Dinner! 2007

[cmsoulbrother]

Stir fried young bamboo shoots...SPICY!!!

[MiFi]

Grass Fed, Dry Aged Rib Eye w/Point Reyes Blue Chese and Mustard Sauce

[jende]

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.

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Hog Island's clam chowder is the best chowder (and possibly the best food item) I've ever had. Were you pleased with your results? Would you mind sharing your preparation?

[little ms foodie]

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.

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Hog Island's clam chowder is the best chowder (and possibly the best food item) I've ever had. Were you pleased with your results? Would you mind sharing your preparation?

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[saucée]

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.

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That looks amazing--I've had a serious case of oyster withdrawal since moving from the coast to the dead center of the country ( ). Lucky for me I can at least enjoy it vicariously.

[David Ross]

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

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Ted-I would love to have the recipe for your port wine reduction sauce.

[David Ross]

Grass Fed, Dry Aged Rib Eye w/Point Reyes Blue Chese and Mustard Sauce

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How did you like the taste of the grass-fed beef? I've been writing a thread about supermarket steaks vs. butcher shop steaks over in Food Traditions and Culture and we've had quite a discussion about grass-fed beef.

[shengcai]

A friend was kind enough to share some of his catch from Alaska -- sockeye salmon

I simply roasted it with lemon juice, olive oil, S&P, and some dill:

Served with a simple salad of romaine and radicchio tossed in a sherry vinaigrette:

[little ms foodie]

A friend was kind enough to share some of his catch from Alaska -- sockeye salmon

that looks beautiful shengcai! nicely done!!

tonight we put some lamb shoulder chops that had been marinated in EVOO, rosemary and lemon juice on the grill with summer squash done also with EVOO and fresh orangano. then I sauteed some morels in butter and cream and put it on toast cause I was reading Roots & Grub and it just sounded so damn good!!

Both last night and tonights meals were over 80% from our farmers market. I love that!!

tomorrow we are off to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail!

[saucée]

This is not a completely summery dish, but it hit the spot.

cool broccoli soup

chicken with mushrooms and olives with polenta

[Peter the eater]

LMF, this picture set off a major Pavlovian response for me. I love a lamb shoulder whole or in chop form. Those morels look very appealing - where they fresh? I have only ever seen them dry in the stores. One day I'd love to go foraging for them, under experienced supervision. If I tried on my own I would probably wind up hallucinating or in a coma.

[MiFi]

Grass Fed, Dry Aged Rib Eye w/Point Reyes Blue Chese and Mustard Sauce

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How did you like the taste of the grass-fed beef? I've been writing a thread about supermarket steaks vs. butcher shop steaks over in Food Traditions and Culture and we've had quite a discussion about grass-fed beef.

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I have to say the flavor profile is vastly different than grain fed, much deeper, more minerally. Almost $19 a pound though. I'll check out the discussion you mention in Food Traditions and Culture.

[Ted Fairhead]

Sunday's dinner was a Chicken

Ted-I would love to have the recipe for your port wine reduction sauce.

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Gladly, its from "Cuisine At Home" magazine- here it is;

1/2 cup chopped onion, 1/4 cup chopped carrot, 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1T tomato paste and 2 bay leaves, sauteed in butter, until softened. Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup of port. Simmer until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add 3 cups of low sodium beef broth, bring to a boil and immediately turn heat down to a simmer for about 10 minutes, then strain. Mix 2 tsp cornstarch with 2 T water and whisk into strained broth after bringing it back up to a boil, stir until slightly thickened. Finish sauce with 1T red currant jelly and 1T butter. Season to taste.

The original recipe calls for truffle butter but thats unobtainable here in the hinterland. I think the type of port would also make a considerable difference. The recipe called for a "Tawny" port but I used a full bodied dessert type so the sauce is probably a little sweeter than intended, but we liked it.

Edited July 18, 2007 by Ted Fairhead (log)

[little ms foodie]

LMF, this picture set off a major Pavlovian response for me. I love a lamb shoulder whole or in chop form. Those morels look very appealing - where they fresh? I have only ever seen them dry in the stores. One day I'd love to go foraging for them, under experienced supervision. If I tried on my own I would probably wind up hallucinating or in a coma.

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Peter yes the morels are fresh- we are very lucky to have a forager at our farmers market!

[Kim Shook]

Everything looks so good! I am too hot and tired to cook recently, but I am so inspired when I look at this thread!

Pille - your beetroot and potato pie is just lovely!

Shelby - everything looks delicious and the plate that your salmon crackers are on is gorgeous - do you remember where it came from?

Prawncrackers - I was scrolling through this thread last night and when I passed your crab linguini, my daughter made me stop and read what was in it. I think we may be having that next week !

MiFi - that chowder - ! Any chance of getting a recipe?

Wendy - that entire spread looks scrumptious! My very favorite way to eat - small tastes of lots of different things. And those grilled oysters in your next post look delectable!

Ted - the chicken is beautiful. Will you show me how you got the pastry to look so pretty when I'm there next week, please?

saucée - the chicken with polenta sounds fantastic. I love polenta with gooey stuff!

I have finally uploaded some pictures from when I was without computer (I had a hard time - I couldn't remember the whole process ). Here are a couple and I will post more later:

Fried Green Tomatoes w/ Shrimp Remoulade Sauce:

Corn Waffles w/ Pulled Pork and Succotash:

BBQ Beef Sandwiches w/ Cabbage-Raisin Slaw and Cold Dressed Greenbeans:

I also took the makings for Bahn Mi to a friend's house for dinner. They were received with deep suspicion by everyone except myself and Mr. Kim . My hosts 'fixed them up' by heating the meat in the microwave and setting out cheese and ketchup and mayo to add to my veggies and condiments ! I ended up with LOTS of leftover vegetables, so I made eggrolls:

The mixture before rolling:

Lots of rolls:

The final product:

They were pretty good and I made enough to stock the freezer, so we are having more of them tonight!

It's my day off, so I have lots of chores - I'll give myself a break later and post some more pictures!

Kim

Edited July 18, 2007 by Kim Shook (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Summery Duck leg (and a bit of wing) confit tonight with Fries and Peas! OK the only thing summery about it is the time of year...

I have a confession to make, a guilty food pleasure i must admit to. Whenever i render duck fat i can't help but to snack on the crispy crackling, am i alone or does anyone else think this stuff is delicious?

[FoodMan]

I love how left overs and bits of odd ends come together to make a lovely dish. We had this last night because I had some boiled potatoes, arugula and green beans. Using the Les Halles cookbook as a guide I tossed together a very tasty and healthy Nicoise Salad (sorry no boiled eggs at the time )

[Kim Shook]

A few hours later, I am taking a well deserved break. Here are a few more past meals:

I was inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to visit our (rather limited) farmer's market. The book is about eating as locally and seasonally as possible. I am now making an effort to bring more local and organic foods into our meals.

At the market, I found:

Pork chops from Faith Farm in Green Bay, VA. This pork is pasture raised and actually had pork flavor:

White Japanese turnips:

Which I used in a green salad (no picture). They were very mild and sweet. I cooked the greens with a little side meat - they took almost no time and tasted wonderful - even greens-hating daughter liked them!

Garlic Scapes - which I had never even seen:

I used these to make a very good, but VERY strong pesto that I served with two different breads that I found; Bread for the People Asiago Baguette and Metro Bakery's regular loaf:

The asiago is at the top.

Pesto:

Finished meal:

I fried the pork chop (something that I haven't done in years, considering how dry most pork is nowadays) and also served sliced Hanover tomatoes.

I have two more meals to post when I have earned another break!

Kim

[Shelby]

Hi Kim Shook! Your meals look SO good.

The plate you're asking about is from Williams Sonoma. I got married 7 years ago and I picked that set out. I LOVE it. I don't know if they still sell it?????

[lennyk]

got some fresh venezuelan style cheese(queso de mano)

so I decided to make some cachapas(corn pancakes)

- couldnt wait until breakfast

[C. sapidus]

Between house guests and two new dogs we haven’t taken dinner pictures lately. Fortunately, the regulars and new contributors have more than picked up the slack.

At our house guest’s request, tonight we made ginger chicken (kai phat khing) from True Thai. We stir-fried sliced chicken thighs with a sliced onion and lots of ginger, garlic, mushrooms, and scallions. The sauce contained black soy sauce, fish sauce, rice wine, and a fair amount of sugar. This was surprisingly popular with our ginger- and mushroom-averse boys, and out house guest loved it. I left the chiles out of the stir-fry, and instead made a dipping sauce with chiles, garlic, lime juice, sugar, and fish sauce. Cucumbers and jasmine rice on the side.

Last night we grilled garlicky five-spice pork chops, adapted from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Despite changing the cut of meat and modifying the marinade, this was probably the best pork chop I have ever made – tender and juicy, and not the least bit dry. Mrs. C made buttery baby potatoes, and we had cucumbers and a green salad with ginger-lime dipping sauce.

[saucée]

Little Ms. Foodie's chowder left me craving summery chowder. Being in the midwest, I decided to go for shrimp since good seafood is tough to come by ( ).

Spicy shrimp corn chowder

Naturally leavened bread with aged goat cheese on the side

Not so photogenic, but delicious all the same.

[Kim Shook]

Ok, here's the last of the meals to catch me up. Who knows how long it will be before I cook more - I am working lots of nights and going out of town next week.

Anyway - I had my first try at grilling fish. It was a recipe from Cook's Illustrated and I was sure that I was going to end up with salmon slivers on my plate and chunks stuck to the grill, but it worked really well and tasted fantastic.

Grilled Glazed Salmon:

I served it with a green salad with Feta & Tomato and a cream chive dressing:

Plated with grilled ciabatta and sweet corn:

I visited a wonderful, new butcher shop in Richmond called the Belmont Butchery and purchased some incredibly thick pork chops from Gryffon's Aerie farm in Gordonsville, VA:

They were so thick that I just roasted them and served them with a Tangerine Marmalade sauce - really delicious meat - so incredibly tender and flavorful.

With the chops, I made roasted cauliflower w/ onions and fennel - a really nice twist on the official eGullet sidedish :

I also finally tried the Jacques Pépin Gnocchi Parisienne recipe. What an easy and fantastic dish! I am so glad I tried this one!

Simmering:

Ready for the oven:

Done:

Plated:

[emilyr]

Little Ms. Foodie's chowder left me craving summery chowder.  Being in the midwest, I decided to go for shrimp since good seafood is tough to come by ( ).

Spicy shrimp corn chowder

...

Not so photogenic, but delicious all the same.

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What are you talking about - 'not so photogenic'?!

It's beautiful!

[Pierogi]

Last night - an incredible Thai red curry using leftover *gasp* boneless loin pork chops that was perhaps the best curry I've ever made....redolent of coconut milk and lime (juice & peel) and fish sauce and red curry paste and basil. I'm REALLY proud of myself for using leftovers !!!..

Tonight........Champagne (lots) and popcorn. It's my birthday and THAT'S what I wanted (plus, I had a huge lunch from my group at work....good soul food, and I went out over the weekend to celebrate).

But let me tell you, Champagne and popcorn works.

*And* I got a digital camera as a prezzie, so watch out Dinner Thread ! My pics are coming !!!!