The best dish you cooked in 2012

[FeChef]

Dry aged filet mignon with dollop of toasted boursin cheese ontop with a merlot wine reduction sauce and pan seared scallops w/tomatoes and pesto sauce.

[David Ross]

That is a beautiful filet. My favorite cut of beef.

[ScottyBoy]

Oh Boursin, how I love thee.

[FeChef]

That is a beautiful filet. My favorite cut of beef.

Thanks. I aged it myself. Believe it or not it was Choice grade and onsale for 10.99/lb

[Steve Irby]

I'll include two. Most fun dish from Heston Blumenthal at Home

And one of my first SV experiments - 72 hour short ribs plated a couple of different ways

[Ashen]

Excuse me, but "best dish" means to me the most wonderful tasting dish, not the most complicated or creative or using the most obscure ingredients. I therefore nominate a once a year favorite of mine: a first-of-season homegrown not-so-green tomato ( streaks of pink) sliced, seasoned and floured, fried in fresh bacon fat, sprinkled with brown sugar and turned to glaze on both sides. Served with the bacon and a cream gravy made from the pan drippings.

The combination of flavors never fails to make me swoon and whisper "excellent" to myself.

I love your style and your mario batali quote signature is awesome.

Now saying that I will turn around and talk about my homemade peameal bacon. lol.. Of course in my defense if I could find a place to make it the way I remember growing up, I wouldn't bother to make it myself .

homemade peameal bacon, fresh field tomato , 7 yr old white cheddar on toasted portuguese bread

Edited January 4, 2013 by Ashen (log)

[janeer]

Some lovely photos here; very pretty beetroot consomme! I keep coming back to most ridiculously simple but divine thing I made all year: green chile. Two ingredients--pork butt and chiles--no recipe, just the pork, the stock from the pork, the chiles I had on hand (roasted Hatch from the freezer, fresh poblanos, fresh serranos). Oh yes, there was 1 clove of garlic and maybe a T of flour to thicken. Amazing depth and surprising complexity of flavor, richness, perfect balance. Through it together as an afterthought while making tamales with the rest of the pork.

[ruthcooks]

Excuse me, but "best dish" means to me the most wonderful tasting dish, not the most complicated or creative or using the most obscure ingredients. I therefore nominate a once a year favorite of mine: a first-of-season homegrown not-so-green tomato ( streaks of pink) sliced, seasoned and floured, fried in fresh bacon fat, sprinkled with brown sugar and turned to glaze on both sides. Served with the bacon and a cream gravy made from the pan drippings.

The combination of flavors never fails to make me swoon and whisper "excellent" to myself.

I love your style and your mario batali quote signature is awesome.

Now saying that I will turn around and talk about my homemade peameal bacon. lol.. Of course in my defense if I could find a place to make it the way I remember growing up, I wouldn't bother to make it myself .

homemade peameal bacon, fresh field tomato , 7 yr old white cheddar on toasted portuguese bread

Thank you, Ashen! I sometimes feel like Alice in Wonderland on this thread (different wave length) and finding a kindred spirit is freeing to me.

I want to take this opportunity to clarify my statement above. By the word "nominate" I did not mean to imply that this thread is a competition between posters. I was speaking to the fact that I would nominate among my own dishes.

I have never eaten pea meal bacon, but would if I had a chance.

[patrickamory]

janeer, where did you source your Hatches? do you think it makes as much of a difference as people say?

[The J]

No photos, but the best meal I made in 2012 was pernil with potato salad and arroz con gandules. For the pernil, I roasted a pork shoulder (or 3 ) covered in sofrito for somewhere in the 8-10 hour range, until it fell apart at the tines of a fork. The potato salad was dressed lightly with a mixture of mayo, lemon juice and olive oil, and had chopped green olives.

The pernil lasted about a week -- in addition to eating it with the sides I made along with it, I also used it to make tacos (corn tortillas, salsa fresca, queso blanco), pizza, pasta and sandwiches. Definitely going to have to do that again this year.

[janeer]

janeer, where did you source your Hatches? do you think it makes as much of a difference as people say?

Here in Tucson where I spend the academic year; they are just piled high everywhere when they come into season. Honestly, they have never been my favorite chile for other uses, but I think that they must be the quintessential chile for this particular dish.

[benthescientist]

And one of my first SV experiments - 72 hour short ribs plated a couple of different ways

How'd you brown the ribs?

[Ericpo]

My 'best dish'? I suppose there really is only one choice for that. It was a peach/mint sorbet I served as a palate cleanser course during a ridiculously elaborate, 8 course meal for 50 of my friends.

I was looking for something to enhance the cleansing aspect of a good sorbet, and it was midsummer so my garden was flush with fresh mint...I figured, why not? To get that fresh herb flavor, I steeped fresh mint leafs in the syrup, then strained them out before combining with the peach pureé.

Also I had been planning this meal for several months, so I managed to anticipate the arrival of fresh peaches in the markets. So it was made with fully, perfectly, ripe peaches. I chose not to peel the peaches...which left it chunkier perhaps than a traditional sorbet, but with the amazing mouthfeel of a ripe peach, fuzz and all!

Finally, I hollowed out lemons, froze them, then packed them with the sorbet. I topped each with the blossom end of the lemon.This gave a fresh lemony tingle to each bite, as well as ensuring that the sorbet arrived frozen even on a hot August night.

Served amidst a lineup of superlative dishes, this was the only one anyone would talk about, all night. Which was a little frustrating since I worked far harder on most of the other courses, but it just points me back to what I already should know: It's the simple things that are often the best.

Wish I had some pictures, but alas.

[Ericpo]

My favorite dish and flavour combo: scallops in whiskey/vanilla sauce and baby spinach

Whiskey/Vanilla sauce? yum. How do you make that?

[Darienne]

My 'best dish'? I suppose there really is only one choice for that. It was a peach/mint sorbet I served as a palate cleanser course during a ridiculously elaborate, 8 course meal for 50 of my friends.

Ericpo. I think possibly you are a figment of eG's imagination.

[Ericpo]

My 'best dish'? I suppose there really is only one choice for that. It was a peach/mint sorbet I served as a palate cleanser course during a ridiculously elaborate, 8 course meal for 50 of my friends.

Ericpo. I think possibly you are a figment of eG's imagination.

Darienne...Thank you? I'm actually not sure if that was a compliment or insult...

[Darienne]

My 'best dish'? I suppose there really is only one choice for that. It was a peach/mint sorbet I served as a palate cleanser course during a ridiculously elaborate, 8 course meal for 50 of my friends.

Ericpo. I think possibly you are a figment of eG's imagination.

Darienne...Thank you? I'm actually not sure if that was a compliment or insult...

That was a compliment, completely. I am so in awe of folks who can whip up elaborate dinners for 50. Way beyond my level of competence...unless they are dog folks (with dogs) who really mostly don't care what they are eating as long as they are fed enough and have homemade ice cream (which I do make and quite nicely) and slushy Margaritas to follow later (which someone else makes, BTW). We mostly supply the place.

No, it was all compliment.

Edited January 20, 2013 by Darienne (log)

[Ericpo]

My 'best dish'? I suppose there really is only one choice for that. It was a peach/mint sorbet I served as a palate cleanser course during a ridiculously elaborate, 8 course meal for 50 of my friends.

Ericpo. I think possibly you are a figment of eG's imagination.

Darienne...Thank you? I'm actually not sure if that was a compliment or insult...

That was a compliment, completely. I am so in awe of folks who can whip up elaborate dinners for 50. Way beyond my level of competence...unless they are dog folks (with dogs) who really mostly don't care what they are eating as long as they are fed enough and have homemade ice cream (which I do make and quite nicely) and slushy Margaritas to follow later (which someone else makes, BTW). We mostly supply the place.

No, it was all compliment.

Well in that case definitely thank you:) and to be perfectly honest, I thought its was above my skill level too lol. Kinda one of those "the only way to learn it was to do it" things.