Dinner! 2014 (Part 1)

[liuzhou]

Last night.

Braised chicken with chestnuts. 板栗烧鸡.

Adapted from a Fuchsia Dunlop recipe. It was served with stir fried baby bok choy and rice.

Edited January 5, 2014 by liuzhou (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

Brisket and lightly grilled vegetables. The brisket was cooked using my go-to method but I was dissatisfied with it. My brisket came from another source. I guess it serves me right for being disloyal. The one time I wish I'd bothered making Meathead's mop sauce. Other times, the brisket has been juicy enough that any kind of additional liquid is excess for the sake of excess. Having no option but whatever was in my fridge, I ended up serving a little bit of the Modernist Cuisine mushroom ketchup on the side. Someone from Texas will now probably shoot me.

The vegetables were more successful: baby dutch creams (pre-boiled), corn (given a brief stint in the microwave prior to hitting the grill), Dutch carrots, spring onions and red capsicum. I scattered some wood chips (a blend of mesquite, apple wood and cherry wood) over the coals before cooking the vegetables. They were served with the remoulade from John Currence's Pickles, Pigs and Whisky.

Edited January 5, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Robenco15]

TK's Boeuf Bourguignon with what was available in the fridge. Have been snowed in the past two days.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Robenco15 (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

Is this his one from Bouchon or his wacky sous vide one? Judging by the classic presentation I assume it's the former. How do you rate his recipe compared to, say, Bourdain's?

Edited January 5, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Ann_T]

Dinner last night was pork tenderloin seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and fresh rosemary.

and wrapped in prosciutto. The meat was seasoned and wrapped in the morning and roasted when I got home from work.

Served with steamed and buttered vegetables and roasted potatoes.

[boudin noir]

No pictures, but slow braised veal neck with garlic, sage and white wine. Veal neck is really great!

[liuzhou]

Ann_T Your tenderloin has me drooling over the keyboard.

[Robenco15]

Is this his one from Bouchon or his wacky sous vide one? Judging by the classic presentation I assume it's the former. How do you rate his recipe compared to, say, Bourdain's?

Bouchon. I haven't had Bourdain's, but I loved this one. I also didn't have all of the ingredients because of the snow storm. These included, short ribs (used chuck roast instead), pearl onions, garlic, and thyme. I also used More Than Gourmet beef stock, but obviously I would have preferred making my own. Not possible unfortunately. I probably was missing other stuff too. That being said, that fact that it came out as well as it did and how much I enjoyed it speaks to how good the recipe is. Really enjoyed making the wine reduction and doing the cheesecloth nest for the beef and refrigerating it for 24 hours and doing the garnishes separately.

The only curious step was that I thought it was common practice to flour the beef before searing, but that didn't seemed to be called for here.

Great recipe though. Can't wait to go back and do again with everything part of the recipe, including homemade stock.

[patrickamory]

Made a Thai meal at friends' house. Curry pastes pounded at home first!

Som tum two ways - one with salted crab (you can eat them like potato chips), one without, and jungle curry of chicken.

[Paul Bacino]

Just a day of Meatless-ness!!

RT help me

Roasted Beets with Feta and Beet Vinaigrette

[rotuts]

wow. No Meat. looks tasty though. Pointy-Headed Beets !

( you could sneak over to BK and take a few hits for the team w the BigKing ( 2 / 5 bucks ) suggest a Wig and Big Dark Glasses )

Im sure you've got 'plans' to make up for this in the coming days. " training ' its called.

Edited January 5, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[kayb]

Tonight: rouladen, navy beans and ham, potato skins. No photos; we were all starving and fell into it before I thought to take a pic. Chocolate cobbler with butter pecan ice cream for dessert.

[scubadoo97]

Ann_T Your tenderloin has me drooling over the keyboard.

Excellent looking tenderloin Ann

[Franci]

Tonight we had a bit of stuffed focaccia pugliese, now I'm craving the onion focaccia

Gnocchi al ragu'

And a small piece of SV sirloin ( a little mushy) with collards

And for the Epiphany (tomorrow), la befana, I made some charcoal.

[robirdstx]

Apricot-Ginger Pork Tenderloin Medallions and Asparagus

[ChrisTaylor]

My take on pasta con sarde. I started, a while ago, with the recipe in Zak Pelaccio's Eat With Your Hands and over time I've modified it enough that I guess I can call it my own. I use good quality canned sardines in place of fresh ones. I use ~250g roughly chopped cherry tomatoes in place of the two chopped tomatoes Pelaccio calls for. The sofrito contains some diced fennel bulb and a shallot in addition to the garlic and anchovy fillets (Ortiz) he calls for. I keep the Pernod-soaked raisins (the Pernod, which he says you can drink if you're feeling frisky, is pictured in the background) and pine nuts whole rather than chopping them. Finally, I leave out the fennel pollen. It's hard to get and really quite expensive. I've even stopped bothering adding in a few toasted and chopped fennel seeds like I used to: I find the leafy bits and diced fennel bulb and pastis give me enough of a fennel/aniseed kick.

[Anna N]

Chicken leg confit with sauteed portobello mushroom and zucchini ribbons. (Drumstick and thigh parted company as I removed the chicken from the SV bag.).

[basquecook]

Beautiful meals all.. Franci, can you talk about the charcoal you made?

[teajay]

Is this his one from Bouchon or his wacky sous vide one? Judging by the classic presentation I assume it's the former. How do you rate his recipe compared to, say, Bourdain's?

Bouchon. I haven't had Bourdain's, but I loved this one. I also didn't have all of the ingredients because of the snow storm. These included, short ribs (used chuck roast instead), pearl onions, garlic, and thyme. I also used More Than Gourmet beef stock, but obviously I would have preferred making my own. Not possible unfortunately. I probably was missing other stuff too. That being said, that fact that it came out as well as it did and how much I enjoyed it speaks to how good the recipe is. Really enjoyed making the wine reduction and doing the cheesecloth nest for the beef and refrigerating it for 24 hours and doing the garnishes separately.

The only curious step was that I thought it was common practice to flour the beef before searing, but that didn't seemed to be called for here.

Great recipe though. Can't wait to go back and do again with everything part of the recipe, including homemade stock.

I made this twice in December - first time to familiarize myself with it, second time for family on Christmas Eve. Also love making the garnishes & will cook carrots / potatoes this way more often. Definitely make the veal stock though. I used homemade beef stock for the second one (veal bones weren't available where I was traveling) and the difference was noticeable.

Edited January 7, 2014 by teajay (log)

[Anna N]

Last night. Shrimp with zucchini and yellow squash ribbon stir-fry dressed with some miso butter.

Tonight. Onion and cabbage sauteed in schmaltz and topped with picanha.

[Franci]

Beautiful meals all.. Franci, can you talk about the charcoal you made?

I mixed 130 g 10X sugar with 2 tablespoons egg whites, some drops of lemon juice (which maybe was a mistake affecting my color), 2 tablespoons vodka (to make it porous) and some black food color. I made a light caramel with 500 g sugar brought to 145 c and quickly stirred in the prepared mix. Use a tall pot. Quickly pour in a lined rectangular pan. When cold you can break by hand.

[basquecook]

My take on pasta con sarde. I started, a while ago, with the recipe in Zak Pelaccio's Eat With Your Hands and over time I've modified it enough that I guess I can call it my own. I use good quality canned sardines in place of fresh ones. I use ~250g roughly chopped cherry tomatoes in place of the two chopped tomatoes Pelaccio calls for. The sofrito contains some diced fennel bulb and a shallot in addition to the garlic and anchovy fillets (Ortiz) he calls for. I keep the Pernod-soaked raisins (the Pernod, which he says you can drink if you're feeling frisky, is pictured in the background) and pine nuts whole rather than chopping them. Finally, I leave out the fennel pollen. It's hard to get and really quite expensive. I've even stopped bothering adding in a few toasted and chopped fennel seeds like I used to: I find the leafy bits and diced fennel bulb and pastis give me enough of a fennel/aniseed kick.

Really pretty.. is that bucatini? looks a lot thicker than your normal spaghetti

[ChrisTaylor]

My take on pasta con sarde. I started, a while ago, with the recipe in Zak Pelaccio's Eat With Your Hands and over time I've modified it enough that I guess I can call it my own. I use good quality canned sardines in place of fresh ones. I use ~250g roughly chopped cherry tomatoes in place of the two chopped tomatoes Pelaccio calls for. The sofrito contains some diced fennel bulb and a shallot in addition to the garlic and anchovy fillets (Ortiz) he calls for. I keep the Pernod-soaked raisins (the Pernod, which he says you can drink if you're feeling frisky, is pictured in the background) and pine nuts whole rather than chopping them. Finally, I leave out the fennel pollen. It's hard to get and really quite expensive. I've even stopped bothering adding in a few toasted and chopped fennel seeds like I used to: I find the leafy bits and diced fennel bulb and pastis give me enough of a fennel/aniseed kick.

Really pretty.. is that bucatini? looks a lot thicker than your normal spaghetti

No, it's just spaghetti. I mean, assuming the guys I bought it from differentiate between spaghetti and spaghettoni.

[ChrisTaylor]

An experiment in smoked lamb shoulder. I worked from Zak Pelaccio's recipe for smoked goat shoulder in Eat With Your Hands. I've attempted the recipe before, using actual goat, with limited success. Goat just wasn't right for this dish. Or, rather, I'm sure lovely, expensive baby goat would be. I'm sure it would be grand. I'm a big fan of goat. But the stuff I can get locally ... well, after much experimentation I just don't bother any more. It's not very good. In this or in any other application. I guess next time I see expensive baby goat I'll keep an eye out for a slightly-not-so-expensive shoulder or something.

Anyway, the dish in its original form has a rub comprised of extra virgin olive oil, chilli (a few mild ones with a couple of birds thrown in), parsley, ginger, garlic and salt. I retained that, essentially, using generic supermarket red chillies for the mild component and a lone bird's eye. I thought I had ginger on hand but I didn't so I ended up going with the dried stuff. Pelaccio recommends marinating the shoulder for a full day but it's not like the marinade is going to penetrate the meat a whole lot so I only gave it about five hours. It was smoked at my gas-powered smoker's lowest setting, over hickory, for a little more than seven hours. I served it with a simple 'dressing' made from Greek yoghurt, fresh mint and lemon juice.

Thoughts:

• The meat itself was pleasant enough. I didn't use crazy expensive lamb as this was an experiment but, hey, I reckon it'd be real nice if you cooked nice lamb this way. The meat itself wasn't the issue. Maybe it could have done with an extra thirty to sixty minutes but I didn't want it to hit pull apart stage: pulled meat, such as pork shoulder, shouldn't reach the point of being meat paste, so far as I'm concerned. We're not making rillettes, here.
• Flavour penetration was poor. The skin was paper thin and pleasant enough in the greasy way slow cooked lamb skin is but ... I don't know. I'm not sold on the idea of mostly fresh ingredients in the rub. I'd be tempted to use dry chilli, dry garlic and dry ginger next time. Maybe with some paprika or even cumin thrown in. Alternatively, a vinaigrette containing some of the core ingredients--some minced chilli, garlic and ginger with, say, some sherry vin--might do the job. Something to cut through the inherent fattiness of this cut of meat and give it a shot in the arm, flavour-wise. I mean, the lamb taste was definitely there but lamb is a meat strong enough to stand up to chilli, garlic and other flavours making their presence known. I'm almost thinking of something that might pop up in a David Chang recipe. You know, like his octo vin or the fish sauce vin. Heck, octo vin might be a good place to start.
• The yoghurt thing was a last minute thought and while it didn't clash with the meat it ... it was that dinner party guest that never brings so much as a bargain basement bottle of almost-vinegar cleanskin wine. Not the one that careens around your place drunkenly and downs a bottle of your Talisker from the bottle and gropes female guests but the one that's just ... there. You know the one. That guy ... that guy is the yoghurt dressing I thought of at the last minute.
• Rather than serving this as roast lamb I reckon it could work nicely in a sandwich sort of deal. Maybe with some sort of crunchy salad thing going on. Nothing fancy pants. Maybe some tomatoes and red onions and cabbage or spinach leaves. An acidic dressing. Sort of a nod to a pulled pork roll without going so far as to slather everything in sticky sweet barbecue sauce.

Edited January 8, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[glennbech]

Hi group,

I made some pressure cooked chicken stock inspired by MC at home the other night. I say "inspired", because I did not use the exact measurements - and used only wing meat. (The recipe uses both ground leg meat - and wing meat).

Today I infused the stock with some roasted peppercorns, star anise, ground ginger, ground garlic, red chillies and parsley. I put the boiling stock over some finely cut vegetables and put in some shrimp.

Awsome stcok, the shrimp did not do it justice, but this is everyday cooking and the chicken I wanted to use was frozen. The only thing missing for me was cilantro.

Edited January 8, 2014 by glennbech (log)