Dinner! 2010

[Kim Shook]

Good looking dishes, EVERYONE!!

Mr. Kim’s BD dinner last night(everything by request):

salad with our favorite bottled dressing – it’s called ‘Garlic Expressions’ and it is really, really good. I use it for marinating chicken, too.

oven roasted rib eyes, baked potatoes and butterbeans

Mr. Kim and Jessica’s steaks had a mushroom sauce – crimini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms with shallots, garlic, thyme and Malbec

[Honkman]

Buffalo Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and pickled red cabbage. We had buffalo often in restaurants but the first time that we cooked it at home. Really liked the stronger beef flavor.

Honkman - how did you compensate for the leanness of the buffalo or did you even need to? Really like the meatloaf, potato, pickled cabbage combo. Was it a true pickle or a quick pickle on the cabbage?

Heidi - sorry for the late response. It wasn't really necessary to compensate for the leanness of the buffalo. We used a similar recipe as for beef and it came out nicely and not too dry. Regarding the pickled cabbage - We make many things at home from scratch when we cook but pickled red cabbage (typical German side for meat loaf, braised meat etc) is one of the few things which we buy from a close by German supermarket in San Diego already fully prepared so that you only have to heat it.

[Kim Shook]

I didn't cook this, Mr. Kim did:

A watermelon curry - ingredients include both the rind and the fruit of the melon, ajwain, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, chiles de árbol, garlic, & tumeric. Served on basmati rice and topped with cilantro. To me, it was just ok - just not my kind of thing. But Mr. Kim and his sister loved it.

[Blether]

A watermelon curry...

Hi, Kim. Very exotic ! It sounds sweet. Did you have it hot or cold ? Today, cold, I'd be tempted !

[SobaAddict70]

Watermelon curry sounds interesting. Now THAT's something I've never heard of.

Sunday dinner was a typical Slow Food affair at Chez Spamwise

Slow-roasted tomatoes (about 1 lb. plum tomatoes, halved; then arranged in a Pyrex roasting pan, with a scant pinch of salt and pepper per tomato half, olive oil and some chopped garlic; roasted at 250 F for 5 hours)

Fresh fettucine with slow-roasted tomatoes, tomato oil (leftover olive oil in the roasting pan, to which was added 1 slow-roasted tomato, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, then the whole thing puréed), cheese and herbs

Slow-roasted toms will be featured in meals throughout this week.

[Darienne]

Sunday dinner was a typical Slow Food affair at Chez Spamwise

Slow-roasted tomatoes (about 1 lb. plum tomatoes, halved; then arranged in a Pyrex roasting pan, with a scant pinch of salt and pepper per tomato half, olive oil and some chopped garlic; roasted at 250 F for 5 hours)

Fresh fettucine with slow-roasted tomatoes, tomato oil (leftover olive oil in the roasting pan, to which was added 1 slow-roasted tomato, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, then the whole thing puréed), cheese and herbs

Slow-roasted toms will be featured in meals throughout this week.

Omi. That looks SOOO good.

[Stephanie Brim]

Slow roasted tomatoes are so good. I need to do that now that local tomatoes are available and tasty.

[deadstroke]

Watermelon curry sounds interesting. Now THAT's something I've never heard of.

Sunday dinner was a typical Slow Food affair at Chez Spamwise

Slow-roasted tomatoes (about 1 lb. plum tomatoes, halved; then arranged in a Pyrex roasting pan, with a scant pinch of salt and pepper per tomato half, olive oil and some chopped garlic; roasted at 250 F for 5 hours)

Fresh fettucine with slow-roasted tomatoes, tomato oil (leftover olive oil in the roasting pan, to which was added 1 slow-roasted tomato, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, then the whole thing puréed), cheese and herbs

Slow-roasted toms will be featured in meals throughout this week.

Nice! Something for me to duplicate this week!

[fairfranco]

A fantastic day at the pub won me a whole duck and a whole crab in the meat draw!

I've never had a whole duck before and was pretty keen to try doing peeking duck having read a load of recipes. Unfortunately I live by myself and the friends I invited round couldn't make it round before I needed to cook up.

Decided to do a pretty simple dish, rubbing the duck skin in 5 spice and salt, cooked it skin down till the fat had rendered out and gone crisp then added some ginger, honey and soy sauce and turned over.

Once the duck was done I stir fried some veg and cashews.

For a first effort it came out pretty well and I look forward to using the other breast and the legs and wings next...need to find a plan for those! Also got stock to make and some spare far to render down.

[SobaAddict70]

Baked rainbow trout with slow-roasted tomato "compote"

Coconut rice

The "compote" consists of 2 chopped slow-roasted tomatoes, 1 large shallot (chopped), 1 tablespoon salt-packed capers, 2 tablespoons pitted mixed olives, 6 tablespoons dry riesling (or other white wine), salt, black pepper, 3 tablespoons olive oil and chopped parsley. Mix all ingredients together, then spoon atop rainbow trout fillets. Bake at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

Coconut rice consists of 1 cup long-grain rice cooked in 2 cups coconut milk, along with a pinch of salt, a generous pinch of turmeric, a pinch of asafoetida, 5 to 6 dried curry leaves, and approx. 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

[robirdstx]

Last night I made my first spaghetti alla carbonara. I had been wanting to make this for some time but was afraid my dh wouldn't care for it. Well, he loved it! Me, too. No photo but here's a link to the recipe I used:

http://leitesculinaria.com/10030/recipes-spaghetti-carbonara.html

[ChickenStu]

Duck Confit with thyme, garlic, and duck fat potatoes. Cooked the duck for about 9-10 hours at 190. The duck was absolutely delicious, got it from a local farm here in Dublin. However, I absolutely ruined the skin, it didn't brown as expected and was sticking to the pan. Not sure what I did wrong. Maybe I should use a non stick instead of my cast iron?

Make sure the pan, and oil, is sufficiently hot. Skin should be dry as well.

No reason to use a non stick, a cast iron pan should be fine.

Edited August 18, 2010 by ChickenStu (log)

[Prawncrackers]

I didn't cook this, Mr. Kim did:

A watermelon curry - ingredients include both the rind and the fruit of the melon, ajwain, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, chiles de árbol, garlic, & tumeric. Served on basmati rice and topped with cilantro. To me, it was just ok - just not my kind of thing. But Mr. Kim and his sister loved it.

Is that the same Watermelon curry that's in Camellia Panjabi's 50 Curries book? I've been working my way through it, the last dish i tried was the Malabar Prawn curry:

It's the dish that appears on the cover where it looks quite dry and ruby red in colour. I don't know how that's possible with the amount of coconut milk and turmeric in the recipe. Nonetheless it tasted absolutely wonderful like all the recipes I've tried so far.

We had some friends visit for the first time recently and as always I spend a couple of days deliberating on what to cook. But in the end I always go for a Cantonese/Pan-Asian spread partly because I enjoy cooking the dishes but mainly because I want to present some real Chinese home-cooking and a little of my personality:

From L to R: Fried Prawns in Salted Duck Egg Yolks, Stuffed Three Treasures, Fish-fragrant Aubergines, Steamed Turbot, Tea-Smoked Duck with shredded Daikon and Ox-Cheek Rendang (because it was in the freezer!). We had some of the stuffed treasures leftover so I took a close-up of that dish. The treasures this time were bitter gourd, tofu and peppers, the stuffing was made with cod and prawns so that the non meat eating guest could enjoy them too. They're usually stuffed with pork and prawns but these were lighter and no less tasty:

Haven't had Tonkatsu for a while, this one was served up with rice, avocado, daikon and salted duck egg. I don't know if avocado and Chinese salted duck eggs have ever been eaten together before but I do know that they should be more often, it was a suprisingly good combo. Here's a pic before I drenched the pork in Bulldog sauce:

I had intended to smoke a rack of beef short ribs the other day. They were rubbed with down the night before but on the day I got caught up running some errands. So instead I slow roasted them in foil for about six hours till tender. Served with guacamole and rice & peas:

[djyee100]

Prawncrackers, all the food looks fantastic. I'll have to try your idea of salted duck eggs with avocado.

Kim, a great steak dinner. Lucky Mr. Kim!

Robirdstx, I like those Asian-inspired grilled pork chops.

Tonight's dinner, Grilled Cured Duck Breast with Pickled Peaches, from Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Fruit. The duck breasts are cured for a couple days in a salt-sugar brine with bay leaf, black peppercorns, whole clove, allspice berries, & small chili peppers. The duck breasts are supposed to cook on an outdoor grill, but that wasn't going to happen today. I pan-grilled the breasts over medium heat for about 10 mins, regularly pouring off the rendered duck fat, until they were well-browned. Then I finished them in a 450 degree oven for 5 mins.

The duck breasts resting after cooking, and the pickled peaches warmed up in some of their liquid.

Served with oven fries made from Yukon Gold potatoes, and cooked green beans tossed with olive oil, salt, & fresh marjoram.

A dessert of chilled sweet melon slices. The melon was from my CSA.

The pickled peaches were tart & cinnamon-y, and tasted just right with the cured duck breast.

The recipe for the Pickled Peaches is here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/eat/recipes/peaches.html

[Kim Shook]

Blether – the watermelon curry was served hot. But I’m thinking that without the rice and cut up smaller (something I suggested anyway) it would make a great Indian spiced gazpacho-like soup.

Soba – gorgeous roasted tomatoes. If I had a minute this summer, I’d roast a ton of them and can them for some lovely sauces all winter long.

fairfranco – your duck dish looks wonderful.

Prawn – the watermelon curry was from Saveur magazine. It says that the recipe is based on one that appears in 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. What a beautiful spread that you made for your friends. Lucky folks, indeed! I just had tonkasu at our favorite Japanese restaurant – it is one of my favorites and yours looks perfect.

Not a lot of cooking done here lately. My mom had to have a femoral bypass this week, so we were in NC for that. I did do some cooking last weekend to take down to fill her freezer.

Vegetable soup:

This was kind of a ‘coals to Newcastle’ dish, as it’s Momma’s recipe, but I know that she likes it and it is something that freezes really well.

I also did my grandmother’s beef stew:

I love stew at this point – when it’s basically just beef and gravy – I could pile it on one of Marlene’s ethereal Yorkies and dig in!

Finished:

I did cook a super simple dinner last night:

just top sirloin (a little tough, but very flavorful and cooked perfectly for me), creamed corn and garlic bread.

And, of course, salad:

Before anyone asks, I did NOT make the corn. Whenever we go to NC, I stop at the Piggly Wiggly and get this creamed corn. I can’t remember the brand (and don’t want to dig through the trash for it), but it comes in a tube like breakfast sausage and it is really delicious – nothing like the canned variety. I usually mix it with a bag of frozen kernels, but was too lazy last night to dig through the disaster area that is my freezer for a bag.

[dcarch]

WWWWWoWWWWoWWW!

I can't believe the dishes you guys are making. Amazing creativities and skills!

dcarch

[Kim Shook]

Another simple dinner here tonight:

Grilled marinated chicken breasts (I need to get Mr. Kim to work on his grill marks), garlic toast and fixed up canned baked beans.

And, of course, more salad:

And, NO, I don’t just post the same picture of salad every night . It’s just an easy, no-brainer of a side dish. We always have a drawer full of the makings and Mr. Kim would eat a salad with every meal. I confess I’m getting a little tired of them, though. I really need to put a little more effort and thought into my sides, especially since so much fresh stuff is available right now. But in order to take advantage of it, I’d have to actually have the time to go GET it !

[menuinprogress]

Pan-cooked grouper with sesame noodles:

We usually do this dish with salmon, but I liked it even better with the grouper.

[Kim Shook]

Pan-cooked grouper with sesame noodles:

We usually do this dish with salmon, but I liked it even better with the grouper.

That looks fantastic. I love grouper and hadn't even heard of it until my parents moved to Florida a few years ago and fell in love with it.

[dcarch]

Lot's of tomatoes from the garden. Made BLT using Chinese spring roll wrap. That's Green Giant tomato.

dcarch

[heidih]

Lovely photos as usual. Wondering about how it worked. Did you use any moistening agent or just let the tomatoes do their work? Also was there enough heft in the spring roll dough to give the flavors a cushion? In a BLT I have always considered the bread to be an integral factor. Just curious.

[robirdstx]

Inspired by the Break Me Out Of My Pasta Sauce Rut thread, we had Pasta with Hot Sausage, Roasted Red Peppers, and Shallots.

[Kim Shook]

dcarch – I am completely intrigued by the idea of your BLT! And that is some wild bacon! Was it flattened between sheet pans and baked?

Found some green tomatoes at the farmstand yesterday, so I made some fried ones:

Served as fried green tomato BLTs w/ fries:

(w/ Benton’s bacon)

And some ripe tomatoes from a coworker’s farm:

Tomato night!

[suzilightning]

johnnybird's tomatoes are starting to come in - including a green one he accidently knocked off. will fry that puppy up so he can try it.

am catching up before heading upstairs to do a mini-marathon cook: Les Halles mushroom soup to send up to my mil and some sweet and sour meatballs that i will serve with jasmine rice for dinner. since my husband believes that his plate should be 2/3 carbs; 1/3 protein and just a whiff of veg i am going to mince up the leftover mangoes, onions and red and green peppers and put them in the sauce - along with minced water chestnut in the meatballs. leftovers will head to poughkeepsie as well.

[robirdstx]

Today I made a Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie using phyllo for the crust.

We'll have the second half for dinner tomorrow night.