Dinner! 2003

[Suzanne F]

How nice to see some new faces here! And cooking one of my favorite cuisines. Welcome, Vikram!

I finally cooked again last night; it's been a while 'coz I didn't have time.

Marinated baby octopus in red wine, olive oil, chopped garlic, oregano, marjoram, basil, a touch of hot pepper flakes, S & P (octopus from Thailand, bought frozen in a Chinatown supermarket); cooked them in cast-iron grill pan. Squid-ink penne alongside. Sauced with a reduction of the marinade, extra red wine, and stock made from the octopus trimmings. Mixed salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Wagner (Finger Lakes) 1998 Cabernet Franc.

[claire797]

Finally made something worth posting. Inspired by an Andrea Immer recipe, we took boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves, sliced them cross-wise, brushed them with peach preserves, topped topped that with sage leaves, wrapped each breast piece in prosciutto then grilled them over charcoal and mesquite chips. No salt, no pepper. All of the flavor comes from the prosciutto, sage and mesquite smoke.

[awbrig]

Claire,

Do you have a picture of them after you grilled them?

[fimbul]

Thursday night:

- seared skirt steak with anch-chipotle sour cream and orange-habanero salsa

- wilted spinach (cooked in the pan in which I'd seared the steak) with a touch of mushroom stock and a handful of toasted pepitos

- green salad with chiffonaded endive and red pepper with a sherry vinaigrette.

Tonight is looking like I'm going to leave work early to prepare pasta with a sauce of mushrooms and rabbit. I'm looking forward to it. It's been a loooong week.

[mcdowell]

Tonight is looking like I'm going to leave work early to prepare pasta with a sauce of mushrooms and rabbit.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's been a loooong week.

I'm not allowed to cook rabbit, now that we have one as a pet.

You lucky dog.

[Priscilla]

Last evening steak frites, nice Certified Angus NY strips + 1 tenderloin, grilled over very very hot mesquite. Compound butter with lots of chives, s&p + some Turkish Aleppo pepper I received from Penzey's just yesterday melting in generous quantity atop, the better to begin to soak the frites alongside.

Beet greens given to me by my amigo at the farmer's market (of COURSE I inquired about buying them, but he wouldn't have it -- there was a big old accumulation in front of him from the folks who took their beets topped). Sauteed onion, wilted, coarsely-chopped beet greens, butter added in bits along the way as the greens, as Elizabeth David said about spinach, "imbibed" the previous addition, until critical mass was reached. Plenty of s&p, touch of nutmeg grated in there.

Oh first a little shrimp cocktail bite out by the old Weber, a little glass of white sangria while the mesquite chunks did their thing.

[FoodMan]

last nights dinner was very simple and quick.

From Pepin's "the Apprentice" book I made "eggs Jeannette". These are basically deviled eggs that are browned in a skillet after being stuffed and then drizzled with a dressing made from some leftover egg stuffing, dijon mustard, evoo, s&p.

I also made a fresh tomato salad. Sliced the tomatoes into rounds, spread them on a plate and sprikled with fresh basil, garlic, s&p, and evoo.

FM

[claire797]

Claire,

Do you have a picture of them after you grilled them?

No. I don't know what I was thinking. I think we were so excited about eating them that I put the camera away.

The good news is that the prosciutto (which is prostitute in spellcheck by the way) worked marvelously on the grill. It kept the chicken moist and took on an even smokier, baconish texture.

[mcdowell]

Salmon chorizo hash topped with two poached eggs

Xanthippe - the whole menu sounds really good, but I have a question:

Was this chorizo made out of salmon? Or salmon w/ chorizo?

[margaret]

Thursday:

Silken tofu crisped up a bit in a frypan, then crumbled, mixed with some blanched broccoli and dressed with garlic miso-kochujang-japanese mayo

Kong Namul (Korean bean sprout salad)

Braised daikon with scallions and sesame oil

Cabbage kimchi

Japanese rice

[paul o' vendange]

Lemon and Thyme Roasted Whole Chicken, garnished with roasted whole-heads of garlic.

Fresh thyme, minced shallots, minced lemon rind, lemon juice, kosher salt, pepper, stuffed under the skin of the bird; whole roasted garlic heads, both about an hour at 400. Simple, the fresh herb and lemon acts as a room vaporizer. Not quite ChefG's rosemary fumes, but redolent of la belle campagne...

Xan, the beurre blanc with salmon, but making a pilgrimage to Isaacson's again, they've got grouper, mediterranean sea bass, who knows?

[Xanthippe]

Salmon chorizo hash topped with two poached eggs

Xanthippe - the whole menu sounds really good, but I have a question:

Was this chorizo made out of salmon? Or salmon w/ chorizo?

Hey, mcdowell!

Thanks for the compliment, and the chorizo was made with salmon. Perhaps I should have described it as "salmon with chorizo spicing," or a variant thereof.

[Xanthippe]

Lemon and Thyme Roasted Whole Chicken, garnished with roasted whole-heads of garlic. 

Fresh thyme, minced shallots, minced lemon rind, lemon juice, kosher salt, pepper, stuffed under the skin of the bird; whole roasted garlic heads, both about an hour at 400.  Simple, the fresh herb and lemon acts as a room vaporizer.  Not quite ChefG's rosemary fumes, but redolent of la belle campagne...

Xan, the beurre blanc with salmon, but making a pilgrimage to Isaacson's again, they've got grouper, mediterranean sea bass, who knows?

Another tempting description, paul 'o. Nice. And the added bonus of a fresh herb and lemon room vaporizer!

Beurre blanc is to sauces what morels are to fungi: both make most anything taste better. I'm sure your fish, whether it be salmon, grouper or Med. sea bass, will be lovely. Hope you can get your hands on those blood oranges . . .

[Jinmyo]

Chicken temaki (ancho-breaded chicken thigh skins peeled, filled with gohan, chive kimchi, chopped egg, served hot but not so hot you couldn't pick them up comfortably).

Demi-tasse of wild mushroom consomme with roasted lime reduction.

Shattered chicken (pulled chicken thigh meat) with watercress and a sauce of pureed chicken livers and tomato folded in a fried corn tortilla.

Guajillo negro chile and Tequilla shaved ice with diced frozen green grapes.

Grilled porcini in a lamb reduction with crumbled Stilton.

Lamb rib chops with Five Mint Pesto (just various kinds of mint pureed with pupkin seeds and pecroino) on Jerusalem artichoke and Yukon Gold mashers with a few fresh shelled peas that were poached in butter.

[hjshorter]

Just in case you all feel like slumming...

Grilled hot dogs

barbecue beans

carrot and celery sticks with blue cheese dip

vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet

beer for Scott, milk for the rest of us

[Xanthippe]

Just in case you all feel like slumming...

Grilled hot dogs

barbecue beans

carrot and celery sticks with blue cheese dip

vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet

beer for Scott, milk for the rest of us

Sounds like what we called The Saturday Night Special when I was a child! All except the lemon sorbet, of course; we didn't know from sorbet back in "those days."

[paul o' vendange]

Grilled pork chops - marinade: rosemary, cracked pepper, shallots, garlic (ungodly amounts of garlic), olive oil.

Indirect grill under cover with sprigs of water-soaked rosemary.

Sauce Robert (I love this sauce for all meat grills, esp. pork)

Pommes anna.

Paulaner Munchen lager. Helles, straight and dependable.

72 degrees, light wind. My 2.5 year old shaking glitter on the father's day card he's fashioning as a "surprise."

Is this heaven?

Edited June 14, 2003 by paul o' vendange (log)

[malachi]

Wild Salmon wrapped in Pancetta and pan-Roasted.

Reduced fresh Cherry sauce (bitter cherries, bing cherries, brandy, demi-glace, fresh sage, green peppercorns).

Mache with a light Mustard Vinaigrette with shaved radishes.

Allagash White.

[paul o' vendange]

Malachi, wonderful. Sage and cherries, will have to try. Once made a rabbit braise with coffee, sage, demiglace, others - sage is an awesome herb.

And Allagash white is a great beer. Have you tried Ommegang's offerings? 160 acre brewery in god's lap isn't bad...

[SobaAddict70]

Thursday:

tamago dofu (sort of like a chawan-mushi but simpler and served chilled)

soba noodles with various toppings: a) wasabi paste, b) nori tempura, c) shredded plain egg omelette, d) minced shiso leavers and scallions and e) oshinko

grapes set in jellied plum wine

green tea

Evian

-----------

Friday:

spicy shrimp soup with lemongrass

stir-fried kale with crisp fried bacon (kale, peanut oil, garlic, bacon, oyster sauce, salt, white pepper, chicken stock)

steamed rice

jasmine tea

bananas in coconut milk

Soba

[malachi]

Malachi, wonderful.  Sage and cherries, will have to try.  Once made a rabbit braise with coffee, sage, demiglace, others - sage is an awesome herb.

And Allagash white is a great beer.  Have you tried Ommegang's offerings?  160 acre brewery in god's lap isn't bad...

One of the really nice things about living in the high desert is that we get year-round fresh sage. I think we have 4 varieties in our yard.

I like the sage/cherry combo -- especially in this case. It worked really well with the Pancetta and Salmon.

I have tried the Ommegang stuff. Hennepin is an excellent beer - something I'd like to have around much of the time. In general, however, I kind of prefer the Allagash beers. Their tripel is perhaps the best American tripel and their Gran Cru (while not technically a true Gran Cru) is very tasty as well. The Allagash White is super nice - it has replaced Celis as my favorite US wit (it's no Hoegarden but then again... what is?).

[awbrig]

we didn't know from sorbet back in "those days."

It was sherbet or sherbert or something...

[suzilightning]

friday night

bangers and mash with onion gravy and steamed green beans

saturday -

bass with a mixture of chopped shallot, red and yellow peppers, minced garlic, green and nicoise olives, capers, evoo and from the garden fresh tarragon and flat leaf parsley wrapped in foil and baked in the oven(had planned to do on the grill but the lines of thunderstorms blowing through discouraged it)

wild and brown rice

zucchini fritters

tonight i'm planning on buffalo burgers, german style potato salad and mexican slaw - as long as it doesn't thunder and lightning

[paul o' vendange]

Malachi - agree, the Allagash Tripel is excellent, never had the gran cru. I do like Ommegang's Ommegang "burgundian" brew. More, I'm jealous of their "terroir," upstate NY on 160 acres of beautiful country, a converted chicken farm, if memory serves.

I also like some of Unibroue's products (Fin Du Monde, Maudite, their wit Blanche de Chambly); I lean to golden, abbey and trappist ales more than wit (La Chouffe, Orval, Duvel), but love the wit on a hot summer's day.

* * *

Dinner tonight - celestin blondeau sancerre '98 (father's day gift), striped bass, artichokes barigoule (a la FL).

Edited June 15, 2003 by paul o' vendange (log)

[paul o' vendange]

Change of plans - all FL. Got some nice black sea bass from Fox & Obel, going to try FL's black bass with saffron-vanilla sauce, spinach. Dessert - candied fennel, rhubarb confit, and a (bought) strawberry-basil-vodka sorbet.