Dinner! 2014 (Part 4)

BonVivant · August 2, 2014

A couple of recent meals. I always have both meat and seafood on the barbie, this time it was big razor clams (and 'normal' clams, from Spain). The other meal was 'Banh Mi' with pork rind. The rind lasted 3 meals.

huiray · August 2, 2014

Thanks, patrickamory. :-)

Just for the hell of it here's the Google image answer set for "steamed garoupa": https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E8%92%B8%E7%9F%B3%E6%96%91%E9%AD%9A%22&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=m0DdU43CM5KyyATyqoDQDA&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1212&bih=958

:-)

Norm Matthews · August 2, 2014

Son's birthday was yesterday but he is having friends over today. He said he wanted BBQ. To me that means firing up the smoker but he meant he wanted grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Sooo I am doing both. The slabs of spare ribs and back ribs just came out of the smoker. The brisket needs a couple more hours. When his guests arrive, I'll start up the grill and do the rest of the food.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

jvalentino · August 3, 2014

Crispy ricotta cavatelli w brown butter and sausage. A riff on a recipe from the Frankie's Spuntino cookbook.

liuzhou · August 3, 2014

Continuing the not cooking as it's too hot theme, tonight I put together a raw salmon couscous with a minted tomato salad.

mgaretz · August 3, 2014

Did yet another wood smoked chicken last night. Served with baked potato, my usual roasted carrots and salad (not pictured).

huiray · August 3, 2014

Early dinner.

• Hot & sour shrimp soup. Thai/Tom-yum inspired.

The sequence, more-or-less: Sliced shallots, smashed chopped garlic (Spanish Roja), sliced ginger, sliced galangal, sliced lemongrass (white parts), hot red pepper flakes, vegetable oil; sour shrimp paste (gia vị nấu canh chua; Tom Yum paste) [Golden Boy], sour tamarind slurry (from steeping de-husked sour tamarind pod seeds in hot water & rubbing the pulp loose into the slurry, discarding the seeds & seed coats), palm sugar nuggets, broken up w/ the spatula; water; chopped Japanese Trifele tomato, bruised fresh kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce [Red Boat]. Simmer. Everything poured through a large fine-meshed sieved into a large bowl, pressing on residues to extract juices/stock; filtrate returned to pot. Brought back to a medium simmer. Trimmed hot long green chillies, fresh chopped Japanese Trifele tomatoes, quartered Thai eggplants, trimmed baby Lady’s Fingers, shelled & deveined wild-caught shrimp/prawns then went in. Seasoning corrected. Trimmed coriander leaves were then added in and the heat was shut off.

• Wong Nga Pak (Napa cabbage) stir-fried w/ garlic.

• White rice (Thai Hom Mali).

Cochon Whole Hog 2010 imbibed freely while putzing around with all the above. In fact basically the whole bottle disappeared. :-)

On the way there:

Some of the stuff. From top left, going clockwise – Palm sugar nuggets, sour shrimp paste, Thai eggplants (green & white variety), Japanese Trifele tomatoes, baby Lady's Fin gers, coriander leaves, a stalk of lemongrass, a clove of garlic, long hot green chillies, kaffir lime leaves, shallots; and a saucer with sour tamarind pods (11-5 o'clock), ginger (6 o'clock) and galangal (9 o'clock).

Some of the stuff being processed. The chillies, eggplants, coriander leaves, Lady's Fingers, lime leaves, shrimp, tomatoes, lemongrass, galangal, ginger & garlic, shallots, tamarind slurry.

1) The aromatics (tossed around in hot oil), shrimp paste (stirred into the hot oil + lightly browned aromatics) & tamarind slurry (added after the 1st two) in the pot.

2) Halved and quartered eggplants. The seedy insides were almost-white when immediately exposed to the air and rapidly darkens to the pale color seen in the photo. The (lack of) initial color indicates the eggplants were fresh. Thai eggplants that have been around for a while/"old" show already blackened seeds (black, not just palely discolored) on first slicing apart.

**Shelby** · August 3, 2014

Thai eggplants!!!

FauxPas · August 4, 2014

Son's birthday was yesterday but he is having friends over today. He said he wanted BBQ. To me that means firing up the smoker but he meant he wanted grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. Sooo I am doing both. The slabs of spare ribs and back ribs just came out of the smoker. The brisket needs a couple more hours. When his guests arrive, I'll start up the grill and do the rest of the food.

This BBQ meat looks so lovely and so tasty - I am wondering what "the rest of the food" consisted of, what kinds of sides you had? If you don't mind sharing, that is! :smile:

Norm Matthews · August 4, 2014

FauxPas,

The rest of the menu was coleslaw made without mayo but rather with apples, scallions and hot oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar, dijon mustard. BBQ beans made with baked beans and molasses, brown sugar, minced brisket ends and a spicy BBQ sauce mixed to taste and to balance the tangy with the sweet. Also had store bought potato salad; Cassie made a macaroni salad and had a watermelon which she added to farmers market peaches and orange to make sort of a sparkling white sangria. Other drinks were Kansas whiskey, Glenfiddich, beer, cola, and apple juice. We also had hot dogs and hamburgers with the regular toppings and condiments as well as basil from the garden to go with the tomatoes if someone wanted them with the hamburgers. (I did).

PS we also had potato chips but no one ate any.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

Blether · August 4, 2014

Since I've been on a custard roll, some "ebi chawan pies" - prawn and uni in a light hon-dashi custard flavoured with yuzu-koshou (yuzu & green chili). in a crust made from strong wholewheat flour and prawn-carcass-infused safflower oil.

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**Shelby** · August 4, 2014

I'd give about anything to have one of those tarts!

Fattoush salad again...this time I added some chicken and hard boiled eggs. Decidedly un-fattoush like, but good.

And, veggie noodle soup. Had some cooked green beans to use up...and the eternal zukes lol.

ninagluck · August 4, 2014

Shelby, I just recently learned from a top chef to put some powdered liquorice in the gravy for liver. tastes awsome

mgaretz · August 4, 2014

Same chicken as the other day, cut up this time and served as leftovers with a leftover half spud. Reheated them both in the BSO on reheat at 375F for 15 minutes, The skin was still crispy!

Ann_T · August 5, 2014

Blether, WOW!!!!!!

A few of our recent dinners.

Greek%20Chicken%20legs%20August%204th%2C

Grilled Chicken legs. Greek Style. With crostini.

Grilled%20Bread%20with%20roasted%20garli

Topped with roasted garlic, sheep feta, oven roasted tomatoes, fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

Burger%20and%20Corn%20August%202nd%2C%20

Burger and local corn.

Asian%20Lettuce%20Cups%20August%201st%2C

Lettuce Cups with Pork

huiray · August 5, 2014

• A variation of bitter gourd & fish soup.

Chicken stock, vegetable oil, couple of small handfuls of tiny anchovies (“stock fish”; 青公魚; tiny ikan bilis), dried Chinese “far koo” (花菇) mushrooms, dried Chinese jujubes (“lam jou” (南棗) variety; these have a slightly smoky nature), Chinese dried mushroon stems, smashed garlic (Siberian Red). Simmered for a while. Filtered (fine mesh sieve). Mushrooms retrieved, stems cut out (discarded); jujubes retrieved. Mushroom caps (halved) and jujubes added back to the filtered stock. Reheated. Pre-soaked dried wood-ear fungus (trimmed) went in and simmering continued. Taiwanese #1 type bitter gourd (“white type” hybrid, this one I think) was deseeded, cut into chunks and added to the soup. Simmered. Walleye (de-skinned) was cut into thick slices and added in just before the end of cooking.

Edited August 5, 2014 by huiray (log)

**Shelby** · August 5, 2014

Pizza night

Ann_T · August 5, 2014

Shelby, Great looking pizza. Love black olives on pizza.

~Ann

ninagluck · August 5, 2014

Blether would you share the recipe of your crust? I was about biting into my screen!

mgaretz · August 5, 2014

The last of the chicken became chicken chow mein:

Chow mein noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, celery, cabbage, onion, mushrooms, snow peas and the chicken. Seasoned with sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. Sauce was soy sauce, cream sherry, sugar, and cornstarch.

caroled · August 5, 2014

The last of the chicken became chicken chow mein:

chow-mein.jpg

Chow mein noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, celery, cabbage, onion, mushrooms, snow peas and the chicken. Seasoned with sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. Sauce was soy sauce, cream sherry, sugar, and cornstarch.

This looks so delicious, hardly even needs any meat, I'd be satisfied with just the veg. (But I do love shrimp lo mein ) Bravo!

Norm Matthews · August 6, 2014

I saw this recipe, thought it looked good, made it and the kids immediately knew what it was even though I'd never heard of it before. They told me the superheros were eating it in the movie Avengers 2. It is Chicken Shawarma with Lime Avocado Mayo. I skewered it with onion, red and yellow peppers and grilled it. I added a salad made with mixed field greens, chopped dates, orange sections, and a trail mix that is mostly nuts and raisins. Salad was dressed with vinegar, oil, orange juice and cilantro. We put the salad and chicken in pita bread and had it with the avocado mayo or hummus.

ps also had rice.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

Steve Irby · August 6, 2014

First home cooked meal after being in Miami for nine days on business. Used the trip as inspiration and for ingredients. Dinner was chicken thighs seasoned with sazon seasoned salt and Bijol for color swerved with Haitian cornmeal porridge. The porridge is the same as grits or polenta. The coarse grind grits (harina gruesa) were a bulk buy item at the Sedano grocery chain and are phenomenal.

Blether · August 6, 2014

Thanks, Shelby and thanks, Ann_T. Shelby, the crusts look a bit like your taco shells, don't they?

I was pleased with the tarts. Most of the elements worked out really well, but they're a prototype, a first attempt. The biggest miss was that I'd meant the custard to be deeper, for there to be more of it. So I need a bigger round pastry cutter if I'm using the same size prawns and disposable cupcake cases, or a different form for the crusts altogether.

ninagluck, the crust? Yes, the crusts were excellent, the last couple still crunchy after holding that wet seafood custard for 24 hours.

180g 100% wholewheat bread flour (13.5% gluten, from Canada)

Seasoning - I used salt, a pinch of ichimi / cayenne, a teaspoon or so of lightly-toasted sesame seed (irigoma), ground to a powder. I didn't have sesame oil on hand but I had the seeds.

Oil - enough to give a "fine breadcrumbs" texture to the flour like for shortcrust. I didn't measure: 4 or 5tbsp? worked in with a fork I used safflower oil - it's my choice of the neutral-flavoured oils, I like its neutral flavour best. For flavouring, I infused the prawn heads & peelings in it, hot, for 10 minutes. My approach was to have it bubbling, but not to go so far as to toast the solids. Also, it's oil already - no chilling of fat or flour or bowls for the pastry.

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An egg

Enough water to bring the crust together with the fork, then your hands (quite a lot with this strong a flour). The usual pastry game, you need to know how it looks & feels at this stage, so that it will roll out and handle well after resting, and the only way to learn is to do it a few times . You know you didn't use enough water, when you roll out your pastry and it fractures all over the place (I write this because it's a shared forum, Nina, not especially because I think you need it). No kneading, no gathering and rolling. Push the ball down into a thick disk in a plastic bag and rest in the fridge. An hour minimum? I left mine overnight, for other practical reasons.

Rolled out to the thickness you see - 2.5 or 3mm, cut into discs and fitted into those disposable fairy cake / cupcake cases (into the foil part). Left uncovered in the fridge till stiff enough (the sides stiff enough) to lift out onto a wire rack. Leave on the wire rack, again uncovered in the fridge, till dry. Again, this was overnight for me. Put back in the foil cases, use the paper liners for a single layer of (aluminium) baking beads.

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