Dinner! 2005

[suzilightning]

waiting for johnnybird to get back from a camping trip...

since i get really cranky if i eat later than 630 had a dinner of a small bowl of chili i made with ground beef, roasted poblano peppers, the ususal spices, oven roasted tomatoes, red and green peppers and onions. spices included garlic powder, oregano, whizzed chilies and cumin. took some wraps(sun dried tomato and spinach) cut them into eighths and baked them. some crumbly cheese and chopped iceberg lettuce.

john wil have a choice of this or smooch - ziti, cooked ground meat, onions, red and green peppers,chopped tomatoes and just a smidgen of ketchup - the cheap tomato kind. baked.

[helenas]

mediterranean, inspired by Wolfert and Moro:

oakwood grilled lamb kibbeh and baby leeks;

chickpea puree with slow roasted onion and cumin;

lemon/walnut/parsley sauce;

Edited June 6, 2005 by helenas (log)

[percyn]

Percy, where did you get those truffles??

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Wegmans - my favorite grocery store

[percyn]

Got some fresh wild salmon and made:

Salmon Tartar - Inspired by Tomas Keller's Bouchon

Pan seared salmon with a warm vinaigrette salad

Cheers

Percy

[Susan in FL]

Last night we started with a fried green tomato salad. It was topped with homemade creamy avocado dressing, which went surprisingly well with the fried tomatoes. We decided that is an instant classic. A glass of "house white" was real fine with it.

Then we enjoyed Herb-Crusted Grilled Lamb with Apricot Relish, Israeli Couscous, a garnish of grilled apricot, and 2004 Redmond Ranch Monterey County Pinot Noir. The wine was a little thin, but otherwise wonderful and it was a great pairing.

I ate out two of the last four nights, but Thursday we had a nice summery dinner at home, too. While on the road at work I stopped at a produce stand I had been meaning to check out forever, and definitely will return. Some of the stuff I bought went with the grilled quail: little red new potatoes, green beans, and a cucumber and onion salad, which I could eat every day when using pickling cucumbers as good as these.

Tonight we ate leftovers. We weren't real hungry after having a late brunch this afternoon.

Percy, both of those are beautiful... looks tasty!

Cheers!

[little ms foodie]

Cooking this week out of Mario's new cookbook.

Tonight we started with roasted figs, stuffed with Point Reyes Blue and wrapped with Proscuitto. Honey drizzled before serving and black pepper (not from the book)

Then we made green pasta (spinach) and used it to make raviolli stuffed with goat cheese and scallion. Butter and Olive Sauce. Did we take pictures? No because we were so exhausted after making all the ravioli we just sat down and chowed! geesh!

We are attempting to freeze some, anyone have any experience freezing cheese stuffed ravioli??

Edited June 6, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[annanstee]

Pan Roasted Halibut in Cilantro Lime Butter

Risotto with Morels, Oysters, and cremini, viognier and shallots,

spinach with crispy fried garlic.

I drank the rest of the viognier : )

Edited to say- that is oyster mushrooms.

Edited June 6, 2005 by annanstee (log)

[Behemoth]

We are attempting to freeze some, anyone have any experience freezing cheese stuffed ravioli??

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Very easy. I put them in the freezer in one layer on a wax-papered cookie sheet until solid, then pack them into freezer bags. I try to use them up within the month.

To cook them, I just throw them into the boiling salted water while they are still frozen. Takes about 5 minutes or so for them to be done. (Depends on the ravioli, obviously, but usually I can tell by looking at them.)

I am living off farmer's market greens, bread, and a little cheese. Oh, and homemade granola with yogurt. And the occasional egg, for protein. Getting ready for a marathon travel junket, so I am trying to keep the fridge empty.

helenas, your photos get prettier and prettier.

[bilrus]

Did we take pictures? No because we were so exhausted after making all the ravioli we just sat down and chowed!

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Weak.

[M. Lucia]

My train was late, so dinner was a quick mix up of:

Israeli couscous with spinach, currents and nutmeg.

Dessert was more of the giant ginger cookies I made (courtesy of claire over in P&B), which also provided much needed sustenance on the train.

Train trips (especially delayed ones) are never good for the well-intenioned sweets I bring back for friends

[AK@Spicehouse]

One of the prettiest things I have sen on E-gullet pro or non-pro. The pic looks amazing. Nice job !!

Asparagus Risotto:

Lasagne of Langoustine with Cep sauce. I wanted to involve a sherry jelly in this dish and attempted to cover the chopped up meat from the claws in a thin jelly but it didn't really come off:

Finished with a lamb Loin fillet wrapped in leak. I took the efillet off a rack of lamb, I used the skin and fat from the rack and wrapped it around the chain from the fillet (I think that is the correct term) and roasted on a high heat to get it nice and crisp to counteract the lack of browning on the loin fillet, used the bones and the rest of the trimmings to make a jus with a touch of Madeira. I suppose this was a deconstructed rack of lamb, go stick that up your arse Adria  . Served with fondant potato and some fresh peas. Cooked to perfection even if I do say so myself

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[Lone Star]

Farmer's Market Dinner

Fresh Pinto beans cooked with a slice of Smithfield ham

Squash casserole

Okra and tomato gumbo

Buttermilk cornbread

Sliced fresh tomatoes and 1015 onions

[Toliver]

Years ago, there was a Peanuts strip in which Charlie, Lucy and another character were lying on their backs on a hillside, looking up at the clouds.  Charlie just lay there, whilst the other two conversed about the shapes, and the images that came to mind.

Lucy averred that she could clearly make out Holbein's PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS,

and her companion stated that he was enjoying Van Gogh's CAFE TERRACE ON THE PLACE DE FORUM.

They asked Charlie if he saw anything special in the clouds, and he replied, "I was going to say I saw a doggie and a horsie, but never mind."

So are my feelings when I read these listings of great and monumental dinners and methods and combinations.  Still I come here, and still I put in my meager listings...

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No listing is meager. Throw it down like a gauntlet!

One of my favorite "Dinner!" posts from NeroW...Cheerios & Beer:

Tell it like it is.

[little ms foodie]

We are attempting to freeze some, anyone have any experience freezing cheese stuffed ravioli??

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Very easy. I put them in the freezer in one layer on a wax-papered cookie sheet until solid, then pack them into freezer bags. I try to use them up within the month.

To cook them, I just throw them into the boiling salted water while they are still frozen. Takes about 5 minutes or so for them to be done. (Depends on the ravioli, obviously, but usually I can tell by looking at them.)

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Thank you Behemoth, that is what we did, will take your advice on cooking them too.

Weak.

I know, I know....want a shot of them frozen??

[Priscilla]

Chicken legs tikka style, marinated overnight with the spice packet but yogurt added just several hours before grilling. Saag aloo, spinach with potatoes. Raita of yogurt cucumber garlic cilantro salt pepper. Basmati. Would-be naan, pretty good, off the blazing-hot pizza stone, good tenderness but lacking the true tandoor savor and actual black spots, the two not unrelated of course.

Excellent fare after a long day of gardening.

[BryanZ]

Matthew Grant, that is insanely good looking.

[M. Lucia]

Won't be cooking because I'll be meeting some friends here: RFD

(did make myself a nice Caesar salad for lunch though)

just wanted to post because I thought the "cooking with beer" might interest Susan

[Susan in FL]

Won't be cooking because I'll be meeting some friends here: RFD

(did make myself a nice Caesar salad for lunch though)

just wanted to post because I thought the "cooking with beer" might interest Susan

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Indeed it did. Thanks!

Tonight's dinner was decadently rich, luscious. If this is any indication of recipes in this cookbook, it will be one of my favorite books. I adapted the Clam and Pinot Grigio Risotto recipe from Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe. I used chowder clams. Macarpone is added at the end of the cooking. In the cooking I used Fish Eye California Pinot Grigio and we drank Misty Brook Cellars, both 2004, California.

Nice!

[bilrus]

Papardelle Bolognese from the Babbo Cookbook.

[BryanZ]

I did the cauliflour pasta dish from the above cookbook. Turned out quite well, very subtle. It gives new life to cauliflour beyond boiling or roasting.

[bilrus]

I did the cauliflour pasta dish from the above cookbook.  Turned out quite well, very subtle.  It gives new life to cauliflour beyond boiling or roasting.

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That is a surprisingly good recipe.

[little ms foodie]

From Mario's new book we made the veal rolls with mushrooms and lemon. Quite good but a tad too lemony for me, will reduce the amount next time.

[suzilightning]

john is on his way home...

a glass of hennepin bottle conditioned belgin style ale to begin with some roasted almonds, some danish organic blue cheese, and triscuits

dinner is lemon rice, poached asparagus( yeah - found nice, thin stalks) with a tarragon shallot vinaigrette and chicken saltimbocca.

scored some nice kiwis so peeled and chopped them, mixed them with some blueberries, added some raw sugar and will top with some vanilla soy yoghurt.

simple and cool............

[SuzySushi]

A light meal of mixed Asian cultures:

Zarusoba (Japanese cold buckwheat noodles served with a soy-based dipping sauce) using soba made in Korea, garnished with slivered nori.

Cha-shu (Chinese roast pork) on the side, along with paper-thin slices of Japanese cucumber.

Now I'm drinking a cup of chai!

[Grub]

Grilled pork chops, sauce Diane, beans & taters.

If anyone has any advice or comments, I'd really like to hear it, by the way. I'm trying real hard to learn... If nothing else, if you gagged, pointed at your computer screen and started laughing, lemme know that too, just so I know I'm entertaining someone here, at the very least

The sauce was the big deal for me on this one... I like sauces.

I had made (or attempted) some demiglace -- brown mirepoix (chopped, 2 parts onions, 1 carrots, 1 celery) in butter, add flour to create brown roux, add tomato paste, beef broth (does it make a big difference, if I use canned beef broth, rather than creating my own veal stock? I mean, this thing is time-consuming as it is, you know?), let simmer for 2 hours -- this is supposed to create sauce Espagnole...

Then, add more beef broth and let simmer until reduced to half, which results in demiglace -- except it was supposed to be equal amounts of demiglace and broth/stock, and I didn't have enough stock... Besides, the thing had gotten REAL thick at this point -- I think I added too much flour to the roux, and it thickened up a lot more because of that...

Worst of all, I'm definitely sure I added too much tomato paste, because I could really taste that. AND the beef broth was mostly ordinary, rather than low-sodium, so that affected the taste too.

Well, I set some aside, and froze the rest -- but I'm thinking I'll make another go at demiglace before I use that stuff

This is mostly from the CIA's Professional Chef book, btw. It lists a bunch of demiglace-derived sauces, and sauce Diane seemed good: a Poivrade sauce with cream. And Poivrade sauce was listed as a reduction of white wine, peppercorns and butter.

So I reduced some white wine with butter and peppercorns, reduced it, mixed it with the demiglace, and added some cream. It didn't taste right -- the tomatoish demiglace completely dominated things, so I added a lot more cream, which made it look pretty icky (is that a proper culinary term?), so I lost my mind and added some soy sauce to darken it. Since I still didn't like the taste much, and this sauce project just seemed completely out of control, I added some cayenne pepper. That created a fairly nice taste, that I figured would go well with grilled pork chops -- and it did.

I added some butter at the end, since I heard that was a good thing for a sauce...

The taters were just plain boiled with some salt. Had some flat-leaf/Italian parsley, so I chopped that up and dropped it on. The beans look the worst (maybe that's just cause I know there were canned, and microwaved, I dunno). The pork chop is bone-in (and just covered with salt and pepper, and olive oil -- done simply, since I had this sauce to provide extra flavor), which works best on a bbq, I think. Had decent grill marks and all. Tasted great, even if it doesn't look too impressive.