Dinner! 2003

[Jinmyo]

As always, this is quite a menu, Jinmyo!  I join the chorus that wants to know more about the hiyayako tofu .... and the shattered chicken dish .... please? 

That's kind of you, cew.

I think I've explained the tofu dish.

Shattered chicken (skin and meat pulled from the bone) with a Chow Chiu chile and garlic glaze atop Japanese rice mixed with an equal quantity of wild mushrooms (morels in resplendent dominance).

Um. Well, rub chicken quarters with Chow Chiu chile oil, shoyu, minced garlic, a bit of ancho paste if you have it, kosher salt and black pepper. Let them sit out for a bit to take the chill off and let them dry up a bit. Roast for twenty minutes at (a well preheated) 450F, turn, reduce tempertaure to 350, turn, let go another ten minutes or so depending upon how well-done you like chicken.

Cook rice.

Saute mounds of wild mushrooms (morels, morels, morels, hedgehogs, black trumpets, reconstituted porcini) in far too much butter and shallots and a duxelle of cremini mushrooms. Season, dust well with smoked paprika. Perhaps add a bit of white wine after the mushrooms have sweated.

Toss with rice.

With hands, pull away skin and meat from bones, shred larger pieces.

Using a ring (or packing into a bowl and flipping) create a mound of rice and mushrooms in the centre of a plate. Toss some chicken atop. A few extra drops of Chow Chiu oil around, some snipped chives atop. I also added a few pieces of tomato concasse.

Easy peasey.

[torakris]

Saturday dinner:

had a BBQ at our house with friends

chicken sate with MY peanut sauce (wonderful stuff!)

yaki-imo (steam -grilled Japanese sweet potatoes)

grilled fava beans (soramame in Japanese)

Thai style beef salad

yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls) with soy sauce, miso, or my favorite kojuchang (Korean spicy miso) wrapped in shiso leaves (pulled striaght from the plants in the garden! )

the hilight of the BBQ was the Kobe beef, this had been sent to my friend by her parents who live in Kobe. This was the most gorgeous cut of meat I have ever laid my eyes upon. They were in large chunks about 2 by 3 inches and about 1 inch thick. We lightly salt and peppered them and then placed them over a medium high fire. The smell of them cooking was pure ectasy, my drool almost distinguished the fire. I tested their doneness (OK rareness) by the finger press test and pulled them off when I thought they were just at that point between rare and medium rare. I hit it on the dot, perfection! Gorgeous sear lines on the outside and lucsious pink in the middle. I let them rest for a couple of minutes, which felt more like hours, before I started to cut. I cut them into bite sized pieces and we poured a small bowl of Maldon sea salt for dipping. I know no words to describe the taste of this meat, no description can do it justice. There is no beef like true Kobe beef!

dessert:

apple pie (made by my friend)

ice cream

[FoodMan]

A great summer day here in Houston and I wanted to light up my charcoal grill for the first time after we moved to our new home so the wife asked for burgers. Burgers it was, I made the patties nice and thick, medium rare for myself and medium well for her. Served hers topped with melted swiss cheese, mushroom and onion sautee, and the rest of the regular fixins'. I am not too crazy about sauteed mushrooms and onions on top of my burger so I just topped it with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions and pickles. Served the burgers with homemade fries.

For dessert I had picked up a few pounds of very nice strawberries. I made some shortcakes with turbinado sugar (recipe from an older issue of F&W). the berries were macerated with some sugar, balsamic, and vanilla. Cut the cakes in half, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in there and top with plenty of berries. A fabulouse summer (or spring) dessert.

FM

[torakris]

Sunday dinner:

Spent the day at my in-laws having a full blown luau (minus the pig and the poi!), some Hawaiin/Tahitian dancer friends were in Japan for some shows and we had a BBQ with them and some dancers from Japan. There were leis for everyone representing all of the islands, about 5 ukuleles being passed around, and ddancers performing almost everything they know. It was making me very homesick for the year I lived on Maui.

My contribution:

brined chicken wings , it is what my MIL requested.

[suzilightning]

before i left for work set up chicken dredged in flour and spices smothered with olives, lemons and garlic for husband to get in the oven at 3:45 pm e.d.t.

planning on making some couscous and grilled asparagus

for husband last piece of chocolate mousse pie for dessert

[claire797]

DH had a green salad, grilled steak, homemade fries, Jones Green Apple Soda and a tiny piece of homemade red velvet cake.

I opted for a grilled ham and swiss cheese sandwich, steamed vegetables and some Glenny's barbecue flavor soy chips. For dessert, Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream mixed with Homemade Butterfinger Ice Cream.

No wine was served.

[hjshorter]

Scott got his new DeLonghi deep fryer today - an early Father's Day present. Dinner was fried catfish po'boys with tartar sauce, tomatoes and shredded lettuce. Beer for Scott, root beer for me. Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert.

Foodman, that strawberry shortcake looks great! Strawberries are a few weeks away for us.

[claire797]

Scott got his new DeLonghi deep fryer today - an early Father's Day present.    Dinner was fried catfish po'boys with tartar sauce, tomatoes and shredded lettuce.  Beer for Scott, root beer for me.  Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert.

Foodman, that strawberry shortcake looks great!  Strawberries are a few weeks away for us.

Indeed! That's a great looking shortcake!

We have strawberries out the wazoo here in Austin.

[Belmont3]

Red Butter Leaf lettuce with Juniper Berry Vinagerette

Pommes Anna

Chicken and 40 cloves

Tart Tatin

Alsatian Butter Cookies

Chocolate Truffles

More sweets then other, but hey who cares after spending all day in the kitchen

[Louisa Chu]

Breaded, Deep-Fried Roasted Garlic.

Made them yesterday. Not quite dinner. But with enough they could have been.

[nerissa]

Saturday:

Bought pizza dough from Italian deli. Made pizza with pecorino, slicer tomatoes, swiss chard, and proscuitto. Ain't so fucking bad.

Tonight:

Jamaican Jerk Chicken (from this month's Gourmet)--used split breasts and whole legs

Red Swiss chard sauteed in garlicky oil

Yogurt (store bought)

Edited May 5, 2003 by nerissa (log)

[torakris]

Breaded, Deep-Fried Roasted Garlic.

Made them yesterday. Not quite dinner. But with enough they could have been.

this sounds incredible, can you share it with us?

[Louisa Chu]

Breaded, Deep-Fried Roasted Garlic.

Made them yesterday. Not quite dinner. But with enough they could have been.

this sounds incredible, can you share it with us?

Yes, of course!

Take a whole bulb of garlic. Slice off the top to just expose most of the cloves. Drizzle it with olive oil. Sprinkle it with thyme leaves and lightly with sea salt if available. Wrap in foil. Bake at about 200C for about an hour until they're just warm golden. Carefull pop each clove out of its skin - take care in handling these cloves as they're very tender and you want them to hold their shape. Toss them in flour, shake off the excess well. Dip them in an egg wash mixture - an egg, a little bit of olive oil and water, salt, pepper, whisked. Then in bread crumbs. Repeat the dipping process. Fry in medium hot oil until golden. Remove to paper towels to drain and salt lightly - with fleur de sel if available immediately.

I was also thinking that these would be very good with a tempura batter and panko.

[Suzanne F]

Lou, thanks for that! Sounds like the ultimate nibble. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.

[reverendtmac]

Last night, cooked for Pops' birthday...brined pork tenderloin on the barbeque, some of Chris Onstad's perfect oven fries (twice-baked @ 450 and then 500, skins on; the only oven fries I've ever had that don't taste like wet slugs), spinach salad. Me ma baked a wonderful angel food cake for dessert, which I topped with grilled peaches. The 'rents aren't big drinkers, so I had mango-tangerine juice.

Tonight I should really cook for the girlfriend, seeing as she was at a conference all weekend that she describes as 'a gong show'. Have to find out what's in the fridge...

[Jinmyo]

Ziti with tossed with haricot verts, double-smoked lardons, much garlic served with a demitasse of lemon soup (chicken stock with lemon juice and zest, lemograss, thyme etc).

Pecorino tuiles with a dap of minced proscuitto.

Grilled bone-in (it's a handle) pork loin chops flash-fried with an acho powder and panko crust.

Tomato sashimi (red and yellow vine tomatoes, done on the mondoline, layered in threes [yellow, red, yellow]) with a shoyu, shiso, and ponzu drizzle and crunchy salt.

Cheeses: St. Morgan, Rouy, Brillat-Savarin with sourdough crostini and cornichons.

[Xanthippe]

Ziti with tossed with haricot verts, double-smoked lardons, much garlic served with a demitasse of lemon soup (chicken stock with lemon juice and zest, lemograss, thyme etc).

Pecorino tuiles with a dap of minced proscuitto.

Grilled bone-in (it's a handle) pork loin chops flash-fried with an acho powder and panko crust.

Tomato sashimi (red and yellow vine tomatoes, done on the mondoline, layered in threes [yellow, red, yellow]) with a shoyu, shiso, and ponzu drizzle and crunchy salt.

Cheeses: St. Morgan, Rouy, Brillat-Savarin with sourdough crostini and cornichons.

There she goes, blowing me away yet again!! My mind boggles . . .

Hey, Rev, care to elaborate on those oven fries? I never make 'em just because of the "wet slug" factor; yours sound like winners!

[fimbul]

Saturday night was:

mint juleps to start

seared lamb chops atop baby greens (including green garlic shoots and fresh spring onions from the farmers market)

Oven fried potatoes tossed with rosemary oil

Sauteed asparagus

Sunday night:

I roasted chicken leg quarters and served them with a (tart) blackberry reduction over ginger-citrus rice.

More asparagus (it's what our Farmers' Market has in abundance at the moment)

Arugula salad with more garlic shoots and a lemon vinaigrette

[reverendtmac]

Hey, Rev, care to elaborate on those oven fries?  I never make 'em just because of the "wet slug" factor; yours sound like winners!

Couldn't be easier. Preheat your oven to 450F. Scrub the hell out of however many russets you care to indulge in and chop 'em into wedges. Lay the wedges skin-side-down on a tray that you've lined with brushed-with-olive-oil foil (shiny side down). Hit the wedges with some olive oil and kosher salt and stick 'em in for 20 minutes. Pull them out, flip them onto their sides (so the skin's up), put them back in for 10 minutes. Pull them out again and let them cool a bit (5-10 minutes) while you crank the oven to 500F. Give them another bash of oil and stick them into the now 500F oven until they're golden brown all over. Bung some salt onto 'em and eat!

They're basically halfway between a fry and a baked potato, and they're pretty dang wonderful. I got the recipie out of Chris Onstad's Achewood Cookbook, Volume One: Recipies for a Lady or a Man, available here. The comic's funny as hell and the book's useful for the blossoming chef like myself - some basic basics (a great way to pan-fry a steak, the aformentioned fries, some booze recipies) and some middle-end stuff (brining pork and chicken, a really nice orzo with pine nuts, some classy appetizers when you need to fake it). But, as Chris says, his target audience is the kind of person who eats Frito dip out of the can with a finger

[claire797]

Thanks Rev,

I was hoping you'd post the oven fry recipe too. I've been deep-frying ours in canola oil.

Our dinner last night was simple but delicious.

Green Salad

Mojo Chicken (broiled)

Baked Potatoes

Snoqualmie Sauvignon Blanc (Washington).

Red Velvet Cake (DH) Homemade Butterfinger Ice Cream (Me)

Wine Note: We tried Snoqualmie Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. I had low expectations and they were met. The stuff tasted like lemonade -- no complexity whatsoever. Then again, it was $6.99 so I can't complain. I only bought it because I liked some of Snoqualmie's other wines and thought maybe their SB would be a good bargain wine too. I should have bought a New Zealand.

Tonight's recipe is coming out of Amanda Hesser's new book -- "Cooking For Mr. Latte". It's very un-Hesser like, as it involves chicken breasts, Hellman's mayonnaise, sour cream, Mango Chutney and curry.

[claire797]

Ziti with tossed with haricot verts, double-smoked lardons, much garlic served with a demitasse of lemon soup (chicken stock with lemon juice and zest, lemograss, thyme etc).

Pecorino tuiles with a dap of minced proscuitto.

Grilled bone-in (it's a handle) pork loin chops flash-fried with an acho powder and panko crust.

Tomato sashimi (red and yellow vine tomatoes, done on the mondoline, layered in threes [yellow, red, yellow]) with a shoyu, shiso, and ponzu drizzle and crunchy salt.

Cheeses: St. Morgan, Rouy, Brillat-Savarin with sourdough crostini and cornichons.

Please. One night, just make a Junior League recipe.

[hjshorter]

Spaghetti

Marinara sauce simmered all afternoon with meatballs (pork, veal, & beef)

Steamed broccoli

Mesclun with herbs, EVOO and salt

Ice cream for Scott and Emma. Fat free blueberry sorbet for me.

[torakris]

Monday dinner:

shrimp with chili sauce served on a bed or ice water crisped white onions

ground pork and water chestnut saucy stirfry with hoison, chili sauce, lots of ginger and garlic scooped up with lettuce (Boston bibb) leaves

cucumber sticks with inaka-miso

Japanese rice

[Xanthippe]

Please.  One night, just make a Junior League recipe.

As if!! Truly, I find myself furtively skulking into the kitchen after reading one of Jin's dinner posts -- like I so totally have no business going in! What, I ask myself, do I think I'm going to DO there??!?

[Xanthippe]

Couldn't be easier.  Preheat your oven to 450F.  Scrub the hell out of however many russets you care to indulge in and chop 'em into wedges.  Lay the wedges skin-side-down on a tray that you've lined with brushed-with-olive-oil foil (shiny side down).  Hit the wedges with some olive oil and kosher salt and stick 'em in for 20 minutes.  Pull them out, flip them onto their sides (so the skin's up), put them back in for 10 minutes.  Pull them out again and let them cool a bit (5-10 minutes) while you crank the oven to 500F.  Give them another bash of oil and stick them into the now 500F oven until they're golden brown all over.  Bung some salt onto 'em and eat!

They're basically halfway between a fry and a baked potato, and they're pretty dang wonderful.  I got the recipie out of Chris Onstad's Achewood Cookbook, Volume One: Recipies for a Lady or a Man, available here.  The comic's funny as hell and the book's useful for the blossoming chef like myself - some basic basics (a great way to pan-fry a steak, the aformentioned fries, some booze recipies) and some middle-end stuff (brining pork and chicken, a really nice orzo with pine nuts, some classy appetizers when you need to fake it).  But, as Chris says, his target audience is the kind of person who eats Frito dip out of the can with a finger 

Wow, Rev, thanks!! I think I'll make a batch tonight . . .

Edit: Momentarily forget it's Cinco de Mayo and we'll be having Mexican food for dinner. I'll do the oven fries tomorrow evening . . .

Edited May 5, 2003 by Xanthippe (log)