Dinner 2015 (Part 3)

[Dave W]

Can't remember who posted that fantastic nicoise last month but if it was you and you see this, cheers.

[harrysnapperorgans]

chili con carne: 

[liamsaunt]

crab burger.  I had some crumbled proscuitto leftover from the prior evening's scallops so used it to coat one side of the burgers.  It added a nice crunch

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Those crab burgers look great, liamsaunt. Is there a difference (other than the buns and accompaniment) between those crab burgers and crab cakes? I'm always on the lookout for good crab cake recipes.

The prosciutto crunch is a great idea.

[huiray]

Itek Tim.

 

Water, duck legs (each cut into two pieces), simmer, skim well; sliced galangal, lightly crushed garlic cloves, trimmed pre-soaked pickled mustard greens (Harm choy/syun choy), salted plums plus some of the pickling liquids, slurried tamarind paste, palm sugar.  Seasoning adjusted.  Simmered till done.

No additional oil added, the globules floating on the surface is duck fat rendered from the legs (skin & fat on) in situ.

 

 

[ninagluck]

I hardly ever cook during the week, but tomorrow is a public holiday, so no need to get up at 5:30 ;-)  spinach dumplings with brown butter, parmesan and a salad on the side

[mm84321]

Oeuf mollet, spinach and morels

 

Garden picked salad

 

[scubadoo97]

Dinner tonight is a yellow bean and lamb stew. Spiced with baharat spices and a little extra cinnamon. To be served over rice. The smell in the house is great

[FauxPas]

 

Garden picked salad

 

mm84321, your salad looks so delicate and fresh. I'd love to hear more about what you grow. 

 

Also, wondering about the hazelnut au jus that you referenced upthread - can you tell me anything about how you made it? I have 4 hazelnut trees and would like more ideas for using them. Thanks so much! 

Edited June 4, 2015 by FauxPas (log)

[huiray]

EV olive oil, chopped garlic, julienned Westphalian ham, chopped heirloom tomatoes, sliced portobello mushroom, halved artichoke hearts (canned), quartered baby zucchini, cut-up asparagus, spaghetti [Garofalo].

[patrickamory]

scubadoo care to share the recipe for the lamb and bean stew? Looks marvelous.

 

I did something I've been planning to do for years - got an insert for the Weber with a round hole for the wok. This was up at the BF's mom's place and we had to get a new carbon steel wok and season it, which I foolishly did inside and set off the house fire alarms.

 

I made dry-fried green beans and chicken with sichuan peppercorns. I definitely did not achieve wok hei, - counterintuitively (for me an inexperienced idiot) the Cantonese double-handled wok is much harder to toss or even to approach with the bare hands. I need to develop better technique with the wok scoop, or else try a northern wok with a long handle.

 

I foolishly thought at the higher heat I could stir-fry larger quantities of ingredients at once - I was doubling the recipes. I should have kept to the Grace Young recommendations of small quantities in batches.

 

And I think I need to get the wok and probably the grill much hotter. Nonetheless the results were tasty. Any tips much appreciated - I want to learn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FauxPas]

Our weather cooled a bit and we went for comfort food last night. A pretty simple meatloaf (base of ground beef, pork and veal),  more of the little steam-baked potatoes (a bit overcooked, actually - I got distracted), corn and some local green house tomatoes. The tomatoes were surprisingly good.  

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Patrick thanks for the kind words. Your dinner looks amazing as well

As to my dinner, I'll give you a synopsis of what I did. I rarely follow recipes

Due to time constraints I did a fast hot soak of the beans and finished in the pressure cooker for like 8 min with a quick release but left them a bit under cooked. I think it was just over a pound of dried beans

Had a 2# hunk of boneless leg of lamb that I cut into small chunks and seared in the Dutch oven to get some color. I think I added the first layer of flavor with some of the baharat spice as it browned.

The meat was removed to cool and I added a large chopped onion to sauté and then added a few large minced garlic cloves and tomato paste and let it cook down a bit. Then added back the lamb and a small can of diced tomatoes and added more baharat spice, cinnamon and a small dash of crushed red pepper.

Got it to temp on the stove then parked it into a 350 oven for about 90 min until the lamb was tender.

I was happy with the results. I served over rice but a crusty loaf would be just fine as well

[liamsaunt]

Those crab burgers look great, liamsaunt. Is there a difference (other than the buns and accompaniment) between those crab burgers and crab cakes? I'm always on the lookout for good crab cake recipes.

The prosciutto crunch is a great idea.

 

It was a pretty basic crab cake recipe. Sometimes I make Rick Moonen's crab cake which is delicious, but no time for that on a work night.  It just was crab, an egg yolk, some dijon, a little worcestershire, a dash of old bay, and a couple tablespoons of brioche crumbs, just enough to hold things together.  I don't like crab cakes with lots of filler.  I turned it into a burger because I really need to go food shopping and have almost no vegetables in the house right now.  As you can tell from the picture I did not even have lettuce.  Normally I like crab cakes with salad rather than as a sandwich.  

[mm84321]

mm84321, your salad looks so delicate and fresh. I'd love to hear more about what you grow. 

 

Also, wondering about the hazelnut au jus that you referenced upthread - can you tell me anything about how you made it? I have 4 hazelnut trees and would like more ideas for using them. Thanks so much! 

 

Thanks! I grow a wide variety of herbs, salad greens, mesclun, sorrel, arugula, strawberries, fava, borage, cucumber, old world zucchini/tomato/pepper and eggplant varieties, etc. This is also my first year growing artichokes, which I very much look forward to in late summer. The hazelnut jus was in fact a chicken jus with a few drops of roasted hazelnut oil! 

[Anna N]

Rice paper rolls ( chicken, carrots, lettuce, scallions lightly dressed with sesame oil and rice vinegar) and sriracha mayonnaise.

[Norm Matthews]

Dinner will be later but the entree and potatoes just came out of the oven: Meatloaf.

 

[rotuts]

WoW

 

NM  a big WoW

 

you have broaden my ML horizons  Im a big TML person

 

but from now on, Ill add some Potat's and some onion  in a broader array.

 

delicious it looks and Im betting delicious it tastes

 

Kudos your Way !!!

 

PS  are those a few Tomat's at the top ?

Edited June 4, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Thank you. Here is it after it was plated. Yes there were tomatoes on the counter too.

 

Edited June 4, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[scubadoo97]

More beans[emoji100]

Left over yellow beans with chives, scallions and peppers with an oil/vinegar dressing which included mustard which gave it some zing

I thought I'd do SV burgers tonight

Edited June 4, 2015 by scubadoo97 (log)

[mm84321]

Tonight I ate red meat, and I am glad I did.

Dry aged ribeye, vegetables of the moment 

 

Figs roasted in strawberry juice, seashore honey, purple basil 

[FauxPas]

 

Tonight I ate red meat, and I am glad I did.

Dry aged ribeye, vegetables of the moment 

 

 

Figs roasted in strawberry juice, seashore honey, purple basil 

 

 

I don't know what looks better - the steak, the veggies or the dessert. Wow, you really know how to choose and plate your edibles! 

 

We had a simple puff pastry tart. Pastry was store-bought and this was cooked in the Cuisinart Steam Oven. Finished off the remainder of the last tomato purchase from the local greenhouse and a few kalamata olives and the last of the goat cheese. It always warms my heart to use all of a purchase w/o waste and w/o making something that doesn't bring at least a little bit of joy. Heh. 

 

We had a fairly big lunch so this was perfect for dinner with a glass of wine. We might have strawberries and ice cream later. 

 

 

[Naftal]

I decided to do a variation on a dim sum dish (pumpkin and seafood congee). I did a winter squash and seafood congee.

[huiray]

Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh.**

Stir-fried baby kale.

White rice.

 

 

** This is much lighter than the more usual Canto-Hoklo style of BKT (very herbal, very spiced, much darker w/ more sauces) I've tended to make in recent years and which I have posted about here on eG.  The Teochew style is peppery and garlicky, light-handed with the soy sauce, basically non-herbal; although I added in a little Angelica sinensis root slices and Codonopsis pilosula root pieces, as is also sometimes done in this style of BKT.

 

 

On the way there.

The peppercorns (white) were cracked & lightly ground (mortar & pestle) before adding to the pot; the garlic cloves were lightly crushed and added  in with the parchments/skins left on them.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Convenience food:

 

Sous vide russet potato from refrigerator.  Simmer while enjoying mai tai.  Mash.  Sous vide pork chop from refrigerator.  Sear.  Fordhook lima beans from freezer.  Jar of Mott's natural applesauce.  Methode Rotuts, mélange of effervescent gasses.