Dinner! 2011

[SobaAddict70]

Pasta with white clam sauce and heirloom tomatoes.

Littleneck clams from Long Island Sound, caught yesterday, steamed with white wine, garlic and garlic chives; then combined with heirloom tomatoes, shallots and herbs. Added about 1/2 tablespoon French butter whisked in towards the end.

[Dakki]

Dejah, it's almost 11 at night and I'm craving apple pie. Thanks a lot!

Nice chilorio, RRO. I think I know what I'll be making tomorrow!

C. sapidus, the pulled pork looks and sounds fantastic.

[rarerollingobject]

Thanks for your kind words re the chilorio, guys. I'm really getting interested in Mexican cooking, it's quite fascinating and so, so delicious.

Dinner tonight was at the opposite end of the flavour complexity spectrum; a very simple piece of pan fried snapper, with a spinach, tamarillo, balsamic and jamon salad. Tamarillos are native to S. America I think but are now very common in Aus and NZ..it's the sort of fruit you might find on a big tree in your grandma's backyard, along with fig, mango and lemon trees. The flavour is tart and bitter and quite complex.

[Kim Shook]

Christine – Hey! Nice to ‘see’ you! Thanks for the compliment – it was a really good dinner and made me wonder why I don’t do main course salads more often.

RRO – gorgeous bacon and that risotto sounds fantastic. I’ll have to nose around our Little Asia section of town and see if I can find some Chinese bacon. And the combination of jambon and fish? Genius!

Dcarch – I actually made those little picks myself. Just beads and turkey skewers. Beautiful steak – you can actually SEE how tender it is.

Kayb – lovely pie – it’s breakfast time, but I’d love a slice right now.

Dejah – the lamb moussaka sounds delicious and I’m so jealous of the beautiful color you got on the top. Mine never gets that gorgeous browning.

Bruce – the pulled pork looks stellar!

Dinner last night started with a little shrimp cocktail:

And salad (sigh):

Steak with bleu cheese and port sauce, yellow squash and crusty bread with artichoke/spinach dip:

The bread:

This is one of my favorite things to do. The topping is just a basic artichoke or artichoke/spinach dip spread – you spread it on the bread and then broil it. It is a little more substantial than regular garlic bread and works well as a party snack, too.

We also had some gorgeous corn that we got at the farm stand in the afternoon, shucked right before cooking and briefly cooked:

Garrison Keillor made us do it. We were listening to A Prairie Home Companion while running errands and he started talking about those 5 or 10 ears of piping hot, just picked sweet corn, slathered with butter and salted that he was going to eat for dinner. We didn’t even need to discuss it – we just drove to the farm stand!

Almost everything was stuff that was in the fridge. We are trying to finish up as much refrigerator stuff as possible in the next couple of days to prepare for a new addition to our family. I am very excited!

[percyn]

As usual, this thread is making me hungry - and I just had breakfast

Over the weekend I made some burgers. Soooo many ways to make a good burger. On this day it was....

80/20 Beef - check

Buttered and toasted buns - check

Grilled Onions - check

Shiitake mushrooms for umami - check

Red wine demi glace for extra umami - double check

Topped with fried egg for lusciousness - priceless

Burger being constructed -

Burger being enjoyed

[patrickamory]

robirdstx, I've bookmarked your photo of the chili dog with the fries. Unbelievably tasty looking. (Did you make the crinkle-cut fries from scratch??)

[robirdstx]

Over the weekend I made some burgers...Burger being enjoyed

percyn- absolutely mouthwatering!

robirdstx, I've bookmarked your photo of the chili dog with the fries. Unbelievably tasty looking. (Did you make the crinkle-cut fries from scratch??)

patrickamory- thank you, but I can't take credit for the fries, they were from frozen.

[kayb]

Pulled pork barbecue, mustard/vinegar slaw, potato salad, black bean and corn salad, and arepas. Barbecue details on the Fourth of July traditions thread.

Followed by raspberry cream cheese pie, all decked out for Independence Day.

[Kim Shook]

percyn – gorgeous burgers! Of course, I especially like the ‘Spanglish burger’!

kayb – Love that BBQ plate! Can you tell me about the potato salad? It looks really different. And that cream cheese pie is beautiful!

Dinner tonight was some easy chicken enchiladas made creamy with cream cheese and canned enchilada sauce:

Plated with black beans and corn and rice with salsa:

[kayb]

Kim, my potato salad is my own weird recipe, because I'm particular about the things I don't like in potato salad (raw onion, celery, bell pepper), and the way I like it prepared. I peel and cube the potatos (redskins are best, but this I finished out with russets, as I was low on redskins) and boil in salted water. The sauce is mayo, mustard, ketchup, sweet pickle relish (just the jarred store variety). I add garlic powder, Lawry's seasoned salt, and sweet paprika and stir it all together, then gently fold the cooked potatos into it. I never measure anything, but I'd guess for about six servings of potato salad, it's 2/3 cup mayo (Hellman's only, please!), 2 tbsp dijon or spicy brown mustard, 1/4 to 1/3 cup pickle relish, 2 tbsp ketchup, and spices to taste.

[Jan Virtanen]

I made Onglet Gascon.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Jan Virtanen (log)

[percyn]

Thanks robirdstx.

Thanks Kim - those enchiladas look fighty fine !

Jan, awesome Onglet. BTW, what focal length lens are you using on your camera to achieve that much depth of focus?

[Dakki]

Frijoles charros and chilorio. It was cloudy so no hamfisted attempts at food porn today.

(Maybe tomorrow. I made lots.)

[Country]

Pasta with white clam sauce and heirloom tomatoes.

Littleneck clams from Long Island Sound, caught yesterday, steamed with white wine, garlic and garlic chives; then combined with heirloom tomatoes, shallots and herbs. Added about 1/2 tablespoon French butter whisked in towards the end.

Nicest looking plate on the (last) page. I bet it tasted good too.

[ScottyBoy]

My first run at a whole pig, hickory smoked at 250 for 5 hours then flipped skin side down on higher heat to crisp the skin. It was like sweet smokey pork glass! Success.

Edited July 7, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Rico]

ScottyBoy, that looks astoundingly good. Man.

And as a side note, your Athletics play my Rangers tonight. I do hope Rich Harden does not share the same success you had with the pig.

[ScottyBoy]

Well you know it's coming down to this. I think you guys have the division if we're swept. We need to take three out of four!

Thanks for the compliments!

[heidih]

All I can say is "Some pig" ala Charlotte the spider.

That skin is piggy stained glass! Congratulations on a successful first attempt. Was there any seasoning involved other than salt or did you let the pork speak for itself? I realize the hickory smoke contributed a significant amount of flavor.

[ScottyBoy]

Brined in 2/3C of salt to 1/3 cup sugar per gallon of water for 24 hours. Just to make sure the salt penetrated and also the sugar helped with that skin. I said the same thing, looks like stained glass!

[Dakki]

Nice pig, ScottyBoy. How much did it weight?

Here's today's offering: Another run at Mexican charcuterie (chistorra, this time) in a tortilla with cheese. Salsa is tomatillo and chile de arbol and yes, that's the natural color. Weird, right?

Photo uploaded directly from camera, no post whatsoever.

[jrshaul]

I made vietnamese-style pork barbecue. (I was missing the lemongrass and only had garlic powder, so I had to butcher the recipe fairly heavily.) It came out excellent, though next time I'll make real Thit Heo Nuong Xa, possibly after hammering out a fattier cut of meat.

[Rico]

Dakki, that's a helluva good-looking meal. Great shot of it, too. How was the chistorra? I've never tasted it.

[Emily_R]

Scottyboy - the picture of that pig skin nearly made me cry it looks so good. Why are all the computer programmers working on video chat when they should be working on taste-o-vision?

[Dakki]

Rico, thanks. All credit for the photo goes to my dining room window, which seems to let in just the right amount of sunlight between 6 and 7 P.M. this time of year.

I highly recommend trying chistorra (and other mex charcuterie)if you like chorizo - I can't imagine there's a shortage of Latin markets in Dallas. I like it best grilled over medium-high coals.

[ScottyBoy]

Dakki - She was a 60 pounder. What camera did you use for the tacos? That is really nice for no post-processing.

Emily - I know right? I stare at some of these pictures and it hurts...

Edited July 8, 2011 by ScottyBoy (log)