Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[gfweb]

Duck breast with lingonberry demiglace, arugula, pickled cauliflower and new potatoes

 

 

 

[Shelby]

WOW Gfweb, that is amazing.  Perfect sear on the duck.  Perfect.

[suzilightning]

Does a meal really need anything other than fresh corn and summer tomatoes? When corn and tomatoes are in season it is hard to pretend to care about anything else.

 

HELL NO!! Especially if you live in New Jersey.

 

That being said the last few dinners have been:

 

homemade pasta with pesto and shrimp

pizza with that homemade pesto and thin slices of Mortgage Lifter tomatoes

chicken quesadillas with guacamole instead of cheese as a binding agent

 

I have been CRAVING nachos so pulled some ground bison out of the freezer to make a thick chili, Ro-tel tomatoes to make queso (have to get some Velveeta to make that right), black olives and some black beans. 

[liuzhou]

I seem to have got over my recent comfort food spell and tonight went for some "uncomfortable food".

 

 

Beef marinated in Shaoxing wine with garlic, ginger and black salt fermented soy beans, then stir fried with sliced bitter melon. Served with rice.

 

Some strong tastes, but not really uncomfortable. I love bitter melon. In fact, many of my neighbours probably classify this as comfort food.

 

[Shelby]

Liuzhou, I've never had bitter melon.  It looks so pretty.  I like the shape.

 

 

Breakfast last night.  There are biscuits hiding under that gravy.  My husband added a tad of tomato juice (gave it a kick--really good)  to my gravy, that's why it looks a bit pinkish.  

 

[huiray]

Sautéed fresh shrimp.

Let's call this a riff on 薑蔥椒鹽蝦 (ginger-scallion-pepper-salt-shrimp). :-)

Hot oil & hot pan, sliced ginger, some trimmed scallions, sea salt, fresh shrimp (bought live), ground white pepper, lots more trimmed scallions plus half a deseeded sliced ripening Hatch chile.

 

Sliced kai-lan stems stir-fried w/ garlic & a glob of oyster sauce.

 

Lots of white rice.

[Dejah]

liuzhou: re- beef and bitter melon: "Some strong tastes, but not really uncomfortable. I love bitter melon. In fact, many of my neighbours probably classify this as comfort food".

 

My whole family and I love bitter melon, with rice or ho fun. Our daughter, who is living in Boston for the year, craved this  "comfort food" so much that she phoned for instructions and made it in her tiny kitchen. 
 

I sometimes will make soup too, with re-hydrated oysters, pork neck bones and ginger. It's very "cooling" when the body needs balancing.
Bitter melon is one of these foods that you either love or hate
 

[scamhi]

last night was spaghettini with king crab.

[patrickamory]

Roast chicken again. The bird comes from Cascun Farms. Cooked over these really sweet little farmstand onions. Served with parsleyed rice.

 

[ElainaA]

 

Kreatopita and salad. I'm not sure they show up but there are pea shoots on top of the salad- serendipitously. Sometime ago I picked and shelled the last of the garden peas - and then had to be away for over a week, leaving them in the fridge. When I came back some of the peas were putting out shoots - so I planted them. I know there is not enough time before frost to get actual peas so I am using the pea shoots.

[Anna N]

I have to look up kreatopita and found it to be a Greek meat pie. Did you make these?

[ElainaA]

I have to look up kreatopita and found it to be a Greek meat pie. Did you make these?

Anna - Yes I did. I did use purchased phyllo. (I have seen instructions for making your own but that, I believe, is beyond me.) The filling reflects a combination of 3 separate recipes from various internet sites. I spent some wonderful times in Greece many, many years ago when I was in the travel-with-a-backpack-and-Eurail pass-and-almost-no-money stage of life. Sometimes I like to try to recreate the memories. Or maybe I'm having flashback.

[Anna N]

Anna - Yes I did. I did use purchased phyllo. (I have seen instructions for making your own but that, I believe, is beyond me.) The filling reflects a combination of 3 separate recipes from various internet sites. I spent some wonderful times in Greece many, many years ago when I was in the travel-with-a-backpack-and-Eurail pass-and-almost-no-money stage of life. Sometimes I like to try to recreate the memories. Or maybe I'm having flashback.

Thank you. I totally understand not making your own pastry! I don't know a lot about Greek cuisine but anything that uses phyllo and isn't spanakopita is bound to catch my attention. The way things are going there may even be room in my freezer soon for some store-bought phyllo. One can dream.

[Shelby]

It's dove season again.  I can't believe it   .  Seems like we just got done with it.  Anyway, Ronnie brought home 6.  Just enough for dinner.  Here they are.  Already headless. 

 

 

The usual bacon wrap with a jalapeño.  We didn't feel like cooking outside because it was HOT so I did these in the oven.

 

 

Fried okra, baked beans and 'maters too.

 

[huiray]

Chorizo & Tomato Rice.

Edible Amaranth.

 

Rice: EV olive oil, chopped yellow onion, sliced smashed garlic [siberian Red], Mexican chorizo sliced into rounds (casings removed), chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms, roughly cubed de-seeded ripening Poblano pepper, couple cubes of 'Caldo de Tomate con Sabor de Pollo' [Knorr], cut-up de-skinned ripe Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes, some bay leaves, long grain rice, water, salt. Simmer partly uncovered, then covered on lowest flame till done.

 

Greens: Trimmed edible amaranth & flowers (this variety, scroll down; 'Tandaljo Bhaji'), simply sautéed w/ rice bran oil & sea salt.

 

 

ETA: I forgot to add earlier - that the amaranth greens here is a sort of stand-in for quintoniles in older Mexican cuisine as a leafy green. :-) 

ETA2: here's one interesting article I also came across in poking around. (I read it with the aid of the Google translator :-) )

Edited September 6, 2015 by huiray (log)

[ElainaA]

Thank you. I totally understand not making your own pastry! I don't know a lot about Greek cuisine but anything that uses phyllo and isn't spanakopita is bound to catch my attention. The way things are going there may even be room in my freezer soon for some store-bought phyllo. One can dream.

If you have extra room in your freezer the kreatopita freezes very well. I make a large pan and then freeze half of it. Each half gives us (just my husband and I) a dinner and a lunch.

[liuzhou]

Got back from a trip out of town (work - yes on a Sunday - we are officially heathens here) and was dropped off right outside my favourite market just before closing time. Picked up some beautiful fat clams from my lovely seafood girl then was tempted by her equally wonderful, very frisky, BIG shrimp.

 

Here are six which died on the journey home. The rest were still very active. Anyway, just died shrimp are nearly as good as just about to die shrimp.

 

 

Cooked up some spaghetti. Steamed the clams with wine, garlic and a bit of green, facing heaven chilli, stir fried the shrimp and mixed the lot together with some coriander / cilantro.

 

 

Served with lots of kitchen paper and somewhere to dispose of clam and shrimp shells so that they can be recycled for stock later.

 

[suzilightning]

OOPS....

 

forgot that I had thawed some boneless pork chops so ... bashed them about a bit, topped with sage leaves and wrapped with prosciutto for saltimbocca.  Served with noodles and peas and carrots as per husbands request.

 

Now to go start that chili

[Norm Matthews]

The only thing I cooked today was an apple cake.

 

[David Ross]

Bouillabaisse with Mackerel, Prawns, Clams and Alaskan Halibut-

 

Grilled Roasted Garlic Bread with Rouille-

[ElainaA]

No picture again - but a very good dinner in spite of our local supermarket. My husband's night to cook. He wanted to make stuffed peppers with spiced lamb and feta (a CI recipe). I do my grocery shopping on Sunday. So - no ground lamb. In fact no lamb at all. And no veal, which I thought of as an alternative. So I ask the nice man in the meat department and am told that they will  no longer stock either lamb or veal - when he put it on the week's order it was eliminated by 'higher management'. Evidently our rural upstate NY community doesn't buy enough lamb or veal so it does not make financial sense to stock it. Unfortunately we have 2 supermarkets in town and this one generally has much better produce and fish. The other is a mile drive across town. So  we had stuffed peppers with ground beef. They still were very good. But I am also still really annoyed. (I'm being polite here.) Do any of you out there who live in rural areas have similar problems?

Edited September 7, 2015 by ElainaA (log)

[IowaDee]

Oh yes, I live in a rural community with one market that has never had lamb or veal in any way shape or form.  The next nearest market is 26 miles away and lamb shows up on their radar at Easter, veal never.  Out of necessity ground beef works when there are no choices.

[patrickamory]

Double tomatoes

 

 

[huiray]

Fagioli Corallo al Pomodoro.

I like this dish and variations thereof. :-)

 

 

Plus more of the chorizo rice from here.

[Tri2Cook]

Last night was Massamam beef curry. I've seen this dish with so many spelling variations of the name that I have no idea what is considered correct.