Dinner 2016 (Part 1)

[Shelby]

Venison bierocks last night.

 

 Made the filling day before yesterday.  Made the dough yesterday afternoon.  Doubled the dough recipe and finally came out with an equal dough to filling ratio.  

 

We each ate one last night.  Sent two to work with Ronnie and I might have had one for breakfast  but that still leaves about 10 for me to freeze.  Nice for when you want a quick meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kayb]

@Shelby, those look WONDERFUL!

[Ann_T]

Shelby, I agree with kayb.

 

Really simple dinner last night. No cooking involved.

 

Smoked Salmon Platter for two with cream cheese and home-made sourdough rye bread.

[huiray]

Soup.

Rice bran oil, medium heat; bit of chopped garlic, chicken stock, water, fresh wood-ear fungus (trimmed & rinsed), simmer; soft tofu chunks; then handfuls of fresh trimmed Thai basil (used like a vegetable) at the end.

 

A sort of "roast duck dry-tossed noodles" (call it 燒鴨乾撈麵;** "siew ngap kon lo meen"), a rough-and-ready version.

Store-bought Cantonese roast duck [from Asia mart], skinny wonton noodles [Twin Marquis] cooked in the usual manner then tossed/mixed with the duck sauce with the roast duck plus a little of the sauce mixture for the gai-lan (see below). Chopped scallions & coriander leaves.

** Jyutping: siu1 aap3 gon1 lou1 min6

 

Kai-lan w/ sauce.

Trimmed kai-lan blanched in simmering oiled water (using the noodle-cooking water, which should now be slightly alkaline), drained, then dressed w/ a sauce made of {medium-hot oil, chopped smashed garlic, quenched w/ a mixture of (oyster sauce, dash of sesame oil, ground white pepper, hon-mirin, double-fermented soy sauce, water)}.

 

[Captain]

19 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Welcome Captain - do you use a commercial Laksa paste?

Yes I do. I get the same brand I've been using for a while now.  I can't read the language on the jar. lol  And I go out of my way to get it at an Asian shop.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

[sartoric]

Chicken schnitzel with a fresh tomato chilli sauce, fried sage leaves and onion.

Served with marinated button mushrooms, a green salad and yesterday's garlic bread.

 

[huiray]

A noodle dish with stuff.

Hot oil, chopped smashed garlic, minced rehydrated har mai (dried shrimp), sliced de-boned chicken thighs (premarinated w/ Shaohsing wine, fish sauce, wee bit light soy sauce, dash of oyster sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, corn starch) w/ marinade, de-skinned fuzzy squash cut into batons, chopped hot Thai chillies, pre-soaked glass noodles, water as needed, trimmed Thai basil, seasoning adjusted.

[Anna N]

 

Roots roasted in duck fat with some bacon added halfway through. The bacon was briefly crisped in the microwave at the end.  I added lots and lots of onion because I love how silky and sweet they become when roasted. 

[kayb]

Cabbage, RG ojo de cabra beans, brats poached in beer, and mashed potato cakes with scallions and bacon bits.

Edited February 3, 2016 by kayb
Fix typo (log)

[liamsaunt]

seared scallops with coconut-asparagus risotto

 

[Shelby]

Had another package of venison thawed out so I thought I'd make a meatloaf.  My meatloaf varies....I never use a recipe and I never write down what I did to make it good...or bad lol.  So, after reading and seeing @kayb 's meal the other night  I thought I'd try her recipe.  'Course I used venison and I couldn't find any saltine crackers so I used homemade croutons that I crushed up.  This meatloaf is very good.  Tender, juicy, bacon-y.  There will be sandwiches in the near future.  Thank you Kay for sharing!!

 

 

 

 

[Sparren]

In the middle off the week:
Swedish meatballs with pickled cucumber, potato puré and cream sauce.

[Vlcatko]

Veal eye round (at least I think it's the name of the cut), baked potato, broccolini, sauce Mornay (I wish I had more cheese, the sauce could have been even better with a bit more) - there was enough for tomorrow's lunch as well which makes me really happy. What makes me even more happy is the after dinner snack - crispy bacon rashers - and I tucked some of them into the lunch box as well... Is it tomorrow yet?

Edited February 3, 2016 by Vlcatko (log)

[sartoric]

Chicken satays with peanut sauce.

Served with rice and mixed salad.

 

[Captain]

I don't have a name for this...  Some spicy sausage, potato, zucchini, capsicum, mushrooms, green chili etc.  Throw it at the BBQ and serve.  Nice.

 

[scubadoo97]

Such wonderful meals posted.  Excellent job! 

 

Today i did 12 chicken thighs SV for chicken "confit".  

 

Quick chilled  for later use. 

 

Tonight it was a quick coleslaw and seared salmon.  

 

Edited February 4, 2016 by scubadoo97 (log)

[Anna N]

 

 It's always wise to have Plan B.   I followed a recipe for oven baked chicken wings based largely on something Kenji wrote in his Serious Eats column.  Much as I love Kenji I had some serious doubts about combining baking powder and salt to create crispy chicken wings.  I read through all the comments and really reduced the salt but they were still way too salty even before I dressed them with a Vietnamese sauce (soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar).   But it wasn't just the saltiness that was the issue. They were crispy all right but it seemed such an odd texture. I most definitely do not need a salt bomb in my system at this time.  So I opted for a sugar bomb instead,

[JoNorvelleWalker]

5 hours ago, sartoric said:

Chicken satays with peanut sauce.

Served with rice and mixed salad.

 

 

@sartoric could you share the satay recipe?  I infrequently make pork satay, and have since the 1970's -- based on the satay recipe in the NY Times Cookbook.  Most recently from another satay recipe that I can't remember the Thai cookbook I took it from, though if I get serious, google should save me.  Anyhow it was good.

 

The only time I've had chicken satay was from a New York City street vendor following the 1995 gay pride march.  I feared for my little cat.

[Ann_T]

 

Roasted a rack of pork for dinner.With cracklings.

 

 

And this was last night's dinner.  Eggplant Parmesan with a side of pasta.

 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Tonight's dinner was based on a frozen entree I tried for the first time. It's always a crap shoot nowadays trying something new, so I thought I'd share a rare success. I found frozen stuffed flounder at my local Food Lion grocery and had it stashed in the freezer. My husband asked if I wanted to go to our local fresh seafood monger to get dinner, but I didn't want to get out in pouring down rain.

 

These stuffed flounder fillets are wrapped around a very nice stuffing. I read the ingredient list before leaving the store, and found good stuff and nothing really objectionable. My husband was rolling his eyes at me the whole time, but I had just picked up a package of beautiful frozen stuffed "clams". So pretty in their natural clam shells, and dusted with parsley and paprika! I had to return them to the freezer case after discovering from the legally required ingredients list that they contained NO actual clam at all, and very little protein. 

 

Quality Foods says on the front of the package of stuffed flounder the stuffing is shrimp, artichoke, seafood and spinach. If you read the ingredients listed by weight, it's more like surimi (which I like), spinach, milk, cream, artificial creamer, artichoke hearts, crab and shrimp. Despite the fact that they lie shamelessly on the package front, my husband and I found the cooked up product to be quite good, and I have put it on the list to buy again. I added only pats of real butter to the top and popped them in their "ovenable" tray in a 350F preheated oven for about 35 minutes. I also added smoked paprika for color and flavor a few minutes from end of cooking. 

 

They picture three large whole shrimp in the stuffing on the cover art, but this ain't happenin' unless you add them yourself. Still, for a convenient frozen entree for two with 20g protein per serving, I would recommend Quality Foods (From the Sea, Inc.) out of Elizabeth City, NC.

 

I'm not sure how widely available this product is. I lost patience with their Facebook page quickly, but not before reading that they are offered in Publix as well as Food Lion.

 

I served it with a lightly dressed green salad and thin spaghetti with marinara and parmesan. It made a very satisfying rainy night meal.

 

The plan for tomorrow is to see what the seafood shop has to offer. Crabs, oysters, snapper, shrimp, catfish? You never know. I'm looking forward to it, but I hope it isn't pouring again.

[ChrisTaylor]

On 1/1/2016 at 4:26 AM, huiray said:

Miso soup.

Water, hon-dashi, bunapi-shimeji & enoki mushrooms, cut wakame, mutenka shiro miso, scallions, negi.

 

Atsuage, kind-of.

With grated daikon & chopped scallions; grated ginger w/ Higeta Honzen koikuchi-shoyu; and a glass of chilled Rihaku Nigori Sake 'Dreamy Clouds'.

Firm tofu blocks drained for a while then simply deep-fried in rice bran oil.

 

Zaru soba.

• I used banshu no ito jyukusei soba (this one). Thoroughly rinsed w/ cold water and drained well. Dressed w/ katsuo soft kezuri.**

• Dipping sauce put together by mixing Assi soba tsuyu, Takara hon-mirin & Hokkaido kelp flavour naturally fermented soy sauce, water, zapping briefly, then chilling to a little below room temp.

• Chopped scallions & sliced negi. Kameya hon-wasabi (Izu oroshi-wasabi)  The last three are swirled into the shoyu as desired and the soba picked up and dipped into the mixture.

• Swirly-textured-grain wood chopsticks, antique carved soapstone chopstick rest.

 

** The kezuri-bushi sticks quite well to the soba - it will not fall off unless one shakes the soba strands with a little vigor. When dipping intothe shoyu they also tend to "stick with" the soba even as they soften and absorb some of the shoyu.

 

 

Never seen homemade miso soup--or, indeed, many restaurant misos--look so appealing. Nicely done.

[liamsaunt]

Crispy chicken schnitzel with lemony herb salad.  A recent Melissa Clark recipe from New York Times Cooking.  Very crispy, very lemony.  I liked it.  

 

[liuzhou]

Tonight I went with my take on a dish I enjoyed many times in Hunan. Beer duck. 啤酒鸭 (pí jiǔ yā)

 

Normally, I would use duck on the bone, but a couple of small boneless breasts was what I had, so I removed the skin and fat (rendered that for other uses) then diced the breast meat. Marinated in Shaoxing wine and soy sauce, Braised with doubanjiang, garlic, shallots, bird's eye chilli (for heat), meiren  - beautiful people - chilli (for colour), star anise, Sichuan pepper, tangerine peel and beer. Finished with chopped scallions

 

Served with rice and a side of bok choy.

 

 

Not for spice wimps! But I have a happy, hot mouth.

Edited February 5, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[huiray]

Thanks, Chris Taylor. Appreciate the compliment.

[Anna N]

@liamsaunt

 

your schnitzel is making my mouth water at 8 in the morning.