Dinner! 2013 (Part 3)

[Rozin Abbas]

Homemade noodles with butter, garlic, salt, lots of fresh ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese.

That's a lot like the "original" Alfredo sauce. Ever since I read the Saveur article and tried it out, I find the Italian-American version lacklustre, especially when quality ingredients are used.

Sous Vide Beef Wellington

Your first picture came out fantastic. It's like a beam of light focusing on Excalibur.

[Keith_W]

It is an awfully cold night in Melbourne and I was asked to prepare one of our favourite dinners for cold evenings - congee. I was planning to make it with leftover shredded chicken, but I had an abundance of leftover filling from yesterday's wan tons and no more wan ton wrappers, so I had to use it up somehow. Change of plans then - I made pork meatball congee:

The meatballs were made from leftover wan ton filling mixed with some egg to bind. They were then poached and set aside. The poaching liquid was then used to make the congee along with some leftover chicken stock. I like my congee really thin, so I use 1 cup of rice to 10 cups of liquid (most typical recipes are 1:5 or so).

Not pictured - a plate of Chinese crullers, pickled mustard greens, and fried bak choy. I think dinner tonight came in at under $5, was really healthy, and I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow. This has to be the cheapest and most satisfying meal on my regular menu.

[hongda]

Looks great. Are the orange bits salted eggs?

[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)]

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.

New York strip = boneless, Kansas City strip = bone-in. At least it was that way when my partner lived in Chicago in the mid-'00s. There was a local grocery in his neighborhood (Clark and Fullerton) called Big Apple Finer Foods with an excellent old butcher counter in the back that had dry-aged beef. That's where we first encountered KC Strip. Since then I've seen it on restaurant menus outside of New York.

Of course here, New York strip is just called strip steak (or shell steak, which I THINK is more or less the same cut). Bone-in strip is rarer in general here - if the bone is present, people seem to go for T-bones or porterhouses and get some of the filet on the other side as well.

[Keith_W]

Looks great. Are the orange bits salted eggs?

Thanks hongda The orange bits are carrot. I know, I know ... it's a SE Asian thing Edited May 27, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[C. sapidus]

Slathered pork spare ribs with a paste of habanero chile, scallions, ginger, garlic, cilantro, thyme, brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, soy sauce, oil, and dark rum. Smoked the ribs over cherry wood on the Big Green Egg.

Mrs. C prepped a delicious black bean, corn, and tomato salad with feta cheese.

The finished meal, accompanied by pigeon peas and rice (onion, garlic, thyme, parsley, habanero chile, and green and red bell peppers)

[basquecook]

Roasted game hen. This pan was for my daughter, for my wife and I, we added jalapeño which roasted and became part of the pan sauce. A few potatoes too. Gizzards and things in the foreground. My daughter went right for the liver and hearts. Getting her ready for her first date!

A simple salad:

Edited May 28, 2013 by basquecook (log)

[TinaYuan]

Sweet and sour pork spareribs for dinner. I believe in China, every family has their own recipe for this dish, as long as it's sweet and sour.

The ratio of marinade I use is

water: chinkiang vinegar: sugar: soy sauce: cooking wine= 5:4:3:2:1.

Marinade spareribs with the above and scallion, ginger, garlic.

Brown the spareribs first and pour the marinade in, simmer for one hour till meat is tender and sauce is thick.

[basquecook]

Looks gorgeous.

[rotuts]

thanks. that ratio looks very interesting and the results : no doubt delicious!

is the sugar by volume?

Edited May 28, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Franci]

Tonight we had tamarind glazed lamb riblets and zucchini dolma.

[rotuts]

Wow. I love tamarind

so so please you have found the time to post!

of course I would not mind finding out how you did those RibLets

thanks again!

Edited May 28, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Ann_T]

Bruce, Those ribs look amazing.

Basquecook, Beautifully roasted game hen.

Tina, those ribs look succulent.

Franci, I love the idea of the stuffed zucchini. I have some little lamb ribs in the freezer.

Moe's birthday dinner.

Homemade Ravioli with a pork filling. Seasoned with garlic, basil, ricotta and Parmesan.

It is a family tradition that Moe's birthday dessert is something with strawberries.

This year - crepes with strawberries in cream with a drizzle of white chocolate sauce

[Franci]

Ann_T, your pictures are so beautiful! Lovely meal.

Rotuts, these ribs are very little effort and everybody found them delicious. It's a J. Mclagan's recipe. Season the ribs with salt, pepper and little 5 spices. Cook on a tray, over a roasting tin with some water, covered with foil (for 1 1/2 hours at 160 C). Meanwhile make the glaze. Soak 50 g tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup boiling water, let sit for half an hour. Add 90 g brown sugar, 2 tbsp fish sauce, juice of half a lime and some fresh grated ginger, plus some hot pepper if you like. Simmer 10 minutes. Pass through a coarse sieve and discard solids, let cool. When the ribs are cooked, turn on the broiler and bush with the glaze, let it cooked until nicely glazed.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Franci (log)

[basquecook]

Thanks, Ann. I think I may have scratched my screen with a fork, going for one of your raviolis. They look so good.

Last night:

paghetti w/ mussels. Cooked the mussels in a pot with a little bit of garlic, thyme and oil, then added 3/4 cup of water, then the mussels. Steamed the mussels and removed from the shells. Reserved the mussel meat in one bowl , the liquid in another. To a pan I added bacon and onions, added the mussels, the liquid, then cooked spaghetti, let them cook for a bit, then added parsley. Plated, topped with olive oil.

Delicious

Cooked a snapper w/ broccoli rabe and roasted potatoes.

The snapper, I cooked whole, deboned, remove the skin and presented like they do at the fancy Italian Restaurants. Topped with olive oil.

Miss K likes herself a salmon steak. I debone the middle, remove the skin on the one end and tie into a round. I add a stick as it's easier for me to turn on the grill that way.

Slight grill and then finish in the oven.. She doesn't not like things too browned.

[basquecook]

Dry-aged bone-in shell from Eataly.

Beautiful, as expensive as the steak is, I have to say, I find it worth it. The rare times I cook up a steak, I want it to be this good.

Edited May 29, 2013 by basquecook (log)

[basquecook]

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.

These look pretty perfect!

As do so many things on this board. Some incredibly talented people here.

Edited May 29, 2013 by basquecook (log)

[Franci]

Tonight we had spaghetti col sugo finto, " fake sauce"

And a salad of spinach, confit tomatoes, croutons of a quick zucchini bread a made from the inside of the dolma from yesterday, olives de nyons and 21 months aged Comte. Tell me I can find at least 18 months old Comte in the US...I have a serious addiction and when I was in NY over Christmas I was able to find only the 12 months one.

[FrogPrincesse]

Everything looks good Franci. What is "fake sauce" and what recipe do you use?

[weinoo]

Soba and his asparagus !

Penne with asparagus, shallots, red pepper, olive oil, pecorino and lemon zest.

[FrogPrincesse]

Since we are on the topic of asparagus... here is a light dinner from a couple of weeks ago when I got a bunch of green asparagus in my CSA. It's even better with a duck egg if you have one.

Asparagus Milanese (based on the recipe from Babbo)

[weinoo]

And I had this for dinner the other night. I didn't make it, but it was good...

[patrickamory]

Bruce, Tina, Franci: incredible looking ribs, in all varieties! It is the season. I think I may choose to try Tina's rendition first, but I'm tempted by all three. (And unfortunately do not own a Big Green Egg nor a legal place to put one, though I'm sorely tempted.)

Ann: Gorgeous ravioli.

weinoo: Asparagus is tasting so good right now. I can use it in almost anything. That pasta dish looks just perfect. I too am following Soba's superb blog with fascination.

[Franci]

Yesterday, I was bringing home some white asparagus myself but didn't look too good. After seeing all these nice asparagus here, I need to get some on Saturday on the Italian Market.

Beautiful blog Soba! I didn't realized you were blogging until yesterday. What would be a new proposition for me it's to use meat as a condiment. I love it very much but I feel I should be more moderate.

Everything looks good Franci. What is "fake sauce" and what recipe do you use?

I use this recipe but you can go even more minimalistic and really do with no meat. You start with a soffritto (onion, carrot and celery) plus garlic, herbs (parsley, basil, marjoram), here I added lardoons plus tomatoes (me a mix of cherry, black and peeled, what I had in the house). Cook slowly until the oil floats back on the surface. It's a tradition of the roman peasant cuisine.

[weinoo]

Tell me I can find at least 18 months old Comte in the US...I have a serious addiction and when I was in NY over Christmas I was able to find only the 12 months one.

OK - you can. I know Murray's and Formaggio Essex have it.