Dinner! 2011

[Kim Shook]

dcarch – just gorgeous! Mr. Kim would swoon over that beautiful fish. The salt slabs are smart! And it's nice to know that I'm not alone on the no rare duck issue!

Hot weather dinner tonight (104 with a heat index of 126):

Egg salad, tuna salad, ham and veggies.

And TOTS!!:

(I only heated up the toaster oven)

And a disappointing dessert. Someone at work today told me about a new cupcake shop. Went by and bought 6. Gorgeous cupcakes with really great sounding varieties. I tried two of them tonight – a chocolate buttermilk cake with seven minute frosting and grated coconut and a strawberry limeaid - fresh strawberry cake filled with lime curd and frosted with strawberry buttercream. The chocolate had a funky almost ‘off’ flavor, but the icing was good. The strawberry had absolutely NO strawberry flavor at all and the texture of the cake was gunky and muffiny. Gah. But they were lovely to LOOK at .

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Kim - no worries! If you'd like, I'll run you through how I make bagels (pm me!) I make 6 or 7 different types; those 3-cheese quinua ones were by chance the fastest of the recipes I know which made them suitable for a quick throw-together bread with the soup.

Dcarch - I'm green with envy; I miss salmon sashimi terribly down here. How do you clean your salt blocks after use?

Scotty - amazing scallop. I'll have to try that when they come into season here.

Mjx - now I'm craving rabbit; I'll have to go up the mountain.

I've been in Quito eating at hole-in-the-wall comedores this last couple of days, which means no yummy pictures from me for that period. However, last night I was home with the camera, and we had beef fryup with garden zucchs, fresh mushrooms and asparagus, served in a nest of yoghurt-mashed potatoes with steamed carrots and romanesco. It was quite yummy.

[ScottyBoy]

Great as always, this one is my favorite.

Love this thread, great food everyone!

[Parmhero]

Mega Burger Evolution

For Kim Shook....

"Parmhero – how did you cook your megaburgers? I love that crunchy crustiness that seems to go all around the burger!"--Kim Shook

A: Flame broiled over charcoal (Weber kettle)

Shelby: O yeah!

rarerollingobject: You betcha!

Edited July 23, 2011 by Parmhero (log)

[percyn]

Nice sushi dcarch! Where did you get the Himalayan salt blocks from? I have been wanting some for a while.

Nice burger Parmhero.

Last weekend we had a Louisiana Crab Boil with friends who are originally from New Orleans.

and drank this

One day last week I found a beautifully marbled ribeye steak

and drank with

[gfweb]

I'm in awe of all of your plating, cooking and photography. Wow.

Hot as NYC here in PA. Early dinner tonight designed to use up produce and not heat the kitchen up too much. Basil gazpacho, sun dried tomato meatloaf with basil aioli, and reduced balsamic drizzled tomatoes with shaved parm and basil. Photos so ugly that I deleted them.

Edited July 23, 2011 by gfweb (log)

[percyn]

A few more past dinners:

Truffled Lobster Club Sandwich

Chef's treat - Lobster Tomalley

Roast Pork and Kimchi on Jasmine Rice

[Twyst]

You've obviously been eating well percyn. I miss crab boils so much after moving out of louisiana. That steak and bottle of heitz was also just amazing Im sure!

[dcarch]

Thank you everyone for your excessive compliments.

percyn, I got my salt blocks from eBay. I think I only paid $35.00

Panaderia Canadiense, For myself, cleaning the salt blocks is easy. I just wipe them with a wet paper towel. Salt prevents microbe growth. For inviting friends, I wash them well in the sink.

I also use the heated blocks to cook food. Very nice.

dcarch

[Kim Shook]

Panaderia Canadiense – thank you so much – I’ll PM you later this week! Your beef fryup looks great – kind of like an upsidedown shepherd’s pie! I gotta try that!

Parmhero – thanks for the demo! We have a gas grill and for the most part we like it a lot and I know that we use it MUCH more often than we ever did charcoal. But I think that there is room for a small charcoal grill - for doing things like those gorgeous burgers. Now that Mr. Kim is smoking, he might not be so resistant to messing about with charcoal!

percyn – that crab boil is just summer on a tray! Lovely.

Dinner last night was very simple – just salad, steak and sweet potatoes. I’m not sure where we got these – I THINK it was actually Food Lion, oddly enough (they have improved VASTLY in the last year) – but they were nicely marbled:

The markings on the steaks are from Food Saver bags. When I’m going to freeze steaks I always season them (Montreal steak seasoning and brown sugar), then ‘suck’ them first.

Dinner:

Just SLIGHTLY overdone:

[Jmahl]

Ropa Vieja

[Norm Matthews]

Smoked BBQ Spare Ribs

I got some spare ribs and trimmed them St. Louis. St. Louis isn't a special kind of rib or recipe, it means that regular spare ribs have been trimmer of the flap, the boneless part at the top of the ribs and the membrane plus have had the last couple of small ribs removed and extra fat trimmed away. I had almost three pounds of trimmings which I ground up and will use part of it in a lasagna in the next few days and froze the rest, possibly to end up in a meatloaf at some future date.

I liberally rubbed the cut ribs with The Squeal Hog Rub from Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City.

After marinating them in the rub wrapped in plastic and foil in the refrigerator over night,

I fired up the smoker. It has seen better days but never was much compared to ones I've had before. I am looking forward to having a decent one again. I use charcoal and hickory chunks, not chips. I do not soak the wood in water because I want it to smoke, not steam. Blue smoke is good. If you can't see smoke but smell it, that is OK too. You don't want billowing gray smoke. That means the wood is burning, not smoking. That is not good tasting or good for you. White smoke isn't smoke. It is steam and while steam is going to keep your meat moist, it also makes it difficult to control the heat in the smoke chamber and it does not add very much smoke flavor. You get white smoke from water evaporating from water soaked wood chips.

After 4 1/2 hours in the smoker, part of the time in foil, and then basted with a sauce over direct heat for a few minutes while the sauce cooked in.

Edited July 24, 2011 by Norm Matthews (log)

[robirdstx]

Norm - lovely looking ribs!

Last night, I grilled a couple of Slipper Lobster Tails, all the while basting them with melted garlic butter. I reserved one of the tails for lunch today (see the Lunch topic). The other Tail, with more of the melted garlic butter, and Green Peas with Onion was last night's dinner.

[mgaretz]

Fresh tomatoes from my Dad's garden inspired a summer favorite: cold shrimp with sliced veggies (avocado, cucumber, red pepper along with the tomatoes). This time, however, I did the shrimp sous vide. 140f for 40 minutes then into an ice bath to quick chill them. Once they were cold I removed them from the vacuum pouch, drained them and patted them dry, the chilled in the fridge until dinner. The shrimp was perfect - succulent and not hint of chewiness. They also seemed to retain their size better than my usual quick dunk in boiling water then chill method.

[robirdstx]

Dinner tonight: Carnitas and Avocado on a bed of Romaine with Pico de Gallo, Cilantro and Crema Salvadorena.

[deensiebat]

Celebrated a rare warm day in the Pacific Northwest (we seem to be bucking the trend here) with a simple stir fry of fresh corn, zucchini, and shrimp, with fresh basil and avocado.

[Norm Matthews]

I made Italian sausage with the trimmings from the spare ribs and added it to other ingredients to make lasagna today.

[Zeemanb]

My first attempt at duck was tonight.... I was supposed to do it as part of my eG blog on Sunday but my best intentions to do the Thomas Keller roulade dish did NOT pan out.

Since it was going to be an after-work meal, I put these La Belle Farms breasts the SVS at 135 degrees for 2 hours as soon as I got home. Seared it for about 5 minutes, and made a simple caramelized shallot, honey and toasted sesame sauce to add some sweet flavor.

They came out just great, great crispy fat, plenty of that left in the pan for roasting potatoes this week.

Resting after searing....

On the plate....

[rarerollingobject]

My first attempt at duck was tonight.... I was supposed to do it as part of my eG blog on Sunday but my best intentions to do the Thomas Keller roulade dish did NOT pan out.

Holy cats, that looks amazing! I may have just drooled onto my keyboard a little. You're a workplace health and safety risk, Zeemanb!

[Zeemanb]

My first attempt at duck was tonight.... I was supposed to do it as part of my eG blog on Sunday but my best intentions to do the Thomas Keller roulade dish did NOT pan out.

Holy cats, that looks amazing! I may have just drooled onto my keyboard a little. You're a workplace health and safety risk, Zeemanb!

Oh, it's no Uni On Toast, but it was still pretty good .

The test was whether or not the wife would like it, and she really did. The star of the dish was the improvisational sauce though. We agreed that next time we do some good pork chops or loin it will make a comeback. Nothing but a couple of caramelized shallots, a few tablespoons of honey, a couple teaspoons of sesame seeds and just enough chicken stock to keep it from gumming up as it cooked down.

[percyn]

For the regulars on the Dinner! thread who may be missing RRO's postings, check out her eG fooldblog in progress here.

[Kim Shook]

Norm – I am too hot to even think about cooking tonight (I had tuna salad for dinner), but I wish I had a plate of that lasagna! It looks fantastic!

Jerry – beautiful sear on your duck! And the sauce sounds great. I agree – it would be good with pork chops, too!

Well, I finally made bacon jam. Between kayb in the breakfast thread and Jerry’s blog, I’ve been hearing about it for months and decided I couldn’t stand it anymore. It is TRULY fantastic. Thank you for providing the recipe, kayb! I told Mr. Kim that I would have to quit work and stay home and make bacon jam on a regular basis, so we wouldn’t ever run out. Bacon Jam:

I made Jake’s bacon wrapped pork loin for dinner the other night:

We liked this very much, Jake! The mustard/syrup glaze is wonderful!

Along with red cabbage and Rice A Roni (a guilty pleasure in the Shook household):

And cheese/chive rolls with BACON JAM:

As you can see, I totally cheated and instead of making Jerry's poppers, I used Sister Shubert's rolls. I brushed them with melted butter then sprinkled with chives and Cheddar.

Our aperitif:

Peach nectar, sparkling wine and Grand Marnier. Very good. Please ignore the cobwebs in the window . We can’t figure out how to get to them to remove them. When we put the window up – they slide up; when we put the top window down, we can’t get to them .

[percyn]

Tonight's dinner - Crown's Fried Chicken on a Waffle

Another meal from about a week ago which I neglected to post:

Juicy Lucy topped with onions slow cooked for 24 hrs.

ETA: Wish I had some bacon jam from Kim to top this burger with.

Edited July 28, 2011 by percyn (log)

[Zeemanb]

Well, I finally made bacon jam. Between kayb in the breakfast thread and Jerry’s blog, I’ve been hearing about it for months and decided I couldn’t stand it anymore. It is TRULY fantastic. Thank you for providing the recipe, kayb! I told Mr. Kim that I would have to quit work and stay home and make bacon jam on a regular basis, so we wouldn’t ever run out.

Way to go! I'm telling you, I have no idea why the east side of Aisle 9 at Price Chopper doesn't go....ketchup, mustard, relish, BACON JAM, mayo...... this stuff just makes sense as a part of daily life. It sounds decadent, and it is, but you render way more fat out of the bacon than if you were just to fry and eat it. Plus, a little bit goes a LONG way. Total healthy food, lol!

Welcome to The Matrix.....you just shifted your reality by making that stuff.

[ScottyBoy]

Tonight's dinner - Crown's Fried Chicken on a Waffle

Yeeesssssss...

Edited July 28, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)