Dinner! 2008

[phatj]

I've yet to take appetizing photos of food, so I've mostly quit trying. Nevertheless, tonight's dinner was awesome.

A ragu of leftover lamb leg meat, cremini mushrooms, onions & kalamata olives seasoned with oregano & thyme and finished with cream, served over rotini and topped with what started as gremolata but was mixed with crumbled feta cheese and pine nuts.

I was worried the lemon in the gremolata wouldn't work with the tomato sauce, but it was fabulous.

[Daniel]

Simple healthy dinner.. Roasted potatoes, garlic, and radishes... Steamed spinach and added chile pepper, white pepper, and this kick ass 25 year red wine vinegar I just picked up.. Roasted a couple of branzini I got at the local fish store.. Used parchment paper as I wasnt eating the skin. 18 dollar dinner, total time 50 minutes.. Drank a wonderful rioja that didnt go with the fish..(Allende 2004 White Rioja.. I highly recommend it, I think its ridiculously priced well "WS 90") But was spectacular on its own.. Stinky gres de vosges for dessert, with a '79 sherry..

Crappy camera phone:

Edited April 3, 2008 by Daniel (log)

[markk]

Though I haven't posted in a long time, because I really haven't been cooking (long story), I have been lurking and seeing things get more and more beautiful.

I've started cooking again, so I thought I'd post two dinners from this, my first week back in the kitchen making things that don't come out of containers.

First, fish.

My fish market had some beautiful skate (dressed, i.e. off the bone)

Which I dusted with Wondra flour and sauteed in olive oil with a little buter

When both sides were crisped, I removed it to a hot plate, and deglazed the pan with white wine, and added organic lemon, and capers, let it bubble for a moment, and then plated it with the sauce over it. The sides were roasted cauliflower and roasted cremini mushrooms, and though I could kill the person who plated the sides for me, I'll post the photos anyway

It was delicious, though I can only show the ones that didn't break apart when I turned them.

Then, my supermarket had some veal chops that I just couldn't pass up:

So I seasoned them with fresh thyme, salt and pepper, and grilled them:

and varied the plating:

No, those aren't Tater Tots. They're the "Alexia" brand of Potato Nuggets, which are a healthier alternative, and of course there's some watercress salad.

It's fun to be able to stand long enough to cook a whole meal again.

Edited April 4, 2008 by markk (log)

[Nishla]

Markk, your skate looks incredible!

Best dang cabbage I ever et, and the boys loved the chicken and sauce.

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Bruce, the cabbage sounded so good I made a variation on it tonight. Mine had mustard and fennel seeds, a touch of cumin and tumeric, and finished with garam masala. It was really delicious. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Qwerty]

Simple healthy dinner.. Roasted potatoes, garlic, and radishes... Steamed spinach and added chile pepper, white pepper, and this kick ass 25 year red wine vinegar I just picked up..  Roasted a couple of branzini I got at the local fish store.. Used parchment paper as I wasnt eating the skin. 18 dollar dinner, total time 50 minutes.. Drank a wonderful rioja that didnt go with the fish..(Allende 2004 White Rioja.. I highly recommend it, I think its ridiculously priced well "WS 90") But was spectacular on its own.. Stinky gres de vosges for dessert, with a '79 sherry.. 

Crappy camera phone:

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Kudos for roasting whole fish....I know this is eGullet and such, but still, don't see that as often as we should in this country. I try to get my friends/family to eat whole roasted fish and they won't have it.

[Daniel]

Then, my supermarket had some veal chops that I just couldn't pass up:

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I dont shop in Supermarkets but, I did not expect something that pretty to be in them.. They look awesome. Were they just like packaged sitting in the meat bin?

Edited April 4, 2008 by Daniel (log)

[Dr. J]

Great pics markk.

D.Ross that shrimp thai lime butter recipe looks awsome.

Kim Shook great minds think alike. The second purpuse of the dish was to make crab rangoons.I got some wonton skins and filled them with that crab mixture to which I also added cream cheese. The rangoon is then topped with a mango sauce. Came out excellent. Been a while since I worked on my folding technique. I made like 30 and the last 10 looked decent.

Great dish by your daughter kim!

The next dish is one that I make over and over because i just love it. Its a moroccan style stew made with tons of spices and some tomato paste. I also put some honey and heat to give it all the flavor i can. With it, I serve some cold yogurt which soothes the overall power of the dish. Since I had some mango left over I used it for garnish. But let me tell you it went awsome with the dish, to the point where I went and cut some more and just ate the beef, yogurt, rice, mango in every bite.

[markk]

Then, my supermarket had some veal chops that I just couldn't pass up:

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I dont shop in Supermarkets but, I did not expect something that pretty to be in them.. They look awesome. Were they just like packaged sitting in the meat bin?

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Yes! They were packaged one per Styrofoam tray, and wrapped in plastic, just like the steaks or the pork chops come. It's the ShopRite of Hoboken (NJ). They don't have a "service" meat counter with a "butcher" like many supermarkets where you choose the meat and they weigh and wrap it, but there is a section of the meat cases that's separated from the whole rest of the section, where they always have veal that beautiful (they break down one half an animal per day in to chops, breasts, etc), and in that section they also have the Nature's Reserve grass fed organic beef, and a gigantic selection of D'Artagnan products, including the fresh (raw) duck Magret (as packaged by D'Artagnan, one per pack), as well as D'Artagnan's superb duck confit, and much more from their catalog, including the Nieman Ranch bacons.

I realize that this is shameless showing-off, but I can actually create meals like this duck duo from what i get at my local Jersey supermarket - and I love it (!):

The rest of the store is no big deal, but the meat department is great!

Edited April 4, 2008 by markk (log)

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, the cabbage sounded so good I made a variation on it tonight.  Mine had mustard and fennel seeds, a touch of cumin and tumeric, and finished with garam masala.  It was really delicious.  Thanks for the inspiration!

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Nishla, I am so glad that you liked the cabbage.

Dr. J, that Moroccan stew sounds delicious.

Daniel and markk, nice to see your dinners again!

Mexican tonight, mostly from Cocina de la Familia: fish tacos Ensenada-style with quick-pickled red onions, guacamole, salsa, shredded cabbage, limes, thinly-sliced jalapenos, and multigrain tortillas. First time frying with beer batter, and first time using grouper (which tasted quite nice).

The salsa was ridiculously simple and surprisingly good: canned tomatoes, garlic, dried Thai chiles, and salt, all whizzed up in the blender. Probably even better with tomatoes fresh from the garden.

[Pierogi]

fish tacos Ensenada-style with quick-pickled red onions, guacamole, salsa, shredded cabbage, limes, thinly-sliced jalapenos, and multigrain tortillas. First time frying with beer batter, and first time using grouper (which tasted quite nice).

Oh man Bruce, those fish tacos look bodacious !! I gotta make me some of those again reallllllllllll soon ! Congrats, this daughter of SoCal gives you major props for some "proper" fish tacos.

[rarerollingobject]

Fergus Henderson's roasted bone marrow and parsley salad, with fleur de sel, on toast. This was supposed to be a starter, but due to a miscommunication with my butcher (who thought I meant four full bones, rather than four disks), this was dinner in its entirety. A delicious, unhealthy, $12 'mistake' but ohhhh so good. Sorry for the blurry picture, I put it down to being drunk on cholesterol.

[Carlovski]

Tonight I made red curry chicken cabbage rolls

Wow, Matt, those look really good, and innovative. What is mae ploy ?

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Thanks, they were great.

Mae ploy is a Thai sweet chili sauce. It's outrageously good as a dip for just about anything. I also spread it on meat and fish.

http://www.importfood.com/samp1001.html

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Mae Ploy is actually the brand - they make all sorts of food products (Their curry pastes are quite good). Their sweet chilli sauce is damned addictive though!

Don't want to sound too pedantic, but thought I'd better mention and save some possible confusion at an asian supermarket!

[David Ross]

Which I dusted with Wondra flour and sauteed in olive oil with a little buter

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Wow, your Skate looks delicious! Very nice.

[sandra]

Good news, though - it looks like you can mail-order chile pasilla and other Mexican ingredients from MexGrocer.co.uk (click).

Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK?

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insomniac, have you looked at this website? http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

I used to get a lot of stuff from them when I lived in London -

Also:

http://www.coolchile.co.uk/ - huge variety and a good stall at Borough Market and Portobello Road if you ever get into London (plus a new little resto)

And a place for Mexican tins/dried foods - El Azteca

http://www.elaztecafood.co.uk/productos.php

The website is in Spanish, but if you don't understand it, you can call them, they speak English - or pm me...

Lots of places to get Mexican type stuff in London, if you can't find what you need in these places, let me know and I'll try and find it for you, I always found almost everything, or at least the ingredients to make it!

[insomniac]

Good news, though - it looks like you can mail-order chile pasilla and other Mexican ingredients from MexGrocer.co.uk (click).

Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK?

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insomniac, have you looked at this website? http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/

I used to get a lot of stuff from them when I lived in London -

Also:

http://www.coolchile.co.uk/ - huge variety and a good stall at Borough Market and Portobello Road if you ever get into London (plus a new little resto)

And a place for Mexican tins/dried foods - El Azteca

http://www.elaztecafood.co.uk/productos.php

The website is in Spanish, but if you don't understand it, you can call them, they speak English - or pm me...

Lots of places to get Mexican type stuff in London, if you can't find what you need in these places, let me know and I'll try and find it for you, I always found almost everything, or at least the ingredients to make it!

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thanks heaps Sandra, I guess because the standard of Mexican food here is so dire I didn't actually think about sourcing ingredients...

ps. hope you are enjoying my hometown

pps. I can read Spanish but speaking is work in progress

[sandra]

thanks heaps Sandra, I guess because the standard of Mexican food here is so dire I didn't actually think about sourcing ingredients...

ps. hope you are enjoying my hometown

pps. I can read Spanish but speaking is work in progress

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There are a few good options for mexican in London now - Now, as much as I love Sydney, the state of meixcan food here is MUCH worse than London!!

Try Mestizo when you're in London http://www.mestizomx.com/pages/home.html

To get back on topic -

Dinner tonight will be macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, we're having American cravings!

[nliedel]

I've been trying to make what I think is a perfect roast chicken. I try to make one a month, so one of these days, it will be good enough. This time I got seriously distracted and lost track of the time. It smelled good, so I stuck a thermometer in the thigh. I must have hit a bone, cause it looked like it was hot enough, but after resting it was obvious it was not done. Back into the oven it went. Twenty minutes later, it was delicious, but I felt like an idiot.

I put roast garlic in the cavity, but next time I'll put both roast and raw garlic in for a blend of garlic flavor. I love garlic. I have photos on my blog, but I've yet to figure out how to stick them in my posts here. I'm working on it and will hopefully figure it out today.

[Prawncrackers]

That's what i call marrow porn, it's almost surreal!! Did you have that between 2 or 4 of you? You know they freeze very well

This weekend's dinners:

Friday - Confit Duck Leg, Asparagus & Potato Rosti (kinda retro)

Sat - Mutton Rendang

and today French Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic (very retro but very tasty too!)

[nliedel]

and today French Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic (very retro but very tasty too!)

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I love that chicken. I love retro food. It looks very comforting and warming.

Edited April 6, 2008 by nliedel (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Count me in the "retro" club---that food looks marvelous, esp. the duck leg on rosti.

[Brigid Mary]

It was fairly warm today so Dad got out the grill and cooked up some ribs. He let me spread the glaze and season 'em.

Prawncrackers: The French chicken looks so good!

Edited April 6, 2008 by Brigid Mary (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Tilapia with a grapefruit-lime vinaigrette:

[LizD518]

I love looking at all the pictures here - especially the things I would normally never make. It is like like going to a restaurant with friends and coveting what they order...

except I never get a bite!

Dinner tonight was smoked chicken thighs and a sweet and sour stirfy with napa cabbage, carrots, red onion and baby corn. I am proud of myself for not using a recipe on the veggies - one of my food resolutions for this year!

Oh yeah, and I served it over basmati rice!

[C. sapidus]

Pierogi, thanks for the kind words on the fish tacos.

Chris, beautiful tilapia!

Tonight we made Mulligatawny soup with parsnips, carrots, and celery . . .

. . . pork vindaloo, cucumber raita, and basmati rice. The boys inhaled the vindaloo, which was spicy-tangy delicious (although the meat turned out a bit dry).

[onrushpam]

No pictures, cuz I'm camera challenged... Heck, I don't even take pictures of my dogs!

But, OH MY, we had a good dinner tonight!

I love, love, love steamed clams... but, until tonight had not tried the semi-newly-available Florida farmed clams. They were pretty good, but VERY salty! I'm not sure what's up with that???

Steamed the clams in white wine and a bunch of local organic green garlic, finished with some butter and parsley. They were GOOD!

Alongside was a fabulous salad made with a couple varieties of beautiful lettuce from the same farm as the green garlic, some roasted beets from another local grower, grated Parm cheese and a quick vinagrette.

And, Snowangel, just for you... two ears of the most perfect sweet corn... the first of our semi-local crop. Oh, that corn was SOOO good! It just needed a quick bath in boiling water... We ate it unadorned... It was just pure goodness!

I missed out on the Swiss chard at the growers market... I'll try for some of that on Wednesday. Yep, we are into the best part of the year for good localish food in the Florida Panhandle.

Plant City isn't exactly local to us, but the strawberries have been amazing this year!

I still have a few stalks/bulbs of the green garlic... need to figure out what to do with them tomorrow.

Pam