Dinner! 2005

[Alinka]

Yeah, thats normal. When making a souffle, the diners wait for the dish, not the other way around. Even 10 or 15 minutes after taking out of the oven can mean significant deflation. This presents some tricky logistical challenges if your plan on doing elegant plating.

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Well, it was just an experiment, and I did not plan on elegant plating . Fortunately, my friend was game and patiently suffered through my sticking the lense into his bowl .

Dinner was... Well, the sign on the bowl pretty much says it -

Although, it should also say shrimp, pancetta, cream, tomatoes, basil, parmesan, and lots of red pepper flakes!

[Megan Blocker]

Although, it should also say shrimp, pancetta, cream, tomatoes, basil, parmesan, and lots of red pepper flakes!

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And yum! Ooooh, that looks good!

[tejon]

The cake is topped with marzipan. I followed this recipe (which in turn comes mainly from Cook's Illustrated recipes, but with great detail on assembaly and preparation). Thanks for the compliments! I was very pleased with how it came out.

[suzilightning]

last night a german supper - bratwurst baked in the oven, salad with cucumbers in oil and vinegar, red cabbage with red onion(and a bit of grape jelly), garlic mashed potatoes(ok- i have spaetzle but john wanted mash) and home made applesauce - how hard is that? apples, water and toast dope.

tonight, after i wake johnnybird up from his nap and he is hungry -

onion and garlic beer soup(over at that soup thread maggie started)

there are crabcakes chilling which will be lightly coated with cornflake crumbs then sauteed

green beans

coleslaw

probably a reisling or pinot grigio to go with the main meal - haven't decided yet

happy eatings to all....

Edited December 11, 2005 by suzilightning (log)

[C.J. Updike]

percyn, that cheesesteak looks absolutely yummy. What cut of beef did you use for it?

[ludja]

All this talk of bratwurst is feeding a yen for them.

I had vegetarian friends over for dinner last night (well, one of the three is vegetarian, but when we break bread together we all are!). I made the egullet roasted cauliflower which I love using in pasta dishes.

The full menu:

Bonny Doon Ca' del Solo Big House Red

Pichetti Pavone White Table Wine

Stilton cheese and English Cheddar

crackers

spiced pecans

picholine olives

Porcini Mushroom Soup garnished with parsley and creme fraiche

Fusilli Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Red Onion, Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes

Pear, Manchego and Bitter Greens Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Pomegranates

Cinnamon and Clove Custard with warmed Fresh Grape Syrup

Dark chocolates filled with chestnut cream

Italian Spiced Cornmeal Cookies

Coffee and Grappa

The soup is a standby for me from "New Basics" (Rosso and Lukins) although this is the first time I converted it to a vegetarian version. I replaced the chicken and beef stock with a good vegetable broth and a dried porcini "boullion" cube. I tasted the porcini cube broth before using and it was actually quite good. The soup uses dried porcini soaked in Madeira and many fresh button mushrooms.

Note on making Roasted Cauliflower for a larger group--if the roasting pan is too crowded it will take much longer for the cauliflower to brown. I should have used two pans. (The cauliflower did eventually brown.)

I will definately repeat this salad combination--the relatively salty Manchego went very well with fresh pear and balsamic and the pomegrantes added good flavor, color and crunch. Parmagiano Reggiano would have also worked very well and more in keeping with the Italian flavor of the meal but I had good Manchego at home asking to be eaten.

The dessert was new to me; a recipe that I had eyed for awhile in Rosetta-Kasper's, "Splendid Table). Wild grapes from a friend prompted the idea to make the sauce which is a variation on Italian "Sapa" made from wine grapes. No sugar is added, but concentrating the grape juice results in a pretty sweet sauce, even with the red wine added. The cinnamon clove custard came out pretty well although they did not release as prettily as I would have liked from the ramekins. I might make this again because the flavors are pretty interesting in combination but I would probably try to make the sauce a little less sweet.

Edited December 11, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Adrienne Carmack]

Here's my first effort with pictures (several steps later)...

Tonight was pizza. My husband doesn't like veggies on his and I love them, so he got pepperoni and I got shallots, sweet red peppers, and oyster mushrooms (what looked good in the market).

The pic of the pepperoni pizza didn't upload for some reason.

I was experimenting with the crust. I always find it annoying and difficult to get the dough onto the pizza stone without disrupting it, so I tried making mine in a square stoneware dish and Tony's in a deep dish pie plate placed on a pre-warmed pizza stone. It was easier to spread the crust in the stoneware but his turned out with crispier crusts.

[Alinka]

Adrienne, your pizza looks delicious! I can almost taste it, with plenty of stetchy, yummy mozzarella, and crunchy, yeasty crust. Just like I like it . Great start!

[little ms foodie]

Not really dinner but last night we hosted our annual holiday party, this year it also happened to be our housewarming. I made the following for party snacks:

cheese straws

carmelized onion dip with s&p chips and crudite

smoked and steamed salmon rillettes on crostini

brie en croute with raspberry/rosemary sauce inside

baked dates stuffed with parmesan and wrapped in bacon

platters of Salumi salami (obviously not made myself)

cornichons and olives

[Daniel]

Living in New York makes me jump at any opportunity I have to use a grill.. Rain,snow, it doesn't matter.. As long as their is fire, charcoal, and smoke, I am a happy guy.. This weekend we went upstate and had the chance to use a smoker.. A foot of snow was not an issue.. We smoked three racks of ribs, bacon wrapped boneless trout, and quails.. For sides we made sharp cheddar mac and cheese, coleslaw, and eggplants baked with peanuts..

Ribs:

Rubbed in the love..

Smoked for 6 hours:

Trout:

Stuffed with a local Berkshire Bacon

Rizzaped

Here is the top grill

Sides.. Awesome Mac and Cheese.. Had this for breakfast and lunch.. Just fantastic.. A half pound of local sharp cheddar..

Eggplant baked with peanuts

This dish is really exciting to me.. You take eggplants and bake them.. You then skin and chop.. Mix with peanut butter, garlic, pepper flakes.. Then top with bread crumbs and peanuts.. Bake it.. It was fantastic on its on.. It would be better stuffed into a pork loin or something else.

Dessert:

Bourbon Pecan Pie.. This time with dark and light syrup.. I have the grade B maple version coming up soon.. Homemade vanilla...

We served it warm and it was super oozey..

Just lovely:

Edited December 12, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Ling]

Wow, what a dinner! I've never heard of the eggplant and peanut dish, but it sounds good.

I had abalone mushrooms stir-fried with onions (they have an interesting texture--smooth and quite firm for a mushroom), steamed "meat cake" (yook bang in Cantonese...it's basically a Chinese version of a meatloaf), choy sum, and braised short ribs. My mom made a Chinese broth with pork, carrots, lotus seeds, bitter almonds, and this other vegetable called "chang lo bak" (I forget the English name at the moment).

Finished the last of the choux pastry and some chocolate hazelnut cookies after dinner.

Edited December 12, 2005 by Ling (log)

[mizducky]

Home-cooking day (Fearless Housemate is out of town so I can use all the garlic I want). Made big pots of ratatouille and of beans and rice. The ratatouille--I've taken to roasting the onions, peppers, garlic, and eggplant before adding it to the tomatoes etc. in the pot, and it intensifies the flavors nicely. The beans and rice: black beans and brown rice, first pressure-cooked separately, then simmered a bit with canned tomatoes, a bunch of chopped cilantro, garlic, and green onions, and several shots of hot sauce. A nice meatless dinner to balance out the carnivore extravaganza I had the other night at Ba Ren ... and I've got leftovers for well into the week.

[vkn]

We made chicken 65 today, also experimented preparing chicken 65 curried sauce, a bland sauce but too delicious. The details are posted in our blog, My Dhaba. Cheers!

[Daniel]

Well its Christmas Season and for someone living in Manhattan, that means its time to start tipping everyone around you.. I have doormen and for some reason, around this time, they start going out of there way for you.. As jaded as I am, I actually believe this way a legitimate act of friendship.. I cook for my doormen almost daily.. Every dinner you see, normally ends up downstairs too.. So often to return the favor my doormen bring me food from their country.. Wether its Polish, or Chinese, or Mexican, its fun to share..

So this Mole was made by my doorman's sister.. It was terrific.. Fresh Killed Chicken and a really spice moley.. Served with fantastic rice and toasted sesame seeds wrapped in a tortilla..

[ludja]

We made chicken 65 today, also experimented preparing chicken 65 curried sauce, a bland sauce but too delicious.  The details are posted in our blog, My Dhaba.  Cheers!

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Welcome to egullet, vkn.

Hope to hear more about Indian cooking and other topics from you here, in addition to checking out your blog! Are you a chef at a restaurant?

[Priscilla]

Mole, yum.

Last evening, menchikatsu (fried ground beef cutlet), some with cheese inside, some without. Sashimi of toro & hamachi, + spicy tuna. Rice. Broccoli florets with Kewpie for annointing. Miso soup with extra-soft tofu & scallions. Napa pickle. Cold sake.

[vkn]

Ludja - I will. Thank you for your warm welcome. I already feel at home here. We have started blogging quite recently, to be more specific since Oct 23 this year. So many things to share, so many things to learn, and oh yes so many things to do. Will be hanging around at this forum for quite a while and it is worth it, I feel :-)

PS: I have worked as a part time chef in a few restaurant in the past, currenty functioning as a manager in a bpo firm :-) My dhaba is my home, my virtual restaurant, yes my dream.

[handmc]

VKN Welcome.

I checked out your Dhaba that chicken 65 looks like a keeper. Thanks!

Daniel

It looks like the doorman know how to return a solid. Did it taste as good as it looked?

And the true test will he get you the recipe!

[M. Lucia]

I used to wish I lived in a doorman building, but I've switched to wishing I was Daniel's doorman!

After eating out for several days (some great nyc meals), it's back to the kitchen.

Tonight's dinner was pear/blue cheese tart with a cornmeal crust. It was going to be a mushroom/blue cheese tart but I didn't have time to go to the grocery, so I had some pears on hand. It came out excellent and I'll definitely make it again, maybe add some dried cranberries for granish.

Later will be something I call "oreo dessert," sweetened cream cheese and crushed chocolate cookies, then fold in a bunch of whipped creme. Call it 'cookies and cream mousse' if you want to impress people.

[Daniel]

As good as mole has ever looked to me, I have never had one that I loved.. I love the story behind mole. Where a Nun created this dish for a visiting Cardinal, originaly using turkey stock and turkey.. And how this dish gained popularity and ultimately became a defining dish for OaxacanCuisine.. But no Mole has ever lived up to my anticipation.. This, well this, beat all my expectations..

As JamieMaw said something to the affect, the food should taste like the chef just made love or fought with his girlfriend.. Well it turns out, this was not the doorman's sisters recipe, but one of the mother of his childrens recipe.. One that he is not currently with.. Hell, I want to get back with this woman if she cooked like this.. I told him he was crazy.. The complexity, the flavor of this dish, could only be spawned from extreme love or hatred..

I want to play it cool, but I am getting that recipe..

Edited December 13, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

I wish I had Daniel's doorman too. I never lived in a place that had a doorman, so I didn't have the opportunity to exchange meals. I'll just have to live vicariously through Daniel. If you get that recipe, please share it with us--it looks soooo good.

We were originally going to go out tonight, but our plans changed so we just had angel hair pasta with jarred sauce that I doctored up.

[Grub]

Colcannon -- Irish mashed potatoes with a few additives:

Salmon with dill sauce:

And spicy fish fillets almondine:

[snowangel]

So this Mole was made by my doorman's sister.. It was terrific.. Fresh Killed Chicken and a really spice moley.. Served with fantastic rice and toasted sesame seeds wrapped in a tortilla.. 

Daniel, more about the rice, please!

[Daniel]

The rice was super.. It was this orange color most likely sazon.. It was highly seasoned and taste chickeny, however that could just be the sazon.. I am now determined to get the recipe and post it.. Its going to require me to have the recipe written in spanish and then translated.. So worth it..

[Meez]

Folks ---

What a great thread, very inspiring. After several months of lurking, my first post HAD to be in this thread. Here is my first little attempt.

Butternut squash soup:

No, I did not have a nosebleed when I put it together; it's reduced beet juice, although the color is not great in the picture.

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli rabe:

A little balsamic/L&P/A1/ketchup glaze on the meatloaf.