Dinner 2016 (Part 2)

[rarerollingobject]

[Host's note: this is part of an extended topic that periodically needs to be split to ease the load on our servers.  The discussion conntinues from here.]

 

 

Thanks so much for the warm greetings, all! It's lovely to see so many familiar names, and so many new ones.

 

And this; a Korean feast of barbecued wagyu intercostal bulgogi, perilla leaves, clam kimchi, cucumber kimchi, cabbage kimchi, fish cakes, mushrooms sautéed in soju, sesame oil and anchovy paste, and salted radish kimchi. 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by lesliec
Added host's note (log)

[kayb]

I almost hate to post mine after those gorgeous meals from huiray and RRO, but...

 

 

In this part of the country, the sale of smoked Boston butt as a fundraiser, often for kids' sports teams and the like, is popular. I bought one such and it was delivered Thursday, while I was out of town. I wrapped it in foil yesterday, rewarmed it in the oven, and pulled it; my $30 butt yielded, in addition to dinner for two last night, 3 1/2 pounds of pulled pork, three pounds of which I've vac-packed and frozen.

 

Had it with baked beans, potato salad, and "jail slaw." 

 

[liamsaunt]

Rigatoni with wild boar ragu

 

[Sparren]

Saturdays dinner. Beef cooked sous vide very rare at 52,5c served with home made broth, shallots and tatsoi.

[Okanagancook]

RRO, always such interesting ingredients in your stunning dishes.  Also a resounding "good to see you posting again" from me.  

[Ann_T]

Last night's dinner.  

Grilled a chicken that I spatchcocked. .  Served with homemade TBQ sauce and double fried fries

 

and Friday's dinner.

 

 

Pasta alla Norma with a side of grilled Italian sausage.

 

[BonVivant]

Ann_T, just gorgeous!

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

 

Mine today:

 

Vietnamese-esq slow roasted beef ribs. Marinated the night before in fish sauce, sherry and minced lemongrass. Roasted on low heat for 2.5hrs.

 

A heavy meal but was worth it.

 

1.5kg of it.

 

[sartoric]

Started with a peach and prosciutto panzanella.

 

 

Then a repurposed chicken, veggie and noodle soup, topped with pesto.

Plus French onion and cheese toasties.

 

 

[Tere]

Love the panzanella - so simple and looks so delicious!

[Patrick S]

Orange chicken with sushi rice and a sautéed mixture of broccolini, onion, carrot and bean sprouts. 

[scubadoo97]

_{Lamb tagine, minus the tagine.  2 lbs of cubed leg of lamb, blanched almonds, preserved lemons, olives, apricots, sun dried tomatoes, tomato paste and diced, onions/garlic, chick peas, lamb and chicken stock, lots of spices  ... And I don't remember what else.   Over basmati rice.}  

 

_{This is is the kinda food I crave.}   

 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by scubadoo97 (log)

[scubadoo97]

Oh yeah, carrots....haha

[patrickamory]

rarerollingobject welcome back! great to see your awesome meals again.

 

Patrick S. that orange chicken looks totally decadent.

[huiray]

• A Cantonese-style CNY dish with some propitious-sounding (in Cantonese) ingredients.

Stuff that went in: oil, garlic, fu yee (fermented bean curd), Shaohsing wine, chicken stock, "tea flower mushrooms", peanuts, golden needles (lily flowers), wood-ear fungus, lotus seeds, unpeeled straw mushrooms, supposed "fat choy", bean curd sheets. Water, of course.

• Steamed Patagonian Toothfish.

Large fillet cut into two; splashed w/ oil, sea salt, Shaohsing wine, ginger, scallions; then steamed. The fish fillets were retrieved, plated on a clean dish & dressed w/ fresh scallions & ginger, a sauce of {hot oil quenched w/ (double-fermented soy sauce, rock sugar, Shaohsing wine, water)} poured over, a sprinkling of ground white pepper.

• White rice.

 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I roasted my duck tonight, and it was very good, with lots of crispy skin and very rich meat. I must say that it was the mildest flavored duck I've ever tasted though. It must have never eaten any fish or bugs or worms? It was Keystone Katie brand from my local fresh seafood monger, and out of Shartlesville, PA. Pride of the Dutch Country! it proclaimed.

 

There were also what might have been Chinese characters on the labeling. They were some Asian language I can't read for sure. To my surprise and delight when I unwrapped it, it was my first real life encounter with a head on/feet on ducky. Even the ones from my grandparents' farm had already been beheaded and had the feet removed by the time they appeared in the kitchen for further processing. I only learned how useful poultry feet were for stock much later here on eG.

 

I left the head and feet on for roasting, but in retrospect, I'll remove them next time. I like to use the turned chicken on a V-rack in a roasting pan method. It's not as ideal as a rotisserie, but I've always had much better results than just plonking a bird breast side up into the oven and leaving it there. The long dangling neck and head and the grabby feet (one glommed onto the sturdy rack like it was still alive) made it so hard to turn the duck on the rack with my usual meat fork and wooden spoon inside the cavity that I eventually resorted to just protecting my hand with wads of cheap paper towels.

 

The duck carcass broth cooking in the crock pot for tomorrow's ramen will be better than I thought because of the feet for sure, and I am hoping the head. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, but I put the head with beak attached right in there too. You could see the tongue in there!

 

The roast duck was served deboned with a salty, sweet and spicy glaze I learned from Betty Crocker, and I have tweaked over the years to add a sour component and a couple more spicy ones. We also had jasmine rice.

 

I took huiray's advice and started rinsing basmati rice, and I liked the fluffy result so much I started using the method with jasmine too. I just add water to the cooking pot with the measured raw rice and then pour it off many times until it's no longer milky and mostly clear. The rice is heavier than the water so this method works fine. Then, when I'm satisfied the water is clear enough, I use the pot lid to drain out the last dregs of water. My fine mesh strainers apparently aren't fine enough to contain all the rice. My tea ball would probably work, but it would take longer than my patience would last.  I've read from several sources that you shouldn't rinse to preserve vitamins. I eat so many great veggies and other things that I don't feel that I'm reliant on rice for vitamins. I think the rinsing treatment washes away loose starch that can make your rice sticky and clumpy. For me, when I'm shooting for fluffy, I'll stick with huiray's rinsing method.

 

I stir fried some Shanghai bok choy to go with dinner and finished with a light chicken stock sauce.

 

There was quite a bit of liver and a couple lobes of what I reckon was the gizzard that I threw in the bottom of the roasting pan. I also put the excess abdominal fat pulled from the back of the cavity down there too so it could render, and added some water so the fat wouldn't burn and splatter. My V-rack holds the meat high enough off the pan so I can do this and still get great crispy skin. I tasted a little of the liver and the gizzard after dinner, but decided to give it to the coons, although I realize that I passed on very concentrated nutrients.

 

I put the roasting pan into the freezer while I cleaned the kitchen to congeal the fat. I collected a pint of duck fat off the top which is now in the freezer, along with the strained broth under it, of which, there was maybe only a cup.

 

We ate most of the meat, but I diced what came off one of the leg quarters into small pieces, and that amounted to maybe a scant cup. It will be good either in the ramen tomorrow or duck fried rice with the planned over jasmine rice in the fridge. I tasted the broth, and it seems like it will be rich enough by the time it's done to save the meat for fried rice. So far, my addition of the head doesn't seem to have done anything at all adverse to the stock. 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[rarerollingobject]

Beautiful chicken, @Patrick S. And no photos, @Thanks for the Crepes?! Tease!

 

As for me - a massive pile of flowering yu choy, mint, basil and Thai wing beans and what it became; poached coconut chicken salad, dressed with lime, chilli jam, fish sauce and palm sugar and sprinkled with crispy fried garlic, crispy eschallots, and roasted peanuts. And, um, crushed deep fried chicken skins. As you do.

[Vlcatko]

Parsley root (with a few more vegetables sneaked in) soup with a touch of cream, finished with hemp oil. When I was serving it later to DH, I remembered I had some hemp seeds in the pantry and they were very nice with it as well...

 

His and hers corn couscous bowls with veal meat, corn, peas, baby broad beans, edamame, young stem broccoli and "refried" ham (I had a small container of various hams and one or two other deli cuts I got after our company's Christmas party. I cut the slices into small squares before freezing them, after defrosting, I fried them in the same pan I used for the veal meat, after the bits started browning in spots, I added smoked paprika, turmeric, mild chili and a splash of water and fried a bit longer. Turned out better than I expected )

[liamsaunt]

seafood stew with clams, mussels, cod, tomatoes, corn, and bacon

 

[Ann_T]

Thanks BonVivant.

 

We had soup for dinner last night.   I could live on this soup.

 

Mexican Chicken Rice  (Caldo Tlapeno).

[sartoric]

My homage to Chinese New Year. Kung Pao chicken, served with stir fried veggies, flying green baby pak choy and rice.

[HungryChris]

Soppressatta pizza, or in the local vernacular- "soupy" pizza. was supposed to be hot but was not so much. We enjoyed it nonetheless.

HC

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Dinner was supposed to have been chicken cacciatore.  But faced with menacingly huge Jurassic Park sized chicken thighs I went with chicken marsala.  Fresh picked thyme.  Thirty second green beans.  Bread and Boursin.

 

And Ice cream.  (For the second time today.)

 

 

 

I cooked two thighs but could hardly finish half.

 

One may ask why, in this century, it is so hard to find normal sized chicken thighs.  It galls me no end that no more than four miles from here is a store that offers excellent meat and fish and poultry.  Alas four miles for me is too far to get to.

 

[EsaK]

I've been looking for some time now what people here put up, and it's great looking food time after time. After getting a pasta machine a month ago, I finally managed to make pasta that I was happy with (nice texture, not clumping together after cooking etc). Combined with panfried onions with balsamic vinegar, roasted carrots, crispy onions and mozzarella. 

[EsaK]

For some reason, posted the above twice.

Edited February 9, 2016 by EsaK
Double post (log)

[rarerollingobject]

Kou rou, or Sichuanese bowl-steamed pork belly. You poach some pork, and then fry it till the skin is crispy, and then soak it in water till the skin puffs up, then slice it and line a bowl with it. You then fill the rest of the bowl with pickled chillis, black beans, preserved Sichuanese mustard greens and glutinous rice and steam it for three hours.

 

Pork belly cake abomination.