Dinner! 2010

[Kim Shook]

Soba – beautiful fish. And I love the idea of using corn with it – perfect.

For dinner Saturday, I made Tortilla soup. My MIL has a pot-luck for our family Christmas gathering every year on Dec. 26th. At that point we are all turkey and ham weary, so we have everything from bright, fresh salads to pancit. My BIL has lived in Arizona for years and one year this was his contribution. It has become a tradition. It’s a very simple soup – but really, really good.

The accoutrements:

Soup:

With all the fixin’s:

Served with salad and sliced tomatoes:

I haven’t been at all pleased with the quality of the farm stand tomatoes yet this year.

[judiu]

Dcarch, I have to ask: are you a professional food stylist, or just a brilliant amateur? Your plates are beautiful, and I love the smiley mushrooms and the onion crab legs. Amazing! (that's sheer jawdropping awe you see there... )

[Rico]

Dcarch, I'm on the bandwagon, too. That food looks awesome. And it took me awhile to figure out that those were mushrooms that were smiling at me ...

As many people know, it's written in the American constitution that every Fourth of July we are legally obligated to cook huge amounts of meat and drink copious amounts of beer. So I did.

The culprit for my mood today:

Got both grills fired up at once, the Weber with spare ribs and apple wood, and the Brinkman smoker with brisket and mesquite.

The ribs:

The brisket:

A buddy of mine made some cornbread with all sorts of wonderful cooked into it:

And lastly (and leastly) I really like these chips:

A good time was had by all ... I am told ...

[percyn]

percyn - 'Cause if you made it, I want your crabcake recipe!!!

Yes, please..........

Sorry, these were bought from a new store that opened by our place which sells crabcakes and other seafood items. However, they were called Smith Island Crabcakes and I found a recipe here.

[SobaAddict70]

Kim and robin -- thanks.

dcarch -- great plating, as usual.

Kim -- I love the idea of pancit at Christmas. I'll have to ask my mom to make that this year instead of the usual.

Cauliflower, squash and sugar snap peas curry, with mint raita.

[dcarch]

Dcarch, I have to ask: are you a professional food stylist, or just a brilliant amateur? Your plates are beautiful, and I love the smiley mushrooms and the onion crab legs. Amazing! (that's sheer jawdropping awe you see there... )

Thanks! You are wrong on both counts. I am not a professional food stylist, and I am not a brilliant amateur. Just like playing with my food.

Dcarch, I'm on the bandwagon, too. That food looks awesome. And it took me awhile to figure out that those were mushrooms that were smiling at me ...

--

Thanks! The mushrooms were smiling, that's why they are called fungi :-)

Awsome BBQ you got goinbg there!

----dcarch -- great plating, as usual.

-

Thanks. Inspired by all you talented guys here.

dcarch

[dcarch]

... in ginger, scallion, wasabi, and pesto sauce.

Can you elaborate a little more on this, please ? Is that scallion as a garnish, and a basil/pine nut pesto with wasabi & ginger mixed in ? Or something else ? How many times have you tried the combo, and how did the flavour work out ?

I love the smiley mushrooms !

Thanks.

It's a short-cut sauce. I started out with store-bought pesto sauce, and I added scallions, wasabi sauce, and ginger. I also added more EVOO. Then everything went into the coffee grinder.

I think it was better than dipping the lobster into butter.

dcarch

[djyee100]

Cauliflower, squash and sugar snap peas curry, with mint raita.

SobaAddict, I like that combo. Was the squash winter or summer squash? It looks like orange winter squash in the pic. I'm intrigued by the mint raita. I would never think to put a mint raita on a curry. I bet it tasted good with those peas. How did you make the raita?

[SobaAddict70]

Cauliflower, squash and sugar snap peas curry, with mint raita.

SobaAddict, I like that combo. Was the squash winter or summer squash? It looks like orange winter squash in the pic. I'm intrigued by the mint raita. I would never think to put a mint raita on a curry. I bet it tasted good with those peas. How did you make the raita?

It's summer squash. It probably looks orange to you because of the turmeric.

The base for the raita consists of 1 cup full-fat yogurt, approx. 6 tablespoons buttermilk and a pinch of salt. To this, add 6 heaping tablespoons of mint chutney; stir to incorporate.

Jarred chutney is ok if you don't have the time to make homemade. I find that the store-bought kind doesn't have the same fresh flavor though.

Recipe on the blog for both the curry and the raita, for the quantity-challenged.

I forgot to add that I use raita for more than just Indian food. For example, it's delicious as a spicy salad dressing (think "ranch" but more punched up). Try it as a dip for crudites or french fries. You might think that 1 cup of yogurt is a lot, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't last very long in my house.

Edited July 6, 2010 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[judiu]

Dcarch, I have to ask: are you a professional food stylist, or just a brilliant amateur? Your plates are beautiful, and I love the smiley mushrooms and the onion crab legs. Amazing! (that's sheer jawdropping awe you see there... )

Thanks! You are wrong on both counts. I am not a professional food stylist, and I am not a brilliant amateur. Just like playing with my food.

dcarch

AHEM! Sir or Madam, brilliance is in the eye of the beholder, and I say you're brilliant, dammit!

[SobaAddict70]

Mostly leftovers BUT I did pick up some baby artichokes on the way home.

Braised baby artichokes, with cherry tomatoes and Moroccan olives

[SobaAddict70]

Pasta with cavolo nero (black cabbage), shrimp and garlic

Watermelon granita for dessert.

[ManhattanLawyer]

Here is broiled wild King salmon with soy-honey and wasabi sauces served atop steamed rice with roasted sesame asparagus.

[Prawncrackers]

Wow Dcarch those are some attractive looking dishes, very stylish - almost architectural. Do you present your food like this for family and friends? I ask because I doubt if my wife would appreciate the effort involved. She wants her food hot and now! We certainly appreciate it here on the forum though, keep up the good work.

Been doing a lot of grilling recently, what with all the sunshine we've been getting in the UK (shock). First up is some home-made fresh Spanish style chorizo and smoked chicken:

and yesterday I grilled a fantastic rib of Welsh Black beef. It was the best steak of the year so far, it had a light spice rub, grilled over coals and some chunks of mesquite. Cooked to a perfect medium rare, the best i've ever managed over charcoal:

The best thing was we had this much leftover for tonight. Thinly sliced in a crusty baguette with guacamole and fennel slaw, brilliant:

[heidih]

The best thing was we had this much leftover for tonight. Thinly sliced in a crusty baguette with guacamole and fennel slaw, brilliant:

That sounds like a winning combo. I will remember it when fennel comes around.

[Kim Shook]

Rico – that is some smoke ring on your brisket! Gorgeous.

Soba – everything is beautiful, but the shrimp dish is really spectacular!

Prawn – I really, really like the idea of fennel slaw, too!

It was breakfast for dinner tonight:

fried eggs and potatoes, Benton bacon (our favorite) and Hanover tomatoes. We got our shipment of Benton’s today, so breakfast for dinner was a given.

[robirdstx]

I know its summer but I had this soup in the freezer and I've been wanting to try this sandwich, so tonight was Leek and Potato Soup with Bacon and Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches. The sandwich was a big hit!

Edited July 9, 2010 by robirdstx (log)

[onrushpam]

robirdstx, please post the details on making that sandwich! I have a pork tenderloin in the freezer in need of attention and that looks wonderful.

[robirdstx]

robirdstx, please post the details on making that sandwich! I have a pork tenderloin in the freezer in need of attention and that looks wonderful.

I used davydd's recipe from his web site:

Pursuing the Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

[deadstroke]

Inspired by left over wine and a piece of very fresh threadfin bream, I consulted an old classic from Larousse . This is the first time I had fish with red wine sauce and I must say I am quite surprised at how well it turned out!

Threadfin Bream "En Matelote"

[Blether]

Grilled lamb kebabs. Good chunks of meat set aside when I butchered the lamb leg for Syrian meatloaf the other day, salted 0.5% w/w, and bagged in the fridge. 'Marinated' for 15-30 minutes with some onion in a little olive oil, generous ground black pepper, a very small splash of kombu ponzu. Seven minutes under a stinking-hot grill/broiler, turning once, and the juices poured over from the foil covering the grill mesh.

*So* juicy and lip-smacking good.

Edited July 9, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Bella S.F.]

Prawncrackers

Your food is yelling out to me. I want some so badly, and I just finished eating lunch. Could you please tell me about your sausage. We keep trying out different recipes for chorizo, but have yet to find just the right spices. We have been experimenting mostly with Mexican chorizo, but we like Spanish also. I like the idea of a soft Spanish chorizo. Could you please share what you used/how you made your chorizo?

Much thanks!

[Prawncrackers]

Sure Bella, I only started making those rings of chorizo this summer as a by-product of making barbecue ribs. I love ribs but I found that the ones I'd been buying just weren't meaty enough. So one day I decided to buy a couple whole sheets of pork ribs skin on and all, and trim them down myself. This left me with just over 1kg of pork trimmings, quite meaty but with a good amount of belly fat. So in a flash of inspiration chorizo was born! It really is such a simple recipe:

1kg pork, medium ground

20g salt

3 fat cloves of garlic, minced

35-40g hot Spanish Pimenton de la vera

Mix together and stuff into a casing. That's it, the recipe makes one of those rings and is the perfect accompaniment to chicken and ribs. The key ingredient is the quality and freshness of the pimenton that you use.

[kayb]

dcarch-- as always, beautiful plates! And I am so anxious to try the "souped-up" pesto; I have some red snapper filets in the freezer that I think may call for that.

Prawn -- Gorgeous steak!

Last night, a quick saute of corn, shrimp, basil and chives (didn't have scallions) in butter, with caprese salads, in which I can eat my weight. Thanks, Kim, for that recipe tip, and you're right, the whole is significantly more than the sum of the parts!

One evening this week, it was a pizza. I tend to pile too much stuff on top, but, hey, it's all good. This one had tomatos, cucumbers, tomatos, fresh mozzarella, sheep's milk farmers market cheese, and grated parmesan. Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe.

And finally, there were grilled pork loin chops, squash gratin, black bean and corn salad, and the can't-get-enough-of-them caprese.

[SobaAddict70]

Aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry), with mint raita over steamed jasmine rice

If you've ever had aloo gobi in an Indian restaurant, homemade is WORLDS better, with cleaner/lighter flavors. Restaurant versions are typically carbohydrates in a bowl.