Dinner! 2013 (Part 3)

[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.

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.

Ah so! Guess the "bone in" wasn't registering with me. I've never seen/heard of a bone-in strip, or maybe I just never noticed a KC strip listed on a menu. Rare must be right. I'll have to ask next time at Fox & Obel, or check out Big Apple Finer Foods the next time I'm in the City...or maybe even my great butcher at Casey's, now that we're out in Naperville. That would obviously be sooooo much better than w/o the bone. The strip has always been our favorite after the bone-in ribeye, but if I can get a KC Strip I'll definitely try it. Our son & family do as you mentioned: they buy one porterhouse for the three of them.

Thanks for the clarification. I love this place!

[weinoo]

SobaAddict70's blog really got me going this week. I even made dinner with the temperature hovering in the mid-90s!

Anyway, here is that vegetable "fricassée" still in the pan...

And the dinner, including the assorted vegetables fricassée (red, purple and gold potatoes, French radishes, Japanese turnips, spring onions), sautéed asparagus and seared Long Island scallops...

[cookalong]

Such beautiful creations in this thread, one is almost embarrassed to post something. Well screw dignity, here´s an asparagus risotto with poached (sous vide) salmon from last night

[weinoo]

Such beautiful creations in this thread, one is almost embarrassed to post something. Well screw dignity, here´s an asparagus risotto with poached (sous vide) salmon from last night

I like this style of risotto...all'onda. Do you use carnaroli rice for your risotto?

[cookalong]

Such beautiful creations in this thread, one is almost embarrassed to post something. Well screw dignity, here´s an asparagus risotto with poached (sous vide) salmon from last night

I like this style of risotto...all'onda. Do you use carnaroli rice for your risotto?

Me too, love it when it's runny, as long as the rice still has some bite. Yes, I pretty much always use carnaroli.

[huiray]

Be careful if you are making risotto for that notorious risotto-judger, Tom Colicchio, on Top Chef, who has personal ideas on what risotto should be and who ignores what circumstances sometimes mean for how a risotto turns out on the plate.

Edited June 2, 2013 by huiray (log)

[liuzhou]

It's been a while since I cooked anything other than breakfast. Work. Work. Work. But today I had a rare day off and came up with this. Not a work of art, to be sure. But it tasted just fine to me

Chicken thighs braised with onion, black garlic, olives, capers, green chilli, wine vinegar and coriander leaf. I'd normally use lemon juice rather than the vinegar, but forgot to buy any. Served with "turmeric rice" and stir fried green beans

Edited June 2, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[cookalong]

Be careful if you are making risotto for that notorious risotto-judger, Tom Colicchio, on Top Chef, who has personal ideas on what risotto should be and who ignores what circumstances sometimes mean for how a risotto turns out on the plate.

Haven't seen him, but I can imagin that risotto is kind of suicide in a cooking contest show, where it probably has to stand for a long time before beeing judged.

Made a risotto again today with the leftover asparaguses. This time I blanched them in the cooking buillion, removed, blended, and incorporated them into the risotto base a couple of minutes before the mantecatura.

[Keith_W]

Very nice cookalong! How did you get that green colour? BTW, is the plural of "asparagus" ... "asparagi"?

dcarch, lovely as always, but ... if you want to get rid of that white that coats your salmon, try brining it.

[cookalong]

Very nice cookalong! How did you get that green colour? BTW, is the plural of "asparagus" ... "asparagi"?

dcarch, lovely as always, but ... if you want to get rid of that white that coats your salmon, try brining it.

Thank you! I cooked the aspargi(?) for a couple of minutes in the vegetable stock (a lot of flavour is lost to the cooking liquid so I figured I'd put that flavour back into the risotto by cooking the aspargus in the stock). Then I removed them and blended them to a thick green liquid. I incorporated this asparagus-mixture into the risotto at the end, hence the lovely colour I have no idea about the plural of asparagus, English isn't my native language, as you probably could tell

[weinoo]

I think the plural of asparagus is asparagus .

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I was taught that asparagus is its own plural, kind of like sheep or shrimp.

[liuzhou]

is the plural of "asparagus" ... "asparagi"?

Certainly not. It is "sparrow juices". Well it always was when I was a kid.

(Correct answer: While it is possible but unproved that the origin is aspargus, asparagi) that would be (cod)-Latin and not English. In English it is uncountable. The correct term is "spears of asparagus". One spear, two spears, "A spear, my dear?")

[rotuts]

one asparagus. two asparagus, ...

[Franci]

dcarch, lovely as always, but ... if you want to get rid of that white that coats your salmon, try brining it.

I tried but didn't work for me, can't remember. 1 hour for a 10% solution? How long do you brine it for and at what %?

I had a better result with "salted salmon", japanese style (3.5% salt rub on salmon weight for 2 days)

[Keith_W]

Ah, I was just joking about the plural of "asparagus" being "asparagi" The plural of asparagus is also "asparagus". Seems as if everyone is making asparagus dishes, I need to get in on the act.

I tried but didn't work for me, can't remember. 1 hour for a 10% solution? How long do you brine it for and at what %?

I had a better result with "salted salmon", japanese style (3.5% salt rub on salmon weight for 2 days)

I use the Modernist Cuisine salmon brine, i.e. 5% salt for 3-5 hours. Link here: http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/sous-vide-salmon-in-the-kitchen-sink/ Edited June 2, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[Kim Shook]

Ann T – actually beef, not pork – but very light as to sauce. We all really loved both the halibut and the corn custard – the corn appears regularly on my table! I only trust a couple of places here for purchasing fish, so I kind of have to pay whatever they charge. So halibut will probably NOT be a frequent dish for us, but a delightful treat every once in a while now that I know what to do with it! Also – Moe’s BD meal looks great. I have been the owner of a pasta machine for over a year and it has yet to escape from its box. I really need to get started.

Bruce – that entire rib meal looks delicious. And everything but Mrs. C’s salad would be too hot for me . Tell Mrs. C that I would really love that salad! What kind of dressing does it have?

Tina – your sweet and sour ribs looks wonderful. I really like that flavor combination – one of my favorites.

basquecook – lovely oyster sandwiches! Evidence that quick food does NOT have to be ordinary.

dcarch – gorgeous smoked chicken. Mr. Kim is smoking some butts next week and now I’m going to get a chicken for him to toss on, too!

Everyone’s asparagus is reminding me of our trip to England in May of 2011. It was on practically every menu we saw and at the Old Chesil Rectory in Winchester they were specially featuring it the night we were there. Mr. Kim was in heaven and I was left truly wishing that I liked it.

A recent dinner with Jessica:

Assorted cheeses, Billy bread (a local bakery), cherry chutney, fig preserves and fruit.

Memorial day was burgers with bacon jam and Goats R Us (local cheese):

With succotash and salads. Close up:

Another one – Matthew recommended this at some point. It was Oven Roasted Lamb Shanks adapted from The olive and the Caper:

Served with slow cooker polenta, purchased tabouli, crusty bread and purchased tzatziki:

The shanks were delicious – I’ll be making them again. I need to remember that while the tabouli at our local Mediterranean deli is fantastic, the tzatziki is NOT.

I found some really good steaks, really cheap at Kroger and we had them for dinner last night. Mr. Kim’s was an almost 2-inch thick porterhouse:

Served with corn, baked potato and salad. Mine was a fairly thin rib-eye (my favorite):

They were absolutely fantastic – tender and juicy and flavorful and cost $15 for both. Bite:

[Franci]

Today we had spaghetti with clams

And grilled cuttlefish with zucchini scapece

[rotuts]

Cheers Franci: although all your food looks better than good, you seem to have the touch with seafood.

too bad Im not having those two above tonight!

pasta w clams is one of my favorites, right after calamari !

[mm84321]

Cured salmon with potatoes, dill, other things

Lobster tart, claws in salad with miso

Salmon and sorrel sauce

[jvalentino]

Old school baked ziti. I used Bianco Di Napoli tomatoes which are very good if you can find them.

[FrogPrincesse]

mm84321 - beautiful as always. What technique did you use to cure the salmon, and what kind of salmon was it?

Franci - mouthwatering seafood dishes. I've never cooked cuttlefish and this is very inspiring.

Kim - very nice cheese selection! Is that an aged mimolette that I spot at the back of the cheese platter?

[Ashen]

broke in the new weber tonight. posted a few more pics of the actually grilling in the grilling topic

side ribs, chicken thighs, shrimp, asparagus, garlic scapes

indirect grilled the meat over sugarmaple hardwood lump and a piece of sugar maple for extra smoke. used some storebought rubs that we picked up recently

shrimp were simple brined (water salt sugar) for 20 mins then direct grilled

mushrooms , asparagus and scapes grilled ..I love grilled scapes, I think of them as faux Calcots and make a dipping sauce of feta ,mayo and Sriracha instead of romesco .. although I dip the mushrooms, asparagus and shrimp in it too.

dessert homemade rhubarb custard pie.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Ashen (log)

[mm84321]

mm84321 - beautiful as always. What technique did you use to cure the salmon, and what kind of salmon was it?

Thanks. It was cured in a mixture of coarse sea salt and caster sugar overnight, then rinsed and marinated in olive oil. This was sockeye, hence the vivid color. Hard to photograph, but it was a really beautiful shade of red.

[C. sapidus]

Wow, I’m digging all of the gorgeous seafood!

Kim – thank you, I will let Mrs. C know you liked her salad. The dressing was olive oil, lime juice, Dijon mustard, mashed garlic, and salt. By the way, your steak looks delish - what did you use to season it?

Grilled chicken: Marinated with fish sauce, lime juice, black pepper, and oil, and then grilled on the egg. Sweet chile sauce to go with, and store-bought baguette to mop up the juices.

Grilled corn with scallion oil: Parboiled, grilled, brushed with scallion oil, and then grilled some more.

Yard-long beans stir-fried with fermented black beans, garlic, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.