Dinner 2015 (Part 5)

[Dejah]

I shop every day - my relaxation

 

Last week, our local Superstore had some good deals, and I took advantage...

 

AAA strip loin steaks were $7.99/lb. And the fish lady ( a Vietnamese friend) just reduced packages of previously frozen lobster tails reduced by 30%.

 

Hubby and I shared a steak and a lobster tail each...both were good.

 

 

Enjoyed buttered lobster rolls down in Connecticut in August, and wanted to try my hand at making them. Kids were here for Labor Day long weekend, so a great opportunity to use up the other 6 lobster tails I picked up!

 

The tails were steamed, cooled, chopped, warmed up in lemon butter whisked into a couple of tbsp. of stock from the shells.

The buns were toasted panini buns. More of the butter sauce was spooned onto the lobster pieces just before showing down. Pretty good for a first time!

 

 

 

[kayb]

In honor of the Labor Day holiday, when I believe it is a legal requirement to make a burnt (or at least grilled) offering via the back yard, I quartered and grilled some local chickens. Quite excellent. It was also the inaugural run with my Grill Grates, which, on the basis of one effort, are well worth what I spent on them.

 

 

Thought about the traditional baked beans and potato salad, but decided to go with seasonal veggies instead. Sweet corn roasted (a bit too long) on the grill; purple hulled peas with tomato relish; fried okra and sliced tomatoes.

 

 

Three chicken quarters left. Chicken enchiladas tonight.

[rotuts]

"""  my Grill Grates, which, on the basis of one effort, are well worth what I spent on them. ""

 

nice.  did you season the top rails ?

 

the GG are made for chicken it seems, or anything that can flair up.

[kayb]

"""  my Grill Grates, which, on the basis of one effort, are well worth what I spent on them. ""

 

nice.  did you season the top rails ?

 

the GG are made for chicken it seems, or anything that can flair up.

Sprayed them down with canola oil, per the instructions. I'll do that the next 2-3 times I use them. Anxious to use them with burgers, as that's what I've had the most trouble with sticking to the grill.

[TicTac]

Please explain the purpose of these grates....

 

When I do chicken (I have a Napoleon BBQ) I just get it high, then a few minutes before putting the birds on, reduce to nearly low and cook low and slow - 95% no flare ups.

[Smithy]

Please explain the purpose of these grates....

 

When I do chicken (I have a Napoleon BBQ) I just get it high, then a few minutes before putting the birds on, reduce to nearly low and cook low and slow - 95% no flare ups.

For info from the enthusiasts, here's a good discussion: Has anyone used GrillGrates?

[gfweb]

Five spice braised short rib with fried polenta and roast yellow cauliflower

 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Seared corvina with a corn, pepper and tomato warm relish and a jicama and mango salad

[ElainaA]

Grilled chicken with tomato chutney, sweet potato fires and zucchini fries (Thanks! Liamsaunt!). Plus a plate of tomatoes.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Tonight's dinner was pedestrian salad with lettuce, tomatoes, green olives and Vidalia onion, thinly sliced. We also had grilled rib eyes and baked potatoes from the nuker. Real baked potatoes from the oven are so much better, but it's still so hot here I'm pretty much refusing to enrich the electric company by running the A/C against the oven.

 

The dinner was okay, but not great due to the steak.

 

Has anyone noticed that while the price of beef has doubled, tripled and quadrupled the quality keeps going down? It's hard to find a rib eye steak without obvious cartilaginous or at least gelatinous connective material between the muscles, at least at mainstream groceries. The worst rib eye I have ever had came from the Fresh market, bought as whole roasts. It was tough, tough, tough. I had purchased two because they were on sale, but wound up cooking the second one for stew and beef tips over rice and similar. It was good that way, but I could have bought chuck.

 

One major contributing factor to the decline in beef steak quality is that your grocers know that when they price the meat so high per pound, if they slice them as thickly as they need to be for a good outcome, the package is so expensive, it's prohibitive to most people. Half inch or even 3/4 inch steaks can't cook up well even over very hot charcoal. I like mine at least an 1-1/2". I hope and pray the Southwest drought will come to a quick end, but even if it does, it will be years before the beef industry recovers fully.

 

Also if there are any butchers/meat cutters/buyers listening, you can easily sell a 1-1/2 or 2" slice of rib eye that feeds two instead of a couple 3/4" slices that only a magician could cook up properly.

 

Edit: We also had a couple 1/2" slices of the Vidalia onion grilled crisp tender along with the steaks.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Nicolas Escudero Heiberg]

Here in Spain the butcher craft is still alive and well, thankfully. I have 4 butchers within walking distance of my flat. Never, ever buy the prepackaged stuff...

[liuzhou]

Tonight's dinner (which I just finished) was a labour of love. That is, I love the finished dishes. But it is a lot of prep, especially considering that the part that takes the longest you don't even eat.

 

Laziji - 辣子鸡 - Sichuan Chicken with Chillies

 

First you need 50g of dried red pointing-to-heaven chillies.

 

 

These have to be cut in half and de-seeded (as much as possible). De-seeding 50g of chillies takes longer than listening to Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata twice. I know. I did it this afternoon.

 

Halved and de-seeded pointing-to-heaven chillies

 

Seeds. Anyone know of a good use for chilli seeds? I binned them.

 

Seeds

 

A chicken breast was cubed and left to marinate in soy sauce (light and dark), Shaoxing wine and salt.

 

Marinating

 

Garlic (I used Sichuanese single headed), ginger and Sichuan peppercorns were prepared. The garlic was minced and the ginger sliced.

 

The chicken was deep fried until well browned and cooked through, then drained.

 

The garlic and ginger was fried until fragrant, then the chillies and Sichuan peppercorns added. These were stirred until also fragrant and the chicken re-added along with the whites of some scallions/spring onions. Salt was added. When hot through it was served.

 

Laziji

 

To accompany this, I fried a little Xuanwei ham and added garlic scapes sliced. When the scapes were tender added some flowering garlic chives. 

 

Garlic Scapes

 

Stir-fried Garlic Scapes with Xuanwei Ham

 

The trick is to dig out the chicken cubes and eat them. Do not attempt to eat the chillies. I have seen someone hospitalized after trying.

 

 

Fuchsia Dunlop has a very similar recipe for laziji in her Sichuan cookbook, Sichuan Cookery (UK title) or Land of Plenty (US title). 

Edited September 8, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[kayb]

Please explain the purpose of these grates....

 

 

I generally don't have flare-up problems with chicken, as I use indirect heat, but chicken was the first thing I grilled after I got them. I got them chiefly for burgers, which tend to stick badly and tear up on my conventional grill, on which the ceramic coating was beginning to pit and wear. I think they'll be very beneficial for anything that cooks over direct heat, which is when I have my flare-up problems.

[gfweb]

And the grates can be flipped over to provide a flat surface like a plancha. Very useful.

[huiray]

Fedelini w/ shrimp & capers.

EV olive oil, lots of chopped smashed garlic [siberian Red], hot red chile flakes, de-shelled de-veined shrimp, rinsed & soaked Pantelleria salted capers [bonomo & Giglio], just-cooked fedelini [De Cecco], a half ladle of shrimp stock^¶, chopped parsley & zest of one lemon & juice of half that lemon, toss, serve.

^¶The shells & heads were sautéed in EV olive oil w/ a bit of garlic till orange-y w/ aroma developed then just enough water added and the mixture simmered down to about a ladle's-full worth, filtered before use.

 

Farmers' market romaine & green leaf lettuce & Pink Beauty tomatoes salad. Dressed w/ Alziari EV olive oil, 10-year balsamic, Maldon salt flakes & ground black pepper.

Cauliflower florets blanched, drained then sautéed in rice bran oil w/ sea salt.

[Kim Shook]

Dejah – I haven’t cooked corn on the cob any other way since I found that method.  My daughter even video-d me and put it on FB! 

 

MetsFan – thank you!  We were in Jacksonville and Sarasota.  Hope you got your grouper.  I never tasted any until my parents moved to Florida and now it is one of my favorites!  Don’t see it much in VA, though.  I tasted black grouper for the first time this trip and it was one of the best things we ate the entire trip.

 

Yesterday was Sunday dinner on Labor Day Monday with my mom and daughter.  Our neighbors joined us for dessert. 

 

Roast beef cooked in the rotisserie oven:

 

Perfectly cooked, but a little tough.  This was a rib eye roast and should have been tender, but we actually needed steak knives (similar to Thanks for the Crepes issues).  The flavor was good, though.

 

Marlene’s Cream Roasted Potatoes:

Just gorgeous, as always.

 

Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts:

With pancetta.  New recipe and fantastic.  So much easier than my regular method of steaming, cutting in half and then sautéing in butter.  But it left the house a lot stinkier. 

 

Sliced tomatoes:

 

Marlene’s incomparable Yorkies:

 

Plated:

 

With gravy:

I was really happy with my gravy.  I hate making gravy last minute and always do my turkey gravy ahead of time, but hadn’t tried it with beef gravy.  Yesterday I gave it a go.  Made a roux, deglazed with some red wine and then just used a carton of beef broth.  I added a little onion, pepper, thyme and Penzey’s Mural of Flavor.  I simmered it for a couple of hours and then refrigerated it.  Today I heated it back up, added a lot of water and a spoonful of Better than Bouillon and a little Kitchen Bouquet and let it cook down for a hour or so.  It was great – really rich and beefy.  And it turned out that I only got about one tablespoonful of drippings, so I was glad I’d done it!

[Shelby]

Venison burgers, a Hatch chile and some tots

 

 

 

Spaghetti night....zoodles and pasta mixed together.

 

[cyalexa]

Simple is good. Very good. This will be repeated often for the next several months.

 

 

[huiray]

• Steamed pork spare ribs; with black bean - garlic sauce, julienned ginger, chopped smashed garlic, sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, some rice bran oil.

• Sti-fried baby kai choy (芥菜; large-leaf type mustard greens).

• White rice.

 

The ribs before steaming:

[ElainaA]

 

A grilled pork chop over creamed leeks and topped with apples sautéed and simmered with brandy and chicken broth. Plus the usual seasonal tomato/cucumber/onion  salad. This is one of my  'once or twice a year' recipes - the ones I make when the leeks in my garden are ready. (I have others for beets and for zucchini.)

Edited September 9, 2015 by ElainaA (log)

[robirdstx]

Salad and Wings

[JoNorvelleWalker]

As a bit of fusion cookery, the last of my marak from the other night served over thin spaghetti.  Quite tasty.  With a lot of wine and a bone plate for the okra fibers.

 

I still seem to have a little room and am undecided what to do about this, if anything.

[patrickamory]

liuzhou, I'm dying... over here I think that is generally referred to as Chongqing chicken, and it is one of my favorite things. Now that you've depicted it, I'm going to make it.

[liuzhou]

liuzhou, I'm dying... over here I think that is generally referred to as Chongqing chicken, and it is one of my favorite things. Now that you've depicted it, I'm going to make it.

Yes, it is  a specialty of Chongqing (which used to be in Sichuan) and often referred to as 重庆辣子鸡 Chongqing Laziji.

 

Enjoy.

[Anna N]

robirdstx,

I have always been of the opinion that naked wings are winners and when given the opportunity will order them exactly that way.