Dinner! 2007

[judiu]

results from our dinner party tonight. 

We started with garlic herb potato chips

And an Alsace onion tart

Spit roasted prime rib

Potato souffles

carnival corn

roasted cippoline onions

Homemade dinner rolls

Plated

Dessert was a white chocolate mascarpone and raspberry parfait

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So, what are the crunchy lookin bits? DON'T tell me grapenuts, please, or I'll plotz!

[Marlene]

The crunchy bits in the dessert are italian amarettii cookies, slightly crushed.

[Kim Shook]

  The crunchy bits in the dessert are italian amarettii cookies, slightly crushed.

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Such a great item to use in other ways than just eating. I put them on top of grilled peaches that have a little mascarpone on them. MMMM.

Have I mentioned that when we have our worldwide egullet potluck, I would like Marlene to be in charge of the roasted meats??? Seriously, Marlene, everything you make looks wonderful, but that roast??? What is it that Daniel says? "redunk"? Yep, it is redunk!!!

Kim

[doughgirl]

results from our dinner party tonight. 

Homemade dinner rolls

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It all looks amazing Marlene, but those rolls.......those look like heavenly little pillows! Any chance you could point me in the direction of the recipe?

[Marlene]

The rolls recipe came from Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's on page 268, Variation 2. This is the second time I've made these and they were really really good.

[Alinka]

Dinner is still in the oven (hoping to make osso bucco) but there are these khachapuri hot from the oven to snack on -

They are pastries (pies?) made from yeast dough with brynza cheese inside. The cheese is salty and sharp and somewhat of fresh mozzarella consistency. Khachapuri comes from the Caucasus; this was my first time making them.

I talked about them a little here.

[The Blissful Glutton]

Marlene: The roast looks divine. How did you cook the roast? Looking for a grill and would love to have one with such a capability. Which one are you using?

Alinka: Those look perfect.

[Marlene]

Marlene: The roast looks divine. How did you cook the roast?  Looking for a grill and would love to have one with such a capability. Which one are you using?

Alinka: Those look perfect.

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We have a Vermont Castings Gas grill. The grill has an infra red rotisserie burner at the back of the grill which is really great for spit roasting.

[Alinka]

Hi everyone! Percy, Chufi, I'm so glad to see you guys!

So, here's what came out of my attempt at osso bucco. It's not an authentic recipe, just a recipe a friend of mine shared with me, but we liked it; the meat came out incredibly tender. Served with polenta -

[David Ross]

Sorry all, it took me a while, ok a week, to figure out how to post this photo for you. Hey, I cook, I'm not great with computers.

This is an example of the type of of dishes we do up here in the Northwest.

What you see is a filet of fresh Alaskan Halibut. I sear it in an old cast iron skillet on one side, then turn it over and put it in a hot oven for about 8 minutes. It's simply seasoned with Paul Prudhomme's "Seafood Magic." In fact, I use his seasoning blends for just about everything.

I served it on a bed of clam chowder-with a few twists. I added fresh extra small oysters and crawfish tails to the chowder. I'm not great with exquisitely prepared classic French sauces, so I cheat a bit and do a lot of soups as sauces.

I couldn't get the appetizer photo to load properly-but it was "Gougeres"-which are French puff pastry puffs with cheese in the batter. A great snack with wine before dinner. It's the same dough you use for eclairs and profiteroles.

I saved half the dough for the Gougeres and the other half for cream puffs. Didn't get a photo of the cream puffs. Instead of filling them with sweetened whipped cream I filled them with softened vanilla ice cream ala Thomas Keller of Bouchon and the French Laundry. I had some chocolate ganache in the freezer, so I heated that up for the chocolate sauce. A nice French Bistro menu.

[percyn]

Last week our neighbors went on vacation and brought us pork chops with apples and tomatoes, which I served with couscous

Another weekday dinner

Chicken with porcini risotto

YAWD - Yet Another Weekday Dinner

Rotisserie Chicken with garlic herb roasted potatoes which I topped with a cream sauce after watching Gordon Ramsey make a similar dish.

[The Blissful Glutton]

Marlene: The roast looks divine. How did you cook the roast?  Looking for a grill and would love to have one with such a capability. Which one are you using?

Alinka: Those look perfect.

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We have a Vermont Castings Gas grill. The grill has an infra red rotisserie burner at the back of the grill which is really great for spit roasting.

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Are you happy with it? I am debating on a grill vs. a Big Green Egg. 2 different animals, but the BGE would be great for bread and pizzas.

[Marlene]

We love it. We considered an egg, but we already have a smoker, and we felt firing up the egg every time we wanted to cook a steak was a bit much. Besides, this way I can grill even when the husband isn't home. And I don't think you can spit roast on an egg. That infrared burner is da bomb for spit roasting anything, beef, chicken, pork.

I've done pizza on the Vermont with excellent results, but I've never done bread!

[meredithla]

So many amazing meals to be inspired by! Finally resolved to break the camera back out and rejoin the Dinner thread instead of just stalking and drooling...Tonight two recipes from The 150 Best American Recipes book.

Shrimp with bacon and scallions over cheesy grits and roasted garlic green beans with anchovy and lemon:

Both got big thumbs up from the hubby and kids. I especially couldn't stop eating the green beans.

[C. sapidus]

Alinka: Welcome back!

David Ross: Beautiful fish, and welcome to Dinner!

Shrimp with bacon and scallions over cheesy grits and roasted garlic green beans with anchovy and lemon:

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What a fascinating combination – Asian flavors using mostly non-Asian ingredients.

For dinner, I scrounged leftovers from today’s brunch. First, I heated up potato rendang. O, for a lute of fire to sing its praises (I stole that line from Henry Mitchell, late garden writer extraordinaire).

To make the rendang, we reduced coconut milk, Thai and Holland chiles, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, shallots, garlic, turmeric, and basil from this . . .

. . . to this, adding fingerling potatoes along the way.

I also had a plate of Mrs. C’s brunchy dishes - devilled eggs (curry and pesto), savory bread pudding (ham, cheese, and apples), and a blueberry-maple bread pudding.

For the brunch, we also served Thai red curry with shrimp, huevos rancheros with roasted Poblano chiles, grilled five-spice chicken, grilled veggie kebabs, and various store-bought accompaniments. Guests brought Russian blini, Russian salad, and monkey bread.

The five-spice chicken and red curry disappeared completely, so no pictures (someone really should develop a five-spice chicken perfume). I have leftover sauce to make huevos rancheros this week. The party was a lot of fun, and no one left hungry.

[agalarneau]

After going through the trouble of making red chile sauce in the Great White North, it's time for carne adovada tacos.

Once you've got the chile sauce in your freezer, the distance between you and sorta-authentic-tacos just narrowed considerably. Click here for the details.

[meredithla]

Two nights in a row of not only cooking but posting. I might be on a roll...

Bruce-your pics of your creations always get me.

So today, a trip to the Asian market. Long beans, bok choy, Thai basil, pancit canton, pork belly, Pocky (of course) and all the ingredients to try Octaveman's Mongolian Beef this week.

agalarneau-Tonight Mexican with pork sounded good to me too...

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos with potato, queso fresco & avocado-Rick Bayless-Mexican Everyday

[DesertCulinary]

Tonight I made a Spinach-Feta Calzone... the filling had a salty edge from the feta, a bite from the chopped onions and a very garlicky finish. It is baked in a 8" baking dish to help it keep the shape and just in case any filling leaked out - mine didn't have any issues in that department though! I loved the golden crispy garlic chips on top.

Here it is sliced open...

[Nishla]

Bruce, those potatos look SO good!

Megan, I just noticed your question from a while back...I believe perciatelli and bucatini are the same thing.

This past Saturday we cooked for my cousins:

We started with a beet, scallop and dill goat cheese napoleon, with some arugula salad on the side, and beet pureed with balsamic:

Curried sweet potato soup with yogurt and scallion oil:

We found ramps at the store that morning and cooked them with some bacon and browned butter, served over parmesan risotto:

Then asian-style braised pork belly over picked cabbage (rice vinegar, sugar, salt, long pepper and sesame oil):

My cousin provided a light dessert of cantaloupe, raspberry sorbet, passionfruit sorbet and moscato:

[snowangel]

Nishla, your meal makes me realize that I really need to start calling around to see when Ramps will be at our local coops. Excitement over this particular veg abounds in this household, and when I gasped over your post, and the ramps, my son immediately said "so, when are we haveing ramp pizza?"

[little ms foodie]

Nishla I want to come to your house for dinner- but no beets please!! oh ramps!! must start looking at the market!

and it looks like tonight was spinach italian night!

we started with the Fin de Siecle cocktail and some pea puree on crostiini

then we made Mario's spinach cheese fritatta and some chicken rosemary sausage from a local sausage maker

edited to add that we had a nice wedge of St Agur (sp) with a glass on Anne Amie port syrah to finish dinner and it was gooooooddddd!!!!!

Edited April 3, 2007 by little ms foodie (log)

[agalarneau]

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos with potato, queso fresco & avocado-Rick Bayless-Mexican Everyday

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meredith la,

I don't have that cookbook. Where's the "smoky" come from? Chipotle? Did you use canned chipotle?

Any other standout flavorings in the braise?

Thanks - I'm trying to expand my taco repertoire.

[Pille]

They are pastries (pies?) made from yeast dough with brynza cheese inside. The cheese is salty and sharp and somewhat of fresh mozzarella consistency. Khachapuri comes from the Caucasus; this was my first time making them.

I talked about them a little here.

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These look gorgeous, Alinka! I've made hatchapuri a few times (see here), but I used suluguni cheese. I can easily get brynza here, so will try that next time.

I've been taking it easy recently, so most of the meals have been very simple vegetarian affairs. Here's a warm salad of buckwheat and mushrooms from last week:

And here is a super-easy yet tasty carrot side dish, cumin-scented carrot oven chips from last night:

Oh, and we made blue cabbage rolls. That was fun

[The Hersch]

we started with the Fin de Siecle cocktail

I see on CocktailDB that the Fin de Siècle cockail is gin, sweet vermouth, Amer Picon, and organge bitters. Do you have a source for Amer Picon? That you could share? Or did you substitute, and if so what?

[TallDrinkOfWater]

we started with the Fin de Siecle cocktail

I see on CocktailDB that the Fin de Siècle cockail is gin, sweet vermouth, Amer Picon, and organge bitters. Do you have a source for Amer Picon? That you could share? Or did you substitute, and if so what?

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Sadly, we have no source of Amer Picon, but a friend recently gave me some of the supposedly-not-entirely-dissimilar Torani Amer. It's my understanding that Torani created that to resemble the original Amer Picon, which has grown lower in ABV and had changed flavor profile over the years.

There's a good post here where David Wondrich tastes his extensive collection against some original Amer Picon and opines that Amaro Ciociaro is the closest. The Amaro Ciociaro is not especially hard to find, from what I can tell (none here in Washington State, but that's not really a surprise to me). Looks like a lot of online retailers carry it, or depending on where you are, you may be able to find it locally.