Dinner! 2013 (Part 3)

[rotuts]

whats your method for this:

standard velveting technique

thanks

[Ann_T]

Ann_T: HCR is one dish that can be put together in fairly short order if need be. Yours looks great!

Dejah, I can see how it would be something that could be put together quickly. But this time I was starting from scratch. Will take leftovers with me to work today for a great lunch.

[dcarch]

Wonderful Hainanese Chicken rice, everyone!

I believe the single most important element for this dish (also for White Cut Chicken) is to use true free range chickens, (not so called cage-free chickens).

That's why a lot of times you wonder why your version just can't match that you have tasted in a good restaurant.

dcarch

[Keith_W]

Dejah, I've come back to this thread numerous times since yesterday, looking at your Hainanese Chicken rice. I had to have it. Stopped on my way to work this morning and picked up the ingredients.

Looks like you weren't the only one to be inspired by Dejah's HCR Tonight I made "modernist" chicken rice. For more details, see this post in the Hainanese Chicken Rice thread.

[huiray]

Looks good, Keith.

[menuinprogress]

Pulled pork sandwich, potato salad and corn on the cob.

Pork butt coming off of the smoker:

[patrickamory]

Dry-aged bone-in shell from Eataly.

[furzzy]

Salivating here over the steak. We're going to have an Eataly in Chicago later this year. Fox & Obel hasn't had any real competitors, but I think this will do it.

[Keith_W]

This was dinner tonight. The beauty of Hainanese Chicken Rice is that the leftovers can be used to make several dishes for the next few nights Tonight, the chicken stock was used to make Char Siu Wan Ton noodles.

The Wan Tons were made with minced pork, shiitake mushrooms, spring onion, and water chestnut. The water chestnut gave an interesting textural contrast. Thanks to egulleteer annachan for teaching me how to fold them.

The finished dish. The char siu this time was made using a bought marinade (instead of my own recipe I posted a few pages back). The Lee Kum Kee brand marinade is much superior to my own recipe, such that I asked my wife what I can do to improve it. She said it was not possible to improve it - it is perfect. More ginger? Add fermented soybeans? She gave me a dirty look and told me to just use the marinade as it is. So there you have it!

And yes, that's choy sum two nights in a row. I managed to buy incredibly fresh choy sum for a very cheap price, so I went for it

Edited May 26, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[Ranz]

Sous Vide Beef Wellington

[rotuts]

Beef Wellington properly made is to die for.

what did the SV add for you? did the meat continuing cooking when the shell baked or do you know something about SV that no one else knows: crispy browned pastry right out of the bag

[Ranz]

Beef Wellington properly made is to die for.

what did the SV add for you? did the meat continuing cooking when the shell baked or do you know something about SV that no one else knows: crispy browned pastry right out of the bag

The meat (with the duxelle and wrapped in Parma ham) went into the freezer for 30 minutes before being wrapped in the party and baked.

The SV just ensured that the meat didn't get overcooked at all, so basically an insurance policy.

I think next time I try this I'll go for a cheaper cut and just SV it until tender.

[patrickamory]

Gorgeous dumplings Keith! And fascinating to learn that you prefer the Lee Kum Kee brand marinade over homemade for char siu. I've been using hrzt8w's recipe for a while with great results (the non-preprepared recipe is actually spread throughout several posts in that thread). But I'm always perfectly content to use a pre-made product if it tastes better

[Dejah]

So, will there be a run on Lee Kum Kee Char Siu marinade now?!

Good job on the wonton hats!

[prasantrin]

Interesting about the LKK. I've tried it and disliked it a great deal compared to the recipe I had been using (c. sapidus kindly sent me Andrea Nguyen's recipe, but rather than using dark soy, I use Thai sweet soy just because that's what had handy, and I ended up liking it better).

[furzzy]

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)]

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!)

Where do you shop in Chicago? All I've ever heard them called is NY Strips.

[Jmahl]

Pork with Sweet Red Peppers. Portuguese recipe.

[furzzy]

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!

What an amazing tip! Why was that never mentioned in Culinary School? And why did it never occur to me?

[furzzy]

First, let me apologize. Chicken was on sale, and I like chicken a lot. So all are chicken dishes.

dcarch

Hickory smoked chicken with yellow squash

What are the "stringy" things around the plate, please? Edited May 27, 2013 by furzzy (log)

[furzzy]

I recently picked up the Volt Ink cookbook, and here's my first attempt at cooking from it. It's supposed to be a modern take on stir-fry beef with broccoli. The components include sous vide boneless short ribs, creamy broccoli puree, spicy soy caramel, deep fried dehydrated broccoli, deyhdrated horseradish foam, and broccolini.

I'm trying to imagine the taste/texture of deep fried Dehydrated broccoli. Can't get there. What's it like?

Edited May 27, 2013 by furzzy (log)

[Ashen]

grilled tri tip steak, grilled veggies and baked potato

dessert homemade blueberry pie

[Kim Shook]

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even checked in here in more than 2 weeks and have spent the last hour perusing the site. Everything looks so wonderful that I had to get up midway and make myself a snack!

Soba – your food is always beautiful, but that warm salad that you made on 5/11 may be the most spring-like, loveliest, most delicately beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Kate – thanks for the bun recommendation – that they are worth tracking down and I love the look of your ‘complicated salad’.

dcarch – your salmon sandwiches are both adorable and delicious looking!

Mike – oh, MY! BBQ and corn on the cob. To my mind, the ONLY reason to put up with hot weather is BBQ pork, corn and tomatoes. Gorgeous!

Keith – I could dive right into your latest meal and clean the plate. Wonderful looking noodles!

A very belated happy mother’s day to all the moms here. We hosted a brunch for Mother’s Day with another family. They brought quiches, green beans, fruit salad and pound cake. They ended up being 2 hours late, so I didn’t get pictures of their food. Luckily, Mr. Kim had suggested (based on their past behavior) that I go ahead and make the full meal that I’d been planning so the rest of us went ahead and ate. My food included a ham and cheese croissant strata that another girlfriend of mine makes. Before baking:

Just little ham and Swiss croissant sandwiches. After pouring on the egg custard and topping with Gruyere and baking:

Really good – and miles above most of the breakfast casseroles that I’ve made. And, of course, a salad with choice of bleu cheese or vinaigrette:

Also tiny little biscuits and jam:

The jams were blueberry, fig and peach that a friend made, apple butter from Yoder’s Amish restaurant and bakery in Sarasota and the last of my strawberry jam from last spring. In the front is bacon jam. Greeted with suspicion at first, but lapped up enthusiastically after the first taste by everyone!

My dessert was Paula Deen’s Not Yo’ Momma’s Nana Pudding:

It’s the only banana pudding that I care for. More like a mousse than a pudding and with yummy Chessmen cookies instead of icky vanilla wafers!

One recent evening I did a slow cooker BBQ brisket:

It was a combination of a Cooks Country recipe and one from allrecipes.com. It was good and moist and very, very flavorful, but to my taste needed more BBQ sauce. Plated with slaw, green beans and some baked beans leftover from Red, Hot and Blue:

Yesterday a dear friend from HS came down for a short visit. For dinner I served Ann T.’s baked halibut:

Really delicious and REALLY expensive – don’t think that I’ll be making halibut very often at $25/lb.!!! Along with the fish I served roasted asparagus, Ann’s corn custard, Lidia Bastianich’s Caesar salad and Billy bread (a super crusty dense wheat/rye/spelt loaf from a local bakery):

I’ve made the corn custard before and it was as good as always – Our friend, very much a Southern boy, was surprised that the recipe came from a Canadian! The Caesar was good, but needed a stronger anchovy punch (my fault as I used anchovy paste instead of anchovies). A shot of the inside of the corn custard and the fish:

Dessert was poundcake topped with strawberries and cream. The poundcake:

A mix, as I cannot seem to make one from scratch any better than the mix.I swirled strawberry jam through the cake batter before baking:

Edited May 27, 2013 by Kim Shook (log)

[Ann_T]

Ashen, that is one beautiful, beautiful blueberry pie.

Boneless chicken breasts seasoned with fresh garlic, salt, pepper, juice of a lemon, and a drizzle of olive oil. Grilled and served with a simple pasta. Homemade noodles with butter, garlic, salt, lots of fresh ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese.

[rod rock]

Ou this is nice combo - pasta with chicken breasts! Nice work Ann_T

[Ann_T]

Kim - I would never have thought of using croissants with ham and cheese to make a Strata. That is the best idea.
Your pulled pork is something I would like. I'm not a fan of BBQ sauces, so if this one was light on sauce, I would probably find it just right.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the halibut and corn pudding. It is my favourite fish. But I would hesitate to buy it at $25.00/lb. It is selling here for about $16.00 to $18.00 /lb.

Ou this is nice combo - pasta with chicken breasts! Nice work Ann_T

Thanks Rod.