Dinner! 2013 (Part 1)

[David Ross]

Pastrami for dinner. Just sliced pastrami. Made the beef cheek version and, after six days' worth of preparation and waiting, I just wanted to eat pure, unadulterated pastrami.

Now THAT is a thing of beauty..*swoon*

Wow, that is beautiful. Brisket-smishket. I'm going to use beef cheek for my next pastrami.

[Rico]

Wow - thank you all for the kind words! I wish I could take credit for the idea of using beef cheeks, but alas, it was gleaned from Volume 3 of Modernist Cuisine. It is remarkably good, and I'll be making it again, perhaps weekly. Went with cherry wood for the smoke.

[SobaAddict70]

Mostly leftovers tonight (which is totally fine, as I don't feel much like cooking), BUT

here was a very simple app that took about 20 min to put together.

Poached farm egg, onion and shallot confit, Castelvetrano olives, buttery fried bread crumbs.

The bread crumbs are 3 T. coarse bread crumbs (sea salt, black pepper, Italian parsley) fried in 1 T. unsalted butter.

[Kim Shook]

Patrick – gorgeous beef stroganoff!

Percyn – Oh, my goodness! That lobster thermidor is lovely. Good thing that you had it for NYE – it’s bad luck to eat lobster (or chicken) for New Year’s day.

Robirdstx – your chicken pot pie looks just exactly how I like them. Lots of chicken and gravy and not a lot of icky cooked carrots! (And I appreciate you posting the recipe).

Soba – gorgeous pasta! I got myself a pasta machine with a gift card and have already decided that I want the pappardelle attachment! And I particularly love the looks of the colcannon, too!

Basquecook – deeply impressed with that gorgeous looking and sounding spread! The skin on the little guy looks amazing. I’d have been tempted to selfishly keep it all to myself and bring it out of the kitchen ‘naked’!

Rico – I am sitting here at 1:20am CRAVING pastrami. The closest I can get is deli ham and white bread. Crap.

I’m going to go ahead and put my Christmas meals here, since I can’t seem to find a ‘Christmas dinner’ thread. A pre-Christmas meal that I found on my camera - cheeseburgers, mac and cheese and succotash:

This was the year that I changed how we did our Christmas Eve celebration. Gone was the sit down dinner for 50. The last few years almost no one came on time and many refused to respond to the invitation at all, or gave a yes and then didn’t show up. I decided last year that if they were going to treat the night like an open house, that was what they were going to get. Nothing that had to be served piping hot, nothing that required a table and a knife and fork. It was mostly finger food and mostly room temperature. The spread included a relish tray with olives, pickles and celery:

Crudités and dips, fruits, cheeses and crackers:

Gruyere and chive gougères (a popular choice this year, I noticed):

White bean dip and green olive tapenade with pita chips:

Liptauer cheese spread with pumpernickel and rye bread:

Rachel’s chicken salad w/ mini croissants:

My mother’s shrimp mousse:

Mr. Kim’s smoked ham and mini biscuits (purchased):

Everything was delicious and extremely well received and it was a much easier party to prepare for. I found myself looking for things to do that day. We still had folks that didn’t bother to show, but that is just a given with our relatives/friends and we’ve just decided that we have to roll with that. We had too much food, as always. I think that next year, I won’t bother with all the fruit, maybe just some grapes. And 4 cheeses were too much. Cubed Cheddar and Gouda is enough, I think. The vegetables were popular, but I did too much of each of them. This is definitely the way that I’ll go from now on.

I didn’t change my ‘goodies’ – these are always basically the same. The dessert table:

It included lemon chess tarts, mince tarts, peanut butter cookies and caramel covered marshmallows:

Sugar cookies & Turtle candy (pretzels, Rolos and pecan halves):

Happy Accident candy (the detritus from Sponge candy mixed with melted Cadbury bars):

Candied pecans and iced almond clusters, gluten free sugar cookies (I can’t find a picture of them unwrapped – but they were just round sugar cookies), sponge candy and peanut brittle:

I also can’t find pictures of the fudge, but I made my usual ones – milk chocolate and Reeses Cup.

Since we didn’t do our traditional Christmas Eve meal, I decided to do it for Christmas night. We invited some friends and my mother was here, so it was just 10 of us. Our friends brought the turkey and some sides and bread, so it was a fairly easy meal to do.

I somehow missed getting a picture of the turkey, but we also had leftover ham:

Oyster dressing and cornbread dressing:

Salad with 2 dressings (my dad’s paprika and Marlene’s bleu cheese):

Fruit salad:

Rachel’s ‘pammina cheese’ and celery:

Potato salad:

Cheese potatoes:

Orange-Cranberry sauce:

“The Gravy”:

Sweet potatoes with bourbon syrup on the side:

Dhfrhfhfieoggijrp

I was sick with a bad cold from the 27th through the first, so all we ate were leftovers and OPF (other people’s food), but I did manage to make us our New Year’s Day lucky meal – ham:

Black eyed peas:

Scalloped tomatoes:

Au gratin potatoes:

(not lucky, I just got a craving for gooey, cheesy potatoes)

Collards:

Cornbread muffins:

(I don’t think that these are among the lucky foods, but they ARE obligatory with greens)

Plate:

Between my lingering cold, redeeming gift cards and using Groupons that were expiring, I haven’t cooked much this past week. Tonight, though, we were craving grilled cheese and salads:

(My new salad bowls – got a Crate & Barrel gift card)

Grilled American, Gruyere and Parm w/ Dijon mustard on some onion rolls that I had in the freezer. The onion roll was a really nice change.

[basquecook]

wow, what a spread.. Looks beautiful.. I too do an open house for Christmas Every year.. it is much better that way as people come and go and there is a lot less pressure on the hosts. I would have and still want to eat everything you made. And i love how you have so many different dishes from family members. Your mother's mousse, your father's paprika dressing. This is very emblematic of the importance of food in our culture and pretty much who we are.

Can you tell me more about your mother's shrimp mousse.

[Mr Holloway]

Great meals everyone, it all looks amazing

Dinner was pizza with my new favorite topping,,Jalapeno stuffed olives..

Pizza 1

Pizza 2

Shane

[Mr Holloway]

Kim- what an amazing selection of food.

by the end of the pictures, I was stuffed

All the best in 2013

Shane

Edited January 7, 2013 by Mr Holloway (log)

[Ranz]

Chicken Galantine, stuffed with spinach, spring onions, lemon zest and emental cheese. Finished with a pan sauce.

Was delicious, but the white meat was a bit dry.

[Tri2Cook]

I’m going to go ahead and put my Christmas meals here, since I can’t seem to find a ‘Christmas dinner’ thread.

Kim, is there even the slightest chance that I can convince you next year that I actually am a long lost family member and that it's vitally important that I attend the Christmas meals and reconnect with the family?

[PeterLG]

Sunday Dinner was sous vide roast.

Created a dry rub with rosemary, crushed juniper berries, thyme, kosher salt & pepper. Vacuum sealed the whole sirloin steak (1.1kg) with the rub and held at 1C for 24 hours to marinate. Then about four hours in a 56C sousvide waterbath. Dried the surface & browned with a MAPP blowtorch. Sliced thin, dressed lightly w/ redwine sauce & and served with salad.

Slicing. Nice even color from practically edge to edge.

And ready to serve.

[Jason Perlow]

Scallops with blood orange cream sauce

[jvalentino]

Made a shoulder ham tonight. I did a 48hr brine in 5% salt, 3% grade b maple syrup and pink salt. Smoke roasted at 225 and glazed w maple syrup and bourbon. Served on homemade rolls w Merkts Sharp Cheddar Spread. Very tasty, except next time I will give it 3 days in the brine-there was a spot in the center the size .50 piece that didn't get cured.

[Ranz]

You people make some gorgeous food. Peter, the colour on that roast is amazing.

[bmdaniel]

Late posting, but here's the Wellington I made for Christmas. Came out really well!

[nickrey]

Sunday Dinner was sous vide roast.

Created a dry rub with rosemary, crushed juniper berries, thyme, kosher salt & pepper. Vacuum sealed the whole sirloin steak (1.1kg) with the rub and held at 1C for 24 hours to marinate. Then about four hours in a 56C sousvide waterbath. Dried the surface & browned with a MAPP blowtorch. Sliced thin, dressed lightly w/ redwine sauce & and served with salad.

Slicing. Nice even color from practically edge to edge.

And ready to serve.

Welcome to eGullet Peter. Looking forward to some more of this nice looking food.

[rarerollingobject]

Kim, that spread is incredible! And very nice galantine, Ranz, and beef, Peter and bmdaniel.

It's 43C here in Sydney (110F) so too hot for anything but cold food..soba in sesame ginger sauce, with prawns, chicken, and shredded capsicum, green onions and cucumber.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to melting in this hideous heat...

[C. sapidus]

RRO - Wow, Australia has had more than its share of extreme weather lately. Looks like a nice, cool meal!

Crock pot beef barbacoa with potato wedges, pureed ancho chiles, chicken stock, roasted garlic, cumin, black pepper, and a shot of cider vinegar. Served over insta-quinoa. Mrs. C put together a green salad with buttermilk cilantro dressing.

We are in the heart of swim season, and this meal met the prime directive – it was ready within seconds after we walked in the door.

[liuzhou]

Last night was freezing here in southern China, so I made myself some Chinese comfort food. An old but simple family style recipe, slightly adapted.

雪菜炒肉 (xuě cài chǎo ròu) means 'Snow Greens Fried Pork. Served with rice and stir fried Chinese celery.

'Snow greens' is in fact finely chopped mustard greens preserved with salt.

Mustard Greens 芥菜 Brassica juncea

Snow Greens 雪菜

Snow Greens 雪菜

Traditionally the pork is cut into slivers, but I prefer it minced. Or to be more technical 'haché' - chopped with two cleavers at the same time until finely minced. It is then mixed with garlic, chilli, salt, cornflour and rice wine and briefly marinated. Then stir fried. When the meat is nearly done the snow greens are added. Just before serving a splash of soy sauce is added. Really simple. But just what I needed.

[rod rock]

I like that Snow Greens Fried Pork, and also i like that combo to serve with celery! Good work!

[rotuts]

Excellent Peter ! how tender would you say it was? I do mine at 130.1 but for 6 hours.

cheers, and Yum!

[PeterLG]

Appreciate the warm welcome.

Excellent Peter ! how tender would you say it was? I do mine at 130.1 but for 6 hours.

It was semi-perfect. Surprisingly small amount of liquid in the bag after the sous vide, so the result was pretty juicy. Anyways, this was my first shot at doing a whole roast sous vide, so yeah could try 54C next time. I like filet mignon in the 52-53C core temp range, but sirloin seems to work better for me a few degrees higher.

Why six hours? Isn't there a risk of just making the meat "mushy" with longer times (since there's very little collagen)?

[rotuts]

I didnt get mushy at 6 hrs. I have gotten mushy at 72 hrs 130.1 for some cuts of chuck but not other cuts of chuck.

I keep a notebook on my results and strongly advise any one embarking on SV to do this.

got mealy skinless CK thighs at 160 for 4 hours, perfect turkey thighs at 12 hours 160.

[Jason Perlow]

tarragon chicken a la Christine Nunn

[Rico]

RRO - 110 Fahrenheit? Geez. That's killer. If there is a way to make it bearable, though, it appears that you've found it. The dish looks great, and the color just pops, you know?

For dinner last night I made some shrimp skewers that had been marinating in a Vietnamese-style ... marinade ... Fish Sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, honey, rice vinegar, garlic and thai chilies. Dipping sauce in the bowl the back.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Rico (log)

[toolprincess]

New Year's Day meal. Traditional southern foods (pork for moving forward into a new year, greens for prosperity and blackeyed peas for luck) and corn muffins (for tastiness).