Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[huiray]

An infrequent (rare for me) type of meal tonight.  Southern-style food.

Take-out from Hollyhock Hill.

Fried chicken, fried chicken livers, corn, green beans, mash, gravy, iceberg salad, biscuits. Plus a coule of brownies, not pictured. Yes, there were lots of leftovers. no beans remaining but lots of corn and mash which will probably be set aside (or thrown out - I don't care much for either; these came as part of the carry-out "package"). Some sort of greens/beans will be needed to go with the next meal.

 

[Norm Matthews]

I'll have to try that thing with corks on pot lids.  This is all I have done with corks.

 

[ElainaA]

 

 

A tomato and goat cheese tart - I still have lots of tomatoes getting ripe. (PLEASE give me 2-3 weeks more before frost. Please!) Served with grilled swordfish and roasted beets. 

[scubadoo97]

Seared tuna with sushi rice sticks and edamame

[MetsFan5]

Scuba-- could you tell me more about the sushi rice sticks? They look awesome. As does the whole meal!

[kayb]

Damn! My casks don't come with corks.

 

Can send corks. Send address.

[liamsaunt]

linguini with clams

 

[scubadoo97]

Scuba-- could you tell me more about the sushi rice sticks? They look awesome. As does the whole meal!

I was just playing around with the rice.  Made sushi rice the standard way then added a little mayo and sriracha and pressed it into a loaf pan to cool.  After popping it out wasn't sure how I wanted to cut it. Rice sticks came to mind. 

As an after thought little squares the size of the tuna slices would have worked even better

[liuzhou]

I have to pay attention shopping here. If I buy a pork kidney or a bit of liver and don't pay attention, before I know what's happening, the vendor has butchered the offal according to the recipe for the only dish they happen to know using that particular cut.

I like the dishes they know, but sometimes like to ring changes.

 

It is particularly problematic with fish and other seafood. 

 

I've never met a Chinese fishmonger who could 'properly' fillet a fish. They only slice larger fish such as cod into slices at 90º to the spine. And they want to crosshatch score my squid, a fine technique, but not when I want to stuff the tubes or serve squid rings. I could go on.

 

Yesterday, I managed to get out of a supermarket with a whole, intact, ungutted, undescaled and certainly unchopped sea bass. The woman on the counter seemed like she was about to report me to the nearest anti-terrorism bureau. Back in my lair, I removed scales and inners myself then filleted parallel to the spine, as you do.

 

So dinner was pan-fried sea bass and black crab roe with red rice and shiitake mushrooms. I was unremittingly sure that I bought asparagus too, but the contents of both fridges refused to hand it over, so ...

 

 

I was particularly happy as I managed to get the fish skin nice and crisp as I wanted it. That has been a skill which, until now, has eluded me.

 

[FauxPas]

Too busy with guests to take pictures of some recent meals (we had a lot of visitors this summer) but I have a few bits and pieces from meals when on our own. We have a neighbour who fishes and gifts us with salmon quite often. Here's a sample:

 

 

We had the last peach cobbler of the season for dessert recenlty. Sniff, sniff. 

 

 

I've made lasagne a few times recently. This one is a ragu with veggies, I put several kinds of cheese on top. It was almost too cheesy, though my husband claims there is no such thing. Why didn't I take a picture after it cooked and was sliced? Sigh. Still, here is the sauce and the casserole ready to go in oven. This is a small casserole that fits in the Cuisinart Steam Convection oven. I love making this size. With just two of us, it's perfect for two separate meals. 

 

 

 

And the apples are coming on pretty strong these days. I've made several apple pies over the last couple of weeks. Here are two, why are they making faces at me? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElainaA]

 

 

And the apples are coming on pretty strong these days. I've made several apple pies over the last couple of weeks. Here are two, why are they making faces at me? 

 

 

 

Maybe they weren't happy in the oven? Nice pies, whatever they are thinking.

[ElainaA]

 

 

Tonight's dinner - Risotto with leeks and peas and grilled calamari with a lemon vinaigrette. The leeks sort of melted into the rice - they are these. I liked this a lot - it goes into my list of "things you must make when you have lots of leeks". And our inevitable salad.

Edited September 17, 2015 by ElainaA (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Pasta with collard green olive pesto,  shrimp, red bell pepper and feta:

 

I was worried that making a pesto with cooked greens would result in green slime.  It's smoother than my usual pesto but the olives and walnuts add enough texture to avoid any sense of slime.  I'll make it again. 

[ElainaA]

 

This is CI's summer vegetable torta. (Sorry, not a great picture.) The recipe used a lot of asiago - if I do this again (and I definitely would for a dinner party) I would either use something less assertive (fontina?) or a mix. For me, the cheese over powered the vegetables (eggplant, summer squash, roasted red peppers, tomatoes).  My husband however, loved it as is. It takes a lot of total time but not a huge amount of active time.

Served with scallion and black pepper buttermilk biscuits and our inevitable salad.

[huiray]

Couple of meals.

 

 

Yu choy sum (blanched) w/ oyster sauce & white pepper.

Fedelini w/ tomato sauce (Hazan) & Parm Reg.

 

 

 

Winter melon soup.  Had two helpings.

Oil, garlic (Music), beef short ribs, salt, water, beef stock, pre-soaked dried Chinese mushrooms, winter melon.

[liamsaunt]

More linguini, this time with shrimp

 

[mgaretz]

Last night I made ribs two ways: Char siu and smoked style. They were baby backs. The smoked were done using Memphis Dust and the Char Siu were done with NOH mix used as dry rub and some extra hoisin sauce. The latter were run through three marinate cycles on my chamber vacuum sealer before being vacuum sealed and resting for 3 hours. Both were cooked at 225F on my smoker, the Char Siu for three hours, LMRs for five. Served with cauliflower with butter and crushed cashews. Homemade dairy-free peanut butter "ice cream" for dessert.

 

 

 

 

[ninagluck]

we are getting normal temperatures over here, so I feel like cooking. With the powder of the dried fig leaves I made fresh pasta, served it with figs, crispy prosciutto and feta

[heidih]

we are getting normal temperatures over here, so I feel like cooking. With the powder of the dried fig leaves I made fresh pasta, served it with figs, crispy prosciutto and feta

 

Perhaps I missed an earlier discussion of the fog leaf powder. Did you simply dry and pulverize fig leaves? I've used them fresh as a wrapper for grilling or steaming. The powder sounds interesting- does it retain that coconut-like flavor?

[FauxPas]

We had a small prime rib oven roast last night. It was delicious! Used the standard/basic high oven heat to brown, then lower significantly to finish. Nice browning on the exterior and medium rare interior. But would like to know how others cook these? I thought of using sous-vide, but got home late and just went with the tried and true. 

 

Wish this picture was in focus, we had mixed veggies on the side, but the beef was the star. 

 

 

 

[huiray]

Part of dinner tonight – More of the winter melon soup from here, with slippery-smooth (after cooking) slim-width Fawm Xiengkhuang Bánh Phở [Dragonfly].

 

[ninagluck]

yes heidih, i dried them and pulverized them. I use it mainly for pasta and risotto. the flavor is completely different in this two dishes. in risotto it is a bit bitter, whereas in the pasta you taste the coconut.

[liamsaunt]

Roasted salmon with basil butter over tomato risotto.  The tomatoes are from my garden.  My garden was pretty much a failure this year except for the tomatoes.

 

[liuzhou]

Tonight, I did myself some rabbit.

 

De-boned a leg and thigh, then cubed it. Marinaded in olive oil. coriander seeds and garlic with a splash of lime juice for acidity. Stir fried the meat with leeks, then finished it in a whisky/mustard/cream sauce with coriander leaf/cilantro.

 

Served with rice and asparagus. And a glass of the whisky.

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[Dejah]

Picked up "Mature hens" at local grocery and thought I'd try a slow simmered soya sauce chicken. The meat was really thick / dense, so the flavour, even after 2.5 hours, was not as intense as I'd like it. The second half is in the fridge sitting in the sauce. Hope it will be more flavourful tonight.

 

 

Previous night, we had supper with visiting relatives and family. Prime rib was the request, but mainly for the Yorkies. I made 24 for 9 people...17-year-old grandson ate 4...

 

 

Dessert was Mango Pudding drizzled with evapo milk if desired...

 

 

The next night's dinner was at my brother's house. I made dessert...Oh BOY! Did I make dessert...the trifle must have weighed 10 lbs! We all love the custard part the best...