Dinner! 2008

[Peter the eater]

Bridgestone, that steak looks obscenely delicious. T-bones like that one remind me why I'd fail as a vegetarian. Did you make your Bearnaise with what looks like sage or the more traditional taragon/chervil combo? What went on the meat - just salt flakes and butter?

[Susan in FL]

Bridgestone, that's an awesome-looking hard core grilled steak dinner. I've been on a beef craving and would love to have a dinner like that to help get me over it for at least a few days! The next porterhouse I grill will have butter applied on the grill like in your beautiful picture.

One night this past week during my recent craving I had only a little piece of steak in the house, so I made do with that on the grill and tried some homemade chimichurri with it. I had heard that's a good use of chimichurri and indeed it was. Still, now I need to go porterhouse shopping.

[Bridgestone]

Thanks you two!

Peter the eater - that's a bunch of tarragon you see in the first picture. I used dried tarragon (plus the fresh stems) in the bernaise reduction and added plenty of chopped leaves to the finished sauce. Otherwise, this steak was seasoned with salt and a little ground pepper.

Susan in FL - the butter flares a lot but closing the grill's lid and air vents keeps things from getting too sooty. Don't forget a little extra butter while the steak rests, either:

Most of the butter, of course, simply runs off. But, the little bit that clings on certainly tastes delicious!

[Daniel]

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I dont know why but this reminds me of a Charlie Trotter plating.. Really pretty..

[gfron1]

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Seriously -- that is meat porn! What does Bison taste like? Is it close to beef?

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Bison is very similar to beef, but the differences are less in the animal and more in the raising. This was a grass-fed, free-range bison so its lean. I always have to add some form of fat. There's not really a game-iness that you might expect...its just a big ass cow with a bad attitude.

[monavano]

Must get dry aged steak. Must get dry aged steak. Must get dry aged steak.

[Bridgestone]

Must get dry aged steak. Must get dry aged steak. Must get dry aged steak.  

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(Go for it, monavano! You deserve it...)

[percyn]

From a few weeks ago...

Steak Frites

I felt like adding an egg to my version along with some chipotle sauce on the fries

Yesterday we made Burgers w/Thai Satay Sauce and scallions - still getting used to a new grill with a TEC infrared burner, so the burgers were a bit more done than I usually like, though the peanut butter I added to the middle of the burgers kept them moist.

Edited May 31, 2008 by percyn (log)

[rooftop1000]

Thanks you two!

Peter the eater - that's a bunch of tarragon you see in the first picture.  I used dried tarragon (plus the fresh stems) in the bernaise reduction and added plenty of chopped leaves to the finished sauce.  Otherwise, this steak was seasoned with salt and a little ground pepper.

Susan in FL - the butter flares a lot but closing the grill's lid and air vents keeps things from getting too sooty.  Don't forget a little extra butter while the steak rests, either:

Most of the butter, of course, simply runs off.  But, the little bit that clings on certainly tastes delicious!

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This why I always eat from the plate that the meat rested on...I get all the juicy bits for my bread

tracey

[monavano]

After dinner, and inspired by Stephie from Top Chef, I made a Gorgonzola Dolce souffle with a pinot noir and strawberry reduction sauce.

[C. sapidus]

Discovering an amazing fishmonger this afternoon led to shellfish overload for dinner: seared dry-pack scallops; and crab gratin with coconut milk, cilantro, scallions, and chiles. Cucumbers with lime juice and ginger on the side, and extra lime wedges to squeeze as desired.

Boys liked the crab gratin: “It tastes just like crab cakes!”

[percyn]

Discovering an amazing fishmonger this afternoon led to shellfish overload for dinner: seared dry-pack scallops; and crab gratin with coconut milk, cilantro, scallions, and chiles. ...

Bruce, the crab gratin is a great idea. Did you substitute the coconut milk for all the regular milk & cream?

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, the crab gratin is a great idea. Did you substitute the coconut milk for all the regular milk & cream?

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Percy, thanks! The recipe in My Bombay Kitchen listed milk, half-and-half, or coconut milk as options. I thought coconut milk sounded intriguing, so that is what we used.

Edited June 2, 2008 by C. sapidus (log)

[MiFi]

White bean arugula salad, homemade bread

[Dr. J]

Great looking dinners Percyn. I like the idea of the peanut butter.

Here is my duck breast dinner. I put a sweet orange dressing on the duck before serving. Came out great.

[purplewiz]

That duck breast is simply gorgeous!

A few pictures I'd forgotten I'd taken:

Grilled chicken with cilantro mint pesto, grilled baby bok choy, grilled Asian eggplant with a sesame/soy/rice vinegar dressing.

Beef kabob pitas with a yogurt/cucumber/dill sauce and sliced tomatoes, broccoli.

Marcia.

[Peter the eater]

Ooooo . . . that is a thing of beauty and totally within my zone of desire.

I've had very good results from fresh and frozen duck breasts - may I ask which was that one?

[tupac17616]

homage to Betty...

[Qwerty]

Great looking dinners Percyn. I like the idea of the peanut butter.

Here is my duck breast dinner. I put a sweet orange dressing on the duck before serving. Came out great.

To me, it looks like you needed to render a lot of that duck fat off before cooking and serving it. IMO, that is way to much. I know duck fat is good to eat, but if that was served to me in a restaurant I would send it back. It's like a 1:1 ratio of meat to fat. Why did you choose to present it skin/fat side down?

The temp. looks great though nice job on the doneness.

[prasantrin]

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Those look horrible!!! Horribly good, that is!

Cripes do I ever want some fried chicken right now. That top right piece has some skin jutting out that could so easily be torn off and snacked on. The bottom left piece does, too. And the top left, and ....

[Ndy]

Great looking dinners Percyn. I like the idea of the peanut butter.

Here is my duck breast dinner. I put a sweet orange dressing on the duck before serving. Came out great.

To me, it looks like you needed to render a lot of that duck fat off before cooking and serving it. IMO, that is way to much. I know duck fat is good to eat, but if that was served to me in a restaurant I would send it back. It's like a 1:1 ratio of meat to fat. Why did you choose to present it skin/fat side down?

The temp. looks great though nice job on the doneness.

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yeah, I would agree on the rendering. The meat itself looks very nice.

[Kim Shook]

Soba - thanks for the recipe. I'll probably be trying it next week. Unfortunately, Mr. Kim inadvertantly killed all our scallops . With the recent Top Chef frozen scallops debacle I'm almost afraid to admit that I had a freezer full of frozen scallops - they were dry scallops on special at the Fresh Market and with my 20% discount on top, I just couldn't resist. So I had probably 80 large, lovely scallops in the freezer that we have out in the shed. Mr. Kim accidentally switched off the power to the freezer and we didn't discover it until way too late. So I have the miso paste, but no scallops.

Bruce - your butt is beautiful ! Mr. Kim has requested bbq for father's day, but since we have the dumbest grill in existance , I will be doing it in the oven. I will try to eradicate the memory of your butt from my memory so that I don't unfairly compare my own butt to it! And I'd love to have your recipe for crab gratin - anything that tastes just like crabcakes sounds good to me!

Rob - the bison steak is just gorgeous. I really like the flavor of bison a lot.

RAHiggins1 - loving the southern food! Smothered pork chops!!!

Monavano - I think that I missed garlic scape season this year . Last year I made pesto with it and gave everyone in my family bad breath and indigestion, but, oh, it was sooooo worth it !

Bridgestone - that porterhouse is exactly what a steak should look like! And I love the bearnaise - I personally find steak naked without it.

Dr J. - I actually saw your duck breast last night and that beautiful thing is just haunting me. The scoring is just so perfect and the color and moistness of the breast is lovely - nice job!

Tupac - I want that sandwich for lunch. Like Betty, I really like the idea of coleslaw on a fried chicken sandwich, but I never would have thought of it! How was it?

Dinner from a couple of nights ago - salad, Marlene's balsamic glazed pork chops, sauteed yellow squash and onions and roasted cauliflower:

The pork chops were fantastic. We have been getting some really good, local pork at the Belmont Butchery and Marlene's recipe was perfect. The porkiness really comes through when you use such good pork. This is a perfect weeknight recipe and I'll be putting this on rotation!!

[Chufi]

here´s a white asparagus and ham quiche I made last week.

and here´s a frittata made from leftover zucchini-basil risotto, which turned out so nice that I want to post it here even if the picture isn´t very special (and you can´t really tell there´s risotto in there

[judiu]

here´s a white asparagus and ham quiche I made last week.

and here´s a frittata made from leftover zucchini-basil risotto, which turned out so nice that I want to post it here even if the picture isn´t very special (and you can´t really tell there´s risotto in there 

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Oooohhhhhh, Chufi!

[tupac17616]

Tupac  - I want that sandwich for lunch.  Like Betty, I really like the idea of coleslaw on a fried chicken sandwich, but I never would have thought of it!  How was it?

It turned out really great. The recipe from the SF Chronicle yields a sandwich so close to the real thing it's scary. All it needed was just a bit more heat in the dressing for the slaw. Ah, and some Acme Bakery bread. No Acme Bakery in Texas.

here´s a white asparagus and ham quiche I made last week.

speechless