Dinner! 2011

[robirdstx]

It has been a long time, but finally Chicken Wings!

[percyn]

Had a few guests over for an impromptu causal dinner party.

Started with some appetizers of

Charcuterie

Portuguese Sardines in lemon oil

Butternut Squash Soup w/truffle butter, fried sage and roasted cashews

Porcini Risotto (not pictured)

Dry Aged Prime Ribeye w/Duck fat roasted Fingerling potatoes, redwine sauce & Hericot Verts

Dessert was a cheese plate.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to photograph the finished product.

[kayb]

Have been cooking in my daughter's kitchen the past week, visiting her and her husband and my brand new grandchild. A bit limited -- you don't THINK to buy things like, oh, baking powder, that aren't staples for her -- but I managed to turn out some decent dinners:

Organic, grass-fed rib-eyes, from my local organic farmer, that I took up there with me for a celebratory home-from-the-hospital dinner:

Short ribs, which after browning got braised in a lovely tomato ragu, heavy on paprika, and served with gnocchi and carrot croquettes topped with yogurt sauce:

It was my maiden attempt at making gnocchi, but I had a bunch of homemade ricotta I needed to use, that I had taken up there with me. So I made about 5 1/2 dozen, cooked 2 dozen, and froze the rest. Discovered you CAN, in fact, make gnocchi with gluten-free flour.

And shrimp enchiladas in chile verde sauce.

[rarerollingobject]

percyn, the marbling on that beef is fantastic..

kayb, your gnocchi are very cute. I keep meaning to make a ricotta-only version, you've reminded me to get onto it!

Dinner for a beautifully sunny day here in Sydney was grilled mackerel, with a rhubarb and Pimm's sauce I improvised. Side of only-just-sauteed zucchini with flaked almonds, lemon zest and black pepper. Along with a very restorative gin and tonic beforehand.

[Blether]

That looks delicious. And sunshine too ! Here at Blether towers we celebrated this morning's snow with a dinner of leek gratin & grilled beef. The latter because last night it had to be salty, browned meat and it was too late for roasting. The Aussie sirloin looked so good and the price was so keen that I bought over a kilo of it in a piece, and cubed & salted the lot - that's last night, tonight, and more in the freezer.

Last time I made a gratin, I saved a couple of containers of mornay sauce in the fridge, so this was a 15 minute meal - 6 minutes for 3 chopped leeks in the microwave, 5 or so to heat the cheese sauce, these mixed in the gratin dish, and grilling all round. Served with a slab of toast (not shown):

[MiFi]

Hockey Night Steak Sandwiches w/carmalized onions and melted Grosse Ile cheese

Lemon Roasted Chicken w/sauted mushrooms, broth-simmered rice

[Cass]

Everything looks great!

I made pizza last night.

[Ann_T]

Cass Now that is a pizza. Perfect crust.

Baked halibut was on the menu last night.

Ready for the oven

Ten minutes later.

[nikkib]

ohmy that mackeral with courgette & rhubarb and pimms looks amazing - and with a G&T too... mmmm how did you make the sauce? Was it just rhubarb cooked down with the pimms?

[heidih]

That is a gorgeous piece of halibut Ann_T. What was in the bread crumb topping?

[rarerollingobject]

ohmy that mackeral with courgette & rhubarb and pimms looks amazing - and with a G&T too... mmmm how did you make the sauce? Was it just rhubarb cooked down with the pimms?

Thanks for your kind words. The rhubarb was pretty basic.. sliced it into short lengths, sprinkled with a little sugar, and baked for 20 minutes in a moderately hot oven. Then I reduced some Pimm's in a saute pan, stirred in the rhubarb, and adjusted the taste with a little sherry vinegar. And a lot of black pepper!

[Dejah]

I'm also curious about the bread crumbs on the halibut. Sprinkled on top? Was the fish dredged in egg wash then crumbs?

I made a variant of Ann's Greek turkey meatballs / into burgers without the raw rice, and added cumin and mint instead of oregano. It was still delicious with the avgolomono sauce even tho' it curdled 'cos I was too busy with the grill. We had grilled veg, jasmine rice and some stir-fried oyster mushrooms.

This was all cooked on the Jenn-Air grill.

[robirdstx]

I had some St. Louis-style pork spare ribs in the freezer that I had purchased when on sale last month. It was time to cook them! After thawing them out over night in the fridge and pulling off the silver skin this morning, I put on a Montreal steak rub and put them back into the fridge to rest for four hours. This afternoon, I added some pork stock and soy sauce to the pan, covered the ribs with foil, and put them into a 450F oven for about 75 minutes. Then out of the oven, slathered with bbq sauce, wrapped in fresh foil, and back into a 225F oven for about an hour and a half. I planned to give them a final sear on the grill but when I opened the foil and tried to lift them, they literally fell off the bone. We turned off the grill and called them done!

[Pilori]

Tonight was kimchi soup from some left over homemade kimchi that wasn't turned into fried rice!

[Ann_T]

Heidih I used fresh grated breadcrumbs. Sauted them in butter, seasoned with minced garlic, salt, pepper and parsley. Sprinkled on the halibut and squeezed a lemon over the fish before baking in a 450°F oven for about 10 minutes.

Dejah No, I don't use an egg wash.

Your burgers look great. Just so you know, I use my cheater version of the Avgolemono sauce. Made with a roux, chicken broth and lemon juice, minus the eggs. You don't have to worry about it curdling.

Ann

[rarerollingobject]

The halibut looks so juicy and meaty, very appealing.

I made a pretty basic meal, broccoli soup with feta and bacon garnish. And sourdough toast, topped with thin slices of lardo and then grilled till the lardo melted into porky goodness and little crispy nubbins.

[MiFi]

David Eyre's Pancake - NY Times 1966

[Dejah]

Using fresh produce from Chinese supermarket in Winnipeg - Lucky Supermarket. Tonight, Chinese celery stir-fried with fresh shitaki mushrooms and waterchestnut. Lovely flavour of the crisp celery mingled well with the sweetness of the waterchestnuts and the earthiness of the mushrooms.

Lemongrass beef with fresh green peppercorns and Thai basil.

Had this dish at Mama's Noodle House in Wpg. It had a stronger lemongrass flavour. I tried to infuse the oil in the wok with lots of smashed lemongrass before I stir-fried the beef with lots of finely chopped lemongrass. Didn't get as strong a flavour. Any ideas?

[dcarch]

rarerollingobject, grilled mackerel, gin and tonic Great pairing! Broccoli soup sure look healthy.

Blether, leek gratin & grilled beef, great for a snowy day!

MiFi, Lemon Roasted Chicken w/sauted mushrooms, nice presentation.

Cass, good looking pie. Expertly done.

Ann_t, With such incredible looking Baked halibut, you will sure cause halibut to be endangered.

Dejah, wonderful Greek burgers. Very creative. Beautiful Lemongrass beef.

robirdstx, A big WOW for your St. Louis-style pork spare ribs!

Pilori, I have never used kimchi for soup. Thanks for the idea.

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I made Gumbo with whatever I had on hand for Fat Tuesday. Probably not very authentic. I was told that it tasted very good.

Dcarch

[C. sapidus]

Glorious meals, all, with particular shout-outs to Ann_T's beautiful halibut and dcarch's gumbo enveloping the great pyramid. Computer time is limited because the family is sharing one computer at the moment, but here are dinners from the last two evenings:

Keema matar - ground beef, peas, tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic, yogurt, chiles, lemon juice, cilantro, and the usual pantry full of spices (cayenne, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and garam masala). One of our favorite weeknight meals, although I prefer ground lamb when available. Basmati rice and eternal cucumbers.

Chicken tacos with salsa verde, Swiss chard, and queso fresco - a remarkable amount of this disappeared, even though younger son picked out most of the greens. Corn tortillas for the grown-ups; flour tortillas for the boys.

[djyee100]

Mmm, the keema matar and tacos look delicious.

The recipe for dinner here came from an unusual source, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, via his new autobiography, Life. I recently finished the book. Besides fascinating accounts of the rock scene, world fame, harrowing drug addiction, and musicmaking, Richards reveals that he cooks for himself because of his erratic hours (dinner at 3AM) and gives his recipe for traditional British bangers and mash. I decided to give the recipe a go.

The recipe says to cook the sausages with onions and bacon. I kinda did this. To cook the sausages, I set them in a skillet with a little water over high heat. When all the water had evaporated and the sausages were sizzling in their fat, I tossed in the onions and bacon pieces, lowered the heat to medium, and let everything cook until the onions were soft and caramelized. There were yummy brown bits in the skillet, so I deglazed the pan with a little white wine. (The British do this, don't they?)

When I got to the mashed potatoes part, I felt like eating parslied potatoes. I tossed hot cooked potatoes (Yukon Golds) with olive oil and parsley, let it all sit for awhile, then finished it off with champagne vinegar and salt. No peas in the house, so I opted for some fresh kale delivered by my CSA yesterday. I sauteed the kale with garlic.

The result, bangers and "mash" that took a detour through California. It tasted good.

In his book Richards tells how one of his son's friends swiped the raw onions while he was cooking a late-night snack of bangers and mash for himself. The boy thought it was a good joke. Richards thought differently. He tore down two decorative sabers from his mantelpiece and ran off into the night after the miscreant. Never caught him, though. Really, it is annoying when someone bothers you while you're cooking.

Richards' original recipe is here.

http://mysticrock.blogspot.com/2010/11/keith-richards-bangers-mash-recipe-feat.html

[Ann_T]

Djyee What a great dinner. My husband loves anything with fried onions. I know that this is a dinner that he would be thrilled with. I work the next four days and I think this would be an easy meal to make for dinner. Just need to pick up some sausage. What kind of sausage did you use?

Bruce I would love one your "grownup" tacos.

DC, who cares if it is authentic, your Gumbo looks delicious.

Yesterday was a "play in the kitchen" day. I made......

Rye Bread,

French Baguettes,

Tuna Pate,

Homemade pasta

and a pot of Bolognese Sauce.

[djyee100]

What kind of sausage did you use?

I bought fresh sausages labelled "pork bangers" at my local Whole Foods. Any mild pork sausage will do.

ETA: I parcooked the sausages with a little water in the skillet to even out the cooking time with the onions and bacon. That's something to watch out for.

Edited March 10, 2011 by djyee100 (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Dry Aged Prime Ribeye w/Duck fat roasted Fingerling potatoes, redwine sauce & Hericot Verts

Wow, Percyn that marbling is really striking. It really goes to show the difference between grain and grass fed. I cooked up a treat for my buddies birthday last week; a rib of Dexter beef, well aged and by UK standards nicely marbled. Grass-fed of course, and utterly delicious with ample natural beef flavour. The rib was actually too big to fit into my biggest saute pan so i had to lop a bit off. We had it with grilled lobster and mammoth king prawns. There were other sundries but the plate was getting a little crowded to photo! First time cooking surf n' turf, not sure if it works for me, maybe too much of a good thing?

Anyway not been posting much on the Dinner thread recently but I have been gawping at all your delicious meals. You guys went through a Mexican phase a couple of weeks ago, I think you were all subconsciously inspiring each other. Well it worked for me as I decided to do something with the dried chillies that have been hanging around my cupboard. I toasted some ancho, pasilla and chipotle chillies, soaked then blitzed them with some garlic, cumin and cinnamon to make a 'mole'. Then roast/braised a load of veal shins in the sauce with a little water till tender then shredded the meat and put back into the now thick sauce. I don't know what to call these, it was a fly-by-seat-of-pants type dish so i'm sure that they are in no way authentic, if i had to guess then Veal Carnitas maybe? What I do know is that with the guacamole and tomato/cucumber/radish salsa it tasted pretty amazing:

Oh and a midweek standby for us, Tonkatsu:

[Jmahl]

Roast Duck with root veggies.