls her, while his fiancee waitresses at night:

Filet mignon, sea salted and just barely heated up in a pan filmed with butter and oil.

Bearnaise, the first one I've made that I've been truly happy with. My friend had never had bearnaise before, and he joyously ate all the leftover sauce (cold, clumping out of the pan. It was most disgusting).

Oven fries with parsley and garlic.

Half a bottle of grody Bordeaux.

Saturday, for ex-boyfriend who has romantic memories of my nachos:

My nachos. Homemade guac. Homemade salsa. Sour cream. Beer.

[torakris]

Sunday dinner, had a large BBQ at my in-laws for lunch, so a simple dinner:

linguine with tuna (canned), lemon, parsley, and red onions

--the sauce was uncooked and tossed with the hot pasta and a nice peppery EVOO

dessert:

honey vanilla gelato

--homemade with the recipe from Babbo

[Marlene]

Saturday, dinner for twelve plus two kids:

shrimp ring with homemade cocktail sauce

Nacho Dip. with tortilla chips

Homemade pizza for the kids

Prime Rib

garlic mashed potatoes

ceasar salad

garlic breadsticks

flourless chocolate torte from the William Sonoma Desserts book, with creme anglaise

[Adam Balic]

Cooked a Persian Chicken dish at a friends home.

Chicken de-boned and skin streched out to form a square shape. Meat of chicken moved around to give a continueous layer of meat.

One medium onion, finally chopped, sauted until golden then walnuts, dried apricots (Middle-Eastern, not Californian*), dried sour cherries and barberries added sauteing continued until fragrant (1-2 minutes). This mixture spread of chicken meat. Chicken salted and the entire thing is rolled and tied as for a galatine etc.

Chicken wrapped in foil and cooked for 50 minutes at 180.C. Chicken taken out of foil, brushed with butter, salted and has a fine dusting of ground black cumin. Put back into a hot oven (225.C) for ten minutes, rotating occcasionally to crispy up the chicken skin.

Chicken rested for ten minutes and sliced. I served it with cous cous. If I had time I would have made a pilaw.

Was delicious. However, the combination of sour fruit (barberries and cherries) was important to balance the sweet apricots. Without this balance the dish doesn't work I should think.

*Middle-Eastern dried apricots (Turkish in my case) are better then Californian. The Turkish friut are dark (not Sulfur used) and have a rich sweet caramel/ Apricot flavour, they also melt during cooking, so are much better for this type of recipe then the Californian dried apricots.

[Wilfrid]

Shad roe. Shad roe. Bless it. This time, each carefully separated lobe well-seasoned and wrapped in a strip of bacon, sauteed in butter. Pan deglazed with white wine (the roe still in there), and a further five minutes gentle poaching. Sprinkled with chopped fresh cilantro and the buttery pan juices spooned over.

[SobaAddict70]

Friday: Dinner at Nobu. You can read all about it on the NY board under the Nobu thread. (Too lazy to post the link. The black cod is um....amazing. Got the recipe for it from a friend, so now I have to go make it. *sigh* )

Saturday: skinless boneless chicken breasts -- this time, marinated in mushroom soy, mirin, minced ginger, minced garlic and chili sesame oil for several hours -- I would've preferred overnight but couldn't do that -- then poached in Chinese chicken stock with Chinese rice wine; then served with a ginger and garlic paste. For the chicken stock, this is your basic chicken stock, made with the addition of unpeeled ginger root, reconstituted dried Chinese black mushrooms, star anise, light soy and Smithfield ham. For the paste, pound peeled minced ginger and garlic, along with a bit of salt in a mortar, mix in peanut oil and a touch of sesame oil; pound until smooth. Steamed rice. Pea shoots, stir-fried with garlic; minced scallions and white pepper tossed in at the end. Jasmine tea. Nectarines.

Sunday: Made use of a pizza stone that I got for my birthday. First time I've ever used it. Ok, it wasn't a pizza, but an onion tart -- caramelized red onions and yellow onions, and minced shallots, with a little anchovies thrown in and Italian parsley. (For the anchovies, take salt-packed anchovies and soak in milk, for a little over an hour or two, then rinse. Mince finely, and add to the pan while your onions are cooking. Or you can use oil packed anchovies, in which case no soaking is necessary, adding them to the pan directly.) Simple green salad with a champagne viniagrette. A baguette. Perrier. Fresh fruit salad.

Cheers,

Soba

ps. have to get over my aversion to working with dough. reminds me of play-doh only its not as fun.

[FoodMan]

dessert:

honey vanilla gelato

--homemade with the recipe from Babbo

I've been meaning to try out this Gelato recipe and serve it with the great looking Peach Crostada from the book the way he does. How did it turn out? Did u use a regular icecream maker or do you actually have a gelato maker ?

FM

[torakris]

dessert:

honey vanilla gelato

--homemade with the recipe from Babbo

I've been meaning to try out this Gelato recipe and serve it with the great looking Peach Crostada from the book the way he does. How did it turn out? Did u use a regular icecream maker or do you actually have a gelato maker ?

FM

I used my Delonghi gelato machine!

I have to admit I really don't care for honey, so I wasn't really very impressed with it, but everyone else loved it.

Definitely use a good flavored honey because that will be all you will taste.

[SobaAddict70]

Tonight (Monday):

Leftover onion tart

Green beans with poppy seeds, lemon and almonds [i drizzled a little almond oil before serving]

Mixed green salad w/rice vinegar viniagrette [OO, rice vinegar, cranberry honey mustard, salt, white pepper]

Lime barley water [Per 1.5 c. of water, add 1 T. of pearl barley; bring to a boil and reduce mixture by half over high heat. Strain. Mix in lime juice and your favorite sweetener to taste, and stir well. Serve hot or chilled. I sometimes spike this mixture with a ginger-infused simple syrup instead of the sweetener.]

Sweet risotto with saffron, dried cherries and golden sultanas

Soba

[Kikujiro]

Saturday: friends to dinner. TV chef retro food: Bellinis, very young green olives, grissini; crab linguine / Locatelli, poached beef (Ginger Pig, rather good), celeriac mash / Jamie, grilled radicchio, chocolate coulants / Bras (collapsed somewhat, although tasted great -- think I made the centres too big).

Edited April 1, 2003 by Kikujiro (log)

[fimbul]

Cooked Sunday night after a particularly grueling 7 hour drive. I was too tired to do anything but roast a chicken and wilt some spinach and fall over in my food.

Last night was better, but I was still groggy enough to serve a meal in varying shades of brown: pan-roasted duck legs, sauteed shiitakes with scallions and a hint of gomasio, and fried eggplant with garlic and chiles. Ugly as a dog's butt on the plate, but it tasted pretty good. I think I'm going to be very happy now that I know I can buy fresh duck legs on a regular basis at a place not too far from my work. Now, if they only sold fresh duck breasts as well... makes me wonder, where do all those legless ducks go?