Dinner! 2013 (Part 3)

[huiray]

mm84321, on 18 May 2013 - 08:16, said:

Simon Lewinson, on 18 May 2013 - 04:47, said:

I still need to work on my plating skills.

I think it looks fine. I mean, it is what it is: a bowl of pasta. It would probably look silly, or at least less honest, plated otherwise. What I would suggest you working on, however, are new plates.

Keith_W, on 18 May 2013 - 09:34, said:

Simon Lewinson, on 18 May 2013 - 04:47, said:

I still need to work on my plating skills

It's OK, so do I. I have found a little trick though. I cook up enough food for us to eat. Then I plate up a dainty little portion, because they look nicer. Once the photo is taken, I pile on the food and eat!

I think that plate of pasta looks just fine. The plate itself would not have been my personal choice, true, but that is just my personal taste. I'm sure you like it a lot yourself. :-)

Perhaps this old article might also be of interest:

http://www.gourmet.c...8/frenchlaundry

Quote from there:

" They are also mystified by the custom of serving tiny,personal portions of food on enormous white plates..."

I myself personally think the practice of daintily arranging food in just-so compositions with one or two components in what has been called "Tweezer Food" to be, uh, not what an ordinary meal would look like. Per Se and their ilk might do it and charge astronomical sums of money for the TINY amounts of food they serve on those enormous platters but I for one would not care too much for that at home. Or for that matter in most restaurants I would go to, excepting when I am in the (rare) mood for that sort of Tweezer Food. But that's just me.

[mm84321]

I mostly agree. Tweezed food can look nice at times, if done right, but more often than not, it just looks silly. Per se and The French Laundry are fine examples of this silliness (or perhaps "frilly" is the right word). When I ate at Per se, the plates were all painfully composed, unfortunately, this did not prevent my lamb and lobster from being overcooked, nor my monkfish from having no taste or my foie gras from being as bland as a manilla folder. Anyway, the best looking food comes not from the plate nor the arrangement, but the overall precision in technique. And less is usually more.

[ScottyBoy]

Been a while and I'm slacking on taking pictures of my stuff.

As always everything looks delicious!

[Mr Holloway]

Post some food porn and all is forgiven

[Mr Holloway]

Agreed

Everything looks amazing guys

Shane

[mm84321]

Salmon with pigeon consommé

[ScottyBoy]

mm - I can't believe you had such a bummer meal at 2 of his places. It always blows my mind when a Michelin starred spot it completely underwhelming.

Maybe when spots think they can do no wrong they get a little lazy. Need to have a star taken away to light a fire under their ass.

Edit:

-Salmon season is in full swing and that looks awesome.

Edited May 18, 2013 by ScottyBoy (log)

[SobaAddict70]

I still need to work on my plating skills.

It's OK, so do I. I have found a little trick though. I cook up enough food for us to eat. Then I plate up a dainty little portion, because they look nicer. Once the photo is taken, I pile on the food and eat!

agreed.

also, with respect to mm's comment on your "plates", one of the best investments I ever made was to take a little shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond and pick up some white dishware. since I'm a bachelor, I eat mostly out of bowls, and since my kitchen is hobbit-sized, that means that a deep bowl does double duty as soup bowl, pasta bowl, salad bowl or a whatever bowl. LOL. I'm sure you get the idea. if you don't have a BBB in your city, any thrift shop or kitchenware store will serve. plain white is best because there's less "contrast/busyness" which directs the viewer's eye to the food. you'll notice how mm's plates -- I mean the vessels he or she serves his food in -- have barely any designs on them.

that being said, my secret dream is to have a prop "pantry" similar to what Martha Stewart's staff has for Martha Stewart Living. there must literally be like a thousand different pieces of dishware, all individually labelled and entered into a bar code/database system. heh.

hope that helps.

[patrickamory]

Back to the future with my mom's meatloaf recipe from when I was growing up in the '70s.

[Dejah]

After a month in Malaysia and 2 weeks in China, having just gotten back on Wed, and now under the weather with a lousy cold , I finally got around to cooking a meal at home.

Maybe it's the cold, but the lamb didn't have much lamb flavour or the cumin I rubbed on it. But, it was still good, moist and tender, along with mint sauce, jeera and cardamon basmati rice, carrots and asparagus.

[SobaAddict70]

liuzhou -- love crabs. soft-shells are in season, think I'll get some this week.

franci -- everything looks great, but the rosti are awesome. (i love rosti of any type.) if you'll be moving to brooklyn, you'll have access to grand army plaza also; next to USGM, that's the #2 greenmarket in the City. as for vendors I like at USGM, there's a list in the USGM thread in the New York forum.

simon -- it looks fine. i'd eat it.

mm -- lovely pristine piece of fish.

patrick -- meatloaf is comfort food, definitely.

dejah -- feel better soon!

tonight:



Rainbow carrots, with golden morels, pistachios and honey

The carrots were briefly simmered in lightly salted water for 4 minutes, then seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and roasted for 20 minutes at 350 F. The morels were fried in melted unsalted butter over medium heat, with and until tender, and lightly seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Both the carrots and morels were lightly dressed with a mixture of 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons Belgian-style beer, 1 teaspoon honey and 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

You’ll notice that the carrots are whole — that’s because I wanted to serve them by preserving their unusual shape, instead of slicing them. You can skip the par-boiling step, but if you do so, you’ll have to adjust the roasting time.




Pineapple and coconut curry, lemon and almond rice, spiced lime pickle

Pineapple curry -- http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014724/Pineapple-Curry.html

Lemon rice -- http://indianfood.about.com/od/ricerecipes/r/lemonrice.htm (with 1 cup almonds instead of peanuts)

The pickle is store-bought (Bedekar -- lime, sugar, salt, chile powder, lime juice) and available from Kalustyan's (http://www.kalustyans.com/ ).

[rarerollingobject]

Japanese-ish things tonight. My cousin gave me some baby eggplants from his garden, so grilled them with saikyo miso, ginger, mirin and sake (actually, Franci being reminded of miso eggplant by Prawncrackers reminded ME!) and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Also spinach dressed in garlic, black pepper, honey and sesame oil (OK, that's more Korean but eh) and had some of this beautiful wagyu karubi so grilled that very lightly and ate with a ponzu dipping sauce.

Also miso soup with some little clams, not shown.

[Franci]

Liuzhou, thanks for sharing your recipe. We usually have crab shanghainese style, steamed with vinegar, tons of sugar and ginger. Need to introduce some variety!

Mm, what a beautiful salmon.

Thanks Soba, I'll go and check the USGM thread!

RRO, i love your dinner and I went to buy more eggplants...

Tonight we had a very simple, satisfying meal, at least for me. Very Mediterranean.

Couscous with vegetables, some deep fried friggitelli and zucchini, a little piece of sea bass, some black olives from Nyons, more fava pate' from a couple days ago, abundantly drizzled with lemon juice and good Apulian oil

[TinaYuan]

Soba, pineapple and coconut is one of my favorite combination. I cannot wait to make a curry out of them! Thanks for posting the recipe!

[C. sapidus]

Veracruz-style fish fillets – Fried white onion, garlic, parsley, and roasted red pepper strips, simmered with tomatoes, chopped olives, pickled jalapenos, jalapeno vinegar, and a little ground black pepper, ancho, and chipotle for kick. The fillets were poached in the sauce, and then topped with capers. Family approved.

Green rice – Jasmine rice, fried until nutty, steamed with a puree of roasted Poblano chiles, white onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, spinach, and chicken stock, and then sprinkled with feta cheese. Perfect stealth vegetable.

Edit: fixed html tags

Edited May 20, 2013 by C. sapidus (log)

[Ashen]

a couple meals from recent weeks ..

grilled lamb shoulder chops and assorted grilled veg with a ceasar salad

italian style sweet sausage , lemon pork ribs and salad

[Keith_W]

Two poussins, tunnel boned (i.e. remove the skeleton whilst keeping the bird intact). It sometimes helps to be a doctor.

The birds were stuffed with mushroom duxelles, ham, and Emmental cheese, then sutured closed with 3-0 silk. They were then rubbed in truffle oil and salt, then baked over indirect heat at 250C. Like my neat sutures?

Served with vegetables and chicken jus. Once the birds are roasted, the sutures (which are as fine as human hair) are indistinguishable.

Cut in half to show that they were really tunnel boned

[Rozin Abbas]

I'm so stealing that idea. That's awesome. I think someone else did something similar but they removed every single bone. Have you ever attempted this? It's something I might explore as my brother's finicky girlfriend hates bones (you should see her when we go eat wings. It makes me sad).

[liuzhou]

Salmon, Caper/Lemon/Garlic/Ginger sauce, Pig Stomach Mushrooms (猪肚菇 zhū dù gū), Rice

Served with pink champagne. Of course. Standards must be maintained.

[Mr Holloway]

Great looking meals everyone

This thread never fails to make me hungry

Dinner was some fresh ground burgers

Short ribs, brisket, rump roast and some top sirloin fat

Cubed

Ground

Our best burgers so far, great flavor. Will be using brisket and short ribs again

Shane

[mm84321]

Salmon with marrow croutons, sauce Genevoise

[Ann_T]

So many wonderful meals.
SobaAddict, I like the idea of the Pineapple curry and lemon rice. Nice combination.

Franci, Your couscous looks so light and colourful.

Keith, Great cutting board. Your food is always so beautifullly plated.

Shane, not one but two perfect burgers.

Mm, a work of art.

A few of our meals this past week.

Green Peppercorn Steak

Slow Roasted Prime Rib Bones.

Ground Chuck Burgers with Shoestring Fries.

Grilled Baby Back Ribs , Grilled Potatoes

[mm84321]

Thanks, Ann. Your steak au poivre looks delicious.

Macaroni gratin stuffed with violet asparagus

[Keith_W]

I think someone else did something similar but they removed every single bone. Have you ever attempted this? It's something I might explore as my brother's finicky girlfriend hates bones (you should see her when we go eat wings. It makes me sad).

Hi Rozin, I suppose it is possible to remove every single bone, but then the bird would end up looking rather deflated. I chose to leave the drumstick in although I did remove the thigh bone. I left the entire wing joint in. I wanted the end result to still look like a bird, and not a bag made of meat ... which is what would happen if you removed all the bones

BTW a Poussin is a funny sized bird. Mine were 500gm each with bones in. Once you debone and stuff them, each Poussin is only slightly larger than what you can eat. We ate 1.5 Poussins between my wife and I and packed the rest for lunch. I am still looking for the perfect single serve bird. Quails are too small, poussins are too large, and pigeons are rare around here.

Mr Holloway I bought some mince today with the intention of making bolognaise. I think you may have changed my mind.

Ann T everything looks great but I must single out the steak and those fries. You left the skin on before you cut the fries? I wish more people would do that ... they have so much more flavour.

mm84321 more details on that asparagus and macaroni gratin, please? That looks like a single, very long piece of macaroni. How did you make it? Did you extrude it yourself?

[David Ross]

Found some really wonderful Wahoo at the grocery store, served with buttermilk coleslaw, radish, cucumber and avocado cream.