Dinner! 2007

[prasantrin]

I made my husband's favourite meal tonight - sausages with mustard potato salad. He bought the sausage at Tokyu Foodshow, a very, very dangerous place to go into, if you at all like food. . .

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Is the Tokyu Food Show just Tokyu Department Store's version of depachika? Or is it some kind of special event?

Do you know the brand of the sausages? They look really good, but I'm always afraid to buy sausages in Japan. I don't like most Japanese sausages, even the ones from the local German delicatessen (Tor Road Delicatessen, which is supposed to be quite good).

[Kim Shook]

Klary, that just looks too good.

Kim, I love the meatloaf idea.  I am literallly keeping a list of ideas I'm getting.

I'm sort of embarrased to admit I had beef again tonight.  Last night I made a beef stew recipe that appealed to me because it had orange zest in it.  Beef and orange is a heavenly combination.  I prepared it except for the slow cooking, and put it in the crock pot today.  When I got home tonight, I cooked noodles, made a salad, and poured some very cheap Shiraz.  It was perfect, also because today was the coldest day we've had in many months (like in the low 70's!).  It was so tasty.  I love to come home from work to the smell of a good dinner cooked & ready.  Tomorrow I go out of town for a conference, so I'll be eating out for a few nights.

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Susan - I, too, love the combination of beef and orange. Our very favorite pot roast, Ronald Johnson's Italian Pot Roast has orange peel in it and it just isn't the same if I don't have that orange flavor!

[nakji]

Is the Tokyu Food Show just Tokyu Department Store's version of depachika? Or is it some kind of special event?

Do you know the brand of the sausages? They look really good, but I'm always afraid to buy sausages in Japan. I don't like most Japanese sausages, even the ones from the local German delicatessen (Tor Road Delicatessen, which is supposed to be quite good).

Yes, it's the food section in the bottom of the Tokyu department store in Shibuya. He got them loose from the "Rosenheim" deli counter there. I didn't enjoy the red one very much - it tasted too strongly of cinnamon - but the herb one was mild and lovely. Still not as good as the ones we used to get in Hanoi, so I know what you mean - it's hard to find a good sausage. But these are the best we've tried so far.

[C. sapidus]

Is a pipian a kind of sauce? I didn't know that Mexican cuisine used sesame seeds.

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A pipian is somewhere between a seed-thickened soup and a simple mole. Toasted, ground, unhulled pumpkin seeds are more typical thickeners, but other nuts and seeds (even chile seeds) are also used, alone or in combination. We used this recipe (click). I seriously doubt that tahini is traditional in pipian, but I have been repeatedly surprised by Mexican cuisine.

Mexico uses and produces sesame seeds, which were introduced early in the colonial period. Sesame seeds are used in baked goods and to thicken certain moles and pipians. Source: Diana Kennedy, The Art of Mexican Cooking.

By the way, your dinner looks right up my alley. I love sausage and onions, and potato salad with little or no mayonnaise sounds quite appealing. I suppose that adding bacon to the potato salad would have been pork overload.

[Priscilla]

Last evening, free-range chicken under a brick, with beautiful broccoli from the lady I usually buy carrots from at the farmer's market sauteed in olive oil w/garlic and anchovies, ciabatta from the Japanese French baker, sparkling Shiraz.  And ice cream, acc. to David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, yet again.

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Sounds wonderful, Priscilla. Do you spatchcock chicken when you cook it under a brick?

Thank you, Susan. So nice to see you here!

For under the brick we remove the first two wing joints, and cut out the backbone as for spatchcocking, but also remove the sternum and then cut the bird into halves. (Allows for good surface area to heat source contact and even thickness.)

Last evening, excellent pork loin chops, no small thing. Brined for only a short time before cooking outdoors but on the electric grill, glazed with honey and mustard at the end. From the farmer's market: Gorgeous little Brussels sprouts halved and olive oiled and sea salted and peppered and roasted, and Fuji apples and yellow onion sliced and sauteed in butter. Ciabatta from the Japanese French baker.

[Dr. J]

Last night.

Pork chop topped with sweet potato, pearl onion. Dressed with tonkatsu sauce and Brandy-Port wine-Creme fraiche sauce.

The second dish is a avocado ball with salmon, crap, QP mayo. Served with ponzu and sesame oil and topped with a foam made from the sauce.

[prasantrin]

. . . avocado ball with salmon, crap, . . .

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Bolding is mine...

I sure as heck hope it was crab and not crap!

How did you make the shape. Do you have a picture of the innards? I'd love to see the middle (as long as it wasn't really crap).

[prasantrin]

Yes, it's the food section in the bottom of the Tokyu department store in Shibuya. He got them loose from the "Rosenheim" deli counter there. I didn't enjoy the red one very much - it tasted too strongly of cinnamon - but the herb one was mild and lovely. Still not as good as the ones we used to get in Hanoi, so I know what you mean - it's hard to find a good sausage. But these are the best we've tried so far.

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I'll look for them. So far, the best I've found have been Johsonville from Costco! I like the spicy ones, though, and Costco doesn't carry those.

[Lior]

And I was about to search for other meanings of the word!!!!

[Ce'nedra]

Last night.

Pork chop topped with sweet potato, pearl onion.  Dressed with tonkatsu sauce and Brandy-Port wine-Creme fraiche sauce.

The second dish is a avocado ball with salmon, crap, QP mayo.  Served with ponzu and sesame oil and topped with a foam made from the sauce.

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OH MYYYYYYYYYYYY...............that is just like those pro Japanese restaurants! How did you make it?!

[nakji]

Last night.

Pork chop topped with sweet potato, pearl onion. Dressed with tonkatsu sauce and Brandy-Port wine-Creme fraiche sauce.

The second dish is a avocado ball with salmon, crap, QP mayo. Served with ponzu and sesame oil and topped with a foam made from the sauce.

Well, that kicks the ass of all my "Japanese cooking at home" attempts. I'm humbled. Also: I need better dishes.

Tonight, because I'm in love with food from the 70's (Hey- potential thread idea!) I made steak au poivre. I'm finding that with a bit of creativity, I can cook anything in my frying pan, although my burner doesn't get very hot. Usually I would roast the potatoes in the oven as a side dish, but tonight I parboiled them, then tipped them into a pan of hot olive oil. I walked away for about 15 minutes, and when I came back they had crisped up nicely. I set them onto a hot plate, and then made the steak au poivre in "How to Cook Everything", with garlic and rosemary substituting for shallots and tarragon. I served it with a salad of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, and the mystery sprouts from last night, wit a sesame dressing. It was a success. I'd like to make this again, using Japanese premium beef, instead of the Australian steaks I used tonight. We'd get a lot less beef, but I think the taste would be superior.

[Peter the eater]

. . .  I'm in love with food from the 70's (Hey- potential thread idea!)

That's a great idea nakji!

I was too young and/or stupid to cook in the 70's but I do have pictures of relatives sitting around in turtlenecks and woolly sweater vests eating fondue.

If you start it . . . I will post!

[lucylou95816]

Last night we had Steaks au beurre rouge ala Anthony Bourdain. They were delicious. Here are the steaks after coming off the grill. We actually used the indoor grill pan, since we are out of bbq juice. My boyfriend did an excellent job with the cross marks, in the meantime, setting off the house fire alarm. Well worth it.

Here's the plated version with some first time made "egullet" roasted cauliflower. Over cooked it slightly, but still delicious none the less, and will be making again.

And to balance the night off a great glass of wine:

[Dr. J]

Holy crap!......

I meant to write crab...so sorry guys.

The technique is not too hard. Here is a stepwise instruction on how to do it.

1. slice the avocado in quarters.

2. Pell of the skin.

3. Place the quarter on the cutting board.

4. Now, you slice the avocado in AlMOST parallel fashion (like a 5 degree angle) to the board, this technique is used when you see sushi makers make dragon rolls in which the cover the roll lenght wise with avocado. Use a nice clean knife and the thin cuts should be close to the board. As you cut you slice the avocado piece forward and cut again.

5. Repeat with another quarter. I used hass avocado (not my favorite by any means but its whats availale

6. Using the Knife to scoop up the slices, you lay the cut pieces in saran wrap so as to make a square or round area.

7. Place the salmon, crab, QP mayo, Sesame oil mixture in the middle. (Only add like 3 drops of sesame oil, its strong)

8. Carefully fold the saran wrap and using your hand mold into a ball.

9. At first its going to be this weird egg form but you can mold it carefully with your hand as long as you keep the saran wrap tight.

10. If you have a round cup i am sure you can push it on top and just remove the wrap. It shoudl work. I just used my hand.

11. For the foam, just add a little lecithin and use an immersion blender.

Going to try another technique of cutting the avocado tonight and ill try to take some pictures of the crab and salmon mixture before i put it in.

Ce'nedra and nakji please keep posting I love your food.

Lucy can you post some quick info on that butter prep for the steak.

[jende]

. . .  I'm in love with food from the 70's (Hey- potential thread idea!)

That's a great idea nakji!

I was too young and/or stupid to cook in the 70's but I do have pictures of relatives sitting around in turtlenecks and woolly sweater vests eating fondue.

If you start it . . . I will post!

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Me too! (young and/or stupid but willing to post)

[Doodad]

We had a monster sirloin from a new butcher I was introduced to from a guitar forum of all places. His cuts and quality are decadent, but at choice prices.

Anyhoo, I took some wine and roasted garlic and reduced. I added some leftover onion soup I made and strained into the wine. Tossed in some shitakes, demi I made last week and a small pepper. Took that down to literally tablespoons. Yum.

Goofin' on Dr J. My wife went overseas one time to an Asian hotel that catered to Westerners. On the room service menu they had chef's salad. It read something like: Lettuce, tomato, carrots, radish and all that other sh!t.

[alanamoana]

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nakji, could those be daikon sprouts? they tend to be nice and peppery...

[Shelby]

Dr J Beautiful food! You gave me a laugh--don't 'cha just hate typos

[Kobi]

Last night we made homemade cheese steaks. Have been trying to replicate for two years since leaving Philly. Starting to get pretty close.

Shaved rib eye from Trader Joe's

Spanish Onion

Old fashioned Cheese Whiz

Calandra's Italian rolls (bakery in Newark and Fairfield, NJ)

[Chufi]

Klary - what a lovely compliment!  That I inspired you!  It is usually the other way around!  I am honored  !   Your soup and biscuits look wonderful.  Your roasted cauliflower always looks more roasted than mine.  Do you parboil or blanch it at all, or do you roast from raw?

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I always roast from raw! in a hot oven, and I always roast just a little bit longer than I think is right, which makes it just right, if you know what I mean

Dinner yesterday was sauerkraut braised with juniper, caraway and bay, with roast potatoes and carrots, fried onions and some really good smoked sausages from one of my favorite butchers here in Amsterdam

tonight we had venison steak and 'farrotto' (farro cooked like risotto) with roast butternut squash, crispy pancetta and lots of sage. Hm.. I see a brown/beige/orange theme here.. completely unintentional at least they´re fall colors!

Edited November 10, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[rooftop1000]

Tonight was onion soup made with onions slow cooked 4 hours on the stove top covered in a le cruset topped with toasted Calandra's baguette and a provolone and swiss combo. Served alongside were cold roast beef (deli) sandwiches on the same bread...buttered for him, oil, vin and oregano s&p for me.

followed by molten chocolate cakes with home made roasted banana ice cream

tracey

oh yeah IT SNOWED HERE TODAY

Edited November 11, 2007 by rooftop1000 (log)

[Jensen]

Klary, what additional ingredients to you put in your farrotto?

Farro is one of my favourite grains and I've got about 300g in the cupboard at this very moment (it's not easy to find here). Usually, I cook it in chicken broth and add sauteed onions, chopped spinach, and oregano.

Tracey, I feel your pain. We had to turn on the furnace this morning.

[Chufi]

Klary, what additional ingredients to you put in your farrotto?

Farro is one of my favourite grains and I've got about 300g in the cupboard at this very moment (it's not easy to find here). Usually, I cook it in chicken broth and add sauteed onions, chopped spinach, and oregano.

it was very simple: just started with onions and garlic sauteed in butter/olive oil, then added chopped sage and pancetta. Added the farro and cooked it with light chicken stock like risotto (I think I used about 5 cups of broth for 1 cup of farro). I roasted a small butternut squash, cut into cubes, seperately and mixed that in right before serving. Also added more sage right before serving, and garnished with some strips of crisp-fried pancetta.

very good, I love the chewy nutty farro and it was a great combo with the fall flavors of squash, sage and game.

[Jmahl]

Klary - what a lovely compliment!  That I inspired you!  It is usually the other way around!  I am honored  !   Your soup and biscuits look wonderful.  Your roasted cauliflower always looks more roasted than mine.  Do you parboil or blanch it at all, or do you roast from raw?

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I always roast from raw! in a hot oven, and I always roast just a little bit longer than I think is right, which makes it just right, if you know what I mean

Dinner yesterday was sauerkraut braised with juniper, caraway and bay, with roast potatoes and carrots, fried onions and some really good smoked sausages from one of my favorite butchers here in Amsterdam

tonight we had venison steak and 'farrotto' (farro cooked like risotto) with roast butternut squash, crispy pancetta and lots of sage. Hm.. I see a brown/beige/orange theme here.. completely unintentional at least they´re fall colors!

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Dear Chufi:

What can one say about your photos - "mouthwatering" " Fabulous" "WoW"

With my respect,

Jmahl

[Marlene]

After last night's extravaganza, I simply pan seared some rib eyes and finished them in the oven, and served them with baked potatoes and homemade bacon bits. No veg, no salad, just meat and potatoes,baby!