Dinner! 2005

[percyn]

Looks delicious...will have to try

[Susan in FL]

Mexican-style shrimp cocktail

Butter-Poached Lobster without Tarragon and with Champagne, from Bon Appetit

Steak in a portabella mushroom, with mixed mushroom wine sauce

The steak was a totally out-of-the-blue recipe I made up. We want to make it a couple more times and refine it, so we can develop a good recipe. I scraped the insides of the portabellas out, started the mushrooms and the steaks stove top in the iron skillet, and then placed the steak in the mushroom and finished it in the oven. The sauce included fresh shiitakes, fresh button mushrooms, and dried porcini.

The wines were worthy of mention. They were all good and matched up well with the food: 2001 Penascal Spanish Tempranillo with the shrimp, NV Lorikeet Australian Brut with the lobster, and 2002 Layland Hills California Merlot with the steak.

[spaghetttti]

Exquisite, Susan

[M. Lucia]

Lovely Susan, I like the flowers and those black placemats.

Tonight I had some multigrain crackers topped with fig/ginger spread (a holdiay gift) and feta. A nice salty/sweet/spicy combo.

Then it was spinach fettucine with peas and shitakes in a parmesan-butter sauce.

Dessert a few of Herme's Chocolate Sparklers.

[Jinmyo]

Some Dim Kinda Dim Sum Kinda:

Fried turnip cakes with char siu and black vinegar on a watercress salad.

Hot and sour soup inside thick steamed dumplings.

Chicken liver and leek steamed dumplings with demitasse of white onion miso soup.

Shrimp wrapped in wonton skins witrh a lime and chile pureed silken tofu dip.

Lamb shu mai (made with shredded lamb shanks) with demitasse of wasabi pea soup (uh, pea soup with wasabi).

Shattered red chile chicken thighs wrapped in rice paper rolls with Napa cabbage slaw with galangal with ngoc mam and garlic chives.

Jasmine tea steamed squares of tofu with dried shrimp and roasted medallions of daikon with aka miso.

Several kinds of rice to choose from (Chinese long grain white, red "cargo" rice, Japanese gohan, Lundberg short grain brown) with different kinds of kombu (laver) to scoop and wrap with gomasio (toasted sesame seeds tossed with salt).

Available throughout: pickled mustard greens, cabbage kimchi, cubed daikon kimchi, tourneed Lebanese cucumbers poached in salty dashi, red onion and red chile pickle.

[Dana]

Susan, your photos are always so inspiring, but the Mexican Shrimp is something that would make a big hit for my Valentines' Day menu. How did you put it together?

I had restaurant leftovers from last night- made fish tacos out of the grouper I couldn't finish, the husbands' mashed potatoes, and the rest of the veg saute that is standard. Except that Brad, the chef, added thin slices of butternut squash to the usual red bells, onions, yellow and zucchini squashes. The butternut was really good this way. I'll be trying it myself this week.

Cosmopolitians

Edited February 7, 2005 by Dana (log)

[patti]

Caribbean Pork from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. Delicious!

[Rehovot]

The steak was a totally out-of-the-blue recipe I made up.  We want to make it a couple more times and refine it, so we can develop a good recipe.  I scraped the insides of the portabellas out, started the mushrooms and the steaks stove top in the iron skillet, and then placed the steak in the mushroom and finished it in the oven.  The sauce included fresh shiitakes, fresh button mushrooms, and dried porcini.

This looks and sounds fantastic. We, too, had steak with portobella and red-wine sauce over the weekend. Is there a reason / secret stroke of genius for scraping out the insides of the portobellas?

[Jinmyo]

The gills of portobellos tend to discolour sauces. They are easily removed with the edge of a spoon or paring knife.

They can also be peeled quite easily.

[Rehovot]

The gills of portobellos tend to discolour sauces. They are easily removed with the edge of a spoon or paring knife.

Aha, thanks. This will prevent future sauces from having that inside-of-a-cave look.

[Hiroyuki]

Top, from left to right (excluding the bottles): Yakitori (grilled chicken) that I made with the special recipe that sizzleteeth made especially for me:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=61196

daikon, carrot, and canned tuna salad, eaten with either ponzu or ao-jizo dressing

leftover udon soup with ham added (silly combination)

Bottom, from left to right: Special dipping sauce for the yakitori, tofu and wakame miso soup, Koshiibuki rice, shochu (distilled spirit) with mugicha (barley tea)

For a description of the special seasoning, Kanzuri, used to make the yakitori, see posts #46 to #57 in

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...30entry833701

[Susan in FL]

Thanks, All, for the kind words about Saturday's dinner. We did what we call the "Cook Eat Cook Eat" thing, stretching out the fun of making and eating dinner over the entire evening. When we "Cook Eat Cook Eat" we cook together and fix one course, eat it, clean up from that one, and then go on to the next one, and so on.

Mexican Shrimp is something that would make a big hit for my Valentines' Day menu. How did you put it together?

Russ cooked the shrimp, chilled them ahead of time, and peeled them; and then I put it together while he did the dirty job of cleaning up after me. .....

Shrimp cut in half, save whole for garnish

The cut up avocado drizzled with a good size squirt of both lemon and lime right away

Seeded and chopped up tomato

Sliced scallions (they were nice fat ones this time)

Minced garlic

Fresh cilantro

Sea salt, freshly ground pepper

A little bit of EVOO to mix with the lemon and lime juice for "dressing"

Garnished with skewer of whole shrimp and large pimento stuffed olives

Aha, thanks. This will prevent future sauces from having that inside-of-a-cave look. laugh.gif

LOL, good description. (Thanks, Jinmyo.) We started scraping out the gills of portabellas when grilling them and the inside-of-a-cave black juice would run out and smear the plates with that ugly color! A great discovery I learned from Sara Moulton.

[Basilgirl]

My Superbowl spread for two:

Bonnie's Buffalo Chicken Dip that's been floating around the Internet - really, really good stuff - you wouldn't think so by looking at the recipe - shredded chicken mixed with Frank's hot sauce, topped with cream cheese melted with ranch dressing & some chopped celery, baked then topped with monterey or cheddar cheese (I used a 4-cheese Mexican blend) and baked some more until melty and bubbly. My boyfriend went nuts over this. Served with really yummy broken up tostadas from Mexico - extra crunchy and salty.

Usinger's summer sausage in the shape of a football - too cute - and Cabot's aged white cheddar with assorted Pepperidge Farm crackers

Brie en croute with raspberry jam and almonds

Crudite

Bugels!!

Lotsa Sierra Nevadas for me

[Basilgirl]

Forgot about the bagel dogs with dijon honey mustard that I liberally sprinkled with cayenne.

Also forgot about the Superbowl thread, or this would have gone there.

[Susan in FL]

Dinner for us last night during the game was subs. We haven't had good subs since we lived up north. So with the up north teams coming to Florida to play in the Superbowl, I made good ones myself.

[Priscilla]

Got some especially nice oak in a recent firewood delivery. The Consort split some up smaller to fit in the old Weber and cooked two big 3-inch-thick ribeyes over a wood fire. Sliced and arrayed on winter salad mix dressed with olive oil and white wine vinegar, with discs of maitre d'hotel butter melting atop.

An excellent baguette from the magical treasure that is Cream Pan Bakery, thanks to Jschyun's putting me onto it.

Resolve to cook over oak all the time.

[FoodMan]

Here are a few days' worth of dinners. The delay this time is due to troubles with picture uploading :

Wednesday:

Chow Mein, made with fresh egg noodles and chicken

Thursday:

-Sweetbreads: Recipe based on Mario's from Babbo cookbook. They were breaded with Wondra flour flavored with roasted ground fennell and panfried. Served on top of onions and bacon in vinegar. The recipe asks for fennel fronds on top. Since I had none I used one of my favorite salad ingredients, leafy hearts of celery with a little olive oil.

My 1.5 year old son loved these...

Dessert: Bread pudding with apples and Irish cream topped with chocolate sauce

Friday:

- Leblebi (sp?), based on Paula Wolfert's recipe for North African Chickpea soup. I made this in the crock pot and since I can NEVER properly peel a soft cooked egg, I poached mine instead. The actual dish looked much better in person . I served it with Paula's recipe for Harissa.

Saturday:

- A sort of Shepherd's pie. Made with Italian sausage and topped with Parmesan mashed potatoes.

Sunday:

I made chili for Superbowl, based on a Robb Walsh recipe. I used both chicken and beef since I had some chicken meat defrosted. I served it with homemade corn bread baked in a cast iron skillet and spiked with bacon drippings.

Dessert: Pave cake from Pierre Herme's Chocolate Desserts book.

[Susan in FL]

Here are a few days' worth of dinners. The delay this time is due to troubles with picture uploading  :

Well you sure got the problems with picture uploading taken care of... Everything is so beautiful, and it all looks so good. I want you to cook for me!

[patti]

Food Man, beautiful photos of beautifully plated food. You are very creative.

[percyn]

Susan, Foodman, everything looks delicious...

Dinner tonight (and for a few more days, I am afraid) was leftovers from Superbowl

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail

Meat - Filet, Chorizo, Chicken & Cilantro Sausage, Hot Dogs, Black Angus Burgers (not in pic) and Cheesesteak (not in the pic)

My Plate - Burger topped with a fried egg

[Behemoth]

Homemade fettucine with prosciutto and cream sauce. Also, roasted jerusalem artichokes with parmesan cheese. Both good, but next time I wouldn't have them together. I just can't take that much rich food at once. Pocky & espresso for dessert, though

[tsquare]

Chicken braised with curry, figs, sweet potatoes, winter squash, onions, and tomatoes. From Fig Heaven.

[Varmint]

One of the few remaining meals to come from this horrible kitchen:

Seared sea scallops on roasted cremini mushroom caps with roasted tomato, ultra-young EVOO and Meyer lemon juice.

Steak au poivre, horseradish & roquefort mashed potatoes, sauteed shredded brussel sprouts.

I forgot to take a picture of dessert: Baked apples stuffed with dates and dried cherries, basted with Blenheim's Ginger Ale.

[Shalmanese]

x-posted from Chinese New Year

Hoo boy.... Well, that was the big one just over. 25 people, 19 dishes, a whole LOT of work. I was just a lowly sous chef so I can only claim minor credit for any of these dishes, the really praise will have to go to my mother this time.

I'm not even going to apologise for the crappy pictures this time, I was lucky to snap them at all before the food completely disappeared. The occasional arm is to be expected. Dishes listed below are in no particular order.

Here's a picture of the table set up with about 2/3rds of the dishes already on it by my count. More dishes came on later and some got taken off as they were eaten so I couldn't get a comprehensive pic. Everybody ate outside on the balcony where the weather was perfect.

Steamed Flower buns. Yeasted dough, moulded into a flour with spring onions and oil on the outside. Delightfully light and fluffly, same texture as man tao. These came out really well.

Fried eggplants and... Pork I think. Incredibly popular, I never got to actually taste this dish :(, it was gone before I could grab a plate.

Chinese bean with Pork. These are a type of bean that resemble gnarled green beans except they are over 1m long. Slightly bitter flavour, I love them.

Steamed whole fish with ginger and spring onions, Red snapper I think although I'm not certain.

Not one to buck tradition, no matter how recently established... Tofu with 1000 year eggs

Blurry pic, excellent dish :(. This was some sort of special traditional chinese meatball of which even *I* am not allowed to know the ingredients of. Served over snow peas and tastes out of this world.

Beef stewed with Turnips and Potatos, unbelievable tender and very subtle in flavour, I guess it would be an asian Pot-au-Feu.

Smashed Cucmber Salad. Cumcumbers, Tofu, Garlic, Sesame. The garlic really gives it a kick and it's unbelievably simple to make and SOO refreshing on such a hot day.

Wood ears sauted with pork and Chinese Cabbage. A traditional dish up north where these wood ears were grown. They are a category of fungus that only grows wild and each region seems to have a particular species which tastes nothing like any other type of wood ear. I love the taste of all wood ears but they are impossible to obtain in Australia so we stock up big every time we go home.

Red Fired Pork. Pork with the skin attached braised in soy and sugar. These wen't fast as well, I got about 2 pieces before they were gone. I can understand why.

Stir fry noodles with Chicken, Capsicum, Mushrooms & sesame. Uh... noodles. Good but not extraordinarily so.

Chicken braised with "Jin zhen"(lit: Golden Thread) Mushrooms and vermecelli. Again, this mushroom is a local delicacy and only grows in the wild in one region of China. These were actually picked by my cousins & uncles in the woods next to their house and are the absolute best specimens of all the ones they picked as a gift to their relative from abroad. As far as I'm concerned, give a choice between truffles and these, these win.

I'm not sure how to translate this... I guess the closest would be aspic, or pigs skin jelly... It's pig's skin, simmered in water until all the gelatin is extracted. It sounds gross but tastes fabulous. A very subtle flavour but the texture is refreshing and cool, simply garnished with some very good chinese soy, raw garlic and spring onions, it just slides down your throat.

Shrimp fried with Salt & Pepper. One of the things you can't get in China is such beautiful shrimp, One of them almost fit's across the plate. Just a simple cornflour batter and the natural flavour of the shrimp just explodes in your mouth. God I love Australian Seafood.

Uh someone else brought this... Mashed potatos with Mayo, pinapple, ham & cucumber. It was one of those dishes that sounds like it couldn't possibly work but amazingly manages to do so. Was meant to be for the kids but I think the adults kept stealing spoonfuls until it was gone .

Roast Duck from Chinatown, brought by a friend

Unbelievably enough, there was NOT ENOUGH FOOD cooked so this was out backup dish. It's some sort of salted spring chicken bought from chinatown, shredded and served plain, because we didn't COOK ENOUGH FOOD . Bunch of hungry barbarians *mumble, mumble*.

These next two were brought on near the end of the meal as a sort of light, palate cleansing courses. Chinese greens, stir fried with garlic.

I'm not sure how to translate this, it's congee with a type of green, dried bean thing in it. Slightly bitter and very minerally, A nice finish to relax the palate again after so much fat.

After dinner, I served dessert. This was a plum sorbet made from some absolutely fabulous plums we bought 3 days ago. Nice, sharp sweet/sour flavour. Very nice.

After dinner was over, we all relaxed on the balcony with some fruit and ice-cream (say what ever else you like about the chinese palate but they are complete and utter failures at appreciating good ice-cream ). I don't know what happened to the grapes in that pic, the condensed mist must of done funny things to the flash. The watermelon was, by happy coincidence, one of those watermelon you might ever taste only half a dozen times in your life. Intese ruby colour and a crystal clear sweet flavour.

you think we were finished?

you were wrong...

I present to you...

Gyoza! Made and cooked just before midnight as a traditional send-off into the new year. Chives & Meat, Celery & Meat, Chives & Egg, Prawn, Egg & Meat in the 4 plates although I don't remember which was which..

[Jinmyo]

Shalmanese, that's an amazing spread.

Give your Mom a cheers for me.

Oh, and " Gong Si Fa Cai!"

Edited February 8, 2005 by Jinmyo (log)