Dinner! 2008

[menuinprogress]

Gnocchi with tomato sauce*

Wow - that looks fantastic! Great photo.

[suzilightning]

such gorgeous food - especially all the meat.

dinner for john last night was an oven baked cod, sauteed yellow beans from this summer's farmers market and a baked sweet potato with lime butter.

since he was a bit later than he expected and i was hungry so abut 6 i had this:

homemade french onion soup from Cook's Illustrated with some crackers and boursin.

[Marlene]

Some more pork...

Mojito Jerk Pork Shoulder - Marinated overnight in Mojito mix, seasoned with jerk seasoning and baked at 275 F for 9 hrs.

Tender and moist...falls right apart

Plated with some rice

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I want this! Can you tell me more about the Mojito mix?

[C. sapidus]

suzilightning, sweet potato with lime butter sounds intriguing – how did johnnybird like it?

SanaaSol, I have been in the mood for a soup like that – do you have a recipe?

Quick dinner last night: spaghettini with red clam sauce; and a salad of jicama, grape tomatoes, Bibb lettuce, blue cheese, and vinaigrette. For pre-dinner munching, we set out grapes and a plate of jicama slices and eternal cucumbers.

When I was a kid, my best friend’s mother made this same red clam sauce, loaded with butter, olive oil, and parsley. I must have raved about it, so at Christmas my friend showed up at our house with a steaming pot of delicious clam sauce, his family’s gift to our family. This continued for a few Christmases before we finally asked for the recipe. Mom made the clam sauce properly once or twice, and then started reducing the butter and olive oil to make it “healthier.” It was never quite the same. Anyway, Mom recently e-mailed out the recipe. The red clam sauce tasted as good as I remembered, and the boys loved it.

Tonight the boys enjoyed grilled ribeye steaks while the grownups enjoyed Thai smoked trout salad (clicky). Mrs. C had some ribeye, too, but I passed – I was hankering for flavor rather than fatty protein.

Thai smoked trout salad

[austramerica]

Bruce, that looks so good...!!

What is a mojito mix, Marlene? I love that you cooked it for 9 hours...my kind of cooking if I may say so...

Thanks...

austramerica

[Marlene]

Bruce, that looks so good...!!

What is a mojito mix, Marlene? I love that you cooked it for 9 hours...my kind of cooking if I may say so...

Thanks...

austramerica

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No that wasn't me. I was asking about it. I don't know what a mojito mix is either, but I want to!

[judiu]

It's a bottled mix for making the Mojito cocktail, much like you get a prepared mix for Margaritas, or Bloody Marys, etc. Frequently awful for the actual drink, but interesting to play with, as was done here. HTH!

[Marlene]

It's a bottled mix for making the Mojito cocktail, much like you get a prepared mix for Margaritas, or Bloody Marys, etc. Frequently awful for the actual drink, but interesting to play with, as was done here. HTH!

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And I'd bet I can't get it here in Canada, as usual!

[handmc]

This thread continues to provide the finest inspiration and food porn. Just amazing.

[monavano]

West African Groundnut and Chicken stew, long grain rice, dilled cucumbers.

[Ann_T]

West African Groundnut and Chicken stew, long grain rice, dilled cucumbers.

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OOOOH doesn't that look good.

Bruce My husband would love your salad.

Tuesday's dinner Grilled Italian Sausage with pasta.

Wednesday - Halibut with a green peppercorn sauce

and last night Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

[dockhl]

Everything looks so good.

Ann_T

the texture of the halibut is perfect ! making my mouth water

Bruce

any chance of getting the recipe for the red clam sauce in RecipeGullet?

Last night I made a saute of baby artichokes, tomatoes, garbanzo beans with preserved lemon and black olives, over Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley. This is the only brown rice I can stomach, described as "A blend of long-grain brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seeds." Love it! (No pix, sorry)

[monavano]

Ann T. and C. Sapidius, your photos are stunning. Any special equipment or techniques?

[SanaaSol]

This thread is amazing! So many wonderful ideas.

I love it!

C. Sapidius - Sure, here is the recipe. I hope you like it!

monavano - your stew looks great! I've always wanted to try groundnut stew, especially with beef. I think I'd better got to it, lol...

[C. sapidus]

Ann T. and C. Sapidius, your photos are stunning. Any special equipment or techniques?

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monavano, I am honored to be mentioned in the same breath as Ann_T when it comes to photography, so thank you very much! My old point-and-shoot camera would embarrass a real photographer. To reduce shake, I rest the camera on a side towel draped over any handy piece of kitchen equipment. The plate usually sits on the stovetop with the hood’s halogen lights turned to high. Pretty basic.

Anyway, your groundnut stew reminds me of one of our favorite childhood dinners: Ghanaian groundnut chop.

austramerica, thank you!

sanaasol, great pictorial – I have your soup on my (long) list of things to make.

dockhl, I will post the clam sauce recipe. What it lacks in fancy ingredients it compensates with sheer volume of butter and olive oil.

ETA: red clam sauce recipe

Indian dinner tonight: cream of spinach soup and garlic chicken tikka kebabs. The kitchen smelled amazing.

For the soup, we sauteed onions and garlic in ghee, seasoned with cumin, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, blended the onion mixture with cooked spinach and chicken stock, heated everything through with milk and cream, and finished the soup with lemon juice. Mrs. C enjoyed the soup, but we had to eat with the lights low because it reminded her of things she used to clean up at the hospital.

Indian cream of spinach soup (palak shorva)

For the kebabs, we marinated cubed chicken breast overnight in garlic paste, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and ground cardamom, coriander, cumin, black pepper, and garam masala. The kebabs were grilled and finished with a glaze of melted ghee, lemon juice, dried fenugreek leaves, black salt, cumin, and chaat masala.

Garlic chicken tikka kebabs

Edited March 22, 2008 by C. sapidus (log)

[Ann_T]

Bruce, I'm not even in your league.

Thanks Monovano. I have no clue how to use all the functions on my new camera so I just use the automatic setting. I sit the plate up near two "Day light" lights. And I never use a flash. Basically it is luck.

Tex Mex on the menu here tonight. I cooked the pork and the black beans this morning before leaving for work. All I had to do when I got home was make the corn tortillas and the guacamole.

[dockhl]

For dinner tonight, I made something that I'll need to keep in mind for next St. Paddy's Day; it was a very green dinner!

I liked the Flourless Cheese Souffle so much that I made last month that I thought I'd give it a spring twist, so tonight's was an asparagus crab souffle with a teeny bit of Parmesan. Easy peasy---I wish the Top Chef guys had known this recipe 'cause it seems foolproof. I pulled it out of the oven when it looked dark enough, took of the cap and realized that it was a tad soft for me (I don't like it runny, just soft) so I kept the top off (chef's treat for me and the pups) and popped the rest back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

The little darlin' continued to rise ! I LOVE this recipe............. The texture was great. I had been a bit concerned that the ingredients were too heavy for a good rise, but no.

No pix 'cause it ;looked just like the last one, only greener (I could Photoshop the cheese souffle, I guess ) and I served it with cukes in vinegrette. Green.

[Ce'nedra]

WOW this page is full of colours! I see alot of delicious greens and charred reds mmm.

No green from me. Went over to aunt's place for bbq lunch yesterday, everyone brought over so much food that we were forced to stay back for dinner and had some of the bbq meats with vermicelli noodles. Let's see what we ate: Chinese five spice chicken, Thai noodle salad, Vietnamese meatballs (nem nuong), good ol' Aussie sausages, and alot of other bits of meats. Good day!

[Prawncrackers]

It's been a nice long weekend, nothing much a-doing except to just cook and eat. Hence very enjoyable so far!

Friday, Chorizo crusted cod, serrano ham crisp and butterbeans:

Yesterday, Mutton chops, sweetbreads, purple kale & salsa verde:

Today, Chicken Rice, braised Nyonya pork, a little leftover lamb rendang & fried gailan:

[Chris Hennes]

Friday, Chorizo crusted cod, serrano ham crisp and butterbeans:

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Wow, the colors on that really pop: sounds (and looks!) like incredible flavors.

[percyn]

Very nice Prawncrackers!!

Did you simply crumble the Chorizo to make a crust or did you employ another technique?

[Prawncrackers]

Very nice Prawncrackers!!

Did you simply crumble the Chorizo to make a crust or did you employ another technique?

My mum gave me that nice piece of cod, she bought it on Thursday and it still tasted very fresh the next day. Still, i wanted to try it with stronger flavours and as I had two small fresh (soft) chorizo left in the fridge - i thought bingo! I skinned one chorizo and blended it in a small processor with panko, s&p, parsley and evoo. It was a dry paste consistency and coated the fish very well. Baked at 180C for 12 minutes then finished under grill to crisp up. The other chorizo i fried with toms, garlic, butterbeans then finished with spinach, watercress & rocket. The fish was really nice and would cook again. The Butterbeans i've never tried before and thought they were a bit blah!

[C. sapidus]

Another Indian dinner tonight: chicken in onion tomato gravy (murgh masala); stir-fried okra (bhindi sabzi); cucumber and radish raita (kheera aur mooli ka raita); with flour tortillas standing in for chapati. Younger son was a chicken-eating machine tonight – he seems to have a taste for Indian food.

[rooftop1000]

tonights dinner for 11 started with Crudite, Crab Gougeres, Cheese and Crackers and Shaved beef/cream cheese roll-ups

Moved on to

Lasagna, Honey baked spiral ham, Grilled boneless leg of lamb , Candied sweet potatoes (mom), Asparagus with lemon butter, French bread and butter

Then

Carrot cake(M-I-L), Strawberry/Blueberry Cheese tart(my daughters boyfriends Mom)....she works in a bakery and sends wonderful things to us

I'm having tired now

tracey

[austramerica]

I have been cooking almost all day today so tonight I just cooked spaghetti with shrimps and scampi butter. I wasn't able to take a photo but I did take a photo of our dessert...

Tapioca Maple Pudding with Pralines