Lunch! What'd ya have? (2012–2014)

[huiray]

Some recent meals.

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• Pressed beef tongue [Claus’] & “Dodge City Salami” [Goose the Market].

• Semolina bread [Amelia’s].

• “Marbled” scrambled eggs, in the juices left over from sautéeing Merguez sausages + a little more oil added in.

• Blanched “yu choy sum” drizzled w/ ponzu (soy) sauce & dusted w/ ground black pepper.

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• Cucumber soup. Made w/ Indian cucumbers (hardened yellow-brown skin; deseeded), pork spare ribs, Chinese jujubes (“lam jou” variety), garlic, dried oysters, dried scallops. Salted to taste.

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• Stir-fried “Seng Choy” (edible amaranth), red-green variety; w/ soaked dried prawns (“har mai”), soy oil - prawn paste, chilli paste, garlic.

• Stir-fried bittergourd w/ beef & garlic.

• White rice.

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• Pan-fried “Schnecken” sausage, boiled small purple & red/rose-Yukon potatoes, sautéed chopped de-ribbed Tuscan kale.

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• Spaghetti w/ pesto.

• Stir-fried sliced lotus root, trimmed “wong nga pak” (Napa cabbage) heart, sliced sweet red pepper, softened snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis), soaked “kum chum” (lily buds).

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• Pea soup. Made w/ dried whole skin-on peas, a “ham nugget”, fresh green/yellow carrots, fresh red-skin carrots, small red/rose Yukon potatoes, a few bay leaves. Seasoned to taste. I was reminded why I seldom make pea soup – it gives me indigestion.

Some of the veggies before adding to the soup:

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• Angled loofah (Luffa acutangula), pork spare ribs & garlic soup; with cellophane noodles [Lung Kow].

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• Steamed yellowtail snapper. Done in a Cantonese style.

• Winter melon soup.

• White rice (Himalayan Basmati).

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• Jamón Serrano, sliced Purple Haze & Amazon Chocolate tomatoes, sautéed halved Roma beans, pieces of an ‘Epi’ “wheat stalk” loaf.

Edited August 19, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Cajun is all about the blending of flavors not necessarily just the heat. One of the best explanations I have read.

I would imagine that "blending of flavors" is a common thread in most cuisines, not just Cajun, no?

Not necessarily. A lot of Latin American cooking is based on allowing the balanced, individual flavours of the ingredients to shine, rather than creating new flavours based on blending. This means that the recipes look deceptively simple (the Shrimp Encocado I posted recently in Dinner! has exactly 5 ingredients), but are frustratingly difficult to get right unless you've got access to extraordinarily fresh everything and the right touch in terms of proportions.

[Anna N]

Pork and chive potstickers

Though I much prefer my own home made potstickers there are times when the supermarket freezer case variety must suffice.

[huiray]

Cajun is all about the blending of flavors not necessarily just the heat. One of the best explanations I have read.

I would imagine that "blending of flavors" is a common thread in most cuisines, not just Cajun, no?

Not necessarily. A lot of Latin American cooking is based on allowing the balanced, individual flavours of the ingredients to shine, rather than creating new flavours based on blending. This means that the recipes look deceptively simple (the Shrimp Encocado I posted recently in Dinner! has exactly 5 ingredients), but are frustratingly difficult to get right unless you've got access to extraordinarily fresh everything and the right touch in terms of proportions.

Well, I consider "allowing the balanced, individual flavours of the ingredients to shine, rather than creating new flavours" to be a variation of blending as a general category. I don't draw a sharp line between "balancing" and "blending" - to me they are facets of the same principle, to get things to harmonize or, alternatively, to come to a condition where one feels that eating the dish is a nice sensation of flavors that do not fight with each other or that leaves one with the feeling of being sullied in some way. Some combinations may not be an orchestra of rhapsodic harmony but they work together nevertheless, e.g. such as in cases where tastes pleasantly contrast with each other in the same dish. I would also consider that to be a "blending" - even if they may be of disparate characters.

In contrast and as an example of an "extreme case" of blending, I once knew a guy who took pride in his concoction of a "curry mix" which had more than 30 ingredients in it, and he was actually looking to increase the number of components in it to "enhance it's complexity and "depth" " as he claimed. I thought it quite excessive.

Edited August 19, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Anna N]

Leftover seasoned pork (from Dan dan noodles) added to stir-fired onion and cabbage. Simple but tasty.

[pastameshugana]

We had a couple of great looking burger patties given to us by a local farmer, and the kids are back at school so me and Mrs Meshugana had these for lunch:

Fried bacon in the cast iron, then fried mushrooms and jalapeños in the bacon renderings with the burgers. Pepper jack cheese and cheap bread - was delicious.

[Anna N]

Kimchi pancakes (made with home-made kimchi) and a spicy dipping sauce.

[rotuts]

Kimchi pancakes

wow. I pretty much get the idea: scallion pancakes with Kimchi subbed.

nice artistque points on them.

[Anna N]

Kimchi pancakes

wow. I pretty much get the idea: scallion pancakes with Kimchi subbed.

nice artistque points on them.

Much simpler to make than scallion pancakes! Even simpler if you use a pre-made mix as I did.

[pyrguy]

We had a couple of great looking burger patties given to us by a local farmer, and the kids are back at school so me and Mrs Meshugana had these for lunch:

Fried bacon in the cast iron, then fried mushrooms and jalapeños in the bacon renderings with the burgers. Pepper jack cheese and cheap bread - was delicious

Great burgers on cheep white bread is a wonderful thing.

[rod rock]

Few days ago:

Green pepper with rice and pork or a beef in the bechamel sauce and cheese.

Edited August 26, 2013 by rod rock (log)

[huiray]

I assume that was for you and not for Kitty-Kat. :-)

[huiray]

A few meals from the past week or so:

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Lunch

• Beef shin slow-braised w/ bamboo shoots, garlic, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves & various sauces and condiments.

• White rice (Basmati).

The shin was bought intact then cut up into rounds.

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Lunch

• Fresh orecchiete tossed in the pan w/ a sauce prepared from sliced “Kitchen Sink” sausages, Roma beans, Chocolate Stripe tomatoes, garlic, shallots, EV olive oil.

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Dinner

• Pan-fried swordfish. (Marinated O/N in a ziplock bag w/ ripe lime juice (from one large lime), lime zest, smashed & chopped garlic (Purple Glazer), fresh chopped rosemary, sea salt, some rice wine [MRT ryori-shu] & sweet mirin [Honteri])

• Fresh red durum wheat semolina angel hair pasta, tossed w/ the pan juices & fond from the frying of the swordfish deglazed w/ ryori-shu [MRT] plus more oil.

• Sautéed French filet beans.

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Lunch

• Chicken leg quarters (browned in the pan first) braised w/ fingerling potatoes (Russian Banana & Red Thumb; also pan-browned first), red & orange carrots, cipollini onions, two heads of garlic (Purple Glazer; parchments left on but broken up into several chunks of cloves), sea salt, rice wine, mirin; and fresh thyme (leaves only) plus fistfuls of fresh tarragon (leaves only) towards the end.

Edited August 26, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Anna N]

Huiray, you make the most amazing lunches.

Green beans in sa cha sauce. Not quite as good as Dunlop's dry-fried beans with pork but for a simple dish it grew on me. I'll be making it again.

[huiray]

Thank you, Anna N. It might be useful to realize that lunch is not infrequently (but definitely not always) the more substantial meal of my dining day/night.

[heidih]

A simple but satisfying lunch today was leftover raw kale salad (lacinto kale, roasted almonds, Feta, dried Montmorency cherries and an oil & vinegar dressing upped with garlic, cracked pepper and lemon zest), toasted sourdough with Seville orange marmalade, and onions browned in olive oil with egg whites and snipped garlic chives from the garden. I am not opposed to whole eggs; I just enjoy whites only on occasion as a binder for the other ingredients. The black kale was much greener than it appears.

[huiray]

A few recent meals.

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Lunch

• Tomato soup. From ripe tomatoes - blanched, skins removed, deseeded, chopped, simmered w/ slightly browned sliced shallots & generous fresh basil, seasoned to taste; stick blender at the end. Drizzled w/ black truffle oil & topped w/ extra fresh basil leaves when plated.

• “Kitchen Sink” sausages [Goose the Market] & Weisswurst [Claus’] simmered w/ barrel sauerkraut [Kühne; via Claus’] & a few bay leaves.

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Lunch

• Red durum wheat semolina papardelle tossed w/ a sauce made w/ Roma beans (sliced lengthwise), sliced Poblano peppers, chopped tomatoes (Cherokee Purple), chopped smashed garlic, sliced cipollini onions, sea salt, sautéed minced pork & minced Andouille sausage meat.

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Late dinner

• Leftover sauce from lunch, with white rice (Basmati).

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Lunch

• A simple Bravanese Kingfish dish, from Somalia, with modifications.^¶

^¶I free-handed/changed the proportions of the ingredients in the recipe to please myself. I also used “Aged Gourmet Rice Vinegar” (“陳年酢”) [Kong Yen Foods (Taiwan)] instead of the white vinegar in the recipe, and also added in the juice from a whole fresh lime as well as splashing in a bit of sweet mirin [Honteri].

• Green & purple Chinese long beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedale) and chopped, peeled Japanese Trifele tomatoes;^§ simmered w/ a rempah paste of ginger, garlic, garam masala and ground coriander sautéed in peanut oil.

^§The tomato pieces “dissolved into” and became part of the sauce.

• White rice (Basmati).

[robirdstx]

Chopped Salad - Romaine, Roasted Turkey Breast, Shredded Cheese, Bacon, Tomato, Avocado, Hard Cooked Egg, and Black Olives with Ranch Dressing and Black Pepper.

[Anna N]

So yeah. It properly belongs in the gallery of regrettable foods but I think we should sometimes be willing to show our "failures". In quotation marks because it was actually quite tasty. Beneath the roasted beets hides some crumbled Moody Blue (a smoked blue cheese) and my reason for this particular lunch was really the poached eggs. I wanted to test the theory that swirling the raw egg in a strainer to remove most of the watery white would produce a much nicer looking poached egg. It might have worked with farm fresh eggs. But these were supermarket eggs of unknown age and provenance. I broke the yolk of one and the other still managed to look unkempt. Will have to try again when I have access to some really fresh eggs. Anyone else try this technique?

[rotuts]

A.N.:

moving up on dcarch and mm8---?

looking good !

I think its that sprinkling of ??? around the plate that gets you in the gate.

Edited September 5, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Anna - I don't think that it looks bad at all, quite the opposite actually (I love beets)!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

A Q-BLAT sandwich (Queso, bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato). I don't do these often, but that just makes them tastier when I do get around to it....

(edited because for some reason the attachment entered twice)

Edited September 6, 2013 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[Alex]

A Q-BLAT sandwich (Queso, bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato). I don't do these often, but that just makes them tastier when I do get around to it....

CBLAT.jpg

(edited because for some reason the attachment entered twice)

Looks great! It reminds me of my life-long favorite--cream cheese, bacon, and tomato. (As I progressed into middle adulthood, goat cheese occasionally took the place of cream cheese.) What kind of bread did you use this time?

Looks like White put Brown at an early disadvantage (the backgammon game, not the bread).

[Anna N]

Leftover roasted chicken thigh, potatoes and carrots sauteed in duck fat with some chopped onion. The duck fat had come from a breast that had been well seasoned with 5-spice powder among other things so it made for a very flavourful sautee.

[Anna N]

A.N.:

moving up on dcarch and mm8---?

looking good !

I think its that sprinkling of ??? around the plate that gets you in the gate.

Aleppo pepper.