Dinner! 2010

[Porthos]

Simple comfort food. Smoked pork neck, white beans and onions.

[Darienne]

Our dinner is at noon and today I made Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo and Spinach a recipe published by Mark Bittman on his blog, 19 February 10. I used 1/4 of his breadcrumb topping.

As usual, I am seduced by the pictures. We added yogurt to our plates.

[Aloha Steve]

Simple weekday dinners

Steak, potatoes and buttered peas

Red aabbage Ccasserole

Ridiculously easy banana pudding

Recipe here

In the recipe for for the banana pudding, it calls for self rising flour. What exactly is that ?

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Hi Steve,

Self-rising flour is found in many supermarkets (I don't know about your country though!). To make your own, you need 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and 0.5 teaspoon of salt per cup of plain/AP flour.

I did not have self-rising flour at that time so mine was just with plain flour(without the salt and baking powder).

[mgaretz]

Tonight I made Tandoori Chicken and Basamati Rice with Peas in a yellow curry and coconut broth.

[crowdingthepan]

I've worked out a hybrid grilled/broiled pizza system that seems to yield the best pie I can make with my current arsenal of appliances. This one's topped with basil and garlic infused béchamel, some fennel/white wine/garlic sausage that I made, and parmigiano reggiano. A lot of pizza fundamentalists turn up their noses at béchamel on pizza. I'd never tried it before, and I wasn't in the mood for a red sauce pie, so I gave this combo a go. It's a keeper.

Edited March 25, 2010 by crowdingthepan (log)

[Aloha Steve]

I've worked out a hybrid grilled/broiled pizza system that seems to yield the best pie I can make with my current arsenal of appliances. This one's topped with basil and garlic infused béchamel, some fennel/white wine/garlic sausage that I made, and parmigiano reggiano. A lot of pizza fundamentalists turn up their noses at béchamel on pizza. I'd never tried it before, and I wasn't in the mood for a red sauce pie, so I gave this combo a go. It's a keeper.

Fundamentalists boo ya, that pie is great looking.

I made pizza once, tasted good, I do not know why I don't do it more often ?

Instead I buy DiGIorno's rising crust, for 6.99 which feeds four. Maybe its the law of diminishing returns ? How much better is it; taste = work, time and extra cost.

I know one thing though, crowdingthepan and that is no store bought pizza is going is going to closely taste as good as yours.

Béchamel brillant !

Edited March 25, 2010 by Aloha Steve (log)

[David Ross]

Last night I did the cover recipe from the April 2010 issue of Bon Appetit--Salmon with Sweet Chili Glaze with Sugar Snap Peas and Greens.

The recipe calls for using pea tendrils for the greens but we don't have a market where I can find them so I substituted watercress. I included the stems of the watercress for texture and added some oyster mushrooms to the mix.

[kayb]

New York Strip steak seared on a griddle pan, with risotto and caprese salad from the first locally grown (in a greenhouse) vine-ripened tomatos of the season...and I had to use dried basil as the grocery had no fresh and my herb garden is not yet begun for the summer....

[Darienne]

Moussaka, made with Eggplant Cutlets, both recipes from Rachel Perlow in eG's Moussaka Cook Off Thread. And Spanakopita, pretty much an amalgam of three recipes, including Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Easten Food. (Sorry about the fuzzy moussaka. I need both a new camera and a new photographer.)

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Lasagna with Butternut Squash, Chicken and Spinach

Recipe here

[Blether]

That's a very vivid picture, DeliciouslyLekker. I really liked your red cabbage, too, and the banana pudding looked tasty. Were you following the Lasagna (eG cook-off 52) thread ?

I like the idea of rice, peas, coconut and curry, mgaretz. And the chicken looked good again. Is this now a game of tandoori chicken tag ? I enjoyed mine the other day and I'm happy that you inspired me to make it again.

Great-looking pizza, crowdingthepan, and salmon, David Ross.

I made another stab at unibonara:

Details in the Fish & other seafood topic.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Blether (log)

[crowdingthepan]

I made another stab at unibonara:

Details in the Fish & other seafood topic.

I wasn't around to observe your previous attempts, Blether. I'm assuming this is carbonara with uni replacing the egg as the creamy component in the dish? Great idea.

[Blether]

I wasn't around to observe your previous attempts, Blether. I'm assuming this is carbonara with uni replacing the egg as the creamy component in the dish? Great idea.

Thanks, and sorry you missed it. I put links to the previous Dinner! posts in the post in Fish & Other Seafood that I linked to above. I'll not repeat them here.

Uni - the part we eat - is commonly described as the 'ovary'. I don't know about sexual differentiation in uni, like whether there is any and if there are roe on the one hand and milt on the other, or exactly how it all works, but as the part that produces the eggs, I reckon it's close enough for us to put an argument before the court Yes, uni in place of egg.

As I've written before, back in the UK I'd be replacing the cured pork with smoked mackerel or kipper or similar. I've been hunting for something suitable here and have now resigned myself to not finding appropriate smoked fish, but going with salted, fatty ones. Which is probably closer to the Italian spirit anyway. Back in the previous posts in this thread, I wrote about my approach to assembling the other flavours.

Uni cream pasta is something you see sometimes. The thought occurred to me spontaneously and I found several recipes when I searched Google. Uni just seems a natural for warming through a cream sauce for pasta: apart from anything else, I find it disappointing if cooked in the piece. I mean, sure, it still tastes good, but not a patch on what it is raw: it seems a waste (I feel similarly about smoked salmon). You lose that melting, diffusing richness. But used to flavour a cream, or warmed but still liquid and creamy in itself ? Great, and indeed it behaves very like egg yolk in that respect.

'Unibonara' seems a natural progression (and not exactly rocket science for someone living in this country) - you can just sense the potential as soon as you think of it.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Blether]

... I need both a new camera and a new photographer.)

That made me laugh in recognition - I've posted fuzzier. I still want some of both !

[DeliciouslyLekker]

That's a very vivid picture, DeliciouslyLekker. I really liked your red cabbage, too, and the banana pudding looked tasty. Were you following the Lasagna (eG cook-off 52) thread ?

Thanks, Blether! I just checked out the Lasagna thread. I've never made my own pasta, to be honest!

The red cabbage schotel is really easy. Most people use a 'mince marinade' but I didn't have it on hand so I use cumin to flavour the meat instead. I bought the 'mince marinade' later but I prefer the cumin version! This is a typical weekday/lazyday dinner. You can of course, make the different components from scratch. If not, just use a large jar of red cabbage+apples and instant mashed potatoes and you're done in less than 10 minutes (not incl. oven time).

I wish I could fine uni here. I love it!

[rooftop1000]

after 4 failed batches of biscuits this week I finally cooked something edible

"mexican" rice, refried beans with cheese, chorizo, and runny fried egg

[Darienne]

after 4 failed batches of biscuits this week I finally cooked something edible

Somehow I feel a strong kinship with rooftop1000.

[robirdstx]

On Friday I made a pot of Chicken And Sausage Gumbo for dinner and we had it again tonight. The rest of the gumbo is going into the freezer for a future meal.

[Matthew Grant]

Mozzerella, figs roasted with Maple syrup

Chicken wings with morels, fresh peas and crispy chicken skin:

Pork Fillet with a blood orange + green peppercorn sauce, fennel and blood oranges, pomegranate and wilted garlic leaves.

Edited March 28, 2010 by Matthew Grant (log)

[kayb]

Rendang (beef braised in coconut milk) over brown rice, with sesame snow peas.

[Matthew Grant]

I hate to disappoint you (or sound like an arse) but Rendang is a dry dish without any gravy, it can be kept for several weeks (maybe even longer I've never tried), what you have there is more likely Kaliyo which is basically the same dish but without reducing the sauce completely.

[kayb]

I hate to disappoint you (or sound like an arse) but Rendang is a dry dish without any gravy, it can be kept for several weeks (maybe even longer I've never tried), what you have there is more likely Kaliyo which is basically the same dish but without reducing the sauce completely.

H'mmm. I may have missed the reduction step, or perhaps it's because I finished it in the slow cooker because I wasn't going to be home. Thanks for that knowledge.

Regardless, it was good.

[Blether]

Regardless, it was good.

It looks super-savoury.

And Matthew Grant, your pork tenderloin looks impressive (the meat in particular, done just right, to my eyes). Is it a dish you've cooked before ? How do the garlic leaves, fennel and orange work with the meat ?

[emmalish]

Lots of good looking dinners in this thread! David, how was the chili-glazed salmon? Looks fantastic.

Tonight I made a tomato lentil stew, loaded with vegetables, served over couscous.