Dinner! 2014 (Part 1)

[Paul Bacino]

Glennbech,

Great Picture..btw

I sure it was good!!

Anna

Looks delish!!

Chris

Thanks for the descriptions, very nice

Basque

Franci--was a bad girl!!

[judiu]

Chris, maybe if you jacquered (?) the outside of the meat, the flavours might penetrate better? Even if you just poked the meat with a thin paring knife and rubbed the marinade in? Oh, and the "meh" yogurt sauce can be jazzed up a little with garlic, and I'd like cucumber in it, but that's JMHO. I love taziki...

[ChrisTaylor]

Chilled seafood salad. The prawns, scallops and fish (rock ling) were poached with a little bit of garlic in a mixture of water and fino sherry (well, fino apera--real fake Australian sherry that can't be called sherry ever since we signed up to some free trade agreement or treaty or something). The mussels were steamed in a little apera, too. The seafood was chilled and combined with tomato, capsicum, cucumber, parsley and red onion. The dressing was made with extra virgin olive oil, chardonnay vinegar (eyeballed to equal parts) and the strained mussel cooking liquid. I think it was good although when I scaled the quantities of the ingredients down from the recipe (Frank Camorra's second book, MoVida Rustica) I kept the amount of mussels the same. The mussels somewhat dominated the seafood mix. I guess next time I'd half the quantity and add in the squid that I left out from the original dish.

EDIT

Stabbing holes in the meat is an idea I might look into. I guess I didn't consider that as I've never felt the need to that with brisket or pork shoulder, altho' I guess in the case of those the depth of penetration isn't a big deal: slices of flat aren't terribly think while the outer layers of pork get mixed with the inner bits during the pulling process. Unless you're taking it into meat paste territory, it's a bit harder to overcome the problem with lamb shoulder (unless you bone it out first, I guess, sacrificing the structural integrity the shoulder blade provides).

Edited January 9, 2014 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Morkai]

Polish Gołąbki.

[Ann_T]

Thanks Liuzhou, thanks Scubadoo.

Anna, your shrimp and zucchini looks delicious.

Glenn, great photo. The colours are amazing. I imagine it tastes as good as it looks.

Chris, beautiful salad. Something that my husband would love.

A few of our meals so far this year.

Spicy Beef Tenderloin in a black bean sauce.

Presalted a little Sterling Silver Prime Rib on Saturday and roasted it on Monday.

I had a craving for a Mexican dinner last night. Put a pot of black beans on to simmer earlier in the day. Poached chicken breasts and made an enchiladas sauce. Chicken Enchiladas with homemade corn tortillas.

Breakfast - Chilaquiles - with black beans and scrambled eggs.

[rotuts]

Yum for all the above, and a special Yum for that R.Beef plate. the beef looks fork-tender

and doesnt seem to have the usual globs of fat which I personally don't care for.

do you remove The Globs ?

[judiu]

Chris, you could also remove the skin (which is, after all, ment to be a barrier by nature) season, and tie the skin back on, or cut the meat off the bone, season, then tie the meat back to the shoulder blade. Just thinkin'.

[robirdstx]

Inspired by Ann_T's Proscuitto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin earlier this month, I changed out the bacon on an Eric Ripert recipe for proscuitto.

Proscuitto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Peas "a la Francaise"

Edited January 10, 2014 by robirdstx (log)

[liuzhou]

Beautiful looking dish, robirdstx.

[Ann_T]

Robirdstx, you elevated the dish. The pork looks beautiful on the bed of peas.

I baked a couple of pizzas for dinner.

One plain

And one topped with homemade Italian sausage and black olives.

I was really happy with the crust. I used the Saturday White Bread recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast, but increasing the water from 720g to 820g.

~Ann

[liuzhou]

You people are killing me!

That is my idea of a perfect looking pizza, Ann_T.

Beautiful crust and two perfect toppings. And with that tiny bit of a char at the edges. I find most pizzas slightly undercooked, but that looks the business. I wouldn't know which one to choose. Can I have a slice of both, please?

[huiray]

Couple of recent dinners.

-------------------------

• Tofu sautéed/"stir-fried" with julienned ginger, browned minced fatty pork, chili garlic sauce [Lee Kum Kee], yuojialaodouban (友加老豆瓣) [Yuojia (友加)], Japanese-style Worcestershire sauce [bull-Dog], lots of chopped scallions at the end.

• White rice (Basmati).

-------------------------

Simple comfort food after a trying 1½ day power & heat loss with arctic conditions outside: Beef shin stew w/ carrots, Carola potatoes, shallots, daikon, garlic, dried Mexican oregano, dried thyme, sea salt. (Garlic tossed in oil, reserved, beef browned, salted lightly, fond developed, water added &etc)

[Unpopular Poet]

I was really happy with the crust. I used the Saturday White Bread recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast, but increasing the water from 720g to 820g.

~Ann

Ann -- those pizzas are absolutely beautiful - if you don't mind my asking -- what did you use to bake them? Based on the charring, I would assume some sort of outdoor oven at high temp...Really, really beautiful.

[Ann_T]

Liuzhou, Thank you.

I was really happy with the crust. I used the Saturday White Bread recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast, but increasing the water from 720g to 820g.

~Ann

Ann -- those pizzas are absolutely beautiful - if you don't mind my asking -- what did you use to bake them? Based on the charring, I would assume some sort of outdoor oven at high temp...Really, really beautiful.

Unpopular Poet,Thank you. I followed the instructions on baking pizza from the cookbook - Flour Water Salt Yeast. Instead of my stone being near the bottom of the oven, I moved it to the top. Preheated to 550°F for an hour, and then just before sliding the pizza on to the stone, I turned on the broiler for five minutes to boost the surface temperature. Switched back to 550°F, slide in the pizza and baked for five minutes. Turned the oven to broil and baked another two minutes. I wish I had known about this method before. My favourite pizzeria is in Victoria and the pizzas are baked in a wood burning oven. Last night's pizzas were very close, in looks and in taste. All they were missing was that wonderful wood oven flavour.

~Ann

[Unpopular Poet]

Thanks Ann! I have that book, now I just need to find the time to read it.

-Dan

[robirdstx]

Thank you liuzhou and Ann_T. I was really happy with the substitution. When I had made the original recipe with bacon, I had some issues with the bacon not getting done enough before the pork was cooked. Not a problem with the proscuitto. I did add a little bit of bacon drippings to the roasting pan and the peas though.

And now I must make pizza tonight! I bake mine on a pre-heated steel in the oven much as you described, Ann. Wood oven flavor would be a definite plus.

Edited January 10, 2014 by robirdstx (log)

[rotuts]

Tortilla / Chicken / green sauce / cheese baked:

over here are the ingredients:

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/146653-hatch-green-enchilada-sauce-your-take/?p=1948742

this is exactly what I had in mind.

[robirdstx]

Thin Crust Pizza with Sweet Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, Black Olives and Extra Cheese

[Ann_T]

Robirdstx, Looks good. Those are my three favourite toppings.

[Dejah]

Finally got the Big Easy back from my brother's where we cooked the Xmas turkey for the family gathering. AND, the temperature's back to "tolerable" with no windchill warnings of -50C. Time to satisfy my need for BE chicken!

Did two chickens so I'd have lots on hand to share and for lunch. The bottom one was marinated with "chicken rub" by a company called Szeged. I love their Hungarian Hot Paprika, so I thought I"d try their chicken rub. It's pretty basic but it was good. The top chicken is stuffed with Kaffir lime leaves - my favourite.

With -18C temperatures, I was able to cook the 2 chickens in 1.5 hours.

Did up some mixed vegetables in the wok, seasoned only with no-salt chicken broth.

We had some moo gwa (hairy squash) soup with pork and rehydrated oysters about an hour before supper.

Dessert was "previously frozen" durian, for which I have developed a craving since our trip to Malaysia! These are not as "aromatic" as the fresh, but they satisfy my need.,,

I accidentally ate the little piece of mint with the durian, and it tasted great together!

[patrickamory]

Hors d'oeuvres including leftover Christmas ham, followed by a chicken and butternut squash khoresh.

Cheeses from lower left are Chollerhocker, Langres and Roomano (a Dutch cheese similar to aged Gouda but from a different family of cheeses)

The khoresh used as much saffron as we could find at the house where we were staying, plus pomegranate seeds and cilantro, and plenty of butter.

[Norm Matthews]

Dinner tonight was chicken breasts breaded with Parm cheese and panko, green beans and corn cut off the cob then creamed with roasted red peppers, cayenne, bacon, milk and cream cheese. Store bought Italian bread made with olive oil and rosemary.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Franci]

Liuzhou, Thank you.

I was really happy with the crust. I used the Saturday White Bread recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast, but increasing the water from 720g to 820g.

~Ann

Ann -- those pizzas are absolutely beautiful - if you don't mind my asking -- what did you use to bake them? Based on the charring, I would assume some sort of outdoor oven at high temp...Really, really beautiful.

Unpopular Poet,Thank you. I followed the instructions on baking pizza from the cookbook - Flour Water Salt Yeast. Instead of my stone being near the bottom of the oven, I moved it to the top. Preheated to 550°F for an hour, and then just before sliding the pizza on to the stone, I turned on the broiler for five minutes to boost the surface temperature. Switched back to 550°F, slide in the pizza and baked for five minutes. Turned the oven to broil and baked another two minutes. I wish I had known about this method before. My favourite pizzeria is in Victoria and the pizzas are baked in a wood burning oven. Last night's pizzas were very close, in looks and in taste. All they were missing was that wonderful wood oven flavour.

~Ann

Yes, this method works really well, I tried in the past. Too bad with my new "old" oven I cannot do this!

[robirdstx]

Sorry, no photo of the finished meal but I did take one of the kitchen during prep.

We had Chicken Piccata, steamed asparagus and a tossed salad.

[Franci]

Recent dinners

Crescentine, broiled shrimps and pan seared scallops with broccoli stalks and carrots

Roasted chicken and potatoes, string beans and Swiss chards stalks

Spanish mackerel, sauté Dover sole filets in brown butter, steamed broccoli and cavolo nero