Dinner! 2007

[David Ross]

I'm getting ready to go out of town for a few weeks, combination of vacation and business travel, so I didn't want to do a lot of cooking tonight.

I started with one of my favorite Northwest style dishes for a hot Summer night-Smoked Idaho Rainbow Trout Salad. I buy whole trout and smoke them for about an hour over a warm hickory wood fire. Any leftover trout that I don't use for the salad makes a wonderful smoked trout spread for bread or crackers. I garnished the salad with Oregon Hazelnuts and some local asparagus. I make my own mayonnaise, and in this case, I added lemon juice, zest and capers to the mayonnaise to make a dressing for the salad.

For dessert I made a Peach Bread and Butter Pudding. I was watching my favorite cooking show today, 'Rick Stein's Food Heroes' on BBC America, and Rick did a beautifully simple Bread and Butter Pudding. Our local Washington Peaches are just starting to ripen on the Eastern side of the state, so I added some chopped peaches to the pudding. Garnished with whipped cream. Next time I'm going to puree the peaches first and then glaze the top of the pudding with peach jelly. I think fresh homemade vanilla ice cream would be in order for the next pudding.

[MiFi]

Tabbouleh, Ratatouille, and Tzatziki (lemon grilled chicken still on the grill.

Leftover gilled chicken sandwiches on homemade bread, homemade basil mayo, bacon, avocado, summer tomato...

[Kim Shook]

So many wonderful meals! Life is crazy just now in our house, so I am just periodically dropping in and reading and almost never have time to actually post! But I love all the descriptions and photos!

Jason - I am really enjoying your contributions! Your photos are beautiful and the meals look delectible! I am especially enamored of your Butter-Poached Local Spot Prawns & Crème Fraîche Risotto & Spot Prawn Bisque <swoon>!

Qwerty - doncha just love fried green tomatoes? I have a really hard time passing them up in the market, even if we've just had them recently - the season is so short!

Bruce - 5 spice pork chops - what a great idea. We have been getting some great pork recently and are just making pigs of ourselves (groan, bad pun ) and I think that I will try that!

percyn - how I want that lobster roll . I am determined to try Keller's butter poached lobster and I think it would be great topping a toasted, split top hot dog bun!

Michael - Is that a gorgeous little sauce treatment almost hiding under the duck? It looks to me like you squirted some sour cream on your mole and ran a knive through it for a design. Beautiful!

Here are some random meals from the recent past in the Shook house:

Just your basic comfort meal - meatloaf, casserole mashed potatoes, Southern green beans and biscuits:

Proscuitto, Goat cheese and Fig Quesadillas w/ Fig Preserves:

With tharrison's Roasted Tomato & Garlic Bisque:

Another night we started with a simple, but delicious Caprese w/ adorable little green striped Heirloom tomatoes:

Some gorgeous, huge, super porky pork chops from the Belmont Butchery in Richmond. I just fried them like we used to be able to do with chops and they were fantastic:

Also some fried yellow squash, awfully good baked beans and (like Bruce says) eternal cucumbers (these are kinda eternal, though - they are the ones I start in early summer - vinegar, cukes, onions, sugar and pepper - and just keep adding to over the season - same bowl all summer long, just dumped when the cukes let go of too much water and they get too diluted). The squash and cucumbers were from the Farmer's Market, as was the pretty ordinary baguette we had - why is good bread so hard to find?????????:

Kim

edited to fix dumb image gullet errors (or should I say dumb image gullet user errors? )

Edited August 6, 2007 by Kim Shook (log)

[Shelby]

Kim, all of your food is making me DROOL.

I've never had green heirlooms, your caprese looks sooooooo yummy.

[judiu]

Also some fried yellow squash, awfully good baked beans and (like Bruce says) eternal cucumbers (these are kinda eternal, though - they are the ones I start in early summer - vinegar, cukes, onions, sugar and pepper - and just keep adding to over the season - same bowl all summer long, just dumped when the cukes let go of too much water and they get too diluted). The squash and cucumbers were from the Farmer's Market, as was the pretty ordinary baguette we had - why is good bread so hard to find?????????:

edited to fix dumb image gullet errors (or should I say dumb image gullet user errors? )

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[Kim Shook]

judiu - No bacon (mmmm good idea though) just squash, onions, vegetable oil, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mr. Kim says it was especially good this time - unfortunately, I cannot tell. I have no palate for any squashy things at all. I keep trying, but just don't like any of them. Sometimes I do the same thing, add some canned cream, throw into a casserole and top with buttered 'Chicken in a Biscuit' cracker crumbs and bake. Now, if thats not white trash, I don't know what is !

Kim

[judiu]

judiu - No bacon (mmmm good idea though) just squash, onions, vegetable oil, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Mr. Kim says it was especially good this time - unfortunately, I cannot tell.  I have no palate for any squashy things at all.  I keep trying, but just don't like any of them.  Sometimes I do the same thing, add some canned cream, throw into a casserole and top with buttered 'Chicken in a Biscuit' cracker crumbs and bake.  Now, if thats not white trash, I don't know what is      !

Kim

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No, sweetie, that's country! If it was white trash, you'd have to use cream of mushroom soup and Ritz crumbs

[Bella S.F.]

Wanted to say a quick "thank you" to everyone who wrote to me, explaining how to quote something from a thread. We just got in from a few days staying with friends up in wine country (AHHHHHHHHH), so I haven't had a chance to really read through them. It does look like there is more than one way to go about it. I am looking forward to working it out.

Thanks again!

[nonblonde007]

I had this beautiful salmon filet in the freezer along with some roe. With such a perfect piece of fish, it seemed a shame to cook it!

Sake & Ikura

ceviche

This just hit the spot on a hot summer night! I realy love the taste of Sake all by itself, so rich and buttery with a hint of avacado aftertaste.

[little ms foodie]

a few recent meals....

fig, goat cheese, proscuitto and basil pizza

(also a pizza of soppreseta, mozz and fresh oregano not pictured)

St Germaine cocktail

[blixt]

So my Dad arrived yesterday and today we bought some wonderfully fresh cod fillets. They were done under the grill (= broiler, I think) with a mixture of Dijon mustard and butter, an old favourite of ours.

[Ktepi]

Clockwise from nine o'clock:

Kool Aid watermelon rind pickles (cherry);

Smoked pork (tails, belly, and ribs) smoked in a Savu smoker bag, with braised greens (kale and chicory), barbecue sauce (tomatoes and garlic smoked in a Savu, pureed with brown sugar, birch syrup, chile pepper, and lots of malt vinegar), and pimento cheese (I'm normally a minimalist about pimento cheese, but in this case added extra hot sauce, a little mustard, and ramps);

Home-made pork crackling, with a splash of Louisiana hot sauce.

[chileheadmike]

Doc said I gotta cut down on the cholesterol, so I'm eating much healthier now. Grilled fish tacos for one. Cod pan seared in olive oil with Cumin, Mexican Oregano and a little chile powder. Really good corn tortillas topped with the shredded fish, raw cabbage, and a mixture of onion and cilantro.

Side View

[chileheadmike]

Cholesterol shmolesterol. I didn't spend all summer growing maters to not have BLT's. Back on the "Healthy Lifestyle" tomorrow.

[christine007]

Cholesterol shmolesterol. I didn't spend all summer growing maters to not have BLT's. Back on the "Healthy Lifestyle" tomorrow.

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Sweet Jebus Mike. That's exactly what I'm planning for tomorrow. My homegrown Vine ripe tomatos in a BLT. Torture to look at that tonight.

[C. sapidus]

Beautiful meals all around, with a special shout-out for the salmon ceviche and all of the gorgeous tomatoes.

Tonight we made a Vietnamese pork stir-fry, jasmine rice, and a tomato and cucumber salad. We marinated thinly-sliced pork shoulder in fish sauce and sugar, and then stir-fried the pork with garlic and lemongrass. With bowls of nuoc cham, chopped cilantro, and mint on the side, this was simple and satisfying.

[saucée]

Everything looks so good here. I've been away from town in what has been aptly described on this site as a culinary wasteland (Myrtle Beach, SC) and can confirm that the place is indeed quite lacking in edibles. I even had an extremely difficult time finding fresh local ingredients to cook with (including local shrimp which were frozen wherever I bought them and were even non-existent in some seafood shops)-- .

In any case, tonight a little comfort food:

Summer squash gratin, turnips with horseradish maple glaze, new york strip with anchovy butter:

[Shelby]

Everything looks so good here.  I've been away from town in what has been aptly described on this site as a culinary wasteland (Myrtle Beach, SC) and can confirm that the place is indeed quite lacking in edibles.  I even had an extremely difficult time finding fresh local ingredients  to cook with (including local shrimp which were frozen wherever I bought them and were even non-existent in some seafood shops)-- .

In any case, tonight a little comfort food:

Summer squash gratin, turnips with horseradish maple glaze, new york strip with anchovy butter:

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Anchovy butter YUM.

I would have thought there would be really neat places to eat down there! I'm now crossing Myrtle Beach off my places to visit list.

[andyb]

This is something i made a couple weeks ago; Seared scallops in a lettuce sauce topped with watermellon caviar.

Was pretty good although the caviar really didn''t add much to the dish

And these are some bbq'd ribs with an avacado & mango salsa.

Edited August 8, 2007 by andyb (log)

[saucée]

I would have thought there would be really neat places to eat down there!  I'm now crossing Myrtle Beach off my places to visit list.

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I also thought there would be plenty there because of an influx of consumer money, proximity to the beach, and the place's reputation as a golfing destination (I guess my assumption that many people who play golf might also like to dine/eat well=stupid). But unfortunately, the place was full of chain restaurants and the supermarkets were overpriced with very poor products. I even saw imported tiger shrimp in a seafood shop that was less than a block from the beach ( ). Oh well, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

[little ms foodie]

andyb what is watermelon caviar??

[andyb]

andyb what is watermelon caviar??

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sodium alginate, watermellon & calcium chloride

i probably should have put the "caviar" in quotes..

Edited August 8, 2007 by andyb (log)

[Shelby]

I would have thought there would be really neat places to eat down there!  I'm now crossing Myrtle Beach off my places to visit list.

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I also thought there would be plenty there because of an influx of consumer money, proximity to the beach, and the place's reputation as a golfing destination (I guess my assumption that many people who play golf might also like to dine/eat well=stupid). But unfortunately, the place was full of chain restaurants and the supermarkets were overpriced with very poor products. I even saw imported tiger shrimp in a seafood shop that was less than a block from the beach ( ). Oh well, sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

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Yeah, but still a big disappointment. I hope you get another trip soon somewhere with better foodie stuff!

[purplewiz]

We're still in real estate hell...I have no idea how you sell your house while still being able to cook! (Maybe there's a topic here about that somewhere....). On top of that, due to the atypical amount of rain coming through here, I haven't been able to pick zucchini for a few days - which meant there were three huge zucchinis out there waiting for me today.

Fortunately our neighbors took one (and the two small ones) (I am going to miss them terribly when we move), one's in the freezer, and one became zucchini fritters for dinner:

They served as a base for pork adovada with cheese:

And oh goodness, was that good - I threw in a bunch of cilantro from the garden this time and it added something special.

Marcia.

[C. sapidus]

andyb: Welcome, and thanks for sharing two beautiful meals.

Marcia: Your fritters and adovada look like a nice distraction from house-selling.

Tonight we stir-fried chicken two ways. The picture shows Thai chicken with red chile and cashews, garnished with Thai basil. Fearing that this would be too spicy for the boys, I marinated a second batch of chicken in soy sauce and random jars from the spice cupboard – smoked paprika, white pepper, garlic powder, and dried lemongrass, if I recall. This was a huge hit with the target audience.

Served with jasmine rice, cukes, and salad.