Dinner! 2003

[torakris]

Sunday we spent 3 hours at a champagne/caviar brunch at a hotel in Tokyo, so no one was really very hungry for dinner.

I ate two slices or (purchased) garlic bread

the kids had instant curry rice

and my husband also had instant curry rice, however his was a new flavor that had gorgonzola cheese in it?!

I couldn't even dare to take a bit. way beyond gross!!

[Dana]

green salad with kalamata olives and feta cheese

sauteed red snapper and scallops with white wine/shallot/butter sauce

baby brussel sprouts with lemon

[Malawry]

Cheddar mashed potatoes

Braeburn apples dipped in horseradish mustard

[nerissa]

Saturday night:

Celebrated Chinese new Years with friends--one friend is from Hong Kong. Home made Dumplings, poached chicken in a ginger broth, and barbequed pork , rice, steamed watercress and a dessert--balls individually filled with curd, peanuts, and sesames in a sugary broth. Pardon my ignorance, but I can't remember the name.

Tonight:

I roasted a chicken with lemon, herbs, and garlic. Roasted new red potatoes and carrots--splashed balsamic vinegar at the end. Divine.

[Jinmyo]

Brandade (salt cod, garlic, potato puree) on red leaf lettuce with a soft poached egg and a small piece of double-smoked bacon.

Seafood bisque.

Liver sausages with sauteed cabbage and onion.

Marinated roasted red pepper slices rolled around chevre and minced scallion.

Garlic tuiles with taramasalata (salted cod roe with fresh mayonaisse).

[Belmont3]

Braised Boneless pork ribs in Chx stock w/ garlic, bayleaf, s and p. Then deepfried and served with reduced pan juices. Set atop Goat cheese scalloped potatoes. Port Carmelized onions set on top of the whole thing, garnished with fresh Chives

[Liza]

Foie-gras, butter, and thyme-rubbed chicken from Knoll Crest farms. Roasted fingerlings, carrots and shallots.

Strawberries and blueberries in yogurt with cat hair sprinkles for dessert.

[joler]

Sounds like there was a lot of Asian cooking going on this weekend in celebration of the New Year. I know my Asian market was filled with people on Friday and they had a really nice selection of produce, and a very interesting New Years cake made with sticky rice and red bean paste - wrapped in banana leaves.

I am ready for a "new season" and celebrated Groundhogs Day with a brunch for several friends. "Think Spring" was sort of the mantra of the day.

We started out with a selection of appetizers including: Vegetarian summer rolls with smoked tofu (recipe can be found on Foodtv.com) accompanied by a ginger-peanut sauce; Whole Brie that was split horizontally and layered with dried cherries and cranberries macerated in red wine with cinnamon and star anise, and toasted almonds and pecans, served with thinly sliced french bread; Edamame Hummus (Cooking Light) with toasted pita chips.

Brunch was simply a spinach-ricotta pie with artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers, spring mix salad with creamy dijon dressing and oven roasted potatoes.

For dessert, a delicious Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese icing (from the January issue of Saveur Magazine).

To drink, I served mimosas and vodka-cranberry juice.

Everyone had a great time and went home with a packet of herb seeds to start planting. I placed a floral "sticker" on the bottom of one plate and the person who chose that plate went home with the centerpiece, which was a flowerpot filled with seeds, gardening gloves, a trowel, and some artificial flowers in spanish moss - very cute.

It is 70 here in NC today, so it feels like maybe all of that "thinking spring" did the trick! But in reality, I think maybe Mother Nature is just playing games and the groundhog is right - 6 more weeks of winter.

[NeroW]

Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese icing (from the January issue of Saveur Magazine).

I am thinking of making this cake for the SO. If you don't mind my asking--did you follow the recipe exactly as written? To me, it seems it would be awful cloying and sticky-sweet--but that's my personal taste. It IS a cake, after all.

Just had a piece of chicken, sauteed portobellos, and pasta. Trying to pare down.

[joler]

I did follow the recipe exactly. The frosting was very sweet, but I really piled it on. I confess, all of the cake was gone and I finished off the crumbs (sans frosting) and it was great without it - the cake is extremely moist. Also, I didn't have any coconut extract so I just used half vanilla and half almond.

[torakris]

Mon dinner:

Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish)

roasted mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, button) tossed with watercress and EVOO and lemon juice

boiled peas tossed with butter and Maldon sae salt

Japanese rice

Castella cake for dessert (a gift)

[Jinmyo]

Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish)

Spanish mackerel. Also called horse mackerel.

[muon]

Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish)

Spanish mackerel. Also called horse mackerel.

I thought Spanish mackerel was sawara. Or does that just apply to sushi/sashimi. Or am I completely off base?

--m.

[torakris]

Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish)

Spanish mackerel. Also called horse mackerel.

I thought Spanish mackerel was sawara. Or does that just apply to sushi/sashimi. Or am I completely off base?

--m.

I have no idea what sawara is in English, but it isn't the same as aji. It is very white in color more like cod.

Guess it is time to pull out the dictionary.

[muon]

Grilled aji (sorry forgot the English name of this fish)

Spanish mackerel. Also called horse mackerel.

I thought Spanish mackerel was sawara. Or does that just apply to sushi/sashimi. Or am I completely off base?

--m.

I have no idea what sawara is in English, but it isn't the same as aji. It is very white in color more like cod.

Guess it is time to pull out the dictionary.

From http://www.bento.com/sushivoc.html :

aji -- horse mackerel

sawara -- Spanish mackerel

Whew. So I do know what I'm ordering ...

--m.

[Mr. Toast]

A while back, a group of us had dinner together at Chez Panisse. After a nip or two of wine, we agreed that it would be fun to fix a Chez Panisse dinner as a group back at home. In the spirit of another dinner done last year based on another restaurant, we mangled the name of our meal: Chez Pansies. I'm sorry to report that our photographer took the night off to eat and have fun so we don't have any fabulous photos, but here's the list of courses. For extra credit, can you tell which one recipe didn't come from Chez Panisse or any of it's cookbooks?

Tuna-olive tapenade on crostini

Lamb's lettuce salad with quail eggs

Artichoke tart

Chicken baked in a salted herb crust

Fettuccini with onion confit and winter greens

Tarte Tatin

[laura]

Last night Toby prepared Jimmyo's shattered chicken, with sauteed wild mushrooms. steamed fingerllings, broccoli rabe with garlic All were especially

delicious! We enjoyed this with an italian red wine, roughly translated tears

of christ{thanks to Charles for this choice} a cheese course, vacherin and

pleasant ridge,with anjou pears. For dessert: a very tasty brioche cake baked with creme fraiche in the center of the cake. Everything was wonderful

[scubadoo97]

After grinding a couple of chuck roast yesterday, I had to do something with ground meat. Decided to make a Cuban picadillo dish, with ground meat, sofrito of onions, green and red peppers and garlic, olives, capers and raisins. Had this along side a nice salad.

[Rail Paul]

Dinner last night was based in part on a restaurant review by Rene Mack in the Bergen (NJ) Record.

Beets, sliced in 1/2 inch circles, wrapped in aluminum foil, with a bit of butter and a splash of amber ale. Roasted on the grill's 400F section for 30 minutes.

Carrots, also wrapped in aluminum foil, with a splash of orange juice, on the grill.

Two Bosc pears, unwrapped, but halved, longitudinally.

Salmon, skin on, topped with bread crumbs and spice blend, on the grill for a few minutes. I unwrapped the beets and carrots for the last few minutes of cooking.

Remove beets, slice into julienne. Same for carrots and pears. Serve over a bed of baby aragula. Place salmon on warmed cous-cous (same plate) drizzle with EVOO and jalapeno powder.

Very colorful with the green arugula on an earthenware plate, topped with the maroon of the beets, the orange of the carrots and the crisp of the salmon fillet. Very crunchy

edited to add "pears"

Edited February 4, 2003 by Rail Paul (log)

[Jinmyo]

Jasmine rice.

Chicken and coconut milk broth with mint, lemongrass, and bay with silken tofu and mussels.

Roasted cremini and portobello mushrooms in a shoyu sauce.

Roasted white and portobello mushrooms in a sweet chile sauce.

Stir-fried cabbage and onion with a peanut chile sauce.

Slaw of dai gai choy with ginger and scallions.

[Tiff]

I live in Montreal where there is a lot of god cheap food. Is anyone else like me...cannot bear to cook at home after a long day cooking at work. There is an authentic thai place 2 blocks from me that torments me continuosly. Last night I made dinner in 15 min. I chose ingredients I did not have to cut...much. Chix. breats sauteed with garlic, baby spinach, baby portabellos and some non descript asian inspired seasonings, served with basmati (out of jasmine), the rice was steamed with green cardamom pods. Just a recommendation; Maldon sea salt. Flaky salt, looks like snow flakes, great texture. Damn good stuff. Tiff

[Rhea_S]

Porcini-crusted lamb chops

Gnocchi w/ sauteed shiitake mushrooms and baby spinach

Dessert:

Raspberry Mazurkas and a cup of Darjeeling tea

[Priscilla]

Last evening a birthday dinner for a friend.

Teeny blini, each with a smear of creme fraiche, and a little American paddlefish caviar on some, a little pile of Oregon bay shrimp with chives on others. Spanish sparkling with a drop of Pechaud bitters all 'round.

Risotto with cremini mushrooms, diced, and bay scallops, which are usually so disappointing I rarely chance them anymore; happy to have them back for a good experience.

Jim Dixon's Italo-PNW Roasted Cauliflower, in which I also included a big handful of quartered Brussels sprouts, ultra-brown-tingement.

Nice fresh Alaskan cod, parsley and crumbs and seasoning, sauteed.

The big white plates; risotto in a round with a crescent of the veg along one side, square of cod athwart.

LBB French baguette.

Cocoa madeleines, miraculously early good strawberries.

Edited February 4, 2003 by Priscilla (log)

[fimbul]

Well, last night's plan was thinly sliced rare beef with a habanero aioli sort of thing. What it turned into was less-rare-than-I-wanted beef with a spread concocted from an oil way too bitter for the task at hand. It didn't stink, but it wasn't great.

On the other hand, that disaster was served with quite good pan-grilled asparagus, and sauteed cremini mushrooms. Nothing's bad when there are mushrooms.

Then I served a salad of spinach and arugula with a grapefruit vinaigrette that was just dull.

All in all, it was a less than perfect dinner, but, hell, I was tired. I'd cooked a ton of food for an office party Saturday night which turned out damn well, so I was allowed a lapse.

[Miss J]

Have been both busy and lazy lately, so apart from my huge Chinese New Year feast on Saturday I've generally been keeping things simple. Like this:

Sunday: fried leftover rice with dried shrimp, Chinese pork sausage and choi sum, lychees

Monday: leftover clear stock with pork and ginger meatballs, dried lillies, spring onion, lychees

Tonight: picked up a portion of cold roast duck in Chinatown (my new favourite takeaway) and have just consumed it with rice and stir-fried spinach with garlic, and - you guessed it - lychees

Tomorrow I will cook with the lychees. Stay tuned.