Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[Morkai]

Cod fried in beer batter and panko breadcrumbs (extremely crispy, really love doing it that way), with mushy peas with mint, tomato salad with mint and homemade tartar sauce with beetroot roses

 

spipet, that is a beautiful crust on that fish. Did you make the beer batter on your own, or did you use a recipe?

[Tri2Cook]

I'm most familiar with "deconstructed" as a term in literary criticism and philosophy - not in cooking. But then, I've never been cool.   I do think that in this case it it a literal description of the dish. It's also much less judgmental than 'lazy' or 'cheater'.  I also deconstruct stuffed peppers and occasionally stuffed squash. I actually did that long before I came across this recipe in one of Bittman's articles in the NY Times. 

editied to add: Be glad you never met my mother-in-law's constructed cabbage rolls.

I never thought about a judgmental aspect to "lazy" or "cheater" as relates to food. I always thought of it more as "I'm tired today and don't feel like doing all that f'ing work".  

 

[spipet]

spipet, that is a beautiful crust on that fish. Did you make the beer batter on your own, or did you use a recipe?

The beer batter couldn't be simpler. What I usually do is take a random amount of all purpose flour and a bit of salt and add beer until the batter is still quite thick, almost as thick as store bought vanilla custard. I coat the fish in seasoned flour, batter and then roll the fish trough panko breadcrumbs and really pack/pat the breadcrumbs on the fish. If you want I can write down measurements next time . And the nice thing is, that batter will work with anything. I've tried chicken, courgette, prawns and even banana.

Edited October 15, 2015 by spipet (log)

[Dejah]

Weather turning cooler and we're wanting soup for dinner!

 

Tofu Shirataki noodles soup in chicken stock, choy sum, BBQ pork (non- Chinese), and quail eggs. When schedule is tight due to field trips with my students, this is handy.

 

 

A little more time and effort, and we had Hot & Sour soup. Made a big batch and sent some over to a friend who's down with a terrible cold and sinus problem. It cleared her up!

 

 

Hubby always likes rice in his soup, as if there aren't enough ingredients in it already!

 

[Dejah]

I think the Big Easy thread has been buried as I haven't been using it as much as I should. Also, I don't think there was  a Canadian Thanksgiving thread? 

So, I'm combining the two and posting it here on "dinner"

 

For Saturday, our turkey was 17 lbs, brined overnight, then roasted in the Big Easy for 2 hours. The turkey was stuffed, and I can't remember if this was the first time. May have cooked the stuffing separately before. It all turned out beautifully, colour-wise, tender, and juicy. . We had lots of sides, but I only took a pic of the brussel sprouts.

 

The bird was carved before I caught it with the camera. As you can see, the skin was gorgeous with crispy bits on the wings, etc The drippings were caught in the tray underneath, and it made wonderful gravy.

 

 

These are Michael Symons Holiday Brussel Sprouts...Can never have too much bacon...

 

 

For Sunday, we corraled 13 people (3 under 3 years old) and 3 big dogs together for family pictures. As a reward for behaving, we had 15 lbs of Alaskan King Crab, baby taters, etc for supper. Couldn't get the folks to wait until I got pictures of the food!

 

[heidih]

I think the Big Easy thread has been buried as I haven't been using it as much as I should. Also, I don't think there was  a Canadian Thanksgiving thread? 

 

 

 

 

I think this is the topic you refer to.  Lovely bird

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145630-cooking-with-the-char-broil-oil-less-big-easy-fryer/

Edited October 16, 2015 by heidih (log)

[ElainaA]

 

Yesterday I found honey nut squash at a local farm stand. There was a big sign "NEW CORNELL VARIETY" ( the farm stand is less than 2 miles from Cornell). They looked really cute so I bought some. When I got home I googled them (what else?) and found they are a cross of butternut and buttercup, bred for intense flavor. 

 

Dinner:

 

Rather monochromatic (something my mother always warned me against - she never mentioned drugs or sex but don't have a monochromatic plate. The reasons are complicated.)

Roasted pork loin with honey mustard sauce and applesauce, roasted honey nut squash with lots of garlic and roasted potatoes. The squash was really good but I'm not sure if it was all that different from regular butternut. I do like the small size though (4-5"). I can never find a butternut squash that isn't way too big for two people.

 

Anti-climax: After buying these NEW!! squash yesterday, today I saw a huge pile of them at the local Price Chopper, simply labelled butternut squash. 

Edited October 16, 2015 by ElainaA (log)

[suzilightning]

Roasts on sale at a local supermarket so I picked up a 2.5 lb beef one...Italian beef for dinner.  I don't have a rack for my roaster so made a vege rack with carrots.  Roasted new potatoes and the jus made a wonderfully hearty dinner.  Leftover thinly sliced beef, the jus and some crusty rolls promise to be lunch ... or maybe dinner today.

Johnnybird declared the carrots to be some of the best he has had.  Ususally he wants them steamed then dressed with sage honey and olive oil but these were perfectly cooked and savory.

[huiray]

A couple of meals with chicken-cabbage soup.

 

Water, chopped-up chicken leg quarters, parboiled in hot water, rinsed off, re-simmered in fresh water w/ chicken stock, a bit of extra oil, crushed garlic; simmer; then sliced green cabbage & simmer till done.

Meal 1: with toasted vermicelli [Ahmed Foods] & parsley garnish.

Meal 2: with lumachine [Garofalo] (cooked separately), broccoli florets (briefly simmered in the soup, & parsley wilted into the soup at the end.

 

[Kim Shook]

rotuts – yes, I roasted the meatballs.  I have no patience with trying to evenly brown round meatballs in a frying pan!

 

Shelby – thanks!  I’m sure you are right about people not even tasting the difference.  I probably should have just kept my mouth shut and shared!

 

Elise – how lovely to ‘see’ you and your wonderful food!

 

dcarch – wonderful to see your gorgeous meals again!  I’ve been missing them.

 

Elaina – that meal sounded fantastic – the food AND the company.  That is a party I’d love to have joined.

 

A couple of recent meals - veal loin chops with a mustard-cream-sage sauce:

Mr. Kim liked it a lot, but I found the sage to be a little overwhelming.

 

And then breakfast for dinner:

Our sweet neighbors went to NYC and brought us some BAGELS!  So much better than what we get here!

[rotuts]

KS:  I like the idea of roasting MB's

 

what were your time and temps for those ?

[Shelby]

Oh man, I know I'm not awake yet.  I had the hardest time figuring out what MB's were, Rotuts LOL.  Duh, meatballs!  I'm drinking coffee (which is rare for me) maybe that will make my brain work better lol.

 

It must be the week for breakfast for dinner, Kim

 

I always get excited when my biscuits turn out ok.  I don't care what you tell me, the butter cut into the flour never has, never does and never will resemble peas.

 

 

Tomato gravy, boudin, 'maters, (it's been strangely HOT here so they are still producing a few here and there) fried potatoes and onions and scrambled eggs for me.  Ronnie had his eggs soft.

 

 

Crab enchiladas

 

 

 

 

Ann's wings

 

[huiray]

Prawns^§ pan-fried w/ peanut oil, sliced ginger, trimmed scallions, sea salt, black pepper, sliced hot ripening Korean chilli, good Shaohsing wine.

The prawns were soaked in cool running tap water for a while, drained & semi-dried/patted down w/ paper towels, the long feelers trimmed off, then tossed w/ generous amounts of sea salt & fresh ground black pepper and left alone for a bit before frying.

 

Tender amaranth^¶ (green pointed leaf edible amaranth variety) "stir-fried"/sautéed w/ sliced garlic & peanut oil.

ETA: Oh, and just simply sea salt.

 

Several bowls of white rice, with splashes of the available sauce from the prawn dish and scraped from the pan.  :-)

 

The clean, "green" taste of the amaranth complemented very well (in a contrasting way) the more complex taste of the prawns as done/prepared. For my taste.

 

 

^§ Technically prawns, not shrimp. They had sequentially overlapping (like roof tiles) exoskeleton segments, plus 3 pairs of claw-like appendages.

^¶ Bought as "tandaljo bhaji" (Gujarati/Northern India name).

Edited October 17, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Yesterday, I tried a recipe from Jaques Pepin for braised chicken using all dark meat, bacon and vegetables. It was braised on the bone but I took them out before serving.  It would have made a good pot pie if it had been topped with a biscuit dough.  I don't understand frozen pot pie packages that shout ALL WHITE MEAT as if that were a good thing.

 

Edited October 17, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[scubadoo97]

Huiray, your shrimp dish looks fantastic

[ninagluck]

sometimes I have favorite ingredients and use them a lot. right now: blackpudding. tonight I treated myself with apple, blackpudding, scallop.....

[Norm Matthews]

Chicken Parmesan was tonights dinner.  

 

[ElainaA]

Calzone - I forgot to take a picture until after most of it was eaten. Filled with ricotta, mozzarella, goat cheese, pancetta , sausage, roasted peppers and red onion. 

 

[liamsaunt]

spaghetti with lobster and clams

 

[spipet]

spaghetti with lobster and clams

 

lobster spaghetti 2.jpg

That looks like a bowl of heaven...

[suzilightning]

Though it is supposed to warm up here by midweek, it is a COLD weekend here.  Last night Johnnybird asked for coq au vin so he got that with his beloved egg noodles.  I hate to clean pearl onions so I cheated ... frozen and thawed.  Really nice sauce with a pinot noir and homemade chicken stock. 

The leftover mushrooms are going to be a starter for todays dinner with the stems minced and then sautéed and mixed with some Parmesan and basil soft cheese.

Still no idea what the main may be...

[Dejah]

Norm Matthews: That braised chicken dish is perfect for autumn days, especially in the slow cooker waiting after a full day of cleaning up the yard.

 

huiray: Those prawns in the shell - my favourite way to have shrimp, but hubby is not adept at shelling them "in the mouth" as I am, so I peel his portion before cooking.

 

Shelby: Your meals always look interesting and delish, but I was paying special attention to the fries with Ann's wings.

 

laimsaunt: spaghetti with lobster and clams - great eye appeal and combination!

 

A quick meal after working most of the days cleaning off the pots and beds of annual plants. Local supermarket had fresh pickerel fillets -  buy one pkg get one free. Still expensive but it was a little more reasonable. Had 1/4 lb of seasoned butter leftover ]from our crab feast, so the fillets were quickly fried and eaten with roasted cauliflower "steaks"

 

[rotuts]

tis also quite cold here for a few days  Snow to the western part of the state  

 

I had left over turkey meat loaf, gravy, mashed potatoes etc

 

but needed a hot starter :

 

 

Roasted Chicken 'broth'   ( Minor's paste ) with frozen Chinese dumplings  ( pork and shrimp ) green onions

 

and a lot of coarsely grated ginger  ( skin on, kept air tight in the freezer )

 

these dumplings have a thicker skin than WonTon's so need to be simmered rather than microwaved

 

very nice, very quick on a cold cold day

[scubadoo97]

The other night I made tuna tacos while trying to clean out the fridge of older produce.

[huiray]

Thanks, scubadoo97!

 

----------------------------------------

 

Short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed (peanut oil) w/ smashed garlic (Music) & sea salt then stewed/simmered w/ thick-cap Chinese "flower pattern" mushrooms (rehydrated first), black wood-ear fungus (pre-rehydrated also), some chicken stock + the soaking water for the mushrooms + more water; then later on, young daikon (Funny Bone Farm (Amish farmer)) scrubbed but unpeeled, cut into ~2 inch lengths; simmer till done.

 

Taiwan bok choy stir-fried w/ garlic & peanut oil, plus just sea salt.

 

Couple heaped bowls of white rice.

Edited October 18, 2015 by huiray (log)