Dinner! 2007

[nonblonde007]

Jason, Can I live your life for a while? Amazing!

Tonight it was pork tenderloin, gnocchi w/bacon, toms, misc., fresh mozz., and beets n greens.

[C. sapidus]

Thick-cut strip steaks grilled medium rare. Plain for the boys, . . .

. . . thinly-sliced for the grownups, . . .

. . . and mixed with lemongrass, mint, red onion, tomatoes, and greens from the farmer’s market. The dressing was cilantro stems, chiles, garlic, palm sugar, fish sauce, white pepper, and lemon juice. One of our favorite summer meals. Jasmine rice for sopping up the dressing.

[Qwerty]

Dinner tonight:

Fried Green Tomatoes, stuffed with triple creme cheese, topped with micro arugula, sherry vinegar and olive oil.

Pan roasted pork tenderloin, mushroom-potato gratin, roasted baby carrots, and a pomengranite sauce

Edited August 2, 2007 by Qwerty (log)

[Octaveman]

Timing is everything I guess.

[C. sapidus]

Made Larb tonight...it was excellent.

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Octaveman: That’s some beautiful larb. You should post how you made it on the Larb Laab Larp thread.

[MiFi]

BUCATINI ALL'AMATRICIANA

Almost a weekly thing around our house...

[KristiB50]

I made the Shan style Pork Larb from Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

I cut my meat into chunks instead of grinding it. It's quite spicy and it's stir fried with a paste rather than poached like the other larb in the book.

Boy was it ever good!

[FoodMan]

From this weekend:

Lebanese Stuffed eggplant, tomatoes and a bell pepper (well it was the only one in the fridge and needed using up, so I added it to the mix)

Served it with rice and this lovely Musabacha from Paula Wolfert's "Mediterranean Grains and Greens". This dish is more or less a deconstructed Hummus and is delicious.

[Bella S.F.]

sisefromm,

I don't know which of those dishes I want to taste first. The risotto is mouth watering. The duck breast and gnocchi are just beautiful. I love lemon in any shape or form. I definitley need to have some of those gnocchi. Gnocchi Parisenne... could you write how you make them? I can see some kind of herb in them. They have a beautiful golden crispiness to them.

How ws the Saint-Georges? What year was it? What a wonderful wine!

[C. sapidus]

KristiB50: Yay, more larb! Do you prefer chunks to ground/minced?

Salad of Kirby cukes, shallots, lemongrass, purple bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes from the farmer’s market. Salad dressing/dipping sauce of mashed garlic, Serrano chiles, and palm sugar with fish sauce and lemon juice.

Five-spice pork chops served with jasmine rice and dipping sauce. Mrs. C declared one of the thicker pork chops “the best she ever had.” Elder son was less effusive, “I usually don’t like pork chops but these are pretty good.” Da boyz are a tough audience.

[nonblonde007]

I can see that I am going to have to try larb, it looks so delicious!

Bruce, what is the lovely yellow thing in your salad? Those chops look so succulent and juicy!

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, what is the lovely yellow thing in your salad?  Those chops look so succulent and juicy!

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Thank you Brenda. The "lovely yellow thing" is a yellow cherry tomato from the farmer's market. The tomatoes were quite lovely - next best thing to home-grown, and we may not have home-grown until fall if we don't start getting some rain soon.

[KristiB50]

KristiB50: Yay, more larb! Do you prefer chunks to ground/minced?

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I like it minced but do prefer the larger pieces.

I just love larb! And I have three ways of making it now

[DesertCulinary]

Last night we had a twist on Saté with a recipe for Saté Burgers.

The patty is made from ground pork and turkey - it has the flavors of a dipping sauce mixed into the meat - some of the ingredients were peanuts, lime juice and fish sauce. Very good - moist and pretty different. We served it over a bed of brown basmati rice and baby spinach rather than a bun.

[nonblonde007]

Very Pretty!

[nonblonde007]

Osso Buco, rigatoni in the reduced braising sauce, fresh corn and of course, garlic toast. I am sooooooooooo stuffed!

[percyn]

Excellent dinners all....special mention for Jason and Bruce.

A hot summer day is made tolerable with...

Lobster Rolls

Roasted Chicken w/Root Vegetables & Potatoes

Edited August 5, 2007 by percyn (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Crab & Chorizo Croquettes wth some pan-fried Patatas and a little melted Jarlsberg cheese:

[C. sapidus]

Prawncrackers: Crab and chorizo – two of my favorite things in the universe, together at last.

Percyn: Thanks! Beautiful lobster roll, and I think we have the same cutting board.

Tonight we made grilled shrimp salad with green mango and Thai emeralds dressing (Yam kung pao kap mamuang), and spicy tamarind shrimp. Elder son made the basmati rice, and of course we had cucumbers.

The boys preferred the grilled shrimp, which were simply skewered and grilled in their shells. No seasoning, just shrimp. I can see that becoming a regular summer meal.

[TongoRad]

Michael, how did the vermouth affect the gamey flavor of the lamb?  Did it counter or enhance?  Beautiful, btw.

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Thanks, Brenda. It was actually quite complimentary (I was thinking the other way around, to tell the truth- using something that wouldn't get bowled over by the flavor of the lamb), as I only used just a little bit. The sugar worked quite well, lending a nice caramelized sweetness to the exterior of the roast as well as to the accompanying 'jus'.

Lovely photos from you as well. That corn looks like it made a great accompaniment to the osso buco, much more 'summery'.

Elie- I love that dish with the chickpeas. Was that a tahini sauce on top or more of a yogurt based one?

Just superb dinners (and photos!!!) all around, everybody, too many to single out.

[AlexNoir]

The spot prawns were purchased live and boy were they absolutely stunning.  What a treat to have found an actual local fisherman with a great selection of fresh catches.

Jason, I know you're going to tell me who you got the spot prawns from, right?? C'mon, give me the Southern California hook-up.

Sweet sassy molassey, did you make all that in one day or space it out over the weekend?

[SiseFromm]

The spot prawns were purchased live and boy were they absolutely stunning.  What a treat to have found an actual local fisherman with a great selection of fresh catches.

Jason, I know you're going to tell me who you got the spot prawns from, right?? C'mon, give me the Southern California hook-up.

Sweet sassy molassey, did you make all that in one day or space it out over the weekend?

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I would be HAPPY to tell you where I picked up the Spot Prawns. I was very excited to be referred to Pearson's Port for fresh seafood. A chef buddy of mine picked up some fresh-caught local Tuna and suggested I get down there asap. I was like a kid in a candy store checking out all their lovely seafood, much of it still live and nearly all of it caught locall (between San Diego & Santa Barbara I believe). The Spot Prawns are in full effect right now. They're feisty and sweet as great lobster. I think they're $20 a pound and weigh in around 10 per pound. We did a cold seafood cocktail with them a couple of weeks back then I decided to poach them in butter for the ultra-rich risotto. Pearson's Port is off PCH at Bayside Drive in Newport Beach, right next to the Dunes. They're located right next to a launch point for a local kayak rental outfit. If you call information I'm betting you can get their number. Right now they're featuring tuna, spot prawns, rock crabs, and calamari. I think they're coming up on spiny lobster season in a couple of months.

To answer your other question, that was actually a single meal (I think 5 courses total if I remember). We do dinner parties once every couple of weeks or at least once per month typically featuring 4 - 6 courses.

[SiseFromm]

While I'm at it, I may as well post our "Southwestern" dinner from last evening. This was an ode to my days working at Zuni Grill & Topaz Cafe back in the early nineties:

Local Spot Prawn Taquitos

Mango + Habañero +Avocado

Cilantro-Lime Cream

(2005 Chateau Montelena Potter Valley Riesling)

Goat Cheese Relleno

“Fondue” of Onion, Tomato

Avocado Cremá

(1997 Peter Michael ‘Belle Côte Chardonnay)

Achiote-Grilled Pork Belly, Red Wine Jus

Corn & Chive Pudding

Jicama Rémoulade

(2003 Kamen Syrah)

“Margarita” Sorbet Cleanser

Lime / Orange / Tequila

Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures of the final dessert:

Vanilla Custard-Filled Churros with Salted Drinking Chocolate

Everything was great and it really reminded me of working back in the day when Southwestern food was hot in Southern California. Fun times!

[Ktepi]

It turns out the Savu smoker bag does not make for a very smoky lobster -- in the past, I've always tea-smoked the lobster for this sandwich, but that sets off the smoke detectors, and I figured this was a good thing to try with the bags. Ah well. The other smoked ingredients wound up bringing out more smoke flavor than I thought when I first tasted the lobster.

Sully's lobster roll: smoked lobster, super-crispy bacon, and a sauce of lobster stock, shredded smoked ham hock, peppers, onions, and hot sauce, thickened with butter and a little demiglace. Most of what you see there is the sauce, but there's more lobster than it may seem.

[TongoRad]

Oh man- that all looks amazing! Looks like we got a theme going here with the smoked items and southwestern goodies. Tonight I smoked a couple of duck legs and served them with a mole poblano and grilled corn. I just love the flavor combo, and the skin was crispy like bacon (despite what the photo shows )