Dinner! 2010

[Matthew Grant]

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 ?

It was the first time out for this dish, personally I would have liked the Pork cooked a little less. The fennel and orange go very well together, try it as a salad on its own! I like raw fennel with a lot of things particularly pork and lamb. The sauce wasn't too sweet, just the natural juice with dark chicken stock, cooked with a little onion softened in butter, sieved, then reduced with the peppercorns, a little acidity from some red wine vinegar right at the end. I had a minimal amount of garlic leaves as they can be a little ovepowering, they really worked well, the powder you can see was some dried and ground zest to add bitterness but in hindsight was probably not neccessary.

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Bobotie

Recipe here

[Jmahl]

For dinner Sunday shortribs in chili ancho sauce with goat cheese polenta, home baked bread, epoisses cheese (great once you get past the strong aroma) some good malbec and great South Texas weather.

[David Ross]

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.

The salmon was delicious although I went about two minutes too long on the broiling and got it a bit overdone for my tastes. I prefer it more on the medium-rare end and it ended up medium. Because you use sweet chili sauce it's not too spicy and not too sweet--just right and the broiling method gives the surface of the fish a nice crisp and a few charred spots. (The credit for the recipe goes to the editors of Bon Appetit).

Next time I'm going to try preparing the salmon in the same way and then serving it on top of thick noodles in a soup.

[Blether]

Minced beef pie

Served with some of Heinz's finest for that full nostalgia effect:

[crowdingthepan]

That Minced beef pie looks phenomenal! I'd love to see the recipe for the filling and the crust. I went the comfort food route yesterday, too. Herb brined, skillet roasted chicken. By the time dinner was over, I had consumed every bit of skin off of this thing. Pic of the brine, then the finished product:

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Minced beef pie

Served with some of Heinz's finest for that full nostalgia effect:

Haha is that a cow on the crust?? So cute! Do you have a mold?

[Darienne]

Lovely pie. And served properly.

Yesterday was clean out the freezer day and amongst the other surprises was a container of 'tortiere' makings. It was leftover from DH, Ed's, annual tortiere pie at Christmas event.

Never would we ever consider eating tortiere with anything but Heinz catsup/ketchup. Good flavor pairing!

[Pam Brunning]

The chicken and the pie look great. That pastry looks relay flaky - I would love the recipe too!

How long did you brine the chicken for? We used to sell our own cured chicken in our farm shop - it was very popular. It roasted up nice and brown like yours, we used brown sugar in the cure.

I now have to go and do something with half a leg of lamb. We had the other half the other night, it was good flavour but a bit tough roast pink, so I am going to pot roast this piece I think.

[crowdingthepan]

The chicken and the pie look great. That pastry looks relay flaky - I would love the recipe too!

How long did you brine the chicken for? We used to sell our own cured chicken in our farm shop - it was very popular. It roasted up nice and brown like yours, we used brown sugar in the cure.

I now have to go and do something with half a leg of lamb. We had the other half the other night, it was good flavour but a bit tough roast pink, so I am going to pot roast this piece I think.

I like to brine for around five hours. Most recipes call for a brine time of twelve or more hours, but I find the chicken too salty if it brines that long. My other trick is to pull it out of the oven when the meat reaches 145 degrees (GASP!). I know, salmonella, blah blah blah. By the time a chicken reaches the typically recommended 180 degrees, it's inedibly dry.

[percyn]

Just to highlight the varied life we all live....

Humble weekday dinner - Pesto stuffed chicken breast salad

Extravagant weekend (restaurant) dinner with friends -

Lobster Tacos

Grilled Octopus salad

other misc goodies not pictured

enjoyed with a 2006 Kistler and a 2004 Ramey

Entrees of Braised Oxtail and Mofongo

Amish Organic Chicken w/spicy pasta

Squab

enjoyed with a 1975 Mouton Rothschild and a 1982 Cht La Lagune

Edited March 30, 2010 by percyn (log)

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Amazing food, Percyn.

I hope to try one of those wines someday. I'll just have to be patient, I guess!

Today's dinner was a simple pasta dish a Dutch 3 Michelin star chef prepares for his family.

Edited March 30, 2010 by DeliciouslyLekker (log)

[Blether]

Haha is that a cow on the crust?? So cute! Do you have a mold?

It's supposed to be a cow - ended up more like a gazelle or something - I kind of feel I almost recognise it (suggestions welcome !). No, not a mold. I just free-cut it with the tip of a sharp knife - once over gently to draw the shape, once more deliberately chiselling the angles and making the cuts.

crowdingthepan and Pam, it went like this:

Mince

It's one version of the mince that goes with mashed spud as "mince n' tatties". I made this one very simple.

1kg good minced beef

a couple of good-sized onions, chopped

About 2oz butter & a little oil as needed

Breadcrumbs to thicken (in this case wholewheat, home-ground and stored frozen)

Salt, pepper, Marmite

- brown the mince in batches (I did it as four saute-pan-size hamburger-patty-like sheets, getting a good browning on each side, then de-glazing with water for each batch, reserving both meat and deglazings. Use a little lump of butter melted in the pan for each batch).

- fry the onions over a high heat, with a splash of oil if necessary, stirring occasionally, till you get some browning and scorching on all pieces.

- return the meat to the pan and add water to cover.

- add breadcrumbs to thicken (I put in three fistfuls, aiming for extra thick since it's for a pie), adjust water as needed

- season as desired (it tastes bready, but don't be scared, that cooks out)

I want to use some Bovril or Oxo here (or yes, espagnole), but I've none. I used about a heaped teaspoon of Marmite for some depth and colour. Mashed anchovies would be an alternative, and Worcester Sauce / HP Sauce is a great flavour too, maybe with a bit of tomato paste. I used Worcester Sauce in my mince for so long and so persistently that I overdid it, and I've been on hiatus from that one for a couple of years. All the same, I'll still shoot you if you don't put the stuff in my Bloody Mary.

- stew for 40 minutes or so.

In the event I cooked this when the meat was freshly defrosted and it kept in the fridge for a few days.

Pastry

The bottom crust was hot water pastry, made with chicken fat leftover from stock-making. 8oz flour (half cake, half bread, a bit stronger than pastry flour so I don't have to knead it much), 100ml water, 75g chicken fat, salt & pepper). I had enough leftover to make a small raised pie with more of the mince.

The top crust is all-butter shortcrust, with 1/4 bread flour, i.e. the same strength as AP Flour / Plain Flour. 5oz flour / about 3 of butter (unlike lard, butter has a proportion of water, so I err on the generous side), salt & pepper. The flour mixed but neither chilled nor sifted, the butter cold from the fridge, sliced off in thin slices over the digital scale till there was enough, cut in with two knives and finished off by hand till not really resembling fine breadcrumbs very much and not especially uniform, but no fat lumps bigger than a pea remain. Bound with water straight from the tap and fridge-rested for half an hour.

Baking

Fill, seal with beaten egg, decorate also using beaten egg. Refrigerate for half an hour for the seals to cure. Brush with egg wash and bake - I went this time with 210C for half an hour (the pie on the lower shelf, with the small hot-water-crust raised pie and a pasty from the shortcrust off-cuts on the top shelf), then as long as it took at 170C (an hour for the big pie).

I really like the ketchup bottles we get nowadays, with the wide, flat flip-top the bottle can rest properly upside-down on

I should note that minced-beef-pie is something of a Commonwealth staple. Aussies and Kiwis live on the things, and it was a childhood favourite of mine - the pastry with the meat filling, then the tangy ketchup. Mmm !

Beautiful chicken, crowdingthepan - impressively even browning from the skillet. DeliciouslyLekker, please tell what's in the pasta !

Edited March 30, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Blether]

Another post post-edit-deadline to remember that I also put about half a cup / 240ml of good chicken stock, that I'd frozen in cubes, in the mince.

[mgaretz]

Pizza! Whole wheat homemade crust (actually about 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 unbleached with some gluten flour added in), lactose-free mozarella, spinach, mushrooms, onions, red pepper and pepperoni.

[Kim Shook]

Well, I’ve been home from NOLA for a week and I’ve cooked two meals. One of them was scrambled eggs . I’m ashamed to admit it here among all you wonderful dedicated cooks, but it’s the truth. We’ve been eating canned soup and take out mostly. The other night I did make this:

Sauerbraten, red cabbage, boiled potatoes, green beans and rye bread. I found some ridiculously cheap veal chuck chops and decided to make sauerbraten for the first time. Crazy easy and really good!

[mgaretz]

Tonight I made my Chunky Red Sauce with homemade pasta.

[Pam Brunning]

Many thanks for the pie recipe Blether

[Prawncrackers]

[judiu]

OMG! I WANTthose last four slices on the left! The beautiful, fatty, rare slices, just begging 'eat me'!

[Prawncrackers]

Hmmm nice big sloppy pizza topped with my own homemade salami & chorizo, few onions, anchovy and three cheeses - smoked cheddar, tallegio and parmesan. It was touch and go whether it would slide off the peel but I've got the flick down nowadays, get in there:

And a wing rib of Hereford beef, dry-aged for 6 weeks and done the slow method with butter. Served with a blue cheese, chicory & lettuce salad and chimichurri sauce which I forgot to photo:

Edited to say: Whoops double post!!

Edited April 1, 2010 by Prawncrackers (log)

[Blether]

Hmmm nice big sloppy pizza topped with my own homemade salami & chorizo...

And a wing rib of Hereford beef, dry-aged for 6 weeks and done the slow method with butter. Served with a blue cheese, chicory & lettuce salad and chimichurri sauce...

Drool... yes, those are up to your usual standard, though the 'strong, silent' first post was an interesting departure

I have a prosaic question - what's the make/model of your saute pan ? And two more relevant ones, what's your approach to the tomato pizza sauce, and what baking temperature & time did you use ? I give my very-sparsely-topped ones somewhere around 8 minutes at 250C in an otherwise ordinary electric oven.

Edited April 1, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Strong, silent will do as a euphemism for idiot distracted by footie!

Glad you all like the grub. The steak wasn't as marbled as some of the grain-fed beef porn you get in the US or Japan but the long aging made for tender and tasty eating. I know it was good because even though I'd sliced it up so meticulously I found myself gnawing at the bone anyway!

Blether, that is a heavy 12" saute pan with a tight fitting lid made by Stellar. I know not of any of their other stuff but I know that this pan is a wonder. For such a big pan it has a short handle and you can stick the whole thing in the oven so it doubles up as a roasting pan too. It can easily hold a whole shoulder of lamb with the lid on.

As for my pizza method, this was on the bigger side for me and took 15 mins in a 240C fan-assisted oven. I got some nice spring from the dough this time, crisp base, chewy crust, just right. My tomato sauce is made by softening shallot with garlic and dried chilli then adding canned tomato, tomato puree and a little ketchup. Cook for 15 mins max then blend. That's all, I like to keep it relatively neutral because the same tomato sauce will be adapted for other dishes.

[kayb]

Loh rd God. I know when I'm outdone.

I'm WAY outdone.

That's amazingly wonderful, and I'd love to be able to turn out that dish on command. I salute you.

[Porthos]

Oven-roasted tri-tip (rare) and barley in vegetable broth.