Lunch! What'd ya have? (2012–2014)

[Anna N]

A refreshing BLT salad. All the taste, none of the carbs.

Did you add, perhaps, a light coating of mayo? Couldn't tell from the pic.

Absolutely.

[huiray]

Several recent meals.

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

Lunch

• Green & purple long beans (Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis) stir-fried w/ garlic.

• Atlantic salmon steamed w/ rough-ground mustard (w/ jalapenos in it), standard mushrooms, ryori-shu, mirin, white pepper, fresh lemon juice, chopped parsley towards the end.

• Cous-cous, cooked w/ previously-made slow-simmered chicken broth.

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

Lunch

• “Schnecken” brats [Claus’ German Sausage & Meats], pan-fried. (one was saved for dinner)

• Onion rings, pan-fried & caramelized/browned.

• Fresh broccoli florets, sautéed.

• Fresh baby carrots, simmered in salted water w/ a bit of oil & some Greek oregano.

• Fresh spaghettini [Nicole-Taylor’s] cooked in the water used to cook the carrots, drained, then tossed in the pan w/ the fond/residues from frying the “Schnecken” and the onions.

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

Lunch

• Sliced ribeye stir-fried w/ sliced fresh young ginger (see here) & scallions, EV olive oil, Himalayan pink salt & a good splash of ryori-shu [MRT].

• Taiwan A-choy stems, trimmed & skinned to the inner succulent core, then sliced up; plus the trimmed residual leaves; stir-fried w/ smashed garlic.

• White rice (Basmati) [Royal brand; Indian].

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

Lunch

• Another iteration of lotus root soup. (I like lotus root soup) Short-cut pork spare ribs, blanched & washed first (“fei sui”); sliced peeled lotus roots; kind-of smoked big Chinese jujubes (南棗), couple of dried cuttlefish, “yook chook” (玉竹; Yale: yuk6 juk1; Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce); “kei chee” (dried wolfberries/goji berries; 杞子); sea salt.

• Fresh radiatore [Nicole-Taylor’s], w/ a sauce made from chopped garlic, red onions, cipollini onions, Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes, Cherokee Black Heart tomato, Poblano peppers, Western-type celery leaves, Andouille sausage meat, standard mushrooms, seasoned to taste.

Stuff for the sauce:

[liuzhou]

Lunch today became an unexpected banquet. So apologies for the picture quality. I thought I was going for a bowl of noodles and didn't bother taking my real camera. These are from my not very good phone. Well, it makes excellent phone calls.

Taro, Sweet Potato and Yam

Fried Rice

Some kind of deep fried river fish

Greenery

Chinese sausage, Hunan bacon on a bed of roasted peanuts

Celery and Lily Bulbs

White cut chicken

Corn

Braised pork ribs with Chinese herbs and pine needles

Steamed buns (mantou) with pickled vegetables.

Taro Soup

Washed down with a beer or three.

Edited September 27, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

Interesting meal, Liuzhou. What were those greens, exactly? (Was it simply the one known in many parts as "choy sum" 菜心 or "yu choy sum" 油菜心 ?)

Edited September 27, 2013 by huiray (log)

[liuzhou]

What were those greens, exactly?

Sorry I'm not sure. I didn't eat any. Looks like rape (油菜心), though.

[judiu]

Liuzhou, how was the corn cooked, and what was it coated with? Looks great!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Turkey consomme with soup noodles and octodogs.

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou, how was the corn cooked, and what was it coated with? Looks great!

I didn't eat the corn either. I can't stand the stuff.

However, it was just stir fried. A mixture of pale yellow and white kernels. No coating.

[liuzhou]

Lunch today was these Scotch Eggs (and a couple more). The egg is quail egg; the 'sausage meat' is duck.

[mm84321]

It's rare that I eat a lunch. Today I had some chicken legs in the fridge, and found a few nice looking squash and tomatoes in my garden, so figured I'd get one last taste of summer. I started by simply coloring the legs and wings in olive oil with a touch of butter over a gentle heat, then finished in the oven. Once done, I removed the legs from the pan, degreased, added some fresh olive oil and sauteed the squash, then added the tomatos, cut in eight pieces, and let stew. Then added a little chicken stock, reduce a bit, then the leg and wing meat (deboned) and some more olive oil. Finished with espelette, fleur de sel, parsley, basil and the petals of a zucchini flower.

[Dejah]

THAT is summer! Lovely...

[rod rock]

Sounds and looks good mm

[liuzhou]

Usually mussels are only available from the wholesale market and they are not too happy to sell me a dozen. They prefer to deal in multi-killograms. But a new supermarket opened last weekend and they are stocking them (so far). So, lunch today was a sort of moules marinières with some crusty bread,

I basically followed this recipe, but omitted the parsley (because I can't find any and don't particularly like the stuff anyway.) I think it still needed something. Some garlic would have helped.

But it was still very enjoyable.

Edited October 4, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

Some recent lunches.

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

• Stir-fried broccoli & cauliflower florets.

• Cod fillets steamed w/ soy bean paste (陳年豆瓣醬) [Mingteh Food Industry Inc] (this one), garlic, ginger, scallions.

• White rice (Basmati).

• Sautéed snow peas (not pictured).

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

• Fried rice. Done w/ Andouille sausage meat, chopped garlic, couple of farm eggs, day-old rice, frozen peas, chopped scallions, chopped coriander leaves, salt.

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

• Cantonese roast duck [Asia Mart], pork & shrimp wontons [Prime Food], fresh small tung koo, young Tuscan kale (hydroponic), skinny wonton noodles [Twin Marquis]; in chicken stock simmered w/ a little oil, some ikan bilis & those small tung koo.

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

B’fast/Lunch Part 1

• Culatello slices & a Debreziner sausage [Goose the Market].

• Walnut & cranberry bread [brotgarten].

• Sautéed baby leeks (purposely browned/slightly blackened) (each "stalk" shown is an entire leek, minus the roots and the green tops).

Lunch Part 2

• Steamed Har Gow [Prime Food] & Shumai [JFC].

• Dipping sauce of light soy sauce [Pearl River], aged soy sauce [Kim Lan], “aged gourmet rice vinegar” [Kong Yen], a splash of sweet mirin [Honteri], chopped scallions.

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

• Slow-simmered chicken broth; plus fresh carrots, celery & orange sweet “snacking peppers” simmered in the broth.

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

• Sautéed leeks (these were cut-up mature leeks, with very long white parts).

• Spaghetti [Garofalo] w/ fresh Hazan-(simple)style tomato sauce, using canned Italian-type plum tomatoes. The sauce is much less “liquid” than a previous batch using fresh ripe tomatoes (deskinned, deseeded).

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

• Hainanese Chicken Rice. Small (3 lb) Bell & Evans chicken, skin exfoliated w/ coarse Kosher salt, rinsed off, stuffed w/ sliced ginger and scallion pieces, poached [brought to boil then heat shut off] to ~ 160ºF in the thigh, dumped in ice water; rice (cooked w/ additional chicken fat, rendered in the rice pot; chopped garlic, ginger, pandan leaves, the poaching stock); young collard greens (hydroponic) in the poaching stock; grated ginger/chopped scallion/salt/hot oil dipping sauce.

[liuzhou]

Mussels steamed in beer with garlic, shallots, chili pepper flakes.

Wilted baby bok choy

Lightly fried ramen noodles.

Edited October 10, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[jsager01]

• Hainanese Chicken Rice. Small (3 lb) Bell & Evans chicken, skin exfoliated w/ coarse Kosher salt, rinsed off, stuffed w/ sliced ginger and scallion pieces, poached [brought to boil then heat shut off] to ~ 160ºF in the thigh, dumped in ice water; rice (cooked w/ additional chicken fat, rendered in the rice pot; chopped garlic, ginger, pandan leaves, the poaching stock); young collard greens (hydroponic) in the poaching stock; grated ginger/chopped scallion/salt/hot oil dipping sauce.

DSCN9650a_1k.jpg

it is as authentic as can be. The collard greens in stock looks like a v good innovation - hawker stalls normally just drop in chopped scallions.

however, i would also have the chilli+ginger+garlic+sugar+salt+rendered chicken fat dipping sauce...for me, i cant do without chilli in HCR.

Maybe its the photography, and YMMV but the chicken looks too pale and white - did you brush it with soya sauce and/or sessame oil right after you finished cooking it? The skin looks a bit thin: did you do the dipping in hot stock and ice/cold water 3 times or more? I was told that this technique increases the thickness of the skin's gelatinous collagen, but i still cannot get consistent results, and i blame it on the chicken, and not my technique :-))).

Edited October 13, 2013 by jsager01 (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Simple down-home lunches here - soups and grilled cheese, and table games.

[gfweb]

Italian sausage and pasta.

[huiray]

• Hainanese Chicken Rice. Small (3 lb) Bell & Evans chicken, skin exfoliated w/ coarse Kosher salt, rinsed off, stuffed w/ sliced ginger and scallion pieces, poached [brought to boil then heat shut off] to ~ 160ºF in the thigh, dumped in ice water; rice (cooked w/ additional chicken fat, rendered in the rice pot; chopped garlic, ginger, pandan leaves, the poaching stock); young collard greens (hydroponic) in the poaching stock; grated ginger/chopped scallion/salt/hot oil dipping sauce.

DSCN9650a_1k.jpg

it is as authentic as can be. The collard greens in stock looks like a v good innovation - hawker stalls normally just drop in chopped scallions.

however, i would also have the chilli+ginger+garlic+sugar+salt+rendered chicken fat dipping sauce...for me, i cant do without chilli in HCR.

Maybe its the photography, and YMMV but the chicken looks too pale and white - did you brush it with soya sauce and/or sessame oil right after you finished cooking it? The skin looks a bit thin: did you do the dipping in hot stock and ice/cold water 3 times or more? I was told that this technique increases the thickness of the skin's gelatinous collagen, but i still cannot get consistent results, and i blame it on the chicken, and not my technique :-))).

Authenticity is a slippery word. Still, thank you

Unlike ayam kampung in M'sia these and most non-free range chickens here do not have that deep yellow skin and darker flesh. (This chicken also had very thin skin to start with) I don't do the soy sauce brush or the sesame oil brush - I don't particularly care for them. I may brush the chicken after poaching w/ a neutral vegetable oil on occasion. I sometimes drizzle the assembled dish of chopped chicken pieces w/ sang chow, though, as I did here. I did the ice-water dipping just once. I frequently don't even do this - I like the extra gelatin that pools beneath the chicken (and gels into nice flavorful tidbits) when I don't. I'm not terribly concerned if I don't do precisely what some favored hawker or other does, I take into account what I feel like and what pleases me. I use many other kinds of vegetation and whatnot in the soups accompanying the HCR I make - I've described them in several other previous posts on HCR here on the forum. I use other sauces too, like a chicken liver sauce which I have also described elsewhere here. I also use various formulations for the chilli sauce for the HCR when I do have chilli sauce, also described elsewhere here.

[huiray]

Some lunches from the last few weeks.

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

• Fried rice. Made w/ Chinese sausages (lap cheong; liver & wine-flavored varieties), smashed chopped garlic, broccoli florets, day-old Basmati rice.

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

• Red chard, “stir-fried” w/ minced pork, garlic, plus splashes of this-and-that (don’t exactly remember what now).

• Spaghetti [Garofalo] w/ leftover “Marcella Hazan” tomato sauce.

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

• Fresh wood-ear fungus (muk yee; 木耳) sautéed w/ small fresh Chinese mushrooms (shiitake-type; tung koo; 冬菇), scallions & coriander leaves.

• Romaine hearts stir-fried w/ garlic & fermented bean curd (fu yee; 腐乳).

• Leftover Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh (from here).

• White rice (Basmati).

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

• Chinese rose wine & shrimp soup. I had been thinking of this off-and-on since Anna N’s post and finally got around to it.

• Fried rice w/ chopped Chinese long beans, lots of chopped scallions, chopped celery, farm eggs scrambled in situ. (Not pictured)

[liuzhou]

A light lunch today.

Salmon poached in a clam stock with garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, s+p, with just wilted baby bok choy and ramen noodles simply boiled in the same clam stock. Finished with a splash of sesame oil.

[Anna N]

Dry-fried beans with ground chicken instead of pork and I added some bean sprouts rather than let them die.

[huiray]

Couple of past lunches.

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

Lunch

• Salad of romaine & red leaf lettuces, red Russian kale, a Marconi pepper, and Napa cabbage heart. Dressed w/ a vinaigrette of smooth Dijon mustard [Grey Poupon], ‘Stoneground Xxspress Mustard’ [Local Folks Foods], sugar, sea salt, ‘Aged Gourmet Rice Vinegar’ [Kong Yen], EV olive oil [Fresh Foods], generous fresh ground black pepper, fresh lime juice, generous rice wine (ryori-shu) [Morita].

• Leftover beef short ribs stewed w/ young daikon, lily buds, bamboo shoots, Chinese-type shiitake mushrooms (far koo), garlic, mutenka shiro miso paste [Maruman] (see here and here for more info). Gussied up w/ more of some ingredients & re-stewing for a bit.

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

Lunch

Part I.

• Steamed char siu bao [Prime Food].

• Steamed pork, scallop & shrimp dumplings (shui gow) [Wei Chuan], dressed w/ chopped scallions. (no pic, I was tucking into it before I remembered the camera)

Part II.

• Teochew-style steamed fresh striped bass. Live fish from the tank the day before. Dressed w/ Shaoh Xing wine [Lam Sheng Kee], sliced ripe tomato, sliced scallions & ginger (also stuffed into fish cavity), vegetable oil, sea salt, slight drizzle of light soy sauce, sliced preserved sour mustard (syun choi/harm choy) [Pigeon brand], pickled plums [Hana]; then steamed till just done.

• Cauliflower florets “stir-fried”/sautéed w/ garlic in vegetable oil.

• White rice (Basmati).

Edited October 28, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Darienne]

Just because I managed to reach the exalted age of 72 without ever having made real honest to goodness chicken soup... I do have some trouble eating chicken because of all the little extra bitsies which are involved unless you eat straight chicken breast meat which is not fascinating. .

Used a leftover gifted B-B-Q chicken with Martha Stewart's recipe leaving out the bay leaves and the garlic. Incredibly delicious. Was blown away.

[huiray]

Late lunch/early dinner yesterday:

• Pan-fried Merguez sausages [smoking Goose, this one; via Goose the Market]; a chunky cultivar of Maitake mushrooms (see here) sautéed in the pan residues & oil; Austrian Crescent & Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes simply simmered in salted water & tossed in the pan remnants to coat w/ a little oil.

• Chicken broth w/ fresh leafy celery wilted in it.