Dinner! 2011

[nikkib]

loving all the great summer veggies at the moment - salad of broad beans, radish, peas and seared asparagus, rosemary roasted sweet and new potatoes, peppers roasted with garlic and tomato and portobello mushroom with pancetta, chilli and tomato. Served with crusty bread. Tonight i am trying sobaaddicts ricotta gnocchi from his foodblog - wish me luck...

[Emily_R]

Ok, dinner tonight was so good I had to take a photo of it.

Locally raised lamb chops, with a mint-arugula puree. Arugula salad with avocado, feta, and scallions and grilled potato wedges. Lick your plate good.

[kayb]

Ok, dinner tonight was so good I had to take a photo of it.

And a lovely photo to do it justice.

[nickrey]

Tonight's dinner was a sous-vide cooked pork rasher deep fried and served in its own reduced marinating and cooking juices.

Accompanying the meat was wok-wilted boy choy in oyster sauce and deep-fried eggplant with a miso paste glaze (Eggplant Dengaku).

Edited June 4, 2011 by nickrey (log)

[suzilightning]

it it has turned cool and damp around here AGAIN... i made a gravy with some frozen meatballs, drained off some lactose free cottage cheese and made a lasagna that is in the oven right now. nice simple green salad with some shaved fennel and red onion.

i have a piece of tuna that i am going to poach tomorrow to make tuna salad and incorporate some with noodles to make my lunches for the first part of next week.

roasted chicken thighs for meat for some "pulled chicken" sandwiches for johnnybird. will also make him a peach kucken he requested.

[David Ross]

Ok, dinner tonight was so good I had to take a photo of it.

Locally raised lamb chops, with a mint-arugula puree. Arugula salad with avocado, feta, and scallions and grilled potato wedges. Lick your plate good.

That's a beautiful photo-especially the sunlight on the plate. Looks delicious.

[gfweb]

Tonight was smoked pork tenderloin over sauteed fennel and onion with a roasted red pepper sauce. Side was spinach and boiled new potatoes with a little balsamic vinaigrette.

[Emily_R]

Tonight was smoked pork tenderloin over sauteed fennel and onion with a roasted red pepper sauce. Side was spinach and boiled new potatoes with a little balsamic vinaigrette.

SERIOUS YUM. I would eat that meal in a heartbeat!

[rarerollingobject]

A (mostly) vegetarian dinner here tonight:

Chioggia and normal beetroots, marinated in mandarin juice and then drizzled in hazelnut oil, with feta:

Roast broccoli with ras-el hanout breadcrumbs:

Purple kale braised with bacon, onion and duck stock:

[ChrisTaylor]

Roast rack of pork with roast potatoes, sauerkraut and charcuterie sauce.

[nikkib]

Pimms and crudites with a roquefort dip to start, followed by courgettes cooked on a griddle with raw cruhed garlic, chilli and lemon juice/olive oil dressing. Cumin, cayenne and coriander seed roasted cocina squash with beetroot, soft goats cheese and toasted pinenuts. Rosemary roasted sweet potatoes again as they were so good earlier in the week. Served with a simple green salad and bbq'd corn on the cob.

[nikkib]

Roast rack of pork with roast potatoes, sauerkraut and charcuterie sauce.

What is charcuterie sauce - that looks great.....

[ChrisTaylor]

Roast rack of pork with roast potatoes, sauerkraut and charcuterie sauce.

What is charcuterie sauce - that looks great.....

There are a few variants but I used the one in Justin North's Becasse book: pork jus (well, I used chicken stock which I boosted with a little bit of Vegemite), parsley, pickled onions, cornichons, capers, whole grain mustard and diced tomato.

Edited June 5, 2011 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[kayb]

Simple, quick and tasty: Grilled tilapia, mac and cheese, fresh tomatos, fresh sugar snap peas, lightly blanched and tossed with butter and tarragon.

[heidih]

Pimms and crudites with a roquefort dip to start, followed by courgettes cooked on a griddle with raw cruhed garlic, chilli and lemon juice/olive oil dressing. Cumin, cayenne and coriander seed roasted cocina squash with beetroot, soft goats cheese and toasted pinenuts. Rosemary roasted sweet potatoes again as they were so good earlier in the week. Served with a simple green salad and bbq'd corn on the cob.

I am in vegetable love. Wonderful combination of flavors. Beets are lovely now at the farm stand (no corn yet) and I have rosemary and courgettes in the garden. I will be trying these out.

[percyn]

Roasted Chicken, Israeli Couscous, Asparagus

[Deus Mortus]

Well, this is the start of a new tradition, I have vowed to serve a 3 course dinner every Sunday, mostly because I want to challenge myself and partly because I just like a good meal.

This first day has been something of a mixed bag, I am afraid I tried to challenge myself a bit much, working with a new ingredient and almost all dishes were new to me, which ended in some stress at the end and some very disappointing ragout. Still, all things considered it was a good meal and a lot fun, can't wait till next Sunday!

I started off with an asparagus velouté, sadly I forgot to peel the asparagus, so it had some unexpected "texture", still it was rather tasty, if not for my discovery that I really don't like asparagus. My girlfriend however enjoyed it.

Then we had the main meal, duchess potato's, loin of pork and asparagus ragout. The potato's were lovely soft under a thin crackling shell and the pork was nicely moist, the ragout however was another story, not only had I again forgot to peel them, I also overcooked them and the peas turning it all a rather 60's shade of green. The peas were edible, but that is the only positive thing I can say about the ragout.

Then however was the thing that made everything alright again, my first succeeded soufflé. I have tried my hand at it a few times earlier in my culinary adventures, only to be confronted with a sad pile of gunk. Luckily this time they rose! Sadly I later found out my ramekins were a bit thicker then expected ending in a rather soggy underside, still the top of the thing was great and that is enough to make my day. Coupled with the vanilla mousse and the great fresh strawberry's, dessert was a delight!

(We took this picture a bit to late, so the top has dropped a bit, but it really rose fine, scout's honor!)

TLDR: Lovely dinner, first time soufflé, I don't like asparagus.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Deus Mortus (log)

[Kim Shook]

Thanks for the ‘welcome backs’!

djyee – I really love the look and the idea of asparagus bread pudding, but I don’t like asparagus at all – do you think that broccoli would work? I saved the recipe anyway – even if I couldn’t make it with broccoli, it’s something that Mr. Kim and Jessica would LOVE!

dcarch – gorgeous, gorgeous meal! I love the way the squash mimics the serving bowl. And the ‘grill marks’ had me swooning!

Bruce – the steak salad sounded wonderful and I, too, missed your gorgeous pictures!

nickrey – I literally began salivating when I spotted the picture of your pork! Wow.

kayb – that’s what I want for dinner tonight – a whole plate of tomatoes and mac and cheese! Unfortunately no good tomatoes here yet and I don’t have a minute to make good mac and cheese. Sigh.

Deus Mortus – lovely meal – especially dessert! And I don’t like asparagus, either. Even roasted, I can only eat it to be polite.

I haven’t really gotten back into the swing of things with cooking yet. We came home to Jessica going on vacation for a week and we had to go downtown (40 minute round trip at least) 3 times a day to feed the grandkitty. The poor baby has chronic kidney disease and potty issues, so unfortunately we couldn’t just bring him here like we wanted to. I felt so sorry for him being alone that we even had a slumber party one night! More issues with my stepdad’s health and them possibly moving up here and in with us – which will require some addition to our house. We are heading down there next weekend to have some discussions and see what we can do for them in the meantime. PLUS, of course, back to work for me (Mr. Kim took this week off, too, the RAT). Consequently, I’m not doing much cooking. We did have one meal that I remembered to take a picture of (not a very exciting one, I’m afraid!). Started with (duh) salad:

Some good hot dogs that came in a Christmas gift from Omaha Steaks (I didn’t care for the beef or the chicken at all, but the dogs were good), baked beans (canned fix ups) and leftover sweet potatoes.

[djyee100]

djyee – I really love the look and the idea of asparagus bread pudding, but I don’t like asparagus at all – do you think that broccoli would work?

Kim, I've never tried it with broccoli, but why not? I suggest slicing the broccoli florets 1/4" thick. You could also play with the cheese, maybe try a cheese that goes well with broccoli, like mild cheddar. How about a pinch of cayenne, too?

[Kim Shook]

djyee – good idea! Thanks.

I actually cooked a lot today. I made yellow squash and onions, roasted some beets and prepped the greens to saute. But we dropped by to give some friends a little something we got for them in England and show them some pictures and didn’t get home until after 9pm. So this was dinner:

Grilled cheese with bacon, tots and grape tomatoes. Guess we’ll eat all that other stuff tomorrow !

[Genkinaonna]

Hey there's nothin' wrong with grilled cheese in my book! I got inspired (as I'm sure lots of other people did) by SobaAddict's ricotta gnocchi, so here's my take:

Ricotta gnocchi with roasted chicken, green garlic, bacon, wilted arugula and crispy baby yukon golds. The sauce was based on the bacon drippings and chicken-y bits in the pan, with some highly reduced chicken stock I made earlier this week. It could have used a little bit of white wine or vermouth, unfortunately I was out, but still, it was pretty tasty overall.

[Rico]

Well, dinner was leftover takeout chinese, but at least dessert was homemade:

The first peach dessert of the season - vanilla-almond peach pie.

(incidentally, I thought I remembered a desserts! thread, but a search didn't seem to turn one up for me)

[Genkinaonna]

Rico-It's here. Nice pie though! It's a long time 'til peaches in my neck of the woods...

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I made riccotta gnocchi using SobaAddict70's recipe, but substituting quinua flour for white. Came out very tasty under the fresh marinara!

[nickrey]

Bought some aged fillet steak today.

I know I cook sous vide a lot but this was classical, as should be done with steak of this quality. Seared and served with a mushroom sauce. Served with carrots and green beans.