Dinner! 2007

[jrichman]

A few nights ago we cooked: Nut and Mango Crusted Striped Sea Bass, Grilled Eggplant and Tater Tots

[GlorifiedRice]

I had Korean Salad with Mackeral and rice stuffed Sesame Leaves

[saucée]

Little Ms. Foodie's chowder left me craving summery chowder.  Being in the midwest, I decided to go for shrimp since good seafood is tough to come by ( ).

Spicy shrimp corn chowder

...

Not so photogenic, but delicious all the same.

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What are you talking about - 'not so photogenic'?!

It's beautiful!

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Thanks for the complement .

[Marlene]

A project for a rainy day, Scottish Meat Pies

[eskay]

Quiche I had spinach, cheddar cheese, and tomatoes to use up, and I'd just bought a dozen eggs, so I let my coworkers hound me into making piecrust for what turned out to be a pretty decent quiche. Took the picture right after it came out of the oven, which explains the poofiness. It settled down as it cooled a bit.

[Pierogi]

*HEAVY SIGH*

I so wanted to post pix tonight, but I'm having problems loading the software for the camera. I think my CD drive is fritzed out.....

Sooooooo, just words. Red beans and rice made with hot links and roasted red pepprs, spiced with my favorite Crystal hot sauce (available again after too long an absence after Katrina) and bleu cheese cole slaw. Fresh pineapple on the side and leftover chocolate mousse birthday cake for dessert. A Chilean red wine blend in the glass (thank you Trader Joe's).

Started with a pomegranite Cosmopolitan. Yum.

[doctortim]

I posted a another topic asking for advice on how to store guanciale so that it doesn't go bad before I have time to cook it all. Having now tried some, I don't think that using it up will be a problem.

Last night I made spaghetti carbonara, and tonight I made bucatini all'amatriciana. The carbonara was wonderful. The amatriciana was excellent flavour-wise, but next time I think I will cut the guanciale a little thicker so I can get that crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside texture.

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow though. I'm visiting my parents in the country, who happen to live just outside of a town whose major produce is pork. Every weekend they run a wholesale pork market that anyone can go along to. Now that I might finally have somewhere to buy a pig's head, I think I'll give curing my own guanciale a try.

[Domestic Goddess]

I wanted something different today so I made Bibimbap (rice with vegetable toppings and gochujang [red pepper paste])

Bibimbap without the egg...

Now with the fried egg on top...

Finally, with everything mixed together...

[percyn]

DG, I just had Bibimbap for lunch yesterday. Do you know if the ingredients for the "hot stone" version of Bibimbap are any different?

Thanks

Percy

[Bella S.F.]

Kim, that salmon looks wonderful. Can you tell us what you did?

Thanks!

[Domestic Goddess]

DG, I just had Bibimbap for lunch yesterday. Do you know if the ingredients for the "hot stone" version of Bibimbap are any different?

Thanks

Percy

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Percy, the list of bibimbap ingredients are endless. The most popular ones for the hot stone version would be soybean sprouts, braken fern, shitake mushrooms, julienned carrots, zucchini and laver (dried seaweed). Other popular ingredients are white radish, spinach, mugwort stems, etc. Ingredients also vary from season to season, spring would see the addition of leafy greens, alfafa sprouts, autumn would have oysters and wild mountain herbs, etc. Meat would be mainly ground beef or strips of beef but sometimes the beef is raw (the heat of the stone pot would sufficiently cook it).

Of course, the egg addition on top of the rice is either fried or raw.

[TongoRad]

A project for a rainy day, Scottish Meat Pies

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Nice project, those look great. Bring some down this way and I'll provide the ale Maybe I'll even try to tackle those Scottish Eggs I've been meaning to make.

I finished dinner a few hours ago and this page is making me hungry all over again. I just love the puffy quiche and the Still Life with Bread, but everything else looks just as great.

Most of the past month we've been entertaining on the weekends, nothing exciting (burgers, dogs, sausage, chicken, etc.) but good versions of it all nonetheless, and consuming the leftovers during the week. The repetition is starting to get to me, I must admit (although those brie burgers with grilled onions and horseradish mustard last week were pretty rockin'), so I was thrilled to come home to a nice hunk of monkfish tonight. Cilantro haters avert your eyes:

That's the pan seared monkfish (my half of it, anyway) with cilantro pesto, and the bean and corn salad in the back is loaded cilantro as well, natch. It could have used some serranos, but I'm not complaining because it was soo good to have something different for a change...

[David Ross]

I had Korean Salad with Mackeral and rice stuffed Sesame Leaves

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That sounds delicious. Can you share the recipe for the Salad with Mackeral? Do you use smoked mackeral? Do you think smoked eel would be an ok substitute in your salad?

[Sony]

*HEAVY SIGH*

I so wanted to post pix tonight, but I'm having problems loading the software for the camera. I think my CD drive is fritzed out.....  

Sooooooo, just words.  Red beans and rice made with hot links and roasted red pepprs, spiced with my favorite Crystal hot sauce (available again after too long an absence after Katrina) and bleu cheese cole slaw.  Fresh pineapple on the side and leftover chocolate mousse birthday cake for dessert.  A Chilean red wine blend in the glass (thank you Trader Joe's).

Started with a pomegranite Cosmopolitan.  Yum.

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Did you have a birthday recently? If so, happy birthday! And sorry to hear about your technical difficulties....

Blue cheese coleslaw sounds good! Is it simply traditional creamy coleslaw with chunks of blue cheese mixed in? Or is the blue cheese blended into the dressing?

[C. sapidus]

Doddie: Beautiful bimbimbap!

Last night: garlicky oven-roasted chicken and grilled zucchini from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Mrs. C made a delicious side dish – baby potatoes sauteed with ginger-lime dipping sauce. Basmati rice and cucumbers.

Tonight: chorizo-fried rice; Thai sweet pork (mu wan); and stir-fried tamarind shrimp (from the Cradle of Flavor thread). For the sweet pork, we stir-fried tenderloin medallions with mashed garlic, fish sauce, palm sugar, and white pepper. Simple and quite good.

The grownups enjoyed an Aviation with bitters after dinner.

Stir-fried tamarind shrimp (udang asam).

[saucée]

Stir-fried tamarind shrimp (udang asam).

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Beautiful shrimp--I'll be eating the likes of these when I return to the coast (SC) for a short vacation for a seafood feed. Ceviche here I come.

Tonight we had pozole topped with julienned kohlrabi (my cabbage substitute) and radish in honor of the purchase of my new dutch oven.

plated pozole

potted pozole

I usually don't braise in the summer much, but I couldn't resist trying out the pot. Plus I didn't put it in the oven, deciding instead to let the dutch oven do its stuff and it work beautifully. This was a good summertime braise too; it didn't feel out of place at all.

[David Ross]

Last night I made Tandoori Prawns served with Basmati Rice and a Cucumber Salad.

I made a tandoori paste with yogurt and a lot of spices including cardamom, ground coriander and cayenne pepper. Then I marinated the prawns in the paste and broiled them in the oven. I've gotten back to using the broiler in the past year and it gives meats and seafood that wonderful char. I added diced zuchinni and tomatoes and some fresh mint to the rice. I use a Japanese style slicer to cut the cucumber into ribbons and then dressed it with olive oil, dried dill, lemon juice and salt and pepper. I would do this dish again, but I let the prawns get a bit overdone and dry. I would probably thin out the tandoori paste with some milk or more lemon juice next time. The paste was a bit thick and sticky for my taste.

For dessert I made what I call Blackberry Lemon Bars. I have my own standard lemon bar recipe and in the summer I change it up a bit by adding berries. In this case i added whole blackberries to the lemon custard so the berries would bake down into the custard. Then I added whole fresh blackberries on top of the finished lemon bars.

[lucylou95816]

David, that lemon bar is calling my name. Looks really good.

[David Ross]

David, that lemon bar is calling my name.  Looks really good.

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Thank you so much. It is an easy recipe and very appropriate to the summer season. Here is my recipe:

Pastry Crust Base

1 cup, all-purpose flour

1/3 cup, powdered sugar

½ cup, unsalted butter, melted

Heat oven to 350°. Sift together flour and sugar in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and combine the mixture into a loose dough. Pat the mixture into a 9" square non-stick pan.

Bake the pastry until just browned around the edges, about 10 minutes.

Filling

2 eggs 1 tsp. fresh grated lemon peel

3 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

1 cup fresh blackberries

Whole fresh blackberries for garnish

Powdered sugar for garnish

Heat oven to 350° again. In a mixing bowl, add eggs, lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar. Beat at low speed until mixture is thick and smooth, about 5 minutes. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl. With mixer running, add flour and baking powder and mix until well-blended, about 3 minutes. Pour the filling into the pre-baked pastry crust base. Place whole blackberries throughout the filling.

Bake the lemon bar mixture in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is set.

Remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack for 30 minutes. Place whole fresh blackberries on top of the lemon bar base. Sift powdered sugar over the top. Cut the pastry into bars and serve with either chilled, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

[eskay]

^ I am so making those. Maybe tomorrow; I'll need to go out and get some berries...

For dinner I made falafels, which I'd never done before because I'm acared of frying things, but they (it? Whatever.) turned out awesome. Pita, tomato, cucumber, tahini. Mmmm

And for lunch, inspired by Little Miss Foodie's & saucée's chowders, and the fact that I got the most amazingly sweet corn at the market this morning, I made chowder. Just potatoes and corn, but it really hit the spot.

[C. sapidus]

saucee: Thanks, and enjoy your ceviche.

Today’s late lunch/early dinner: red curry shrimp with tomatoes, scallions, limes, cilantro, and lettuce. I cracked coconut cream, fried the curry paste with brown sugar, and seasoned it with fish sauce. This was a test for a recent batch or red curry paste. Nice flavor, but too mild – I should grind in more chiles before using the rest of the curry paste.

[Kim Shook]

Marlene - your meat pies are gorgeous!

Doddie - your bibimbap looks delicious! Makes me wish I could eat rice (I haven't been able to eat rice since having a gastric bypass a few years ago - and I miss it!)

Bella - Here's a link to the recipe for the salmon: Clickity!

Bruce - those shrimp are scrumptious looking!

eskay - now I want falafel! No one in my house likes it, so I never bother, but I should! Thanks for the idea!

We went out for American Chinese tonight. Hot and Sour Soup and Sweet and Sour Shrimp. One of my (many) guilty pleasures is sticky, sweet ersatz Chinese sauces

Kim

[Pierogi]

[blue cheese coleslaw sounds good! Is it simply traditional creamy coleslaw with chunks of blue cheese mixed in? Or is the blue cheese blended into the dressing?

The bleu cheese coleslaw is basically a traditional creamy 'slaw with a REALLY good dressing (it would be dynamite even without the bleu cheese) and chunks of bleu cheese stirred in after the cabbage is dressed. Its a Barefoot Contessa recipe, and it was outstanding. A bit of fresh, chopped Italian parsley thrown in right before serving...to die for.

I used a crumbled bleu from Trader Joe's called Salem Bleu cheese. Not quite as pungent as Gorgonzola, but a good kick nevertheless.

And thanks for the wishes, yes I celebrated yet another anniversary of my 29th birthday last week. We just won't go into exactly how many anniversaries of my 29th birthday there have been............

Tonight was smothered round steak, creme fraiche mashed potatoes and roasted broccolini with garlic slivers and white balsamic vinegar drizzeled over after roasting. Its been such a mild summer here (thank you climate gods) that it didn't seem odd to be doing a braise in late July.

[Shelby]

Oh my everything looks so good!

C sapidus, those shrimp *drooooooling*

David, your lemon bars are the essential summer desert to me!

[Prawncrackers]

Bruce and David, i have a surfeit of prawns at the moment so thanks for the ideas.

Today however, a practise Cantonese Roast Duck (more detail on the Chinese eats at home thread)