Dinner! 2005

[zeitoun]

Deep-fried shrimp heads and legs in a baby watercress salad.

I guess they turn all crunchy and nice after you fry them???! especially the legs.

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I learned very quickly from my Japanese wife that everything is edible in fish or seafood (except shells of course). Ever had fish eyes? Good stuff!!

Shrimp heads? Crunchy? Not just that, shrimp heads contain loads of flavorful stuff...

[lovebenton0]

Lovebenton, that food is looking great . . . you must have a nice broiler because you always get really crunchity browning on your foods.  Check the roasted cauliflower!

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Awww thanks. No broiler for the cauliflower, just 425F oven with lots of turning. And hate to admit I don't use the broiler that much -- advantage to mild TX winters, we still smoke/grill a lot.

Lovebenton,

Tuesday nights dinner looks awesome.. Thats really cool that the majority of the food is either from scratch or your garden.. Very impressive, its like you are living in a kabutz over there.

We love our gardens! Lucky to have a nice place for a good-sized and productive veg garden, and I grow the herbs in beds close to the house where I can get to them easily. I air dry summer herbs at the end of the season to have some for the short winter here. And I'm just spoiled to homemade bread.

So dinner last night was a bowl of leftover veg/beef/barley soup rescued at about 10PM from the freezer and hunks of ciabatta because I was too dizzy and slept through dinner.

[lovebenton0]

Deep-fried shrimp heads and legs in a baby watercress salad.

I guess they turn all crunchy and nice after you fry them???! especially the legs.

←

I learned very quickly from my Japanese wife that everything is edible in fish or seafood (except shells of course). Ever had fish eyes? Good stuff!!

Shrimp heads? Crunchy? Not just that, shrimp heads contain loads of flavorful stuff...

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This sounds intriguing to me, I always save them for shrimp stock, but will have to try this.

And, jinmyo, that entire menu sounds wonderful, but those twice-bakers have me nearly drooling.

  Made a decent dinner last night

Seared liver with a caramlized onion red wine and black current sauce

Baby bok choy with thai seasonings

caramalized yams with pancetta

mescaline & baby arugela salad with 25 year old balsamic vinegar and evoo

Did you stir-fry the baby bok choy, toss with seasonings? I have some on hand and that sounds good with massaman chicken curry I have planned for tonight. hmmmmm . . . I'm thinking stir-fried with a bit of lime zest/juice (no leaf right now), fish sauce, galangal and thai chili, touch of sweet.

[Jinmyo]

Deep-fried shrimp heads and legs in a baby watercress salad.

I guess they turn all crunchy and nice after you fry them???! especially the legs.

←

I learned very quickly from my Japanese wife that everything is edible in fish or seafood (except shells of course). Ever had fish eyes? Good stuff!!

Shrimp heads? Crunchy? Not just that, shrimp heads contain loads of flavorful stuff...

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Yes, very crunchy and tasty. A take on lardons/croutons (although both are great as such).

[Susan in FL]

Jinmyo, do you do any more cleaning of the shrimp than to break off the heads? Like Judith, I never thought of anything but stock for the saving the heads, or shells. We could have a ton of whatever if we bought our local shrimp whole instead of headless. And what do you mean by legs... how do you separate those little tiny legs from the shells?

Edited January 29, 2005 by Susan in FL (log)

[Jinmyo]

Jinmyo, do you do any more cleaning of the shrimp than to break off the heads?  Like Judith, I never thought of anything but stock for the saving the heads, or shells.  We could have a ton of whatever if we bought our local shrimp whole instead of headless.  And what do you mean by legs... how do you separate those little tiny legs from the shells?

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Sometimes, if deep-fried whole, shrimp are served head on but people tend not to eat and thus waste them.

Just straighten the shrimp out (if they're large like U10 or even U15, this is easy to do) and slice off the legs. Of course the backs are split and the intestine removed, which again is easy if the shrimp are straightened.

Shrimp are usually cooked (poached or grilled) shell on then quickly peeled for service. The shells are frozen for stocks, often used with lobster shells or even dried sardines.

The legs and heads are then tossed in seasoned rice flour or tempura batter (as in this case) or just plain and quickly deep-fried.

[Afterburner]

Tonight was a simple chicken and rice dish.

The chicken was bits of white and dark meat left over from my chicken deboning experiment of earlier this week. I diced 'em and threw 'em in a skillet with some toasted walnut oil, some garlic, and some Sriracha chili sauce.

The rice was whole-grain black rice, labelled "Forbidden Rice" (which always makes me think of Homer Simpson). Cooked in salted water, and with a bit of butter.

When these items were done, I mixed the former with the latter, turning the chicken meat a lovely purple. Seriously, this dish looked like something out of a Friday the 13th movie.

Tasted pretty good, though.

A few leaves of escarole, butter lettuce, and dandelion gave their lives in order to make a shredded greens salad.

Currently cooling down after being removed from the oven is a Strawberry/Blackberry Crisp, made as a variant of the Apple Crisp recipe from How To Cook Everything. It smells amazing.

Edited January 29, 2005 by Afterburner (log)

[Chef Metcalf]

Brined pork tenerloin stuffed with mushoom duxelle and coated with a goat's cheese rosemary crust.

Sauteed beans, yellow and orange carrots and asparagus in butter/lemon zest/chicken demi.

[Susan in FL]

Thanks, Jinmyo. I think what confused me was picturing trying to cut the legs off the smaller shrimp commonly caught around here. Usually they are like U 20-somethings. Still, I like the idea of deep-frying heads or more so, deep-frying whole ones with heads and shells on. That sounds good for our smaller sizes. Sometimes their shells aren't real hard. .....Yet another food added to my want-to-have list.

Afterburner, we really like Forbidden Rice, and it can turn food purple!! Lotus Foods is where I sometimes order Carnaroli rice, too.

Last night I got back to cooking at home, following some good meals out. After eating appetizers while we were at happy hours, we came home and had a good hamburger and hot dog (Usinger's ) and Meridian Cabernet.

[Jinmyo]

Large radishes hollowed (used one of those carpet hooker thingees) and filled with cultured butter mixed crushed red, green, black, and white peppercorns, served in martini glasses filled with tomato water and vodka granita with a bit of thyme oil.

Parmesan tuile shaped spoonlike with creamed spinach with lardons.

Ziti with a sauce of onion confit with shredded beef and torn oyster mushrooms.

Bone in pork loin chop (seared and bunged) with curry seasonings. Meant to be picked up with the hand and chomped. (Oshibori-rolled hot and damp towels provided.)

Salad of escarole and roasted pear tomatoes (hot house, yellow and red).

Cheese course (paneer with cilantro pesto, ten year cheddar with blanched red onions on biscuits, Stilton on spoons).

[Susan in FL]

Large radishes hollowed (used one of those carpet hooker thingees) and filled with cultured butter mixed crushed red, green, black, and white peppercorns, served in martini glasses filled with tomato water and vodka granita with a bit of thyme oil.

Parmesan tuile shaped spoonlike with creamed spinach with lardons.

Ziti with a sauce of onion confit with shredded beef and torn oyster mushrooms.

Bone in pork loin chop (seared and bunged) with curry seasonings. Meant to be picked up with the hand and chomped. (Oshibori-rolled hot and damp towels provided.)

Salad of escarole and roasted pear tomatoes (hot house, yellow and red).

Cheese course (paneer with cilantro pesto, ten year cheddar with blanched red onions on biscuits, Stilton on spoons).

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I want all that.

[percyn]

Shortribs with Demi Glace on Mushroom Polenta

[Chufi]

percyn I just cannot stop looking at that picture. Wow...

how do you make mushroom polenta? I love polenta.. love mushrooms.. I want mushroompolenta!!

[Daniel]

Shortribs with Demi Glace on Mushroom Polenta

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One of those please! What did you drink with that.

[bleachboy]

Shortribs with Demi Glace on Mushroom Polenta

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*weeps*

[Jinmyo]

Gorgeous.

[Susan in FL]

Ditto, to all.

[Susan in FL]

Recently most of my cooking has been following recipes or using them as guides, so tonight I put my dormant creativity to work and no recipes were involved except the cocktails and dessert.

We started with Honeydew Bellinis. I've been wanting to try these (and other recipes) from the January issue of Bon Appetit since I read it.

Then...

Mussels with a lemongrass and ginger broth

Steamed artichokes and homemade kaffir lime scented garlic mayonaisse

Roast goose with a thyme-infused honey balsamic wine sauce (it's underneath everything in the photo), pasta, and matchstick zucchini and carrots with summer savory

Still to come is dessert. It was inspired by MissTenacity's recipe for fig and port ice cream from the Thyme Honey thread. I used fresh figs instead of dried and thyme instead of mint. If the finished product is as good as it tastes before freezing, we have discovered something!! I'll report back after we freeze and eat it.

[Jason Perlow]

Portuguese Style "Picadinho" with Pullo Rice Pilaf -- Pork Loin Cubes, Clams and Shrimp in a Garlic/Paprika/Brandy/Vinegar saute with pearl onions, grape tomatoes, olives, piquillo peppers and Saffron basmati rice with dried fruits and nuts.

[little ms foodie]

oh man, I would take a table at any of the above. And Jin....that last menu stole my heart!!!

Dinner tonight was influenced by a bit of pantry cooking that quickly turned into our 'TOUR OF ASIA'

With the left over BBQ pork from the char siu bao cookoff cookoff we made fried wontons with a yummy dipping sauce. Also on this platter are scallion pancakes, they were ok but I will continue to look for a better recipe and method.

Then some steamed baby bok choy drizzled with sesame oil and seeds and a bit of salt along with some home made char siu bao.

Entering our Thai course my first stab at Tom Kai Gai (YUM!)

Back to China we finished with a pork fried rice

All this was served with the WOW Trimbach Riesling from Alsace

Dessert I picked up at the Asian market while shopping, I like to grab something that looks cute. Here's what the box looked like:

(if anyone knows what it says please speak up!)

and what was inside... how cute are these!!! There are two trays

Chufi- we just got the blue platter to match our dishes today and I thought of you! How funny as I really don't even know you!

Edited January 30, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[Ling]

Shortribs with Demi Glace on Mushroom Polenta

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percyn, you know I'm a big fan of all your meals but I think I've fallen in love with that picture!

I had beer-braised shortribs and blue cheese polenta tonight, coincidentally, but they didn't measure up to my expectations. (I didn't cook it--ate it at a restaurant.)

[percyn]

Thanks for the compliments on the short ribs all...I was not expecting this humble meal to generate such a response.

Chufi, "mushroompolenta" was born when I had left over shitake mushrooms and some polenta. I sauteed the mushrooms in some olive oil, added the polenta with some cream and stired, stired, stired.

The shortribs were made last weekend, but I find that the flavor enhances when I let it sit for a few days. So I make it over weekends (which is the only real time I get to cook) and eat it as a quick meal on weekdays. This plate took me maybe 12 minutes to put together, mostly because of the polenta I had to reconstitute.

Daniel, I had an open bottle of 2000 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone, which seemed to go well with the dish.

A few days ago, I was luck enough to watch a cooking TV show in the making and enjoy 9 dishes, made by 9 different renown chefs at the

Fretz Kitchen. You may see inspirations from these dishes in my upcoming meals

Cheers

Percy

[Susan in FL]

You may see inspirations from these dishes in my upcoming meals 

I hope so!

[Chufi]

Chufi- we just got the blue platter to match our dishes today and I thought of you! How funny as I really don't even know you! 

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yes you do! I'm the girl from Amsterdam who wants your plates, remember??

percyn - you say you had to 'reconstitute' the polenta. What do you mean by that? do you cook it in advance? please enlighten this polenta-lover..

Our dinner yesterday: very homely comfortfood. Cottagepie with a sweet potato & leek topping, with some stirfried cabbage in the background:

Today we had a simple pasta dish that turned out very good: orechiette with a broccoli-anchovy chilli pepper sauce.

And for dessert these little tarts, made of shortcrust pastry, filled with chocolate creme patissiere, topped with bananas that were brushed with a honey orange glaze. I don't usually make these fiddly desserts just for the two of us but I am trying out recipes for my husbands birthday party. The verdict: they were good, but not good enough!

Edited January 30, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[suzilightning]

let me add to the clamour - percyn that has got to be the most mouthwatering picture i have ever seen. now that i have my new dutch oven i must try that.

dinner last night was cincinatti chili 4 ways:

pasta, sweet chili, beans, grated cheddar cheese (with black olives and sour cream but they don't count)

green salad

simple but filling and john had never had sweet chili before. he inhaled it.