Dinner! 2011

[robirdstx]

Lasagna! I used eggroll wrappers for the pasta.

[djyee100]

All the meals here look fantastic. I'd be glad to eat any one of 'em.

Not much cooking recently at my house, too many project deadlines and other commitments. The deli and burrito place have been seeing a lot of me. (Also the 7-11, for Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream bars.) A break in my schedule today, so I was thankfully in the kitchen for a better-balanced meal, with vegetables.

My favorite hamburger, a patty melt with Acme's rye bread, Swiss cheese, and sauteed onions. On the side, red cabbage cole slaw and potato salad with green garlic. That's the first of the season green garlic here. I was excited to find it in my CSA box.

[ChrisTaylor]

A Parsee chicken curry from Camellia Panjabi's book, 50 Great Curries of India. Spiced with black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, ginger, Kashmiri chilli and my own garam masala (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and fresh bay). Some homemade chapatis, too (1 cup wholemeal flour, 65 mL warm water, tablespoon of oil, pinch of salt--mix then rest for a hour then roll into really thin 'pancakes').

[dcarch]

In addition to the eggplant and potato gratin for the gratin cook-off I fired up the Weber and barbecued some goat cutlets ...

Great looking. I have not seen goat meat here in NY. Just lamb. Any difference?

A Parsee chicken curry from Camellia Panjabi's book, 50 Great Curries of India. Spiced with black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, ginger, Kashmiri chilli and my own garam masala (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and fresh bay). Some homemade chapatis, too (1 cup wholemeal flour, 65 mL warm water, tablespoon of oil, pinch of salt--mix then rest for a hour then roll into really thin 'pancakes').

Sounds delicious. Very complicated (complex?).

You need a new plate

dcarch

[kayb]

Sweet potato ravioli in brown butter and sage sauce. Good stuff. I learned, however, it IS possible to over-butter it.

And another night this week, calzone. Although it blew out a side seam, it was still good.

[Shelby]

Mmmmmmm that ravioli looks delicious.

A couple meals:

BBQ smoked venison on homemade rolls, fries and deviled eggs

I finally got the thinness I wanted in my pasta.

Shrimp alfredo over linguine and a salad

[djyee100]

An unusual find at the market, skate wings. I cooked Skate with Brown Butter, Capers, and Lemon. The fish was lightly dredged with seasoned flour, sauteed, then topped with a sauce of brown butter, Meyer lemon juice, and capers. The lemon juice and capers cut the richness of the fish and butter. Served with French bread and a green salad. A simple dinner, and very good.

[kayb]

Eggs look great, Shelby; I'd be headed for the kitchen to make some if I hadn't just had some yesterday! What's on top? I'm guessing red pepper and....?

[christine007]

Djyee100

Have to tell you,that patty melt,beautiful,just beautiful.

I warmed up takeout.It was on of THOSE nights.

[ChrisTaylor]

In addition to the eggplant and potato gratin for the gratin cook-off I fired up the Weber and barbecued some goat cutlets ...

Great looking. I have not seen goat meat here in NY. Just lamb. Any difference?

A Parsee chicken curry from Camellia Panjabi's book, 50 Great Curries of India. Spiced with black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, ginger, Kashmiri chilli and my own garam masala (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and fresh bay). Some homemade chapatis, too (1 cup wholemeal flour, 65 mL warm water, tablespoon of oil, pinch of salt--mix then rest for a hour then roll into really thin 'pancakes').

Sounds delicious. Very complicated (complex?).

You need a new plate

dcarch

Yeah. Still in the last couple of weeks of my poor student phase. Still doing 90% of my photography on two vessels. That white plate and white bowl you see in most of the photos? They're one-of-a-kind. The rest of my stuff is a mishmash of forever-old, chipped crap that belongs to the landlord. I can't wait to be able to afford a decent dinner set and live in a house that, you know, doesn't have a stove that leans slightly back (meaning when you drop an egg or some pancake batter into a frypan, it sort of rolls downhill and you have to work quickly with a spatula to catch it). Granted, the stove is only on a lean because the whole house is on a lean ...

That's the most attractive of the plates, by the way.

Goat meat. Well. The quality and taste vary dramatically. Baby goat is pale and sweet and lovely and expensive and hard to find. It's veal to beef, I guess. Perhaps more 'good veal to mediocre, sometimes even bad, beef'. Dust some baby goat cutlets, which are tiny things, in a bit of salt and pepper, pan-fry them to medium rare and you're eating very well. A lot of goat in the Arab and Indian butchers here, all I can easily find and afford, is older. They'll say it's baby goat but, like a lot of cheap butchers and supermarkets here, they're full of lies (kind of like how a lot of veal here looks and tastes of yearling). Older goat is ... probably more mutton than lamb but even then, it's a bit of a stretch. The flavour is kind of similar but the big difference is fattiness. Lamb and its sister products are very fatty. Goat is very lean.

Edited January 22, 2011 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Shelby]

Eggs look great, Shelby; I'd be headed for the kitchen to make some if I hadn't just had some yesterday! What's on top? I'm guessing red pepper and....?

I was out of green olives so I subbed pimento and a caper Ah, life in the country

[SobaAddict70]

Been on antibiotics (stupid cold) for the past couple of weeks, so no fabulous cooking lately.

This was tonight's dinner ... insanely easy (especially when you cheat like I did) and delicious.

Farfalle with roasted broccoli, onion confit and anchovy

and by "cheat", I mean the vast majority of work was done by the oven.

Edited January 23, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Shelby]

Been on antibiotics (stupid cold) for the past couple of weeks, so no fabulous cooking lately.

This was tonight's dinner ... insanely easy (especially when you cheat like I did) and delicious.

Farfalle with roasted broccoli, onion confit and anchovy

and by "cheat", I mean the vast majority of work was done by the oven.

Looks delicious to me!

You cook with anchovy quite a bit....I love anchovy, but my husband does not. Any tips? Rinse them? I'm in Kansas, so no fresh available, only the salty canned or jarred.

[nickrey]

You cook with anchovy quite a bit....I love anchovy, but my husband does not. Any tips? Rinse them? I'm in Kansas, so no fresh available, only the salty canned or jarred.

Try soaking them in milk Shelby.

[harrysnapperorgans]

I broke down a whole organic chicken, and roasted the pieces with a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, a smashed up bulb of garlic and half a dozen nice heritage tomatoes too. Always creates a amazing sweet tomato broth. Great with rice.

[rarerollingobject]

I broke down a whole organic chicken, and roasted the pieces with a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, a smashed up bulb of garlic and half a dozen nice heritage tomatoes too. Always creates a amazing sweet tomato broth. Great with rice.

Sounds great..the flavour boost of roasted tomatoes is amazing. (Love your username too, I grin every time I see it!)

Feeling slightly wan in the Sydney heat, I made a cold freekeh (roasted green wheat) salad, with barberries, preserved lemon, minced parsley stems and green onion. Topped it with caramelised eggplant and cayenne'd yoghurt.

[ChrisTaylor]

Hot today down south, too, so it was barbecue weather (of course, if I had a carport and a gas-lit barbecue, every day would be a barbecue day, almost). Marinated some pork spare ribs in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'Indonesian' marinade--sugar, sweet soy sauce, chilli powder, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds and lime juice. Served with some corn (boiled then grilled) and steamed rice. No photos: nasty greasy hands and D-SLRs aren't good friends.

[kayb]

Chicken cacciatiore which I did not photograph, but which was very good, and this:

which was made from these:

Homegrown greenhouse tomatos, from the Amish farmers at the farmers' market. In January. Basil is from the supermarket, as is the fresh mozz, but it still tasted like June.

[Kim Shook]

robirdstx – gorgeous Gratin Dauphinois. And how did you like the egg roll wrappers subbing in for pasta? I’ve done that for a while now and love it. David Ross uses it in his fabulous Cannelloni.

kayb – pastitsio is one of our very favorites! I’ve been making James Beard’s recipe for almost 30 years! Yours is absolutely gorgeous. I’ll have to make a batch soon.

Shelby – good looking deviled eggs. Now I want some. But I only have really fresh eggs. Pooh.

djyee – ooooh! Skate! I adore skate and don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the store. I’d snatch it up for sure if I did. Looks fantastic.

Stan – hope you are feeling better soon. And using the oven isn’t cheating at all. Especially if you are sick. I ‘cheated’ yesterday and made some beef stock in the slow cooker (I did roast everything in the oven first). I doubt I’ll ever make beef stock any other way again – it was fabulous!

Last Sunday I did one of my favorite meals – real Sunday dinner. This is the meal that I grew up with – roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud and Brussels sprouts:

The beef was a boneless prime rib that I picked up for a steal of $4.59/lb. Marlene suggested doing it in my rotisserie. I was really, really happy with the result. The potatoes were from a CI recipe in their new magazine: The Best of America’s Test Kitchen March 2011. They were fine, but a lot of trouble – and for all that no better than Marlene’s smashed crispy potatoes. So I don’t think that I’ll bother with those again. Yorkies were Marlene’s recipe – perfect, as always. So, thanks to Marlene, we had a great Sunday dinner.

The other night we thawed some of Mr. Kim’s chili and served it with slaw and corn muffins:

Mr. Kim’s with jalapenos and cheese.

mine with macaroni, cheese and sour cream.

[Shelby]

Chicken cacciatiore which I did not photograph, but which was very good, and this:

which was made from these:

Homegrown greenhouse tomatos, from the Amish farmers at the farmers' market. In January. Basil is from the supermarket, as is the fresh mozz, but it still tasted like June.

I will be there in eight hours. *drooling* Those look sooooooo good.

[robirdstx]

robirdstx – gorgeous Gratin Dauphinois. And how did you like the egg roll wrappers subbing in for pasta? I’ve done that for a while now and love it. David Ross uses it in his fabulous Cannelloni.

Thanks Kim. I really liked the egg roll wrappers, too. However, next time I will slice them into lasagna noodle widths to let the dish bubble up during cooking in a more even manner. I love cannelloni and I've got more wrappers in the freezer. And your Sunday Dinner looks so good!

[suzilightning]

red cabbage with shallot, apple and cider is slowly cooking down. the pheasant is cleaned and ready to be quickly browned then roasted with some juniper, shallots and bacon. already made a fig sauce to serve it with. now for the big question: egg noodles or rice?

[aschall]

Pasta with a Mushroom Cream Sauce, some sauteed chicken and steamed broccoli to go with.

[Prawncrackers]

First post of the year for me on the Dinner thread as I sliced my finger pretty badly a couple of weeks ago. Couldn't cook a thing! Glad to see everyone on top form, all your dinners have kept me nourished. I spotted some goose and noodles from Shelby a few pages ago and that unusual combo made me smile because I had some too at the start of year. It was a quickie meal using up some leftover Cantonese roast goose from xmas and instant ramen noodles, tasty though:

I also saw some Thai beef salad earlier from rarerollingobject that i really fancied. So when my finger fully healed I got to julienning a load of mooli, cucumber, shallot, chillies and green mango for my own take on it:

The salad I enjoyed so much that I made it again today but this time to go with some grilled quail wrapped in lime leaves Vietnamese style. There were also some salt and pepper langoustines, with lemongrass for that SE Asian twist.

[ChrisTaylor]

Beautiful food, Prawncrackers. All of it.

Still drawing from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat cookbook, I've just knocked together a jerk chicken marinade. Have a kilo-ish of wings sitting in it for tomorrow's dinner.