Dinner! 2010

[Kim Shook]

What fantastic meals I have enjoyed vicariously here lately!

dDcarch – that blueberry lime jello was just incredible. And how’d you cut the pineapple so thin in the beef dish?

deadstroke – love the crab ravioli. I am not a pasta maker, but I believe that I could do something similar with wonton skins (my go-to cheat for fresh pasta).

Soba – beautiful, beautiful food, as ALWAYS!

kayb – I am stealing your idea of cooking meatloaf in a pie dish.

Bruce – I’m very impressed with your mid-reno cooking. If I were renovating, my family would be lucky to get grilled cheese sandwiches.

I am also now craving Scottyboy’s fig cake and djyee’s cobbler!

A few recent meals:

salad

Braised lamb shoulder chop with salsa. It was supposed to be braised with tomatoes, but I didn’t have any and didn’t feel like going out, so I used some salsa. It was excellent! Some semi-mashed potatoes on the side. This was a lovely surprise – I made it one night and life conspired to delay eating until two days later. It was still moist and tender and delicious. Nice thing to know. Some semi-mashed potatoes on the side.

I cooked dinner for my parents last weekend:

The ubiquitous salad follows me everyWHERE!! Napa and Romaine w/ oranges, almonds and bleu cheese dressed with a tomato/balsamic dressing.

Chicken saltimbocca w/ egg noodles. The chicken recipe was from a funky old giveaway recipe booklet from 1973 that my mother had. It was pretty good, but a little fiddly. You sandwiched the ham between beaten chicken breast pieces and then pinned it all around with toothpicks. Would have been easier to just roll it, I thought. And being from 1973, it was a tad bland. I was really on autopilot or I’d have jazzed it up with some sage.

We are going out of town AGAIN this weekend, so I was trying to get all the little weekend chores done ahead of time (plus the ones left over from last weekend), so I threw together Maggie’s shrimp and corn saute:

We just love this and I anticipate it getting a LOT of play in the Shook house. Served with roasted beets with goat cheese and onion flat bread and hummous. Mr. Kim LOVED the beets. I thought they tasted like goat cheese flavored dirt (not a big fan of beets). The beets were tiny little ones from our latest CSA box. We’ve had to cancel our CSA – I’m away so much that we are just not using the food, even getting it only every two weeks.

[christine007]

Kim

that was a beautiful run of meals and I have to say, and I am saying this to nobody else... I had a period of time where I was out a computer, and on Egullet yours were the meals I missed the most.

Tonight, (No pics, but this will change soon)

I made my Grandmother's in law baked beans, with onion, slow rendered bacon, brown sugar, and a can of Bushe's baked beans.

Did you ever notice that all sins can be forgiven, if you know how to doctor a can of really good baked beans? Since I am American of English heritgage, we had them over toast.

Beans on toast.

[Pierogi]

....I am also now craving Scottyboy’s fig cake and ...

Kim, you MUST make that fig cake. I did last week, and it is absolutely sublime. Good to the point I'm thinking of making it again tomorrow, and I just finished the other one yesterday !

If you like figs, this is heaven.

[Pam Brunning]

That fig tart looks great. I love the inspiration I get on this site.

Here is last nights dinner - just fried chicken thighs but we have some great fungi around at the moment so I did a mushroom sauce with ordinary mushrooms, princes and ink caps all from the garden.

And for pud I made a pear tart with cinnamon and walnut crust.

[David Ross]

Last night I made a Seared Opakapaka with Slow-Roasted Tomato Butter made from the grape tomatoes off the Topsy-Turvy planter that I tended to this summer. You can read about my Topsy-Turvy adventure here.

[ScottyBoy]

Kim, you MUST make that fig cake. I did last week, and it is absolutely sublime. Good to the point I'm thinking of making it again tomorrow, and I just finished the other one yesterday !

If you like figs, this is heaven.

So happy it came out well for you, all of my stuff is locked away in my brain. It's a base cake batter recipe that I do different fruit desserts with.

Edited September 19, 2010 by ScottyBoy (log)

[David Ross]

Barring a trip North to Vancouver, B.C., for authentic Chinese Dim Sum, I decided to venture out this weekend to the two Asian markets in town to see if I could find the ingredients for Sticky Rice steamed in Lotus Leaves. Luckily I wasn't disappointed.

The lotus leaves came dried and had to be reconstituted in hot water for about 30 minutes. I added dried scallops to the rice while it was steaming and then once the rice was finished cooking, I added some diced Chinese sausage, garlic, green onion, ginger and some dried mushrooms that I had reconstitued and chopped. It took about a 1/4 cup of the rice mixture for each packet.

The lotus leaves are quite large and so I cut one leaf into 4 quarters and used it for stuffing. The packets steamed for about 25 minutes-

Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage and Dried Scallop-

[dcarch]

Kim Shook: "dDcarch – that blueberry lime jello was just incredible. And how’d you cut the pineapple so thin in the beef dish?"

Thanks Kim. How? Practice?

dcarch

[Rico]

So I may or may not have rooted through Kim Shook's online recipes for something to eat last night. I'll be doing that more often. Last night's discovery: Lemony Chicken wings. They're lemony (and rosemary-y and garlicky). And tasty. Thanks for that one, Kim.

[nickrey]

Tonight's dinner was Pescado a la Veracruzana with Annatto and Tomato Rice.

[judiu]

Kim Shook: "dDcarch – that blueberry lime jello was just incredible. And how’d you cut the pineapple so thin in the beef dish?"

Thanks Kim. How? Practice?

dcarch

Doncha' just HATE a show-off?

[sadistick]

Almost as much as (what appears to be) wasted food.

[djyee100]

Wonderful meals, everyone.

Robirdstx, I could dive into that Sausage & Mushroom Pizza. The crust looks great.

David Ross, the sticky rice in lotus leaves looks delicious. I wish I had one of those right now.

Dcarch, I've never tried cutting citrus like that. I love the colored shapes of the fruit. It would make a fine garnish. Thanks for showing us in the pix.

For last night's dinner, a starter of Sauteed Padron Peppers.

The recipe for the peppers--such as it is, it's pretty simple!--came from Alice Waters' In The Green Kitchen. I sauteed the peppers in olive oil over medium heat, moving them around frequently, until the peppers softened and the skins blistered. Then I sprinkled them with coarse salt and served them hot. The padron peppers are fun to eat, because some are hot, but some are not. So you're always wondering what the next pepper will be like (and eating more of them as a result). These peppers tasted even better with a cold beer.

I bought a load of tomatoes at the farmers mkt, thinking that I would make panzanella, but the weather cooled here so I switched the menu to a comfort food classic, Spaghetti and Meatballs. This version has Italian sausage meat formed into quick meatballs, and a sauce of fresh tomatoes with garlic, shallots, capers, basil, and parsley.

To make Spaghetti and Meatballs: Form small meatballs out of 1 lb Italian sausage meat (remove casings). Heat some olive oil in a 10" saute pan, and brown the meatballs over medium heat. Remove from pan. Add 1/4 cup olive oil to the pan, heat, and toss in 4 chopped garlic cloves and 4 chopped shallots. Cook over moderate heat until soft and translucent. Add in 3 TB capers, rinsed, drained & coarsely chopped. Let cook until the garlic and shallots are lightly golden. Pour in 4 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped fresh tomatoes (heirloom tomatoes taste great in this sauce), plus 2-3 TB olive oil. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 mins, stirring occasionally. Towards the end of cooking time, return the meatballs to the pan and let them finish cooking in the sauce. About a minute before the sauce is done, stir in 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil and 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, as the sauce is cooking, boil 1/2 lb angel hair pasta until done; drain & set aside. To serve, pour the meatballs and sauce over the hot pasta in a warmed serving bowl. Toss lightly. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. Serve immediately.

[Prawncrackers]

Been doing some clearing-out-the-freezer type cooking, I had some odd stuff in there that needed consuming. In particular there were some baby octopus and frog legs that I'd bought earlier in year, for what reason I can't remember! Maybe it was for hotpot?

There was small chunk of catfish in the freezer too so I made my favourite new dish of the year, Catfish in caramel fish sauce and padded it out with the octopus. You know it went really well, the octopus absorbed the delicious flavour of the sauce and was cooked tender at exactly time as the catfish (about 45 mins):

I also had a glut of chilli peppers so made a rather extreme version of salt & pepper frog legs (with cashews too). This one needed the back door open whilst cooking but boy did it taste good:

Rummaging through the cupboard I found a packet of Zatar that I'd brought back from Istanbul in May. It still smelled good so I tried to recreate the wonderful grilled lamb dishes that we had there. Just so happened that there were some Lamb chops in the freezer too, so bingo, simply chargrilled with Aubergine and Pepper, served with a pilaf. It hit the spot for us, the smell of the Zatar blend and the sizzling lamb fat took us straight back to Istanbul:

Edited September 21, 2010 by Prawncrackers (log)

[Kim Shook]

Christine – I cannot tell you how that touched me. I am on my way up to Cleveland right now to give you a big ole HUG! It gladdens my heart to see you here! And I’m not English (well, maybe WAY back), but my stepdad is and I LOVE beans on toast.

Pierogi – I have printed out the fig cake recipe and can’t wait to try it.

Pam – your pear tart is gorgeous! Is that raw sugar on top of the pears?

dDcarch – and a really good knife?

Rico – so glad that you liked the wings! I haven’t done them for a while and think they are worth a re-visit!

We were in Northern VA this weekend visiting family and friends. The night before we left we had some things in the fridge that needed to be eaten. So this was dinner:

Sloppy Joes, the last of the fresh stuff from the CSA – beans and tomatoes

Last night I discovered that we somehow had 2 1/2 dozen eggs!

Swiss cheese omelet with mango/habanero salsa, sausage, fried potatoes and flat bread

And for dessert:

mini angel food cakes w/ some wonderful peaches that my dad brought us from Georgia

[ScottyBoy]

Prawncrackers, must have some of that hot pot.......................

[Emily_R]

Almost as much as (what appears to be) wasted food.

Come on. That's art, and art actually requires materials. Unless you'd be upset about the trees cut down to make the paper for a watercolor painting, or all the hay it took to feed the sheep that made the wool used in a tapestry, I don't see why you're raining on her parade. Dcarch -- I personally think those photos are amazing, beautiful, and inspiring.

[dcarch]

Almost as much as (what appears to be) wasted food.

Come on. That's art, and art actually requires materials. Unless you'd be upset about the trees cut down to make the paper for a watercolor painting, or all the hay it took to feed the sheep that made the wool used in a tapestry, I don't see why you're raining on her parade. Dcarch -- I personally think those photos are amazing, beautiful, and inspiring.

One of the interesting about food, sometimes you cut sometime in a different way, it opens up amazing possiblities for new recipes.

I think many of you immediate can think of unique dishes now that you have seen oranges, carrots, cucumbers cut that way.

After all, much about Japanese cooking is about cutting.

dcarch

BTW, how often I need to say this? totally great cooking, everyone!

[jmolinari]

Prawncrackers, can you share your caramel catfish in claypot recipe? I can never get mine as good as the vietnamese restaurants here!

[menuinprogress]

I'm also interested in the catfish/octopus in caramel sauce technique.

We've made squid in caramel sauce before and while it was quite good, we didn't get the nice, dark color you achieved. I think the squid gave off enough liquid to dilute it.

[Pam Brunning]

Kim those peaches look great - really ripe - we don't get them like that in the UK very often.

The pear tart has a thin pastry layer then I brush with plenty of water and sprinkle over dem sugar before I put it in the oven.

[Prawncrackers]

Sure menuinprogress and jmolinari, it's a very a simple recipe. I have to caveat first that I am in no way an expert in Vietnamese food but I had this dish about a year ago in a restaurant and I've been trying to perfect it ever since. It's all about the sauce, you can make a big batch of this and it will keep indefinitely. The following amounts will make enough for two meals - about two of the small claypot that you see in my photo.

For the sauce: start to caramelise 300g (yes that much) of plain white sugar in a tablespoon of veggie oil over a low heat. This is the most important step, keep stirring the caramel with a wooden spoon until it is the right colour. This takes a little practise, too light and it has no depth of flavour, too dark and it becomes bitter and acrid. One day i will use a thermometer to measure the exact point but for now the colour you're looking for is a deep mahogany. If you've ever made profiteroles dipped in caramel then it's two tones past that! Cool the pan down in some water to stop the cooking and add 140ml fish sauce (I use squid brand) mixed with 250 ml water - be careful it will spit. Keep stirring till all the caramel has dissolved completely, you may need to put it back on the heat. That's the sauce made.

I fry off some garlic and spring onion before adding the sauce and your desired fish. Catfish is perfect because it has that fattiness which gives the sauce body. I like to simmer it uncovered for 45 mins. Half way through add a couple of slit bird's eye chillies and right at the end you must add a an absurd amount of freshly ground back pepper - half a teaspoon, it makes all the difference. Lastly garnish with plenty of coriander.

[jmolinari]

thanks prawncrackers...i often make the caramel sauce, i have some in my pantry in fact...i'll try adding som efish sauce and water to it and use it as you describe.

[djyee100]

Prawncrackers, I like that grilled lamb with eggplant & peppers & zatar. Looks delicious.

For last night's dinner, one of my favorite ways to cook salmon, Steamed Salmon with Black Bean Sauce. Salmon steaks are steamed with fermented black beans mixed with garlic, slivered fresh ginger, green onions, and fresno chile. At the end of cooking time the fish is doused with dark soy sauce, followed by a generous pour of hot oil to create a glaze.

The fish is prepped, and ready to be steamed.

Out of the steamer, topped with dark soy sauce followed by hot oil for a glaze.

Served with steamed rice.

A dessert of Philadelphia-style Peach Ice Cream. Great as a soft-serve ice cream, straight from the machine. I like this Philadelphia-style peach ice cream better than most custard-based peach ice creams I've tried. My only regret--it's the end of peach season!

But there's always next summer. To make Philadelphia-style Peach Ice Cream: Puree 3 large, peeled, diced peaches with 3/4 cup sugar in a food processor. Combine with 1 cup cream, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/4 tsp kosher salt. Chill the mixture well and freeze in an ice cream maker. Serve immediately, or pack in a chilled container and let harden in the freezer.

[percyn]

Braised Short Ribs w/Mushroom Marsala Sauce on Goat Cheese Tortellini