Dinner! 2005

[I_call_the_duck]

Looks great, everyone! Abra, that mole is inspiring me to learn to make it next year. (welcome to the dinner thread)

[Abra]

Beautiful, Wendy. And you're going to have a great time. I love Stockholm and St. Petersburg, they're two incredibly beautiful and under-visited cities. Uh, you know it's going to be really cold and dark, right? Try to get back into the canals in Peterburg - it's like the Venice of the North.

You can see a whole page of pink banana squash here. It's a nice dry, fluffy, sweet squash. If I keep posting on this thread you all will be amazed by how much squash I eat. I love the stuff.

Grub, that's neat how you do your pictorials, and that dish looks delicious! You can get your rolls to hold together better, if you have the time, by wrapping them really tightly in plastic wrap and chilling them for half an hour to an hour. When you remove the plastic they'll stay tight as you brown them.

[vkn]

We cooked one of the most simplest Indian curries today - Buttermilk Curried Sauce. YOU have to decide whether you should devour this as an appetizing soup or to be used as a curried sauce mixed with plain boiled rice. What would you do? :-) Cheers!

[Chufi]

Home alone with yesterdays leftovers, but I don't complain when this is what they look like:

dessert: semolina pudding with Dutch apricot brandy

[Megan Blocker]

Well, I've finally gone and made latkes - and with schmaltz, no less! They were very good...I had them with sour cream and homemade applesauce (Granny Smith's, lemon juice, sugar, and a touch of water). Delicious!

Edited December 21, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Grub]

Chufi, thank you, and hey, good luck with it -- it's a bit of work, but well worth it I think...

Abra, heh yeah I started out hoping the pictorial would be a smooth and perfect explanation of exactly how to make the dish just so, but when things don't go so smooth, I figure that it's more informative and constructive to honestly document it. I mean, you learn from your mistakes, etc... All in good fun. Oh and your suggestion about wrapping the rolls and chilling them sounds like EXCELLENT advice. I'll definitely do that next time around. I really appreciate that hint -- thanks a bunch!

[Daniel]

Those look great Megan.. Down to the apple sauce, very impressive..

[Shalmanese]

Lamb Coconut Curry with Sweet Potato & Peas

[monavano]

Well, I've finally gone and made latkes - and with schmaltz, no less!  They were very good...I had them with sour cream and homemade applesauce (Granny Smith's, lemon juice, sugar, and a touch of water).  Delicious!

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Gorgeous Mehan! They look absolutely perfect.

[Megan Blocker]

Thanks, Monavano and Daniel! They really were good...and, I have to say, the homemade applesauce had a really pretty green-ish color to it, and it tasted so good...definitely something I'll do again.

[vkn]

Shalmanase - that thick lamb curry looks soo yummy. Would you mind sharing your recipe here?

We made a unique sauce today - the fenugreek seeds curried sauce. Pictures and recipes posted at our blog. Cheers!

[vkn]

Also, it was chilly chicken day. Has anyone tasted chilly chicken before?

[suzilightning]

wow - alinka thanks for that recipe. i think even i could do those chocolate truffle cookies..

last night was soup and sandwich night - a chickpea and kale soup with turkey and provolone panini...simple but hearty for a cold night at home

[Chufi]

Dutch Stamppot - potato/endive mash with smoked bacon and onions, and Dutch smoked sausage

edited to add: full discussion of this dish here

Edited December 21, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[Megan Blocker]

OMG, Klary - drool!

[mrsadm]

Shalmanase - that thick lamb curry looks soo yummy.  Would you mind sharing your recipe here?

We made a unique sauce today - the fenugreek seeds curried sauce.  Pictures and recipes posted at our blog.  Cheers!

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Shalmanase - here's a second vote for the recipe, please!

[Shalmanese]

Shalmanase - that thick lamb curry looks soo yummy.  Would you mind sharing your recipe here?

We made a unique sauce today - the fenugreek seeds curried sauce.  Pictures and recipes posted at our blog.  Cheers!

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Shalmanase - here's a second vote for the recipe, please!

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Ha! Like you would be so lucky. There was no recipe, it was more of a cleaning out of the fridge in preparation for some serious cooking later in the week. It's an amalgam of a lot of techniques I've seen discussed on this board and others and it consists of 4 basic parts:

Curry Powder

Onion Puree

Coconut Milk

Meat/Veggies

Lets see what I can remember:

I made a curry powder by toasting some cumin, coriander, cardamom black pepper & chilli flakes, then added some tumeric and salt and then blended it into a fine powder. Sifted it through a strainer and removed all the big chunky bits. I got about 10tbsp of curry powder, 4 of which I used for this and the rest I put in a jar for later.

Cubed up some leg of lamb and salted it. Chopped up 3 onions and then put them in a blender with some water and blended to a puree. Then minced 5 cloves of garlic.

To cook, I seared the chunks of lamb and removed. Added some oil and briefly cooked the spices again, then added the onion puree. Cooked it until all the water evaporated and it had started browning a bit, then added the garlic and cooked until I could smell the garlic. Tossed everything together again and added a can of coconut milk and some salt and simmered for about an hour. Then added some cubed sweet potatos and simmered for another 40 minutes. Added some frozen peas, a squeeze of lemon juice and served.

Taste is by no means authentic but, IMHO was pretty good.

[Shalmanese]

Freshly Baked Sourdough

Discussion here

[M. Lucia]

400 pages and counting!

I've been too busy to post recently, but I have been cooking. What lovely meals everyone's been making here. Some highlights from the week include:

ginger-port grilled cornish hens with mushrooms over creamy polenta

curry tiger prawns over coconut rice

warm radicchio, lentil, pear and gorgonzola salad

creamy white beans

chocolate fallen souffle cake (flourless choc. cake, aka gateau au chocolat moelleux)

homemade ny style cheesecake

and inspired by alinka's beautiful cookies: christmas cookies (the royal icing is flying!)

[Susan in FL]

Great looking dinners... I am trying to get back in the groove. I'm uploading pictures from the past couple of weeks even as we speak.

Lucia, I would love to hear more about the Cornish hens and the creamy beans.

[Susan in FL]

Tonight I cooked Dutch, Chufi's Butter Braised Beef. With it was served some classic accompaniments that she suggests, and one probably not so classic. ...That would be the salad. It was salad greens with tomato, onion, and beets on top, dressed with Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar (a Christmas present) and Kalamata olive oil, and then topped with fried quail eggs.

[Susan in FL]

I've been eating out a lot lately -- holiday get-togethers and dinners and all that. When home, I've been busy, and haven't cooked quite as many full dinners as usual. Nevertheless, there have been some good ones.

As simple as this was, it was one of the highlights of the past week or two... Cobb Salad.

Another night we made a sushi-style dinner. It was mostly sashimi and rolls. There's lots to show and tell, but I'll abbreviate it. Included was salmon, tuna, octopus, shrimp, quail eggs, and appropriate condiments & garnishes. It was fun.

[racheld]

  There's lots to show and tell, but I'll abbreviate it.  Included was salmon, tuna, octopus, shrimp, quail eggs, and appropriate condiments & garnishes.  It was fun.

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SHOW and TELL, that's us. Please continue to do so. Lovely food, 400 pages worth.

[FoodMan]

Trout with Serrano ham and garlic. Served it with sauteed beet greens

Dessert: Orange pudding cake.

[Abra]

Megan, that green apple sauce is stunning. Did you cook it with the peels on?

And Susan, those quail egg sushi!

In advance of the holiday, I'm eating as lightly as possible. For example, this beautiful pile of greens, lightly glued together with a couple of eggs and a bit of 2 year old Gouda.

Yes, I ate them all by myself. The cooked picture looked horrid, so I'll spare you that. My husband doesn't like greens, so he got

An omelet filled with leftover gyro loaf and tzatziki, with some toasted pita.