Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[huiray]

A sort-of Pad Woon Sen (ผัดวุ้นเส้น). Maybe with a hint of Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui (大姨媽嫁女).

 

 

Hot pan, peanut oil, chopped smashed garlic, sliced pork shoulder, a mixture of {fish sauce, double-fermented soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaohsing wine, water, ground white pepper}, peeled fuzzy melon sliced into skinny sticks, sliced de-seeded ripe poblano pepper, chunked yellow onion, couple eggs scrambled (more oil) in a well made in the center, pre-soaked glass noodles cut (kitchen shears) across the (softened) bundles, trimmed Thai basil and trimmed scallions. Plated, snarfed. Seconds.

 

Edited September 29, 2015 by huiray (log)

[kayb]

No photos (because I forgot), but I made a sort of coq au vin, per a recipe I found in the local newspaper from a local personal chef who also writes a regular column for the paper. I had a whole chicken in the freezer so I cut that into quarters, and used it. While it was nice and moist, it didn't take on nearly as much of the flavor of the sauce (which was quite tasty) as I wished it would. The prep instructions called for searing it, then building the sauce (onions, garlic, tomatoes, wine, thyme and oregano, with chicken broth) and then returning the chicken to the pan and braising for an hour before adding the sauteed mushrooms. Any ideas why the sauce just seemed not to penetrate the meat?

 

Also made some perfectly wonderful green beans -- a jar I had canned last summer, drained, tossed with a sauce made of soy sauce, worcestershire, garlic and brown sugar and with several slices of bacon, crumbled, and then baked. Just yummy.

 

 

 

(Edited to add the mushrooms to the chicken....)

Edited September 29, 2015 by kayb (log)

[Dejah]

Make-shift Chicken Marsala Florentine: Seasoned flour-drenched skinless chicken thighs, browned then finished in the oven. Sauce: made with foraged meadow mushrooms, fresh oregano, sun-dried tomato, a glug of Marsala, and Romaine lettuce leaves 'cos I didn't have any spinach...Good supper for a chilly evening.

 

[ElainaA]

No picture tonight due to chaos and time pressure. The plan was for Yassa chicken over rice. I did remember to take the chicken out of the freezer. But I did not remember that it should marinate 24 hours (in the recipe I use). And that realization didn't hit home until 6:00 pm when I was starting to cook dinner. Oops. I briefly panicked. My husband - on top of things as usual - poured me a glass of wine. 

 

After briefly thinking of other uses for the (now thawed) chicken I decided that I would do the chicken yassa tomorrow. For tonight I pulled out the pork chops, originally meant for tomorrow, and went to one of my fall back dishes which I only think of as "my mother's pork chops". This was one of the standard dishes of my childhood - pork chops seared briefly, removed from the pan, LOTS of onions sautéed in the same pan in oil, a mixture of tomato paste, a lot of thyme and water added to the pan and cooked down a bit, the chops returned to the pan and simmered until done. (She did basically the same thing with chicken quarters.) Simple, not at all sophisticated and very homey. My mother always served it with rice, some of the tomato/onion sauce going over the rice. I prefer it with mashed potatoes which is what we had tonight. With, of course, a salad. It's good  - but that it makes me remember my mother makes it extra good

 

After dinner, I chopped the onions, garlic and ginger and made the marinade for the chicken. For tomorrow.

[robirdstx]

Lots of leftovers! Will portion up and freeze most of it

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Make-shift Chicken Marsala Florentine: Seasoned flour-drenched skinless chicken thighs, browned then finished in the oven. Sauce: made with foraged meadow mushrooms, fresh oregano, sun-dried tomato, a glug of Marsala, and Romaine lettuce leaves 'cos I didn't have any spinach...Good supper for a chilly evening.

 

eGulletChixMarsala8294.jpg

 

Beautiful photograph!  My dinner is leftover bryani and some tomatoes.

 

I've not made chicken marsala in years.  Does yours come out slightly sweet?  Glug is such a nice measurement when you don't need to be as precise as wineglasses.

[liuzhou]

I gave up on parrotfish for the moment. Toxins and chips?

 

So, I went with something much safer. Fish and chips with a hopefully non-toxic pescatorial contribution.

 

 

Sea bass fillet, chips, shimeji mushrooms and pickled kelp.

 

What you see is one serving. I ate two.

 

There was some grilled asparagus on the side.

[Dejah]

Beautiful photograph!  My dinner is leftover bryani and some tomatoes.

 

I've not made chicken marsala in years.  Does yours come out slightly sweet?  Glug is such a nice measurement when you don't need to be as precise as wineglasses.

The only "sweetness" I noticed was from the Romaine lettuce...the natural taste and not the sugary kind.

The Marsala was a dry one. The Meadow Mushrooms held up well to the simmering and reduction.

[Shelby]

Hi everyone!

 

I've been looking at all of your wonderful meals.  I can tell fall is sneaking in to a few areas  I'm ready for the cooler air....and less gardening lol.

 

Been a while since I've posted anything here.  Our hunter came to stay with us for a few days.  I was all set to post pics of the meals and I only managed to remember to take ONE picture.  I guess I was too busy.  Anyway, for appetizers one evening I set out some head cheese and pimento cheese.  BIG hit.  I didn't make either of them lol, but it was dang good.

 

 

 

After he left I was POOPED.  I don't know why, but for me cooking for just ONE extra person throws me into a spin lol.  

 

Since then we've had a lot of repeats.  MANY meals that include doves.  They shot a lot of doves.

Doves, okra, rice

 

 

And a venison taco salad.

 

 

 

[Paul Bacino]

Black-eyed Pea and Pork Soup

Beans/Peas Cooked in a 3/1 Water stock with carrot/ celery onion/ garlic/ bay/ hard salami/Penzy North-woods seasoning ( cooked/cooled three times )

Later

To this Bean/Pea stock I added fresh garden tomato puree

Pork was slow roasted and pulled added and cooked 30 mins

Add cilantro and lime to finish

 

 

 

 

 

[kayb]

Dinner last night was a quick riff on Vietnamese caramel fish, via the NYT Cooking recipe collection. It called for bluefish, which I've never had and don't think I can get in these parts, but I had tilapia in the freezer so I used that. Served over rice with edamame, another NYT Cooking recipe, and was GOING to be served with yet another dish from the same source, a smashed cucumber salad. Until I got home and discovered my cucumbers had been in the fridge too long, and had gone slimy on me. So we made do with fish, rice and edamame.

 

 

 

[huiray]

Soup. Turnip greens & straw mushrooms (canned) in chicken stock/broth.

Hmm, might make more stock this weekend.

 

Linguine with andouille sausage & stuff.

(In sequence) Pan on medium heat, EV olive oil, chopped garlic, andouille sausage [smoking Goose/Goose the Market] sliced into rounds, sauté; cut-up costata romanesco zucchini, hot red chilli flakes, cook; pan on high heat, chunked ripe fresh tomatoes, cook down a bit, some of the caper-soaking-water (see later), dried thyme, cook down/stir a bit more; halved drained artichokes [Reese], stir/cook briefly; linguine [De Cecco] straight from the pot where it was cooked separately, stir/fold/toss around, Salina salted capers [Mongetto] (pre-rinsed & pre-soaked in a small bowl of water), mix in and cook a minute more. Serve.

Edited September 30, 2015 by huiray (log)

[ElainaA]

Huiray - I love the stuff:pasta ratio here. More stuff is good - especially this kind of stuff.

[huiray]

Huiray - I love the stuff:pasta ratio here. More stuff is good - especially this kind of stuff.

 

:-)

Thanks.

[Norm Matthews]

I wanted to try Elaina A's Mushrooms Berkely and the fish with potato scales on parchment that rotuts brought to our attention a while back so I did both for dinner tonight plus some little round white and short eggplant cooked in butter with a Korean dipping sauce and Ponzu mixed together and brushed on them.  The potato scales were hard to judge for browning but I guess it was an OK first time effort.  My stove was actually acting up.  The first burner I used, when I turned down the heat, it stayed high.  I moved it to another burner. Guess I'll have to call a service person. It isn't the first time that burner has acted up.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[huiray]

• Soup. Rice bran oil, garlic, rehydrated dried shrimp (har mai), water, chicken stock, the soaking water for the har mai, rehydrated wood-ear fungus, simmer; cut-up de-skinned fuzzy squash, salt, simmer till done.

• Chinese BBQ pork (char-siu) (from Asia Mart), parked on top of the rice being cooked after the water had just dropped below the level of the rice. Scallions.

• White rice, w/ the drippings from the char-siu.

 

[liuzhou]

I had one sea bass fillet left over from yesterday, so pan fried that as a starter. I started by crisping the skin, but sprinkled the other side with this new find. Ginger cooking wine from Zhenjiang, more famous for its black rice vinegar often known by the old romanisation, Chinkiang Vinegar. It is just what it says. Cooking wine infused with ginger. I bought it more out of curiosity than any desire to use it regularly, but it is a quick shortcut.

 

 

Served simply on its own, it was mildly flavoured with ginger and quite pleasant.

 

 

The main event involves a back story. Yesterday, I was in a local supermarket and for the first time ever in China saw duck breasts on sale. I copped ten of them and stuck them in the freezer. (They have a bad habit of testing new items and never restocking.) So strange are these to the locals that a couple of people asked me what they were (despite the clear sign) and what to do with them. It amused me to see that there was a large sign advising people that they needed to be cooked! This information was also repeated on the checkout ticket.

 

So, here is my first one. Started off in a pan and finished in the oven. Left to rest and sliced. It could have been pinker and the skin crisper, but I ain't complaining. I have nine more to develop the technique (unless I pick up some more tomorrow.)

 

Served with sautéed potatoes (duck fat of course) and asparagus.

 

 

Followed by ice cream. 

[rotuts]

is cooking wine in China  'salty' to avoid an alcohol tax ?

[liuzhou]

is cooking wine in China  'salty' to avoid an alcohol tax ?

 

No. So far as I am aware that only happens in the USA. I've never come across it in Europe. And certainly not in China.

 

But I thought the reason in the USA was to render it undrinkable to allow non-licensed stores to sell it.

Edited October 1, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[rotuts]

exactly   its not counted as alcohol I think.

[Shelby]

Norm--great job on the fish.  I love the "scales".

 

 

Spaghetti night

 

 

 

 

[Kim Shook]

Elaina – Mr. Kim would adore those evil mushrooms (not me though – in my opinion ALL mushrooms are evil!  ).  Thanks for ID’ing them.  I’ll be making them for him the next time we have steak!

 

 

Chris Taylor – I’ve never had lamb ribs, but I know I’d love them.  I remember my mom roasting lamb shanks.  Poor Southern US lady had married a Brit and never cooked lamb in her life!  So when he asked for lamb shanks, she did what came naturally – dust with flour, S&P and roasted until medium-well.  They were fairly tough – I usually braise mine, as I did this week – but I still remember that pure lamb flavor and the just-short-of-burned fat.  We’d pick them up and gnaw them feeling like Fred Flintstone!  I imagine lamb ribs having that same pure taste. 

 

Everyone is making me want shrimp!

 

I honestly don’t know how much cooking is going to get done over the next week or so.  With the possibility of  the hurricane arriving, I went out and bought a ton of canned stuff and things that don’t require electricity.  We could conceivably have my mother, our daughter and their 3 cats added to our household if there is flooding and/or power loss.  So, one way or another, we’ll be eating a LOT of crappy food over the week and it wouldn’t be worth showing here.  Unless I can talk Mike into donating what we don’t use  !  A few recent meals -

 

Jessica made pancakes for dinner one night:

They were perfect – light and fluffy and buttery!

 

Another meal started with an apple-walnut butter lettuce salad with cranberry vinaigrette:

Nice change from my usual tossed salad!  And I actually COOKED!  Braised lamb shanks with caramelized onions, rice and roasted sprouts with pancetta:

 

Last night was ‘comfort food night’ beginning with crunchy stuff with hummus:

 

Pickly stuff:

 

And creamed chipped beef:

[rotuts]

""   creamed chipped beef  ""

 

best ive ever seen

 

one of the Primary Food Groups

 

Illhave to get back there soon.

 

​In college, i could eat this stuff faster than that could sling it.

 

no where as tasty looking as yours.

[suzilightning]

No photos (because I forgot), but I made a sort of coq au vin, per a recipe I found in the local newspaper from a local personal chef who also writes a regular column for the paper. I had a whole chicken in the freezer so I cut that into quarters, and used it. While it was nice and moist, it didn't take on nearly as much of the flavor of the sauce (which was quite tasty) as I wished it would. The prep instructions called for searing it, then building the sauce (onions, garlic, tomatoes, wine, thyme and oregano, with chicken broth) and then returning the chicken to the pan and braising for an hour before adding the sauteed mushrooms. Any ideas why the sauce just seemed not to penetrate the meat?

 

Also made some perfectly wonderful green beans -- a jar I had canned last summer, drained, tossed with a sauce made of soy sauce, worcestershire, garlic and brown sugar and with several slices of bacon, crumbled, and then baked. Just yummy.

 

 

 

(Edited to add the mushrooms to the chicken....)

 

I was taught that I had to marinate the chicken in a wine/veg/herb mixture for a day or so before cooking it.

 

It's back to rain and cool here so some real comfort food for me (Johnnybird and his brother may - or may not - get home tomorrow night from Englad).  Potatoes baked with olive oil and kosher salt, steamed broccoli and some Hollandaise that I thinned a bit with the steaming water from the broccoli.

Also sautéed two small chicken breasts then finished with some tomato sauce leftover from making individual lasagnas.  If I'm hungry later I may eat one - otherwise they go with pasta and a nice salad.   No clue what tomorrow may hold ...or the next day ...or the next.  Will take it one day at a time.

[Smithy]

I adapted a friend's recipe for yellow and red tomato 'pie' a few nights ago: omitted the pastry shell and substituted fresh, finely sliced potatoes instead.  The layers are helped with a mix of grated parmesan, mayonnaise and garlic.  The photo isn't the greatest, but we agreed the dinner was well worth repeating.