Dinner! 2014 (Part 1)

[Kim Shook]

Thanks, D! I've got those molds and never thought to use them that way!

[patrickamory]

basquecook, your posts are endlessly thought-provoking (not just mouth-watering). Flipping the chops several times - something I never thought of. I always do high heat 4-5 minutes per side and if they're not cooked through, add some vermouth, cover and steam for a couple a minutes. Those look like good chops too - Berkshire black pig? Mangalitsa?

Chinese chives with wood ears and dried shrimp

[huiray]

patrickamory, that looks good. There seems to be more than just dried shri mp in the Chinese chives dish you show though - what was it? Pork bits? The wood ears - I presume that would be wood ear fungus - are not clearly visible - I suppose you used just a bit?

I hope you ate this with white rice. :-)

Also, what did you do with the chopped-up Chinese long beans?

[kayb]

Two dinners that I thought ought to have been better than they were.

Pork chops in cherry balsamic glaze, roasted broccoli with pecans, and home fries. I overcooked the broccoli, and the cherry balsamic glaze was not as good as I thought it should be.

Poule au pot. I could've used a bigger pot.

I thought this wound up tasting bland; the sage and garlic came through, but the bacon did not. And when I first carved the chicken, it was still bloody around the leg joint, so I finished it in the oven, thus the crispy skin. Chicken was good; butternut squash were mushy; potatoes were just OK.

[Ashen]

pot roast in the oven right now in CI Dutch Oven

S&P rosemary

sear for flavour

carrot onion, mushrooms stock ..

heated lid on and into slow oven.

Will be served with mash potato gravy from thickened juices.

[judiu]

kayb, bad cooking karma? Phase of the moon? Other things on your mind? Sorry for your luck!

[mm84321]

Received some gorgeous Scottish venison. Made a sauce, some potatoes. Sauteed in butter with some juniper and sarawak pepper.

.

[basquecook]

the grocery store across the street from my house, is starting to get classy.. organic produce, meats and edible seafood.. I often watched the fish tags on the mussels.. up until 6 months ago, the same bag of mussels would sit for maybe three weeks before being tossed out. We now have oysters, fresh clams, mussels that were pulled on 2/4…

Bought 16 clams, 6 oysters, 1/4 pound of shrimp from the grocery..i wanted squid but, it smelled off that phosphate crap.

Some mushroom stems and shallots in pork fat gotten tossed in oil with the rice.. vermouth, sazon, water, 12 cloves of garlic, bay leave, tomato paste was the boiling stock for the rice. No bacon or any Spanish sausage, I just had some Chinese sausage.. so, i tossed that in.

Peas at the end and a gremolata of parsley, lemon rinds, garlic and chile flakes.. I wanted fregola, miss A felt like rice… the whole thing took less than 45 minutes to shop for and make. They shut off our water so, a one pot meal worked

here it is cooking

while the quality of the seafood was not the greatest, the rice was so good.

To start, Miss K requested a Caesar. Boston lettuce was the nicest looking. mayo, red wine vinegar,a punch of parm,worcestershire,tabasco, lemon and pepper. no garlic. croutons baked in an oven.

Edited February 9, 2014 by basquecook (log)

[Blether]

This roast chicken, complete with drippings, and this ham:

Made into this pie:

Something in the filling threw off water during the day it spent held in the fridge, and thinned out the sauce. Some adjustment needed.

Blackberry & egg custard tart:

Edited February 9, 2014 by Blether (log)

[robirdstx]

Robirdstx – I really like the sound of Asiago and almond meal chicken! Would you share the recipe?

Hi Kim. Thank you for asking and welcome back. The recipe is very simple. For the breading, I mixed 1/4 cup almond meal, 2/3 cup grated asiago, 1/4 tsp. granulated garlic, and fresh ground black pepper to taste. I pounded the boneless breasts to make them thin and even in thickness. I beat one large egg and dipped the chicken in the egg to coat, then laid the chicken pieces on the breading mix and turned and pressed to get an even coating. Then I covered the breaded chicken and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes to allow the breading to stick. When ready to cook, I added just enough olive oil to a medium hot non-stick pan to cover the bottom of the pan. Then I gently placed the chicken in the pan and cooked them for several minutes on each side until browned. This recipe works just as well with parmesan or Romano cheese. I have also used just plain flour or panko crumbs instead of the almond meal. The panko gives a nice crunch.

[Ann_T]

Slow roasted prime rib bones with potato gratin.

[mm84321]

Venison á la créme

[dcarch]

Ann_t - Tres bon! “The Closer to the Bone the Sweeter the Meat”

Mm84321 – the venison looks so good!

Blether – I don’t remember when was the last time I saw a chicken pie that looked so yummy.

Basquecook – You are very good in making seafood dishes. They are always well plated too.

Ashen – I think that cast iron pot does something wonderful to the dish.

Kayb – Yes you need to get a bigger pot, so that you can invited me to taste that Poule au pot..

Patrickamory – I love Chinese chives; the green kind, the yellow kind and the chive scapes.

Kim – So nice to have you back cooking..

Franci – are those soup buns? Or just meat buns? Very skillful pleading.

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

A few nothing-fancy recent cooks:

dcarch

Vegetarian

Sous vide hanger steak

Trout

[huiray]

Simple light dinner last night:

Soup: Peanut oil, garlic, short-cut pork spare ribs, sea salt; water; simmer; snow fungus; simmer; angled loofah. Basically in that order.

[rotuts]

more news on this dinner ⁽¹⁾ in the SV thread:

dinner ⁽²⁾ is the very similar, but re-SV'd for a longer time.

[patrickamory]

Blether: I'm dying. Any kind of savory pie is one of my favorite things and we don't get them often here in the US. That looks amazing.

huiray: Good eye. I made the chives twice - once with dried shrimp and wood ear, and once with bacon. I accidentally posted the bacon photo. Here it is with shrimps and fungus. (And the green beans were dry-fried Sichuan style with pork - but the finished dish didn't photograph well.)

[C. sapidus]

Wok shot of farmhouse pork with Anaheim chiles, sliced garlic, and fermented black beans. Also made stir-fried mushrooms and jasmine rice.

[Ashen]

Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. a dipping sauce for the chicken of apple cider vinegar, honey and scotch bonnet hot sauce.

[C. sapidus]

Chicken with chiles – Marinate chicken thigh chunks with dark and light soy sauce, salt, and Shaoxing wine. Deep-fry the chicken and set aside. Gently stir-fry ginger and garlic, and then add dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorns. Add chicken and scallion whites, and finish with a little chicken stock, pinch of sugar, and sesame oil. Served over jasmine rice.

Long beans in ginger sauce – Boil long beans until crisp-tender, drain under cold water, and toss with a sauce of minced ginger, Chinkiang vinegar, cicken stock, salt, and sesame oil.

[Ann_T]

Homemade sourdough bagels

with smoked salmon and cream cheese.

[scubadoo97]

Ann that looks fantastic. Beautiful bagels. Did you make your smoke salmon as well?

[Dejah]

SO many beautiful meals to warm my heart on the cold winter days (windchill most days at -45C!)

Made braised beef short ribs with star anise, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, Chinese wine, soy sauce, deep fried tofu, chunks of daikon.

Lovely, aromatic, rich, warming from the inside out.

[Morkai]

Jerk chicken with coconut rice and peas. Used Kenji Alt-Lopez's method from seriouseats.com where bay leaves and allspice berries are used to smoke the chicken in lieu of pimento wood.

Given all the trouble, I would have rather had pimento wood. Still, turned out okay.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Morkai (log)

[jvalentino]

I've been making this take on tori meshi from Paul Qui I found on Andrew Zimmern's site for a couple months. Love it. http://andrewzimmern.com/2013/04/04/paul-quis-tori-meshi/

Edited February 11, 2014 by jvalentino (log)

[Kim Shook]

Kay – too bad about the pork chops. I agree, that sauce sounds perfect!

Basquecook – the seafood/rice dish looks wonderful, but I’m with Miss K – that Caesar looks fantastic!

Blether – beautiful pie!

Robirdstx – thanks for the welcome and for the recipe. Can’t wait to try them!

Dcarch – that hangar steak is so beautiful – it looks perfectly cooked and so tender.

Ann – your bagels and smoked salmon would disappear with barely a chew in this house! So good.

Dinner last night was leftovers from dishes made for a potluck at church:

Paula Deen’s Oriental Salad – hugely popular at church – folks kept going back to it. And a casserole called Michigan Beans & Sausage:

It just looks like baked beans with kielbasa, but tastes much better than that. It is really easy to make and can even be done in the slow cooker.