Dinner! 2007

[lucylou95816]

Happy Birthday Marlene! I am in the midst of making queso fundido with chorizo for my book club tonight. I'll try to get a shot of it, if its purty

[little ms foodie]

Happy birthday marlene!

last night we had some fellow eG'ers over for a casual dinner- LEdlund was the one who saved our oven!!

started with various cocktails and truffled popcorn, aged cheddar from CA and pistachios (not pictured)

roasted asparagus and tomato salad with truffle and balsamic glaze

roasted Smart chicken with spring onion and chevre bread pudding

deep dark chocolate pudding

99 JKCarriere Pinot Noir, 04 Anne Amie Belle Rouge and Anne Amie Syrah Port in the glass(es)

[Marlene]

Wendy, it all looks great, but I'm particularly interested in the chocolate pudding, as it's one of my son's favourites. Did you use a particular recipe for it?

[Kim Shook]

Let me add my good wishes for your birthday, Marlene. I hope everyone in your life makes it as special as you deserve it to be!

Kim

[GTO]

I bought a little individual Trifle earlier and I picked it up tonight off of the kitchen counter and I must have grabbed it off centre, because it flipped itself over and landed cream-side down on the top.

I never thought I'd swear blind at a Trifle, but there you go.

[little ms foodie]

Wendy, it all looks great, but I'm particularly interested in the chocolate pudding, as it's one of my son's favourites.  Did you use a particular recipe for it?

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Yes, Deep Dark Chocolate Pudding from Food& Wine

[rockdoggydog]

Happy Birthday Marlene!

That duck breast looks wonderful.

Catching up from last week:

BBQ pork and grilled asparagus

Clean out the fridge enchiladas

Bacon Cheese burger and a salad

Rocky

[rooftop1000]

just a little wagyu top round grilled to a perfect 125 served with onions sauteed in duck fat and roasted garlic toast - tomato cucmber salad off camera

tracey

Edited May 5, 2007 by rooftop1000 (log)

[C. sapidus]

Happy birthday, Marlene!

Rocky: Whoa, that asparagus and BBQ pork look scrumptious.

Tracey: Beautiful!

Tonight we made curry fried rice with fish and bacon, starting from a recipe in Crying Tiger. Curry powder and coconut milk flavored the rice nicely, and I stir-fried the fish fillets in bacon grease with a little light soy sauce. Although I forgot to garnish with cilantro, Mrs. C declared it “the best fried rice ever.” She worked late, so I think she was just hungry.

Elder son learned to cook real bacon in the cast iron skillet. He is used to microwave bacon, so he griped about everything until he tried a piece of golden crispy goodness – then he didn’t want to share.

[Kim Shook]

Bruce, I love the bacon story. Pork has the power to transform!!

Tonight was easy, as I am getting ready for a big dinner party on Sunday. I just got back from a week in Florida, my house is a wreck, I am planning my daughter's graduation bash (May 20) and I am not 100% sure that I am completely unpacked . Dinner was:

My dad's version of Caesar salad with my homemade garlic croutons. Mr. Kim and I will take turns knocking each other out of bed tonight with garlic breath :

And grilled ham slice, glazed with apricot preserves and Japanese steak sauce, roasted cauliflower and store bought sourdough rolls:

I am a completely ignorant photographer. Can someone tell me why my close ups are all so blurry. I hold the camera completely still and they are still blurry.

Kim

[judiu]

just a little wagyu top round grilled to a perfect 125 served with onions sauteed in duck fat and roasted garlic toast - tomato cucmber salad off camera

tracey

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JUST? My gawd, woman, you're killing me here!

[Blether]

... why my close ups are all so blurry.  I hold the camera completely still and they are still blurry. 

Kim

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Hi, Kim. Great looking cauliflower, even if it isn't sharp

We're all ignorant, but have you asked yourself the following:

- what is the minimum focusing distance for your camera ?

- does the camera have a 'macro' mode, and are you using it ? What is the minimum focusing distance in macro mode (it will be different) ?

- are you standing back and using the zoom to get back in and fill the frame ?

I can't be sure, but in your last picture, is the table just behind the plate in focus ? That would suggest you're just too close. You're not using flash, but the other common major issue would be shooting in the dark, or with a very dark or shiny subject, when the autofocus has trouble sensing the distance (that's not your problem here).

Dinner tonight - I scored a couple of sides of honmasu ('cherry salmon'), so one of those baked in foil at 130C/279F with butter, fresh bay, salt and pepper. So good !

[GTO]

Also, Kim - It may be a bit too dark (if your camera is a DSLR), so try turning up the ISO, or using flash.

If it's a compact, then what blether said - Just move back a little bit.

[Waterzoy]

We had sea bass cooked with tomatoes, white wine, rosemary and anchovies on a layer of potatoes. It was excellent......cooked and photographed by my husband.

[little ms foodie]

Blether what is cherry salmon? never heard of it!

[rockdoggydog]

Thanks Bruce.

Very nice steak Tracey, beautiful colour!

Rachellindsay that sea bass looks great!

After a completely lacklustre lunch yesterday I decided on my way out of the restaurant to replicate the meal for dinner except try to make it taste good.

Sautéed some clams with bacon, garlic, and shallots for munchies beforehand, this was not part of the make it better effort, the broth turned out really nicely actually.

It's not pretty, bay shrimp ceviche, really it's a shrimp cocktail with avocado as the base and orange juice as the citrus.

Churrasco steak salad on a bed of latin hash and butter lettuce, the sauce is a spicy curry heavy chimichurri sort of thing.

Rocky

[Blether]

Blether what is cherry salmon? never heard of it!

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Hi, Wendy. Neither had I ! So I went to Fishbase for a 'common name' search on honmasu. Oncorhynchus masou masou, it said. Then I chose 'common names' under 'more information' for the big list.

Eating it blind, I'd have guessed 'sea trout' - it was like a very trouty salmon. It's the first time I'd ever seen it in a store - and for the record, it didn't have the fancy tiger stripes - just black & silver like a typical salmon. I'm assuming it was a female.

Edited May 6, 2007 by Blether (log)

[meredithla]

Happy birthday marlene!

roasted Smart chicken with spring onion and chevre bread pudding

99 JKCarriere Pinot Noir, 04 Anne Amie Belle Rouge and Anne Amie Syrah Port in the glass(es)

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Wendy, What did you think of the Smart chicken? My mom and aunt swear by them but I can't find them sold anywhere near me. Did you taste a difference in the quality?

[GTO]

Smart chicken? Is this a chicken that knew what was coming and so out of the goodness of it's heart, knowingly made itself more delicious?

[Peter Green]

More experiments.

I picked up a kilo of camel shoulder on Friday, and put it in to marinade on Saturday.

Today, Sunday, when I came home from work, I baked up three kg of salt, and then buried the meat in the salt with some fresh rosemary.

I let this cook for around two hours, and then pulled it out.

Problem one, the meat cooked differentially, and pulled up on one side, broaching the salt. This lost me some moisture.

Problem two, it was difficult getting most of the salt off. However, as I was serving this with potatoes, this wasn't a big problem.

It didn't look too bad once it was out, and plated, it was almost pretty, in an old shoe leather sort of way.

It's not that the meat was bad, there was nothing wrong with it. But it tasted as it was, like a cheap cut of meat. Perhaps if I'd larded it, there would've been more there. In retrospect, this would do better as an oso bucco, as a braise.

Now, having said all that, the beautiful part was the marrow. Jellied and wobbly, I spread this on my potato and pitied the poor family that wouldn't partake. What I really should do is go back and see if I can get some camel bones to work with for stocking and for marrow salads.

Mind you, I may be dining alone.

[insomniac]

Peter, the last time I had camel was in the far north of Nigeria in Maidugairi and after happily munching on said meat for several days was informed by someone not to eat it as it was tubercular???huh?? have you heard similar? I just kept munching.........(chewy but OK, on skewers over BBQ a bit like fresh jerky, no dry cough so far)

edited to add oops sorry I saw Peter's name and transmogrified it into the 'Around China with the Vermin' thread ...sorry, forget my post

Edited May 6, 2007 by insomniac (log)

[Peter Green]

Peter, the last time I had camel was in the far north of Nigeria in Maidugairi and after happily munching on said meat for several days was informed by someone not to eat it as it was tubercular???huh?? have you heard similar? I just kept munching.........(chewy but OK, on skewers over BBQ a bit like fresh jerky, no dry cough so far)

edited to add oops sorry I saw Peter's name and transmogrified it into the 'Around China with the Vermin' thread ...sorry, forget my post

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No problems! <cough! cough!> Tubercular?

[MobyP]

lamb, ratatouille, peas

[little ms foodie]

Rocky now that is what my lunch should have looked like and tasted like!

Bether good info- thank you. sounds a bit like arctic char too.

Happy birthday marlene!

roasted Smart chicken with spring onion and chevre bread pudding

99 JKCarriere Pinot Noir, 04 Anne Amie Belle Rouge and Anne Amie Syrah Port in the glass(es)

←

Wendy, What did you think of the Smart chicken? My mom and aunt swear by them but I can't find them sold anywhere near me. Did you taste a difference in the quality?

←

Smart chicken? Is this a chicken that knew what was coming and so out of the goodness of it's heart, knowingly made itself more delicious?

←

LOL!!

the smart chicken definately tastes better to me, I will not buy other chicken unless it's from my farmers market but noone has chickens yet- probably next week. but the smart chicken skin doesn't get as brown and crispy as my organic farmers chickens.

[purplewiz]

Chipotle cheddar and spam souffle from a couple nights ago. It got a little done on top (but then I think the crusts on souffles are among the best parts!), but the texture inside was just about perfect.

Sopa de ajo from "The Border Cookbook". The basic soup was good, but as it was simmering the chipotle chile the recipe called for was starting to overwhelm the garlic. I removed the chile and adjusted a few things, and came up with a soup we really liked.

New Mexico Carne Adovada, also from "The Border Cookbook". My camera just didn't capture the rich, dark, glorious red color of this chile sauce. It was my first time through this recipe and I made a few minor errors (like the chiles may have looked fully pureed, but there were more pieces than I prefer), but the flavor was outstanding.

Marcia.