Dinner! 2005

[Chufi]

vegetarian lasagna, made for my 16-year old stepdaughter and her vegetarian friend. I made the tomato sauce with chopped mushrooms, porcini stock, red wine and sundried tomatoes. Lots of fresh basil in it too.

Very good!

[Prepcook]

Last night it was my turn to cook and since we has some odds and ends in the freezer, I decided to make gumbo. First, I read over this thread. Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etoufee which, like most eG threads, was both informative and entertaining.

I decided to use goose fat/butter for the roux, which turned out perfect! Thanks Susan.

In addition to Tasso ham and Andouille sausage, I added chicken, shrimp, okra and some squid tentacles that were left over from who knows when. We drank a nice, inexpensive Zinfandel with it.

[percyn]

Was invited to a colleague's house for a pig roast yesterday....delicious...planning my own version soon !!

Lets see...which one is little piggy's better side? ... dosen't matter, they both tasted good

The 50 lb piggy was chooped up into 3 trays of tender, succulent meat. Scraps and bones were enjoyed by the dogs.

Kind of ghastly..isn't it?

[MobyP]

Every now and then I get the instinct to try something a bit more difficult. A few of you may remember a discussion with Vmilor in the L'Ambroisie thread about a wild duck torte that Pacauld makes (Robuchon and Chapel also had versions) for special occasions. It has perfectly cooked thigh meat along the bottom, foie gras in the centre, and pink breast meat along the top. Well, it's been driving me mad all year. This weekend I finally gave in and decided to make it myself. I had some spare puff pastry in the freezer which I'd made a few weeks back. I bought some foie gras from Landes, a barbary duck from Norfolk, and had a go. I was really happy with the result. The breast meat on the top was beautifully pink and incredibly gentle. The Foie was still wobbly in the centre. The thigh meat along the bottom was a fraction over-cooked, but nothing my wife would kick me out of bed over. I heard Pacauld talking about using a farce to bind the central meats with, but as I didn't have his recipe, I used a classical à gratin farce of livers, and pork. It worked well, but next time I would lighten the flavour. Possibly add some panade, or more foie. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious.

Here are the picks.

Before going into the oven.

After coming out.

And cutting it open...

[Chufi]

wow percyn, that is a very impressive piggy!

over in Amsterdam, we had another vegetarian dinner

Spinach & ricotta gnocchi, roast broccoli, salad with mozzarella, tomato and basil. The girls were not too enthousiastic about it. Tomorrow, they're cooking for us, so we'll see what happens when you turn two 16-year olds loose in the kitchen

Dessert was blackberry crumble ice cream. That they liked.

Edited July 31, 2005 by Chufi (log)

[doctorandchef]

Roast chicken au jus with lemon and oregano, beans and aioli, with mashed potato.

Sorry about the size, don't know how to resize it as the pic is on my blog.

[bilrus]

Sometimes you get a craving. Sometimes it is for something that you know you shouldn't have. Sometimes it is something you know your imaginary internet food friends would disapprove of.

Today it was a Big Mac.

But it is a summer Sunday and you have a grill. So what do you do?

You make your own Big Mac. But this one is so good you name it after yourself and call it a "bigrus".

Your wife makes fun of you until she tastes it.

[Macarons&Mozart]

korean sea kelp soup (sounds nasty, but its good!), sauteed dried baby anchovies, rice, kimchi

[Susan in FL]

Sometimes you get a craving.  Sometimes it is for something that you know you shouldn't have.

Yeah. Last night I was craving hot dogs, and those things are so calorie-laden for such a little bit of food, and I can't eat just one... But it was my turn to plan dinner and that's what we had.

[Ann_T]

Wow, Moby that is a work of art. Just beautiful. And Percy there is nothing ghastly about that pork at all. Looks rather succulent to me. Now I have a craving for pork.

I picked up a couple of pounds of clams at the the Granville Market yesterday and made a white clam sauce to serve over spaghetti.

[percyn]

Steak with roasted baby fennel, caramelized onions and sauteed shitake

[Jason Perlow]

New Orleans Style Creole Shrimp Saute with Creamy Cheese Grits

In the pan

Closeup

Plated dish

[M. Lucia]

Wow, now I'm really craving shrimp and grits.

I copied a restaurant's dish: hitipiti- roasted red pepper and feta salad, and also had some grilled pineapple, corn bread, and then chocolate pots de creme.

My dinners are always sort of an odd assortment because I look at what's in the fridge and what recipes I want to make, but I don't always think how they fit together.

[snowangel]

Dinner pics at my house would reveal only plates of sweet corn, tomatoes and green beans. There is soon to be a mutiny against the mother if there isn't some meat on the table soon.

The corn has been beyond divine, and the tomatoes are getting better by the day.

[Bux]

Every now and then I get the instinct to try something a bit more difficult.

. . . .

←

Years ago, I had a foie gras and duck torte at Michel Guérard. I though it was superb, but I may have to recalibrate the experience down a notch.

[Susan in FL]

Anticuchos (Grilled Beef Heart), a Mexican-style salad of barley & black beans, baked beet, sauteed yellow squash, and Syrah.

[racheld]

Tapenade and creme fraiche on cracked-wheat crackers; lobster/sour cream/roasted red pepper spread on sesame crackers.

Pan-sizzled ribeyes.

Salad and bread in one: We each had a sandwich of tomatoes warm from the garden, with Blue Plate mayo and seasalt on Wonder Bread.

A couple of VERY dark chocolate malted milk balls from a local chocolatier. Delicious.

[bilrus]

Cobb Salad for the latest cook off.

[Ann_T]

Shrimp and Grits. All I can say is Wow.

Corn Chowder for lunch and Grilled Pork Chops with grilled veggies for dinner.

[curlywurlyfi]

I got back later than planned, and found old friend Boris waiting on the doorstep, starving after strenuous (he claims) boys' footie evening in Hyde Park. Allayed his immediate hunger with Castle lager + some really horrid Spicy Oriental Beef Flavour Corn Snacks from Tesco, while I got on with Emergency Chicken + Its Slightly Discordant Accompaniments.

- microwaved sweet potatoes, flesh scooped out + mashed with the half tub of cream cheese that was malingering in the fridge + some chopped sunblush tomatoes

- courgette 'coins', steamed, then tossed with soy, rice vinegar + red chilli flakes

- roasted cauliflower

- chunks of chicken breast, fried in olive oil with garlic, parsley + lemon

I had bought chocolate chip cookies for pudding, but we were stuffed.

The sweet potato mash was lovely. I might swap the sunblush tomatoes for sage or crispy bacon (or both) next time.

[Alinka]

Jason, I'm impressed by your photography skills: grits must be THE most un-photogenic food there is, yet you managed to make it look so tempting!

Ann_T, the pork chop plate looks so colorful!

[FoodMan]

Sunday:

Samke Harra (spicy fish), a Lebanese dish with tahini, walnuts, cilantro and chilies. Click here for a thread discussing the dish, pictures and a link to my recipe.

dessert: I love fresh white peaches and I bought a bunch of them. So dessert was poached white peaches (white wine, water, sugar, vanilla bean) with homemade Middle Eastern milk ice cream

Last night:

scrambled eggs an potatoes with homemade sourdough beer bread. The bread is basic sourdough with beer instead of water for the liquid, it comes out wonderfully fragrant and soft with one of those tastes that you cannot quiet figure what it was.

Elie

[Priscilla]

Last evening, a big Cobbish salad, which was only composed for a couple of minutes before being tossed so does not qualify for inclusion in the current eG cookoff. Looked very nice for those moments, however. Leftover grilled chicken, tomatoes, applewood-smoked bacon, excellent Hass avocado, small mountain of crispy Romaine. All reduced to strips and tossed with homemade chunky Gorgonzola dressing. LBB sourdough bread. Cold pink wine.

[Alinka]

Salad of mixed greens, parsley and mint with paparika-garlic broiled shrimp:

(Note to self: do not broil shrimp until it curls next time.)

[Susan in FL]

It was Russ's turn tonight. When we grill chicken, we don't often have gooey BBQ sauce, but tonight we did. With it, potatoes and a salad... Very good.