Dinner! 2009

[C. sapidus]

Shrimp steamed with mustard seeds – Tender shrimp with an intensely mustardy sauce (containing ground black mustard seeds, mustard oil, onion, and turmeric), backed by a touch of chile heat. I found this delightful; certain family members were less enthusiastic.

Basmati rice with peas and dill – This was much more popular. A pullao/pilaf with cloves, cardamom, garam masala, and fried onion, cooked with chicken stock.

Eternal cucumbers and sliced avocados for vegetables.

Edited October 21, 2009 by C. sapidus (log)

[LuckyGirl]

That looks SO good. Care to share the recipe or at least the basic gist of it?

In reference to the potato and tomato pie, don't know where the "quote" went, user error I'm sure.

Edited October 21, 2009 by LuckyGirl (log)

[tug]

Tonight I made "Morrocan" chicken and couscous with butternut squash, zucchini, chickpeas, apricots, and preserved lemons.

[Kim Shook]

Shal – what a great idea! That pasta is luscious looking!

percyn – gorgeous short ribs – I need to make some soon! I heart Fall!

kayb – I’d love to have the recipe for the udon carbonara! It looks so creamy and slippy and delicious!

Toliver – I use that ‘rub’ a lot, actually! I mix it with sugar and rub on steaks, too!

Blether – lovely oysters!

Last night was Italian sausage sandwiches, fried corn, green beans and salad:

Tonight we had my MIL over for dinner. I did romaine and arugula salad with olive oil/orange Muscat champagne vinegar dressing:

onion garlic soup w/ gruyere croutons:

Two kinds of panini:

Close up of raisin bread, ham, turkey and Swiss cheese panini with fig preserves:

Close up of pear, pecorino & prosciutto panini:

pound cake w/ maple-caramel sauce w/ sautéed apples:

[Blether]

Thanks, Kim. Your panini look very accomplished - and I elbowed three people out of the way before I remembered your cake'n'sauce were just a picture.

[Jenni]

It's been pretty chilly in the evening this past week, so tonight called for some comfort food!

Soft polenta with a little olive oil and ghee added is perfect for this kind of weather, because it is so creamy and unctuous. We also had stuffed mushrooms - the stuffing was tomatoes, red onion, capers, olives, dried herbs, Trini seasoning peppers, halloumi and plenty of salt and pepper. Extra halloumi slices and sesame seeds went on top. The whole thing was baked in the oven till tender. Finally, home-grown green beans rounded out the meal, and they were especially good when doused with the juices that the mushrooms released.

[Kim Shook]

I forgot to mention that I'm in the process of trying to work down the food in our 3 freezers (one in the refrigerator and 2 smaller ones outside) to get ready to start stocking them with Christmas food in November. Consequently, my meals will start getting a little odd at some point when I am left with really disparate items to use up! Tonight's dinner was Romaine and Arugula salad with olive oil/orange Muscat champagne vinegar dressing:

Rib eyes, filet mignon, tiny roasted potatoes, butter beans:

The salad was fresh, of course, and the potatoes were some tiny little babies that I couldn’t resist the other day at Trader Joe’s. They were so good – creamy and crisp!

[mgaretz]

Tonight I made two dinners. Vertical roasted chicken with roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onion and celery):

And paella for a potluck tomorrow:

The paella has basamati rice, italian spicy sausage, chicken, bell pepper, celery, onion, carrots and peas. Tomorrow just before serving I will saute the shrimp and add it in (so it's not in the picture). The picture is deceiving - this is a 6 qt pan so there's a lot of paella there!

Edited October 23, 2009 by mgaretz (log)

[HappyLab]

Squid ink risotto with squid and head-on shrimp:

[kayb]

Kim, it's just a basic carbonara, only with udon noodles rather than any other sort of pasta. While the noodles were boiling, I sauteed some diced bacon with a big clove of minced garlic, and set it aside in its rendered fat,and I beat two eggs and added a half-cup grated parmigiano reggiano. When the noodles were done, I drained them, dumped them back in the pot,and added the bacon and fat, tossed that, added the cheese and eggs and tossed until it got creamy. And then stuffed myself.

The honey-miso roasted veggies were eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash, tossed in a mix of 3 tbsp each of honey and miso, 1/4 tsp powdered ginger, a dash of sesame oil, a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar, and a dash of soy sauce. (Measurements approximate.) I whisked that together, tossed the veggies in it, and roasted at 400 for about 15 minutes. It's a great treatment for veggies; I'm going to try it with butternut squash.

[Prawncrackers]

Wow, i've had to rescue Dinner from the ignominy of Page 2! Did everyone eat out this weekend? Here are a couple of dinners from last week, first off was a pork chop with mole poblano sauce and salad:

First autumnal meal of the year was roasted pigeon, celeriac mash, braised kale & shitake mushroom. The rich sauce was a red wine & meat gravy reduction with a hint of juniper and star anise:

Last week was National Baking Week in the UK. I made a traditional Bakewell Tart and finally got the hang of making macarons - after many failed attempts i'm so happy:

[C. sapidus]

Prawn, that’s some gorgeous food.

Thai-style steamed fish with garlic, shallots, chiles, galangal, lime leaves, lime juice, tamarind juice, white pepper, and fish sauce. No whole fish so we used tilapia fillets and reduced the cooking time. Another hit from Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook.

Mrs. C cooked fresh lima beans and then tossed them with lemon juice and oil. Coconut rice to round out the meal.

[Blether]

You're leaving us all in the dust, Prawncrackers.

Wow, i've had to rescue Dinner from the ignominy of Page 2! Did everyone eat out this weekend?

Or lost at sea... Saturday saw winds of force 3-4 off the Shonan coast, which gave us a boat speed of 6.5 - 8 knots. Too fast really for line-trawling, but we did get a hook into this rather beautiful skipjack / modori no hon-gatsuo of about 18", seen here being bled as soon as it was off the line:

We broke it down into two fillets per side (go-mai oroshi) on the marina pontoon

go-mai oroshi by Mr. U

reserving the liver.

The liver made a treat at least as exquisite as foie gras, sauteed in a little butter & oil, seasoned with salt & pepper, and served with crusty bread to tear by hand.

The fillets were seared (made into katsuo aburi) over the galley gas, wrapped in kitchen paper and taken off in a carrier bag. After a sailor's party featuring beer, wine, sandwiches, kara-age and other party food, beer, wine, beer & wine, the katsuo made its appearance back in our room at the onsen hotel, as a follow-up to onsen-steam-boiled-eggs.

hon-gatsuo aburi, Vietnamese vodka, background of futon-shiki

Our companion boat stayed closer to the land and held back its speed, coming up with a huge haul including eight mahi-mahi up to 85cm / 34" in length, a couple of katsuo of their own, and a splendid little baby bluefin tuna (meji-maguro) of about 3lbs / 1.5kg.

operation by Dr. T.

which was so popular it lasted about a nanosecond.

Nevertheless the katsuo didn't go to waste

Back at home yesterday, lasagne:

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Blether:

Yum!

----

[Blether]

That's a colourful bowl of seashells, DL. I love mussels and we don't see them here enough.

Edited October 27, 2009 by Blether (log)

[PopsicleToze]

Chicken & andouille gumbo.

Also, pork butt roast was on sale for $0.88/lb, and I looked for something different to make with it, so I made Pork Vindaloo for the very first time. Served with basmati-style jasmine rice (thought I had basmati in the pantry, but I didn't) with cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, etc. It was fabulous and a great hit with the family. Next time I will remember to take a picture!

Rhonda

[PopsicleToze]

The "Daily Sweets - What are you baking" appears to be MIA -- so here is the birthday cake I made for my youngest niece. It's a huge Boston Cream Pie. It's not perfect, but it tasted fabulous. The kids were really impressed with the chocolate glaze. Baking tends to stress me out, but this one was a lot of fun.

Rhonda

[Jenni]

^^^

Any shots of the inside? I'm not sure what Boston cream pie is, so I've got wonderful images of loads of cream inside!

Tonight's supper was simple but delicious. The pancakes are my take on rava dosa - I love the flavours of traditional rava dosa, but I do not like crispy pancakes. So this is a softer, thicker version. Served with channa dal and coconut chutney.

[percyn]

Prawn, Blether, amazing food...not sure which dish I would like to eat first.

[PopsicleToze]

Jenni, Boston Cream Pie consists of spongecakes sandwiched with pastry cream. You can see it here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/BostonCreamPie.html.

Next dinner: stuffed crabs and fried shrimp with plain green salad.

I was going to go the easy route and pick up some already prepared stuffed crabs from a little seafood market near work. However, they only sold them frozen, and I didn't want anything to do with that. So I started with boiled crabs from the same market (a little bit of a cheat, but not much). I debated about buying the crabmeat already picked, but stuffed crabs taste so much better if they are cooked in the actual crab shell.

Then I picked the crabs saving the shell to use as the container and saving the feelers to make a compund butter for another day.

Cleaned crab shells. Soaking the shells water with baking soda is probably not necessary, but I like doing it that way.

Stuffed crabs prepared for the oven with a little panko on top for a nice browning. These are raw and not cooked yet.

Then stuck the crabs in the oven then prepared fried shrimp, a green salad and garlic bread. It was great. Served immediately when fried shrimp were ready and after all of that work it was awful to eat first and THEN remember to take a picture of the plated product. Next time...

Rhonda

[Shamanjoe]

The wife has a cousing in Boracay (Phillipines) who's the head chef at a hotel restaurant there. While visiting we got to eat the following:

Crocodile BBQ

Crocodile in coconut

Crab

All of them were very good, but the BBQ was the best. It is similar to pork.

[MiFi]

Lasagna al Forno w/hashed Brussels sprouts

Ginger Carrot soup and grilled Gruyere cheese sandwich

[PopsicleToze]

Dinner solo so something fast and easy -- spaghetti with simple tomato and butter sauce.

But we have some ugly weather today and it's getting a little chilly -- so comfort food this weekend for sure.

Rhonda

[Jenni]

Rosemary and Tomato pancakes, olives, mozzarella and balsamic dressing. Also had turkish lentil and veggie soup.

[Kim Shook]

Mark – that chicken is gorgeous. Your roasting apparatus is different from mine. Is there room under there for a can of beer? We really loved the beer can chicken, but my vertical roasting rack wouldn’t accommodate a can and the can alone isn’t steady enough and it fell over during roasting.

Kayb – thanks for the carbonara instructions – we’ll be trying that soon!

Prawn – that pigeon meal is gorgeous. The sauce is just amazing looking! And your tart and macarons are perfectly perfect!

Bruce – where are y’all getting fresh lima beans? I’ve looked all over and can’t find any.

Blether – what a wonderful piece of photo journalism! I love liver, but haven’t ever tasted fish liver – how does it compare with quadruped liver?

Rhonda – I love your cake! And how clever you are putting it up on a can to glaze it and to cover the edge with the cut Reeses cups! I am stealing both those ideas!

We are still on a ‘cleaning out the freezers’ binge . On Sunday, I cooked a 15 pound ham that we had bought on sale a couple of months ago. I gave some to my in laws, but there is still a LOT of ham in my fridge:

On Monday we had chopped salad:

Ham, butterbeans and biscuits:

Tuesday was ham, cheese grits, scrambled eggs, apples and toast:

Last night was salad w/ Gorgonzola dressing (store bought, but very, very good):

HAM and Gruyere quiche and hushpuppies (we have a whole bag of those in the freezer, too):

Dessert was my daughter’s delectable apple pie with a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ginger ice cream:

I cannot tell you how perfect that ice cream is with apple pie! And how welcome after so many days of that freakin’ HAM!

Tonight is laundry/pumpkin carving/pumpkin-poundcake cupcake baking night, so instead of even trying to think up another use for HAM, I think I’ll just sling the bag o’ pork onto the island, add whatever cheeses are in the fridge, open the cracker jar and call it dinner. Plus, there’s some of that PIE left!