Dinner! 2007

[dockhl]

I am also working on polenta, the times I have made it I have not been very happy with its flavor.

Dr J~

Here is my take on Ming Tsai's Preserved Lemon Polenta that is ieasy and incredibly delicious.

Preserved lemon polenta

Serves 4

5 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger

1 cup medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup diced preserved lemons, pulp and rinds

4 cups chicken stock or low-sodium canned broth

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat a large oven-proof saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add shallots and ginger, and saute, stirring, until soft, about 6 minutes.

Add polenta, preserved lemon and stock. Season with salt and pepper, stir well, fold in remaining butter and cover tightly with foil. Transfer to oven and bake until liquid is absorbed, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Correct seasonings and serve. This is great with roast chicken or almost any kind of stew or braised meat or poultry.

[Peter the eater]

It's snowing now, but the temperature was already starting to drop on Saturday so what better time to serve a nice oxtail soup.

←

That looks really great . . . but shouldn't a soup have at least some liquid?

Maybe you could elaborate?

[wattacetti]

That looks really great . . . but shouldn't a soup have at least some liquid?

Maybe you could elaborate?

←

Liquid?

I was originally going to serve a hot consommé with the oxtail wrapped as a raviolo but decided that would reek of effort. Thought I would get a better laugh if I ripped off the old Chunky commercials and got people to eat it with a fork.

The oxtail is gelatinous enough that the broth will set up nicely even after clarification, but it stays light enough that it melts to a (sticky) liquid when you put it on your tongue.

[Marlene]

Beef stew and biscuits. And I'm not putting pics here, although they are up on CK, because, well, it's just another dish with beef, veg and sauce. (the biscuits rocked).

[C. sapidus]

Marlene: Don’t let them mess with you – please post away.

Tonight we tried a new cookbook - Zarela’s Veracruz: Mexico’s Simplest Cuisine. We made peppered shrimp, fried plantains, and Mexican white rice. Guess which ingredient I forgot with the peppered shrimp? You guessed it – pepper. I’m such an idiot sometimes. Yes, only sometimes. Be nice.

The shrimp were still delicious, with onions, garlic, slivered serrano chiles, and a finishing touch of mayonnaise. We fried the plantains in a mix of butter and peanut oil, and served them with Mexican crema. Eternal cucumbers to stave off the hungry hordes before dinner, and zero leftovers.

Camarones a la pimenta, platanos fritos, arroz blanco

Edited November 24, 2007 by C. sapidus (log)

[Peter the eater]

free range organic duck liver pate:

Normally I wouldn't count this as a dinner but since it was sooooo good and I ate a jar and a half between 5pm and 7pm . . . it counts.

[rooftop1000]

I was given some Pheasant earlier in the week and cooked it up last night

Floured S&P and browned in duck fat

Deglazed with sherry vin and demi and braised just the bone in thighs for a few min. Added back in teh boneless breasts and finished the sauce with cherry preserves

Served with boiled pink potatoes and broccoli

tracey

Edited November 24, 2007 by rooftop1000 (log)

[suzilightning]

French onion soup. I don't like my soup loaded with too much cheese so I made a toasted Gruyere sandwich to go with it.

[Jamie Lee]

Oh man, suzilightning!

That looks gorgeous, and a perfect choice for someone (like me) who loves onion soup, but has no oven or broiler!

I'm doing it!

[nakji]

That looks gorgeous, and a perfect choice for someone (like me) who loves onion soup, but has no oven or broiler!

Like me! What a brainwave! That's going on my "Recipes to try" list.

On Friday I went to a Thanksgiving potluck with some other teachers. My contribution:

Chicken with garlic. We also had Kabocha soup, sweet potatoes with white miso (stunning!), salad, grilled eggplant with miso...it was great!

[Marlene]

Marlene: Don’t let them mess with you – please post away.

←

Uh huh.

Ok, so here's the usual. Tonight was a birthday celebration for the lad, and he picked the meal. Can I help it if he likes the stuff I do best? Actually his birthday, and my husband's are both next Saturday, but since the lad is going back to his dad's on Thursday, we celebrated his tonight.

I'll just post the final plated meals here.

prime rib, roasted potatoes, and yorkies. Without gravy

And look! Gravy!

Broccoli and hollandaise

And raspberries and white chocolate parfaits. I'll give you garnished and ungarnished since the ungarnished photos turned out much better.

[HappyLab]

Scallops with chorizo

Chickpeas with arugula, sherry and cumin

2006 Les Vins de Vienne Côtes du Rhône Les Laurelles

[C. sapidus]

HappyLab: Looks good - what kind of chorizo did you use?

Tonight we launched into another new cookbook – Susana Trilling’s Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico. We made roasted chayote, chicken in red sesame seed pipian, and served the lot with flour tortillas and lots of napkins. The chayote was chunked and roasted with olive oil, salt, and a whole head of chopped garlic.

Toasting the ancho chiles, sesame seeds, cumin, and Mexican cinnamon gave the pipian a rich, smoky flavor. Tomatoes added a hint of sweetness, and roasting nearly another head of garlic made the house smell wonderful. The Preethi ground everything to a smooth paste, and frying the sauce intensified and deepened the flavors. We were short of sesame seeds, so I made up the difference with tahini. Boiled new potatoes and blanched green beans were added towards the end.

The pipian had a mole-like flavor, but didn’t take all day to prepare. I absolutely love seed-thickened dried chile sauces, so we will definitely make this again. The boys liked it, too!

Pipian rojo, chayotes asados

[prasantrin]

prime rib, roasted potatoes, and yorkies.  Without gravy

←

What's the crispy looking thing in the foreground at 6 o'clock-ish? It kind of looks like crispy duck skin, or the crispy fatty part from roast beef.

And btw, my birthday is May 10, just in case you feel like making a b-day dinner for me in absentia. I'll gladly eat it virtually (I'd like a fatty piece of beef, please).

[Marlene]

What's the crispy looking thing in the foreground at 6 o'clock-ish?  It kind of looks like crispy duck skin, or the crispy fatty part from roast beef. 

And btw, my birthday is May 10, just in case you feel like making a b-day dinner for me in absentia.  I'll gladly eat it virtually (I'd like a fatty piece of beef, please). 

←

It is crispy fat from the beef. And my birthday is right before yours, so I'd be happy to share my birthday meal with you.

[HappyLab]

HappyLab: Looks good - what kind of chorizo did you use?

Thanks, Bruce!

I used pre-cooked chorizo from D'artagnan. While tasty, I found the chorizo much fattier than that from D'espana, a wonderful Spanish food shop in NYC that makes my preferred brand of chorizo.

Looking at your pic, I may just have to pick up Seasons of My Heart today-- everything looks amazing!

[suzilightning]

oh, marlene. crispy fat and wonderfully prepared beef. there is a heaven.

after work yesterday i made up some ragu bologenese and served it with a small side salad of radicchio and artichoke hearts in a pinot grigio vinaigrette and a mix of pasta for a warm dinner after a bit of a cool down here.

[Shelby]

Oh Suzi,

I made 4 big pans of cinnamon rolls on Saturday...I was going to freeze them and use them during Christmas holiday, but we've already eaten one whole pan

And, it's in the swing of hunting season, so we had quail with a cream sauce

[percyn]

Dinner today consisted of...

Fennel, Apple and Pear Salad - I love the crispness and acidity that the granny smith apples and pears bring, along with the crunch from the fennel.

Sherry cream Turkey on Pasta - Leftover turkey (mainly dark pieces), caramelized onion, garlic, cream of portobello soup, sherry and fresh tarragon.

Dessert - Bananas Foster - Flambed with dark rum.

[saucée]

On Friday, I started out with a warm goat cheese, beet, hazelnut salad. Then, I used some turkey leftovers to make a blanquette of turkey over fresh egg pasta.

The blanquette wasn't heavy at all and the turkey was still delicious.

The salad:

The blanquette:

I hope its not too late to post a turkey related dinner (though I'm sure everyone's had enough of turkey by now).

josh

ETA: I didn't even notice percyn's dish which is just like mine. I guess there's still room for turkey.

Edited November 26, 2007 by saucée (log)

[MiFi]

A couple dinners from last week:

Veal Scaloppine w/roasted fingerlings

Simple Crusty Bread from last week's NY Times (just as easy as the "no knead" version

Lasagna

[Ted Fairhead]

A couple dinners from last week:

Veal Scaloppine w/roasted fingerlings

Simple Crusty Bread from last week's NY Times (just as easy as the "no knead" version

Lasagna

←

Please,please, how does one get bread to turn out like that? I have tried so hard and failed miserably each time to get the crust like that. Please point me in the right direction!

Also, my wife has begged me to get the recipe for the lasagna. She was looking over my shoulder at the pictures and really flipped over the lasagna!

Edited November 26, 2007 by Ted Fairhead (log)

[suzilightning]

i didn't take a picture because it was toooooo gross - though i guess i could have posted it on the dinner thread II.

john wanted leftovers so - heated up the bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, made a gravy with the chicken jus and incorporated the leftover chicken then added the beans and created his faux hot turkey sandwich. it looked like cat barf and he loved it. <BIG SIGH>

that lasagna and bread look wonderful.... only 5 more days to the end of the season.

[Doodad]

I finished off the last of the last with gumbo. The stock from the turkey bits, meat from same, some sausage left from dressing making. Each dish of gumbo got a ravioli filled with stuffing as a joke.

I messed up the pasta otherwise the ravioli were really good.

[eskay]

I tried the technique suggested here for 'dry-frying' mushrooms and oh man were they good. And I've just clued into the fact that kale is pretty awesome, in pretty much every aspect (it's hiding under the fish). The fish, by the bye, is red snapper with ground almonds and a bunch of stuff on it, that I baked. Pretty surprised it turned out, actually

(I keep thinking that this might have actually been a nice picture if I had some non-rainbow plates. And less parsley, but I love the taste and wanted to use it up so it wouldn't go to waste)