Dinner! 2011

[C. sapidus]

Scotty Boy - I'm still waiting for my potluck invitation. No bacon jam here . . .

Marinated chicken wings overnight with minced lemongrass, garlic, cilantro stems, turmeric, white pepper, and salt. Grilled over charcoal with a little hickory smoke wood. Served with coconut rice, green salad, and some remarkably sweet and crunchy raw carrots.

[Dejah]

Bruce! We were on the same wave length! But, your wings are prettier.

One whole cut-up chicken marinated overnight in lemongrass, cilantro, fresh green peppercorns, ginger, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves,Thai chili peppers, a bit of palm sugar, olive oil, lemon juice then grilled. The charred veg. bits were very tasty, as was the chicken. I squeezed a drizzle of lemon juice onto the chicken just before eating. AND...jasmine rice soaking up the extra butter from the corn was pretty dang tasty too!

Dessert was more of the saskatoon berries, blueberries, and salty roasted walnuts and vanilla ice cream...

Edited August 2, 2011 by Dejah (log)

[dcarch]

ScottyBoy - Boy Oh Boy! You have out done yourself this time. That’s no pot luck dinner, that’s a feast!.

Percyn – very nice bacon jam. Indeed, you used the jam properly. What a burger!

Parmhero – I like your TV dinner very much.

Kim – that’s one enormous chicken and it looks enormously delicious. The grilled ribs plate with baked beans, slaw and spoonbread is totally comfarting.

FrogPrincesse – I will hire you to make me that grilled veal chop. Beautiful fresh basil angel hair pasta & mozzarella.

Dejah – That’s another BBQ chicken I will have to try.

Shelby – Fried green watermelon, wow! I will need to grow my own because they don’t sell green watermelons. Lovely smoked pork roast.

David Ross – It is your grilled game hen that inspired me to make my sous vide / grilled game hen.

robirdstx – It is your pizza that inspired me to make a pizza.

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What can you put in between the layer of dough and mozzarella cheese topping?

I have a good supply of cherry tomatoes and squash blossoms from my garden, so I made a blossom/cherry tomato pizza.

The blossoms were stuffed with blue cheese and chopped mushrooms. Every time I sink my teeth into a cherry tomato, it just burst like caviar with sweet jell.

My apologies to pizza purists.

After the pizza, I still had more blossoms. I quick-boiled the blossoms in concentrated juice from my sous vide Cornish hen. As you know, squash blossoms have a delicate perfume, which disappears after most cooking, but boiled quickly the blossoms seemed to have retained some of their floral fragrance.

My apologies to all those who insist that deep frying squash blossoms is the only way.

Dcarch

[C. sapidus]

Bruce! We were on the same wave length! But, your wings are prettier.

I dunno - your chicken sounds way more fun than ours. And I will definitely take seconds on that dessert.

dcarch, all of your pictures are gorgeous, but the Cornish hen with its halo of squash blossoms is particularly so.

[mgaretz]

Well the plan last night was to make char siu sous vide and then use it in a stir fry. I used a packaged char siu marinade mix as a rub on one of those thin, cylindrical tenderloins and vacuum packed it and ket it "marinate" for 24 hours. Then 5 hours at 135F. I fired up the grill and basted the pork in honey while waiting for the grill to heat. I went outside to check the temp and it was only 200F - I had run out of propane. I keep a spare tank so I went back inside, set the pork on the dining room table (it's near the door to the patio) and changed the tank and fired up the grill again. I went back inside to wait for the grill to come back up to temp.

There was an empty plate on the table and a guilty but happy-looking dog staring at me!

Defrosted some shrimp and saved the dinner. I did cook the shrimp sous vide (25 minutes at 140F) and then tossed it in at the end. The shrimp was great this way.

When I repeat the experiment, I'll take pictures. I was too depressed to snap the stir-fry. I was sooo looking forward to that pork!

[rarerollingobject]

ScottyBoy, that's a lovely meal - I like the look of the eggplant especially.

Percyn, that hot dog is positively indecent!

C. Sapidus and Dejah, those are great Thai preparations for chicken wings. I ate some in Bangkok that were incredibly delicious, and sweet with a lick of coconut milk made them particularly golden as the sugars in the milk caramelise on grilling. Good times.

dcarch, that is a ridiculously beautiful meal. Just amazing. I too am always looking for other treatments for zucchini flowers and have steamed and baked them, but will have to try boiling.

mgaretz, that really made me laugh! I really wish you'd taken a photo of your dog's pleased but shamed face! Hehe.

Dinner here was a pan fried snapper dusted in ras el-hanout, zucchini sauteed with flaked almonds and lemon zest, and a fennel, orange, radish and spinach salad dressed with some lovely mandarin-flavoured Australian olive oil.

And dessert; Aperol and soda into which I squeezed a huge and juicy pomegranate.

[percyn]

I too made my first batch of bacon jam! Two days ago I came back from Walla Walla with a precious 10# bag of sweets, so I used two of those to 1 lb bacon. And yes, bourbon. Percy, did you use balsamic vinegar in addition to apple cider vinegar, or just balsamic? My dinner last night included bacon jam & black prince tomato sandwiches on a rustic baguette.

..

Katie, I used about 2 tbsp of high quality balsamic vinegar at the very end to give it an extra kick.

[Shelby]

ScottyBoy - Boy Oh Boy! You have out done yourself this time. That’s no pot luck dinner, that’s a feast!.

Percyn – very nice bacon jam. Indeed, you used the jam properly. What a burger!

Parmhero – I like your TV dinner very much.

Kim – that’s one enormous chicken and it looks enormously delicious. The grilled ribs plate with baked beans, slaw and spoonbread is totally comfarting.

FrogPrincesse – I will hire you to make me that grilled veal chop. Beautiful fresh basil angel hair pasta & mozzarella.

Dejah – That’s another BBQ chicken I will have to try.

Shelby – Fried green watermelon, wow! I will need to grow my own because they don’t sell green watermelons. Lovely smoked pork roast.

David Ross – It is your grilled game hen that inspired me to make my sous vide / grilled game hen.

robirdstx – It is your pizza that inspired me to make a pizza.

---------------------------------------------------- - - - - -- -

What can you put in between the layer of dough and mozzarella cheese topping?

I have a good supply of cherry tomatoes and squash blossoms from my garden, so I made a blossom/cherry tomato pizza.

The blossoms were stuffed with blue cheese and chopped mushrooms. Every time I sink my teeth into a cherry tomato, it just burst like caviar with sweet jell.

My apologies to pizza purists.

After the pizza, I still had more blossoms. I quick-boiled the blossoms in concentrated juice from my sous vide Cornish hen. As you know, squash blossoms have a delicate perfume, which disappears after most cooking, but boiled quickly the blossoms seemed to have retained some of their floral fragrance.

My apologies to all those who insist that deep frying squash blossoms is the only way.

Dcarch

Absolutely breathtaking.

Reminds me of my Kansas sunflowers!

[FrogPrincesse]

Dinner here was a pan fried snapper dusted in ras el-hanout, zucchini sauteed with flaked almonds and lemon zest, and a fennel, orange, radish and spinach salad dressed with some lovely mandarin-flavoured Australian olive oil.

Kate - I was looking for a simple recipe for the "zephyr squash" that I got last week in my CSA and am inspired by your dish (which looks fantastic, as usual).

Is the shredded zucchini simply sauteed in olive oil with the almonds and lemon zest? I am thinking of using some lemon confit for this.

[percyn]

Beautiful presentation as always dcarch.

[rarerollingobject]

Kate - I was looking for a simple recipe for the "zephyr squash" that I got last week in my CSA and am inspired by your dish (which looks fantastic, as usual).

Is the shredded zucchini simply sauteed in olive oil with the almonds and lemon zest? I am thinking of using some lemon confit for this.

Very pretty zucchini, those. My zucchini is indeed simply shredded in the food processor (grating makes it too pulpy and damp). First I browned some almonds in some olive oil, added the zucchini, warmed through and added salt, pepper and lemon zest. Sometimes I like to serve with shaved parmesan on top, or with fresh or dried mint and lots of black pepper. Either way, the key (to my taste) is to barely warm the zucchini - softening it a tiny bit but without letting it go soft and mushy. I think lemon confit would be lovely with it!

[robirdstx]

robirdstx – It is your pizza that inspired me to make a pizza...

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After the pizza, I still had more blossoms. I quick-boiled the blossoms in concentrated juice from my sous vide Cornish hen.

dcarch - always happy to help!

Your Cornish hen and squash blossoms made me think of an American Indian headdress. And the colors reminded me that Fall is not too far away. Just beautiful!

Edited August 2, 2011 by robirdstx (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Another simple weeknight dinner - Grilled prime rib-eye, zephyr and eight ball squash with almonds, homemade lemon confit and parmigiano reggiano (inspired by Kate upthread), a couple of grilled Padrón peppers sprinkled with fleur de sel from Ile de Ré in France, sourdough batard from Bread and Cie, and a glass of 2001 Bordeaux.

Dessert was a scoop of David Lebovitz's delicious and ultra-rich chocolate ice cream from the Perfect Scoop.

Edited August 4, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[threestars]

@dcarch so that small orange circle on your pizza is a tomato? Never seen such a small tomato like that.

It looks really great!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Epic burgers of epicness (although they were slider-sized) as part of a tasting contract with a local restaurant. We provided the burgers, and they provided the beer and eager palates. Roaring success all round. The buns, which aren't that visible in the photos, were my own 7-grain and honey whole wheat.

Satay Burger with spicy pickled cabbage (Best burger by consensus among the chefs and owner)

Smoky BBQ Burger

Mushrooms in Golden Mushroom Cream Burgers

Cheeseburger and Mushroom Cheeseburger

Edited August 4, 2011 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[robirdstx]

With it being so darn hot, we've been doing most of our cooking on the grill. Last night we had boneless pork shoulder "country style ribs".

After getting some good grill marks, we moved the "ribs" to in-direct heat to finish, slathering them with KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce during the last ten minutes.

[Parmhero]

Mr. Mo's Mighty Mind Blow Gyro

[percyn]

WoW! Now I want one of those!

Is that lamb or beef?

Edited August 4, 2011 by percyn (log)

[nikkib]

count me in too - yummmmmmmmmm

[ScottyBoy]

Chicken?

Want

[Prawncrackers]

It's been a while since I last posted dinner but I've been off cooking anything involved due to gout in my finger. My right middle finger to be precise so holding a knife was darned near impossible for about a month. It's still a little stiff now but I managed to break down half a middle white pig last week so I would say I'm on the road to recovery. What better way than to make some pig dishes.

First off I made some andouille and ribs for Southern BBQ Cookoff we had here in good ol' Birmingham, UK:

More details of the cookoff can be found from Brummie bloggers here and here. The andouille i was particular pleased with, hot off the smoker was just incredible.

With some leftover sausage I made pizza. Asparagus and wet garlic too:

Sous-vide pork chops, a basic mole poblano style sauce, pico de gallo and green rice.... and because I know you people like this sort of thing, a close up of the crispy pork rinds.

Finally tonight we had some friends around and before our pork main course we had crab and samphire linguine. My go-to favourite!

With the pork was pearl couscous and a refreshing raw and pickled beetroot salad.

[percyn]

Just AMAZING Prawn.

How did you get the pork rind so crispy, is it fried?

[mgaretz]

Last night was pizza with home made low carb crust, sauce, fresh heirloom tomatoes from the CSA, chicken basil sausage (which I pre-browned), red bell pepper and mozarella. The cheese was Kraft shredded because the package states "zero grams of lactose per serving" which is not the same as lactose-free. When I asked Kraft how much was really there, they couldn't tell me. I am happy to report that two slices didn't have negative effect on this very intolerant person.

[robirdstx]

Inspired by Panaderia Canadiense‘s QA-BLAT sandwich on the Breakfast Topic, dinner tonight:

BLT Salad with Avocado, Cheddar and Black Olives

[FrogPrincesse]

My favorite burgers for dinner tonight - the Grilled Pork Burgers from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, aka triple pork burgers.

The patty is ground pork, chorizo, and diced homemade maple-cured hickory-smoked bacon, seasoned with sauteed shallots and garlic, roasted cumin, herbes de Provence, parsley, and chile de arbol. On top, a slice of Manchego cheese and a little pile of baby arugula. The bun is an onion roll from Sadie Rose, a local bakery. My husband added some barbecue sauce on his (pictured); for mine I used aioli.

I made these many times in the past but it's the first time I cook them on the grill and they were even more delicious this time.

Dessert was local blackberries with a little vanilla sugar. They were a little tart - I guess they will get better later in the season.

Edited August 5, 2011 by FrogPrincesse (log)