Dinner! 2011

[gfweb]

Love the braised lettuce, Soba. Neat idea.

I'll saute romaine in butter till its very dark and limp and serve as a side at dinner. It gets sweet tasting and nutty.

[ScottyBoy]

Had 72 hour short rib left over from a dinner. Made tacos, kale salad, biscuits and Monkey bread.

[Norm Matthews]

A cookbook was given me for my birthday and son gave me some recipes from on line to try so I picked two from the cookbook and one from son and went shopping for meals for this week. i got some beef, pork ribs and chicken. The chicken is one my son wanted me to make called Fricase de Pollo. I also made a cheese sauce and steamed asparagus. We had it for lunch.

The recipe is at http://normmatthews.blogspot.com/ I made a broth with the skin, bones and back and used it for the cooking liquid instead of the water from the can of peas in the recipe. I used frozen peas.

Son thinks I should have made it with whole chicken pieces on the bone with skin and served it over rice. He may be right but I knew Cassie does not like meat in the bone and I though rice and potatoes would be a bit much. Cassie said her dad made something like this with left overs and they had it wrapped in tortillas.

[rarerollingobject]

ScottyBoy, all that looks sooo good. I had to Google monkey bread, and promptly passed out from a carb/sugar overload just reading about it. Not that I'd kick it out of bed in the morning, so to speak.

gfweb, love the dog holding court in the first pic..just making sure nothing untoward happens to the BBQ, naturally.

Soba, that is a beautiful meal..just screams summer. Braised lettuce with mint and peas is a pretty classic preparation, at least in Commonwealth countries - British hangover and all that. You just need a Pimms Cup and some strawberries and cream.

[Emily_R]

I agree -- Soba, that meal is just magnificent -- so so fresh. I let out an sigh of longing as soon as I saw it...

[ScottyBoy]

I had to Google monkey bread, and promptly passed out from a carb/sugar overload just reading about it.

The biggest problem is that it breaks into bite sized pieces so you just keep snacking and snacking...and as you can see in the picture the sugar/butter/cinnamon mixture is oozing out onto the table

[robirdstx]

Last night was experiment night. I tried my hand at making Mapo Tofu and need to try again. It looked and smelled great but unfortunately there was way too much heat for our tastes. Back to the drawing board on this one.

Tonight was tried and true grilled lamb rib chops. A couple got a little more done than I like but DH likes them that way. We had them with a caesar salad and steamed broccoli.

[mgaretz]

No pictures, I apologize. It was all consumed by the time I remembered.

Tonight we had a plethora of things. For my wife and daughter I made free-range chicken meatballs, sauted in a little olive oil and served over pasta. I had a sous vide sirloin steak. It was a 2" thick piece of prime beef and was by far the best sous vide steak I have made yet. (Seasoned with McCormick "Montreal" steak rub, 130F for an hour, then seared on the BBQ.) Sides were roasted baby beets from the CSA (in olive oil with salt and pepper) served with their beet tops, steamed.

Edited July 22, 2011 by mgaretz (log)

[C. sapidus]

robirdstix, I'd dive into your mapo dofu for sure.

Our meal, adapted from Mexico the Beautiful Cookbook:

Fish soup with parsley and shrimp: onion, garlic, parsley, chile serranos, white wine, and chicken stock. Delicious, except the shrimp were chewy. I will make this again with fish or shrimp, but not both.

Chard with potatoes and chorizo, plus onion and pureed tomatoes. A short list of ingredients yielded a remarkable amount of flavor, and the family loved this.

[Emily_R]

Bruce -- that chard and chorizo dish looks amazing! Could you give us the outline of the cooking steps? Are the potatoes par-cooked?

[gfweb]

Mexican or Spanish chorizo?

[SobaAddict70]

Thanks folks.

Chard looks amazing.

Ditto for the ma po tofu (sorry it didn't work out).

Also, robirdstx can read my mind apparently. Her comment in the new potatoes thread was very close to tonight's dinner without realizing it.

Summer vegetable salad (new potatoes, sugar snap peas, heirloom tomatoes, summer squash), with gambas al ajillo and quick-pickled young onions

Edited July 22, 2011 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[Mjx]

Rabbit seasoned with lavender, garlic, and dried nettles, chanterelles, and rice with borlotti (slices of red and yellow bell pepper on the side). I used suet instead of butter or olive oil for both the rabbit and the chanterelles, since butter didn't seem quite right with rabbit, and olive oil seemed likely to overwhelm the chanterelles.

[C. sapidus]

Mexican or Spanish chorizo?

Mexican chorizo, locally made (plenty of gristle, but also plenty of flavor).

Bruce -- that chard and chorizo dish looks amazing! Could you give us the outline of the cooking steps? Are the potatoes par-cooked?

Thank you, Emily! No par-cooking for the taters. Rinse chard, remove the ribs, cook covered for a few minutes, and then chop roughly. Fry chorizo (no casing) and remove. Fry onions and cubed potatoes in the chorizo drippings. Add chopped chard and pureed tomatoes and reduce. Add chorizo, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender - maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

With a few corn tortillas, I could happily have made a meal of it.

[Shelby]

Had 72 hour short rib left over from a dinner. Made tacos, kale salad, biscuits and Monkey bread.

Everything looks great.

I haven't made monkey bread for years....sounds sooooo good.

I want to make some NOW!

[robirdstx]

robirdstix, I'd dive into your mapo dofu for sure.

Thank you, Bruce! I'll trade my Mapo Tofu for your Chard with potatoes and chorizo. It looks wonderful. I'll have to give it a try soon.

[robirdstx]

Also, robirdstx can read my mind apparently. Her comment in the new potatoes thread was very close to tonight's dinner without realizing it

SobaAddict70 - watch what you think - I may be listening! Your dish sounds and looks great!

[ScottyBoy]

Some dishes for a dinner tonight.

Sun gold cherry tomatoes, water melon, radish sprouts and feta for the salad. The soup is chilled tomato, cucumber and melted onion.

Seared scallop on black lentils and farro. The sauce is reduced chicken/clam/fish stock finished with uni butter. A bit of terragon because I love it with fish.

[Kim Shook]

Panaderia Canadiense – thanks for the cheese information – I really want to learn to do bagels and I think we’d love that combination!

Parmhero – how did you cook your megaburgers? I love that crunchy crustiness that seems to go all around the burger!

Shelby – I saw that show, too and your pizza pot pie looks GREAT! How did you do it? Mr. Kim would love that. And I went right to that pie recipe link and printed it out. I’m making that soon!

Dakki – thanks for the answer about the tortillas. I’ll try that next time we have meat tacos (the shrimp ones didn’t lend themselves to that method).

Genkinaonna – great idea for the duck stock – I ended up with a TON of it and I think when the weather finally gets below HADES level (104 today, with a heat index of 126!!!), I’ll try the soup! Thank you.

Soba – the shrimp dish is just gorgeous and looks so perfect for the weather!

Carro- atyoursenses.com - so funny that you should mention “Janssons F”estelse". I had never heard of it before, but just had it on our England trip and now here. I really liked it a lot, but I don’t think that that version had anchovies – I wish it had!

Scotty – monkey bread !!!

Robirdstx – little bitty bites of lamb on the bone. Nom nom nom!!

Last night I got an urge for shrimp tacos, so:

Jumbos with a combination of rice flour, cornmeal and Creole seasoning.

Tomatoes, fried corn and – well, shrimp tostadas actually, because I’m not too good at the whole folding and frying thing. I topped them with a slaw that was tossed with a rice wine vinegar, mayo and lime juice dressing. Really good.

Close up:

[pastameshugana]

...The soup is chilled tomato, cucumber and melted onion.

That looks and sounds amazing - I had to look up melted onion, sounds wonderful!

For dinner we grilled some ribeyes that I sliced over fettuccine with a roasted sweet pepper alfredo. Very yummy!

[ScottyBoy]

By melted I mean sliced thin, salted and then cooked on low in a pot for 30 mintes or so until they are super soft and a good amount of water has cooked out.

It's funny but that chilled tomato soup is my mother's favorite dish. Out of all the dishes I've made her, when heirlooms are in season and I get it spot-on, this is her favorite thing.

[robirdstx]

Some dishes for a dinner tonight.

ScottyBoy - fabulous photos!

[robirdstx]

Robirdstx – little bitty bites of lamb on the bone. Nom nom nom!!

Kim - yes indeedy. We cleaned them real good. And I love the close up of your shrimp.

Tonight we had Grilled Chicken Thighs and Braised Baby Bok Choy.

[dcarch]

Shelby – Very interesting pizza pot pie. Looks very tasty. What a treat, your pawns with roes.

Kim - I am with you. I like my ducks well-done also. Next time you make duck, don’t forget to invite me. I also like shrimp tacos, invite me for that too. LOL!

Norm – nice looking tilapia plate.

Genkinaonna – your roasted chicken looks as good as Kim’s duck.

rarerollingobject – You are making life difficult for me after seeing your incredible scallop crudo. I went to the market to look for scallops. They were $30.00 a lb! and not very good looking as yours.

gfweb – Lucky dog! Great cook out.

SobaAddict70 – as usual, very beautiful plating for all your dishes. I like the gambas al ajillo very much.

ScottyBoy – Everything looks good, especially the monkey bread, especially the scallop, especially the tomato soup, especially -----

robirdstx - Mapo Tofu may be too hot for you, but it looks mighty good to me. Very gorgeous lamb chops.

C. sapidus – lovely Fish soup to look at, and I can tell, as many who have done some cooking can, it probably tastes better than it looks.

Mjx – Very nice orchestration of seasonings for the rabbit dish.

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

As in many parts of the country, it’s over 100 F here in NY. So I made ice cold sashimi for dinner. The sashimi was on a refrigerated Himalayan salt block, which kept the meal cold for the entire time.

darch

[Twyst]

gorgeous plates as usual dcarch, I have no idea what you do for a living but Im pretty sure you could switch professions and be a food stylist rather easily