Dinner! 2014 (Part 2)

[Kim Shook]

Bruce – please tell Mrs. C. that her turkey is gorgeous.  I have two breasts in the freezer that Mr. Kim is going to smoke soon, but there is nothing like a whole turkey. 

 

Anna – lovely wontons.  What all is in the shrimp mixture?  I’ve never made them with shrimp, but I know I’d love them.

 

Some friends of ours who winter in TX are back in VA and were up in Richmond yesterday for our botanical garden’s plant sale.  So we had them and my mother over for lunch.  While lunch was cooking, we snacked on tzatziki, hummus and toasted pita wedges:

 

One of our guests had sent me a link to a crab pie recipe months ago and I’d told her that I would love to make it for them when they came home.  Crab pie:

Slice:

This is a bit like a quiche, but not quite as custardy.  It was very good, but called for too much cheese and would have been improved with a touch of dry mustard and a little hot sauce.  I served it with my old standard layered salad:

Tossed:

Layered salad is old school without being hip.  I always hesitate to serve it, but when I do everyone has seconds and even thirds and the bowl gets positively scraped!  It really is good and I improved it this time by adding some chopped hard boiled eggs.

 

Dessert was Cocoa Banana Muffins:

[Anna N]

Kim,

The filling was very simple: shrimp, scallions, sesame oil, and salt.

Tonight's dinner Sibling Rivalry. I was chatting with my big sister who lives in England. She said dinner was a childhood favourite - eggs and chips! Not to be outdone I had the same. Twice fried chips and two eggs fried in duck fat (bet hers weren't fried in duck fat!).

[patrickamory]

Anna simple and heavenly.

[mm84321]

Morel mushrooms with fregola sarda

[Steve Irby]

First crawfish boil of the season. In order of cooking, potatoes, Conecuh sausage, corn, crawfish and shrimp.

[ScottyBoy]

So amazing catching up on months of great dinners, awesome everyone!

[caroled]

First crawfish boil of the season. In order of cooking, potatoes, Conecuh sausage, corn, crawfish and shrimp.

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Before I moved to Indy, I lived in  small town in AL app. 50 miles northeast of Pensacola. What's more I was only 30 miles south of Evergreen AL, home of the Conecuh sausage plant.  We had product sampling of their sausage in the store where I worked in EVERY weekend.

Love it. Best sausage ever!

 

Man I miss that stuff!

[huiray]

Before I moved to Indy, I lived in  small town in AL app. 50 miles northeast of Pensacola. What's more I was only 30 miles south of Evergreen AL, home of the Conecuh sausage plant.  We had product sampling of their sausage in the store where I worked in EVERY weekend.

Love it. Best sausage ever!

 

Man I miss that stuff!

 

Why not order from them?

 

ETA: p.s. From a different cuisine/tradition - but have you tried the stuff at Claus' German Sausage & Meats?

Edited May 5, 2014 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

Braised bamboo shoots, wood-ear fungus & shiitake mushrooms (see here) with soba noodles.

 

[SobaAddict70]

Welcome back, Scotty.

[caroled]

Why not order from them?

 

ETA: p.s. From a different cuisine/tradition - but have you tried the stuff at Claus' German Sausage & Meats?

 Last night after my post, that very thought dawned on my so I looked them up, and it is reasonably priced... then I looked up the store locator and saw that they are available at Ft. Ben Harrison. Next time my mom goes to the commisary I'll tag along. A pack or 2  at a time beats having to order by the dozen and having to freeze the majority.

 

I have not yet made it to Claus' and will even plead my ignorance of their existence until I saw some coarse Braunschwieger you had posted.

I love following your posts, not only for the amazing dishes you prepare, but as a source of so many good things around Indy.

[Kim Shook]

Anna – thank you – I’ll be trying those once life settles down a bit.  And I agree with Patrick.  That is a perfect dinner.

 

Steve – gorgeous boil.  I’ve only had the real deal one time – at a wedding rehearsal dinner years ago and I made a pig of myself!

 

Last night was smashed flat griddle burgers:

 

With the easiest and some of the best onion rings I’ve ever made:

These are simply sliced and salted and left to sit for a few minutes, then tossed with whatever you like – I used half cornmeal half flour.  Deep fried until crisp.  Perfect and not a huge production.

 

Fixin’s:

The label-less catsup bottle is full of some (probably ersatz) Aaron Franklin sauce that Mr. Kim found a recipe for.  Pretty good, though.

 

What yesterday’s warm temperatures called for:

[ScottyBoy]

Oh man, I'd love to get my hands on those onion rings!

[patrickamory]

Kim the onion rings do look perfect but so do the burgers. Love the double thin patties. Looks like you get crispy bits around the edges?

[Anna N]

Must be nostalgia week for me. Another favorite from my childhood. Cheese and onion on homemade white bread. No sweet Vidalia onions here. Sharp brown onions and aged cheddar. I grew up in a pub in England. One thing we offered were cheese and onion sandwiches but the cheese and onions were put through a manual meat grinder to make a somewhat spreadable filling. This crushed the onion cells which moistened the cheese and insured every single bite was the perfect ratio of cheese to onion. It also made assembling dozens of sandwiches much more efficient. Lacking the manual meat grinder, this is my compromise.

(No, a food processor is not a good stand in and even if I had a meat grinder would I pull it out for one sandwich?).

[Franci]

We had ravioli with blue fish and potato filling. Dressed with extra virgin oil, asparagus and some grated bottarga

[Ann_T]

Kim, my husband would love one of your burgers.   He loves them cooked on a griddle.  And your onion rings look perfect.

 

 

 

Celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Chiles Rellenos.

 

 

Blackened fresh Poblano peppers on the grill. Peeled, stuffed and ready to batter and fry.

 

Topped with a quick cooked tomato chile sauce

 

Served with black beans and homemade salsa.

[SobaAddict70]

Sautéed chicken livers with port and shallots, and mesclun salad

Garlic broth, with ramps and spinach

Roast chicken; spinach with garlic, anchovy and lemon

[chefmd]

Soba, just the other day I was trying to look up garlic broth in one of the earlier issues of Art Culinaire but I do not have that particular one.  Where did you recipe for garlic broth come from? Or may be you can tell me how you made it.  And BTW, you make stunning dishes.

Edited May 6, 2014 by chefmd (log)

[huiray]

• Asam Heh (Tamarind fried prawns).  Recipe from "Nonya Flavours, A complete guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine".^¶  I made the optional sauce from the pan residues as well. YUM!   I used both sweet (Thai) tamarind pods and sour tamarind pods to generate the macerated pulp mixture.

• Stir-fried wong nga pak (Napa cabbage) w/ garlic.

• White rice.  Had lots of it w/ the sauce (and prawns). :-)

 

^¶ (Julie Wong; The State Chinese (Penang) Association & Star Publications (M) Bhd; ISBN 983-9512-17-X)

 

 

 

[SobaAddict70]

Soba, just the other day I was trying to look up garlic broth in one of the earlier issues of Art Culinaire but I do not have that particular one.  Where did you recipe for garlic broth come from? Or may be you can tell me how you made it.  And BTW, you make stunning dishes.

Thanks.

Garlic broth: 2 cloves heirloom garlic, thinly sliced and 4 ramp stalks, minced, fried in 2 tablespoons olive oil until the garlic turns a pale gold. add 2 cups water, along with julienned ramp leaves and torn spinach leaves. simmer for 10 minutes. taste for salt and pepper. stir in the juice of half a lemon, if desired. ladle broth into soup bowls, then serve. you can add a poached egg if you like (which will make it more substantial), or garnish with cooked English peas or morel mushrooms.

Edited May 6, 2014 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[SobaAddict70]

The chicken above was a 4 lb. chicken from USGM, prepared via a Thomas Keller recipe which you can view here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348 ; there are a few differences -- I didn't truss it and I cooked it at a lower temperature than TK calls for (e.g., 375 F as opposed to 450 F). I also ditched the butter and the mustard. we had a REALLY rich dinner at Gramercy Tavern on Sunday, and I was going for something comparatively lighter.

The leftovers will make a fine salade parisienne tonight, along with some vegetables in the fridge that have to be used before they turn.

More later.

[basquecook]

Had a catering event last night for Cinco De Mayo.  I rarely get to take photos..  

 

We started with chicken enchiladas with homemade mole.. Mole has like 32 different things in it and take about two days. 

 

 

Next up was huitlacoche quesadillas.  Inside these masa pockets were huitlacoche and queso Oaxaca.  Then we moved on to these guys.  They are called tortitas de camaron.  Basically, little egg and dried shrimp fritters fried and then mixed with cactus, or nopales and a sauce made with Guajillo chiles.  Also threw in a puya for a little more heat.  served on top of a homemade tortilla. 

 

Next course was homemade tamales with a masa pineapple sauce and then we finished with a flan.. 

 

Very excited as I forgot to eat anything last night and there are a couple of days of leftovers.  

[rotuts]

""   huitlacoche  ""

 

was your huitlacoche fresh or canned ?  I can only rarely find canned and it varies from can to can.

 

after all, you have to know what you are doing to be into

 

Corn Smut       

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/27/huitlacoche-corn-smut-goo_n_553422.html

 

it was a brave soul who took the first bite of this

 

or else they were vary vary hungry

 

Edited May 6, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[basquecook]

i have only see fresh huitlacoche in San Fran.. Mine was canned.  I always have my eye out for it.. It will eventually be a huge fad, i am sure.. It just needs a revamp of the name and image.. I believe if you called it "corn truffles"    it would be on every menu from here to LA.  

Edited May 6, 2014 by basquecook (log)