Lunch! What'd ya have? (2012–2014)

[Anna N]

I am always amazed by huiray's lunches but especially by his use of chicken broth. I think a light finally went on in my head and I realized that he takes chicken broth as a base and then adds whatever tasty bites he has on hand, fresh and/or leftover. I doubt I can come close to his access to amazing ingredients or to his imagination in combining them but this was still tasty.

Chicken broth simmered with some ginger, garlic and star anise. Wontons, meatballs and chopped spinach added once it had a chance to develop some flavour.

[huiray]

Looks yummy, Anna N. You are too kind in your comments about my lunches.

[liuzhou]

One egg omelette - One goose egg.

Goose egg omelette with beef bone marrow and mixed mushrooms.

A new supermarket in town has goose eggs and beef marrow bones

So, I removed the marrow from the bones and sliced it up a bit, rehydrated some cépes and sliced some button mushrooms.

I put the marrow into a dry pan and let it render / cook. Some of the rendered fat was poured off and saved for another day.

The mushrooms were added and fried till cooked through, then set aside.

The pan was cleaned and some butter melted. A goose egg was cleaned, cracked and beaten with s+p and some dried Herbes de Provence (sure, fresh would have been better, but what you ain't got you don't have. I'm a long way from Provence.)

The egg mixture was tipped into the pan and swirled to coat the base. As the egg on the bottom set, the unset egg on top was tipped to the edge in the time-honoured fashion.

When almost set, the mushroom and marrow mixture was added to one side of the thing

and the omelette folded around the filling.

It was then plated

Seconds later it looked like this

[judiu]

Liuzhou, was that just the white of the goose egg, or was the yolk that pale?

[liuzhou]

It's the whole egg. It wasn't really so pale - I think the colour balance in the pictures is a bit off.

That said, they are a bit paler than the duck eggs which I usually eat.

[huiray]

Nice, Liuzhou.

[huiray]

Yesterday's lunch:

De-ribbed Tuscan kale blanched in boiling oiled water; couple of natural-case Wieners [Dietz & Watson] cooked in that oiled boiling water; "Vegetarian Noodles" (dried) [White Elephant brand] cooked in salted water then tossed w/ leftover Marcella Hazan tomato sauce.

Edited November 2, 2013 by huiray (log)

[liuzhou]

Nice, Liuzhou.

Thank you. It was until the software dumped all my pictures but one.

[Anna N]

Stir-fried ginger beef with tomatoes from Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. I served it over shirataki noodles. This was initially quite disappointing. There are any number of Asian ingredients but all were buried by the tomatoes. But it grew on me. I am not a fan of Italian pasta with tomato-based sauces yet I would make this again. So perhaps those Asian ingredients played a larger role than I give them credit for.

There was enough for two meals so I re-heated it for dinner and added some bok choy on the side.

Must learn less messy plating techniques.

[liuzhou]

(This is a re-post of something posted a couple of days ago. The original post got eaten by the nasties lurking in the system. Intrepid investigators are investigating intrepidly.)

One egg omelette - One goose egg.

Goose egg omelette with beef bone marrow and mixed mushrooms.

A new supermarket in town has goose eggs and beef marrow bones

So, I removed the marrow from the bones and sliced it up a bit, rehydrated some cépes and sliced some button mushrooms.

I put the marrow into a dry pan and let it render / cook. Some of the rendered fat was poured off and saved for another day.

The mushrooms were added and fried till cooked through, then set aside.



The pan was cleaned and some butter melted. A goose egg was cleaned, cracked and beaten with s+p and some dried Herbes de Provence (sure, fresh would have been better, but what you ain't got you don't have. I'm a long way from Provence.)

The egg mixture was tipped into the pan and swirled to coat the base. As the egg on the bottom set, the unset egg on top was tipped to the edge in the time-honoured fashion.

When almost set, the mushroom and marrow mixture was added to one side of the thing

and the omelette folded around the filling.

It was then plated

Seconds later it looked like this

Edited November 3, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

Glad you were able to re-post. It has never occurred to me to re-hydrate mushrooms to use in an omelette. It reveals how my thoughts are pigeon-holed for no good reason! Must incorporate dried mushrooms into other things than stews and Asian dishes. Thanks.

[Anna N]

A kitchen sink soup based on cheater's Asian chicken broth.

[liuzhou]

In most ways this was a very simple light lunch, but it was also rather special.

I was given a wonderful gift of some beautiful Jinhua Ham (金华火腿), generally regarded as China's finest. And fine it is! One of the world's finest, I would say - certainly up there with the Spanish wonders.

So I added a bit to a chicken stock made using free-range chicken legs (they range with the rest of their body, too) with shallots, garlic, and ginger.

Then once the stock was ready, I used it to cook some chicken leg meat, added some more of the ham, some (very) fresh rice noodles handmade by my neighbour (no oil!), a little salt (Beihai sea salt from near the Chinese/Vietnamese border) , a sprinkling of Shichimi Togarishi (Japanese 7 spice mixture) and a scattering of chopped Chinese chives (these were added right at the end and allowed to wilt in the residual heat while I took the photos.

Happy mouth.

Edited November 7, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

Some recent lunches.

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• Beef shin & veggie soup.

Whole beef shin, trimmed, cut into 1½ - 2 inch rounds, browned in oil seasoned w/ lightly crushed garlic cloves (reserved); quenched w/ water, sautéed garlic added back in, sea-salt added, simmered for 30-40 min; whole cloves & stick cinnamon & a couple whole star anise added in together w/ halved scrubbed purple potatoes & halved baby scrubbed daikon; simmered some more. Halved (lengthwise) fresh carrots & generous quartered red & white onions added, simmered some more. Seasoning adjusted. [The only thing that had its “skin” removed was the garlic, and the onions with the dry skin taken off. ;-) ]

• Broccoli florets, stir-fried w/ smashed garlic & fu yee (fermented beancurd) [Chan Moon Kee] simmered down in the sautéeing mixture.

• White rice (Basmati).

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• Kon Lo Mein, using skinny wonton noodles; dressed w/ a sauce of minced beef & veal (1:1) sautéed w/ garlic and ginger & various sauces including oyster sauce [LKK], “Luscious Soy Paste” [Kim Lan], sesame oil [Dragonfly], mirin, light soy sauce, ryori-shu.

• Steamed har gow & siu mai [commercial], eaten w/ a dipping sauce of mixed soy sauces w/ rice vinegar & chopped scallions.

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

• Fried rice. Roughly chopped char siu (Chinese BBQ pork), chopped smashed garlic, a sliced-up Carmen Italian sweet pepper, 2-day-old white rice (Basmati), frozen peas, lots of trimmed Thai basil, sliced-up plain 3-egg omelette (fried separately; hot oil, hot pan, sizzle, flip).

• Chicken broth w/ carrots & leaf celery.

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• Kangkong belacan, with dried prawns (har mai) added in as well.

• Babi pongteh, with sliced pork belly (*definitely* skin-on). This time I loosely patterned it after this recipe but using peanut oil and Red Thumb & Austrian Crescent fingerling potatoes. I used palm sugar (gula melaka).

• White rice (Basmati).

There are discussions about removing (!) pork belly skin elsewhere on the forum as well as discussions that largely dwell on getting great puffed and crispy skin etc. IMO soft, yielding, fall-apart skin w/ lovely gelatinous textures (such as in this dish) are quite wonderful too, but perhaps not all will appreciate that. :-)

Edited November 9, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Anna N]

Tebasaki chicken wings from a Cooking with Dog recipe. (For those not familiar, the dog is the host not the main ingredient.)

[Anna N]

The last of a supermarket rotisserie chicken. Torn romaine, grape tomatoes, shredded chicken, few parmesan strips all dressed with a faux caesar dressing.

[Anna N]

Remember this topic

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145656-instant-lunch-half-an-hour-to-make-and-eat-for-unexpected-visitor-suggestions-anyone/?hl=lunch

Where I asked for help coming up with speedy lunches for unexpected guests?

When all your suggestions poured in I realized,

a. You must have thought I'd finally lost all my marbles

and

b. I had neglected to share a very limiting parameter - my guest(s) are low or no carbers!

So today I was challenged again but pulled together this:

Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, smoked oysters, hearts of palm, mayo, faux caesar dressing, store bought antipasti and (not shown) homemade roasted tomatoes.

[Anna N]

Remember this topic

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145656-instant-lunch-half-an-hour-to-make-and-eat-for-unexpected-visitor-suggestions-anyone/?hl=lunch

Where I asked for help coming up with speedy lunches for unexpected guests?

When all your suggestions poured in I realized,

a. You must have thought I'd finally lost all my marbles

and

b. I had neglected to share a very limiting parameter - my guest(s) are low or no carbers!

So today I was challenged again but pulled together this:

Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, smoked oysters, hearts of palm, mayo, faux caesar dressing, store bought antipasti and (not shown) homemade roasted tomatoes.

[BeeZee]

ashamed to say...my lunch today was half of a pint of Ben and Jerry's "What a Cluster". I think I cured my ice cream craving for a while.

[huiray]

Just half a pint? Aw shucks, you should have gone for a whole pint, half a pint seems hardly worthwhile. Sounds like a nice lunch, though. ;-)

[mm84321]

Sweetbreads with jerusalem artichokes, bacon and brussels sprouts..

[Norm Matthews]

I made chicken stock yesterday and soup with it today.

[Anna N]

Not often do I bring a ready-to-eat lunch home from the grocery store. I was out much longer than I expected and had turned down an offer of poutine from the chip truck! Such virtuosity deserved a reward:

Vietnamese vegetarian roll from the sushi bar. It was surprisingly tasty and filling.

[rotuts]

Wow

'' turned down an offer of poutine from the chip truck ''

Iron Will you have. no trucks like that around here.

[gfweb]

Short rib sandwich with horseradish cheddar and jus.