Dinner! 2008

[David Ross]

Last night was Madras Curry Rubbed Chicken that I cooked on the rotisserie. I also rubbed the chicken with some cajun spices and paprika. I served the chicken with fries sprinkled with smoked paprika and Brussels sprouts that were sauteed with butter, olive oil and some crispy diced ham. Sounds like a lot of odd flavor combinations but they worked well together for what was a nice weeknight meal.

[C. sapidus]

Looks good, David.

Thai dinner tonight: Issan-style grilled chicken with a sweet-sour-spicy dipping sauce; green papaya salad; and jasmine rice. Details on Thai Cooking at Home.

[Lisa2k]

Last night I had a hankering for pasta-decadent pasta! I made fettucine alfredo with shrimp and scallops.

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Oh god, add some jumbo lump crab, and that's one of my favorite dishes in the world. It looks awesome, monavano. Did you steep the cream with the shrimp shells before adding the butter and parm?

[Domestic Goddess]

Tonight's dinner was sourced from the weekly street market.

Steak with Sauteed Oyster Mushrooms and Fries

Somebody wanted to say hi to all the eGulleteers. Billy - "Hi everyone!"

[Shelby]

What a cutie!

Everyone's meals look SO good.

Special drools for the fettucine alfredo with shrimp and scallops Monavano

[David Ross]

This dish is based on a recipe from the Alain Ducasse cookbook "Flavors of France."

Even though the recipe comes from Ducasse, it's pretty easy. The sauce is white beans, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. I changed it up last night and added some melted butter, roasted garlic, dried basil and dried oregano. I use only the tentacles of the calamari and flash-fry them in olive oil for just a few seconds to keep them tender.

My fishmonger sells this beautiful Chilean Sea Bass. It's buttery and rich and has a thick skin that gets nice and crispy.

I garnished the fish with a zuchinni salad-zuchinni cut in threads on this cheap plastic gizmo I got in Chinatown in San Francisco. It's one of my best kitchen tools. I tossed the zuchinni in lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh chives out of my garden. How those chives survived the worst winter in 50 years I do not know. And we have snow on the way tonight!

Chilean Sea Bass with White Beans and Calamari, Zuchinni Salad:

[dockhl]

David~

I love the curly zucchini echoing the calamari dancing around the plate ! Delicious

[Dr. J]

Thanks a lot Heidih and Kim, i really appreciate the feedback. I will certainly try to mix up my presentations a bit more since I have been going way too much with the simplistic style.

DRoss those fries look really good and the chilean sea bass dish looks awsome. I really like the use of the salad with the sea bass and am totally with you on the modifications... I will definately make this dish.

Nice looking tuna daniel, I like the color contrast in the dish.

This is a weird dish combo but worked out very nicely.

I got inspired to cook some tongue becuase of Tex's spread. I didnt try anything new, just cooked it in a spanish style stew.

However I was craving Fried egg with rice and did just that along with the stew. I also made some sweet plantains to sweeten the deal. I also added some tonkotsu sauce to the egg, reminiscent of the homemade curry dishes I used to eat in japan. On second thought I should have made tongue curry. Will do that next time.

For whatever reason the tongue presentation came out to be a picasso rabbit deconstruction. Probably me seeing things.

[monavano]

Last night I had a hankering for pasta-decadent pasta! I made fettucine alfredo with shrimp and scallops.

←

Oh god, add some jumbo lump crab, and that's one of my favorite dishes in the world. It looks awesome, monavano. Did you steep the cream with the shrimp shells before adding the butter and parm?

←

Wow, I didn't think of steeping the shells-that would have really been great. I seared off the scallops and shrimp until med/rare and set them aside. I then added shallots and deglazed with white wine and added the cream and the cheese, nutmet, lemon, salt and pepper. Then I returned the seafood and the al dente fettucine to the pan to finish.

Thanks!

Edited April 20, 2008 by monavano (log)

[Ted Fairhead]

Friday night's dinner was Sauteed scallops Venetian syle....tomatoes and lots of garlic, over thin spaghetti

[Matthew Grant]

Quail, Couscous, Orange and Ginger Sauce:

Wagyu Ribeye, Asparagus, Jersey Royals, Purple Sprouting Broccolli:

[Lisa2k]

Last night I had a hankering for pasta-decadent pasta! I made fettucine alfredo with shrimp and scallops.

←

Oh god, add some jumbo lump crab, and that's one of my favorite dishes in the world. It looks awesome, monavano. Did you steep the cream with the shrimp shells before adding the butter and parm?

←

Wow, I didn't think of steeping the shells-that would have really been great. I seared off the scallops and shrimp until med/rare and set them aside. I then added shallots and deglazed with white wine and added the cream and the cheese, nutmet, lemon, salt and pepper. Then I returned the seafood and the al dente fettucine to the pan to finish.

Thanks!

←

And in turn, I never thought of adding nutmeg to alfredo sauce. What a great idea, as nutmeg always adds those 'Wow, what's that flavor that makes it SO good?" comments I can't wait to try it..thank you!

[percyn]

Sometime last week I made

Flat iron steak with mashed sweet potatoes and a red wine demi glace sauce, topped with spring onion

The week before I was in San Jose, CA and went to a place that served

Singapore Chili Crab, which I plan to replicate at home.

Edited April 20, 2008 by percyn (log)

[percyn]

Quail, Couscous, Orange and Ginger Sauce:

Wagyu Ribeye, Asparagus, Jersey Royals, Purple Sprouting Broccolli:

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As usual, I can almost taste your pictures Matthew ...simply delicious

Is that fleur de sel or Maldon salt on the Wagyu?

[suzilightning]

what would a single girl want for dinner on a beautiful spring day?

the mise for dinner. there are sliced cucumbers under the potato salad, a green salad with grated carrot and in the crock some homemade blue cheese dressing.

something to drink with it

to top the grilled and rested steak

putting it all together

[monavano]

Matthew and Suzilightning-wow! those meals could seriously make a vegetarian fall off the wagon. Both steaks are done just perfectly! Gorgeous photos too.

Edited April 20, 2008 by monavano (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Matthew and Suzi - can I come over for dinner? Those steaks are done perfectly, I can almost taste them.

[percyn]

Wanting to use up some left over steak, I decided to make

Breakfast for Dinner - Steak & Eggs w/Caramelized Onions

Egg porn

[C. sapidus]

Apparently, lovely steaks appear like wildflowers after a spring rain. Yum!

Another dinner from My Bombay Kitchen: “Parsi carnitas”; stir-fried long beans with cucumber and coconut; seared ginger raita; and basmati rice. For the “carnitas”, the masala included dried chiles, cumin, garlic, ginger, and hoisin sauce. Cooked slowly like rendang, the chunks of pork shoulder turned out tender, crusty, and delicious.

For the raita, we started by mixing Fage yogurt with minced raw ginger. Next, we sizzled julienned ginger, curry leaves, Thai chile, and brown mustard seeds in hot oil, folded everything together, and then let the flavors mature for an hour or so. Easy to make, and definitely worth making again.

The boys liked everything. Either their palates are maturing, or they have become inured to my experiments. Mwahahaha!

[David Ross]

Quail, Couscous, Orange and Ginger Sauce:

Wagyu Ribeye, Asparagus, Jersey Royals, Purple Sprouting Broccolli:

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Your plates are delicious-and I'm especially intrigued by the Purple Sprouting Broccolli. Is it grown locally or imported? I've never seen it in a market in the States. It simply sings Spring. Very nice.

[doctortim]

The week before I was in San Jose, CA and went to a place that served

Singapore Chili Crab, which I plan to replicate at home.

←

Percyn, you may want to take a look at this recipe for chilli crab, with an accompanying video of a the chef making it in his restaurant.

I've been meaning to post a link to that site for a while. It accompanies a terrific TV show we have down here that follows the host around Australia talking to people of various cultures preparing their own regional cuisines. I should warn you, you can watch a lot of time disappear on that site.

Edited April 21, 2008 by doctortim (log)

[jsmeeker]

Quail, Couscous, Orange and Ginger Sauce:

Looks fantastic.

can you give some details here?

[Matthew Grant]

As usual, I can almost taste your pictures Matthew ...simply delicious

Is that fleur de sel or Maldon salt on the Wagyu?

←

Thats Maldon Sea Salt, well spotted

Your plates are delicious-and I'm especially intrigued by the Purple Sprouting Broccolli.  Is it grown locally or imported? I've never seen it in a market in the States.  It simply sings Spring.  Very nice.

←

Thanks, the Purple Sprouting Broccoli is grown in the UK, its coming to the end of the season now, although it sings dpring it is more of a winter vegetable.

JSMeeker, the quail were quickly panfried in butter before resting and taking off the bone. The couscous was simply mixed with finely chopped red onion, roasted red pepper, coriander and mint once it was cooked along with some butter. The sauce was in this instance 250ml chicken stock mixed with the juice of one orange and a teaspoon of crushed coriander seed. This was added to a pan in which I had made a caramel with a little sugar and Forum Cabernet sauvignon vinegar. This was simmered until it was a decent consistency then a mixed in the zest of an orange and around a inch cubed of chopped ginger. At this point you need to be quick, taste the sauce after a few seconds (you don't want it getting to gingery), strain through muslin and it is ready to serve. Pretty much a classic orange sauce with a few additions, good stock is essential, it'll never work very well with stuff out of a bottle or cube. Veal stock works very well

[Prawncrackers]

Matthew Grant where did you get that Wagyu Ribeye from, that is one of the finest steaks i've ever seen?! Mind you Suzilighting's cote de veau (?) is not bad either, it's like choosing between Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn!!

This weekend, i've been reprising some old favourites. Friday was Tea smoked duck with a new sesame soy dressing (similar to a tempura dipping sauce - with bonito, mirin, soy, sesame etc). This was really delicious, the dressing lifting one of my all time favourite dishes to a new level:

Saturday, was fresh crab linguine:

Sunday, i had to reprise the reprisal! Friday's duck was so good i had to take another breast out of the freezer straight away to cure and cook it again. This time with more dressing and the addition of fresh mild red chillies:

Salty, sweet and very savoury:

Ever cooked something that was so good you just had to cook it again straight away?

[Matthew Grant]

The Wagyu is Australian from Selfridges, you can also get it in Harrods where I have also seen other Japanese beef (no Kobe though).