Dinner 2015 (Part 2)

[weinoo]

 

Cast iron cooked, basted with butter, prime rib eye.

 

 

Said steak, with sous vide Russian banana potatoes and sous vide brussels sprouts. Potatoes were then blasted in a hot frying pan, while the sprouts were finished in the Cuisi Steam Girl for a few minutes.

 

 

[Shelby]

Nice looking ribeye, Mitch.

 

 

Venison burgers on homemade buns, corn done on the grill and tater salad

 

 

Taco salads with crappy tomatoes

 

[rotuts]

do you age your C.Tomatoes in a brown paper bag w a few apples in the bag ?

 

it helps a bit during the winter months when no Locals are available.

[mgaretz]

Made herbed and smoked pork loin roast again.  We also had some leftover sourdough that had gone stale, so I turned it into stuffing.  The picture makes the pork look dry but it wasn't.

 

 

[kayb]

The near perfect stuffed shell"  Kinda like a cannoli

 

4 cheese  and Rosamary bread with my Sunday gravy ( but on Sat  )

 

FINISHED

 

IMG_7937.JPG

Absolutely gorgeous.

[BonVivant]

First seared then finished in the oven, together with fennel and tomatoes. There was also boiled salsify in place of potatoes.

 

 

[Ranz]

@BonVivant that is gorgeous.

 

Supper last night; beef burgers with a cream cheese sauce and coleslaw.

 

 

 

 

Tonight; thick as heck pork chops and sausages, smoked for 2 hours at 70C, then baked for 9 minutes/side at 200C. Chops came out at a perfect medium.

 

 

[mm84321]

Veal, morels, asparagus and vin jaune

[Paul Bacino]

Nice box..of. Shrooms. Max

[mm84321]

Nice box..of. Shrooms. Max

 

Blondies.

[Kim Shook]

mm – your food is as lovely as ever, but for some reason all I can concentrate on are those incredibly beautiful dishes!

 

Egg dyeing night, so most years that means pizza.  I made French bread pizza tonight:

 

Sub rolls, jarred marinara, mozzarella and Chinese sausage:

 

Served with crudité and a mini cheesecake from the freezer (sent to us as a gift at Christmas):

 

Pretty, but bland.  And the eggs:

[huiray]

A recent dish – fresh winter bamboo shoots stewed w/ garlic, beef, rehydrated wood-ear fungus, "fermented chunk bean curd in dressing w/ red yeast rice".

 

Earlier in the day/night, with rice.

 

Later in the night, also w/ rice; plus flash stir-fried Taiwan choy sum.

 

[Shelby]

MM-I love morels.  There are some growing here on our farm.  I can smell them.  But I can't find them.  I was outside all day yesterday working and occasionally the wind would hit just right and I'd look and look to no avail.

 

Kim-Beautiful eggs

 

 

Last night my husband made chicken quarters on the grill.  Very good.

 

 

 

I have been wanting to try this cauliflower recipe for a while.  I know someone on here made something similar and it looked SO good. I found a recipe online. Cauliflower head dipped in plain yogurt and spices.  

 

HUGE FAIL .  It was disgusting.  The baking temp was too high so the yogurt was close to burning while the cauliflower was crunchy.  Way too much chili powder (and I love chili powder).  I saved the head....going to scrape off the yogurt and re-purpose it if I can. 

 

 

Thank goodness I made a salad to go along or we would have just been gnawing on chicken lol.

 

 

[kayb]

Fougasse topped with cheese and salami, and tomato sauce I canned last summer.

 

 

Accompanied by a glass of MR.

 

[rotuts]

""  Accompanied by a glass of MR. ""

 

nice.  my problems, which might be many, is that from time to time

 

i enjoy a glass of MR  while cooking.

 

At least  I have  Chef Boy'ar'dee to fall back on  just in case

 

famously mentioned in :

 

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Ratatouille+%282007%29&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

 

 

Ratatouille (2007) Edited April 1, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[scamhi]

I made a roast chicken Monday night and roasted some cauliflower while the oven was hot.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Kim Shook: your dyed eggs are beautiful!

 

huiray: you're so lucky to get fresh bamboo shoots. The ones we have access to here in a can are not so good. A really bad neighbor who's moved away to the big house courtesy of our local police force planted ivy and a small version of bamboo on the property line years ago while cutting down all the trees on his side. The ivy and bamboo are killing my trees (invasive in the extreme), but I'm going out tomorrow to look for shoots from the bamboo. It's spring here, and I'll try to find a silver lining. His machinations killed my blackberry and grape vines. Who knew blackberry vines (very tenacious) could be killed? It's sad that 10 years after he's gone, he's still doing damage to me.

 

Shelby: I hope you can find your morels! I love grilled chicken, and yours looks very good. Maybe if you're going to cook a whole head of cauliflower in the oven, parboil it first? You can definitely salvage it for roasted, which is one of my favorites, although I do not care for it just boiled.

 

Norm Matthews: I think I screwed up a very good dish by using subpar ingredients AND serving as an entree when it's clearly so rich it should be cut in small slices and served as an app as you did.

 

Tonight's dinner was those whopper peppers, which were sold as Anaheims/Hatch at my grocery. Ruh Roh. I think they were Cubanelles, which I just don't care for. They were pointy on the end, which Anaheims usually are and Cubanelles are not, but they were not Anaheims/Hatch.

 

I was bragging about how they could accept a 1/4 beef stuffing, which they did readily.

 

I was so excited about this dish!

 

There were several other errors in the dish though.

 

First, the good quality, non-CO gassed (which is getting harder and harder to find) ground chuck had been frozen for a month and a half.

 

Second, I probably over mixed the seasonings of Adobo and chili powder, and then further compressed it when stuffing the chillis.

 

Third, I don't think that a quarter pound of beef per serving augmented by two slices of bacon because the peppers were almost 8" long, and that's what it took to cover them was enhanced by even more fat and cholesterol when I put grated pepper jack over them after the bacon browned. This was only mitigated by the pepper itself, which if it'd been a true Anaheim or hatch would have upped the flavor tremendously.

 

The only bright side is that my husband ate his entire bacon wrapped stuffed pepper, pronounced it delicious, and was delighted when I suggested that I could make him a chili relleno burrito with the remains of all but the two inches of the small pointy end of mine that I ate and the leftover beans.

 

I much more enjoyed the refried beans with queso fresco. I served them with homemade pico de gallo. Cocoa tomato, white onion, cilantro, and jalepeno only in mine. It's a wonder how my husband who's not a healthy food, or veg/fruit lover always comments on how delicious my pico is. It really is more than the sum of it's parts, and while I often have a hard time getting him (a stroke and heart attack victim) to eat healthily pico is never a problem, it always disappears.

 

I much more enjoyed the bean nachos I made out of the refried beans from a can (more later). You take a tortilla chip, coat it with piping hot refried beans (with queso fresco), spread a little pico, then get shredded lettuce into your mouth the best you can. This usually amounts to chasing it around lots with your fingers, because let's face it, after you've piled all the beans and pico on your pristine and ultra crispy white corn chip, the lettuce is just going to fall off.

 

Okay: now the "later" about the refried beans, y'all.

 

La Costena (with a tilde over the N) IS THE BOMB. "Distributed" out of Laredo, Texas by Vilore Foods, because no one has to tell us where the hell anything is made anymore.

 

This brand of refried beans made me revise my recipe for pinto beans when I cook them from dry, which is pretty often. I used to put carrots, celery, garlic, and sometimes other stuff in there.

 

Now my recipe is theirs, as far as what they reveal on the label (I don't use the soybean oil, nor lard; I use pork meat with it's own fat), and I have to say it tastes the same as what I buy in their cans only meatier.

 

Ingredients from the label: water, pinto beans, soybean oil, onion, salt, pork lard, jalepeno pepper, spices.

 

Simple and VERY good. Mark Bittman would be proud.

 

Do yourself a favor and give La Costena a try if you can find it.

 

The Latino community demand is so high here, it's a staple in our local Dollar General Stores.

 

I'm very lucky to live in such a culinary diverse area.

 

Woopsee, changed tide to tilde.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[huiray]

Thanks for the Crepes, hope you find some nice bamboo shoots. :-)  I believe most types found here (the US) are edible but I don't know for sure and haven't eaten any to my conscious knowledge.  I've read about others harvesting them (in the US) though, and their SE Asian acquaintances being thrilled when they got hold of them from this person.

 

The ones I used look like these, FYI.  Imported.

 

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

 

Last night's meal: Fish curry, this night's version.

 

Generous oil, chopped smashed garlic, bashed-up and roughly ground (mortar & pestle) fresh turmeric & galangal (coarse salt added in while grinding), additional sliced galangal, ground coriander seed (lots) & a little ground cumin seed (both commercial), the paste "fried" for a little; water added, simmered (covered), un-deseeded hot long green chillies sliced lengthwise added, seasoning adjusted, simmered; firm tofu chunks added, simmered; cod pieces added, seasoning adjusted, brought back to a simmer for less than a minute, heat shut off.

 

White rice (basmati).

 

 

[huiray]

Thanks for the Crepes, hope you find some nice bamboo shoots. :-)  I believe most types found here (the US) are edible but I don't know for sure and haven't eaten any to my conscious knowledge.  I've read about others harvesting them (in the US) though, and their SE Asian acquaintances being thrilled when they got hold of them from this person.

 

The ones I used look like these, FYI.  Imported.

 

 

p.s. One is generally told to boil fresh bamboo shoots (after removing the bracts and trimming**) for a while in water to remove/destroy toxins (specifically, cyanogenic glycosides/hydrocyanic acid) before using them to cook with.  Some varieties don't contain (or contain very low levels) of these substances, but "wild foraged" bamboo shoots are almost always said to need boiling first.  I usually do 15-20 minutes of boiling (a vigorous simmer rather than a full-blast boiling will do)  Then thoroughly rinse the boiled bamboo shoots.

 

** ETA: slicing it before boiling is a good idea.  Simply halving or quartering is fine too (the thick fat winter type I used, for example) and simmering for a bit longer then wouldn't hurt.  If one has the thin, skinny/thick-pencil types, boiling/simmering them whole (after removing bracts) is fine.  Some folks (e.g. some Japanese) boil the entire shoot (stout winter-type) bracts and all, maybe with some rice bran added, but do it for a more extended time - like 1-2 hours.  I myself have always taken the bracts off and trimming/slicing first.

Edited April 2, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Ann_T]

Paul, I love the idea of your stuffed shells.   

 

Shelby, I would be happy with your burger or your taco salad.

 

Huiray, I would love to be a guest at your table.

 

A few of our earlier March meals.

 

 

Pizza

 

 

Baked on the Grill in a Bakerstone Pizza Oven.

 

 

First Halibut of the season.

 

 

Slow roasted corned beef, seasoned Pastrami style

 

 

Corned beef sandwiches on homemade Rye.

 

 

Leg of Lamb - Greek Style

[huiray]

 

Last night's meal: Fish curry, this night's version.

 

Generous oil, chopped smashed garlic, bashed-up and roughly ground (mortar & pestle) fresh turmeric & galangal (coarse salt added in while grinding), additional sliced galangal, ground coriander seed (lots) & a little ground cumin seed (both commercial), the paste "fried" for a little; water added, simmered (covered), un-deseeded hot long green chillies sliced lengthwise added, seasoning adjusted, simmered; firm tofu chunks added, simmered; cod pieces added, seasoning adjusted, brought back to a simmer for less than a minute, heat shut off.

 

White rice (basmati).

 

DSCN4416a_800.jpg

 

Oops.  I forgot to list:

1) The ground-up (mortar & pestle) buah keras (candlenuts).  That went in between the turmeric&galangal and before the coriander&cumin; and

2) Tamarind paste (a generous amount) slurried w/ hot water, added in after the coriander&cumin and before the water.  (The curry is therefore purposely made slightly "sour")

 

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

 

Ann_T, what kind words.  Thanks.

Edited April 2, 2015 by huiray (log)

[mgaretz]

Turned the leftover pork roast into hash.  DW has also been craving dark whole wheat rolls, so I made my Dark Star Anise Bread into rolls instead of loaves.  Served with salad and for dessert I made non-dairy Coffee-Kahlua gelato.

 

[mm84321]

Pea cromesquis

Scallops with morels in a vin jaune sauce

[Thanks for the Crepes]

huiray,

Thanks for the info on bamboo shoots, especially the follow-up about removing toxins by boiling, because my standard procedure for testing foraged foods is the ancient method of eating a very small amount raw to see what happens, and then incrementally increasing it. Of course, I would never do this with unfamiliar mushrooms.

 

I looked today for shoots at the ground level and found none. All the new growth seems to be on existing stalks, and that is hidden under winter killed growth from last year. Maybe it's too early. We had a particularly harsh winter this year.

 

Ann_T,

Your photography, cooking and plating skills continue to amaze me. Pizza vies with perfectly cooked, good quality rib eye steak as my favorite food, and your pizza (and everything else) always look so perfect!

 

 

Tonight I cooked beef short ribs for the first time. I wasn't really impressed, although it might have been cook's error, it being my first time and all. It was the first time I'd had them since my mama died when I was eight. I don't dislike them, but for the same money, I can get my beloved boneless rib eyes on sale, two pounds of shrimp, or a beautiful piece of fish, all of which are easier and quicker to cook, and I like better.

 

There's so much waste and shrinkage, they just don't seem like a good value. If I invest that much money and time into a dish I want to love it, and I just didn't.

 

The asparagus was the highlight of the meal to me.

[Duvel]

Pea cromesquis

Excellent presentation. Which is your preferred consistency for your filling - runny or more viscous ?