Dinner! 2009

[LaCookrasha]

Spaghetti with spinach and mushroom creamy sauce/ chicken breast with a chunky chimichurri

[Blether]

I had to go to an evening meeting and left late. Main course was a fresh coffee and deep-fried snacks courtesy of Mini Stop, but dessert was waiting when I got back. Yuzu cheesecake (one bite down):

- inspired by a conversation recently with Helenjp. Kinda sloppy-looking on the side there, but this is the first slice, so please be nice.

I have a dinner-party-quality, cheat's cheesecake recipe which goes:

4oz carton double (whipping) cream

4oz tin condensed milk

Juice & grated zest of two lemons

Cheesecake base made from digestive biscuits crushed, amalgamated with melted butter and chilled

Whip cream to soft peaks; add condensed milk & lemon juice & zest, fold in. Pour over base and chill in fridge for 2 hours.

Adapting this, I passed on the chance to buy biscuits for crushing in the Tokyo market and baked a digestive base (the recipe 1/3 of the way down, beginning 110g) directly into the springform tin (it came out too thick and so this part needs work).

I used a J-standard 200ml carton of cream and the same amount (half a 397g tin) of condensed milk. Scaling up, that should mean the juice of about 3.3 lemons, or at 2.5tbsp per lemon, 125ml of juice.

You don't get much juice out of a yuzu, but it is tart - sourer than lemon juice. I grated the zest and took the juice from three, topping up with lemon juice to 100ml.

It tastes great ! Something for the cream-lover and for the citrus-lover. The yuzu's a success - though I might even use part water next time just to sweeten it up a little.

Edited November 19, 2009 by Blether (log)

[deensiebat]

After a spate of Indian recipes that ended up tasting pretty Anglo, I had great success with this version of shahi paneer:

[tomdarch]

Sorry, no photos, but I sort of stumbled on a nice paring last night. I made roasted/pureed parsnips and a blue cheese souffle. When I was grating nutmeg into the souffle, after having grated some into the parsnips, I realized I might be onto something.

I wouldn't say these were mind-bogglingly synergistic, but they were really good on their own, and worked well together.

[Kim Shook]

Blether – I think that your cheesecake looks delicious! I’d love a piece right now!

I’m STILL devoting all of my evening time to the catering job, so dinner last night was EASY:

Bacon, egg and cheese grilled sandwiches and canned bean with bacon soup ! The bacon was the always delectable Benton’s, though, so we didn’t suffer too much !

[robirdstx]

Tonight’s dinner was going to be cannelloni, made with homemade pasta. I had never made pasta before but had been planning to for a long time and today was the day. After I made the dough and put it in the fridge to rest, I brought my stand mixer down out of its cabinet and got ready to attach the pasta roller but the attachment knob was missing. I tore the kitchen apart but still no attachment knob. I called KitchenAid and they are sending a replacement, free of charge, which will arrive in 7 to 10 business days. So, the pasta dough went into the freezer and we had meat sauce over rotini instead.

[Blether]

I picked up a whole Inada (young yellowtail) of about 2.5lb to make tandoori fish. It was a good excuse to light some charcoal and roast eggplants again too, for more baba ghannoush. The fish carcase made a fumet that I boiled down to 2 thick tablespoons and added to the baba ghannoush.

[kayb]

Not a lot of cooking this past week. One night, it was cheese, smoked salmon, and bread and butter pickles while I browsed through my newest cookbook:

That's Pyrenees, colby jack, and sharp cheddar cheese, and salmon a friend caught and smoked herself. Wonderful!

Another night, in a confounding combination that was based on what I had handy and what I was in the mood for, it was fried rice and butternut squash soup with chile:

Note the "fine china." This is my absolute favorite soup mug.

[mgaretz]

Further update on the All-Clad Ultimate Chicken Roaster:

Last night we tried the new pan and arm and while it worked much better than the first (defective) one we got, we decided the vertical roaster's chicken was slightly better and much easier to clean up. I do really like the roasting pan, and I really tried to love the whole setup, but it's going back. I'll look for a small roasting pan alternative in tri-ply.

Meanwhile here's the rub I have settled on:

2 parts sea salt

1/2 part pepper

1 part onion powder

1 part garlic powder

1 part paprika

[robirdstx]

Chicken Tikka Masala over basmati rice.

[Prawncrackers]

Great dinners everyone, not posted for a while as i've not been doing much cooking recently. Though I have picked it back up last week. Firstly was braised duck legs in orange juice, seasoned with cinnamon, star anise, ginger, garlic, fish sauce and chilli. There was some salted duck eggs and pak choy too. Simple and tasty to go with lots of steamed jasmine rice:

Then inspired by my Tonkatsu adventures through Japan, and to show off my grills, a Tonkatsu from a Saddleback pig. Very tender and juicy, definitely up to Japanese standards:

Yesterday , i prepared my first Chinese hotpot. I'd been hankering for some for ages and when i saw the induction plate on sale i snapped it up immediately. I made a luscious chicken wing stock with an Iberico ham bone thrown in for good measure. The hot side was Sichuan style made with lots of chilli bean paste, those round dry Sichuan chillis, a couple of dried birds eye chilli for extra kick, a tablespoon of Sichuan pepper, black beans, shaosing wine and a knob of ginger. It was a big hit and I can't wait to do it again:

[Jmahl]

Great dinners everyone, not posted for a while as i've not been doing much cooking recently. Though I have picked it back up last week. Firstly was braised duck legs in orange juice, seasoned with cinnamon, star anise, ginger, garlic, fish sauce and chilli. There was some salted duck eggs and pak choy too. Simple and tasty to go with lots of steamed jasmine rice:

Then inspired by my Tonkatsu adventures through Japan, and to show off my grills, a Tonkatsu from a Saddleback pig. Very tender and juicy, definitely up to Japanese standards:

Yesterday , i prepared my first Chinese hotpot. I'd been hankering for some for ages and when i saw the induction plate on sale i snapped it up immediately. I made a luscious chicken wing stock with an Iberico ham bone thrown in for good measure. The hot side was Sichuan style made with lots of chilli bean paste, those round dry Sichuan chillis, a couple of dried birds eye chilli for extra kick, a tablespoon of Sichuan pepper, black beans, shaosing wine and a knob of ginger. It was a big hit and I can't wait to do it again:

Words fail. Beautiful will have to do. Jmahl

[robirdstx]

Prawncrackers - I Want Those Duck Legs! Will have to make some real soon. And the Tonkatsu! Ditto.

Tonight we had bought in pork tamales with salsa verde for dipping and duck fat potatoes and onions. That's as close as I could get to the duck legs with what was on hand.

[MiFi]

Cibola pasture raised pork chops

Braised w/local shitake mushrooms on polenta

Fishcakes and beans

Beef Bourguignon

Ragu of Beef Bourguignon

[nikkib]

Supper of Partridge shot by my own fair hands, roasted for 15 minutes with butter and topped with bacon. Served with Sprouts, Chantenay Carrots, Roast Potatoes and Parsnips from the local farmers market, bread sauce, toasted breadcrumbs with chopped up partridge liver. The perfect antidote to the terrible English weather at the moment

[djyee100]

As always, the food here looks great.

An odds and ends kind of dinner this time, as I tried to use up stray ingredients in my fridge, freezer, and cupboards.

Prawns from the freezer, one leek and some well-aged tomatoes from the fridge went into Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta Cheese from Paula Wolfert's new cookbook, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. The shell-on shrimp are baked in a caramelized tomato sauce with chunks of feta cheese. Very tasty, though messy to eat too. Next time I'll shell the shrimp and give everybody an easier time. Serve this one with plenty of good crusty bread.

The recipe for Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta Cheese is available on Googlebooks. Go to Page 20.

http://books.google.com/books?id=DwtbDDGaQcIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Greek+Shrimp+with+Tomatoes+and+Feta+Cheese+paula+wolfert#v=onepage&q=Greek%20Shrimp%20with%20Tomatoes%20and%20Feta%20Cheese%20&f=false

Garlic and Egg Soup as Prepared in the Aragon, also from Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. A filling peasant soup of broth, bread, garlic, olive oil, pimenton, and poached eggs. You mix the runny egg yolks into the soup and it's divine. This soup is simple to prepare. I like to cook it on weekday nights.

The recipe for Garlic and Egg Soup is available on Googlebooks. I prefer to substitute chicken stock for the water. I also add the sliced garlic to the cold olive oil in the pan, at the beginning of cooking time, to prevent it from scorching later. I cooked this soup in an earthenware casserole.

On Page 28:

http://books.google.com/books?id=DwtbDDGaQcIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Greek+Shrimp+with+Tomatoes+and+Feta+Cheese+paula+wolfert#v=onepage&q=Garlic%20and%20Egg%20Soup%20&f=false

Chocolate from the cupboard, walnuts from the freezer, and I made these great Classic Brownies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours.

[robirdstx]

We had these grilled lamb chops with leftover green beans, basmati rice, and a small Caesar salad.

[Bella S.F.]

djyee100,

Great looking and sounding food! I may need to take a look at that cookbook. I have tried different recipes for shrimp, tomatoes, and feta. This one sounds very nice. I like the thought of "carmelized" tomato sauce. I was able to access the recipe from your link, however, I was not able to copy it. Is there a trick that I don't know? I don't really feel like copying everything by hand.

Thanks!

[djyee100]

I was able to access the recipe from your link, however, I was not able to copy it. Is there a trick that I don't know? I don't really feel like copying everything by hand.

Bella S.F., I'm afraid that's the deal with Googlebooks. Looking is digital. All methods of copying are analog (paper, pencil, pen ). Most people jot down enough info so that they can get through the recipe.

[MiFi]

Brined Smith Meadows Farm pasture raised broad breast

Maple roasted yams

Buttermilk Pie (thanks Hominy Grill)

[C. sapidus]

Beautiful food, all!

The family ate out while I worked late, so I had free reign to improvise dinner-for-one when I finally arrived home. Rummaging through the larder yielded frozen shrimp, a variety of chiles, ginger, limes, shallots, coconut milk, green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, palm sugar, rice vinegar, jasmine rice, and (of course) a cucumber. After harvesting a few leaves from our potted lime tree, dinner was served:

Green curry shrimp, cucumber salad, and jasmine rice. Ahhh.

[Kim Shook]

Prawn – gorgeous meals and I was especially drawn to the tonkatsu (one of my favorites). And the hot pot dinner was incredibly impressive!

robirdstx – perfect potatoes!

djyee100 – everything you posted – the shrimp, the soup and the brownies looked wonderful. Thanks for posting the link to the soup – it looks so good that I might just go old school and actually put pen to paper to get that recipe !

MiFi – Those pork chops?? Just…wow ! I must stop buying grocery store pork and go a little longer distance to the butcher shop!

Dinner the other night was pan sautéed chicken breasts, French fries, green beans and a whole grain baguette – all freezer/pantry food:

Our Thanksgiving dinner was quiet and small and simple – exactly what I wanted. Only 6 of us and I really controlled my natural inclination to excess!

My pallid turkey:

This is what our turkeys always look like – it’s because of cooking it in the Nesco roaster. No browning, but the trade-off is the most moist, flavorful, delicious turkey I’ve ever made (even the leftovers are moist):

Cornbread-Pecan stuffing:

slkinsey’s Brussels Sprouts au Gratin:

Marlene’s Cream Roasted Potatoes:

Unfortunately, they didn’t get browned and crispy - I think that I crowded them in the pan. They still tasted divine, though.

Candied Sweet Potatoes:

Seriously, there are sweet potatoes loaded with butter, cinnamon and maple syrup under all those toasty mini-marshmallows !

Orange-Cranberry Sauce:

Gravy:

Rolls:

Heart of Dixie Pecan Pie:

[deensiebat]

Recovering from Thanksgiving with some relatively healthy Turkish red lentil soup:

[velveeta]

MiFi, any chance of sharing the recipe source for the maple roasted yams?

I'm new here and not too familiar with how any recipes are shared (or not?)

Kim, that gravy with the pieces of meat in it is so delicious looking. I'll have to try that.

Yum yum.

[Jmahl]

THANKSGIVING MENU 2009 on the Texas Mexican Border

Soup

Potage Saint-Germain (green pea with bacon and cream garnish)

Main Course

Martha Stewart (tee shirt) Turkey

Claiborne’s giblet gravy w sage and cider

Carving the Turkey

Sides

Scalloped Potatoes and Three Stop Fennel

Green beans and pearl onions a la Frances

Relishes

Cranberry Mustard

Chipotle Cranberry

Beverages

Wine

Sparkling water

Cider

Bread

Mona’s Cornbread with Bacon Crust

Dessert

Four Layer Pumpkin Cake

Bourbon-Pecan Tart