Dinner 2016 (Part 1)

[mgaretz]

Salmon, cooked sous vide to 118, applied my honey-mustard-port-citrus glaze and then seared with the Sansaire torch.  Served with peas and sweet potato.

 

[Anna N]

 

 Thursday night blue plate special for my number 2 son.  Ham and eggs with roasted potatoes and mushrooms  

[HungryChris]

Fried local (Stonington) sea scallops, spicy kimchi tarter sauce and a salad.

[Norm Matthews]

I tried a Jaques Pepin recipe for cheesy mashed potatoes and topped it with a Swiss steak.  I am pretty  sure I have made Swiss steak before but I can't remember when.  This one was a slow cooker recipe.  It was half eaten before I remembered to take a picture. 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Paula Wolfert's Lamb Tagine with Medjoul Dates:

 

 

 

As one may see, this is yet a work in progress.  But her Lamb Tagine with Medjoul Dates is my favorite.  And this afternoon I just received a shipment of organic Medjoul dates.

 

And as with any Wolfert recipe in my hands, I'm not entirely sure what hour this morning dinner will be served.  Which reminds me, I still have to bake the bread.

 

[Okanagancook]

I just made that tagine last week.  Agreed, delicious.  AND, nice picture

[scubadoo97]

Tonight I utilized some leftover grilled chicken on good corn tortillas with black beans and rice 

 

[patrickamory]

Great meals everyone!

 

Kim Shook that is a beautiful loaf of bread. I want it now.

 

liamsaunt wonderful sandwiches. If I could only have one type of meal for the rest of my life it would be sandwiches.

 

huiray and sartoric I am ready to try that chicken recipe. Just wait - it will be posted here.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

I just made that tagine last week.  Agreed, delicious.  AND, nice picture

 

Thank you!  The result turned out quite well, as did the bread.  And I was cleaning up from dinner by 2:30 am.  I didn't starve because in addition to the delivery of the dates yesterday I received several pounds of nuts and a case of rum.

 

Wine with the tagine was from the Douro, which I figure is not all that far from Morocco.  And the dates really were exceptional.

 

A winter storm, actually a blizzard, is forecast for tonight.  Last time the power was out for three days, I was enjoying Lamb Tagine and Medjoul dates cold for the duration.

 

 

[salvodaze]

Last night's dinner was pasta with Marcella Hazan's shamefully simple tomato sauce with steakhouse-made sausages and goat cheese.

The leftovers made a nice lunch today as well (of course all the sausage was gone last night ).

[huiray]

Flavored stinky tofu stir-fried with stuff.

"Spicy Tofu" (that's what the English on the package says, HEH!!)** rinsed then sliced up. Hot pan, generous hot oil; stir-fry sliced ginger (goes in first), chopped smashed garlic, the sliced tofu, toss around, high heat. Add in thinly-sliced carrot, sliced kai-lan stems, fresh shiitake mushrooms cut into large slices, stir-fry; add in a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce in a bit of water, toss around. Thicken w/ some corn starch slurried in water.

 

** The stuff is actually 調味臭豆腐 which means "flavored stinky tofu". This one:

I wonder about folks who pick it up expecting a "spicy tofu" - y'know, a tofu with some chili heat...- then get quite a shock when they open it up and their nostrils tell them it's not quite what they thought. :-) Mind you, the smell permeates through the packaging anyway so one would think they might get an idea of it if they paid attention... :-D

 

Eaten voraciously with lots of rice, of course. Very tasty.

 

Also with Teochew-style Kiam Chye Arp Teng (鹹菜鴨湯) ("salted vegetable" duck soup) (or: Kiam Chye Ark Th'ng).

I used recipe P14 of "Uncle Lau's Teochew Recipes" (Epigram Books) as a jumping-off point and riffed off it.

Duck legs, skin-on, most of the fat left on, cut into pieces and blanched briefly in hot water. Fresh clean water & chicken stock (I skipped the pork stock in the recipe), the duck pieces, galangal slices (not in the recipe), LOTS of fresh ground white pepper (maybe 2 Tbsp or more), wet salted/sour plums ripped apart, some of the plum pickling liquid; trimmed cut-up pickled mustard ("harm choy" a.k.a. "kiam chye")^¶¶, simmer (covered). Near the end, sliced-up Kumato tomatoes, a 2-second pour of VSOP brandy; simmer for a little while more, plus extra ground white pepper. Water added once or twice during the simmering to restore the volume. Total time probably around 2 hours (not sure, didn't really keep track).

 

^¶¶Pre-soaked for a couple hours with a couple changes of water. The stuff is the usual sour/salted mustard found ubiquitously in certain Southern Chinese/SE-Asian cuisines, available here in Chinese/SE-Asian groceries commonly in packages of individual half-plants sealed in with some of the pickling water. The vegetable used is the large-leaved mustard, "kai choy". I've shown various types of soup using this pickled mustard in many posts here on eG.

Edited January 22, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Vlcatko]

Starter was assorted deli plate - Gruyere, Cheshire and deer "raw ham" with grissini, toasted white bread and pear mostarda

 

Main course was Risotto with duck confit and chestnuts.

[mgaretz]

Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht. 

 

 

 

[BonVivant]

Northern European seafood (with mild Asian flavour): Skrei (basically a young cod caught in northern Norway, in the Barents Sea, ia a seasonal fish and more expensive than "normal" cod), with North Sea shrimp.

 

Fish was dusted with seasoned flour and simply pan fried. Shiitake mushrooms were steamed in dry sherry and then sesame oil was added on the plate. As you can probably see, the loin is almost as big as the plate, and of course the flakes were huge. Lovely fish.

 

 

[Ashen]

On 21/01/2016 at 6:54 PM, Anna N said:

 

 Thursday night blue plate special for my number 2 son.  Ham and eggs with roasted potatoes and mushrooms  

whoa.. now that is my kind of plate..   what kind of ham is that?

[sartoric]

Nachos with leftover roast chicken, pumpkin and tomato sauce, guacamole and sour cream.

 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Just a burger tonight.  Tucked in there is sliced bacon and bacon jam on the bottom which I made just prior, grilled onions and the top bun smeared with chipotle mayo.  I tad messy but tasty

 

[patrickamory]

scubadoo yum.

 

I got a new shipment of Rancho Gordos yesterday and soaked a batch of Vaquero beans overnight with a celery stalk, some bay leaves and a couple of lightly crushed cloves of garlic.

 

This came out so well I'm going to post it as a recipe:

 

2/3 cup Vaquero beans, soaked overnight with plenty of water to cover, plus half a celery stalk, 3 bay leaves and 2 cloves garlic

1/4 onion, unpeeled, held together by root

half a fresh celery stalk

2 tsp salt + more to taste

1 tsp toasted ground Sichuan peppercorns

1 tsp powdered cayenne pepper, or more to taste

1 whole fresh cayenne chile, slit down the center

fresh ground pepper

1 tbs white vinegar

 

Place beans and other soaked ingredients plus soaking water in dutch oven, add onion and the fresh celery plus any necessary extra water to cover to 1-1 1/2 inches, bring to boil. Boil hard at rolling boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to active simmer; set timer for 60 minutes. Also set a kettle of water to boil and keep it at a simmer on the stove.

 

When you start to smell the beans over the aromatics, add salt, stir well, and continue to simmer - this will happen after 20-30 minutes if the beans are relatively fresh. Add ground Sichuan peppercorns, powdered cayenne pepper and whole cayenne chile at this time. Keep cooking for a total of 60-90 minutes until beans are tender. Keep an eye on the liquid: if it reduces too much and the beans start to surface, add boiling water from the kettle, but not so much that you dilute the bean broth too much. Taste and adjust for seasoning, keeping in mind that salt will take a while to absorb into beans but that the salty liquid will also reduce. Getting the salting timing and amount right is the key to making this dish perfect.

 

When beans are tender, remove 1 cup or so with whatever comes with it and whizz with stick blender and add back in to thicken. Add the vinegar.

 

When the taste and tenderness seems just right, remove beans from heat and allow to sit for 30-40 minutes off the heat for the flavors to knit.

 

Remove the onion, garlic, bay leaves and chile with tongs, and serve over white rice, with plenty of fresh-ground pepper.

 

** Unlike some other varieties, these beans don't seem to require baking soda in the soaking or cooking to retain their shape **

 

The result is a rich, earthy, vinegary deep intensity - I ate all of this just by myself in one sitting and could have eaten more. I swear, this food could turn me into a vegan (and I am the least vegan person you will ever "meet," no pun intended).

 

 

[Anna N]

@Ashen

 

The ham was nothing special just a thick slice cut in-store (Denninger's).  It was in the half-price cooler bin.  

[liuzhou]

I know I've cooked and posted pictures of cottage pie before, but at the risk of boring you...

 

Today was the coldest day of the year so far, and the forecast suggests it will be the coldest in all the year. It's only 4ºC but in a place with no heating that is cold.

So I went for the cottage pie again, but then, on a whim, sinified it. To the basic beef, onion, carrot, celery mix I added Sichuan "facing heaven" chillies, a small Thai pepper and a whole star anise. Still used Worcestershire sauce - very common flavouring in China.

It came out rich and tasty and looking like this. Serving #1. I got through three. And there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Or a midnight snack.

 

 

Served with braised leeks which I neglected to photograph.

[Sparren]

Biff Rydberg is a Swedish speciality that I made for dinner last night.
Pan fried diced fillet of veal, sauteed diced onion and deep fried diced potatoes served with egg yolk, parsley and whipped cream with mustard.

[liamsaunt]

The other night I made ramen bowls to use up all of the random vegetable bits in the fridge.  I topped husband's with a pre-cooked smoked duck breast that I found in the freezer

 

 

and mine with some more of the chicken that I used in my sandwich the other evening

 

 

Refrigerator crisper drawers have now been (temporarily) restored to order.

[Shelby]

Salads, hot wings and fries

 

[huiray]

A combination plate.

Pork tongue, white asparagus, fried rice, omelet.

Eggs beaten w. some oil, white pepper, diluted w/ some water; fried in a very hot pan w/ plenty of very hot oil; lightly (Maillard) browning, folded over & removed with still runny top (now "inside"); all done in a minute or two. Braised pork tongue [Love Handle] sliced up and pan-fried after that in the residual oil. Sliced white asparagus tossed and lightly browned in the hot pan (a little more oil added) after that. Then, into the pan on full heat went chopped celery, 2-day-old rice, sea salt, chopped parsley; tossed around, covered briefly (trapping steam) at the end then stirring with the spatula in the usual manner.

 

ETA: p.s. The pork tongue was already salted when it was braised (by Love Handle) but the only time I added salt in composing this dish was a light sprinkle in the cooking of the fried rice. Otherwise, the natural taste of the eggs, the celery+parsley+rice, the asparagus, all shone through, aided by the light browning/sort-of "light wok hei", if you would, that the hot cooking added to the food.

Edited January 23, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Anna N]

@Shelby

 

Your fries ought to come with a "graphic images warning"  so I can safely avoid staring at them and  salivating.