Dinner! 2013 (Part 3)

[patrickamory]

Moderator note: Since the Dinner! 2013 topic quickly became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, we're continuing to divide it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Dinner! 2013 (Part 2)]

RRO good to see you back and I love the look of those buns. I'd never heard of Koon Yick - have googled - worth searching out?

Ashen in Chicago they call a bone-in strip a Kansas City strip. Never heard it called that way in New York (but they don't call them New York strips here either!)

Edited May 10, 2013 by Mjx
Moderator note added. (log)

[Franci]

Baselerd, that pork neck looks so inviting!

RRO, I'm also curious of your preferred ways to enjoy Koon Yick. I brought back a bottle from HK.

Actually guys, any good idea for a simple XO sauce dish?

Yesterday night we had our fill of fruit de mer

Oysters with sauce mignonette

crevettes grises

And mussels

plus a plate of crudite'.

[patrickamory]

Beautiful seafood Franci.

[rotuts]

ditto !

[huiray]

Um, "Koon Yick" is a brand and could mean a lot of different sauces. Even with the chili sauces there is more than one. Which one is it that you folks are obsessing over?

Edited May 10, 2013 by huiray (log)

[TinaYuan]

Kim, the polenta cake looks creamy and delicious. For rosti, I ordered a new non stick pan and it is on the way now.

Keith, I like your 21st century char siew! I had it for lunch today, but it's from old world...

[FrogPrincesse]

Some catching up to do to cover the past month or so...

Grilled chicken al mattone (Mario Batali), coconut kale (Vikram Vij), baby purple artichokes braised with saffron, black olives and almonds (Russ Parsons).

Not super-photogenic, but this was a delicious lamb burger (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) with cucumber raita (Vikram Vij) served with sauteed zucchini with mint, basil and pine nuts (Deborah Madison).

Marcella Hazan's lamb chops fried in Parmesan butter; sugar snap peas with saffron and thyme (Suzanne Goin)

Poutine with duck confit from our trip to Niagara (The Syndicate brewery)

Corvina seabass with chermoula (Joyce Goldstein), grilled zucchini, yoghurt with za'atar

Butternut squash ravioli with brown butter and wild sage, onion focaccia, 2009 Zaca Mesa chardonnay

Pork ribs braised in Vietnamese caramel sauce (Molly Stevens) with a sweet potato mash and black kale

My favorite recent meal - all shellfish.

Crayfish boil

Linguine con vongole (Mario Batali)

Edited May 10, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Franci]

very nice, Frogprincess. Love all of your dinners, especially the crayfish boil and I really like lamb, too bad both my children don't like it as much as me.

Hurray, I'm referring to the bottled chilli sauce.

Temperature here are still mild, so, still in time for a polenta dish. We had polenta and coniglio alla bergamasca. Being Bergamo my mother's hometown.

[FrogPrincesse]

Thank you Franci.

Your rabbit dish looks fabulous. I was going to ask you for details but I found the recipe on your blog. I haven't had rabbit in ages... Now I have a craving for it!

[C. sapidus]

This was originally planned for a week ago, so I’m glad to see so many lovely meals (especially all of the gorgeous seafood).

Chuu chii shrimp – Red curry paste, sliced and pulverized chiles, fish sauce, brown sugar, Thai basil, peas, and slivered lime leaves in cracked coconut milk. Quoth younger son: “The sauce covered up the shrimp flavor” (in his book, that’s a good thing).

[mm84321]

Pigeon, petit pois á la Francaise

[SobaAddict70]

Spring themed dinner tonight -- most of the ingredients are from USGM, but some like the baby cauliflower, fairy ring mushrooms and Casalingo (uncured) salami are from Eataly.

Originally I was going to do potato gnocchi, with ramps and black trumpet mushrooms, but I underestimated the amount of food. So guess what's for lunch tomorrow.



Asparagus, poached farm egg, pecorino Crotonese cheese




Warm spring vegetable salad -- fava beans, baby cauliflower, chickweed, French breakfast radishes, yu choi flowers and shallots, with a white wine vinaigrette.

The radishes, cauliflower, fava beans and shallots were cooked separately in lightly salted water, then blanched in ice water. The chickweed, cauliflower and fava beans were then sautéed separately, then plated, then topped with the remaining vegetables.

Dressing: 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons dry white wine, 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil; coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Seems like a lot of work, but I think it's delicious.



Baby cauliflower.

I've placed an American quarter coin next to it, for size comparison.



Casalingo salami, cabbage flower, fairy ring mushrooms

[rarerollingobject]

Beautiful vegetables as always, Soba. You're an inspiration. You too, FrogPrincesse, I always enjoy seeing what you've been up to. Keith, your char siew looks amazing. Pork neck is so underrated but is always my favourite cut for CS.

Franci, lovely meals. And huiray/patrickamory, I'm also talking about the Koon Yick chilli sauce, image here. It's maybe a bit like sriracha, but less sweet, to my taste. Not that hot but a lovely thick rounded fullness. Although, interestingly, its base is sweet potato - which is maybe what gives it the thickness I enjoy. I mean, to me it's the classic Hong Kong chilli sauce of my youth and is always the one I reach for when I want something not too sour, or too hot, or too sweet.

Kim, highly suggest tracking down the buns! Perfectly easy to steam (10 minutes from frozen) and just the right foil for the sweet fatty pork. I'm very interested in those crostatas, so let's consider it a carbohydrate idea swap!

And Baselerd, that is a ridiculously beautiful meal! I'd be hesitant to eat it. Not THAT hesitant though.

Dinner here was a "complicated salad" as my BF calls anything beyond iceberg and anaemic tomato; radishes, greens, oranges and walnuts, dressed in cinnamon/honey/pomegranate molasses and pistachio oil. And lamb chops grilled in ras el-hanout spice mix. With a celery gimlet afterwards (Tanquery, lime, simple, celery bitters).

[nickrey]

Couldn't quote your post RRO as it was in the previous dinner thread but this is the picture.

Do you mean I spent all that time making David Chang's recipe when I could have bought them frozen?

[rarerollingobject]

Do you mean I spent all that time making David Chang's recipe when I could have bought them frozen?

Ha, yeah it's amazing what you can find in Sydney if you'd stoop to come across my side of the Bridge every so often!

Anyway, those look a lot nicer than mine. My, what soft and tender buns you have, sir!

[cookalong]

Cleared out my freezer the other night and found some stuff I had forgotten I'd put there. Sirloin steak topped with pan-seared foie gras, sauce bearnaise and asparagus. Gratin of potatoes served in separate ramekins.

[dcarch]

Franci – heavenly seafood!

Sapidus - Chuu chii shrimp looks inviting.

FrogPrincesse – Delicious dishes beautifully photographed.

Mm84321 – Very artistic composition.

SobaAddict70 – You can really make simple vegetables look festive.

Rarerollingobject - "complicated salad" , great textural and flavor complexity for a salad.

Nickrey – Agree with RRO, nice buns.

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

Recent meals:

Home smoked salmon on puff pastry sandwiches

BBQ smoked ribs marinated in smoked Roasted Red Pepper Coulis

dcarch

[Keith_W]

mm84321: amazing looking dinner as always.

Franci: do you eat that baby prawns raw???

dcarch: love your plating as always

Cookalong: hey, your dinner looks like mine! Steak, asparagus, and sauce bearnaise! This was dinner. I did a steak tasting menu:

Steak tasting menu (L-R): Hopkins River Black Angus ribeye, cryovac 5 weeks; Wagyu Heifer Robbins Island, dry aged 5 weeks; Came Grim Black Angus, dry aged 120 days.

Steak tasting menu (L-R): Wagyu, 120 day dry aged Cape Grim Black Angus x2, Hopkins River cryovac. All cooked the same way - sous-vide at 57C for 1 hour, followed by 1 hour oven dry, followed by high temperature sear over charcoal. The charcoal sear was done in two stages so as not to heat up the meat too much - 2 minute sear on each side, then rested 10 minutes, then 2 minute sear again. This was what it looked like after the first sear.

Steak tasting menu (L-R): Wagyu, 120 day dry aged, Cryovac. Served with Bearnaise sauce, Chanterey carrots, Asparagus, and Brussel Sprouts. Consensus was: Wagyu was the best. I thought the 120 day dry aged ribeye was noticably better than the Cryovac, but some disagreed!

By the way, the brussel sprouts were incredible. My grocer said that they are very soft and subtle tasting. He didn't have a name for them. Indeed, these things tasted like lettuce - sweet and with a hint of bitterness. Nothing like brussel sprouts. I cooked them in the microwave.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[cookalong]

Keith_W: Looks delicious. I can assure you that the quality of your wagyu kicked the ass of my steak

[Mjx]

Langoustines (brined, brushed with lime juice, and olive oil infused with coriander, Szechuan peppecorns, and nutmeg) and caramelized figs doctored with Madeira and smoked salt. Accompanied by mixed baby greens and Madeira:

[patrickamory]

Very pretty Mjx

[nickrey]

Not main course but dessert.

My first effort from Sat Bains' new book. Lemon mousse with pickled fennel and dehydrated meringue.

[Franci]

Dcarch, you even have a fish shaped chopping board! Don't tell me you carved that yourself...

Keith, my husband and I were admiring your steak selection!

Nickrey, did you like it? How does a dehydrated meringue taste?

Franci: do you eat that baby prawns raw???

No, they are cooked!

Tonight we had duck confit, black rice, roasted sweet potatoes, loquat chutney and some coco plats.

[rotuts]

Franci

so glad to see your 'Food"

so delicious !

[heidih]

Lovely meal Franci - I have an overload of loquats on a tree. Did you make the chutney? - and if so can you share the recipe?