Dinner! 2011

[Ann_T]

Everyone is eating well. So many great dinners.

We had simple grilled burgers for dinner tonight. And homemade potato chips.

[Dakki]

We had Pork Chile Verde a few days ago:

Leftovers became "breakfast for dinner" last night - Huevos Salseados:

That looks like dinner/breakfast at Dakki's, only much better.

Well done!

[rarerollingobject]

Dinner tonight was a Korean affair of chicken braised in gochujang (thick, red, chilli paste), with fried eggplant dressed in sesame oil, black pepper and soy sauce. Also some scorched broccoli, rice and a whole lotta kimchi.

Gochujang is such an amazing taste - rich and savoury, deeply umami, with a heat that starts off as nothing but grows into an unbearably good slow burn.

[Dianne]

We are having west coast halibut[the first of the season] for dinner tonight. It is going to look exactly like Anne_T's which is a very lucky thing as I am blind and can't take a pic. ; so just refer to her perfect specmon up thread.

[Jenni]

Stuffed courgettes with a hot garlic-yoghurt sauce and saffron rice with a potato crust. Sorry, the sauce is hiding how gorgeous the courgettes looked.

[kayb]

Gorgeous dinners, everyone! It's been a couple of weeks since I've had a chance to look, and post, so it was a virtual smorgasbord to see everyone's wonderful food.

Finally had a chance to do some cooking this weekend. Friday night, Ann T's Greek meatballs over orzo, with zucchini fritters on the side. They're really not burned, though they look it....

Saturday, flank steak that was destined for the grill but didn't make it because we got home too late from the racetrack. So I seared it in a hot skillet, instead. Perfect rare/medium rare.

Served it with a mixed green salad and a potato gratin:

Today, I made shortcut banh mi with pickled veggies for lunch (and I got that recipe from some blog I read, can't remember which, but if it was anyone on here, thank you; it's wonderful). Rolled it up in a flatbread wrap.

And finally, tonight, fired up the grill; pork chops and chicken breasts. The pork chops were just salted and peppered, grilled and then glazed at the end with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. The chicken breasts were marinated in an orange juice based marinade with Asian spices. Had it with black bean and white corn salad, and mac and cheese that I didn't eat, but the menfolk seemed to love.

[Emily_R]

Dinner was more fun with the new pressure cooker. Made a Spanish-style Arroz con Pollo, with chorizo and saffron... Really tasty and amazingly quick -- 3 minutes cooking, 6 minutes cooling, plus maybe another 5 minutes to come up to pressure. Next time I'll add more chicken fat, as I like a really rich mouth-feel for the rice... My god I love Chorizo though...

[patrickamory]

I made a seur rong hai that somehow turned out celestial. I've made this dish a few times before but never nailed it quite like tonight. I used 25 bird chiles in the Cracking The Coconut recipe - and somehow the result was not quite like anything I've tasted before - sweet, salty, hot, for sure, but with the earthy sharp undertone of the cracked green peppercorns and an overwhelming umami mouth-blossom that was just over the top.

This photo is of a version I made a month or two ago - the coriander garnish was properly (coarsely) chopped and mixed with crushed pork rinds for this version. It was so good i somehow didn't have time to take a photo before it was all gone.

(edit - ah, here's a better picture:)

Edited March 21, 2011 by patrickamory (log)

[heidih]

Patrickamory - the dish is right in my sweet spot. The pork rinds were home made or? Your bird chiles were red ripe or green? - I find a subtle difference despite the heat punch.

[patrickamory]

Patrickamory - the dish is right in my sweet spot. The pork rinds were home made or? Your bird chiles were red ripe or green? - I find a subtle difference despite the heat punch.

Pork rinds were supermarket. Bird chiles were all green - I definitely agree there's a difference. I use a mixture in my prik namm pla (which accompanied this - I use quite a bit of lime juice).

[Knaw]

Duck breast cooked sous vide, stove top style. Served with an orange sauce and lentils du puy. First time cooking duck, second time trying sous vide. It's a bit more rare than the picture indicates, poor lighting and a poor camera phone washed it out a bit.

[Dejah]

Patrickamory: Your seur rong hai will be the perfect recipe for the new package of fresh green peppercorns from the Asian market!

Not sure if I'll be able to handle all those chilis, so maybe I'll scale those down and use more peppercorns.

Thanks for posting this dish. I'm always looking for new ideas for the peppercorns.

[patrickamory]

Dejah - you got fresh green peppercorns? So jealous!

I used dried ones as per the recipe... but really want the fresh ones both for this and for David Thompson's curry of boneless pork shin with fresh green peppercorns, which really has me stumped at the moment (I just bought a jar of pickled brined ones, but I just know that no matter what I do it won't be right for the dish).

[dcarch]

Kim, I like the Chicken marinated in Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce, and the sliced cucumbers and radishes is so beautiful. Interesting St. Pat’s Day corned beef dish.

Cass, Pad Thai and St. Louis Style pizza, How international!

menuinprogress, Pork Chile Verde and Huevos Salseados both look superb.

Dejah, Stir-fried with chicken and Thai mussels and clams, both my favorites.

Ann_t, Home-made chips with home-made burger. Home-made bun :-) ?

rarerollingobject, You have a flair with Asian style cooking.

Jenni, fine-looking Stuffed courgettes!

Kayb, you are cooking up a storm. The frank steak looks gorgeous.

patrickamory, your seur rong hai does look celestial.

Knaw, nice plating beautiful duck breast.

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

Had to make different corned beef dishes for different taste preferences.

Sour vide cooked and presure cooked corned beef.

Home-corned beef (no nitrate) and store bought corned beef.

Two differnce potatoes and two different cabbages.

Dcarch

[djyee100]

Dcarch, I do enjoy your creations. I also spend a lot of time looking at your photos and asking myself, Now how was that done? So...

For the purple cabbage rose, how was that done? It looks like the whole cabbage was cooked, the outer leaves peeled down (very carefully, I would guess), and the top part of the cabbage cut flat. Did you do anything special to the base so that the cabbage would sit just so? Some hints or explanation, please.

ETA: I like those green pepper 4-leaf clovers. They're going on my next St Paddy's Day dinner.

Edited March 21, 2011 by djyee100 (log)

[Jenni]

Dcarch, everything you make is ecstatically beautiful! I wish my photos/dishes came out so good!

[DeliciouslyLekker]

dcarch : BEAUTIFUL! love the colours

[Shelby]

dcarch : BEAUTIFUL! love the colours

I second this!

[Blether]

Yes, nice job on the pepper-clovers and the Irish colours, dcarch. Patrick, I don't even what what wotsitsname-seur is, but put me down for some of that and some of the dahi murgh. Jenni, I'd like to eat some of your food, too.

Here today, though, comfort food hit the spot:

- roast loin of pork. Salted for 60-odd hours, studded with garlic, peppered and roasted on a rack. Roast potatoes aren't so easy with loin because of the 'low & slow' - I opted for mash, which meant I could skive on peeling, too. Gravy from the roasting tray, revved up with a splash of balsamic and, on the spur of the moment, a blob of bitter marmalade just big enough to add character & sweetness without making you think "fruit sauce". This morning, with a bacon sandwich, I finished off the pack I had of imported bacon, leaving me with a pan full of bacon fat & fond. I finished the mash not with butter & milk, but first of all with the roasting fat left over from the gravy, then with some bacon fat and the deglazed bacon fond. Steamed sprouts.

The bacon-y mash works well, the smokiness is a nice twist.

[kayb]

dcarch, I repeat myself for the nth time -- but that was gorgeous. I love your creativity.

Blether, tell me more about salting the pork loin for 60 hours. Was it in a brine, or a dry salt rub? I have one in the freezer waiting for the next time I'm feeding a bunch of folks, and I'd wondered about what brining it would do.

[Blether]

... tell me more about salting the pork loin...

Hi, kayb. I always pre-salt meat, so that the salt-enhanced flavour permeates it. When I've brined pork belly for bacon (in an 80% brine), I've found the salt level gets where I want it in 3.5 days, then I give it more time to equalise throughout the meat. 60 hours is only 2.5 days, and the loin's a bit thicker than belly, but it gets most of the way there and I was ready to cook it, so I did so at that point.

I salted the loin with 3/8tsp salt per pound, which is my standard for boneless meat, in a plastic bag. I just shook it over as evenly as I could from the measuring spoon, turning the meat as needed - if you imagine the meat as a tube shape, you want to coat the surface of the tube but not the ends (if you coat the ends, they will end up saltier than the middle). Then I sucked out the air and twisted the bag closed, and lay it in the fridge. I turned it over maybe three times, each 12 or 24 hours or so, when it was convenient.

I can use a standard volume measurement for salt because I always cook with the same salt - it's not as fine as fine table salt, but isn't much coarser. It's certainly nothing like as big as fancy big-crystal salts like Maldon Sea Salt or what I understand 'Kosher Salt' to be like. I weighed a teaspoon of my salt some time ago and it seemed to be between 4 and 5g, on a scale that's labelled as accurate to within 2

Anyway, if you're starting out with pre-salting, the conventional wisdom is to start with 0.5% salt by weight for an average palate, and adjust from there.

Edited March 21, 2011 by Blether (log)

[ScottyBoy]

I finally got off my ass and took some pictures (and had dinner) of the new stuff I'm making.

Two foot farms pork tenderloin, 60c for 1 hour. Butter bean puree, endive and sauternes syrup.

Chilled block of foie gras mousse, peaches, hazelnuts and sauternes syrup.

Two Foot Farms ribeye 57c for 3 hours, brown butter mash potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower and beef jus.

Edited March 22, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Dejah]

I wanna do food porn like you guys!

I'll have to be happy with my little Pentax for now...maybe forever...

Tonight, we had the Grilled lemongrass Lamb Chops with Herbs from Gourmet, September, 2006. It was a nice change from my usual grilled lamb chops with mint sauce, but I will make modifications next time: more lemongrass, cut out cumin, tumeric so the lemongrass would shine thru' more. I keep searching for that intense lemongrass flavour in stir-fries, grilled meats, etc. Will have to make some lemongrass infused oil, I guess.

[ScottyBoy]

Your food looks delicious and the photos are just all about lighting,angles and plating!

[Genkinaonna]

Dejah- Don't feel bad, I'm still at the camera phone stage of photography!

ScottyBoy- Your meat makes me want to bite the bullet and just buy a SVS already! And if you've got any more of that foie mousse hanging around, I'd be more than willing to take it off your hands...

dcarch-Everything you make is gorgeous, I just ate and I'm hungry again looking at your food!

My husband requested soup tonight, so I made Passato di Ceci (pureed chickpea soup) with garlic croutons and rosemary infused olive oil. I got the recipe from the Food Network site, it's one of Anne Burrell's. Her stuff is usually pretty good, and this didn't disappoint. I don't even like chickpeas but it was delicious. To go along with it, I made the Pizza Rustica from Baking with Julia. I even had them timed well to come out simultaneously, but then I read the last part of the recipe for the Pizza. "Let cool completely before serving. " Dammit...oh well it should make a good breakfast...