Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

[Ann_T]

Bruce, what is a "slipper burger"?

Steve everything looks good. Love the idea of the Eggplant Croquettes. Also, love your serving dishes.

I've only made Tahini sauce once, about 20 years ago and out of necessity. We were living in Northern Ontario and I couldn't find Tahini Sauce in any of the grocery stores, so I made my own.

Last night's dinner - Pork Souvlaki with Greek Salad and Chickpea Flatbread.

[Plantes Vertes]

That hummus looks great, liuzhou. What an interesting post; I've never made tahini before as the jars are far less expensive than the equivalent amount of seeds. Now I know what to do in extremis.

[heidih]

Last night's dinner - Pork Souvlaki with Greek Salad and Chickpea Flatbread.

Anne - did you make the chickpea flatbread?- that sounds like something I would enjoy

[patrickamory]

liuzhou thanks for the tahini and hummus pictorial. really useful.

[cookalong]

Salmon, sauce maltaise (couldn't find blood orange, so regular ones had to make due), asparagus, potatoes

Toasted pistachio panna cotta, macerated strawberries, chrystalized pistachio crumble and strawberry sorbet (lots of strawberries during the short time when they're in season here).

[Franci]

Tonight we had a rotisserie duck with cauliflower and carrots cooked under the duck and some watermelon rind chutney

[Ann_T]

Last night's dinner - Pork Souvlaki with Greek Salad and Chickpea Flatbread.

Anne - did you make the chickpea flatbread?- that sounds like something I would enjoy

Heidi, yes, the flatbread is homemade. It is quick and simple to make.

The recipe is on the blog or you can Print It from Here.

[mm84321]

Blackberry sorbet in ravioli, allumettes royale

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, what is a "slipper burger"?

Slipper burger (chapli kebab) is ground beef or lamb with onion, garlic, chiles, ginger, cilantro, ground coriander seed, black pepper, cayenne, and cumin. The version we make is from the Barbecue Bible, but we shape them into burgers rather than slippers.

Gorgeous souvlaki and Greek salad.

Mrs. C made pulled pork tonight (smoked on the Egg, and finished in the crock pot), with homemade cole slaw, homemade BBQ sauce, potato rolls, and watermelon-tomato salad with ginger.

[Ann_T]

Cookalong, beautifully prepared salmon.

MM, your presentation is always special. I really like the black and white checked background.

Bruce, thank you. I think I would like a Slipper burger.

Grilled Chicken breast with a side of spaghetti (local garlic, cherry tomatoes and basil).

[Keith_W]

mm84321 how do you put a sorbet in a ravioli?

Looks incredible as always.

[Ashen]

grilled lamb burger with a feta garlic spread and fresh tomato relish. homemade ceasar salad

This is a catchup from last weeked. Spatchcocked chicken grilled on the Weber

i

I had cut through the center before remembering to take a picture so I pushed the two halfs together

Edited August 5, 2013 by Ashen (log)

[Steve Irby]

Great looking dishes to all. I'm going to be working out of town for the next two weeks in the "boonies" so I'm going to dine vicariously through egullet. Fine dining with no calories!

cookalong - Nice looking dinner. The sorbet and panna cotta look particularly tasty.

mm83421 - Knock out dish as usual. My desserts aren't quite gold leaf worthy yet but I'm working on it. Is the ravioli draped over the sorbet? The color in the puree is beautiful and it matches the ravioli perfectly. What is the raviloi made of?

Ashen - Beautiful color on that chicken. First time I've heard the term spatchcocked chicken.

[mm84321]

mm84321 how do you put a sorbet in a ravioli?

Looks incredible as always.

Well, they are not literally "ravioli". Basically, the bottom of the plates are set with a gelée made from blackberry juice infused with vanilla, lemon zest and juice. Then three rounds of sliced blackberries, then the sorbet, and finally the same gelée that coats the bottom of the plate is set with a higher amount of gelatin, poured into a sheet pan, shaped with a round cutter, and draped over the sorbet. The mousse in the center is simply a lemon syrup with soy lecithin, and the allumettes are made by spreading a thin layer of royal icing on puff pastry, cutting, baking for 15 minutes and finished with powdered sugar.

[Baselerd]

Very nice dessert mm84321!

[Franci]

Today's dinner: calf's liver, onions and shallots

[Ann_T]

Ashen, beautiful burger.

Franci, I would love your dinner. I need to to ask one of our local butchers to get me calves liver.

Hamburger and fries for dinner.

With homemade Kaiser Buns.

[furzzy]

Anne_T The gratin in the cast iron skillet looks delightful. Thanks for sharing the method!

All this talk of lamb lately gave me a craving. Hence: roast spring lamb with red-wine and mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Lamb.jpg

Panaderia Canadiense Going to let my ignorance hang out here. Question about "spring lamb" - I've only been able ever to get "spring" lamb in the spring, mostly mid-spring. Also, since we like domestic lamb far better than that sourced from Aussie/New Zealand, my guess has been that the lambing takes place in Feb/Mar - & maybe Apr - and I'm looking for 6-8 wk lamb, never frozen. I just ordered a rack from D'Artagnan, fresh. I'm eager to hear your input - on anyone's.

Please be kind enough to disabuse me of anything where I'm wrong.

I'll point out for starters that I live in Ecuador, and that our seasons are a bit different. It's currently spring (or rather it's a spring-esque lambing season in Salasaka, where the lamb in question came from) and hence what I ate was spring lamb. The neat thing about this country, though, is that when it's no longer "spring" in my province, it will be "spring" in neighbouring Bolívar or in another close province. This boils down to spring lambs, milk fed and between 6 and 8 weeks old, being available here almost year round.... It's a unique advantage to living this close to the equator and at such a high altitude.

I also suspect that many of the breeds found in the highlands close to my markets are year-round rather than seasonal breeders (whereas in Canada at least the seasonal breeders are more common), which means that here in Ecuador not only do I get the rather abundant and delicious spring lambs (and my butcher is very precise about what she calls the lamb she sells) but also very tender and tasty milk lambs in the non-spring seasons.

Up in the nothern hemisphere, spring lambs are born either in late winter or early spring (so February-April or so) and must be sold before July 1 to qualify. Anything else between 6 and 8 weeks but born in a different lambing season is milk lamb, which is very similar in flavour and texture, although in my experience milk lambs tend to be just a tad stronger tasting than spring ones.

Thanks so much for this explanation. I've never had lamb sourced from anywhere but either New Zealand/Australia or the Domestic US lamb raised in Colorado. I had no idea Ecuador produced lamb.

We had a rack of lamb done on the Big Green Egg last evening - best we've ever had! Veggies also done on the BGE, except for the potato spears fried in duck fat!

ETA duck fried potato spears

Edited August 6, 2013 by furzzy (log)

[Ann_T]

Furzzy, perfectly cooked lamb. I'm imagining how wonderful duck fried potatoes would taste.

A few of our meals this past week.

Pizza Margherita, baked on a stone on the grill.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Chipotle Mayo.

Caprese Salad with local heirloom tomatoes, basil and garlic.

[judiu]

Ann_T, is that liver-y looking thing under the fork a slice of Black Krim tomato? Or is the colour just an illusion?

[Mr Holloway]

WOW!

Amazing looking food, everyone

Catching up on a few pages and now I am starving

Most recent cooks have been for friends

Peameal bacon and chocolate chip bacon cookies for a friend's Scout canoe trip

The cookies went fast, the kids loved them

Pulled pork for work

Pasta sauce in the new dutch oven on the Egg

After a few hours

This turned out well

Shane

[rotuts]

Wow: perfect looking cookies:

chocolate chip bacon cookies

they had bacon in them? care to share the Rx?

many thanks!

[Mr Holloway]

Thanks Rotuts

My wife looked after the cookies.

It's basically your favorite cookie recipe and add cooked bacon bits

The amount seems to increase for us on every batch

We haven't hit the point were we think there is too much bacon in them

Shane

[rotuts]

excellent thinking. my favorite cookie is a dried cranberry/chocChip/pecan/oatmeal sort of boulder that was in one of the early Test Kitchen books

it now will have some bacon!

[Mr Holloway]

MMMMM

That sounds good

Let us know how that works together

Shane