Dinner II: The Gallery of Regrettable Foods (Part 2)

[racheld]

HEY!!! You boys play NICE!!!

Don't make me come over there.

[sazji]

Hmmm, haven't had anything pop out of my kitchen for a while that really belonged here, but once in a while we get lucky! Visiting my mom in Arkansas, she's been making skinned chicken thighs in the microwave for dinner lately. She'd thawed some out, and I was planning something different, but turned around and found she'd already started the process. So I intervened, cut the meat off the bones, sauteed it with some onion and garlic...decided I wanted to make something like a cream sauce but of course no cream...I wonder if milk will reduce with butter and get thick...it didn't really...so I added some feta which often melts nicely...but had it too hot and it curdled...and anyway...

It tasted "okay."

[jackal10]

Thsi would have been a fine Norfolk Treacle Tart also known as Walpole House Tart. Very fine it would have been too. Its like a normal treacle tart but with a treacle custard instead of breadcrumbs. http://norfolkdumpling.blogspot.com/2006/0...and-and-st.html

However I got distracted and left it in the oven for far too long. The top was black. That was the bottom. Its is surprisingly delicious, but unpreseantable. Why do the burnt bits taste so good?

Edited December 2, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[snowangel]

Why do the burnt bits taste so good?

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I love the burnt bits. My kids always said it was a mom thing, but clearly, that's not necessarily true. All praise to the burnt bits!

I've been on such a visually disgusting trip that I have given up on the camera, and chosen to spare my family the pain. Even my lovely chicken in a mustard tarragon sauce, that tasted so good...well, it looked like something I hadn't seen since my kids started eating solid food.

[miladyinsanity]

Thsi would have been a fine Norfolk Treacle Tart also known as Walpole House Tart. Very fine it would have been too. Its like a normal treacle tart but with a treacle custard instead of breadcrumbs. http://norfolkdumpling.blogspot.com/2006/0...and-and-st.html

However I got distracted and left it in the oven for far too long. The top was black. That was the bottom. Its is surprisingly delicious, but unpreseantable. Why do the burnt bits taste so good?

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Because they are bad for you.

I may have to try this. You really didn't have to include the link! *waist expands another inch*

[annecros]

Its is surprisingly delicious, but unpreseantable. Why do the burnt bits taste so good?

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Umm, toss some whipped cream on top and present anyway?

Or, maybe even dump chunks of it into the bottom of a wine glass, then dump the whipped cream on top, then sprinkle the burnt bits on top of that. I would vote for unsweetened whpped cream. The stuff has a very nice color.

Oh, I know. A giant brandy snifter with 70's music on the stereo to set the mood. Sort of a "Treacle Trifle"

Present and look smugly self confident. You meant to do that...

Edited December 2, 2006 by annecros (log)

[Ling]

I would have scooped out the custard and tart crust pieces and arranged the desserts in parfait glasses. Bit of hard sauce or bourbon-laced whipped cream, a sliver of candied orange zest, and maybe a bit of homemade cranberry sauce for colour and you've got a great Christmas dessert!

Thanks for the link...I love English puddings.

[sazji]

Oh yeah, ripping up into bits is a great way to deal with something that has good flavor but has lots its form! Years ago a friend of mine made a rather expensive (well, for her at the time on a grad student budget) chocolate cake for a party. It stuck viciously to the pan. By the time it came out, it was a complete mess. She was about to go out and buy something when her housemate said "Now hold it a minute...", ripped it up, piled it in a souffle pan layered with some grated chocolate for texture, whipped cream with cocoa added, and I believe some m&ms cause the kids thought they were pretty, and a new household dessert, "Chocolate Ooooh" was born!

Edited December 15, 2006 by sazji (log)

[mizducky]

Y'know, any dish with beets in it is a little challenging to photograph, as the whole thing has turned this more-or-less uniform bright purplish red ...

This was a beet/cabbage stew--kind of a borscht with relatively little water in it--and it does taste heavenly, even if it does look a little ... odd. I don't quite know why it reflected the flash like that...

[LindsayAnn]

Y'know, any dish with beets in it is a little challenging to photograph, as the whole thing has turned this more-or-less uniform bright purplish red ...

This was a beet/cabbage stew--kind of a borscht with relatively little water in it--and it does taste heavenly, even if it does look a little ... odd. I don't quite know why it reflected the flash like that...

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I betcha it was yummy anyway Mizducky! By the way, are you still working on your 'eating healthy' habit? I read about this a lil' while ago, maybe a few weeks...although I cannot remember if it was a recent forum of yours or one from a long time ago that I just stumbled on. Either way - way to go with all of your efforts and achievements...eating clean (healthy, lower sodiums/fat/cal) can be sooo hard!

[lucylou95816]

Our monthly dinner club had a German theme this month. The host made rouladen, which tasted slightly better than it looked. Here is a picture of it. I figured that this thread was the best place to post it:

[Pontormo]

After sautéing cabbage with garlic, I still had half of a very large head leftover. I wanted to transform it into a main course even though stuffing the leaves didn't seem like an option.

So, turning to a favorite vegetarian cookbook, I read about how delightful cabbage gratin was. You're supposed to call it pain au chou to make it seem less pedestrian, and once the diced cruciferous plant is parboiled and baked in a buttered casserole coated with Parmesan, bathed in custardy goodness, you'd be surprised by how good it is.

I suspect all it needed was truffle oil.

To make matters worse, I decided it needed a nice red pepper sauce. Stewed the red peppers in olive oil. Whirled them in the blender. Popped them in a pan with broth to reduce since I couldn't be bothered with a roux. A little salt. Bitter? A little sugar and grated cheese. Then, brilliantest of ideas, just a spoonful of heavy cream, not to thicken, no. What I really was going for was something that looked like Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup to pour over the square of eggy cabbage. Meanwhile, the half of butternut squash that I roasted was face down, on top of the stove, steaming away into a soggy child's inflatable pool of matching blahness.

The whole point was not to waste anything in the refrigerator, but this time, I am not even going to pretend I will eat the leftovers for lunch. At least I reserved half a pound and made a delicious stuffing for pasta with pancetta, onions, garlic, pan reduction and baked potato while the gratin was baking.

Dessert matched the sauce and squash: a very ripe Hitachi Persimmon, split like a flower into quarters, with vanilla-scented whipped cream and chopped pistachios. First time I ate a persimmon on its own, raw. Chufi says there's nothing that whipped cream doesn't make better, right? Well, this probably was true, though the flavor was more delicate than delectable.

All in all, this was not auspicious. I did have greens and lentils and rice in my soup for lunch, so I hope the new year will bring better meals.

[dockhl]

Our monthly dinner club had a German theme this month.  The host made rouladen, which tasted slightly better than it looked.  Here is a picture of it.  I figured that this thread was the best place to post it:

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aaakkkkkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...............

[dockhl]

After sautéing cabbage with garlic, I still had half of a very large head leftover.  I wanted to transform it into a main course even though stuffing the leaves didn't seem like an option.

So, turning to a favorite vegetarian cookbook, I read about how delightful cabbage gratin was.  You're supposed to call it pain au chou to make it seem less pedestrian, and once the diced cruciferous plant is parboiled and baked in a buttered casserole coated with Parmesan, bathed in custardy goodness, you'd be surprised by how good it is.

I suspect all it needed was truffle oil.

To make matters worse, I decided it needed a nice red pepper sauce.  Stewed the red peppers in olive oil.  Whirled them in the blender.  Popped them in a pan with broth to reduce since I couldn't be bothered with a roux.  A little salt.  Bitter?  A little sugar and grated cheese.  Then, brilliantest of ideas, just a spoonful of heavy cream, not to thicken, no.  What I really was going for was something that looked like Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup to pour over the square of eggy cabbage.  Meanwhile, the half of butternut squash that I roasted was face down, on top of the stove, steaming away into a soggy child's inflatable pool of matching blahness.

The whole point was not to waste anything in the refrigerator, but this time, I am not even going to pretend I will eat the leftovers for lunch.  At least I reserved half a pound and made a delicious stuffing for pasta with pancetta, onions, garlic, pan reduction and baked potato while the gratin was baking.

Dessert matched the sauce and squash: a very ripe Hitachi Persimmon, split like a flower into quarters, with vanilla-scented whipped cream and chopped pistachios.  First time I ate a persimmon on its own, raw.  Chufi says there's nothing that whipped cream doesn't make better, right?  Well, this probably was true, though the flavor was more delicate than delectable.

All in all, this was not auspicious.  I did have greens and lentils and rice in my soup for lunch, so I hope the new year will bring better meals.

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Well. Ummm.

Thank you for not posting pics.

I think...........

gilding the lily? Kinda ?

[Carrot Top]

Really I couldn't decide last night whose post scared me and made me laugh at the same time the most - lucylou's or Pontormo's. I was rather fascinated by whatever that thing is that's on top of that hunk of meat, lucylou. Phew. Really. Even now, my mouth starts hanging open stupidly just looking at it in wonderment.

Pontormo's story made me think of Betty Crocker meets Julia Child on a rush night in the kitchen. Betty, of course, would be making dinner, a big fancy one, for her hubbie's boss, determined to please All with the perfect meal. And Julia, naturally, would be aiming for "better things", finer things, the higher calling to be found in it all, the food lending meaning to the table and the day, and therefore the Self.

What a beautiful couple of posts in a row! Thank you!

[GTO]

lucylou - That rouladen scares me slightly. It looks like it's ready to fly, screaming off of the plate at your throat, Alien style.

Kill it! Eat it's innards!

[mizducky]

I'm baaaaaaaack ...

No pictures this time, for reasons you'll understand shortly.

Inspired by the current foodblog's soup theme, I decided to act on my recent urge to try my hand at fish head soup. Shopping in one of the local Asian markets, I scored a nice meaty-looking fish head -- 2.5 pounds, I think it was off of a small tuna--and the fishmonger obligingly chopped it into six pieces and cleaned it of gills and other unwanted bits. At home I had half a packet of Filipino sinigiang soup mix kicking around, so I used that as the flavoring base, along with some finely sliced lemongrass, a few slices of gingerroot, and a few whole cloves of garlic. Other solid ingredients included chunks of yellow onion and eggplant (Euro eggplant was what I had in the house, so that's what I used), plus a container of shirataki. Throw it all in a pot with about 6 cups of water, simmer till the eggplant is done, and voila!

The result tasted pretty damn good if I do say so myself, but oy the visuals! And eating the stuff was a gloriously messy procedure, making dissassembling a whole lobster look like a dainty teaparty in comparison. That's why no photos--I didn't want my camera getting icked up with fishy fingerprints. I sure had fun eating the stuff, but I could easily imagine a diner with a low tolerance for ick running screaming from the room. And oh yeah, a chunk of simmered skin-on eggplant can bear an uncanny resemblance to a chunk of simmered fish head, at least when submerged in soup.

I will definitely make this again--and maybe even get pictures next time--but unless I can find some fellow diners not weirded out by picking carefully through the most weirdly-shaped bones ever to come out of a fish, I'll probably be eating it solo.

[tomtom11]

Maybe not fair cuz I didn't cook it nor I don't eat it, but it's definitely a big winner in this thread because this is for many Dutch an alltime favorite meal at a snackbar.

Patatje Oorlog (Fries on War), containing Mayo, Peanut sauce, Curry and sliced onions.

Actually any sauce will go well, just make sure you mix m all together into a nice and smelly brown diarrhoea.

I can't eat this. My system can't take it for long.

Another alltimer : Fricandel Speciaal. A meatroll made of things you don't want to know, covered with ketchup, mayo and onions.

No wonder the Dutcher a getting taller than the Americans

[OnigiriFB]

I'm baaaaaaaack ... 

No pictures this time, for reasons you'll understand shortly.

Inspired by the current foodblog's soup theme, I decided to act on my recent urge to try my hand at fish head soup. Shopping in one of the local Asian markets, I scored a nice meaty-looking fish head -- 2.5 pounds, I think it was off of a small tuna--and the fishmonger obligingly chopped it into six pieces and cleaned it of gills and other unwanted bits. At home I had half a packet of Filipino sinigiang soup mix kicking around, so I used that as the flavoring base, along with some finely sliced lemongrass, a few slices of gingerroot, and a few whole cloves of garlic. Other solid ingredients included chunks of yellow onion and eggplant (Euro eggplant was what I had in the house, so that's what I used), plus a container of shirataki. Throw it all in a pot with about 6 cups of water, simmer till the eggplant is done, and voila!

The result tasted pretty damn good if I do say so myself, but oy the visuals! And eating the stuff was a gloriously messy procedure, making dissassembling a whole lobster look like a dainty teaparty in comparison. That's why no photos--I didn't want my camera getting icked up with fishy fingerprints. I sure had fun eating the stuff, but I could easily imagine a diner with a low tolerance for ick running screaming from the room. And oh yeah, a chunk of simmered skin-on eggplant can bear an uncanny resemblance to a chunk of simmered fish head, at least when submerged in soup.

I will definitely make this again--and maybe even get pictures next time--but unless I can find some fellow diners not weirded out by picking carefully through the most weirdly-shaped bones ever to come out of a fish, I'll probably be eating it solo.

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If I bring pork belly can I come to dinner?

[mizducky]

I will definitely make this again--and maybe even get pictures next time--but unless I can find some fellow diners not weirded out by picking carefully through the most weirdly-shaped bones ever to come out of a fish, I'll probably be eating it solo.

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If I bring pork belly can I come to dinner?

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It's a deal!

Heh. Now I'm imagining a whole dinner party theme: Messy unsightly but yummy dishes you can only serve to people who are also into them.

[Genny]

My marshmallow making in the past couple days has been a comedy of errors. I can't remember the last time I lauged so much at my own cooking! (you can read about the first go 'round here)

Here I was trying to swirl in redy dye for my lovely vanilla marshmallows. I used red gel and a palette knife. When I cut them, here is what I found:

A lovely blurry close-up:

[wattacetti]

Here I was trying to swirl in redy dye for my lovely vanilla marshmallows.  I used red gel and a palette knife.  When I cut them, here is what I found:

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Whoa! We used to get chunks of stuff that looked like this from the Neuro OR. But aside from that, how'd they taste?

[eipi10]

When I was served this last week for lunch I certainly regretted ordering the "Porcini risotto served with Italian cold cuts". I just wish the picture could really do justice to the magnificent sauces. Oh well, at least the tomato wedge was OK.

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Love this thread. I went through the whole thread and I have to say, this is the most disgusting. It looks like something from a Hannibal Lechter movie! I don't think I want to know what the meaty thing on top is...

Edited February 18, 2007 by eipi10 (log)

[gfron1]

good god - why did you have to bring that picture back up! I really didn't need to see that so early in the morning.

[Restorer]

good god - why did you have to bring that picture back up!  I really didn't need to see that so early in the morning. 

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I just had the exact same thought.