Dinner 2015 (part 4)

[Paul Bacino]

Finished :   Zucchini Lasagna

 

Zucchini-  slice thin/ salted/ drained and pressed 6 hrs to remove excess water

 

Bolognese -Carrots/celery/garden onions/ ground chuck & neck bone meat/ garlic/deglace with vermouth/ add whole milk cook/  three different tomato based ingredients ( touch of scorpion pepper )

 

Assembly  -  alternate Romano or Parm/ Kraft 5 italian cheese/ Bolognese with layers of Zucchini/ baked 325 for 45 Mins

 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Seared Corvina with a side of pasta puttanesca and roasted cauliflower

[Anna N]

Pressure cooked chicken and rice with mango chutney. Chicken was finished under the broiler.

[ElainaA]

Chutney is my favorite addition to rice. And to chicken.

[Baselerd]

As I do not have a smoker (since I live in a highrise) I tried the sous vide smokerless smoked brisket recipe from Chefsteps. They claimed it was indistinguishable from properly smoked brisket, and while I have had better BBQ (living in Texas, naturally), this was up there among the best. Unfortunately my meat was pretty lean, I'm thinking of trying it again with some fattier brisket, since that perfect melt-in-your-mouth fat is what would likely set the sous vide approach apart from traditional BBQ.

 

[scubadoo97]

Looks good. How did you achieve a smoke ring with no smoker?

[Baselerd]

The ring is really just aesthetic, but I threw a little bit of Prague powder #1 into the brine at the end (it had been brining for 24 hours, I threw in the pink salt and let is brine another 2 hours). All the ring is (in both traditional smoking and in this case) is a reaction between myoglobin (a protein in muscle tissue), water, and nitrogen.

[gfweb]

Yes, they taste and smell similar to lychees. And you are right about fresh lychees v canned. It's been years since I had a canned lychee, but I remember a metallic taste which is absent in the fresh ones.

 

The longan are much smaller than lychees and have a hard shell. Not as hard as your can though!

 

Here are three in my hand. 

 

 

In Mandarin Chinese, longan are known as 龙眼  (lóng yǎn) which means 'dragons' eyes'. You can see the black pupil (the seed) through the translucent white flesh. (sorry, the flesh is more white than appears in the photograph.)

 

 

Our local sushi place, which is run by Chinese, gave me a bowl of these still on the branch last week.  They really looked like eyeballs but tasted wet and sweet and ...refreshing. Sort of like lychee but different. No metallic taste.

[liuzhou]

Our local sushi place, which is run by Chinese, gave me a bowl of these still on the branch last week.  They really looked like eyeballs but tasted wet and sweet and ...refreshing. Sort of like lychee but different. No metallic taste.

 

Yes. They are normally sold still on the branch.

[huiray]

Tomatoes with scrambled eggs (蕃茄炒蛋). White rice.

Oil, scallions,eggs, Shaohsing wine, salt, white pepper, tomatoes, turbinado sugar, ketchup.

 

Lotus root soup.

Oil, garlic, pork riblets, salt, water, dried Chinese jujubes, dried Solomon's Seal rhizome slices, dried longan flesh, raw peanuts, dried honey jujube, lotus root slices, dried wolfberries.

Edited August 25, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Baselerd,

 

You have given me another reason to covet a sous vide rig. Wow!

 

While I'm with you in preferring fattier cuts, (rib eye, not closely trimmed, thick-cut and charcoal grilled is my favorite) your lean brisket looks succulent, moist, and the perfect texture.

 

Now that your discourse with scubadoo has established how you acheived the reddish smoke ring, which I was also very curious about, I'm sure others as well as myself would be interested to know how you managed the blackening on the exterior. It looks really, really good.

 

Is that a moist dense cornbread served with your brisket?

[liamsaunt]

fishcakes with remoulade, sweet corn, and garden tomatoes

 

[scubadoo97]

The ring is really just aesthetic, but I threw a little bit of Prague powder #1 into the brine at the end (it had been brining for 24 hours, I threw in the pink salt and let is brine another 2 hours). All the ring is (in both traditional smoking and in this case) is a reaction between myoglobin (a protein in muscle tissue), water, and nitrogen.

Thanks,

Yes I know about a forced smoke ring and the biology. I've never gone through the effort but it does look good

[liuzhou]

Last time I bought okra in China, it was overlarge and stringy as oakum - totally inedible.

 

Recently, a couple of places have had small pods and so I decided to try again.

 

 

Stir fried pork kidney with okra and red chilli peppers, onion and garlic. Served with buttery mash.

Not a string to be found. No slime either.

[Shelby]

That okra looks perfect.  Nice and small and tender, Liuzhou.  

 

LiamsAunt, fish cakes...I haven't made those for a while.  I love your rainbow tomato stack!

 

BLT's and fries for us.

 

[Baselerd]

Baselerd,

 

You have given me another reason to covet a sous vide rig. Wow!

 

While I'm with you in preferring fattier cuts, (rib eye, not closely trimmed, thick-cut and charcoal grilled is my favorite) your lean brisket looks succulent, moist, and the perfect texture.

 

Now that your discourse with scubadoo has established how you acheived the reddish smoke ring, which I was also very curious about, I'm sure others as well as myself would be interested to know how you managed the blackening on the exterior. It looks really, really good.

 

Is that a moist dense cornbread served with your brisket?

 

Thanks,

 

To get that black, crispy crust I made a glaze with liquid smoke, molasses, and liquid amino. The brisket was cooked in the sous vide bath with this glaze, removed, and patted dry (this helped color the exterior a little bit). Then to finish it off, it was glazed again and generously coated with a rub (smoked salt, smoked pepper, chipotle, mustard powder, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder) and roasted in the oven at a low temp (275 F) for 4 hours until it was black and crispy.

 

If you're interested, I followed this recipe. (I'm not affiliated with them, but they do put out some awesome recipes). And yes, the brisket was served with some pressure cooked Boston beans and a dense, moist cornbread.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Baselerd (log)

[ElainaA]

 

 

Dinner tonight: Grilled salmon cakes with fresh corn relish, roasted potatoes and steamed runner beans. Plus a plate of 3 kinds of garden tomatoes.

[Anna N]

r

Potato, leek and celery soup.

Edited because I couldn't spell potato

Edited August 26, 2015 by Anna N (log)

[huiray]

Got a new jar of salted capers from Salinas today, as well as a bag of salted capers from Pantelleria.

 

Linguine with tuna & capers.

Tuna in olive oil [Ortiz] (undrained), garlic; salted capers [il Mongetto; from Salinas] (rinsed, soaked), hot red chile flakes; pasta cooking water, just-cooked linguine [De Cecco], parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, more pasta cooking water, fold in/toss in pan. Black pepper, parsley garnish.

(A Martha Stewart recipe. :-) )

[liamsaunt]

Lettuce wraps.  I only had romaine but this is what I was in the mood for.  It worked fine

 

[liuzhou]

Working my way (happily) through the bunch of okra I bought yesterday.

 

Chicken marinaded in Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce and corn starch. Fried okra with garlic, ginger and black fermented beans Added chicken and garlic chives. Served with red rice.

 

Edited August 26, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[dcarch]

Liuzhou,  you have been truly an inspiration in your food postings. You have expand everyone's horizon in cooking.

 

I also want to mentioned that, your plating is very well done too, in your own unique style.

 

Thanks!

 

 

dcarch

[liuzhou]

dcarch

 

Thank  you so much.

 

I'm not sure I agree with you, though! Especially, I always feel my plating is my weak point. These days, I only cook for myself and make less effort than I used to. Also, by the time the food is ready, I'm hungry and want to eat. My "unique style" is bung it on a plate, take a quick couple of snaps then eat the stuff!

 

I look at some beautiful plating here and elsewhere and always think that the food must be stone cold by the time it has been arranged so perfectly! Then even colder by the time it has been artistically photographed.

Edited August 26, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[Shelby]

Wings, 'maters, zucchini and a bit of leftover tomato bread pudding.

 

[dcarch]

dcarch

 

Thank  you so much.

 

I'm not sure I agree with you, though! Especially, I always feel my plating is my weak point. -----------------------

 

Too bad, you have no say in this. :-)

 

Art is in the eye of the beholder; me, is the beholder and I say you have great plating and I like what you have been doing.

 

There is something for everyone to realize. Today art is a very different thing. In the past, you must paint or sculpt in whatever style that was prevalent, or you are not an artist. But today if you go to an art museum, you see Andy Warhol, Grandma Moses, Picasso, Josef Albers, Keith Haring, Jackson Pollock, Claes Oldenburg, Georgia O'Keeffe -------------- --------. 

 

Don't copy what you see in magazines, don't copy other's, just do what you feel looks good to you.

 

dcarch

 

Edited August 26, 2015 by dcarch (log)