Dinner! 2003

[laurel]

Sunday, Dinner for 5:

Tuna Sashimi Salad with Wakame Seeweed and Kohlrabi:

Spicy Seafood and Squash Stew:

Balsamic Roasted Parsnips, Onions, and Carrots:

Spaghetti Squash:

German Cheesecake with Persimmon Slices and Warm Blueberry Sauce:

[Varmint]

Quick Monday dinner:

Semolina and herb crusted catfish with tomato and caper ragout over red chard risotto:

[cibatta mondatta]

What an amazing thread! I'm new to eGullet, and this just blows me away, just to think of all those Dinners!

BTW, the catfish really looks great.

[Varmint]

Welcome, CM!! We hope you post lots of details about your dinners, including photos if possible!

[hjshorter]

Nice catfish, V!

OK, I am making risotto tonight. No more putting it off.

[SethG]

Good for you, Heather, and good luck!

Monday night:

ribeye steaks, pan-broiled, sauced "a la Bourguignon," with leftover Bourguignon sauce from the freezer;

roasted asparagus; and

winter squash pilaf with bulgur, from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Grains & Greens.

[Priscilla]

Monte Cristo sandwiches -- had some nice leftover turkey, and ham, and Swiss cheese, and had been pondering rye-bread Monte Cristos, and well, it all came together in the old deep fryer, which is one method of cooking Monte Cristos. As aficionados know, there is also the perfectly respectable pan-fried, or the slightly less Monte Cristoish pan-grilled, but it is the deep-fried which is the holy grail of Monte Cristos, for me.

This time I made a thin water-egg-flour batter that some Monte Cristoites recommend ... nice, and nice to look at, but I think I may prefer the more French toasty egg-rich dip. But for deep frying, the flour encasement does what it is supposed to do, namely, encase.

Strawberry preserves, preserved lingonberries, maple syrup, yer choice.

Fresh-squeezed orange juice for the under-21 set, with some added inexpensive Spanish sparkler for adult Mimosas.

[Adam Balic]

Monte Cristo sandwiches -- had some nice leftover turkey, and ham, and Swiss cheese, and had been pondering rye-bread Monte Cristos, and well, it all came together in the old deep fryer, which is one method of cooking Monte Cristos. As aficionados know, there is also the perfectly respectable pan-fried, or the slightly less Monte Cristoish pan-grilled, but it is the deep-fried which is the holy grail of Monte Cristos, for me.

Boy, you should really come to Scotland you know.

In Italy (forget the region) they also do fried sandwiches: Moz, Parma filling, dipped in egg then fried. Tastes good, burns mouth.

Where does this "Monte Cristo" orginate? An illiteration of "Much Crisco"?

[curlywurlyfi]

Varmint, that catfish looks sensational!

I made larb. Made it Monday night, had leftovers Tuesday night, making it again tonight!

[Priscilla]

Monte Cristo sandwiches -- had some nice leftover turkey, and ham, and Swiss cheese, and had been pondering rye-bread Monte Cristos, and well, it all came together in the old deep fryer, which is one method of cooking Monte Cristos.  As aficionados know, there is also the perfectly respectable pan-fried, or the slightly less Monte Cristoish pan-grilled, but it is the deep-fried which is the holy grail of Monte Cristos, for me.

Boy, you should really come to Scotland you know.

In Italy (forget the region) they also do fried sandwiches: Moz, Parma filling, dipped in egg then fried. Tastes good, burns mouth.

Where does this "Monte Cristo" orginate? An illiteration of "Much Crisco"?

Yes, mozzarella in carozza, sometimes anchovy allowed in there, too? Very nice.

(Would also like to get in on the Varmint's Catfish Admiration Society ... puts me in mind of fried catfish with Creole sauce, a little updated! Very cool.)

It's a disappearingly fine line between roof-of-mouth-debriding molten cheese and pleasantly melted, isn't it? The sort of super fine point that can keep a person keeping on cooking.

As we ate our Monte Cristos we reminisced about how we did once experiment with Scotland's indigenous deep-fried Mars bar, keeping in mind that what WE know as a Mars bar is not what Scotland knows as one -- I think, could well be wrong, would like to be corrected if so, but I think that a UK Mars bar is more like what WE get as Three Musketeers.

(Makes no sense, titularly (you heard!) -- the Three Musketeers bar has only TWO components, the soft middle and the chocolate coating. I've thought since I was a child that another Mars product, what WE know as a Milky Way, and which has THREE components, caramel, soft middle, and chocolate coating, oughta have been called Three Musketeers, leaving the Milky Way monicker for what WE know as Three Musketeers. What we know as Mars has a firmish nougaty layer and then a few almonds and THEN the chocolate coating.)

Just now I found somebody's else's research on the subject, and I was interested to see there is a California origin suspected. (It is famously served at a restaurant inside Disneyland; never had it there and probably won't, as I try to go to theme parks just as infrequently as possible.)

The very best, the most excellent, the Perfection in Monte Cristoage, was had by me sometime in the 1980s in Las Vegas, in the 24-hour coffee shop inside a big hotel famous (only) for its 200-lane bowling alley. (Why I happened to be there especially during a bowling tournament, don't ask.)

This coffee shop was a spit 'n polished unreconstructed 1950s archetype, complete with venerable waitresses whose gravity-defying 'dos had adorable teensy white hats perched atop, and pink uniforms with a hanky pinned on. My Monte Cristo came origami-wrapped in a pristine white paper napkin with hospital corners so tight you could have bounced the proverbial quarter, the whole thing, napkin and all, cut perfectly corner-to-corner. Breathtaking, really. And so civilized! Perfectly fried perfectly golden, not too battery, but there was batter enough. Cheese, turkey, ham, everything that was supposed to be in there and nothing that wasn't. And, currant jelly on the side. Currant jelly on the side shows 1. a strong commitment to tradition, or 2., some class, or 3., both!

[Varmint]

This is an eGullet psychological problem if there ever was one: I hate our everyday china, simply because food looks so bad on it, AND it looks even worse for photographs. Our "formal" china is all white, and I love that, but the nasty green stoneware is grotesque.

Thus, I need better china so my food will look better on eGullet!!!! Something tells me that folks here can relate to that, but any "normal" person will think I'm crazy.

[Priscilla]

Varmint, I love colored dishes, and I thought yours looked groovalicious. Oh, of course I've got Regulation Big White Plates among my colored ones, and yes, people love 'em, but I defend colored plates against conformist hegemony.

[mags]

FWIW, Varmint, I think the food looks great on the green plate. The color makes the red of the sauce really pop -- much more so than it would on white -- and the gold of the fish stands out as well. (humming) When the green of the plate meets the gold of the fish.....

Okok, but I love plates. In fact, I think I'm gonna start a thread.

[suzilightning]

Quick Monday dinner:

Semolina and herb crusted catfish with tomato and caper ragout over red chard risotto:

varmit - yum....and i'm craving red meat right now

halibut with a light tomato sauce baked in the oven

still deciding between whole wheat couscous and lemon rice - will see what johnnybird wants

mixed field greens

[torakris]

Tuesday night:

homemade cheese "curry" with onions, tomatoes and spinach

rice with various spices, potatoes and onions

salad of bibb lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red onion dressed with paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper and lemon juice

[Jinmyo]

Slow roasted tomato slices, topped with daikon sprouts, soft poached quail egg.

Then served all together:

Celery root slaw.

Slices of black and blue strip steak with fleur de sel and a chipotle dipping sauce.

Smashed potatoes with kale.

Then cheese course (Stilton, raw milk camebert, Oka, 10 year old cheddar, quenelles of chevre with thyme).

[laurel]

Curried Conch:

Mushroom and Pea Vine Stir Fry:

Baby Cabbages:

[cfm]

Beetroot and pancetta risotto. For me, this is a whole dinner. My husband had some pudding, but I just keep going back and back to the risotto pan to "claw the bowl" until it's all gone. If I ever had to dish it all out in the first serving I'd feel completely cheated. Risotto ritual.

Catherine

[torakris]

Weds dinner:

soy sauce and sake simmered pork and bamboo shoots

kaiso (seaweed) and red daikon salad with a shiso dressing

engawa sashimi

satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) and Japanese leek miso soup

Japanese rice

[bloviatrix]

Dinner was an absolute disaster. Ok, maybe I exaggerate - it was edible afterall. Blovie bought some flounder, so I made a beer batter and fried the fish. I poured a liberal amount of oil in the frying pan and let it get very hot. But, either the oil wasn't hot enough. Or I should have gone the deep frying route. But the fish got stuck to the bottom of the frying pan. I know it should eventually loosen itself up, but I was afraid I would overcook the fish. The batter than remained attached to the fish was nicely crispy.

We ate the fish with a salad of red leaf lettuce, chick peas and green peppers.

Tomorrow I need to go shopping.

[SethG]

Wednesday night:

chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce

and Mexican rice.

No time to make my usual refried beans.

[fresco]

Dinner was an absolute disaster.  Ok, maybe I exaggerate - it was edible afterall.  Blovie bought some flounder, so I made a beer batter and fried the fish.  I poured a liberal amount of oil in the frying pan and let it get very hot.  But, either the oil wasn't hot enough.  Or I should have gone the deep frying route.  But the fish got stuck to the bottom of the frying pan.  I know it should eventually loosen itself up, but I was afraid I would overcook the fish.  The batter than remained attached to the fish was nicely crispy.

We ate the fish with a salad of red leaf lettuce, chick peas and green peppers.

Tomorrow I need to go shopping.

Do you use a thermometer? It sure makes a difference.

[Malawry]

Tossed salad

Ricotta and chard-filled raviolis, topped with a quenelle of tomato concasse and a little nest of julienned sauteed chard stalks

Lemon tart with tayberry sauce

[Varmint]

Chicken and corn chowder with a 2000 Guigal Cotes du Rhone and a fried peach pie.

[bloviatrix]

Dinner was an absolute disaster.  Ok, maybe I exaggerate - it was edible afterall.  Blovie bought some flounder, so I made a beer batter and fried the fish.  I poured a liberal amount of oil in the frying pan and let it get very hot.  But, either the oil wasn't hot enough.  Or I should have gone the deep frying route.  But the fish got stuck to the bottom of the frying pan.  I know it should eventually loosen itself up, but I was afraid I would overcook the fish.  The batter than remained attached to the fish was nicely crispy.

We ate the fish with a salad of red leaf lettuce, chick peas and green peppers.

Tomorrow I need to go shopping.

Do you use a thermometer? It sure makes a difference.

Of course not. That would mean I would have to think.