Dinner 2015 (Part 1)

[huiray]

From yesterday:

 

Chee Cheong Fun.  (Rolled rice noodles, commercial; formed w/ har mai (dried shrimp) & scallions; steamed in an enameled metal plate)  With a sauce made w/ hoisin sauce, double-fermented soy sauce, dark soy sauce, black sesame oil, jozo mirin, rock sugar, ground white pepper; gently simmered to reduce.  Chopped scallions.

 

Soup.  Pollock fish balls (commercial) in chicken stock w/ trimmed Thai basil & scallions.

Edited February 17, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Norm Matthews]

There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground and I didn't go out today. Nothing like the weather back East but still too cold for me to want to get out in it.  I stayed home and made some sourdough bread, a slow cooker pot roast with gravy, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots.  My son doesn't eat salad much but he had seconds with this one. It has a sweet vinaigrette dressing with pecans, strawberries, cucumbers and mixed greens. I marinated the cucumbers in the dressing for a few hours before tossing it all together.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Anna N]

Potato skin is my favorite part

I tossed a flap steak in the bath at 131f for 3 hrs then seared the heck out of it as quickly as I could. Served with roasted potatoes.

I love potato skins too but you can't glaze potatoes when their skin is still on. At least not the way I think of glazed potatoes.

Edited to make better sense.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[Baselerd]

Here's a pork dish I put together: 

 

Sous vide pork belly (brined, sous vide @ 144F for 72 hours), fried apple puree, kimchi marinated apples, pork-apple jus (reduced bag juices with apple juice, apple cores, onions, and garlic), egg yolk confit fluid gel, and kumquats.

 

[Ann_T]

looks delish.

 

how did you make it ?

 

if it was acceptable, try the regular ground turkey which must have dark meat in it.  I like the 97 % lean.

Rotuts,  I'm sorry, I missed answering your question.

 

No recipe.  Just winged it.

 

 This is a basic outline.

 

Turkey Meatloaf

 

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast

1 to 2 tablespoons butter

small white onion chopped

1 stalk of celery finely chopped

1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth

1 clove of garlic

salt and pepper

2 to 3 slices Bread 

fresh parsley

sage, thyme, rosemary (to personal taste)

2 eggs

 

Melt butter in skillet and saute onions and celery.  Add garlic and some chicken broth and simmer until vegetables are tender.  Add the salt, pepper, sage, thyme and rosemary.

 

Break the  bread up in the processor.  Added the parsley, the onion/ celery mixture and processed for a few seconds, just long enough to combine.  

 

Mix the bread mixture into the ground turkey along with two beaten eggs.

 

Fry a little piece of the mixture to test for seasoning.

 

Shape the meatloaf in a buttered roasting pan (I used a cast iron skillet) and roast at 375°F for 45 minutes to an hour.

Baste  with pan juices once or twice.

 

 

A recent meal - Grilled New York Strip with roasted potato wedges.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Ann_T (log)

[huiray]

Steamed chicken with smoked ham & kai-lan.  A dish in the style of an old-fashioned Cantonese dish called 金華玉樹雞.

 

See here for a previous rendition.  This time I used bone-in chicken thighs chopped into slices marinated w/ Shaohsing wine, black sesame oil, salt, ground white pepper, and a bit of cornflour; assembled w/ small slices of a kind of smoked ham called (and sold as) 高級火腿 then steamed.  Plated w/ trimmed kai-lan parboiled in oiled boiling water w/ a dash of kan sui (solution of potassium carbonate/sodium bicarbonate) added in then flushed briefly with cool water.  The steaming liquids were brought to a simmer in a pan w/ some oyster sauce and fresh Shaohsing wine added in with a little cornstarch slurried in a little water drizzled in towards the end, then the sauce poured over the plated chicken+ham+kai-lan.

 

 

 

Chicken & ham ready for steaming:

Edited February 17, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Ann_T]

Last night was Pizza Night.  Baked two pizzas in the Bakerstone oven on the grill.  

 

The dough had been made the day before and given an overnight rise in the fridge.

 

 

One was topped with Italian Sausage and Mushrooms

 

And the other

 

 

 

with Potatoes, Feta and Olives for a Greek Pizza.

[rotuts]

AnnT :

 

except for the

 

""  1 stalk of celery finely chopped ""   (     )  I do use celery leaves ........

 

looks interesting

 

will you be  adding TML's to your rotation ?

[Kim Shook]

CP – I had to Google “Ants on a Stick” and most of what came up was the American classic “Ants on a Log” (peanut butter on celery – sorry rotuts  – with raisins).  I finally found the Chinese dish and it sounds really good.

 

On the 13^th, we took dinner over to some friends and played cards.  Pot roast:

With gravy:

 

And green beans:

They provided salad and bread.  The pot roast was my regular recipe, Ronald Johnson’s Italian Pot Roast, but it was probably the best rendition I’ve ever done.  Even their daughter who doesn’t usually like beef in any form except hamburgers was scarfing it up. 

 

Valentine’s dinner at home.  Place setting:

 

We started off with Galatoire’s (NOLA) Godchaux salad:

Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, NC shrimp, Gulf jumbo lump crab, chopped HB eggs and Cajun mustard vinaigrette.  So good and incredibly simple.  Main course was rockfish:

Just oven roasted with butter, lemon juice, parsley and S&P. 

 

With dinner we drank Francis Ford Coppola’s Sofia Reisling:

We are not knowledgeable wine drinkers, but we liked it a lot with all the fish.

 

Dessert was a throw together.  We’d just come from breakfast when we did the shopping for our dinner and nothing looked appetizing.  So we got chocolate croissants, blackberries (even when I’m full, fruit always looks good) and whipped cream:

 

Last night’s dinner was leftover crab and shrimp made into salad, stuffed into some Chicago hot dog buns:

Minimalist salad – just a little mayo, lemon juice, parsley and S&P.  

[weinoo]

 

Semi-homemade dumpling noodle soup.  Chicken stock via the Modernist Cuisine pressure cooker method.  Dumplings via Eldridge Street. Noodles via Goodman's.

 

 

Paillasson potatoes, served with pork shoulder roast and a faux puntarelle salad (subbing endive for the puntarelle). From Jacques Pepin, sorta like a large potato pancake, with no grated onions or added starch. Maybe even more like rösti?

[mgaretz]

Smoked pork loin roast (smoked at 225F to an internal temperature of 140F - took about 2 hours).  It was rubbed with McCormick's Montreal Chicken Rub.  Served with roasted carrots and salad (not pictured).

 

 

[huiray]

Miso soup.

Water, hon-dashi granules, bunapi-shimeji, scallions, finely sliced negi (white part only), wakame, cubed soft tofu, Yamabuki miso.

 

Fedelini [De Cecco] with crème fraîche, parsley, lemon (juice + zest) & Parmigiano Reggiano. (red chili flakes & garlic & pepper also)

This is a dish from the menu of Bluebeard in Indy; recipe shared by Abbi & John Adams.

Edited February 18, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I made Mark Bittman's onion pan bread to accompany salmon and salad the other day when I was sick of the usual suspects for starchy sides. It's from "How to Cook Everything," page 244 of my paperback copy.

 

I've made it before, and it's always been good, but I was running low on onions, so I only used about 2/3 cup instead of the 2 large whole one he calls for. It was less than half of a large white onion, which around here run a pound or a little over. I also diced it medium instead of slicing it like Mark calls for, so I could distribute it more efficiently.

 

Another variation I made is to saute the onion longer than the 10 minutes he suggests. I have never been able to properly caramelize onions in 10 minutes, and medium heat on my 1970's GE range top will more frizzle than caramelize. You don't have to spend hours doing this though like you do with french onion soup where the onions will be boiled in broth. These onions are going to receive further cooking beneath your bread. Just get them soft and golden and they'll finish in the oven.

 

The other times I made it, I've always added a little more milk because the batter looked a little too thick. I shoud've trusted Mark on this one. I was running low on milk too, and thought about adding a bit of water. I'm glad I didn't. It's like drop biscuit batter, and you have to really make an effort to spread it over the onion/brown sugar topping. This was the best rendition ever. My husband and I ate half of an eight inch round cake pan between us. This was SO good. I froze the other half for later.

 

I really can't explain why I thought it would be a good idea to add a quarter teaspoon of very fragrant thyme to the batter, but it worked so well, and I'll definitely do it again.

 

Here's a link to Mark's recipe for anyone who's interested: http://lifeandsundry.com/food/2011/7/22/onion-pan-bread.html

 

The source has changed Mark's recipe herself to say butter or olive oil. Mark calls for butter, and that's what I used.

 

Also, it's important to sprinkle the brown sugar in your pan before adding the caramelized onion. This results in a crispy, caramelized, absolutely delicious topping to a light fluffy, irresistible quick bread. No additional butter needed.

[liuzhou]

 

I had to Google “Ants on a Stick”

 

A more common (and perhaps more accurate) translation of 蚂蚁上树 is "Ants Climbing a Tree" which may bring you more recipes. 

 

[CatPoet]

Liuzhou , Kim Shook : well that  is  name  I got from my friend  and  remember it is about  60 years since she left  China.

[Shelby]

Tried to get live crawdads yesterday for Fat Tuesday but to no avail.  So, I turned to the frozen tails I had in the freezer.  Again, I will sing praises to the store in LA that I've mentioned before.  These crawfish are locally farmed down there and they are really good.

 

Crawfish étouffée 

 

 

I froze a ton of cracklins from my lard making experience (thanks Andie for suggesting the freezing) so I took some of them out and made cornbread.  Oh my.  I am pretty sure I had it as a little kid but I had forgotten how good it was.

 

 

 

 

[kayb]

Oh, Lord, Shelby. Cracklin' cornbread. Be still my heart. Particularly in early fall, when there's new sorghum molasses. Bacon, cracklin' cornbread, sorghum and home-canned tomatoes. Can't beat it.

 

It's been snowy and cold and unpleasant, so I've been hibernating and baking. Yesterday it was French bread and scalloped onion dip, which served nicely for dinner.

 

 

 

[Prawncrackers]

Happy Chinese new year everybody! Here are some Chinese dinners from my past week:

 

Lor Bak Goh whilst taking a break from making Sheng Jian Bao:

 

Mapo tofu

 

Beef dandan mian from scratch:

 

[Anna N]

Lunch leftovers from a Persian restaurant. Braised lamb shank and a rice dish served over a sweet potato that I microwaved. A cucumber/mint yogurt condiment is the accompaniment.

[gfweb]

Sausage and Peppers

 

[patrickamory]

Fantastic meals! Keep 'em coming!

[BonVivant]

Move over, Dunlop. Here comes Prawncrackers!

 

Your food takes me back to Chengdu (have been there 3 times for the food and more)!

[CatPoet]

 

 

Köttfärs paj med frasigt  potatistäcke.   Ground meat pie with   crisp potato blanket.   It turned out lovely  even though the potatoes weren't  crisp.  I have started  to worry that my food isnt up to the culinary standards of this forum, since I dont   souse vide  or smoked or cure my self, I just do basic level  cooking to feed a family.

[suzilightning]

Chicken thighs are marinating with lime zest and juice, scallions and ginger.  Will bake them and serve with some rice and steamed broccoli.

 

I also picked up some red Swiss chard that looked good and plan on making a vegetable soup tomorrow with some homemade stock.  I have an interesting Cuban bread recipe I found that I want to try and it should go well with the soup.

[Kerry Beal]

I cook dinner for my family almost every night and rarely use Souse Vide or smoking or pickling. I do not bother to post photographs if I do not feel that the finished dish is attractive enough to share.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)