Dinner! 2007

[Misplaced_Texan]

Christmas Dinner, yum !

Prime rib (slow roasted)

Bobby Flay's baked and then mashed potatoes

Baked sweet potatoes w/ lime, maple syrup and seasoned salt

Brussel sprouts with cream and parmesan

Green beans with almonds

Frozen tangerine souffle for dessert

In the glass:

Chateau St Jean 2006 Chardonnay

Lone Madrone 2004 Barbera

The table:

Out of the oven:

Sliced:

Dessert:

This was SO good !

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That looks wonderful!

[dockhl]

Thanks, MP Texan. It was delicious (still is as eftovers ! )

[Misplaced_Texan]

Thanks, MP Texan. It was delicious (still is as eftovers !  )

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I can imagine.

Here are the last few Nose To Tail At Home recipes:

Pea and Pig Ear Soup

Boiled Ham and Parsley Sauce

Anchovy, Little Gem, and Tomato

[Daniel]

I wont see tomatoes like that for another 7 months. Well done Texan.

[tlm5150]

I got bored tonight and spent most of the evening in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge...

"Steak au Poivre" (ack, the evil quoted dish!) -- Beef tenderloin pounded flat, peppered and briefly seared, sliced up and then rolled up inside prosciutto with a bit of creme fraiche and chives. Bourbon reduction sauce.

My 'sushi rolling' technique needs much work, unfortunately.

Then my wife wanted me to cook the cauliflower. I sliced it paper thin and set it to roast for around 2 1/2 hours at somewhere under 200 degrees. Finished it with some cream, Parmesan and chive.

Vegetable stew. Basically, it's all the elements of a thrown-together burgundy beef without the beef.

[Shelby]

Hi gang! These aren't real exciting, but I'm posting them anyway

Pickle roll-ups

Dried beef cheese ball

Mozzarella

Veggie dip

Roast chicken

[christine007]

Hi gang!  These aren't real exciting, but I'm posting them anyway 

Pickle roll-ups

Dried beef cheese ball

Mozzarella

Veggie dip

Roast chicken

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You must be joking. Honey that is some hardcore food porn, and I love the stuff on the toothpicks.

[Shelby]

Christine, you've made my whole day!!!! Thank you! I think my food has turned a bit "retro" because I'm loving "food on toothpicks" lately

[nakji]

Yum, lots of holiday food! Boiled ham, roast beef, steak au poivre - every time I look at this thread, I get new ideas.

It was a snowy day in Nova Scotia, and I was longing to be back in Southeast Asia. I put together a few dishes from my travels - not a true balanced dinner, but enough to give everyone a taste of what I'm missing.

Chili lime salt - a classic Vietnamese table dip. Just the smell brings me back to Hanoi, even though the limes are different here.

Kroeung- Cambodian curry paste, for -

Amok - a steamed fish curry, meant to be steamed in banana leaves. Try to find those in Halifax in winter. I used parchment paper instead.

Finished! Can you see my pen marks on the paper?

Caramel pork, my favourite.

Mango salad, to my Mum's recipe. Very light, without any oil.

Chicken satays.

All with a nice German Gewurtztraminer, which went well with the spice, I thought. No Tiger beer to be had.

It's no substitute for the beach, though. *sigh

[Shelby]

Oh I love how you improvise, not having the leaves!

Caramel pork???? YUMMMMMMM --do tell!

[nakji]

I don't have a real recipe - I just watched a Vietnamese friend make it a couple of times. Take some fatty pork, like pork shoulder, and cube. Maybe 200g or so? Enough for two people, anyway. Marinate in a splash of fish sauce and chopped shallots for 30 min or so, with some ground fresh pepper. If you don't like fish sauce, you can use Knorr chicken powder. Take a hot pan and melt two tablespoons of sugar until it turns brown, and begins to bubble. Add a rice bowl of water (carefully). Add the pork, stir, cover, and cook until it reduces, maybe 30 minutes. That's not a great recipe, I'm sorry, but as long as you don't let the sugar burn, and you use a good fatty piece of pork, it turns out.

[Misplaced_Texan]

Caramel pork, my favourite.

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I hope you brought enough for the rest of us! Wow!

[Feedbag]

What a coincidence. I was just watching Jamie Oliver's new show yesterday and he mentioned preparing rocket. I thought for sure I'd misheard him until I saw this thread. What the heck is rocket???

[lucylou95816]

What a coincidence. I was just watching Jamie Oliver's new show yesterday and he mentioned preparing rocket. I thought for sure I'd misheard him until I saw this thread. What the heck is rocket???

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I think that rocket is another term for arugula, if I am not mistaken.

[prasantrin]

What a coincidence. I was just watching Jamie Oliver's new show yesterday and he mentioned preparing rocket. I thought for sure I'd misheard him until I saw this thread. What the heck is rocket???

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rocket=English

arugula=Italian

[lucylou95816]

Shelby, I am interested in how you got your mozzarella to make that dish. A friend of mine had some recently, with prosciutto ham and they were good.

[Pierogi]

Dried beef cheese ball

OK. No one will be hurt if you divulge how you made this.

If you don't....well, no guarantees.

And, *WHAT* are those marvelous-looking cracker-thingies that look like flat pretzels and where can I get them?

[Ce'nedra]

C. sapidus: Your mole looks amazing! Did you use cocoa powder or actual Mexican chocolate? I've always pondered on making this but seeing as we don't have many Mexican products here, I never got around to it...

dockhl: Your souffle looks soooooo gooooddd!!! Labour intensive? I suppose that's okay considering it was for Christmas dinner

Unlike me, I still resorted to the easy way out (super simple dessert) lol.

Was your souffle creamy? It looks creamy. Mmm...

Misplaced_Texan: Your anchovy salad looks delicious! And trust me, I don't normally say that about salads hahhaha.

Shelby: How did you make that beef cheese ball?!

nakji: Ooo Cambodian cuisine! I've never really seen much of Cambodian food so thanks for a peek of it Looks really fresh and tropical-like -yum!

How was it? Was it hard to make?

This is our Christmas dinner -it was just me and my parents -a very small dinner this year. Things were kept simple/to a minimum but it was delicious nevertheless

Lobster salad for lunch

And inspired by junehl's Guo Ji Aap (fruit and seed duck), mum and I made a similar style duck but we baked our duck for that delicious flavour and also to release some fats, then we simmered it in a pot and sort of made a stew out of it, with its left-over stuffings.

Rubbed with soy sauce (not so nice to look at...)

Prepared stuffing for duck

We stir-fried and flavoured the stuffing then stuffed it into the duck

Mum sewed the duck (not a very appetizing photo actually)

Roasted duckie

Preparing my simple dessert to go into the oven

Roasted duck into the pot

Our stuffed roasted duck stew-Chinese style

Baked brown sugar custards for dessert (I wanted to make soft-centred choc pots but parents aren't that thrilled with chocolate, unlike me)

Edited December 30, 2007 by Ce'nedra (log)

[nakji]

Gorgeous, Ce'nedra! I love how the duck is looking up at us with accusing eyes from the pot. It seems like he's saying "Don't look at me like this! No!" I see jujubes and chestnuts in your stuffing, but what else went in? This dish reminds me a lot of one I had in Korea on several occasions, but the duck was baked in a clay pot, and served with a mustard-style dipping sauce.

I love Cambodian cuisine, and it's not really something that's easy pretty much anywhere I've ever lived. I learned to make amok at a cooking class in Phnom Penh (one I highly recommend, if you're in the neighbourhood!). It's similar to a Thai curry in the use of curry pastes and coconut milk, but the chilis used in the paste are dried. I have the photos from the original course that I could post in another thread, if anyone's interested. They look much better.

[Shelby]

Shelby, I am interested in how you got your mozzarella to make that dish.  A friend of mine had some recently, with prosciutto ham and they were good.

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I bought it like that

[Shelby]

Dried beef cheese ball

OK. No one will be hurt if you divulge how you made this.

If you don't....well, no guarantees.

And, *WHAT* are those marvelous-looking cracker-thingies that look like flat pretzels and where can I get them?

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The cheese ball is EASY.

2 dried beef packets (5 oz total)

1 softened cream cheese

2 chopped green onions

Dash of worcestershire sauce

Dash of onion juice

Dice the dried beef. Mix in all other ingredients and form into a ball. You can roll it in chopped parsley if you wish.

The pretzels are one of the best things I've tasted lately! I got them at a specialty kitchen store. They are horseradish and cheese flavored. They go great with the cheese ball!

[C. sapidus]

C. sapidus: Your mole looks amazing! Did you use cocoa powder or actual Mexican chocolate? I've always pondered on making this but seeing as we don't have many Mexican products here, I never got around to it...

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Beautiful duck, Ce’nedra, and I appreciate the blow-by-blow description of its preparation. Thanks also for the kind words about the mole. We did use Ibarra Mexican chocolate, about a disk and a half. We are fortunate to have three Latino markets nearby. Clearly, Australia needs to do a better job of encouraging Mexican immigration.

By the way, if you are still looking for cookbooks Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet is a wonderful one with recipes from all countries that border the Mekong river, including Cambodia and the Yunnan region of China.

Nakji, wow, great spread! I would chow down on that meal in a heartbeat.

Shelby, all of your meal looks good to me. Toothpicks, sate, it’s all food on a stick, and justly popular around the globe.

[Shelby]

Thanks Bruce

[judiu]

Shelby, where did you get your dried beef? I've only ever seen chipped beef in packets, it's very lean, thinly sliced and extremely salty. That which you have appears to be a thicker slice, with a lovely marble. Fess up, please!

[Shelby]

Shelby, where did you get your dried beef? I've only ever seen chipped beef in packets, it's very lean, thinly sliced and extremely salty. That which you have appears to be a thicker slice, with a lovely marble. Fess up, please!

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I swear, I swear! it's the same stuff you are talking about