Dinner! 2014 (Part 4)

[Paul Bacino]

Fresh Garden Eggplant cassarole!!

 

Sugo--Grilled eggplant --Crumbled meatballs  -- ( confit garlic-Onion-fresh chili pepper )-- Fresh roasted Celebrity and Roma-- Mozzerella--asiago cheese-Fresh basil  --bread crumb  then next layer of eggplanr fresh home canned sauce  Parmesian--Mozzerella and bread crumb  -baked 1 hr 350 lid on  then broil till done

 

 

 

 

[percyn]

Sushi rice, lightly grilled teriyaki salmon topped with togarashi

[Anna N]

An indian take on cabbage and potatoes.

[basquecook]

Pasta with pork and clams

 

[Dejah]

Replicating a ball of yumminess enjoyed while down in Bryan, Texas a couple of weeks ago:

 

Deep fried stuffed avocado!

 

[Smithy]

Oh, my word! I just finished frying dinner tonight and reminding myself how much I *hate* frying food, although I love eating fried food. This avocado, though, just might be worth the aggravation. More information, please!

[Dejah]

Here ya go, Smithy:

Poach 3 chicken breasts...cool and shred. Half three-four avocados, remove the pit, gently scoop out some pulp from the middle to make the hole large, and peel. Dust the halves with flour and wrap in Saran. Put them into the freezer for 1 1/ 2 - 2 . hours. This will keep the avocado from going mushy when they are deep fried. Mix shredded chicken with fajita seasoning (to taste) and shredded cheese ( I used Habanero Tex-Mex by Kraft) Put two halves together, press gently and re-wrap in Saran until you're ready to deep fry.
Heat about 4" oil on med. high ( I used my wok) Dip avocado in beaten egg, roll in med-fine Panko crumbs, dip into egg and roll in crumbs again- total of three times for thick coating.  Pat gently to make sure the halves stay together, then lower carefully into hot oil. Turn and brown all sides. Great eaten with shredded lettuce, tomato, and salsa. ENJOY!

Edited August 12, 2014 by Dejah (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Tunisian potato salad

Polpettine in tomato sauce

Polpettine -- little meatballs typically made of ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and pork. For this version, I used 100% ground pork, mixed with grated onion, slivered lemon zest, stale bread soaked in milk, beaten egg, chopped prosciutto di Parma, sea salt, black pepper, and minced oregano. This mixture was then formed into balls, dredged in flour and fried in olive oil.

The sauce consists of a 1:1:1 mixture of chopped onion, carrot and celery (with leaves), sea salt and black pepper, slowly cooked in the meatball drippings and olive oil, to which was added ripe plum tomatoes and a little water. Simmer the sauce, covered, for 15 minutes, then add the meatballs and cook uncovered until the meatballs are cooked through.

Serve at once.

Of course, you don't need to have them in tomato sauce. Other ideas include but are not limited to: dredging in breadcrumbs and frying them in oil; cooked in broth and served as a first or main course; or cooked in a wine sauce.

[Anna N]

Sauteed boneless, skinless chicken thighs and steamed vegetables.

[Steve Irby]

After a little rummaging in the freezer over the weekend I found a fresh picnic ham (front leg) and lamb neck.  I decided to cross the pond and put an African twist on the pork and Black Sea twist on the lamb.  The pork was seasoned aggressively  with a Harissa blend from World Spice in Seattle with Guajillo Flakes, Caraway Seed, Coriander Seed, Smoked Paprika, Garlic, Hungarian Paprika, Cumin Seed, Pequin, Kosher Salt, Indonesian Cassia, and Lemon Crystal.  Smoked with mulberry wood for about 10 hours.

 

 

 

The lamb was prepared in the pressure cooker with another spice blend from World Spice with basil, savory mixed with fenugreek seed and leaf, cinnamon, black pepper, cloves and coriander. The neck was pressure cooked with fresh onion, garlic, celeraic, lemon and dried peppers.  After the meat was cooked the pre-soaked chickpeas were cooked in the broth.  Pretty darn tasty.

 

[basquecook]

Made a curry rice with chicken:  a tomato, a red pepper, a cayenne pepper, a medium size squash, two browned organic chicken legs cut into 5 pieces each, lime rinds, juice of two limes, curry powder. 2 cans of rice, 2 cans of coconut milk, one and a half cans of water and a bunch of a cilantro.  cooked for 25 minutes once the rice was added.  

 

at the very last minute after i took it off the heat and fluffed it, I added a 1/4 cubed papaya.  the papaya added a great flavor.  i had one in the fridge and wanted to crack into it. 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2014 by basquecook (log)

[ninagluck]

beef broth with pressed cheese dumplings. soulfood when it's raining

[Dejah]

Pork side ribs marinated in Hoisin sauce, cooking wine, sugar, and 5-spice powder. Grilled on the BBQ and enjoyed with corn, new potatoes with fresh mint and butter, as well as my favourite veg...green beans!

 

 

Dessert was worth waiting for: warm Saskatoon pie and vanilla ice-cream!

 

Edited August 13, 2014 by Dejah (log)

[Paul Bacino]

My first yr of growing Lemon Cucumber--  I pickled some of those..made Braised Short Ribs -- add some Spare - A -Gus tips

w/ Garlic Yukon mashers

 

 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Smoked Wings tonight using several of the Dizzy Pig rubs. Half with Dizzy Pig Bombay Curry-ish rub and the other hall with a combo of Swamp Venom and Tsunami Spin. Smoked then finished on the grill Served with green beans panned in butter, sliced almonds and pecans with a shake of Pineapple Head rub, salt and pepper

[Ashen]

 The pizza dough threads were the original reason I started coming to egullet, only the beginning of things I learned here but still one of my favs. 

 

autolyzed  , high hydration 65% , only a two day rise in the fridge but still decent flavour. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Ashen (log)

[huiray]

A couple of recent dinners.

 

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

 

 

• Opo squash soup.  With vegetable oil, garlic, short-cut pork spare ribs, water, dried oysters, dried wood-ear fungus (pre-soaked), small flower-pattern thick-cap Chinese mushrooms, (squash pieces added here), goji berries, and cellophane noodles – in that order.  Salted to taste.  The ribs are sautéed w/ the garlic at the beginning (vegetable oil) and a nice head of fond developed before adding water and continuing.

 

 

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

 

 

• White Pacific shrimp (local, farmed) in a savory tomato sauce.^¶

• Trimmed kai-lan flash "stir-fried" with a sauce mix.^§

• White rice.

 

 

^¶  The shrimp were deheaded, deshelled, deveined and reserved.  The heads, legs & shells were “pan-fried” w/ some peanut oil, chopped garlic (Music) & ginger till beginning to brown/toast slightly (salted) (heads crushed w/ the spatula) then water added to cover and simmered for a while then reserved.  Chopped garlic (Music) & sliced ginger were sautéed in a hot pan (peanut oil), the reserved shrimp tossed in and cooked till they barely turned translucent and were removed and reserved.  A bit more oil was added, chopped Cherokee Purple and Japanese Trifele tomatoes went in and the mix cooked on medium heat to break down the tomatoes.  The reserved shrimp stock was added and the mixture reduced.  Some fish sauce [Red Boat] and jozo mirin [Morita] went in, the seasoning was adjusted.  Halved shallots were tossed and slightly browned in a separate pan, then added (they were definitely left crunchy) to the tomato sauce, the heat turned to high, stuff stirred around, generous (handfuls) of trimmed chopped scallions added followed by the reserved almost-cooked shrimp.  Everything was tossed/stirred around briefly and the heat shut off.  Served.  The day's version of tôm sốt cà chua, with fresh tomatoes.

^§ Washed & trimmed kai-lan was tossed into a screamingly hot pan (peanut oil) a few seconds after the chopped garlic went in, covered immediately and shaken/tossed for a minute or two.  The cover was removed, and the mixture (the kai-lan acquires a slight browning here and there) stirred for a bit more (high heat), then quenched w/ a mixture of oyster sauce [Lee Kum Kee], Shaohsing wine [Asian Taste], “aged soy sauce” [Kimlan], sesame oil [Kimlan], ryori-shu [Morita] and ground white pepper.  Stirred and banged around for a bit more (high heat) then served.

 

[Shelby]

Dejah, I'd pay your way to come to Kansas.   Please make me a deep fried avocado.  I keep scrolling back to look at that picture!

 

 

Spaghetti red last night

 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Shelby (log)

[rotuts]

attn :  

Shelby

 

Im pretty sure those Black Olives did NOT come from a can.

 

 

just a bit sure.

 

If they did   Id like you to pretend a bit about it.

 

after all, I got my own phantasmagoric dreams, coming up

 

Id sue like them to be more tasty than Canned Black Olives !

 

 

FD:  i had those canned B.O's growing up

 

soooo metal - ic.

 

not yours  ,  Eh ?

Edited August 14, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[Shelby]

Nope, lol, not mine.  Straight from a can they came.  I know the taste you mean, though....these were good.

[rotuts]

YuK !

 

next time

 

try some Greens. from the Jar 

 

not so full of Metal ic Yuk

 

just saying.

 

those BO's from Ca in the Can should be banned !

[Smithy]

Rotuts, if you can find them I recommend you give Lindsay Naturals a try. Olives, salt, water: that's it in the can. http://www.lindsayolives.com/our-products/naturals/black-ripe-california.html I confess I like the Lindsay Naturals green ripe olives (not to be confused with Spanish-style green olives, which have an entirely different flavor) even better than the black ripe olives, but they're harder to find in the places I frequent. The main thing is that the black olives in the 'Naturals' line don't have as pronounced a metallic taste as the regular black canned olives.

Our Duluth stores were carrying them for a while, then dropped all Lindsay products (woe is me) in favor of another brand. Disclosure: I have no financial interest in this product, but our long-standing family friends do. It was thanks to a gift from them that I discovered the Lindsay Naturals line.

[Dejah]

Oh! That's ttoo bad, Shelby...as I was in Kansas last week!!! You can make it yourself easily, but you'd probably go "wild" with venison or something.

 

Tonight was yogurt and herb marinated lamb kebabs and a different recipe with basmati rice.

 

Indian Lime Rice from Saveur - the digital format of the Aug / Sept issue.

 

 

 

The rice is quite lovely - to look at and to eat! I've never cooked rice this way before - boiling one cup of rice in 6 cups water! The water is drained after the rice is tender, then brown mustard seeds ( I didn't have black), garlic, turmeric, curry leaves, Thai or serrano chilis,  and dal are fried in oilive oil and the rice is added to that mixture. Lime juice and salt are added just before serving.

 

 

Even tho' it's Greek flavoured kebabs, the Indian rice worked well with it.

 

 

[huiray]

Cucumber soup.

 

Stuff that went in:  Water, chicken thighs, duck leg, Poona Kheera & Brown Russian cucumbers, garlic (Music), dried cuttlefish, dried Solomon's Seal rhizome slices ("yook chook", 玉竹), dried longans, dried tangerine peel ("chan pei", 陳皮), Chinese jujubes ("lam jou" variety, 南棗), salt, chicken fat (rendered into the soup).

 

 

ETA:  A little commentary here - I used the dried ingredients as listed above, precisely for their inherent properties.  There is no way I would have used the fresh equivalents for any of them in this soup, or in other similar dishes, as I would not have achieved the taste profile desired.  Dried ingredients are ingredients in their own right in many cases (such as in the present and similar cases) with the specific taste that they have acquired, and are not "poor substitutes" for the fresh items.

Edited August 15, 2014 by huiray (log)

[MikeyMike]

Here ya go, Smithy:

Poach 3 chicken breasts...cool and shred. Half three-four avocados, remove the pit, gently scoop out some pulp from the middle to make the hole large, and peel. Dust the halves with flour and wrap in Saran. Put them into the freezer for 1 1/ 2 - 2 . hours. This will keep the avocado from going mushy when they are deep fried. Mix shredded chicken with fajita seasoning (to taste) and shredded cheese ( I used Habanero Tex-Mex by Kraft) Put two halves together, press gently and re-wrap in Saran until you're ready to deep fry.

Heat about 4" oil on med. high ( I used my wok) Dip avocado in beaten egg, roll in med-fine Panko crumbs, dip into egg and roll in crumbs again- total of three times for thick coating.  Pat gently to make sure the halves stay together, then lower carefully into hot oil. Turn and brown all sides. Great eaten with shredded lettuce, tomato, and salsa. ENJOY!

Too bad they didn't have that when I went to A&M.