Dinner! 2013 (Part 2)

[Keith_W]

Hi plantes, it is just cold water from the fridge with two trays of ice cubes thrown in. I shake the water from the veggies before I throw it in the wok. Because I used bok choy, there wasn't too much water there. If it was something else I might have spun the veggies first.

[Plantes Vertes]

Hi plantes, it is just cold water from the fridge with two trays of ice cubes thrown in. I shake the water from the veggies before I throw it in the wok. Because I used bok choy, there wasn't too much water there. If it was something else I might have spun the veggies first.

Thanks! I'll try this next time I get the wok out.

[basquecook]

We were staying with friends this weekend in a house full of kids. While people were out on the beach, I was able to make a quick pasta for the kids. Happened to notice they had ricotta cheese in the fridge and I had a pasta maker in my trunk.

Happy Kids.

[crinoidgirl]

Dinner tonight was Chinese. Sorry, no pictures.

Sous-vide Patagonian toothfish. There are no recipes in existence for SV toothfish, so I made it up.

Keith_W, search for "sous vide chilean sea bass". It's the same fish.

[Shel_B]

Last night I made a quick Choucroute Garni. Toots found a deal on some smoked pork chops and brought home a big jar of sauerkraut. We had some wine in the fridge left over from a recent dinner ... what could I do?

[scubadoo97]

Tonight's menu includes scallop cakes, mango salsa and fried plantains

[dcarch]

Keith, nice plating.

1. Do me a favour. Get a single clear light bulb, not a frosted light bulb, and put one of your beautiful glass plates directly under the bulb and see if you can get a very dramatic shadow. Even better, do it with a single LED light. Try lifting the plate up a little.

2. Regarding ice water; as long as you still have ice cubes not yet melt, you cannot get the water to be colder than 0 degree C. In other words, you are wasting all the other ice cubes.

dcarch

[TinaYuan]

First of all, thank you all for those warm welcomes!

Tonight I made a Stewed chicken with three cups sauce, which is a famous dish in Taiwan. Chicken is served with steam rice and boiled boy chok.

Three cups sauce means equal parts of oil, soy sauce and cooking wine.

Use garlic and ginger as aromatics, brown chicken a little bit and pour in the sauce.

For half a small chicken, I use 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup cooking wine. With lid on, cook on medium heat about 20 minutes till the sauce is thick and shining. Garnish with fresh basil and roasted sesame seeds.

My new bought soy sauce is so dark. I don't like it....

I bought a new wok today. SO HAPPY

[patrickamory]

I love 3 cups chicken! My sister-in-law is from Taiwan. That looks absolutely delicious again, Tina.

[TinaYuan]

I love 3 cups chicken! My sister-in-law is from Taiwan. That looks absolutely delicious again, Tina.

Patrick, thank you so much! That's a lot of oil and sodium. It has to be delicious

[Steve Irby]

Two pies inspired b jvalentino post. Used the recipe from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pizza for the crust consisting of 3-cups AP and 2-BF proofed for 24 hours

[Kim Shook]

Tina – welcome to the US and to eGullet! The dumplings look wonderful and I can’t wait to see what you have to show us in the future.

Steve – gorgeous tomato tarts!

On Sunday Mr. Kim requested a version of Chicken Pho from an issue of Eating Well magazine. We started with crab rangoon and egg rolls from our favorite Chinese restaurant (so much for eating well ):

The soup without all the garnishes:

With the garnishes – bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, mint, serrano peppers and lime:

It was delicious, except for the noodles. The recipe called for wide rice noodles instead of the thin ones that we usually see in restaurants. We found them really gelatinous and distinctly unpleasant. I just let them sink and ate the soup and garnishes.

I did a cake for a birthday in Mr. Kim’s office – lemon and coconut by request:

Slice:

It was another cake mix fix-up and it tasted very good, though the crumb wasn’t as tight as I’d like.

[jvalentino]

I'm honored Steve. Nice looking pizza!

[mm84321]

White asparagus from Provence, sauce Hollandaise

[Steve Irby]

mm84321 - Beautiful composition. The photo really captures the last rays of the setting sun. What's the dusting on the asparagus?

[mm84321]

Thanks, Steve. On the bottom is hard boiled egg yolk, passed through a tamis and mixed with some chopped chives. The top is cracked malabar pepper and the "shoots" of a green asparagus.

[C. sapidus]

Dinner from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table

Ginger chicken – Chicken thighs, sliced and marinated with minced ginger. Sauteed garlic, shallots, and chiles, sliced ginger, chicken stock, brown sugar (we were out of caramel sauce), fish sauce, scallions, and cilantro. Served with jasmine rice.

Stir-fried Napa cabbage – with garlic and oyster sauce. Simple and good.

[TinaYuan]

Kim, thank you! The cake looks delicious. I like everything with lemon!

mm84321, the presentation is absolutely beautiful. I have never had white asparagus before. Must try some time~

Diet tonight~

Mashed cauliflower, tomato and a little cumin, cilantro, served with homemade sourdough ciabatta (dill flavor, bought too much dill last weekend )

[MikeHartnett]

C. sapidus, as always, your food looks delicious.

TinaYuan, how was the texture on the mashed cauliflower?

Tonight, a riff on a Modernist Cuisine (via Herbivoracious) dish. Caramelized carrot, miso, black bean soup with avocado.

[TinaYuan]

Mike, the cauliflower is roasted with tomato and then simmered in water until soft. I reserved some for garnish and blended the remaining just a few times. So it's coarse. You will still have pea-size cauliflowers in each bite. Should I call this "mashed cauliflower"? I didn't actually mash it.

[MikeHartnett]

Mashed sounds just fine to me!

[dcarch]

TinaYuan – Welcome! You are a good cook; if you can make diet food so delicious.

c. sapidus – I agree, the Stir-fried Napa cabbage is simple and good.

Mm84321 – I like the way you treat white asparagus.

Kim – Show mm84321 how to make tasty fantastic everyday food. LOL!

Steve Irby – wonderful pizzas.

Patrickamory – Very nice photos.

C. sapidus – lovely fried plantains and bay scallops.

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April 14/15 is Bangladesh New Year. I made Daab Chingri Macher Malaikari

And Dry cooked beans with pulled pork for April 15, for IRS bean counters. (USA tax day).

dcarch

[Keith_W]

Great dinners everyone!

TinaYuan - welcome to eG! Which part of China are you from? My family is from Guangdong ... but I spent most of my life in Australia

dcarch - Great fanciful plating as always. I get what you are suggesting for my photography and I tried to elevate my glass plate in my second photo. Unfortunately I do not have a point source light as you recommend. I see that my post is the next one after yours ... i'll bet everyone looks at your food and not at mine

Steve Irby - If the second pizza is a Margherita, I am all over it. I believe in minimalism on pizzas, and there isn't anything simpler than tomato sauce, good mozarella, and basil on a pizza. Nowhere to hide!

Kim Shook - I love that coconut cake. If you ever come to Australia, could you make that for me?

mm84321 - times must be hard! I haven't seen you use truffles for a few weeks now! Stunning looking food as always.

Anyway, two dinners to post tonight. First up:

BBQ ribs. Beef ribs sous-vide at 62C for 3 days with a rub (minus the salt). Pork ribs sous-vide for 2 days. Both then smoked for 2 hours over hickory.

Argentinian inspired rockling - panfried rockling with chimichurri, roasted baby capsicum, potato rosti, and broccollini. The messy plating is what happens when you buy a delicious wine to go with dinner, and can't help but take a few swigs of the wine when still cooking dinner. So sorry, it should look nicer but by this time I was drunk and hungry and couldn't really be bothered with plating or photography! (dcarch - plate was elevated to try to get more of a dramatic shadow).

Edited April 18, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[mm84321]

mm84321 - times must be hard! I haven't seen you use truffles for a few weeks now! Stunning looking food as always.

Season's been finished for over a month now.

[mm84321]

Sole braised with clams, pommes boulangére with lemon thyme