Dinner 2016 (Part 2)

[Patrick S]

Center-cut pork chops sautéed with butter, garlic and thyme, served over wilted arugula with shallots, walnuts, beets, caramelized carrots and champagne vinegar. Ingredients and recipe from Blue Apron (wife wanted to try this service).

[scubadoo97]

Found rib cap at Costco for the first time today.  Grilled it and served with blistered string beans 

 

[Nicolai]

Tossing in progress.....

 

Penne Rigate with Bacon - Scallions - Cream and Truffle Oil......

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

Great photo @Nicolai.

 

 

 

Cabbage and carrots lightly sauteed then finished with butter, cream and nutmeg. 

[liuzhou]

Tonight, a simple chicken curry with rice.

 

[weinoo]

 

A loin pork chop. Assortment of potatoes. Pan jus. Pork chop cooked thusly - and there's more to the story:

 

 

Here's the thing with "commercial" pork. Or with loin pork chops from commercial pork.  I bought these chops at Whole Foods - $7.99/lb.

 

Cooked to a perfect medium rare+. Not mushy in the least, if that's what anyone worries about from sous vide. But they were a  little too dry for me, though Sig Eater loved them.  And I dry brined them for about 2 hours prior to cooking.

 

My favorite part? The little pieces of meat surrounding the bone on the bottom of the chop.

 

Lesson learned - buy rib end (or blade, even) chops only!

Edited February 25, 2016 by weinoo (log)

[Ann_T]

Patrick, love that photo.

 

Quick and easy roast beef dinner.  Small Top Sirloin (Sterling Silver beef) presalted and  roasted at 500°F for about 22 minutes.  Left to rest while potatoes continued to cook.

[rotuts]

@Ann_T

 

Looks soooooooo  good !

 

all the Major American Food Groups right there !

 

 

Corn, peas.  Mashed Potatoes, Gravy.

 

Red Meat Rare !

 

a fruit pie a la mode would be nice for dessert !

 

the kind with at least 50 % lard  ( not from hydrogenated blocks, no way )  with a little coarse white sugar sprinkled on the

 

crust just before baking.

Edited February 25, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[Kim Shook]

I am another canned corned beef appreciator.  I don’t ever confuse it, or even compare it, with real corned beef.  But I like it for what it is. 

 

The other night was one of those busy day dinners – mostly prepared foods:

Canned Brunswick stew, canned corned beef hash with eggs.

 

Tuesday night was a special program for the women of the church.  I contributed  Orange-Ginger muffins:

These are so good – really tender and full of ginger flavor.  I also did some sandwiches:

These are called “Ham Triangles w/ Poppy and Sesame Seed”.  It’s an old Gourmet magazine recipe.  The filling is a ham salad with whole grain mustard and chutney.  You butter the edges of the sandwiches and dip them in the seeds.  I came home with no leftovers, so everything was good!

 

Last night was my typical English dinner:

Roast done in the rotisserie.  That little fat cap was incredibly crisp – cooks treat!

Sliced with roasted potatoes:

 

Brussels sprouts which look good, but were bitter:

I haven’t had a decent sprout all winter.  This is especially disappointing considering they are one of the few cooked green vegetables that I like.  My Yorkies turned out especially well:

 

Plate without gravy:

 

And with:

We had this meal weekly when I was growing up with my English step family.  Sometimes it would be a chicken instead of beef, but the roast potatoes, veg, Yorkies and gravy never changed.  One thing that I’ve changed is that I make my gravy from scratch.  Ted’s family always used Bisto.  Not to dis Bisto.  I have a canister in my cabinet at all times.  Sometimes it is exactly what a gravy or a soup needs to get it perfect.  But pure Bisto over my beautiful roasted potatoes and Yorkies?  I think NOT!

[Shelby]

GAH you guys!!  I haven't eaten yet today and ya'll are KILLING me with all these great food pictures.  Ann and Kim, oh how I want some of that meat (and that's not something I crave very often).

 

Breakfast for dinner a while back.  Boudin, fried taters and some hollandaise sauce 'cause I can lol.

 

[mmille24]

@Shelby

 

That's a serious orange yolk.

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, mmille24 said:

@Shelby

 

That's a serious orange yolk.

I love the eggs that my egg person brings me  She has the best chickens.

[Anna N]

@Kim Shook

 

Was that roast done in a table top rotisserie?   I am curious because I have a tabletop rotisserie but have never considered doing a roast of beef in there.

[Tere]

The Bisto comment made me laugh. I don't remember ever having it neat, but I can't remember a time when it wasn't used as the thickener for gravy in place of cornstarch. I still do this (my gravy is basically the large amount of wine poured in when the roast goes into the Aga, simmered down, then reduced on the hotter plate, with a teaspoon or two of Bisto added). It would feel wrong somehow if I didn't do it that way.

 

Your Yorkshires look great BTW!  I do an eggier mix for the Aga.

[sartoric]

@Kim Shook that roast takes me back to the late 80's when I lived in the UK for a couple years. Every Sunday without fail, there would be roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, gravy and delicious veggies. I particularly liked the greens, we don't get them here, and I can't remember what they were called.

 

Stir fried pork fillet with veggies and noodles in a sweet, sour and spicy sauce.

The veggies were broccolini, baby asparagus, tomato wedges, water chestnuts and pineapple.

 

in the pan- 

 

 

On the plate -

 

[Tere]

sartoric, explain the greens and I will try to help? At a guess without more info some kind of spring cabbage? e.g. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/spring-greens ?

[scubadoo97]

Sartoric, your dishes look so vibrant and delicious

 

Patrick S. , that tight shot had me salivating and I'm not even a fan of pork chops

Edited February 26, 2016 by scubadoo97 (log)

[HungryChris]

Chicken and dumplings? Well, yes and no... wings and gyoza, well, yeah. Greek salad rounds it out. We had a huge wind storm last night that downed a bunch of trees and power lines. Still running off the generator here, having lost power around 3 am. It sounds like the power will be out until around 11:00 pm tomorrow night. I was able to do the gyoza on the gas stove top and the wings on the gas grill.

HC

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, Tere said:

sartoric, explain the greens and I will try to help? At a guess without more info some kind of spring cabbage? e.g. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/spring-greens ?

 

Spring greens ! That's it. Thanks @Tere

They were usually just steamed or blanched and topped with butter. 

We just don't get that variety of young cabbage here. It's probably not cold enough where we live to grow it ourselves. I might have to go back to London in the spring....

Edited February 26, 2016 by sartoric
Edit to elaborate. (log)

[ElainaA]

Tonight: chicken curry and naan - both from an article in the NY Times last fall about Meera Sodhu. Her book seems to be out in the UK and will be published in the USA this summer. It is, however, easily available on Amazon - I just ordered it. I no longer have the entire article (just the page with recipes) but as I remember she grew up in northern England eating her mother's cooking, went to London for college and was appalled by the Indian food available in restaurants she could afford. Her book is focused on Anglo-Indian family cooking. I've made both the curry and the naan a couple of times and really like them. Along with the curry and bread there was a cucumber salad with yogurt and cumin and masala dal (made with yellow split peas) from Julie Sahni's Classical Indian Cooking.

 

 

Last night: salmon baked with a topping of mustard and bread crumbs, roasted asparagus and roasted potatoes and garlic.

 

Edited February 26, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Tere]

1 hour ago, sartoric said:

 

Spring greens ! That's it. Thanks @Tere

They were usually just steamed or blanched and topped with butter. 

We just don't get that variety of young cabbage here. It's probably not cold enough where we live to grow it ourselves. I might have to go back to London in the spring....

 

 

I would say if you can grow regular cabbage you can probably grow them, but I am emphatically not a gardener

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, Tere said:

 

I would say if you can grow regular cabbage you can probably grow them, but I am emphatically not a gardener

 

That makes sense, although I've never seen them available here.

I'm not sure if we can grow regular cabbage in our area. I will consult the gardener when he gets home from work

[rarerollingobject]

Warm umami-bomb prawns, caramelised in miso butter, with sautéed kimchi, about 100 twists of the black pepper grinder, and buttery toasted bread.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@sartoric, Tere may be right about the spring greens. I've never grown cabbage in a hot climate, but I used to grow kale (related) from seed in Memphis, TN in fall after I had ripped out the spent annual flowers from a bed along the wall of my house. In mild winters, the roots wintered over, and I got another spontaneous crop in spring before time for more flowers. I like to harvest the greens young and tender. I know you have some interest in gardening from your posts about growing basil, bird's eye chillies and papaya in the Gardening thread. The papaya tells me it gets pretty hot, and never too cold, but it got to 112 F one summer day in Memphis, so maybe it would be worth a try if you can find some seeds when your cooler weather comes.

 

@HungryChris, I also had chicken and dumplings today, but not gyoza and wings, and a brief, but supremely inconvenient, power outage yesterday! Spectacular dinner you produced, especially with no power, and glad your generator is working well. I hope your power comes back on soon.

 

Yesterday I roasted a chicken and served it with homemade stove top mac and cheese with white American cheese, and a simple salad of green leaf lettuce. This was preceded by a repeat of the knife-cut zucchini noodles in garlic butter with parm. This is a keeper.

 

I cleaned the kitchen after a very satisfying meal, and all was good until I noticed the dishwasher was leaking on the floor. I got the sponge mop and was keeping up with it pretty well until the power went out with a boom, crash, explosion a little after 11:00PM in the storm. Another tree down. In the few minutes it took to call in the outage, locate a flashlight, matches and get some candles lit, the kitchen was flooded with a couple inches of standing water in the low spot between the fridges! Fortunately power was restored in a little over an hour, but I was still working on restoring order to the kitchen. At least I had a working washer and dryer for the soaked, thick area rugs I have everywhere in the kitchen. Unbelievably, this is the second time I have cleaned my flooded kitchen without power.   The first time I cut off the circuit breakers myself, fearing electrocution from a broken pipe.

 

Today I made a gravy from the drippings and stock from the roasted chicken, and milk, thickened with flour roux with the schmaltz, and added some of the deboned and chopped leftover chicken and topped with my fluffy dumpling recipe. Delicious with some steamed broccoli and sliced tomatoes. Chicken gravy makes a delicious dipping sauce for broccoli.  

 

Naturally, dishes were washed by hand and will be until the dishwasher is fixed. It actually wasn't much more active time than nursemaiding the horrible dishwasher and a couple hours less total time.

[Vlcatko]

Sauteed turkey (meat cut and seasoned the previous day - turmeric, ginger, coriander, salt, olive oil) with almond flakes, couscous and salad (cabage, cucumber, young broccoli, spring onion, celery) with soy-ginger vinaigrette. Castelvetrano olives for later.