Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

[Keith_W]

mm84321, if you served me that tomato and crab feuille I would not eat it. I would be too busy admiring it and crying over its beauty - too afraid to stick a fork into it to ruin its perfection. It is a masterpiece - shame that it had to be eaten. Should be sitting in a gallery somewhere.

[huiray]

mm84321, if you served me that tomato and crab feuille I would not eat it. I would be too busy admiring it and crying over its beauty - too afraid to stick a fork into it to ruin its perfection. It is a masterpiece - shame that it had to be eaten. Should be sitting in a gallery somewhere.

It is very pretty, and kudos to mm84321. However, if that is how you feel, perhaps you *should* spray it with the polymer of your choice and preserve it amongst your Museum Pieces. For myself, I prefer food that I can eat without too much thought about if I was destroying a Work of Art. It's food, after all, and exhibition pieces in my opinion might not necessarily be the best way to have food presented to one. YMMV.

Edited August 26, 2013 by huiray (log)

[Baselerd]

mm84321 the squabs look amazing, as does the tomato and crab dish. Great work.

[Franci]

Yesterday for dinner we had some foie d'oie on a paiou

Some lamb chops with salad, since I have only a pan left in my kitchen, not pictured.

And some cheese

[Ashen]

Happy Anniversary Ashen.

We also celebrated our anniversary today. Our 34th.

Grilled Chicken

with a grilled pineapple salsa.

happy aniversary Ann My wife and I have a while to go to reach that mark but I have no doubt it will come .. great looking plate btw .. Of course I always tend to drool over the photos you post .. lol.. All the extremely artfully composed plates that are on here are very interesting and beautiful in there own way but generally it is the simple beauty of meals like this that make me hungry. For example, the greek plate you posted a few weeks back made me want to lick my computer monitor. lol

[Anna N]

Bifstek tagalog with rice and a side of baby bok choy dressed with a little toasted sesame oil.

[Steve Irby]

Delicious looking meals. mm84321 that mille-fueille is stunning. I would have absolute no qualms about polishing off that work of art and immediately queuing up for the next one. I have a size 42 gallery available if you need to archive a few meals. Dejah - great post-vacation dinner to get back in the swing. huiray - you may want to work on that sense of humor. I'm pretty sure that Keith_W has one. Ashen I agree that Ann_T sets the bar pretty high for beautifully composed meals. And to borrow your phrase there are many meals posted that are monitor licking quality ranging from simple to complex and that's why I'm following this post. Inspiration comes in many forms.

[Ashen]

Steve.. I follow this thread for the same reason. The mix of different meals is very inspiring,and very in keeping with the idea in the original post that started the thread way back when. ( well before my time here but I have gone back and flipped though most of the entire DInner thread/s at one point or other) At the end of the day my personal taste is what it is and I gravitate to less invovled , well prepared dishes. I am often in wonder at the plating of some of the more artistic efforts on the thread, but it is almost always the simpler dishes that make me want to eat them. I think it is important to express that view once in awhile on the thread , in case there are people who are too intimitaded to post pictures of their food here because they feel they can't compete with the more artistic presentations. Knowing that at least one person is actually more interested in that sort of thing might inspire them.

[Anna N]

Steve.. I follow this thread for the same reason. The mix of different meals is very inspiring,and very in keeping with the idea in the original post that started the thread way back when. ( well before my time here but I have gone back and flipped though most of the entire DInner thread/s at one point or other) At the end of the day my personal taste is what it is and I gravitate to less invovled , well prepared dishes. I am often in wonder at the plating of some of the more artistic efforts on the thread, but it is almost always the simpler dishes that make me want to eat them. I think it is important to express that view once in awhile on the thread , in case there are people who are too intimitaded to post pictures of their food here because they feel they can't compete with the more artistic presentations. Knowing that at least one person is actually more interested in that sort of thing might inspire them.

I agree completely. It is Ann_T and C. sapidus and their ilk who draw me into the kitchen but it is mm84321 and darch and other talented "platers" who inspire me to think outside the box and at least try to improve my plating skills. We need all of them.

[Baselerd]

So I recently made a few dishes from the Momofuku cookbook, along with a dessert from the Momofuku Milk Bar:

Diver Scallops, Buttermilk Dressing, White Soy-Yuzu Vinaigrette

Kimchi consomme, sous vide pork belly, Malpeque oyster, nappa cabbage.

Thai tea parfait, lemon mascarpone curd, thai tea crunch.

[mm84321]

Annual grouse dinner at Daniel. Red Grouse, to be specific. Easily the most tender grouse I have ever had in the past three years I've gone. The birds were a bit smaller this year, and the flavor not as gamey as years past, but it was still the best grouse I have ever tasted.

[David Ross]

So I recently made a few dishes from the Momofuku cookbook, along with a dessert from the Momofuku Milk Bar:

Diver Scallops, Buttermilk Dressing, White Soy-Yuzu Vinaigrette

Kimchi consomme, sous vide pork belly, Malpeque oyster, nappa cabbage.

Thai tea parfait, lemon mascarpone curd, thai tea crunch.

I can think of all sorts of dishes using kimchi consomme. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Anna N]

Pork with onion and apple and glazed potatoes.

[judiu]

Delicious looking meals. mm84321 that mille-fueille is stunning. I would have absolute no qualms about polishing off that work of art and immediately queuing up for the next one. I have a size 42 gallery available if you need to archive a few meals. Dejah - great post-vacation dinner to get back in the swing. huiray - you may want to work on that sense of humor. I'm pretty sure that Keith_W has one. Ashen I agree that Ann_T sets the bar pretty high for beautifully composed meals. And to borrow your phrase there are many meals posted that are monitor licking quality ranging from simple to complex and that's why I'm following this post. Inspiration comes in many forms.

Steve, unless I've GROSSLY misununderstood you, I believe that you have done huiray a disservice; he has a good sense of humor, is's just about as dry as the Gobi!

[Baselerd]

I can think of all sorts of dishes using kimchi consomme. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks - although all I did was follow the recipe - which by the way is amazing and I can't recommend it enough. The recipe has you make some standard Nappa cabbage kimchi and puree it after 2 weeks of fermentation. This is then gently simmered with tonkotsu ramen broth (I had some that I had frozen from a while back), ground pork, onions, and egg whites (for clarification).

I can definitely see this going into more of my cooking - it was a very great way of subtly bringing the kimchi flavor to a dish.

[Anna N]

Sous vide duck breast and pan-fried zucchini dressed with a za'atar vinaigrette courtesy of David Lebovitz.

[Ann_T]

A friend's husband dropped me off some just picked beets and greens just in time for dinner.

Beets were roasted and then added to the sauteed beet greens. Served with fried potatoes and grilled pork tenderloin.

[Keith_W]

I made a four course meal tonight. The first course (home made sourdough bread and an amuse-bouche) - I forgot to take pictures of. I only got the camera out from entree onwards.

Tuna, home made pickles, and salad. The sauces were - beetroot puree, and horseradish cream.

Wagyu ribeye, aged 7 weeks. Sous-vided then finished on charcoal, served with mushroom ketchup.

Creme caramel.

[rotuts]

looks delicious. Im a very big fan of Creme Caramel. approve of lots of caramel. !

[heidih]

Sous vide duck breast and pan-fried zucchini dressed with a za'atar vinaigrette courtesy of David Lebovitz. image.jpg

Anna I saw that David Lebovitz post and was planning to make the dressing. Did you make any changes and how did you like it?

[Anna N]

No changes. Kerry Beal brought me back quite a load of spices from her recent trip to the French Pastry School in Chicago so I have been trying to find ways to enjoy them. I enjoyed the dressing on room temperature zucchini.

[Paul Bacino]

Made some Braised Brisket Slider w /Pepper Vinegar sauce, Slaw and Homemade Pickles

I cut a packer Brisket in Half __ trimmed out the a piece of Flat and the Point. I really wanted the Point because of all the marbling and the minor flat was a bonus. I still have 3/4 of the flat to use later.

Getting the sear on!!

The finished plate!!

[rotuts]

Whoa Chuck Wagon !

pleased to see PB back on the Beef Wagon.

packer Brisket

Id like to hear more on what that is.

in your (delicious pic) what is that beef?

Id like to hear as much as you can reveal. this looks like something Id put on my Beef To Do List.

Happy Burgers Your Way!

[mm84321]

There are many ways to keep a lobster tail straight during cooking; here, a spoon is tied to the tails.

The lobsters are cooked for 3 minutes in boiling, salted water with a touch of vinegar. After 3 minutes the tails are removed from the bodies and left to rest before shelling. The claws are put back in the water to cook for 3 minutes more.

The bodies are colored in olive oil with a little tomato paste and butter, then deglazed with both cognac and white wine. Separately, a garnish of vegetables is sweated in olive oil, then the lobster bodies are added with some fresh tomato and a star anise. This is covered with water and brought to the boil, then simmered for 30 minutes.

Basil is added, the pot covered, and let to infuse for an additional 30 minutes.

The stock is passed, and the shells are crushed quite forcefully to extract all juices. The stock is reduced.

The coral from the lobsters is mixed with an equal part butter. This is used to thicken the final sauce.

The tomalley is passed through a sieve, mixed with cream, tarragon mustard, panko, grated parmesan, and espelette pepper. This is then rolled between two sheets of parchment and frozen. It is then cut to match the dimensions of each half of lobster tail, and reserved in the freezer.

The other half of the tail is warmed in a fish fumet mounted with butter. Croutons are made by frying diced bread in clarified butter.

This, and lemon dice, are added to the pan with the lobster tail.

Spinach

Cooked in cream

Finely chopped and mixed with the diced claw meat, and a brunoise of ginger

This mixture is used to fill tortellini

These artichokes are grown here in CT. I go to the market every Saturday and the farm sells me all they have. They are delicious.

They are cooked sous vide for 45 minutes at 93ºC with a little butter, chilled, then fried in a little olive oil to get crispy.

The strips made from tomalley are placed on each tail half and run quickly under the broiler.

[dcarch]

Did a few not too complicated dishes for Labor Day.

dcarch

Boiled lobster, glazed carrots, sauteed water melon radishes

Squid stuffed with wild rice, Peter Pan squash

Rigatoni with meat sauce