Dinner! 2014 (Part 3)

[CatPoet]

Dinner so far is peanuts and zombies -- though the plan for tonight is sous vide corn (a la MC, 60 deg C for 15 minutes).  Though I have to get myself up first.  The kitchen seems so far away.

 

CatPoet, your china reminds me of Roy Andersson's film Du levande.

 

Wouldnt suprise me, this was the most popular   pattern for not that well to do people at the time,  it was cheaper then most and look stunning and came in two colours, Gold  which I have and Silver which my sister has.

[Shelby]

I like fiddle head fern. Last of the season from farmers market. 

 

dcarch

 

Sous vide scallops

 

 

 

Boneless stuffed wings

 

 

 

Sous vide chicken thighs, Polenta

 

 

More Scallops, with shrimps.

 

 

Fiddlehead (fiddleheads?) is on my list of foods I want to try.  This looks soooo good--especially the seafood version!

[Ann_T]

One of my favourite meals.

 

 

Green Peppercorn steak.

[Paul Bacino]

Nice Home-made Plancha Sear..  a Shade under 700F was the sear temp!!

Local Costco beef-- graded choice Plus

with a very nice marbled cap

 

 

 

[Robenco15]

Four Story Hill Farms Milk-fed Poularde with Morel mushrooms and potatoes cooked in the poularde fat and duck fat. The most amazing chicken I've ever had. Absolutely transcendant with the mushrooms.

[jvalentino]

Grilled chicken w salsa verde and polenta.

[BKYLN]

 

Sous vide scallops

why?

[patrickamory]

Inspired by Soba's recent posts I returned to Ottolenghi's Jerusalem for this meal. First I made filfel chuma (also known as pilpelshuma), a Libyan Jewish hot sauce. (May I point out that Ottolenghi's instruction to "soak the ancho chile in boiling water for 30 minutes" is very unclear - it could mean that you should pour boiling water over the chile and let it sit off the heat for 30 mins, or it could mean boil the chile for 30 minutes. It means the former.)

 

See here for Soba's step-by-step instructions. Taking a visual cue from him, I cut down the quantities of cayenne and sweet paprika by about half. I also left the caraway seeds whole and halved the quantity of garlic per his recommendation. It's a crazy-great sweet and bitter relish, somewhat like harissa, but drier:

 

 

I then made Palestinian fried tomatoes with garlic, again taking Soba's lead - cooking the crushed garlic cloves, and subbing filfel chuma for the fresh chile. I had to fry in batches with a fairly large skillet - you really need your largest sauté pan for this. Perfect summer dish, and I was even able to find worthy heirlooms at Eataly (since USGM is closed on Sundays):

 

 

Finally, the well-known chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom. This really is a perfect dish. I got it better this time than the first time - maybe better chicken, but also high-quality Ceylonese cinnamon from The Spice House, which I'm now certain is the right kind of cinnamon for this dish:

 

 

Thanks for all the tips and inspiration Soba!

[Steve Irby]

Another beef rib night.  Seared and finished in the pressure cooker with quanciale, Herbs de la Garrique, preserved lemon, tomato, garlic, etc., over mashed potatoes. Served with sauteed zucchini with crimini mushrooms and a salad of lemon cucumbers, onion, yogurt and mint.   I also included a few slices of homemade brats & boudin that I grilled in preparation for lunch this week. Dessert was panna cotta with fresh peaches.

 

 

[nakji]

Inspired by Soba's recent posts I returned to Ottolenghi's Jerusalem for this meal. First I made filfel chuma (also known as pilpelshuma), a Libyan Jewish hot sauce. (May I point out that Ottolenghi's instruction to "soak the ancho chile in boiling water for 30 minutes" is very unclear - it could mean that you should pour boiling water over the chile and let it sit off the heat for 30 mins, or it could mean boil the chile for 30 minutes. It means the former.)

 

See here for Soba's step-by-step instructions. Taking a visual cue from him, I cut down the quantities of cayenne and sweet paprika by about half. I also left the caraway seeds whole and halved the quantity of garlic per his recommendation. It's a crazy-great sweet and bitter relish, somewhat like harissa, but drier:

 

filfel_chuma.jpg

 

I then made Palestinian fried tomatoes with garlic, again taking Soba's lead - cooking the crushed garlic cloves, and subbing filfel chuma for the fresh chile. I had to fry in batches with a fairly large skillet - you really need your largest sauté pan for this. Perfect summer dish, and I was even able to find worthy heirlooms at Eataly (since USGM is closed on Sundays):

 

tomatoes.jpg

 

Finally, the well-known chicken with caramelized onion and cardamom. This really is a perfect dish. I got it better this time than the first time - maybe better chicken, but also high-quality Ceylonese cinnamon from The Spice House, which I'm now certain is the right kind of cinnamon for this dish:

 

chicken.jpg

 

Thanks for all the tips and inspiration Soba!

Those tomatoes look scrumptious! I may have to try my hand at the filfel chuma, although ancho chilies are pretty thin on the ground in China. I bet it's good on eggs.

 

As for the chicken with cardamon - I agree, it's a stand-out dish, especially once you add the yogurt-honey-cumin sauce, which sounded terrible on paper to me, but really worked. I wonder - did you use barberries, or sub something else in?

[dcarch]

why?

 

Why sous vide scallops?

 

I don't like under cooked scallops, and I don't like delicate scallops cooked at 212F.  Sous vide scallops  at 122F has such nice succulent creamy texture. 

 

dcarch

[SobaAddict70]

Wild and basmati rice, with spiced chickpeas, crispy fried onions and herbs (page 106 from the "Jerusalem" cookbook)

Stufato di verdure

[SobaAddict70]

Those tomatoes look scrumptious! I may have to try my hand at the filfel chuma, although ancho chilies are pretty thin on the ground in China. I bet it's good on eggs.

 

As for the chicken with cardamon - I agree, it's a stand-out dish, especially once you add the yogurt-honey-cumin sauce, which sounded terrible on paper to me, but really worked. I wonder - did you use barberries, or sub something else in?

I don't think you necessarily need ancho chile; if you can source some kind of dried chile pepper in China that's relatively mild and sweet but has a touch of heat, you should be okay.

The paste is wonderful in all sorts of things. Besides the fried tomatoes Patrick mentions and the carrot salad in the Jerusalem thread, I used a scant teaspoon in the chicken with onion and sumac pictured in last night's dinner post. It also appears in tonight's stufato di verdure. This version of stufato features Moroccan oil-cured olives that I marinated in lemon juice, fennel seed and a teaspoon of filfel chuma for a couple of days.

[CatPoet]

 

Sunday dinner, pulled pork, potatoes, salad and sour cream and herb sauce.

[nakji]

I don't think you necessarily need ancho chile; if you can source some kind of dried chile pepper in China that's relatively mild and sweet but has a touch of heat, you should be okay.

The paste is wonderful in all sorts of things. Besides the fried tomatoes Patrick mentions and the carrot salad in the Jerusalem thread, I used a scant teaspoon in the chicken with onion and sumac pictured in last night's dinner post. It also appears in tonight's stufato di verdure. This version of stufato features Moroccan oil-cured olives that I marinated in lemon juice, fennel seed and a teaspoon of filfel chuma for a couple of days.

That's interesting - I've tried ancho before, but I can't think of what might be similar here. Most dried chilis available in and around Shanghai are the short, dried red ones you usually see in Chinese cooking - I'm not sure how they'd convert down to a paste up on soaking. It might be time for a project - or a quick taobao to see if anyone is selling anchos. It would save me from having to haul them back from Canada anyway.

Edited June 23, 2014 by nakji (log)

[liuzhou]

Steamed mackerel (with lemon and ginger - discarded). A warm salad of just wilted vegetables (carrot, celerly, leek, Chinese chives) sprinkled with shichimi togarashi. Rice.

 

Edited June 23, 2014 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

Two fat chicken drumsticks, a plump young garlic bulb w/ just the outermost skins & root pad (and trailing roots) removed & cut into thirds crosswise, water, oil, Redmond salt, simmer; farmers'-market Tuscan kale & broccoli rabe, both julienned, flower tufts intact; Sapporo Ichiban chicken flavor instant ramen, with the flavor packet added in; simmer sufficiently, eat.  Yum.   :-)

Edited June 23, 2014 by huiray (log)

[CatPoet]

We just had a simple   Swedish dinner today,   Dill cooked new potatoes,  Quick salt buried  ham steaks ,  a white allspice sauce, lingon jam and broccoli.  I am trying to get my kid away from peas.

[Kim Shook]

Mark – that tri-tip is cooked perfectly.  I’d like a pile of that meat and some crusty rolls for dinner.  I wouldn’t need another thing.

 

Anna – your ‘clean out the fridge’ meals are better than my planned meals!

 

Norm – the chicken looks so good.  And date shakes are the best.  I haven’t had one in years.  I have a giant Costco container of them, though.  Care to share your recipe?

 

dcarch – every single thing looks delicious!  What are your wings stuffed with?

 

Patrick – your fried tomatoes are just gorgeous!

 

The March issue of Bon Appetite had a fantastic looking and sounding short rib pot pie on the cover and I saved the recipe knowing we’d love it.  I love braised meat of any kind and the recipe sounded uncomplicated.  I was lucky to find some bone in ribs on sale at Kroger.  The recipe calls for boneless – something I haven’t seen in a long while – but Chris H. was nice enough to ‘translate’ for me, so I had the right amount of meat.  The braise:

This is just the ribs, garlic, tomato paste, red wine, rosemary and thyme.

 

Finished pie:

 

Served with green salad w/ pears and bleu cheese, corn, green beans and marinated cucumbers:

 

 

Pie, as served:

It was as delicious as I had hoped and since we’re in the middle of a ‘cool spell’ (in the 80’s   ) not too terribly heavy.  

[SobaAddict70]

I adore short ribs but it's something I don't eat all that often.

Reminds me of some short rib empanadas I bought from a food truck last week. Was the pie crust from scratch?

[Norm Matthews]

The recipe for date shake isn't precise. I put about 9 or 10 seeded dates in a blender and added enough milk to make a slurry. Then added scoops of vanilla ice cream and blended, adding enough- about 8 I think to make a thick shake.  There was enough for three 8 ounce glasses.  I could have extended the amount by adding more milk and ice cream. The amount I had filled the beaker about 2/3 full. 

[Baselerd]

Here's an adapted version of this recipe from Starchefs:

 

-Sous vide duck breast (133 F for 1 hour, then the skin was scored, salted, and seared)

-Sunchoke puree: Simmered 1.5 cups diced sunchokes in 1 cup of cream and 3 Tbsp butter until soft, then pureed with salt, adding the cooking liquid gradually until the right consistency was achieved.

-Maple roasted beets

-Orange-duck gastrique

-Oranges

-Sorrel

 

Edited June 23, 2014 by Baselerd (log)

[rotuts]

Baselerd

 

that looks so delicous.

 

would you mention a bit more on the scoring ( which I think I understand ) and the salting ( which is new to me )

 

It's Not for Dinner at My House Tonight

 

but Ill place it on the List !

 

cheers

[patrickamory]

Kim beautiful pie.

 

nakji yes I did use real barberries - we're lucky enough to have Middle Eastern specialty store within walking distance. Zereshk! But you can sub currants. So far as the ancho issue goes, can you find any Mexican dried chile? Pasilla, guajillo, cascabel? I wonder how it would work with those bright red dried Sichuan chiles… I understand that they are not as fiery as one might expect (I could be totally wrong about that). Japanese mild dried red chiles might work too.

[Baselerd]

 

would you mention a bit more on the scoring ( which I think I understand ) and the salting ( which is new to me )

 

 

Sure. After cooking the breasts sous vide for one hour at 133 F, I removed them from the bags and cut the skin in a crosshatch pattern (spaced about 1/2 - 3/4 inch apart), about 1/2 to 2/3 way into the skin. You don't want to cut all the way through into the meat. The purpose (allegedly, from what I've read) of doing this is to allow the fat to render more quickly while searing.

 

After scoring, I sprinkle a little bit of salt over the breasts, let them rest for about 45 minutes, then wipe them off before searing. To sear, I heat a skillet to medium / medium high, throw the breasts on skin-side down, then place a flat weight on top of them until crisp and golden.