Dinner! 2005

[little ms foodie]

2nd day of Spain week....

Garlicky mushrooms

Cabrales phyllo rolls

and lamb with mint meatballs

[Jake]

Wendy, looks delicious. I'd be interested in the recipe for the cabrales phyllo rolls if you wouldn't mind.....

[Susan in FL]

Wendy, I hope you don't mind my jumping in, but I'm right here with the time to post...

If you have a Food & Wine subscription or even a single copy you bought you can sign in on the web site and have access to the recipe. Click here!

[little ms foodie]

What Susan said! Actually I think you might even be able to sign up for a free month or two of F&W on the website and get acess.....Jake if this doesn't work for you just pm me and I'll get you the recipe. They are actually suppose to be much smaller than this but the first time making anything is an education right? And they have a sherry dipping sauce that goes with them (not pictured)

[FoodMan]

Friday:

Braised chicken with beet greens, chickpeas, garlic, ginger, onions, preserved lemons and a variety of North African spices. I cooked this slowly tagine-like in my Chinese sand pot. It came out fabulous.

Served it on top of bulgur cooked with Samen.

Saturday:

For my birthday meal we had,

Grilled chicken, garlic sauce, grilled potatoes, cabbage and tomato salad, and pita bread. While grilling I nibbled on green almonds and had some Arak.

Dessert: Banana cake with chocolate chips and a Kahlua whipped cream frosting. This easy cake was one of the best things I’ve made.

Sunday:

Cheeses and homemade bread. Served with Brunston pickle and other condiments.

Monday:

Leftover night. I Made grilled chicken risotto with fresh oregano and lots of Parm. cheese and butter.

Had more of that wonderful cake for dessert.

[Jinmyo]

Salad of Belgian endive, celery leaves, edamame (peeled, blanched soy beans) and toasted pine nuts with lime and chile dressing.

Haddock pieces in tempura batter with chive and wasabi fresh mayo.

Small square of hiyayako tofu (cold silken tofu) surrounded with warm ginger and umeboshi infused sake, topped with freshly shaved bonito.

Udon noodle soup with huagu (huge and tremendously expensive Chinese flower mushrooms that have been seared and tossed with shoyu and black sesame oil) and beef (odd bits trimmed from recent prime rib roasts) sliced in similiar sizes in a shoyu, Chinese rice wine, and beef broth (made from the rib bones) with a layer of slivered scallions supporting a raw egg yolk peeking out from a shower of slivered toasted nori.

Available throughout the courses: cabbage kimchi, pickled mustard greens, daikon pickled with lime and dried sardines, takuan daikon, and gari (ginger).

[Susan in FL]

Salad of Belgian endive, celery leaves, edamame (peeled, blanched soy beans) and toasted pine nuts with lime and chile dressing.

Yesss...! That is what I will do with the rest of the celery I have. I had never seen a head of celery like this before. I got it in my favorite Thai market. It is mostly leaves -- beautiful leaves -- with the other part of the stalks very, very skinny, and it even has some little tiny shoots of what looks like a plant going to seed, sort of blossomy. Do you know or does anyone know... is this an Asian variety of celery?

I love the sounds of your entire menu!

[Genny]

Salad of Belgian endive, celery leaves, edamame (peeled, blanched soy beans) and toasted pine nuts with lime and chile dressing.

Yesss...! That is what I will do with the rest of the celery I have. I had never seen a head of celery like this before. I got it in my favorite Thai market. It is mostly leaves -- beautiful leaves -- with the other part of the stalks very, very skinny, and it even has some little tiny shoots of what looks like a plant going to seed, sort of blossomy. Do you know or does anyone know... is this an Asian variety of celery?

I love the sounds of your entire menu!

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I was at the local asian market here a couple weeks ago and saw something that sounds like that and they called it....Asian Celery. Not very original but memorable and fragrant.

[petite tête de chou]

Salad of Belgian endive, celery leaves, edamame (peeled, blanched soy beans) and toasted pine nuts with lime and chile dressing.

Yesss...! That is what I will do with the rest of the celery I have. I had never seen a head of celery like this before. I got it in my favorite Thai market. It is mostly leaves -- beautiful leaves -- with the other part of the stalks very, very skinny, and it even has some little tiny shoots of what looks like a plant going to seed, sort of blossomy. Do you know or does anyone know... is this an Asian variety of celery?

I love the sounds of your entire menu!

←

It sorta sounds like lovage. click

[snowangel]

Lucy's recent blog reminded me that I was hungry for potstickers. Although she boiled hers, the process is basically the same for potstickers while one is making the dumplings. The difference is in what you do with these when they are done.

I first fell in love with these during a January in Taiwan sometime in the very early 70's.

The other difference between the ones I did and the ones Lucy did is that I used purchased wrappers. My local asian market carries some very nice fresh ones.

So, this the the dumplings just after stuffing:

.

I had made the filling yesterday, and took a woodworking break to stuff them today. It took me 23 minutes to stuff these. All of them have at least 5, if not 6, pleats on each side (I did get a couple with 7 on each side).

Then, I put a skillet on the stove, added a little oil, cranked it to high, and put in the stickers, trying to achieve as much of a circular pattern as possible. Since I was helping Peter with spelling, it was not as successful as I would have liked:

.

Once I figured they were nicely browned on the bottom, I added stock:

I slapped a lid on and let them simmer. Meantime, I stirfryed some broccoli with garlic chunks and some fish sauce, and a tidge of stock.

Soon, the pot stickers were done!. They required only a nudge with the spatula to release:

They were way yummy. I served with two dipping sauces -- soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil for both of them. One also had garlic, the other chili oil.

I really love pot stickers. They bring back many memories, and I just love the crispy/soft parts.

[Jinmyo]

Salad of Belgian endive, celery leaves, edamame (peeled, blanched soy beans) and toasted pine nuts with lime and chile dressing.

Yesss...! That is what I will do with the rest of the celery I have. I had never seen a head of celery like this before. I got it in my favorite Thai market. It is mostly leaves -- beautiful leaves -- with the other part of the stalks very, very skinny, and it even has some little tiny shoots of what looks like a plant going to seed, sort of blossomy. Do you know or does anyone know... is this an Asian variety of celery?

I love the sounds of your entire menu!

←

Yes, that's Chinese or Asian celery. It's much more pungent than western celery.

[M. Lucia]

Behemoth, thanks for the cucumber recipe, I am definately going to try that (always looking for things with zaatar, and I love cucumber salads).

Dinner was just dragon carrots atop fragrant basmati rice with fennel, cilantro, and lime.

[Behemoth]

Behemoth, thanks for the cucumber recipe, I am definately going to try that (always looking for things with zaatar, and I love cucumber salads).

Dinner was just dragon carrots atop fragrant basmati rice with fennel, cilantro, and lime.

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Anytime. What is a dragon carrot?

I was planning a halfway decent lunch but our neighbors were doing some construction and flooded our basement in the process. So basically we warmed up leftovers.

[M. Lucia]

oh, I do know how to spell definitely (too late to edit above post)

Dragon carrots are a recipe (not a type of carrot):

Shave carrots. Mix about 3 tbl soy sauce, 3 tbl sake or mirin, and pinch of sugar.

Saute carrots over high heat until they curl up and just begin to color. Holding pan off heat, add sauce mixture. Stir until sauce is thickened and carrots coated. Serve sprinkled with cayenne pepper. I like the way the shaved carrots make curly ribbons.

[appreciator]

Monday night I made a huge pot of veggie chili as I'd been promising some to the gals I run with for ages. This afternoon I made the required side of cornbread and packaged up take out portions for all after tonight's run. Was going to do sauteed spinach on the side but found a nasty piece of wood in the organic spinach package so I passed on that.

For my own dinner tonight I made Indonesian peanut tofu with chili-lime noodles ('cept with almond butter instead of peanut).

[pcarpen]

Grilled Scarlet Snapper, Shaved Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Chilis, and Mint. Grilled Fava Beans.

[Chufi]

Grilled Scarlet Snapper, Shaved Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Chilis, and Mint. Grilled Fava Beans.

How do you grill fava beans? in the pod?

Dinner yesterday:

a simple baked pasta with bacon, aubergine and tomatoes, and this fennel orange salad:

Today:

plaice fillet fried in butter, cubed potatoes fried in olive oil, and a watercress /blue goatscheese/ tomato /avocado salad to follow.

And for dessert: banana pancakes (because there were two bananas in the fruitbowl that screamed eat me or I'll die) with butter and maple syrup:

[little ms foodie]

chufi that fennel salad looks soooo good. Do you just slice it thinly and toss with oranges and parsley??

Last day of cooking out of the Food & Wine Spain recipes (we are off to NYC for a few days tomorrow)

Tonight we started with some pieces of grilled chorizo, basque de bleu, a goat cheese similar to manchengo and a sheeps cheese 'drunk' with port, served with a fig jam. all very good- no pictures....

Then we made Garlicky shrimp

and creamy lentil soup with Serrano ham

[Ling]

port-glazed pork loin studded with garlic, braised cabbage with a bit of apple cider vinegar, and I'm turning last night's lucious mashed potatoes into potato croquettes

[bilrus]

My dinner tonight was Spring Seafood Stew from Cooking Light and a simple Romaine salad with Green Goddess dressing from the CIA Professional Chef cookbook.

[petite tête de chou]

Chicken chili garnished with melted cheddar, chopped red onion and parsley/cilantro.

Toasted halves of cheesy corn muffins with butter.

A saute of broccoli, zucchini, asparagus tips, red bell pepper, garlic, oregano and finished with a pat of butter.

Husband had a few glasses of red wine and I had beer.

[pcarpen]

How do you grill fava beans? in the pod?

exactly. rather than going through the tiresome steps of the usual way to cook favas, I discovered this one someplace. just throw the whole pods onto the grill and cook them until they char completely. the beans will steam inside the pod, so all you have to do is rip open the pod and squeeze the beans out of their skins. works perfectly and effortlessly.

here's another one: dinner for one. fritatta with caramelized onions, parsley, mint, scallions, and a little parm.

[FoodMan]

Wednesday-

Oven braised garlic stuffed rump roast, with tons of onions.

Cream and butter held together with mashed potatoes

Thursday-

Spicy cabbage salad with thinly sliced beef from yesterday. Vinaigrette made with chinese chili oil, rice vinegar, pickled ginger, pickled ginger juice, shredded basil and balsamic. It really was excellent and a snap to make.

Elie

[MaggieB]

Last night's dinner: Fried double yolk eggs, bacon (cooked on counter top grill), toast (white bread with butter), sliced kiwi.

[Chufi]

chufi that fennel salad looks soooo good. Do you just slice it thinly and toss with oranges and parsley??

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yes. Dress with lots of very good olive oil, salt and pepper and some lemon juice. Black olives would have been a great addition but I didn't have any..