Dinner! 2011

[robirdstx]

robirdstx, for the salt and pepper spare ribs there are a number of steps but it's fairly easy once you've learnt it:

- Marinate ribs with a little soy and shaosing wine

- Steam them gently for 45-60 mins till cooked and tender. Cool a little before dredging them in potato or corn starch and deep frying till crispy.

- Prepare the salt and pepper mix. Toast a tsp of Sichaun pepper and a tsp of salt till the pepper is smoking a little then grind into a fine powder. Do this as late as possible because the pepper will lose it's pungency quickly.

- Chop up the chillies, i used sharp tasting thin green chillies and hot red birds eye, a lot, about a dozen in total. Finely mince 4 fat cloves of garlic too. Important that you mince the garlic so that they are tiny pieces and not a paste.

- Fry the garlic and chillies gently in some oil, be careful as they will burn very quickly. Keep stirring, then add the ribs and the salt and pepper mix. Toss them all together and plate up this extravagantly aromatic dish.

Prawncrackers It took me more than a year but I finally used your recipe. Thank you. We loved them. No leftovers!

[kayb]

dcarch, I'd be your Valentine any day for a dinner like that. I'm always in awe of your plating (and photography), but every time I think you've outdone yourself....you do it again!

Scottyboy, that fudge bar and ice cream had me swooning.

Lovely meals, all!

I haven't cooked in a week. Last week's meteorological blizzard has translated to a blizzard at work this week. I did manage a fine dinner last night at our local "best restaurant" -- champagne truffle soup, with a brie/crostini "grilled cheese," and a surf and turf with a marvelous filet and lobster, and plentiful pourings of Stag's Leap petite syrah....

[judiu]

(snippage)

And salad: Artichoke hearts, palm hearts, napa hearts with rose petals

dcarch

(more snippage)

"... in an octopuses' garden in the shade." (Ringo Starr song, I think...)

[Blether]

Almost finished, aka a reheating of some of, the pot-roast pork shoulder that I cooked off the other morning and posted in "Breakfast".

Edited February 19, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Borgstrom]

New Mexican rubbed pork tenderloin with bourbon-ancho sauce from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook; also with roasted red pepper sauce and cilantro oil.

[ScottyBoy]

12 hour pork belly, 48 hour short rib, butter beans puree, toy box carrots and onions and port syrup.

[Rico]

Scottyboy, that dish is a thing of beauty.

[David Ross]

12 hour pork belly, 48 hour short rib, butter beans puree, toy box carrots and onions and port syrup.

Very nice.

[David Ross]

Steelhead Trout, Barley, Hazelnuts, Brown Butter=

[C. sapidus]

Gorgeous meals, all. It is nice to be able to post pictures again after a computer crash.

Oven-baked spicy chicken (bhooni murg), a simple recipe from The Indian Spice Kitchen. Chicken drumsticks were briefly marinated in a paste of cayenne, turmeric, allspice, garam masala, garlic, ginger, and lemon juice. The chicken was wrapped in foil, baked, and then unwrapped and broiled to crisp the skin. The process yielded tender, juicy chicken with a spicy crust.

Pilaf-style basmati rice with onion, cloves, cardamom, garam masala, chicken stock, and peas. High scores from the boys, as usually happens when we have a late dinner, hunger being the best pickle and all.

[Emily_R]

I tried something new tonight and was pleased -- brussels sprouts in black bean sauce! I had never thought of going Chinese with brussels sprouts, but it was delicious. I added a little ground pork and a little ginger, but other wise it was pretty much this recipe, with a little chicken stock + cornstarch to make it a tiny bit saucy. Really really good.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/brussels_sprouts_with_black_bean_garlic_sauce/

Edited February 20, 2011 by Emily_R (log)

[Kim Shook]

Scott – lovely, lovely Valentine’s dinner! What a lucky lady you have.

Ann – thanks for the link to the corn recipe. I’m making it tonight. And that beef is absolutely GORGEOUS! You and Marlene are my beef goddesses!

David – I love the looks of your trout dish and the combination of flavors sounds wonderful.

Bruce – PICTURES!!!! The drumsticks look lovely and sound really easy to do. I’ll have to try that method.

Dinner night before last was Salt & Pepper Fried Shrimp, fries, slaw w/ a creamy Vidallia onion dressing and corn bread. The shrimp was my version of a recipe from The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le. The dredge was rice flour, cornstarch, pepper, sugar and garlic powder – very crisp and light. We liked this a lot. The sauce was a mixture of coconut cream, soy sauce, hot Chinese mustard and plum sauce.

[patrickamory]

Last night I brined some unpeeled gulf shrimp in a basic sugar-salt mixture for 40 minutes to add snap and pungency. Cleaned them and deep-fried them in 350-degree corn oil for 10-15 seconds per side.

Served with jasmine rice, leftover spinach pachadi (Maya Kaimal recipe in yogurt), and a selection of pickles and chutneys.

[Kim Shook]

Dinner tonight was chicken marinated in Soy Vay, with the same sauce that I used on the Salt & Pepper Shrimp the other night, southern green beans, slaw and Ann T’s corn custard, which was fabulous. :

Thanks, Ann!

Dessert was banana bread:

[kayb]

Tonight: Lasagna and garlic bread.

Last night, a slice of Honey Cornmeal yeast bread:

Slathered with the fruits of my first attempt at makign homemade ricotta:

[Blether]

A mundane main course, made up for by putting some effort into dessert. Yesterday a friend very kindly gave me a gift of half a dozen yuzu from her garden. That was enough to prompt me once again to look out Marguerite Patten's 1920's recipe for a lemon sponge pudding, and to sub the yuzu for lemon. Notable features of the sponge are that it uses no eggs, and twice as much breadcrumbs as flour. The recipe proposes a sauce stretched with water and thickened with arrowroot - I copped out and just mixed juice & zest with honey for something scarcer but punchier:

I microwaved the sponge and it was done in all of 8 minutes.

[menuinprogress]

Smoked turkey enchiladas with chili gravy, rice, beans and salsa fresca:

[Dejah]

Long weekend with daughter and fiance home always kills any diet plans I may have. Ryan-Boy is quite the cook and loves to mix up his own dry rubs and sauces for ribs.

Sat. night we had lobster tails and bison strip loin steaks.

Sunday was Ryan's dynamite ribs which nearly did this future m-i-l in!

Tonight, Louis Riel Day is clean out the freezer of seafood night. Not sure what we'll be doing yet, but there are 2 dungeness crabs, a bag of Alaskan king crab legs and claws, 8 soft-shell crabs, and tins of crab meat for crab cakes.

[Ann_T]

Kim, I'm glad you enjoyed the Corn Custard.

I'm not sure which one I want more - Dejah's Ribs or Menuinprogress's Turkey Enchiladas. Both have my mouth watering.

We had dinner with our neighbours Friday night

To start we had a simple and very quick appetizer of warm goat cheese on little cocktail toasts topped with a toasted walnut and a drizzle of olive oil.

Dinner was pasta with a sausage and rosemary sauce with Gorgonzola Garlic Bread.

Another dinner this week - Greek Meatballs made with ground chicken breasts instead of pork/beef. Although they should have been served with other Greek sides, it was a work night so I opted for something easy and served them over egg noodles.

[robirdstx]

Red Snapper and Broccoli

[Dejah]

Ann_T: Any specific recipe for the Greek meatballs? I like the idea of using ground chicken breasts, which I have a lot of on hand.

To reward my future s-i-l Ryan for fixing the bathroom sink and my computers, at his request, seafood night!

We had steamed dungeness crab, Alaskan King Crab with ginger, cilantro, and Chinese wine, soft shell crab, and Emeril's crab cakes.

[C. sapidus]

Dejah, you and future s-i-l chose new family members very well from a food perspective. Was there a cooking test involved?

Menuinprogress, those enchiladas look delicious. What kind of sauce did you use?

Ann_T, fabulous meals as always, but Gorgonzola garlic bread has my mouth watering.

[Ann_T]

Dejah, My husband would be thrilled with your crab feast. You can find the meatball recipe here.

RobirdTX, your fish looks perfectly cooked. Great picture.

Sunday night's dinner was Italian Style Baked Halibut.

Served with roasted potatoes and sauted spinach.

and last night we had Greek again.

Greek ribs with potatoes AND rice and a Greek Salad.

[menuinprogress]

Menuinprogress, those enchiladas look delicious. What kind of sauce did you use?

Thanks, Bruce! The dish was our take on Tex-Mex (hence the unapologetic liberal use of yellow cheese). The sauce was a Chili Gravy recipe from Robb Walsh's "The Tex-Mex Cookbook". I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it was very good.

[djyee100]

Borgstrom, I liked that pork tenderloin with the bourbon-ancho sauce. I'll have to check out the recipe in Flay's cookbook.

Not much cooking here, as I approach a project deadline. I thought about cooking up the odd assortment of ingredients in my fridge and posting, but instead I finished off a leftover bottle of wine. The rest of dinner will be leftovers, too.