Dinner! 2005

[percyn]

Bryan, sorry to hear about your Grandmother and I am sure many eGers will keep her in their prayers.

For Christmas dinner tonight, we were fortunate to be able to celebrate at my Aunt's house, with a few cousins and friends, where we made...

Turkey

Prime Beef Boneless Rib Roast (just out of the oven)

Half a Duck a L'Orange

Here the Duck and Roast have been cut up

Crabcakes

Green bean Casserole

Not pictured are : Mashed potatoes, gravy, a leg of duck confit, steamed broccoli, broccoli salad, rolls and creamed cabbage.

Boy, thats a lot of food....

[Shalmanese]

Professor Shalmanese's Cooking School - Day 4

Breakfast:

Banana, Pineapple & Peach Smoothie (no picture)

Lunch:

Left Over Clam Chowder:

Mega Sandwich with Turkey Breasts, Cranberry Sauce, Blue Cheese, Lettuce and Sundried Tomatos:

Pomegranite Sorbet

Thai Turkey Soup

Ceaser Salad with Turkey Breast, Avocados and Anchovies:

Shepards Pie

Pineapple & Moscati d'Asti Zabligione

Edited December 26, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[vkn]

You folks are incredible coming up with WOW dishes; inspiring me too much to learn all those fusion foods out there :-) I feel really cocooned for being a traditional Indian chef

We were simply testing our skills to make a more thicker and delicious Mutton (goat/lamb) and potato curried sauce than the previous ones we cooked, and the improvised result is worth mentioning to you - Mutton and Potato Curried Sauce. Happy Holidays!

Edited December 26, 2005 by vkn (log)

[FoodMan]

Friday night:

-Braciole (sp?), rolled flank steak stuffed with spinach and cheese and braised in tomato sauce

-Potato gnocchi

Xmas Eve dinner:

Sorry about the no pics, but I was a little busy

- Homemade sourdough bread in several shapes

- Spinach and three cheese dip (no pic)

- Les Halles Mushroom soup with creme fraiche (no pic)

- Roasted Duck roulade from Charcuterie

- Homemade Turkey-cherry sausage and Marjoram Kielbasa from Charcuterie

- Duck leg and prune ragout from The Cooking of SW France (no pic)

- Stuffed Onions from The Cooking of SW France

- Potato gratin from The Cooking of SW France

- Salad of roasted beets, pearl onions and oranges (no pic)

- Bouch De Noel, fille dwith orange bavaroix and covered with ganache.

- Alton Brown's excellent fruit cake, served with his eggnog ice cream (no pic)

- Sable Cookies and other cookies.

[redglass]

WOW! I'm just coming down from three lamb-centric Christmas dinners and I am lucky enough to log on to see all these wonderful meals!!

Chufi, I am always looking for new celeriac recipes. Would you be kind enough to post your celeraic Xmas recipe on RecipeGullet?

Bryan, my best to your Grandmother. As strange as it sounds, some of the most memorable meals I've been involved in preparing or eating have also been associated with some of the tougher times in life. And I for one think that your Christmas meal looked pretty darn good.

[Megan Blocker]

Wow, FoodMan - all of that food looks amazing, but that roulade and the kielbasa are out of this world! Fantastic job...

[Shalmanese]

Professor Shalmanese's Cooking School - Day 5

Lunch:

Left-over Thai Turkey Soup

Dinner:

Green Bean & Brown Rice Salad with Bacon & Red Onions:

Osso Bucco with Polenta and Gremolata

Lemon-Mint Sorbet with Dark Belgian Chocolate

Hot Chocolate

Edited December 27, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

Wow! Those dinners looked so great. I'm going to try to wrangle an invite to one of your Christmas dinners next year!

Bryan, so sorry to hear about your Grandmother. My thoughts are with you.

[Basilgirl]

Friday night: pepperoni bread with pizza sauce for dipping; Knorr vegetable soup mix/sour cream dip with fennel, carrots & celery

Saturday night: Lots of nibblies at Mom's house

Christmas Dinner: Sirloin roast in the Set It and Forget It, marinaded in soy sauce, red wine vinegar, dehydrated onions, garlic powder, Frank's hot sauce and Montreal Steak Seasoning; yorkshire pudding; roasted parsnips, carrots & fennel

Last night: More nibblies - Nueske's honey glazed smoked turkey breast on tee-tiny Martin's potato rolls with spicy mayo; cheese & crackers; Nueske's landjaeger sausages; garlic olives, etc. etc. etc.

[Joann]

Friday night: pepperoni bread with pizza sauce for dipping; Knorr vegetable soup mix/sour cream dip with fennel, carrots & celery

Saturday night: Lots of nibblies at Mom's house

Christmas Dinner: Sirloin roast in the Set It and Forget It, marinaded in soy sauce, red wine vinegar, dehydrated onions, garlic powder, Frank's hot sauce and Montreal Steak Seasoning; yorkshire pudding; roasted parsnips, carrots & fennel

Last night: More nibblies - Nueske's honey glazed smoked turkey breast on tee-tiny Martin's potato rolls with spicy mayo; cheese & crackers; Nueske's landjaeger sausages; garlic olives, etc. etc. etc.

←

Love Nueske's BUT, Christmas dinner was their Applewood Smoked Honey Spiral Boneless ham. A little too heavy on the smoking, and just about the toughest ham in history. Everybody ate it (fully cooked it said but did heat it through) but what a tough hunk to cut. The balance was portioned into containers destined for the freezer and a winters' worth of soup stock. I still love Neuske's but will go back to Honey Baked next year.

Along with mac-n-cheese, fried apples, and french silk pie-the kidlings choice of sides. Next year, I get to choose!

[Basilgirl]

Friday night: pepperoni bread with pizza sauce for dipping; Knorr vegetable soup mix/sour cream dip with fennel, carrots & celery

Saturday night: Lots of nibblies at Mom's house

Christmas Dinner: Sirloin roast in the Set It and Forget It, marinaded in soy sauce, red wine vinegar, dehydrated onions, garlic powder, Frank's hot sauce and Montreal Steak Seasoning; yorkshire pudding; roasted parsnips, carrots & fennel

Last night: More nibblies - Nueske's honey glazed smoked turkey breast on tee-tiny Martin's potato rolls with spicy mayo; cheese & crackers; Nueske's landjaeger sausages; garlic olives, etc. etc. etc.

←

Love Nueske's BUT, Christmas dinner was their Applewood Smoked Honey Spiral Boneless ham. A little too heavy on the smoking, and just about the toughest ham in history. Everybody ate it (fully cooked it said but did heat it through) but what a tough hunk to cut. The balance was portioned into containers destined for the freezer and a winters' worth of soup stock. I still love Neuske's but will go back to Honey Baked next year.

Along with mac-n-cheese, fried apples, and french silk pie-the kidlings choice of sides. Next year, I get to choose!

←

Funny - my boss said he was disappointed in his Nueske's ham this year too. Try the turkey - the Basilman thought it was ham! because it's just so SMOKY

[vkn]

I am sure you will like this, the only food that we cooked today which is worth mentioning here - Homemade minced beef croquettes. Happy holidays!

[MarketStEl]

I debated putting this meal in the gallery of regrettable foods, since, well, some might call it regrettable--under normal circumstances I would say it is.  Regardless, this is the "Christmas dinner" I prepared tonight, as inspired by my grandmother.

A potato gratin of sorts with Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup and caramelized minced onions, topped with Kraft Cheddar cheese (I shudder when I think of the ingredients that are in this)

[...]

Lime jello umm jello cream thing-it's lime jello and Cool Whip (ahhhhh!)

Pomegranate sorbet- a bastion of clean, pure flavors in a meal of American cuisine circa 1960

My father was pleased with this meal.  He said it was just like the good old days.

←

Hey, Bryan, instead of those green beans, you could have served Green Bean Casserole!

My condolences on your grandmother's condition. May God be with you.

[rooftop1000]

Tonights dinner was thanks to Zucchini Mama's discourse on Perogi. No I didnt make them myself, actually all I did was heat most of this meal up but it satified many cravings. The infamous Mrs.T's perogis, keilbasa, cheddarwurst, fried onions, red cabbage, sauerkraut, bread and salad. MMMMmmm

Dinner was at 6:30 the kids showed up at 6:45 sat down, shut up, and ate, and ate. And they were gone by 7:05

I still have cookie dough to bake

T

[percyn]

Rack of lamb Sous Vide and sauce from lamb jus, demi glace, red wine, shallots and pomegranate molasses

The end result was one of the most tender pieces of lamb I have ever had.

It would have been nice to have some pomegranate sorebet after that, to cleanse the palate in a complimentary fashion, but unfortunately I was all out of pomegranate juice....maybe tomorrow.

Since I was experimenting with sous vide, I also made some lobster, scallops and shrimp

The lobster went in along with some raw tiger shrimp and scallops (in different bags) at 113F (more or less) for 1.25 hrs

I then placed the lobster under the broiler while the shrimp and scallops were quickly pan seared. This was plated and served with a sauce made from the lobster's head, shells, mirepox, cognac, vermouth, white wine (OK, it had a bit more alcohol than usual, but I did flambé it) and cream.

Edited December 28, 2005 by percyn (log)

[Daniel]

Percyn,

The lobster and scallops look great.. How would you rate the taste over cooking the normal way using that sauce? Did you see a difference?

[Daniel]

In between cameras right now.. My girl actually bought me the sony 8.0 guy.. Dont really know how to navigate it at this point.. So, I am pictureless..

Salad:

For salad we made mixed green with poached egg, lardons, and mushrooms in a wine sauce.. Truffle vinegar..

Bread:

Madolines.. I know thats not how to spell it, but thats my spelling.. Buttermilk, rosemary, garlic, truffles..

Main:

Broiled quail in Brandy...Served over parm grits...

On the side:

Cabbage braised with bacon, onions,champagne, chicken stock, and cream.. Reduced it way down..

Dessert:

Chocolate Ice Milk, Chocolate Souffle..

Ice Milk was basically 2 eggs, milk, sugar, chocolate.. No cream, no egg whites, no half and half... Simple and excellent. I added whipped cream from the can.. I had this thing since the last time I used it.. 2 months later, it was as average as it was the las time..

Souffle

Edited December 28, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[percyn]

Percyn,

The lobster and scallops look great.. How would you rate the taste over cooking the normal way using that sauce?  Did you see a difference?

←

Daniel, a more complete post on this dinner is on the sous vide thread. However, I will share that for some reason my lobster sous vide had a mushy textute and I will need to experiment some more. The tail meat was not bad, but that may have been because I placed it under the broiler for a few minutes, so my guess is that the lobster would have tasted better if broiled, but the shrimp and scallops were superb, as was the lamb.

[Daniel]

I forgot to mention.. I also had a cheese course.. I made a Welsh Rarebit in between the Main and Dessert..I used a 5 yr old cheddar and Fergus Henderson's Recipe... With Guiness and Colemans Mustard.. Served with Taylor Flagate 10yr.. I see myself serving hot cheese courses a few different ways.. Great idea!

Edited December 28, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

Percyn,

The lobster and scallops look great.. How would you rate the taste over cooking the normal way using that sauce?  Did you see a difference?

←

Daniel, a more complete post on this dinner is on the sous vide thread. However, I will share that for some reason my lobster sous vide had a mushy textute and I will need to experiment some more. The tail meat was not bad, but that may have been because I placed it under the broiler for a few minutes, so my guess is that the lobster would have tasted better if broiled, but the shrimp and scallops were superb, as was the lamb.

←

That is very interesting.. I wonder how scallops would react if it was just vacum packed with like a citrus.Making it a raw sous vide ceviche.. I see scallops reacting well to the sous vide process..

Edited December 28, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[vkn]

We prepared one of the hottest and spiciest seafood dishes Prawns Jalfrezi aka Chilli Prawns for last dinner.

[Shalmanese]

Professor Shalmanese's Cooking School - Day 6

Lunch:

Wagyu Steak Frites with Garlic Mayonnaise served with a Cote-du-Marmendais.

Leftover Lemon-Mint Sorbet

Homemade Lemonade

Dinner:

Anti-Pasta Platter

Grilled Duck Breast with Wild Mushrooms and Creamed Corn

Creme Caramel

Edited December 28, 2005 by Shalmanese (log)

[racheld]

Last night's not-quite-so-cold-night dinner was chicken livers, gently cooked in an oil/butter skillet with a handful of onion curls and a bit of seasalt. Just pinkly done, and served in wide gratin dishes over a crisp crouton of sourdough toast, to catch all the lovely juices.

Pilaf of long-grain, oil-slicked for a moment with a mirepoix of onion and celery, simmered tender with chicken stock, saffron, and a few raisins and sliced almonds added at the last toss. Cold kidney-bean salad with minced sweet onion, celery, boiled eggs, celery seeds, and Duke's mayonnaise; sticks of English cucumber with dill dressing.

A dip into the still-stuffed stockings for candy bits for dessert (three Lindt truffles for me).

[I_call_the_duck]

Last night was Christmas leftovers. We had sticky rice, chive and shrimp wrapped in bamboo, and curried chicken that I freshed up with carrots, onions, green peppers, and ground turkey. The colors were very pretty, and it was good, but my house still smells like curry.

[Megan Blocker]

Last night's not-quite-so-cold-night dinner was chicken livers, gently cooked in an oil/butter skillet with a handful of onion curls and a bit of seasalt.  Just pinkly done, and served in wide gratin dishes over a crisp crouton of sourdough toast, to catch all the lovely juices. 

Pilaf of long-grain, oil-slicked for a moment with a mirepoix of onion and celery, simmered tender with chicken stock, saffron, and a few raisins and sliced almonds added at the last toss.  Cold kidney-bean salad with minced sweet onion, celery, boiled eggs, celery seeds,  and Duke's mayonnaise; sticks of English cucumber with dill dressing.

A dip into the still-stuffed stockings for candy bits for dessert (three Lindt truffles for me).

←

That sounds so good, Rachel!