Dinner! 2013 (Part 2)

[C. sapidus]

Lawless Cooks – That looks and sounds delicious! Vietnamese tonight:

Catfish simmered in caramel sauce, with black pepper, fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic, scallions, and bacon. The fish was simmered hard for nearly an hour, and emerged tender and delicate. Mrs. C, not a catfish fan, approved. Jasmine rice to go with.

Pickled bean sprout salad: Mrs. C made this – bean sprouts, carrots, and scallions, quickly pickled in a brine of sugar, salt, vinegar, and water.

[Keith_W]

Dinner tonight was for the eG cook-off (squid): calamari with tomato sauce.

[FrogPrincesse]

Beautiful calamari, Keith.

Last Friday we had prawns in a coconut curry with braised greens on the side. The curry recipe was from Sam Choy and it's pretty easy to make. It was very flavorful. The greens were an assortment from my CSA: cavolo nero (aka dinosaur kale), rapini, and arugula. The rapini stems were quite tough even after extending blanching, so we ended up picking out most of them. The rest was great.

Last night we had a traditional banquette de veau. Nice and comforting.

[Kim Shook]

Ben – gorgeous meatballs! I love the crust – do you fry them or roast them?

Scotty – sounds like you are having the perfect vacation! Of course, my dream vacations always involve cooking.

Soba – I wish so much that I lived somewhere that had a true green market. I love the look of those black radishes and the only time I’ve ever seen radish sprouts is in a restaurant. Beautiful, beautiful meals.

dcarch – wonderful story!

Jason – love the pit beef. I really like the fact that you used such an unlovable cut of meat and got such a great dish. Thanks for the prep information, I’d like Mr. Kim to try that. Rachel’s kugel is lovely.

Shane – your lamb looks perfect. Mr. Kim is smoking a boneless leg for Easter and I can’t wait!!!

Bruce – I really need to try that caramel sauce. Every time you make it, it looks so great.

Keith – nice knife work. And you KNOW I love that dish !

My sister came down for a visit this weekend and we had my mother over for dinner, too. Feeding my sister is always an issue because she is SO picky and there are so many things that she just won’t eat. Mr. Kim had been wanting me to try this Alex Guarnaschelli chicken cutlet sandwich that he saw her make on Food Network. The sandwich is interesting because of what you put on it, but is at base just a chicken sandwich, so I knew that would work. My sister had hers with nothing but ranch dressing and the rest of us piled on the goodies! We started with the ubiquitous salad:

Sandwich fixings:

From 12 o’clock: ciabatta rolls, fried prosciutto, lettuce, mayo/red wine vinegar sauce, fried sage leaves, Parm and the chicken cutlets.

Sage and sauce:

The chicken gets hammered out and is very tender and moist:

The prosciutto adds a nice funkiness:

We liked this sandwich a lot and I’m sure I’ll serve it again. It is perfect for a mixed gathering – picky ones and more adventuresome folks.

I also served fries:

[Emily_R]

Dinner last night was fennel tomato risotto, made in the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker results are so good, and it is so fast, that risotto has become one of my go-to-I-need-something-comforting-and-quick-on-a-weeknight meals...

[Baselerd]

From the Eleven Madison Park cookbook (substituting shrimp for prawn): Poached shrimp, butternut squash four ways (bisque, puree, sous vide/charred, and pickled), bacon, glazed navy beans, toasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seed oil.

The book has you poach prawns in a entire pot of buerre blanc, however to extend the life of the dish I just made some buerre blanc (stabilized with xanthan gum) and kept it in the fridge. That way I can just throw a dollop of the sauce in a bag with the shrimp and sous vide them (from the frozen state) at 135 F for about 15 minutes.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Baselerd (log)

[C. sapidus]

Kim - I love make-your-own sandwich dinners, for just the reasons that you stated.

Baselerd - Butternut squash any way is one of my favorites, so I expect four ways would be four times as good (with shrimp a bonus).

Speaking of sandwiches, younger son made pseudo-banh mi from tonight's dinner - garlicky oven-roasted chicken (ga ro ti), basmati rice, and unpictured salad. Mrs. C made the rice and salad dressing.

[weinoo]

Matzo ball ramen...

[patrickamory]

Matzoh ball ramen - what a great idea!

[huiray]

It is Matzo Ball or Matzah Ball? :-)

http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/matzahball.htm

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/At_Home/Food_and_the_Kitchen/Matzah_Balls.shtml

http://www.matzoball.org/

http://www.letmypeoplego.com/theball.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matzah_ball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matzo_Ball

[Jason Perlow]

Weinoo: Love the ramem

Last night was primarily leftovers from Passover, but Rachel made her awesome Matzo rolls which went great with the Pit Beef I smoked over the weekend, with a simple horseradish and mayo sauce and hydroponic lettuces from our garden.

These were made with Whole Wheat Matzos, but you could use any kind, such as spelt or plain.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Plantes Vertes]

Baby Octopus in Spicy Tomato Sauce with Bucatini. Something different for dinner and part of our Squid, Calamari and Octopus Cook-Off, here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144640-cook-off-62-squid-calamari-and-octopus/page-2

036.JPG

SobaAdict's fruit salad recipe from the post beneath yours looks like it could be a nice tasty answer to your fruit squid question from the cook-off

[Ann_T]

I need to visit here more often. Just for inspiration.

Jason, Your smoked eye of round looks amazing. And now I'm also craving wings.

Shane, your leg of lamb looks perfectly cooked.

Paul, fancy meeting you here.

Lawless Cooks, now that is a beautiful steak.

Kim, I've always been of fan of your cooking. Would love one of your sandwiches.

Bruce, Wow the colour on that chicken.

I've been waiting since November for Halibut season to open again. First halibut of the season was in the stores yesterday.

Pan seared and finished in the oven. Topped with a tomato and kalamata olive salsa and served with asparagus and Parisienne Potatoes.

[Paul Bacino]

Ann.. ( you too )

Yep, really like this place!!

Cheers

Me

[EnriqueB]

Long without posting. Here I go.

Pressure-cooked potatoes with oyster mushrooms and marinated pork ribs:

Sous-vide egg, chicken wings, and garlic confit oil. Inspired by a Mugaritz dish:

Vegetable stew, each vegetable first pressure-steamed, then all briefly finished together with ibérico ham stock:

Chicken wings, sous-vide 12 hours at 60ºC & deep-fried:

[Dejah]

Thai Lemongrass Beef Shortribs: simmered in slow cooker for 4 hours with lemongrass, onion, garlic, cinnamon stick, cloves, Kaffir Lime leaves, Thai pepper, fresh green peppercorns, fish sauce. Broth reduced then added coconut cream. Accompanied by Jasmine rice sauteed in ghee then finished off with peas, carrot, more Kaffir lime leaves.

[mm84321]

Feuillete of morels and white asparagus, sauce vin jaune

[kayb]

Dinner last night was fennel tomato risotto, made in the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker results are so good, and it is so fast, that risotto has become one of my go-to-I-need-something-comforting-and-quick-on-a-weeknight meals...

Ooooh. If you have not posted them elsewhere, may I please have details on pressure cooker risotto? I think I'm in love!

[patrickamory]

Chicken grits with salt pork

featuring leftovers from last night's roast chicken

[Keith_W]

What's wrong mm84321? Ran out of truffles? Having to slum it with morels and white asparagus?

Looks delicious as usual!

Edited March 31, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[Plantes Vertes]

What's wrong mm84321? Ran out of truffles? Having to slum it with morels and white asparagus?

Looks delicious as usual!

Perhaps the truffles bore him?

[SobaAddict70]

mm has access to LOTS of morels.

*sigh*

[SobaAddict70]

patrick -- reminds me of the description of grillades on grits in the T-L FOTW book on Creole and Acadian cuisine.

tonight:



Ricotta gnocchi, with fava beans, chanterelles and leeks

Once you have the basic recipe for the gnocchi down (here: http://kitchenseasons.com/2013/03/25/ricotta-gnocchi-with-tomato-butter-and-onion-sauce/ ), the combinations are endless. I actually prefer them with vegetables instead of sauce. More interesting that way. These were just sautéed in unsalted butter and seasoned with sea salt, black pepper and fresh thyme. The fava beans were simmered in lightly salted water, then added to the pan with the leeks and chanterelles, a minute or two or so before the addition of the gnocchi.




Spicy roasted shrimp and broccoli rabe

Recipe here: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/shrimp-and-broccoli-rabe-done-in-a-flash/






Boozy bread pudding, roasted apples

Recipe, adapted from Smitten Kitchen (with the addition of 2 tablespoons light rum, 1/4 cup raisins and 1/4 cup slivered almonds): http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/12/new-years-day-2001/

Roasted apples -- 1 large apple, peeled, cored and sliced; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; nutmeg, cinnamon or allspice. Combine in a small bowl, then spoon into a Pyrex baking dish or roasting pan. Roast at 400 F for 30 minutes, then use as needed.

[Simon Lewinson]

My first try at sous vide confit chicken thighs.

Injection brined the chicken with a 4% solution including puréed fresh bay leaf, sage and oregano. Vacuum bagged really hard with fresh sage and bay leaves, schmaltz and butter.

Cooked for 6 hours at 80 degrees, patted dry and into the deep fryer at 180 for 3 minutes to crisp up the skin. Served on a bed of sautéed cabbage.

Texture was fantastic, nearly falling apart but just hanging onto the bone. Skin was so crispy and really delicate, almost dissolving on the tongue. Next time I will increase the amount of herbs and salt in the brine and also increase the amount of resting time before cooking to improve the flavour.

[ChrisTaylor]

The chicken looks very good. You've inspired me to try sous vide thighs tomorrow: I don't recall ever getting around to them.