Dinner 2015 (Part 1)

[Shelby]

Breakfast for dinner.  Boudin, biscuits, gravy made from pork cracklins and eggs from the chickens down the road.  Oh and fried taters.

 

[Toliver]

I had an early St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef and cabbage on Saturday (sorry...no pics). I use my slow cooker to cook the meat and used that broth to steam/boil my cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Easy peasy.

Of course, I'm an idiot, too. I didn't know it was going to reach 91°F here on Saturday. The slow cooker ended up add heat to my apartment during the day and I almost had to turn the A/C on before I went to bed that night because it was so hot inside.   Live and learn. 

[kayb]

BKE, did you deep fry your ricotta fritters? I'd like to try those, but I purely hate to deep fry anything at home. 

 

Having finally found a source for farm-raised chickens, I made Italian roast chicken.

 

 

I have no idea how authentically Italian this is, but I learned to make it from a lady whose parents emigrated from Italy in the 1920s, some four or five years before she was born. The chicken is stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, ricotta, parmigiano, and spices (she used spinach as well, but I didn't have any on hand so I skipped it). If you use a pound of ground beef, you use about half of it to stuff a four-pound chicken; I added bread crumbs and made the rest into four big meatballs that I scattered about amid the potatoes, carrots and onion. The whole thing got sprinkled with salt, pepper and oregano and baked in a covered roaster for 2.5 hours at 300. It is always astonishingly wonderful, and one of my family's favorites.

 

Topped it off with a piece of pecan pie, made the day before in honor of Pi Day. New recipe, called for a half-teaspoon of orange zest. Pie was great but I'll leave out the orange zest next time.

 

 

 

[rotuts]

Wow ! Bakersfield !  the 'baker' part means a lot !

 

Id  do this w what you have not eaten:

 

chill,  slice each item thin,  place sur la plate,   season and thicken the jus that you cooked the veg in

 

and place every thing on some cool bibb lettuce.

 

BTW  In the mid or so '50's  my family pulled a small trailer, you know  the camping thing

 

once and only once through Bakersfield in the Summer

 

Yikes !  and California even had water then !

 

Yikes !  anything you  got at the grocery was cooked when you got it back to the Trailer !

[rotuts]

Wow

 

Pecan Pie !

 

Im a serious Student of P.P

 

my sister sends me fresh pecans from TX

 

I still have a few.

 

guess what's up next ?

[kayb]

Wow

 

Pecan Pie !

 

Im a serious Student of P.P

 

my sister sends me fresh pecans from TX

 

I still have a few.

 

guess what's up next ?

Rotuts, this is a recipe I found on Epicurious. I cut the brown sugar by 1/4 cup, and I'll leave out the orange zest next time.

[mgaretz]

Tri-tip, cooked SV at 120F for 4 hours, then reverse seared.  Seared with yellow squash, steamed with butter, and salad.

 

[rotuts]

kayb

 

I do pecan pie from the Fannie Farmers cookbook

 

some times I use the Pilsberry frozen pie crust

 

I have to tell you, with good pecans, its to die for 

 

I sometimes add a bit of rum, some TJ's semi sweet chips

 

and when no one is looking some dark maple syrup.

 

it the pie to go for

[huiray]

Yah, i want that right now. 

 

:-)  Thanks for the compliment.  It's a real simple dish, easily put together; and you should have all the ingredients available (or be able to get them) to make it.

[huiray]

A frittata with peppers, avocado and mozzarella.  

 

 

fennel salad:

 

 

 

I like this.  What was the darker dusting on top - just black pepper?  It also looks like there is something else in the body of the frittata, from the appearance of the slice of it that you show - spinach? Something else? Or just the avocados "bleeding" into the frittata?  Would you describe how you put this together a little more, please?

[Dejah]

huiray: My comment was an observation of most of the dishes you've posted. It's not a criticism. If anything, it's a compliment as you do complicated combinations, use more intense sauces that seem to work quite well for your dishes. Perhaps it's because you take the time to explore these variations whereas I fly by the seat of my pants and cook the way my Mom did.

 

I've always wondered why garlic is used in your soups. I've never experienced that, so it's very different from my point of reference. I do use ginger and orange peel in some of the herbal soups.

[scubadoo97]

Had some tenderloin scraps in the freezer from cleaning an un trimmed tenderloin back in December. Figured it was a good time to try out the Moo Gloo I recently purchased.

Appears to have worked well to hold it together

Into the SV bath at 129. Will sear it after it's bath. Fingers crossed

[BKEats]

I like this.  What was the darker dusting on top - just black pepper?  It also looks like there is something else in the body of the frittata, from the appearance of the slice of it that you show - spinach? Something else? Or just the avocados "bleeding" into the frittata?  Would you describe how you put this together a little more, please?

 

 

Thank you!  The dark stuff on top is pepper.. I also forgot, the bleeding you are referring to is actually, left over peashoots from Sichuan Food.. I basically use a frittata to get rid of all of my leftover vegetables, meats and cheeses.. It's a good weekend dish as you, get to clear out for the upcoming week. Not to mention, the bodega next to my house uses these incredible vegetable deals as loss leaders.. So, those peppers were 4 for 1.99.  

 

I used like 10 eggs and some milk.  Added it to a pan and let cook at a low temp.. The egg eventually begins to set, that is when I add fillings.  I add fillings as it sets because, i don't want it all to fall to the bottom.. Once it starts to set and ingredients are added, i toss in an oven thats like 400 degrees.. let it cook until the whole thing sets.  

 

i take it out and invert it on to a dish.  

Edited March 16, 2015 by BKEats (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Cassie's favorite meal of the year is the corned beef one I make from scratch.  She has to work tomorrow so we had ours today.  Along with the corned beef was butter softened with Irish Whiskey and sugar beat in with the mixer, carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, soda bread, smashed potatoes, and some store bought rye bread.  I put some Guinness in the cooking liquid and divided what was left between us.  Fortunately for me, neither of them drank any and I was forced to finish off the bottle by myself. We also had  a couple of Irish cheeses with dinner.

 

Edited March 17, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Martin Fisher]

Looks great Norm.

There are a lot of my favorites there!

[liamsaunt]

Hake cooked in parchment with sake, shiitake mushrooms, bell pepper, scallions, and chives. Served with rice and baby bok choy. 

 

[scubadoo97]

My Frankensteen tenderloin worked out quite well

Out of the bath

Off the grill

On the plate

[liuzhou]

Yuanling is a sleepy, unimportant town in the beautiful west of Hunan province in China. It is a river town and much of its economy is river based. People even live on the river and their are river shops. Fish are still caught by tame cormorants. The sidewalks everywhere are covered in chillies drying in the sun. I lived nearby 18 years ago, and still have friends there, mostly of the Tujia ethnic minority.

 

Yuanling

 

It is not well-known even in Hunan, but Yuanling has one very special culinary highlight. Yuanling bacon. This is a dry cured lean ham. The taste is mild and slightly sweet.  One dear friend who now lives in Shanghai went home for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and kindly sent me a load of the bacon. The bacon is virtually unobtainable other than in Yuanling itself.

 

(Again apologies for these pictures - I will buy a new camera soon.)

 

Yuanling Bacon

 

The bacon is usually cut into strips and stir fried with chillies and beans. So that's what I did.

 

 

四季豆 (sì jì dòu) - "Four Seasons Beans"

 

There are also fresh green and dried red chillies in there, along with garlic, ginger, scallions/spring onion, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.

 

And in the end

 

Served with rice.

 

My friend also sent some smoked cured ham (Hunan Larou) and a huge piece of cured beef. I'll get round to them soon.

Edited March 17, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[BKEats]

Dinner last night was a casual affair.. The food was awesome but, it felt more like a picnic.. we were sitting in the kitchen and just hanging out.. It was a fun family meal.. Meanwhile, My wife and daughter were sitting on one end of the table watching me run around like an idiot.  

 

Both my wife and daughter do not like to "work" for their lobster.. So, i have to pretty much take all the meat out of the shell for them.. Served with drawn butter, boiled and salted potatoes, bernaise sauce, an arugula salad and a simply broiled steak.. I have not really broiled too many steaks or cooked things exclusively on a broil so, i figured it would be a good time to try.. I cooked the steak at like 3.5 minutes per side under the broil.. Came out a perfect rare.  

 

I made all of dinner so, i was rushing around.. they started eating without me! It was only after the photo did I realize there was a large can of peanut butter on the table.  

 

The little one like white wine with cassis these days. 

steak

 

The bodies, I covered in panko, a little bernaise and the guts that were left on my cutting board.  then broiled.  

 

 

so, not the best photos but, it was seriously delicious.   For dessert,  a few ricotta fritters. 

 

The salad, I came home to a few cases of lettuces and various greens..   These were samples from our new produce supplier.. Pretty gorgeous greens. 

 

Edited March 17, 2015 by BKEats (log)

[gfweb]

BKE, I'd love to hear details of the restaurant start-up as it evolves.

[TicTac]

Not only that, but I would like to hear more about this 'little one' drinking wine w/ Casis...lol.

[Shelby]

Liuzhou, you have nice friends!!  I look forward to seeing the beef, too.  AND, I love the plate!

 

Chicken enchiladas for us last night.

 

[huiray]

Thanks, BKEats & Dejah.

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou, you have nice friends!!  I look forward to seeing the beef, too.  AND, I love the plate!

 

Chicken enchiladas for us last night.

 

photo.JPG

I do. I am lucky to have some wonderful friends who send me great edibilities I've never heard of. I think they are trying to fatten me up. Not sure what for, though!

[huiray]

Couple of meals.

 

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Odds-and-ends soup w/ fresh Vietnamese rice noodles (bánh phở tươi).  Leftover roast pork (commercial) sautéed w/ garlic & oil, water, rehydrated thick-cap "flower mushrooms" (this type), pork meatballs (commercial), tau pok, last of the maitake mushrooms, baby bok choy & asparagus.  Salted to taste.  Noodles briefly blanched in simmering water.

 

 

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Rice congee w/ pork spare ribs & pork belly ("five flower meat"), garlic & ginger/peanut oil, half of a plant of "mui choy" (a kind of salted preserved mustard; briefly soaked & rinsed, chopped up), sliced rehydrated "flower mushrooms" (this type), water, basmati rice, tau pok.  Scallions & coriander leaves garnish.

Oh, plus romaine blanched in oiled simmering water, drained, dressed w/ oyster sauce & ground pepper.