Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

Anna N · September 23, 2013

I had green beans (but not long beans) and preserved mustard greens but no ground pork so I subbed in bacon. Not a bad substitute! The smokiness played well.

Steve Irby · September 23, 2013

Deboned sausage stuffed chicken thighs and scotch eggs that I prepared for a friends naturalization party. I made 18 of each along with six pork butts and a large orzo and feta salad.
P1020090(1).JPG
P1020086(1).JPG

Whoops, I used chicken legs, not thighs :blink:

huiray · September 23, 2013

Anna_N, was this dish a riff on one of the recipes from "The Hakka Cookbook"? Maybe inspired by the one on pg 21 (which does not use preserved mustard greens, however) or another one?

Anna N · September 23, 2013

Anna_N, was this dish a riff on one of the recipes from "The Hakka Cookbook"? Maybe inspired by the one on pg 21 (which does not use preserved mustard greens, however) or another one?

It was a riff on the recipe in Land of Plenty pg 289. One of my all time favourite recipes because it gives so much for so little.

rotuts · September 23, 2013

Steve Irby

glad to see those stuffed Ck.Legs again. esp. sliced!

yum !

huiray · September 23, 2013

Anna_N, was this dish a riff on one of the recipes from "The Hakka Cookbook"? Maybe inspired by the one on pg 21 (which does not use preserved mustard greens, however) or another one?
It was a riff on the recipe in Land of Plenty pg 289. One of my all time favourite recipes because it gives so much for so little.

Anna, ah I see.

I went and took a look - oh, Szechuanese dry-fried green beans. Heh.

Hmm, in her glossary Dunlop gives ya cai (the ingredient she lists in the recipe) as "芽菜". Odd. That term (the Chinese one) usually refers to BEAN SPROUTS, of various kinds of beans. It is not "preserved mustard". I think she means "榨菜", which *is* a form of preserved mustard, which she *does* list as zha cai just a little further down in the glossary on the same page? If preserved mustard is used in this dish, I would expect "榨菜" in it, not "芽菜". :-) What does your "preserved mustard" look like, or say on the pack, if it has the Chinese on it as well?

Note that "preserved mustard" can refer to various things, including the afore-mentioned zha cai (榨菜); also mui choy (in Cantonese) (梅菜), which would be what one would use for that classic Hakka recipe on pg 42 of "The Hakka Cookbook" (the ingredient is also described in the glossary on pg 260)

Tianjin Preserved Vegetable, given as an alternative ingredient in that Dunlop recipe, is tung choy (in Cantonese) (冬菜), or 'winter vegetable', which she lists as dong cai in the glossary in that book. I personally would not use this one in this dish, but that's just me.

ETA: In a way, "preserved mustard" can also refer to the salted or sour mustard(s), usually in a bit of liquid (in packs or in tubs), called harm choy or syun choy in Cantonese, the sort I use to make "Harm Choy Tong" such as shown here as an example.

Edited September 23, 2013 by huiray (log)

weinoo · September 23, 2013

Here's a simple dinner I made the other day. Farmer's market in transition means there are still great tomatoes and corn, while the fall vegetables and fruit are showing up too.

Orzo with Tomatoes and Corn

1/2 lb. orzo pasta

1/2 lb. great cherry tomatoes, quartered

2 ears corn, corn kernels scraped off

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 T ev olive oil

2 T chopped parsley

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

S & P

Bring salted water to a boil. Cook orzo. At the same time, gently heat the garlic in the olive oil in a frying pan. Throw corn in as orzo approaches doneness, then drain orzo (by now you know to save at least a cup of pasta water, right?) and throw orzo into the pan along with tomatoes and parsley. Turn off heat and start adding cheese and a bit of pasta water and tossing. Taste for doneness and seasoning. Keep going till it tastes right and the pasta is barely al dente. Serves 2 hungry peeps.

Same recipe with a few more pix here.

Anna N · September 23, 2013

Anna_N, was this dish a riff on one of the recipes from "The Hakka Cookbook"? Maybe inspired by the one on pg 21 (which does not use preserved mustard greens, however) or another one?
It was a riff on the recipe in Land of Plenty pg 289. One of my all time favourite recipes because it gives so much for so little.

Anna, ah I see.
I went and took a look - oh, Szechuanese dry-fried green beans. Heh.
Hmm, in her glossary Dunlop gives ya cai (the ingredient she lists in the recipe) as "芽菜". Odd. That term (the Chinese one) usually refers to BEAN SPROUTS, of various kinds of beans. It is not "preserved mustard". I think she means "榨菜", which *is* a form of preserved mustard, which she *does* list as zha cai just a little further down in the glossary on the same page? If preserved mustard is used in this dish, I would expect "榨菜" in it, not "芽菜". :-) What does your "preserved mustard" look like, or say on the pack, if it has the Chinese on it as well?
Note that "preserved mustard" can refer to various things, including the afore-mentioned zha cai (榨菜); also mui choy (in Cantonese) (梅菜), which would be what one would use for that classic Hakka recipe on pg 42 of "The Hakka Cookbook" (the ingredient is also described in the glossary on pg 260)
Tianjin Preserved Vegetable, given as an alternative ingredient in that Dunlop recipe, is tung choy (in Cantonese) (冬菜), or 'winter vegetable', which she lists as dong cai in the glossary in that book. I personally would not use this one in this dish, but that's just me.
ETA: In a way, "preserved mustard" can also refer to the salted or sour mustard(s), usually in a bit of liquid (in packs or in tubs), called harm choy or syun choy in Cantonese, the sort I use to make "Harm Choy Tong" such as shown here as an example.

Huiray,

Have you seen this?

http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/sichuanese-preserved-vegetable-芽菜/

huiray · September 23, 2013

Huiray,
Have you seen this?
http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/sichuanese-preserved-vegetable-芽菜/

Anna, no I have not. I don't go to her website on any regular basis, anyway, if at all.

Interesting! Thanks for the link, I learned something new today. It seems from that webpage and the comments therein, as well as further poking around on the web that there seems to be just one commercial manufacturer in the world, this Suimi Yacai Co. Ltd., of this one kind of Szechuanese preserved vegetable. It seems not to be widely known in other parts of China too, from what I gather. (Perhaps Liuzhou will add some comments here)

The Google answer set for "芽菜" does actually show this exact same packet as a couple or more of images in the entire set, but it did not catch my specific attention before.

ETA: OK, I just took a look at the Baidu article for "芽菜" and it does talk of both kinds - the bean sprouts that the term normally refers to, and this preserved veggie specific to Szechuan.

Edited September 23, 2013 by huiray (log)

Rozin Abbas · September 24, 2013

My brother's girlfriend received a bag of bird's eye chilies, so I decided to make spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino:

C. sapidus · September 24, 2013

Rozin - one of my favorite quick meals!

Shredded chicken and potatoes with roasted tomato, chipotle, and mango sauce. Served on warm flour tortillas with feta cheese, Tapatio salsa, and an unpictured salad.

liuzhou · September 24, 2013

Hmm, in her glossary Dunlop gives ya cai (the ingredient she lists in the recipe) as "芽菜". Odd. That term (the Chinese one) usually refers to BEAN SPROUTS, of various kinds of beans. It is not "preserved mustard".

It is in Sichuanese. At least it can be. It is used in Sichuan to refer to fermented vegetables including cabbage and mustard leaf.

Dunlop has a very peculiar and annoying habit of sometimes using Mandarin, sometimes using Sichuanese dialects without always informing the reader which she is using. She also uses traditional Chinese characters which are not generally used in Sichuan.

I had green beans (but not long beans) and preserved mustard greens but no ground pork so I subbed in bacon. Not a bad substitute! The smokiness played well.

Green beans with smoked bacon is a very common dish in Hunan, although they would also add a bunch of chili..

Edited September 24, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

furzzy · September 24, 2013

Keith, I'm glad you remembered the camera for some of the meal.
Everything looks delicious. Beautifully plated. And I love the plate that the tuna is on.
I like the idea of mushroom ketchup.
And that creme caramel is the perfect finish to a lovely dinner.Paul, Wish I was eating at your house. Was the beef just slowed cooked on your grill or was it smoked?MM, the plated lobster tail is a work of art.Dcarch, that is one big lobster.
Ashen, Steve, thank you both for your comments on my meals.Tug, I love the meals that are shared here. And as much as I can appreciate the master pieces that come out of kitchens of MM, Dcarch, and others, it is the meals shared by Ashen, Steve, Bruce, Plantes Vertes, Huiray, Furzzy, Dejah, Keith, Paul, Kim, Anna, and so many others that always has me coming back to eGullet. Those are the meals that I want to eat. So I hope that you will share what you are cooking.
I had some stewing beef that I wanted to do something different with. Found a recipe for Carne Colorada which I adapted slight. Put the beef on to cook before leaving for work yesterday morning. Served with rice and homemade corn tortillas.

Thank you, Ann_T. -- Here's a recent dinner, not beautifully plated, but oh so yummy! Got the Domestic Rack of Lamb on a sale from D'Artagnan (We really prefer domestic lamb - Colorado, in this case) ccooked to perfection on the Big Green Egg- The veggies are all organic/babies, roasted in Duck Fat with only S&P. The potato wedges then finished with a quick saute, also in Duck Fat (which I purchase from D'Artagnan also, in 10-lb buckets, which I repackage into 1-lb parcels & freeze.)

furzzy · September 24, 2013

I reverse-engineered my mother's spaghetti with meat sauce (strictly Italian-American, not Italian!) from the '70s. Strangely, she sautéed onions and garlic, browned the meat, added herbs tomatos etc. from scratch, but then dumped an entire jar of Ragu in there. I'm guessing the recipe came from the side of a Ragu bottle. This was made without any such addition, though I did put in some dried Italian Seasoning - as well as fresh basil and oregano from the garden. The secret ingredient was a pinch of pimenton de la vera. I could probably eat three or four gallons of this, so it's for the best that I don't make it all the time.

Funny - in these days of 'hi-falutin' cuisine & 4-star plating, this picture creates a salivation mostly unmatched. No doubt it has a lot to do with "Mem'ries" - that Je ne sais quois

Anyone remember Chef Boy ar Dee pizza from a box? Wonder what that would taste like now.....LOL

furzzy · September 24, 2013

eendenbout.JPG
Roasted duck breast with Rodenbach sauce (barrel aged sour Belgian beer) with endives and roasted potatoes

LOVE the really thin slices on the Hasselback (Hasselbeck?) potatoes!! I can rarely get mine anywhere near that thin. Beautiful Job!!

Baselerd · September 24, 2013

furzzy how is D'artagnan's duck? I've had my eye on it for some time now... your lamb looks great btw.

I recently made some sous vide short rib pastrami, red cabbage puree, pickled mustard seeds, and fingerling potato confit (based off this recipe). I finished it with some sorrel and sourdough bread crisps. I adapted the short rib recipe by adding 13% vegetable ash (made by burning thinly sliced onions and garlic in the oven, then grinding) to the rub, and instead of smoking (for convenience) I coated the cooked meat with a 2:1 ratio of molasses to liquid smoke and finished it in the oven at 400 F for 3 minutes. This was a technique from another recipe on that website (chefsteps), and it turned out great (I believe it was meant to give a bark similar to regular smoking with much less hassle).

Edited September 24, 2013 by Baselerd (log)

basquecook · September 24, 2013

Squid pasta. Spicy tomato.

Steak: Roasted potatoes with bacon and sour cream and salad.

rotuts · September 24, 2013

any pics of that finished steak? awesome.

weinoo · September 24, 2013

basquecook:

A: Where'd you get that steak?

B: What's the remote control for?

Ann_T · September 24, 2013

Steak: Roasted potatoes with bacon and sour cream and salad.

Beautiful piece of meat.

~Ann

basquecook · September 24, 2013

Unfortunately, there are no after photos.. But, what I did was cook the steak on a big green egg. I cooked the steak for about 3 minutes a side.. I think it was around 1000 degrees. I have the extra large green egg.. It gets so hot, it's hard to stand next to it. I then covered the air supply from the bottom and put the ceramic cap on the top.. I covered it while it was full blast for about 1.5 minutes. When I opened the lid, a huge fire ball shot out of the egg which whipped past me and then was sucked back in the fire of the egg..

I took the steak off and placed in a 500 degree oven until it came up to 128.. I let it rest, sliced it, then fanned it out on a communal rectangular plate and drizzled a little of this olive oil with parsley, garlic and chives.. I served with boiled and then baked yucon gold potatoes, stuffed with sour cream, bacon and chives.

I wish I took a photo, I even had my phone in my hand but, I was like, oh screw it. I always regret not taking the picture.. My guest brought two really beautiful bottles of wine that went really well with the entire meal.

The steak, I bought at the new fancy butcher shop on Atlantic. It was just about 95 bucks. I also bought my daughter the korobuta pork chop.. She flipped her lid over the pork chop. In my opinion, the quality of the pork chop was more impressive than the steak.. While the steak was beautiful, it's not uncommon to walk in to a lot of butcher shops these days and get that kind of quality. The pork chop, I don't know where I could get a comparable one in the area.

The name of the Butcher is Della Pietra's.

The remote was to give the steak perspective in a different photo I sent to my buddy..

I also sent him this one: Implying I was going to cover the thing in ketchup.. you can see the pork chop back right

Edited September 24, 2013 by basquecook (log)

Keith_W · September 24, 2013

When I opened the lid, a huge fire ball shot out of the egg which whipped past me and then was sucked back in the fire of the egg..

Sounds like you forgot to burp your egg! You said that you closed both top and bottom vents. What happens under conditions of air starvation, a lot of unburnt fuel is hanging around in superheated vaporized form. When you suddenly supply ample O2 by lifting the lid, a huge fireball results.

As a precaution, you should ALWAYS lift the lid of your egg slightly before opening it fully. Alternatively, open the top and bottom vents slightly. The fireball thing happened to me once. The singed hairs on my forearm taught me never to do that again!

basquecook · September 24, 2013

I hear ya.. But, then there wouldnt be a huge fireball. :laugh:

davidkeay · September 24, 2013

I was a bit taken aback by the prices when I've ducked into Della Pietras, compared to what I pay at heritage meats or albanese. I'm about to move from the LES to clinton hill, and am worried that I'll have to travel pretty far for meat. I guess it'll be an excuse to bike to manhattan, though I'm sure I'll find god places out there too!