Dinner! 2007

[Shelby]

Saucee, nope, don't mix any beef with it, just straight up venison for us.

[Prawncrackers]

The Beetroot Potatoe Pie and Peach Tart both look fantastic - mouthwateringly so!!

Made Crab Linguine today:

[snowangel]

That larb looks great, I might have to try that (never had it before, but heard a lot about it).

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Check here for more than you might want to know about larb!

Percy, how did you cook your "larb balls?" Fry or poach?

[Shelby]

The Beetroot Potatoe Pie and Peach Tart both look fantastic - mouthwateringly so!!

Made Crab Linguine today:

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Um, where is your house exactly?

I want your recipe.

[percyn]

Percy, how did you cook your "larb balls?"  Fry or poach?

A quick pan fry and then break them up for a quick sauté.

[David Ross]

The Beetroot Potatoe Pie and Peach Tart both look fantastic - mouthwateringly so!!

Made Crab Linguine today:

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Very, very nice. Did you add any mushrooms or anything else to the crab and linguine? It looks delicious.

[Pille]

Pille, that beetroot pie looks amazingly beautiful, and delicious!

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Thank you, Chufi & Prawncrackers!!

[Prawncrackers]

Thanks guys, Crab Linguine is such a satisfying dish to eat.. and cook in fact! The most important thing is plenty of sweet crab meat – I use one medium sized brown crab (1-1.5lb?) for 200g of linguine to feed the two of us. I’m not sure how many grams of white meat this equates to but it is plenty. I like boiling a fresh live crab for this recipe as it’s best to use slightly undercooked white meat. You could add the brown meat too but it makes the final dish very heavy. Of course, pre-prepared crab meat is fine also. Here is a quick recipe:

- Start cooking linguine!

- Gently heat half a cup of good extra virgin olive oil with two anchovy fillets, a good pinch of dried chilli flakes, a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika (not Italian but hey neither am I) and two cloves of finely sliced garlic (think Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas; razor blade fine so the garlic seems to melt away).

- When all the aromatics have melded and infused the oil, tip in your crabmeat and add the juice of half a lemon. Let it simmer for a minute then add your cooked linguine and chopped parsley – turn off the heat. Mix well, season and let it stand a minute for the pasta to soak up the goodness then serve.

This is one of those dishes that should from start to finish take as long to cook as it takes the pasta to cook, I think this is what makes it so satisfying.

Edited July 16, 2007 by Prawncrackers (log)

[amapola]

So here I go: my plunge into the dinner! thread. After sneak-reading along in awe of the meals and photographs for a while, I now feel I might just as well be brave and post some of my own (albeit not too spectacularly shot...).

Two days ago I made a small hen (there's only two of us and we're not THAT fond of chicken, and on top of that my oven is tiny) oven roasted on a ceramic cone my MIL gave me for my last birthday. The idea is to pour some liquid into the cone- I used beer- and then you stick it into the chicken. This way the meat is steamed from the inside and roasted on the outside. I rubbed the chicken with a jemenite spice mix and scattered some cut up potatoes, bell peppers, shallots and garlick around it.

Here is what it looked like straight from the oven (reminded both of us of a roasted buddha):

It was good but not spectacular. Needs a bit of tweaking...

Yesterday we had a very simple yet very delicious meal. Boneless veal chops, panfried and then deglazed with white wine. On top some button mushrooms sauteed in butter and their own juices. On the side pasta tossed in a store bought ligurian walnut sauce- a bit similar to pesto but more nutty and delicate in flavour.

The meat looks much more well done in the picture, it was very tender and deliciously pink. On the side I served crisp lettuce dressed with a finely mashed egg with lemon juice and a drop of olive oil.

Pille, your beetroot and potato pie looks wonderful! I'm considering serving it to guests later this week, do you think I could prepare it in advance and reheat it?

[Shelby]

Thanks guys, Crab Linguine is such a satisfying dish to eat.. and cook in fact! The most important thing is plenty of sweet crab meat – I use one medium sized brown crab (1-1.5lb?) for 200g of linguine to feed the two of us.  I’m not sure how many grams of white meat this equates to but it is plenty.  I like boiling a fresh live crab for this recipe as it’s best to use slightly undercooked white meat.  You could add the brown meat too but it makes the final dish very heavy.  Of course, pre-prepared crab meat is fine also.  Here is a quick recipe:

- Start cooking linguine!

- Gently heat half a cup of good extra virgin olive oil with two anchovy fillets, a good pinch of dried chilli flakes, a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika (not Italian but hey neither am I) and two cloves of finely sliced garlic (think Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas; razor blade fine so the garlic seems to melt away).

- When all the aromatics have melded and infused the oil, tip in your crabmeat and add the juice of half a lemon.  Let it simmer for a minute then add your cooked linguine and chopped parsley – turn off the heat.  Mix well, season and let it stand a minute for the pasta to soak up the goodness then serve.

This is one of those dishes that should from start to finish take as long to cook as it takes the pasta to cook, I think this is what makes it so satisfying.

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OH yum. Thank you!

[MiFi]

Best recent use of four pounds of shelled lobster:

Lobster and local Corn Chowder

[Toliver]

Two days ago I made a small hen (there's only two of us and we're not THAT fond of chicken, and on top of that my oven is tiny) oven roasted on a ceramic cone my MIL gave me for my last birthday. The idea is to pour some liquid into the cone- I used beer- and then you stick it into the chicken. This way the meat is steamed from the inside and roasted on the outside. I rubbed the chicken with a jemenite spice mix and scattered some cut up potatoes, bell peppers, shallots and garlick around it.

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I saw a recent episode of "America's Test Kitchen" where they cooked a "beer butt" chicken. They spiced things up a little by adding 2 crushed bay leaves to the beer and they also put a dry rub on the chicken, working it under the skin, as well. There's a lot of potential with this method...between the spices you can put in the liquid (it doesn't always have to be beer, either) and the spices in the dry rub.

Let us know if you experiment further.

Thanks for posting your pics!

[judiu]

Two days ago I made a small hen (there's only two of us and we're not THAT fond of chicken, and on top of that my oven is tiny) oven roasted on a ceramic cone my MIL gave me for my last birthday. The idea is to pour some liquid into the cone- I used beer- and then you stick it into the chicken. This way the meat is steamed from the inside and roasted on the outside. I rubbed the chicken with a jemenite spice mix and scattered some cut up potatoes, bell peppers, shallots and garlick around it.

←

I saw a recent episode of "America's Test Kitchen" where they cooked a "beer butt" chicken. They spiced things up a little by adding 2 crushed bay leaves to the beer and they also put a dry rub on the chicken, working it under the skin, as well. There's a lot of potential with this method...between the spices you can put in the liquid (it doesn't always have to be beer, either) and the spices in the dry rub.

Let us know if you experiment further.

Thanks for posting your pics!

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I'm always a little concerned, when doing "beer butt" birds, what type of ink the beer companies use for the graphics on their cans. I'm pretty sure the ink isn't ment to be heated, much less in close contact with cooking food! My concern, does not, however, keep me from stuffing my face!

[GTO]

Some really cool stuff being made, stuff I've never seen before.

I made these three bean & coconut Filo parcels tonight. They were really good, really crisp.

[Shelby]

Some really cool stuff being made, stuff I've never seen before.

I made these three bean & coconut Filo parcels tonight. They were really good, really crisp.

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Oh yum! Tell me about the inside of these. Are they sweet?

[GTO]

Shelby - I'd expect that the filling (minus the cumin & black pepper), would work inside a sweet pancake. The filling is a mixture of Cannellini, kidney & haricot beans, flaked coconut, cumin & pepper, all pureed into a sort of, refried bean looking chunky mix. Not the most attractive filling, hence it's camera-shyness, but it had a sweet, delicate coconut flavour.

Pille - I love your pie, it looks so cool.

[Shelby]

Shelby - I'd expect that the filling (minus the cumin & black pepper), would work inside a sweet pancake. The filling is a mixture of Cannellini, kidney & haricot beans, flaked coconut, cumin & pepper, all pureed into a sort of, refried bean looking chunky mix. Not the most attractive filling, hence it's camera-shyness, but it had a sweet, delicate coconut flavour.

Pille - I love your pie, it looks so cool.

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That sounds really good.

[Chufi]

So here I go: my plunge into the dinner! thread. After sneak-reading along in awe of the meals and photographs for a while, I now feel I might just as well be brave and post some of my own (albeit not too spectacularly shot...).

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amapola, how wonderful to see your food! The chicken looks a little bit scary though

Glad you decided to join us here.

I haven't posted much lately, I hope to contribute again soon...

[percyn]

Last night's dinner consisted of

Roast Chicken with New Potatoes and Organic Carrots - Both the potatoes and carrots were from a local Amish farm

Over the weekend we also made

Buffalo Nachos

[little ms foodie]

wow you guys!! crab linguini, larb, roast chicken, lobster chowder...and on and on!! everything looks wonderful!!

I hosted a bridal shower on saturday for 17- not technically dinner but here was the buffet:

Potted Crab with Melba toast

Chive Blini with Tarragon Creme Fraiche, Quail Egg & Caviar

Mini BLT Canapes

Cheese plate- Beechers Flagship (in back), Papillon Roquefort & Delice Bourgonge

Cucumber & Feta dip with baked pita chips

Melon with Proscuitto and Basil and EVOO

not pictured were Sopresseta Cheese Sticks, Champagne Punch and Raspberry Tiramisu

[lucylou95816]

wendy, that looks great!

[saucée]

Everything looks so good--much deliciousness here.

We had a simple dinner tonight; it's something we eat on a weekly basis in one form or another. I wasn't going to post it for this reason but my gf has gotten used to me taking food pictures and asked me why I wasn't doing it so I thought, why not?

Rice, beans, cheddar, fried sweet potato cubes, tomatillo salsa

[Ted Fairhead]

Sunday's dinner was a Chicken Wellington. The partially cooked chicken breast was placed on a Portobello Mushroom with a wilted spinach, chopped maitake mushroom mixture and fresh minced garlic on top. The whole thing then wrapped in Puff Pastry. The sauce, of which I am very proud, was a port wine reduction.

and for dessert we had a small cherry preserve turnover made from scrap puff pastry

[little ms foodie]

thanks Stephanie!

tonight we started with raspberry caprihina's (sp) and some of the left over crab spread.

then we grilled some oysters and topped them with butter, lemon and hot sauce

I also made a rustic clam chowder similar to one I saw at Hog Island Oyster in San Fran a few weekends ago. there were potatoes, corn, onion and bacon in the chowder.

[Pille]

Amapola & GTO - thank you! I haven't tried to reheat the pie, but it was very tasty served cold. Though I cannot see why it couldn't be re-heated either, so do give it a go, Amapola.

And love the pies, GTO, and the fingerfood, Little Ms Foodie - very pretty!