Dinner! 2010

[Jmahl]

Happy New Year to all.

For Dinner last night we invited these guys and gals.

They came from Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound in Maine. They were great.

Jmahl

(NOTE FROM MANAGEMENT: This topic is a continuation of Dinner! 2009)

Edited September 8, 2012 by Chris Hennes
Added management note. (log)

[percyn]

For NYE dinner, we made Lobster Thermidor, and Sous Vide surf 'n turf.

Unfortunately, the pics got lost (human error) while transfering them from the camera

Though, I got a pic of a leftover lobster thermidor I had for breakfast (w/ Lobster scrambled eggs) and the lobster bisque I made my wife.

[Aloha Steve]

That shrimp with lobster sauce looks amazing! Care to share the recipe?

Yes please share the recipe it looks amazing.

[djyee100]

That shrimp with lobster sauce looks amazing! Care to share the recipe?

Yes please share the recipe it looks amazing.

Yes, I will share the recipe, but I'll need a few days before I can sit down and write it down. Busy thru the wkend and Monday. Happy New Year, everyone!

[Jmahl]

For an early dinner we had osso buco although we substituted lamb shanks. We decided not to stain the sauce - just kept it rustic. Glad we did.

[kayb]

New Year's Day traditions covered in dinner today -- black eyed pea cassoulet, and kraut (hey, it was cabbage once!) with smoked sausages, potatos and apples.

[scubadoo97]

Some photos of our NYE dinner

A raw tuna plate with rice,carrots, pickled ginger and edamames. The rice was mixed with some wasabi mayo and a layer place between two discs of rice. Smoked salmon salad; the salmon was broken into large flakes and folded into the dressing, flat iron steak crusted in smoked chili powder and coffee, Texas caviar with collards and gravlax.

[Blether]

This Chuck Tender (9 bucks a kilo, grass-fed NZ beef !)

was part of a large pre-Christmas shop. It waited in the freezer for a week, then turned into two dishes, horribly photographed. Beef 'Bourgignonne' with roast spuds:

and Hogmanay Mughlai Beef:

(the purple lump is the outside of a piece of pistachio). I hadn't tried Chuck Tender before. The Bourgignonne (faked up using white wine in place of red) was very good, but Mughlai Beef is a gentle creation with aromatic spices, cream and nuts. The flavour of this piece of meat was too powerful for it, really.

New Year's resolution: be bothered to get the tripod out. Happy New Year to all

[menuinprogress]

Fried rice with smoked duck and quail eggs:

[djyee100]

Dinner started with focaccia (Acme's Herb Slab) and Roasted Almonds with Herbs from Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food. The nuts are tossed with salted water-- a clever trick for salting them evenly--, combined with herbs (I threw in fresh thyme and rosemary), then roasted until they are golden brown inside. While warm they are tossed with a little olive oil. The result is delicious and addictive. I had to put the nuts in another room, because I was munching on them as I cooked.

A main course of Roasted Chicken with Moroccan Flavors, from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, with Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic, another recipe from MCPC, and roasted fingerling potatoes.

The chicken is rubbed with a mixture of butter, garlic, coriander, paprika, saffron, cayenne, and parsley before roasting. It's supposed to be a whole chicken, stuffed with lemon quarters, and roasted in an oven that's fitted with pizza stones on the top and bottom racks. I opted for chicken legs placed on lemon slices, and forget that pizza stone setup in my oven, it hasn't happened yet. The dish still turned out delicious.

For Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic, the green beans are combined with onions, garlic, and tomato, and stewed in an earthenware casserole with a generous amt of olive oil. The green beans become very tender and aromatic. I've already made this dish twice, so it's definitely entered the repertoire.

A dessert of Apple Crostata with Brandied Currants, my variation of a recipe for Apple Crostata with Zante Grapes in Judy Rodgers' Zuni Cafe Cookbook.

[Kim Shook]

Beautiful meals everyone!

Our New Year’s dinner was a carbon copy of what I make every year! As a matter of fact, I just went and looked and it’s identical to what I posted last year – the only difference is that this year I did cornbread and last year I did corn muffins!

Ham slice w/ plum preserves and whole grain mustard:

scalloped tomatoes:

Plated w/ black eyed peas, collards and cornbread:

This is Jessica’s plate:

Garlic and ginger rice noodles with some of the shrimp that I made for NYE. She is not a fan of the traditional New Year’s day foods. See the little bits on the edge of her plate looking like some high end restaurant garnish? That’s her portion of each of the foods that we ate – which I insist she have for good luck !

[BeeZee]

Made sushi for the first time, after watching very closely from the sushi bar last week and studying the online guides.

No sushi grade fish, so the first foray was more experimental to work on technique. Took lots of notes for the next time.

I made rolls from cooked yam, avocado, and spicy shrimp w/cuke. Very happy with the results, I managed to roll them properly and everything stuck together.

[David Ross]

This is my version of Chicken and Dumplings. I've posted this dish before, but for the benefit of our new Members here it is again. This is not a first of the year diet dish as it employs good things like cream and butter and cheese in generous amounts.

The actual recipe is called "Chicken Pie with Biscuits" and is based on a series of recipes that ran in an old issue of Saveur magazine in a story on Church Suppers that featured the dish.

It's basically a three-day process that starts on day one with making your own chicken stock-you stew a whole chicken in a pot with water, (and a few other ingredients). The meat is taken off the bones and kept for the casserole while the bones are returned to the pot to flavor the stock. On day two you boil the stock down to concentrate the flavor and then on day three you use the stock to make the chicken pie. The pie is a combination of cream, flour, butter, the chicken meat, carrots, celery and peas. I use a biscuit recipe that includes cream of tartar and this time I added some cheddar cheese to the biscuits. Enjoy.

[jsmeeker]

Made a batch of red beans and rice. Well, actually, just the beans right now. I'll cook up enough rice for what I'll actually eat tonight. For some reason, I just don't like leftover rice. I always make it up fresh.

[percyn]

Nice meals all.

Blether, your Mughlai Beef dish reminded me off the Mughlai Chicken I used to eat as a child, so I made this for tomorrow (it tastes better the next day). Pic does not look great, but a quick taste test proved it will be good eatings.

Menuinprogress, you have inspired me to use the duck confit and quail eggs in my refrigerator.

Kim, that Ham sounds delicious and is going on my list of things to make.

BeeZee, congratulations on your first sushi roll. I remember the first one I made many years ago and once you get the hang of it and have a source for sushi grade fish (Wegman's often carries it), you can make much cheaper sushi which can be tailored to your taste.

Today I made capitalized again on the live lobster sale at Wegmans to make -

Surf 'n Turf w/Asparagus, Truffled Salsify Puree and Sunchoke Gratin.

Sunchoke gratin after it came out of the oven.

Edited January 4, 2010 by percyn (log)

[Kim Shook]

David – that chicken and dumplings looks and sounds amazing . When you have time, I would love to have the recipe.

percyn – your surf and turf looks great. After all the lobster you’ve made, I am hungry for some. I’ve never had sunchokes – what is the flavor like?

Dinner tonight - salad w/ my dad’s paprika dressing:

Rib eyes, tequila-lime shrimp, our friend Michael’s Potato Salad, scalloped tomatoes, Jessica’s lovely roasted potatoes, puff pastry Parmesan puffs:

[Aloha Steve]

Congrats all !!!!!! Everything posted looks so good and professionally plated.

One day I hope to be able cook and present the same way.....

In the meantime I'm coming along fine.

Bacon, Onion and Apple Tart

[mgaretz]

I wanted to make Carbonnade a la Flamande but didn't have the time to chase down the proper Belgian Beer (I wanted to use Kriek or Framboise). So instead I made a sort of hybrid of Carbonnade and Beef Bourgogne - call it Carbonnade a la Bourgogne! Served with Basamati rice.

[robirdstx]

Saturday night was a burger with caramelized onion and fries.

And Sunday was roasted rack of lamb with saffron risotto (not pictured) as the starter. The risotto was so good I forgot to be bothered with the camera.

[percyn]

percyn – your surf and turf looks great. After all the lobster you’ve made, I am hungry for some. I’ve never had sunchokes – what is the flavor like?

...

Kim, Sunchokes or Jerusalem Artichokes have a sweet nutty flavor, sort of like a cross between a parsnip and an mild artichoke. The texture is very crisp, but can be made soft by boiling (in milk).

[nickrey]

Sous vide confit herb and spice encrusted ocean trout. Served on lemon infused wilted baby spinach with parsley oil and smoked ocean trout.

[C. sapidus]

Lots of beautiful meals upthread and a few shout-outs:

. . . flat iron steak crusted in smoked chili powder and coffee . . .

scubadoo97, your description and picture made my mouth water.

The chicken is rubbed with a mixture of butter, garlic, coriander, paprika, saffron, cayenne, and parsley before roasting.

djyee100, that sounds absolutely delicious.

See the little bits on the edge of her plate looking like some high end restaurant garnish? That’s her portion of each of the foods that we ate . . .

Kim, too funny!

We cooked bay scallops in spinach-tomato curry sauce, enriched with coconut milk and seasoned with cayenne, cumin, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, mustard, mustard seed, garlic, and ginger. Served with turmeric rice garnished with sliced scallions and aromatic with cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, and garlic. Mrs. C. roasted kohlrabi with garlic, which turned the vegetable deliciously sweet.

We had a guest for dinner so I had hoped to take a picture of the leftovers, but everything disappeared.

[djyee100]

We had a guest for dinner so I had hoped to take a picture of the leftovers, but everything disappeared.

That happens, doesn't it?

That shrimp with lobster sauce looks amazing! Care to share the recipe?

Yes please share the recipe it looks amazing.

Ambra & Aloha Steve, this is the recipe you requested. I make this dish the same way my parents did, and I've cooked it for decades. I remember serving it to my college roommate. Enjoy!

SHRIMP WITH LOBSTER SAUCE, CANTONESE STYLE

2-3 TB peanut oil

1-2 TB fermented or salted black beans, finely chopped

1 TB chopped garlic

(optional) 1/2 TB grated fresh gingerroot

1/2 lb ground pork

1 lb raw large shrimp, peeled & deveined

1-2 TB soy sauce

1 TB rice wine or dry sherry

1 tsp sugar

ground black pepper

1/2 cup water

2 TB cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat and add in the black beans, garlic, and gingerroot (if using). Toss a few times. Add the ground pork, breaking it up into small chunks with the spatula. Let the pork saute until the red color disappears, but the meat is still pink. Add in the shrimp and cook until they begin to curl.

Stir in soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, sugar, and black pepper. Combine well. Let cook for a minute or two. Pour in 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer, and cook until the pork is almost done. Add the cornstarch, and boil until the sauce thickens, stirring the mixture so it doesn't scorch. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more water. Toss in the scallions and combine.

The mixture should be at high simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Quickly pour in the eggs and mix well. The sauce should become creamy. Taste and adjust for soy sauce or salt. Serve immediately over hot steamed rice.

[robirdstx]

We are having record low temps here in Houston so Comfort Food was on order! Meat Loaf with buttered corn and potatoes.

[Aloha Steve]

We had a guest for dinner so I had hoped to take a picture of the leftovers, but everything disappeared.

That happens, doesn't it?

That shrimp with lobster sauce looks amazing! Care to share the recipe?

Yes please share the recipe it looks amazing.

Ambra & Aloha Steve, this is the recipe you requested. I make this dish the same way my parents did, and I've cooked it for decades. I remember serving it to my college roommate. Enjoy!

SHRIMP WITH LOBSTER SAUCE, CANTONESE STYLE

2-3 TB peanut oil

1-2 TB fermented or salted black beans, finely chopped

1 TB chopped garlic

(optional) 1/2 TB grated fresh gingerroot

1/2 lb ground pork

1 lb raw large shrimp, peeled & deveined

1-2 TB soy sauce

1 TB rice wine or dry sherry

1 tsp sugar

ground black pepper

1/2 cup water

2 TB cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat and add in the black beans, garlic, and gingerroot (if using). Toss a few times. Add the ground pork, breaking it up into small chunks with the spatula. Let the pork saute until the red color disappears, but the meat is still pink. Add in the shrimp and cook until they begin to curl.

Stir in soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, sugar, and black pepper. Combine well. Let cook for a minute or two. Pour in 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer, and cook until the pork is almost done. Add the cornstarch, and boil until the sauce thickens, stirring the mixture so it doesn't scorch. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more water. Toss in the scallions and combine.

The mixture should be at high simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Quickly pour in the eggs and mix well. The sauce should become creamy. Taste and adjust for soy sauce or salt. Serve immediately over hot steamed rice.

Thank you so much ! Perusing the ingredient list, its just as I remember, the type I love best. In Honolulu we have good Chinese food but the shrimp in lobster sauce is not this. Can't wait to make it.