Dinner! 2011

[PopsicleToze]

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So I made some roasted marrow bones. The bones were also smoked with rosemary first.

Of course I had to make some bread also for the marrow.

Dcarch

Dcarch, those roasted marrow bones look fantastic, and I love the presentation with everything standing. Reminds me of stumps in the forest!

[C. sapidus]

Bruce – the stir fried salmon meal looks fantastic. I am stealing the cabbage/snow pea/mushroom idea. And how in the world do you stir fry salmon without it becoming hash?

Kim, thank you! The trick with stir-frying fish is to be gentle and watch closely. When the fish is almost done (past sushi but before flaking), turn off the stove and let the residual heat finish cooking the fish.

Oh, and by the way, your meal sounds lovely.

Tonight - rigatoni with beef ribs and cinnamon; braised broccoli with garlic and wine; and quick-braised carrots with butter. Simple and quick, except for slowly simmering beef short ribs with tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon, and cloves. Yes, the house smelled really good.

[Kim Shook]

Bruce – thanks for the information (and the compliment!). It must be pasta week (see below)!

We had spaghetti with meat sauce tonight:

Just a tarted up jarred sauce – but it cooked most of the afternoon and tasted so good. We needed some comfort food after watching our Rams lose to Butler in the Final Four ! I also made garlic bread with some excellent crusty bread from Costco and, of course, a salad:

[David Ross]

I'm starting to dabble in Indian cooking and thought that the best way to ease into this vast cuisine would be to start with one ingredient-Lamb. I've started a new topic on Indian-Style Lamb Dishes here.

Marinated Indian-Style Rack of Lamb with Basmati Rice, Cucumber and Pickled Red Onions-

[dcarch]

Heidih, those red pieces in the wheat bread are peppers.

Genkinaonna, beautiful lentil soup.

rarerollingobject, indeed, beautiful and simple sauteed chicken with roasted grapes,

robirdstx, thanks for the links to your delicious looking turkey thights.

MiFi, nice plating.

C. sapidus, it is not easy to stir fry salmon without having it falling apart. You have done an expert job.

Dejah, Sea scallops are expensive, so is wild rice. You have not wasted these wonderful ingredients.

David Ross, I like the design of your monkfish dish and also The rack of lamb .

patrickamory, I disagree with you. The Spaghetti with sausage sauce dish looks rich and scrumptious.

Kim, absolutely beautifully composed photos of elegantly plated dishes. Funny, I just ordered a supply of Pop Rock candy on eBay.

PopsicleToze, thank you so much for you kind comments.

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I make sous vide pork loin on quinoa, on home grown lettuce. And a stir fried Chinese mustard green side dish.

dcarch

[Dejah]

Kim Sook, dcarch: Thanks for noticing the sear on the scallops. This was my first...virgin crust?! I actually followed instructions and did not lift and flip the scallops until the required hint of crust showing on the edges. I also used clarified butter to sear them...no burnt bits left in the pan.

dcarch: What is the spice sprinkled on the mustard greens? It made me think of sumac - a spice I've been "hoarding" and have only used a couple of times.

Kim: Hope your notes on your coucous with hazlenuts and currants are in your recipe book. I need to try my hand at coucous.

Bruce: Maybe your treatment of the salmon will get past the fishness I've been finding in all the ways I've tried with salmon steaks. I have 2 more in the freezer to use up.

David: Loved the lamb. Good thing I didn't see this before shopping - wouldn't have broken my promise to NOT buy any more meat until I've used up what I've got! Patience will have its reward.

[dcarch]

"---dcarch: What is the spice sprinkled on the mustard greens? It made me think of sumac - a spice I've been "hoarding" and have only used a couple of times.---"

Dejah, That is home-made tomato powder. Chinese mustard green has a very pleasant bitter taste, like broc rabe, or dandelion greens. The sweet taste of the tomato powder accentuates as well as mellows that astringent taste.

I recommend getting tomato powder for trying out in your recipes, including scallops.

dcarch

[kayb]

Porterhouse steaks from Walnut Hill Farms via the Nashville Farmers' Market, as I'm here visiting the kiddos. Dry aged, and they taste it; marvelous!

I had eaten way too many cheese and crackers and stuffed dates prior to dinner, so I had only a small portion of one of the porterhouses, as I wanted some of the corn on the cob and roasted broccoli with parmigiano, also from the market (albeit shipped in from somewhere else).

[Pierogi]

As usual, everyone's food looks just fabulous. Here's some recent efforts, now that I've regained my will to be in the kitchen !

Indian feast - Tandoori style shrimp, broccoli and cauliflower with onion, ginger, tumeric and my new found nigella seeds and saffron basmati pilaf. This stuff was GOOD !

Belated St. Paddy's day corned beef & cabbage. Also had steamed red potatoes, dressed with butter & chopped parsley and homemade French bread with these:

Sesame chicken with rice and steamed snow peas. From the Food Network magazine, of all places, and a pretty decent version of sesame chicken.

Chicken chilaquiles. Looked pretty. Tasted, so-so. The filling/sauce was actually quite good, poached chicken breasts that got shredded into a tomatillo/jalapeno/onion sauce. Then layered with crisped corn tortillas, and mixed cheeses (jack, Manchego and queso fresco). I *should've* just rolled the filling into enchiladas. The chilaquiles were hard to eat, and the top tortilla crisp was so tough, it was hard to eat. I've never made a decent batch of chilaquiles. If anyone has a recipe they love, I'd love to have it !

The chilaquiles had some home-made pickled red onions to go on top, but the picture the dish plated looked as though it had squiggly red worms on top ! Maybe I'll save that shot for the "Gallery of Regrets" thread...

The onions made another appearance last night, though, on top of 'kraut dogs, served with a pea salad. They may not be photogenic, but they sure did taste good, and went quite nicely with the 'kraut. That was my homage to baseball's opening weekend.

[heidih]

Pierogi - my step mom is a pea salad fiend -can you share the general recipe for yours? I also see some heirloom looking tomatoes on your plates - did you find some interesting ones at this time of year?

[Pierogi]

Pierogi - my step mom is a pea salad fiend -can you share the general recipe for yours? I also see some heirloom looking tomatoes on your plates - did you find some interesting ones at this time of year?

Heidi, the pea salad is so simple its almost embarrassing !!! Doesn't mean its not good, though. It's frozen peas, that are simply defrosted (NOT cooked, critical, don't cook them.) I just run them under water in a strainer for a bit, and then let them drain. Dry them well with a towel before you put them in the dressing. Chop us some scallions/green onions (to taste with the quantity of peas), some parsley (again to taste against the amount of peas) and crisp up and crumble some bacon. Again, to taste with the quantity of peas. The dressing is equal parts mayo and sour cream, dried dill weed to taste and salt and pepper. Mix the dressing, toss in the well dried peas, scallions and bacon, and stir gently to coat. Chill until you're ready to serve. It's an ancient Frugal Gourmet recipe I haven't made in 10,000 years, and had a taste for. Its still damn good, even 30 years or so after the fact.

The tomatoes are the brown Kumato tomatoes from Trader Joe's. They were pretty decent for off-season tomatoes, especially after they'd sat on my counter for a few days. A bit spendy, but if you want larger-sized off-season tomatoes, worth it. Generally I go for the cherry/grape tomatoes in winter, but I was making a recipe that needed larger ones, and another eG thread had said these were good. I'd say....maybe one thumb up. Not stellar, but not bad, especially if you can let them age a bit.

Now talk to me in a few months, when *MY* tomato plants (got 2 of 'em) start producing, and the promised heirlooms from my CSA start coming in. That'll be a different story.....

[DeliciouslyLekker]

Looks like quite a few of us had Indian last weekend!

I love Indian food, could eat it everyday. My boyfriend doesn't like spicy stuff though so we mostly make bastardized dishes like Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. I usually eat it with rice, he eats it with naan or prathas.

This time, we had jasmine rice instead of basmati because I couldn't find my bag of basmati. Of course, once I put some water into my jasmine rice, I saw my bag of Basmati sitting right in front of my eyes....

Also made a bastardized stir-fry. Onion, red chilli, curry powder and a pinch of salt with green beans.

Saturday's Dinner

Lamb Chop. This will not happen often. Lamb prices are so high. Can't justify 11 euro for 2 lamb chops for a simple dinner!

[rarerollingobject]

A bit of a disparate (and/or desperate) meal for me. Oysters, doused in Tabasco, and cauliflower, caramelized in butter and then mixed with hazelnuts, and slices of beurre bosc pear.

I normally prefer oysters without any extraneous flavours but the spice was nice.

Edited April 4, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[mgaretz]

"---dcarch: What is the spice sprinkled on the mustard greens? It made me think of sumac - a spice I've been "hoarding" and have only used a couple of times.---"

Dejah, That is home-made tomato powder. Chinese mustard green has a very pleasant bitter taste, like broc rabe, or dandelion greens. The sweet taste of the tomato powder accentuates as well as mellows that astringent taste.

I recommend getting tomato powder for trying out in your recipes, including scallops.

dcarch

We also like Hoisin sauce on our mustard greens. Adds a nice sweet balance to the sharpness of the greens.

[Dejah]

The only way I've ever cooked mustard greens other than in soup is after CNY. My Mom always made chang dae - the sweet glutineous rice dumplings. These would be cooked with mustard greens after the NY period - as a snack for afternoon tea.

[MiFi]

Mustard & Zaatar marinated Grilled Chicken thighs w/quinoa

[mgaretz]

Tonight I made baby bok choy with char siu in a soy-oyster-hoisin sauce with garlic, ginger and a touch of red pepper. The char siu was home made (made it ahead yesterday) from pork tenderloin and a packaged mix, marinated for 24 hours. Cooked in a 350 degree F oven over a water bath to an internal temp of 150F (turning three times) then basting with honey under the broiler for 10 minutes on a side. Very yummy!

Sorry no pictures - I'm always trying to get things on the table while they're hot any never think of the camera until it's all eaten!

[rarerollingobject]

I always really like the look of the food you make, MiFi.

And mgaretz, pork basted in honey..sweeter words are rarely spoken.

I made saikyo-yaki, fish (in this case some sea perch, and some mackerel) marinted overnight in the sweetest, most delicate white miso from Kyoto, with a little ginger, mirin and sake mixed in too. Then grilled till the skin is blistery.

And some tomato/balsamic salad, and zucchini sauteed with almonds and lemon zest.

[robirdstx]

Dinner last night was Lamb Chops with a Spicy Rub, Chana Punjabi, and Afghan Home-Style Naan

The lamb chop recipe I used is from a link posted by djyee100 here on the Indian-Style Lamb Dishes thread. The chickpea stew recipe is from the NYTs here. And the bread recipe is from Alford and Duguid's Flatbreads & Flavors.

[Dejah]

MiFi: Your Zaatar chicken has me thinking I need to get my zaatar and sumac out!

Rarerollingobject - beautiful fish and photography!

robirdstx Amazing colour on those lamb chops!

Tonight, hubby requested spaghetti. I remember when we used to go to Spaghetti Factory in Winnipeg, and always ordered spaghetti with 3 sauces: burnt butter, clam, and meat sauce. Tonight, we just had clam and herbs in cream and white wine, steamed clams with proscuitto and white wine(Almejas Con Jamon from CDKitchen), and canned (shameful!)tomato basil sauce augmented with ground chuck, fresh basil, and fresh green peppercorns. The broth from the steamed clams was too salty (Fratelli Bereta prosacuitto). I used some of the proscuitto for asparagus as well.

[robirdstx]

robirdstx Amazing colour on those lamb chops!

Dejah - Thank you! How I got that colour: Step 1 - preheat cast iron skillet to medium heat on my electric stovetop. Step 2 - add safflower oil to skillet. Step 3 - add chops to smoking skillet. Step 4 - have DH disable smoke alarm! Step 5 - open windows on multiple sides of house to allow smoke to dissipate (lame exhaust fan that sends exhaust back into kitchen!)

[Dejah]

robirdstx: Must copy those explicit instructions!

[Kim Shook]

robirdstx Amazing colour on those lamb chops!

Dejah - Thank you! How I got that colour: Step 1 - preheat cast iron skillet to medium heat on my electric stovetop. Step 2 - add safflower oil to skillet. Step 3 - add chops to smoking skillet. Step 4 - have DH disable smoke alarm! Step 5 - open windows on multiple sides of house to allow smoke to dissipate (lame exhaust fan that sends exhaust back into kitchen!)

I could make those lamb chops because I have that same stupid exhaust fan ! I wish someone could explain to me the point of an exhaust fan that doesn't, you know, CONNECT TO THE OUTSIDE SOMEHOW????

[patrickamory]

This is David Thompson's curry of boneless pork shin with green peppercorns. A highly unusual recipe from a memorial book, at first he thought there was an ingredient missing - "it shouldn't work." However it does work, and is extraordinarily delicious. Two hours of pounding paste last night, then an hour and half of heating, cracking, scooping, chunking and double-milking coconut this morning. Boneless pork shin is not easy to find in NYC, so I substituted pork shoulder on the advice of my butcher - the braise in coconut milk and lemongrass offshoots takes some time, so allow plenty of time for your guests (I kept them satiated with a shrimp paste relish, also from Thompson, with raw apple eggplants and snake beans). I didn't have fresh peppercorns, alas, or holy basil (substituted Thai basil, not at all the same) - but this turned out oily, fragrant and unbelievably delicious. It's all gone, so I guess it worked.... huge amount of effort, and no leftover paste, but definitely worth it. It's in the "Menus" section of Thai food, where a lot of great dishes are hidden.

[rarerollingobject]

This is David Thompson's curry of boneless pork shin with green peppercorns.

That looks delicious. I really should try to cook something from the Thai Food book. I eat at his restaurant here in Sydney quite a bit, and have the book, but I've never cooked any of his recipes, I don't think.

Dinner for me was going to be seared beef fillet on soba noodles, but I lost energy for the searing and so turned the beef into yukke (Korean steak tartare) instead. Chopped finely, mixed with crushed garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, honey and green onions. The raw egg on top sort of melds deliciously into an unctuous sauce. Sprinkled with julienned cucumber, nashi pear and crumbled nori just before eating.