Dinner! 2003

[KateW]

Woops, realized this thread is about what we *cooked*...hehe. Well I shall start posting what I made in class, even if it is just a tomato and mozzerella salad :)

[mikeycook]

Hey mikey-here's wishing quick healing to your finger.  You got a recipe for the potato omelet-minus the blood?

Thanks for the "get well" post.

The finger is better today. Just have to keep a wrap on, so I will probably forego cooking today.

The potato omelet recipe I used was from Penelope Casas' Delicioso book. I made the Tortilla de Patata Jose Luis (Potato Omelet Jose Luis) from the Jose Luis tapas bar in Madrid, with a slight modification (I had medium eggs, not large, a large potatoes, not medium.)

3/4 Cup Olive Oil

1 Medium Onion, finely chopped (injury culprit)

3 Large Baking Potatoes, peeled, in 1/8 inch slices

salt

7 Medium Eggs

Heat the oil in a 8- to 9-inch skillet (I used non-stick, although I usually don't. Makes omelet steps easier.) Cook the onion very slowly for about 20 minutes. Skim off the onion and discard. Add potato slices in layers, salting each layer. Simmer the potatoes in oil until tender (not browned), turning as you cook. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry on paper towels. Reserve the oil. (You can also cook the onion with the potato instead and not discard, but I did not.)

In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly and add some salt. Add the potatoes and submerge them using a spatula (or similar). Let sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil to the smoking point in the skillet and add the potato/egg mixture. Turn heat down to med.-high. Cook until lightly brown underneath. Slide the omelet onto a large plate. Put another plate on top and flip over. Add another 2 teaspoons of oil and heat back to smoking. Slide the omelet back into the pan and cook the other side until lightly browned. Tuck in an rough edges with a spatula. Slide onto a plate again, cover and flip (as above.) Add 2 more teaspoons of oil and cook the omelet for 30 seconds. Repeat for the other side. Slide onto a serving plate.

The omelet can be served immediately or left up to several hours and served at room temperature (we ate a little both ways before the ER trip.)

[Suzanne F]

Saturday:

Pan-fried/steamed duck leg quarters with rosemary

1/4d Red potatoes cooked in duck fat (saved from earlier ducks) with mixed herbs (rosemary, oregano, tarragon, lemon thyme) and roast garlic "stock"

Mixed salad with red oak leaf, arugula, Boston, and romain, plus tomato and cucumber, with olive oil and home-infused basil vinegar.

Green & Red Vineyard 2001 Zinfandel (St. Helena, CA)

Tonight:

Spaghetti alla chittara (bought, dried) with roast garlic oil, lemon juice and zest, black pepper, freshly grated (of course!) Parmesan, Romano, and Kasseri, and flat-leaf parsley

Leftover braised endive wrapped in ham

Salad as usual with oo and oregano-infused vinegar

Wine as almost always. This time a new purchase: Paumanok Chenin Blanc, yum

Edited September 15, 2003 by Suzanne F (log)

[torakris]

Saturday dinner

pasta with roasted kabocha squash and onions that had been "roasted" in basalmic vinegar (thanks to Jun in the onion thread! )

Sunday dinner:

had a large BBQ lunch and wasn't hungry for dinner, but my husband made some incredible ribs and we threw some potatoes on the grill and I nibbled on those.

dessert:

one of those monster sheet cakes for Costco, my in-laws bought this for us for some reason and it is taking up 1/2 of my refrigerator!

[SethG]

Sunday night dinner: Spaghetti with eggplant sauce with tomato and dried hot red peppers.

Tomorrow (or maybe the next day): something with ponzu!

[SobaAddict70]

stir-fried chicken, green beens, and shredded ginger

plain fried rice with garlic and minced scallions

steamed tofu, topped with honey

green tea

grapefruit and orange segments, with a splash of orange flower water, topped with slivered almonds and toasted shredded coconut

Soba

[Basilgirl]

Beer battered fried chicken tenderloins and onion rings

Corn on the cob roasted in the husk in the oven, with cayenne-lime butter

Sliced tomatoes in Greek vinaigrette

Bisquick drop biscuits

[Toliver]

Beer battered fried chicken tenderloins and onion rings 

Corn on the cob roasted in the husk in the oven, with cayenne-lime butter

Sliced tomatoes in Greek vinaigrette

Bisquick drop biscuits

Mouth watering delicious! I would propose marriage but I believe you are taken...

And don't be ashamed of the Biquick biscuits. My mom has been using it for years when she makes her pork roast with sauerkraut (our ethnic dish) and Bisquick dumplings. I asked her why she used Bisquick instead of making her dumplings by scratch and she said, "Here someone invented a shortcut that tastes as good as the "from scratch" biscuits...I'd be stupid not to use it and save myself some time."

I'll take mine with honey and Plugra, please.

[Basilgirl]

And don't be ashamed of the Biquick biscuits.  My mom has been using it for years when she makes her pork roast with sauerkraut (our ethnic dish) and Bisquick dumplings.  I asked her why she used Bisquick instead of making her dumplings by scratch and she said, "Here someone invented a shortcut that tastes as good as the "from scratch" biscuits...I'd be stupid not to use it and save myself some time."

I'll take mine with honey and Plugra, please. 

Well, thank you. I'm blushing.

The SO said they were the best biscuits he's ever had in his life!!!

He actually went crazy over that meal. "You've outdone yourself this time."

I mean, it was good, but I've made better. I think.

By the way, the beer batter is from Gourmet many many years ago - beer, flour, salt, Tabasco. Made great rings.

I think tonight we'll be dining on a...lighter side.

[SethG]

Monday dinner:

I got some ponzu at Kam Kuo in Manhattan's Chinatown. Also picked up some frozen shrimp shumai at Kam Kuo.

(The ponzu brand is Marukan, "since 1649," and it lists sudachi on the label. The same company also makes a dark ponzu with soy sauce in it.)

So I planned on the shumai

some salmon steaks

steamed broccoli (oops, sorry Fat Guy, boiled)

and rice.

I improvised a sort of teriyaki marinade for the salmon steaks. I put some soy sauce, sugar and grated fresh ginger together, marinated the steaks for about ten minutes, then broiled them. Then I mixed the ponzu with a little soy sauce and a little vinegar to make a sauce for the fish after the steaks came out. Okay, I admit it: I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

So the salmon was great, perfectly done and tasty too if I do say so myself, but the marinade totally overwhelmed the ponzu in the sauce I made. The ponzu sauce actually tasted good over the rice and the broccoli, however, so it wasn't a total waste of ponzu.

Edited September 16, 2003 by SethG (log)

[Alex]

fresh corn on the cob

tomato and cucumber salad

leftover chicken

cheap Oz white

leftover goat cheese ice cream

wonderful

[bloviatrix]

My husband made dinner again. Of course, he didn't have choice considering he bought a whole rainbow trout and I refuse to touch any fish that still has it's head on. He stuffed the fish with fresh mint and slices of lime. It was really quite good - his cooking skills are improving.

[JSD]

It was a fantastic end of the season supper:

Pesto pasta - homegrown basil

Tomato salad with oregano and feta - homegrown tomatoes and oregano

one single extra dark LU ecolier

[NeroW]

More chicken, folks. Bwak bwak!

Took it apart--it's getting easier now that I understand one must use the tip of one's boning knife, and not the edge. I only wanted the breasts for last night, so I set aside the legs and thighs to use (more satisfying-ly) this evening.

Rubbed a saute pan with butter, threw in some diced shallots, slathered the chicken breasts with coarse salt and white pepper. Threw them in the pan (presentation-side-down, don't you know ).

Dumped in some white wine, a few cups full of quickie-bogarted chicken stock, and a hit of white wine vinegar just to cover the chicken. Threw in some Microplaned ginger, half a stalk or so of diced lemongrass, a few spiky star anise pods (anyone ever step on one of these? ), and some black peppercorns.

Covered with parchment paper and let it poach about 4 minutes per side.

Took the chicken out, cranked up the flame and bubbled about half of my poaching liquid away. Added heavy cream, bubbled a bit more--the whole "coating the spoon" idea. Strained it, hit it with butter, lemon juice, and some minced basil and cilantro.

Made a quick white rice pilaf with scallions and ginger to go alongside. It was rather uninteresting, but I did pilfer a handful of black sesame seeds from school, which I toasted and sprinkled over the top.

Tonight I think I will do a jerk paste for the legs and thighs, if there are habaneros to be had.

[torakris]

Tuesday night:

mushroom fritatta with shiitake, shimeji, and eryngii

fresh corn on the cob

herring "sashimi" with a sweet-sour orange sauce (purchased) served on a bed of arugula and onion tossed with a little EVOO and a drop of basalmic

Japanese rice

[Jason Perlow]

German food this evening:

Pork Bratwursts (from Whole Foods) with Sauerkraut und Spaetzle

[Rachel Perlow]

It was whole wheat spatzle. Does that help? Actually, I browned the sausage with very little oil, drained, added rinsed sauerkraut & caraway and braised. I was trying a new recipe for spaetzle this time, this one, made with water, subbing in 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for an equal amount of the white flour. It looks creamy, but there's only a little bit of butter melted over them to keep them from sticking. They start to look creamy because you have to toss each batch into the butter (you can only cook about 1/2 cup of batter at a time). I think I prefer my regular recipe, which calls for milk. The other one made too damn much, although the wheat was an added flavor.

I hadn't made spatzle for over a year. Jason's been begging for it. It is the easiest fresh noodle to make in the world.

[bloviatrix]

Roasted Steelhead Trout and cauliflower.

[jwagnerdsm]

Pork Tenderloin studded with little match sticks of ginger and roasted with cherries. Served atop spaghetti squash seasoned with nutmeg and cinnamon and then fried like hash browns.

[Malawry]

A puff pastry turnover stuffed with spinach, red bell pepper and feta. I meant to serve it with a small salad but the salad didn't happen.

Pan-fried catfish nappeed with tomato beurre blanc

Steamed asparagus

Basmati rice

Chewy pecan-coconut bars

The tomato beurre blanc came from a classmate's final project. Her sauce was so good we all badgered her for leftovers when she made it. My sauce was similarly tasty, good enough that I dumped the leftovers on some extra rice and snarfed them in lieu of dessert. (My partner ate the bars happily, saying "These are awesome. Never make them again!")

[Suzanne F]

Hosted the more-or-less-monthly get-together of a bunch of friends from high school:

Congee (plain, just rice/water/S&P) with:

- Dried fish with satay flavor (from Aji Ichiban)

- Fried Dace (canned)

- Fish Balls

- Julienned boiled ham

- Raw peanuts

- "Sweet and Spicy Tofu"

- Sauteed sliced fresh waterchestnuts

- Stir-fried choy (not sure what kind)

- Raw watercress

- "Sour Mustard"

- Julienned ginger

- Cilantro

- Scallions

- "Fried Red Onions"

- Soy sauce

- Chili Garlic sauce

- Sesame oil

- Black vinegar

- Rice wine vinegar

- Oyster sauce

- Fish sauce

- Shichimi (togarishi) and sansho

and dessert: "Paradise" cake (passionfruit mousse on a sponge base with ladyfingers and fresh fruit topping; bought) and baklava (still from the potluck!)

Edited September 17, 2003 by Suzanne F (log)

[PCL]

mmm... Congee is good... haven't had it for a while. Need to get the congee expert (my wife) to get to work!! Texture is important... creamy, but not puree... the worse is watery congee with the rice in individual grains.. that's Teochew style...plain and eaten with fermented bean curd or salted duck...etc etc...

last night we had a friend over and the menu was:

pan seared calves' liver with shallots and balsamico (1/2 portion each)

spaghetti with tomatoes and basil (1/2 portion each)

rib eye on the charcoal grill

white button mushroom sauce (red wine, shallots, demi-glace)

sauteed shitake & chestnut mushrooms (butter, shallots, garlic, parsley)

herb salad

simple and yummy...

[curlywurlyfi]

had old friend over for dinner so made food easy to eat whilst waving hands around and talking a mile a minute (we have one of those chess timers that is set at 10 minutes so we know we have to move off of Topic A and onto Topic B or we'll never get through our agenda)

- spinach + red lentil dhal with 'sweet' spices (ginger, cloves, bay, cinammon, cardamom) - put red chilli flakes on the table to add at will, but we didn't use them

- basmati rice with apricots + toasted pine nuts

- green beans tossed with EVOO, diced fresh tomato, fresh garlic

- natural yoghurt

- ginger + rhubarb chutney (not really in keeping with the rest I know but I made it in July when I was at my parents' and she was keen to try)

had the leftovers for lunch today, too. mmmm.

[helenas]

scallops dumplings in asian-flavored broth:

[Alex]

Penne with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, French -- er, Freedom feta, basil, parsley, and hot pepper flakes. Drank a very nice Tempranillo.