Dinner! 2010

[percyn]

Yummm....good looking (and I am sure tasting) food posts.

Yesterday, I made Sous Vide Pork Chops w/Caramelized Onions, Edamame, Sweet Potato and Duck Fat Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Dessert - Tarte Tatin

[nickrey]

I did a masterclass the other day with Nicolas le Bec. Wanted to let my wife try the product that evening and also to cook it while it was fresh in my mind.

Prawn Ravioli with a sauce from the shells:

Poached Atlantic Salmon in Cider Jus with Apple and Cucumber Tartare:

[Prawncrackers]

Great stuff to start the new year off folks, in particular the pastrami and homemade spaghetti. Yum yum, i should put pastrami on my 2010 recipe challenge.

I've mostly been cooking comfort dishes in the past week. Easing myself in with some familiar recipes that are fairly simple to put together.

Salt & Pepper Pork Ribs with Instant Noodles (yes!)

Paella. We've been frozen for weeks in the UK, the longest cold snap for generation. I had a need for a summer dish - thank goodness for frozen seafood:

Crab Linguine

Thai Green Curry with Beef & Aubergines

Claypot Rice with Lap Cheung, Yuun Ceung, Lap Yuk, Lap Ap & Gai Lan (aka the works!)

[djyee100]

I'll say it again. Such wonderful, gorgeous food here, & I love the variety of styles. Better than any magazine.

[PopsicleToze]

Prawncrackers, your posts are always great -- but that paella is awe-inspiring. I printed copied the picture to put in my inspiration folder. I feel paella time coming soon!

Rhonda

[scubadoo97]

Pawncrackers, your food is so visually appealing. The pictures look professional and your plating looks like it was done by a food stylist. I'm drooling at 10am for every dish.

[robirdstx]

Prawncrackers - Your Salt & Pepper Pork Ribs look amazing. Can you share the recipe, please?

[Prawncrackers]

Aw thanks folks for your such kind words

I'm just glad to give back to the Dinner thread what I get from it. It's always so motivational and inspirational to see what other people are cooking. The last few meals were particularly colourful and photogenic. They don't always turn out as I hope but then you know I wouldn't subject you to anything but my best efforts!

robirdstx, for the salt and pepper spare ribs there are a number of steps but it's fairly easy once you've learnt it:

- Marinate ribs with a little soy and shaosing wine

- Steam them gently for 45-60 mins till cooked and tender. Cool a little before dredging them in potato or corn starch and deep frying till crispy.

- Prepare the salt and pepper mix. Toast a tsp of Sichaun pepper and a tsp of salt till the pepper is smoking a little then grind into a fine powder. Do this as late as possible because the pepper will lose it's pungency quickly.

- Chop up the chillies, i used sharp tasting thin green chillies and hot red birds eye, a lot, about a dozen in total. Finely mince 4 fat cloves of garlic too. Important that you mince the garlic so that they are tiny pieces and not a paste.

- Fry the garlic and chillies gently in some oil, be careful as they will burn very quickly. Keep stirring, then add the ribs and the salt and pepper mix. Toss them all together and plate up this extravagantly aromatic dish.

[powerplantop]

Lentils with Lamb and Spinage

[Kim Shook]

percyn – lovely pork! I really would love to try doing things sous vide, but just can’t justify the expense when I have so many cooking things that I already don’t use enough! The tart is gorgeous, too!

Nick – those amazing looking ravioli are making my third night of roast beef in 4 days look really dull.

Prawn – as always, every dish is just a perfect picture of culinary wonder! You are an amazing cook and photographer!

powerplantop – I love lamb and lentils together – they are just a great combination. I have a great recipe for lamb and lentil stew that I will have to dig out now!

Dinner last night was just leftovers:

salad with my dad’s paprika dressing

reruns from Monday – hot roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes and broccoli.

[Jmahl]

Tonight we had Maxim a special guest. By request he wanted "Pizza a la Mona." Maxim, who is ten years old loves food and X-Box 360.

[C. sapidus]

I cooked from a Christmas present – Curry Cuisine – tonight. Both recipes turned out nicely, although I will use more cashew paste in the korma next time. Mrs. C cut up sweet jicama and a buttery avocado for vegetable matter.

Edit: missing word

South Indian chicken korma and ghee rice

Edited January 15, 2010 by C. sapidus (log)

[C. sapidus]

Yo, what happened to all the other cooks around here?

Anyway, another main course from Curry Cuisine: coconut fish curry, served with turmeric rice, sliced kohlrabi, sliced daikon, and radishes.

[kayb]

I am a happy camper

I guess SO! That looks phenomenal.

[David Ross]

Grilled Pork Chop with Green Olive Sauce-

The sauce was something I just came up with while I was wandering through the grocery store. I wanted a piquant flavor in the sauce to cut through the richness of the pork so that's why I settled on the flavors of green olives. I decided on green olives stuffed with pimentos and minced them in a blender with some olive oil and a bit of the brining juice from the olives. I added some black pepper, dried marjoram, cumin seed and celery seed.

I served the pork with cornbread that I mixed with salsa, braised leeks and a coleslaw that I tossed with a bottled poppyseed dressing. Enjoy.

[kayb]

Last weekend, I tried my hand at my interpretation of Chinese roast pork, which is certainly not the traditional Chinese roast pork, but my own version:

served with fried rice and sesame roasted root vegetables:

My 20-year-old declared it a success.

One evening, it was a pot of rather plebian chili -- yes, it had ground beef instead of cubes, and yes, it had beans, but it was GOOD:

Had it with an assortment of cheeses -- tomme d'espelette, uniekaas robusto, and roasted ricotta. And the major portion of a bottle of Trapiche Oak Cask malbec.

[suzilightning]

a bit of cooking but not much for me - major oral surgery.

thursday - leftovers for john and an inspiration for me for some of my first solid food. pork snitzel and egg noodles for johnnybird and some stewed tomatoes with honey cooked until almost a paste for me. got the craving while reading the book What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison. Along with Judith Jones' memoir and her newest book Cooking for One a great read.

yesterday - bangers with mash and brown gravy for john, soft scrambled eggs and mash with gravy for me.

today - got out and resupplied myself with apples to make applesauce. for john's breakfast the first pancakes came out super thin - more crepe like than pancake like so i rolled it with some of the applesauce, added a few blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. he loved them. more leftovers for him for dinner and a pureed veg soup for me.

thinking about actually buying some ramekins so i can make individual cheese souffles or flans. haven't done those since the restaurant days.

[robirdstx]

Wine Braised Flat Iron Steak (smothered with tomato, onions and mushrooms) and buttered Green Beans

[percyn]

Kayb, that pork looks great! Do you mind sharing the recipe?

Suzilightning, wish you a speedy recovery.

[Kim Shook]

Jmahl – that is one gorgeous pizza!

David – what an inspired sauce! I adore stuffed green olives and can imagine how great that was with pork!

kayb – lovely pork! I’d love to have the recipe.

Dinner last night was a copy of an amazing burger that someone on Marlene’s made. He used the NYT method for the burger (packing the meat only enough to hold it together and cooking with a combination of searing stovetop and then roasting). I don’t think that I’ll ever use another method to cook a burger. They were perfect. Finished with cheese:

That cheese is Saga bleu Brie, which was fantastic with the caramelized onions.

Plated - on English muffins with bacon and caramelized onions:

I cooked ours a little longer than recommended – we like them more med/med well – maybe an additional 3 minutes, but they were a bit pinker than this picture shows:

Served with a salad topped with the seemingly never ending supply of my dad’s dressing:

I made this dressing for Christmas and, obviously overestimated what I would need. We still have a TON of it, it still tastes great and we love it, so it is our house dressing until it tastes funny .

[kayb]

Percy and Kim -- Happy to provide the recipe, here:

http://kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/the-kitchen-as-laboratory/

I failed to note in the blog post that I basted the pork about three times during the course of cooking. The sauce was an improvisation because I thought I had hoisin sauce, and didn't, so I faked it.

[djyee100]

Dinner last night was a copy of an amazing burger that someone on Marlene’s made. He used the NYT method for the burger (packing the meat only enough to hold it together and cooking with a combination of searing stovetop and then roasting). I don’t think that I’ll ever use another method to cook a burger...

I made this dressing for Christmas and, obviously overestimated what I would need. We still have a TON of it...

Kim, do you have a link for the burger recipe? I've missed reading that one.

As for the salad dressing, if it's an oil, vinegar, herb combination it might taste good as a marinade for some roasted veg. I rub leftover salad dressing on chunks of potatoes, carrots, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and roast the veg in a hot oven (400-425 F) until the vegs are tender and golden brown.

[Jmahl]

Yesterday, in the company of friends old and new, we cooked our first goose. Who said this was a bad thing.

this was our first goose even. And on the Weber yet.

Now being carved.

Started off with my first attempt at borscht - turned out just like grandma Minnie's as I remember it.

With the goose we had puree of parsnips, blanched spinach with sesame seeds, julienned carrots, and creamed cabbage with caraway seeds.

We wash it all down with a couple of good bottles of wine.

This may have been our first goose but I suspect not our last.

Now we have all that goose fat. Ho how it sets one to thinking.

[percyn]

Thanks for the recipe Kay.

Yesterday we had Rotisserie Chicken, Hericot Verts Almondine, Artichokes and Edamame Salad.

[nickrey]

Our dinner tonight was unashamedly (slightly) adapted from one of the sous vide videos by the chef at Eleven Madison Park (see here).

Sous vide salmon with stuffed zucchini flowers and red capsicum hollandaise.