Dinner! 2007

[Kim Shook]

Pot Roast with Mashed Sweet Potatoes

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Percyn, that looks so beautiful! That meat is perfectly fall-apart gorgeous! You photos always remind me that one can plate things beautifully at home without looking 'fiddly'. I have recently started to do a lot of serving the protein portion over the starch portion. I love casseroles and to me, it's just like a deconstructed casserole. I recently did this:

Scampi over sauteed mascarpone & roasted garlic polenta.

With a Frisée Salad:

I like serving leftover shreds of pot roast and gravy over french fries, too. I think it all goes back to my favorite after school snack - fries and gravy at Peoples drug store !

[Jensen]

I think it all goes back to my favorite after school snack - fries and gravy at Peoples drug store  !

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Wow...that brings back memories! (Only it was fries and gravy at the cafeteria in KMart)

[Shelby]

Pepper smoked salmon, cheese, smoked mussels, liverwurst and rye toast squares

Spaghetti red with fresh cilantro

Wine with my pickled peppers and cheese

And just to get you in the mood for Halloween

My kitchen

Halloween tree (gotta look sideways lol)

[David Ross]

I've been wanting some spicy meat dish ever since Little Ms. Foodie posted that delicious photo of Spicy Turkish Meat Pizzas.

So yesterday I made my own Merguez Sausage. I ground up meat from a leg of lamb and combined it with a small amount of ground beef, then added lots of spices, including my own harissa and a good amount of smoked paprika. I fryed some corn tortillas to serve as the pockets for the meat filling, then added a cucumber raita sauce on top of the meat. The rice is simply steamed Basmati with some toasted pine nuts, dried apricots and fresh parsley. I was worried the meat mix would be too spicy but it was pretty tame.

[lucylou95816]

wow David, those look great...damn the low carb diet.

Kim, thanks for posting that slaw recipe, that sounds really really good and on my diet too.

[doctortim]

Everything here looks so good!

Lately I've been experimenting with Indian cooking, and finding that it's not as intimidating as I'd expected. I started simple: Dal (which I like with a dollop of raita, or in this case plain yoghurt).

Served with roti, which puffed up nicely as it was cooking.

I didn't take photos, but I made a bunch of meat curries, chana masala, aloo parathas, and yesterday I experimented with lamb parathas (replacing the potato filling with a cooked mixture of ground lamb, spinach, and diced potato. It was great!).

Last night I went to a party to welcome home a friend who has been overseas for a year. What better way to do it than an Australian-themed dinner? As a starter I served a South Australian speciality, the pie floater. Famously served from the pie cart outside Adelaide's main railway station, these are a mass-produced meat pie served upside down in a bowl, then drowned in a chunky pea soup and topped with tomato sauce (ketchup). They're not the most appetizing thing in the world, and are traditionally reserved for the end of a big night out. I like a challenge. My version was inspired by a chef on a local cooking show. They were home made mini steak and vegetable pies served the right way up in a little pea and mint soup with, of course, ketchup.

When people heard that I was serving pie floaters they were rightfully afraid, but it turned out great and got rave reviews.

For main course the host roasted a beautiful piece of beef with vegetables, and for dessert was butterscotch pudding courtesy of a guest, and a pavlova made by me. By the end of the night we were stuffed but satisfied.

[nakji]

Ooooohhh....merguez frites is one of my favourite meals, but merguez tacos? They look fantastic. And that pie floater makes me think of Australia - ooh, I miss the meat pies there. I especially liked the ones with a scoop of mashed potato on the top.

As for that amazing Halloween display, I think I'm going to go watch the Nightmare Before Christmas, just so I can sing "This is Halloween".

[lucylou95816]

I haven't posted in a while, since face it, as good and yummy as some low carb stuff is, it's not always the most photographic food. Tonight, I attempted a "Low Carb" crepe with a mushroom chicken filling. It's pretty good. The crepe used a low carb bake mix, and said to add splenda, which I didn't, and I am glad, because it was fairly sweet with just the mere 1/2 cup of low carb bake mix. The recipe called for creme fraiche, which the store didn't have, and they were also out of thyme, but as I was at the check out, the lady next to me had the last container of thyme. I said to her, "oh, you got the last container of thyme." She said, "I'll give you half, if you want, I won't use it all." I offered half the cost, which she turned down, so we donated that money to the breast cancer drive the store was doing. It's nice to know that there are some nice people in the world still. Here's some in progress pics with the final plating:

Mushrooms and onions simmering:

Chicken after being roasted in the oven with some bacon grease:

The chicken and mushrooms with some wine before the sour cream (which should have been creme fraiche)

Finally the finished product with a little monterey jack cheese and sauce on top.

[percyn]

Percyn, that looks so beautiful!  That meat is perfectly fall-apart gorgeous!  You photos always remind me that one can plate things beautifully at home without looking 'fiddly'. 

Thanks Kim, while I do believe one first eats with their eyes, the true soul of the dish is in its flavor and the umame of this pot roast did not disappoint.

David, you just created a great looking Indian-Turkish-Mexican fusion dish.

DoctorTim, that dal and roti looks perfectly made. Did you make your own dough for the roti or did you buy it pre-made?

[doctortim]

Thanks Percyn. I made the roti dough, from a mixture of (roughly) 1 part water, 2 parts flour, and a drizzle of canola oil. I wish I'd known all along how simple they were to make!

[David Ross]

David, you just created a great looking Indian-Turkish-Mexican fusion dish.

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Thank you-it did turn out to be a dish using a few different cuisines. I really don't like the term 'fusion' on a restaurant menu because it sometimes means that there is trouble to come in a dish. In other words, fusion sometimes turns into 'confusion' in terms of flavors. But in the case of the merguez it worked really well. The spicy, smokiness of the lamb was balanced by the cool, crisp cucumber raita. And the corn tortillas added a nice crunch. I fry them myself using fresh corn tortillas that I cut into small rounds and then use tongs as they fry to shape them into little tacos. Worked pretty well.

[nonblonde007]

Shelby, your kitchen looks like my entire house and yard, only, sweeter. (teen sons, they want more gore)

David, beautiful taco's, love the home-fried shells, so crisp, fresh, and chewy at once.

Stephanie, your dinner makes "low-carb" look good. (been there, done that)

Last night, not too hungry but craving crunch and meat. Deep-fried chicken wings with fresh bluecheese dressing and chilli-garlic paste /butter sauce.

[C. sapidus]

Doctortim: Beautiful dal and roti – I would love to see more of your Indian food explorations.

Brenda: Nice wings!

We invited family over for a small dinner party last night, mostly Thai and Vietnamese food. No pictures at dinner, but here is what the surviving leftovers looked like this morning.

Shrimp soup with Napa cabbage, from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. I made this earlier in the afternoon, reheated the soup to just below a simmer, and added the shrimp before dinner. This gave the shrimp a particularly delicate texture.

Larb gai (from Thai Food), served over Boston lettuce leaves last night, cucumbers this morning. This was my brother’s first larb-making experience, and he did a great job.

Chicken in southern-style red curry (from True Thai), with jasmine rice. I adore this dish, with its rich chile-turmeric-coconut milk sauce and beguiling aromas of kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil (including the first leaves harvested from our kaffir lime plant).

Stir-fried beef with spices, also from Thai Food. Thinly-sliced flank steak marinated with cumin, coriander, and fish sauce, and then stir-fried with chile jam, roasted shallots, and cilantro. This was Mrs. C’s favorite of the evening.

We also made garlicky oven-roasted chicken from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. This is so easy and so good; we should just make it every week. The pre-school nephews inhaled the chicken as fast as their mother could pull meat off the bone. Other stuff that was not pictured: Mrs. C served cucumbers, pears, and apples before dinner; roasted eggplant with rosemary and garlic; and served ice cream for dessert.

We are getting better at dinner party logistics. The curry was made ahead and reheated, he baked chicken and shrimp soup required minimal last-minute fiddling, and I resisted my normal urge to try a bunch of new dishes. The real key, though, was putting my brother to work making the larb.

[rarerollingobject]

This is almost embarrassing, immediately following Bruce's feast - but a very simple 'breakfast' mezze plate for a lazy Sunday night..labneh (homemade yoghurt cheese) sprinkled with mint and olive oil, beautiful truss tomatoes, Sicilian olives and a beetroot and sumac relish, with warm pita bread.

[Peter the eater]

Nice looking dinners, as usual. C. sapidus your soup looks irresistible.

Last week, tonight's dinner looked like this:

Tonight, it looked like this:

Slow-roasted turkey (raised by in-laws), small local potatoes, brussel(s?) sprouts, turnip mash, sweet potatoes with nutmeg and molasses, homegrown leek and onion stuffing. I feel sleepy . . .

[purplewiz]

Various dinners from the last 6 weeks:

Grilled chuck eye steaks, chive flower butter, a quick stove top version of calabacitas, sort of.

Taco seasoned "hash" with ground beef, zucchini, and tomatoes, topped with a fried egg.

Chipotle burger (premade and seasoned at Whole Foods, I cop to it) topped with colby jack and sour cream, deviled eggs, the last homegrown zucchini grilled.

Chicken florentine soup, topped with parmesan (no, it's not from a green can, but it was pre-grated).

I did mention I wasn't doing much in the way of cooking lately, and this ought to prove it!

Marcia.

[doctortim]

Peter, that turkey is simply perfect.

Tonight, chicken and potato curry with saffron rice.

[Domestic Goddess]

I found fresh oysters in the street market today and decided that I needed

Oyster Po' Boy Sandwiches

Plump fried oysters on a bed of lettuce, sliced onions and topped with mayonaise and mustard.

Edited October 15, 2007 by Domestic Goddess (log)

[nakji]

Mmmmmmayotard. I love mayo and mustard mixed together. That looks like it was eaten in about two minutes flat. Am I right?

Dinner tonight was stir-fried pork with ginger and garlic scapes.

Due to an aborted attempt at rosti Saturday night (who knew you had to cook the potatoes before grating?) we had latkes for dinner. Here's one before my husband scarfed it down.

[Kim Shook]

Shelby - I love your halloween kitchen! Mr. Kim believes that we are the only people in creation who have multiple boxes of Halloween decorations in the attic. I love your tree. Mine is shiny green, but I like yours better!

David - the 'tacos' are lovely! I never fry my own shells, but I much prefer the texture of them when you do!

Doddie - Oyster Po' Boys ! I want one right now! The crust looks perfect - thin, crisp and crackly! Well done!

The other night I made soup out of the meat that I shredded for sandwiches :

I needed some comfort that night, so I baked a loaf of plain old white:

Plated up with some of my Grandma's pear preserves:

Last night we had a football feast. These are almost always unapologetically trashy (think Costco frozen fingerfood and Velveeta/Salsa/Sausage dip ). Chicken tacitos (sp?):

Cheese and crackers (aged gouda, Point Reyes blue, horseradish):

And potstickers:

I have made my own potstickers in the past and very good they were, too. But I got home from work at 5:30 having missed all the early games and I wanted to just sit and watch football. It was a good evening !

Kim

[edited so that all of my pictures wouldn't be identical, after all !]

Edited October 15, 2007 by Kim Shook (log)

[Marlene]

Rack of lamb with rosti potatoes, and the last of the fresh peas I vacumn sealed earlier this summer

[Peter the eater]

Rack of lamb with rosti potatoes, and the last of the fresh peas I vacumn sealed earlier this summer

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Okay, I now know what I would probably order for my last supper on death row. Is there a little crunchy something going on with the outside surface of the lamb?

[C. sapidus]

This is almost embarrassing, immediately following Bruce's feast -  but a very simple 'breakfast' mezze plate for a lazy Sunday night..

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RRO – Aw, you have no reason to feel that way – I would be proud to serve your mezze plate. In fact, we had a memorable restaurant meal that looked very similar to yours.

Peter – Thanks! Beautiful dinner - gotta be the fresh turkeys.

Marcia – I am glad that you are still posting. Best wishes that whatever is keeping you from the kitchen shall soon pass.

Doctortim – That does it, I need to make some Indian food.

Nakji – That looks very appealing. Tell me about garlic scapes – are they more garlicky or scallion-y?

[Marlene]

Thanks. There is a crunchy something. The rack is seared first in butter, then brushed with dijon and the coating is finely minced garlic and parsley, sauteed in butter then some breadcrumbs added to the pan and cooked for just a couple of minutes. The breadcrumbs get spread on the rack of lamb over the dijon. Then the whole thing goes in the oven for about 20 minutes. Edited October 15, 2007 by Marlene (log)

[monavano]

Apple cider braised pork with collards and roasted yams.